Khaleej Times -
Dubai
Forty die of malnutrition in Zimbabwe:
Report
(AFP)
18 May 2003
HARARE - Forty people
have died from malnutrition in Zimbabwe's southern
city of Bulawayo due to
food shortages gripping the country, a newspaper
reported
Sunday.
Quoting a city health official, the private Daily News on Sunday
said the
people had died in the first two months of the year. "People
do not have
food," the city's director of health services, Rita Dlodlo told
the paper.
Aid agencies say at the height of food shortages last
year, at least
two-thirds of Zimbabwe's 11.6 million people required food
aid. The numbers
of those in need this year have been revised downwards due
to forecasts of
better harvests.
News24
Mugabe
wasn't invited
18/05/2003 21:52 - (SA)
Mashudu
Matari
Johannesburg - "In our tradition we don't invite people to the
funeral, they
just come because they want to after being
informed."
This was the reaction of Max Sisulu, son of the late Walter
Sisulu, after
queries why President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe attended his
father's
funeral.
Mugabe's presence caused public outcry and some
irate Zimbabweans even asked
that he be arrested.
Jay Jay Sibanda,
leader of the Concerned Zimbabweans Abroad, said Mugabe
stayed at a top
hotel, while many Zimbabwean were starving. Rumours have it
that Mugabe
stayed in the luxurious Westcliff Hotel.
"He is not a hero, so he must
not attend the funeral of a hero who fought
for liberation. He is a disaster
in Zimbabwe," Sibanda said
According to a Zimbabwean government official
the South African government,
and not the Sisulu famliy, informed Mugabe
about the funeral.
Because it was a state funeral the government was
responsible for the
arrangements. Max Sisulu said he was happy with the way
things were
organised.
News24
MDC sues key treason witness
18/05/2003
14:06 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
party is suing the key witness in the treason trial
of its leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, a party official said on
Sunday.
David Coltart, the MDC legal secretary said that the party is
suing
Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe for
"misrepresentation and
breach of contract" and has asked Canadian police to
investigate him for
fraud.
Ben-Menashe is the state's star witness in
the trial of Tsvangirai and two
other senior party officials, charged with
plotting to assassinate President
Robert Mugabe ahead of last year's
presidential elections.
"We've lodged a criminal complaint and instituted
civil proceedings against
him (Ben-Menashe)," Coltart said.
Earlier
this year, Ben-Menashe, the first witness to appear in the marathon
trial,
claimed that Tsvangirai, his secretary general Welshman Ncube and
senior
party official Renson Gasela requested his help in assassinating
Mugabe ahead
of the poll, which Tsvangirai lost.
The MDC trio deny the charges, which
carry the death penalty on conviction.
They say they hired Ben-Menashe to do
consultancy work for them in North
America and paid him 100,000 dollars in
fees.
They now want to sue him because they claim he broke the contract.
-
Sapa-AFP
Business
Day
Zimbabweans told to put cars on
'diet'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HARARE
- "Put your car on diet! Save fuel" was the message sent to drivers
in
Zimbabwe this week as the critical shortage of foreign exchange needed
to
import fuel continued to hit motorists hard.
An information sheet
entitled Fuel Facts and produced by oil firms and
commercial and industrial
groups confirmed that the fuel situation
"continues to be
critical."
Even fire and ambulance services have not been spared. The
capital's
municipality announced this week that all services requiring
transport had
been grounded - including fire engines and
ambulances.
One of Air Zimbabwe's passenger jets had to land in
neighbouring Zambia on
its way from London last week to re-fuel.
The
government has this week been frantically seeking 75 million dollars
needed
to import fuel.
While the official exchange rate is 824 Zimbabwe dollars
to the greenback,
or around 1,300 on the underground market, this week the
parallel rate
surged to an unprecedented high of 2,700 to the dollar, dealers
said.
As a result very little foreign exchange makes it through to the
central
bank.
Media reports also said the government had been trying
to revive a stalled
deal with Libya to trade agricultural products for
fuel.
The plan failed last year when Zimbabwe was unable to supply the
promised
goods due to low agricultural production, blamed on poor rains and
a
controversial and disruptive land reform programme.
Zimbabwe's
foreign earnings have been shrinking in recent years as
production of the
major hard currency earners - tobacco, gold and other
exports - has been cut
by up to two thirds.
The situation has been worsened by the withdrawal of
lines of credit by
international banks because of Zimbabwe's failure to repay
on time.
Neither the World Bank nor the African Development Bank can lend
to
Zimbabwe, according to local economist John Robertson. "We spoiled
our
credit record," he said.
To rectify the situation, Robertson said
certain national policies need to
be reversed and relations with the
international lenders restored.
"Those multi-lateral institutions such as
the Bretton Woods (the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank) have
to be re-engaged for
Zimbabwe's survival and this is not a matter of choice,"
industrialist
Anthony Mandiwanza concurred.
Economists say that for
the country to regain international confidence, some
political developments
may be necessary.
"The international community would like to see new
management in Zimbabwe,"
said Robertson. "The government will actually do
Zimbabwe a favour if they
say 'We will resign'," he said.
Another
economist, Moses Tekere, said: "It's time for sacrifice." If
President Robert
Mugabe stepped down, "Zimbabwe will get forex" he
predicted.
But
despite the acute shortages of foreign exchange, shop shelves here are
full
of expensive imported goods, from cooking oil to trinkets.
And the latest
designs in luxury vehicles are a common sight on the streets
of the
capital.
Foreign currency shortages have also affected Zimbabwe's supply
of
electricity. The country imports around 30 percent of its power needs
from
South Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Repubic of Congo
(DRC).
Last week the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA)
ordered
registered exporters to pay for their electricity in foreign currency
in a
bid to raise the hard currency to pay for energy
imports.
Financial Times
Mbeki is
avoiding the right course on Zimbabwe
By Robert Rotberg
Published: May 18 2003 20:39
| Last Updated: May 18 2003 20:39
What
in the world is Thabo Mbeki's game plan for dealing with Robert
Mugabe? The
South African president knows that the Zimbabwean autocrat has
been
systematically destroyed his country. And, like the British and
US
governments, Mr Mbeki wants Mr Mugabe to go. South Africa is the
regional
power broker, with ambitions to introduce democracy across the
continent.
Its army is the strongest and best trained in sub-Saharan Africa.
Zimbabwe's
failure is also Mr Mbeki's failure and is damaging South Africa's
image and
economy.
For three years
Mr Mbeki has somehow convinced himself that
constructive engagement or quiet
diplomacy would move Mr Mugabe. The
Zimbabwean leader has repeatedly promised
the South African and Nigerian
presidents that he would reform and
reinstitute the rule of law. But he is
still in power, subjecting his 12m
people to acute hunger, intimidation,
imprisonment and
torture.
The statistics are stark.
Zimbabwe was until recently among the
wealthiest and most balanced African
economies. Its people enjoyed excellent
education and medical care,
unemployment was low, inflation was kept in
check, the currency was stable
and farmers, miners and industrialists
provided jobs and
growth.
No more. Annual inflation is
running at 228 per cent. The local
currency has collapsed against the US
dollar. Unemployment has reached 80
per cent. Zimbabweans are leaving for
relatively prosperous Botswana and
South Africa: 75 per cent of industrial
capacity is idle. Planted farming
acreage fell this year by 50 per cent and
harvests of maize, a staple food,
are down by 65 per cent. Mr Mugabe has
denied food aid to supporters of the
opposition, putting 5m at risk of
starvation. Schools are closed and
hospitals are perilously short of
medicines and staff. Zimbabwe has no funds
to purchase power from the
southern African grid or to import fuel. There is
little food in the shops,
and it is too expensive for most Zimbabweans. Last
week the government even
confessed that it had no money to pay for printing
the local
currency.
South Africa holds all the
physical, economic and political cards: Mr
Mbeki could end Zimbabwe's tragedy
in a moment but is reluctant to do so.
It
is true Mr Mugabe assisted Mr Mbeki's African National Congress
when it was
fighting apartheid in South Africa. It is true Mr Mugabe is
a
first-generation African liberation leader. It is also true that
African
presidents are reluctant to criticise or act decisively against
their
brethren. But Mr Mugabe's is an egregious case. He has broken his word.
He
is a blot on African democratic pretensions. Mr Mbeki's own vaunted
New
Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) was designed to be
intolerant
of such poor governance.
When Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, sent troops into Tanzania in
1979, its
president, Julius Nyerere, had the excuse he needed to invade
Uganda and oust
him. Mr Mbeki need not go that far. But if his own generals
told Zimbabwe's
army commanders and palace guard that the game was up, Mr
Mugabe's protectors
would quickly fall into line. Mr Mbeki must be prepared
to make the case for
military intervention on humanitarian
grounds.
Alternatively, Mr Mbeki might be
able simply to order the 79-year-old
autocrat to go into exile, or else.
After all, Mr Mbeki can tighten almost
all the screws on Zimbabwe and the
Mugabe leadership. Mr Mbeki would then be
kingmaker and saviour combined. It
is a time for tough love.
Mr Mbeki and his
advisers may be reluctant to act because they somehow
doubt that Morgan
Tsvangirai, the opposition leader whom Mr Mugabe blatantly
robbed of a
presidential election victory last year, is strong enough or
capable enough
to take his place. Mr Tsvangirai runs the mostly cohesive,
participatory
Movement for Democratic Change. It almost won a majority of
parliamentary
seats in the 2001 poll, again rigged by Mr Mugabe. The MDC
leader is not
hostile to South Africa. Nor is he a creature of white
Zimbabweans, as Mr
Mbeki has hinted. Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC want a new,
fairly run
presidential election. They want what many if not nearly all
Zimbabweans
want: a chance to live and prosper in a stable, democratic
country, free of
violent, predatory rule. Mr Mbeki can deliver a better
future to Zimbabwe and
restore democracy to southern Africa, if only
he
will.
The writer is director of the
programme on intra-state conflict at
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government
and president of World Peace
Foundation
Zimbabwe: Amnesty condemns journalist
deportation
Monday, 19 May 2003,
12:45 pm
Press Release: Amnesty
International
Zimbabwe: Amnesty International condemns deportation
of journalist
Journalist Andrew Meldrum faces imminent deportation
from Zimbabwe by the
government as part of its continuing clampdown on
freedom of expression in
the country.
"By attempting to
forcibly deport him, the Zimbabwean authorities are
proving to the world,
once again, that press freedom in Zimbabwe is not a
reality," Amnesty
International said today.
The order to deport Andrew Meldrum, who
is resident in Harare and works
for the United Kingdom-based paper The
Guardian, follows ongoing harassment
and renewed claims by government
authorities that he was continuing to write
negative articles about
Zimbabwe.
While Andrew Meldrum was speaking to reporters after a
meeting with
immigration officials, he was grabbed by police and driven to
the airport.
His whereabouts are presently unknown but there are strong fears
that he may
be placed on one of the next flights leaving Zimbabwe. His
lawyer, Beatrice
Mtetwa, obtained an urgent court order for Andrew Meldrum to
be produced in
the High Court later on 16 May, and to restrain the
authorities from
deporting him.
Andrew Meldrum had presented
himself to immigration authorities on 13 May
after spending a week in hiding
following a night-time raid by officials on
his Harare home while he was
away. He was ordered to surrender his passport
and residence permit on 13
May. In a meeting with immigration officials on
16 May, he was ordered to
leave the country. Andrew Meldrum has been
fighting a deportation order since
June 2002 when he was acquitted of
charges under the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) of publishing a false
story.
In its latest report, Zimbabwe: Rights Under Siege, Amnesty
International
documented the systematic and deliberate erosion of respect for
fundamental
freedoms in Zimbabwe by a government intent on using any means to
silence
dissent. "We can only hope that this latest case can spur the
international
community, particularly Southern African Development Community
leaders, into
publicly condemning the Zimbabwean government for stifling
freedom of
expression" Amnesty International stressed.
Background
Andrew Meldrum, who has worked in Zimbabwe for 23
years, is one of several
journalists taken to court since President Robert
Mugabe's government passed
tough media laws last year.
In June
2002, he was the first journalist to be charged and tried under
Section 80 of
AIPPA with "abusing journalistic privilege by publishing a
falsehood" in
connection with a report regarding the alleged beheading of a
woman by
ZANU-PF supporters. Although he was acquitted, within hours of the
ruling he
was served with a deportation order by the Ministry of Home
Affairs.
Following a High Court application, his deportation was suspended
and the
matter was referred to the Supreme Court. No date had been set for
his
Supreme Court hearing.
On 7 May Zimbabwe's Supreme Court struck
down provisions of AIPPA which
made it an offence to publish "falsehoods",
after the government conceded
they were
unconstitutional.
From joy and hope to corruption, tyranny and the misery of
poverty
For 23 years Andrew Meldrum reported from Zimbabwe. On
Friday he was
forcibily deported. Here, he describes how a country which
offered so much
hope to Africa became, under its leader Robert Mugabe, a
pariah nation
Monday May 19, 2003
The Guardian
Night visits to
my home by threatening men in vans with blacked out windows.
Attacks
vilifying me in the state press as a "terrorist", an "agent of
imperialism"
and "a liar". Threats, by phone, email and conversations with
"friends", in
which I was told that I would not be safe in this country.
These were all
signs of the antipathy of President Robert Mugabe's
government to a
journalist chronicling the decline of his long and torrid
rule.
Over
the past year I have been harassed, arrested, thrown in jail, put on
trial,
acquitted and finally -this weekend - deported from Zimbabwe.
For those
12 months I continued to live and work there, to write about the
country's
political crisis, the economic melt-down that has turned one of
Africa's most
prosperous economies into one of its poorest, and the abuses
of human rights
and other democratic freedoms.
In short, I watched how the regime
transformed a functioning democracy into
a police state.
I first
arrived in Zimbabwe in 1980 when the country won its independence
and
majority rule. I was a young journalist full of enthusiasm for
Robert
Mugabe's new order, his policy of racial reconciliation, his
socialist
measures to improve the education, health and standards of living
of black
Zimbabweans. It was a heady time, when the entire country was
infused with
irrepressible optimism.
Sadly, honeymoons never last, and
by 1982 I found myself uncovering and
reporting on the horrific mass killing
of Zimbabwean civilians by the army's
Fifth Brigade, Mugabe's praetorian
guard. The chain of command led directly
to Mugabe. It was a contradiction of
all the country's positive
developments. It was clear that the killing was
part of Mugabe's drive to
stamp out the opposition party, Joshua Nkomo's
Zapu.
By ejecting Nkomo from his cabinet and arresting army generals
allied to
Nkomo and charging them with treason, Mugabe caused a small scale
rebellion
of soldiers who supported them. Then the Fifth Brigade rolled into
southern
Zimbabwe, Matabeleland, and began the wholesale slaughter of
thousands of
the rural Ndebele people, the minority ethnic group which forms
about 20% of
the country's population. Scores of thousands more suffered
beatings and
hunger as the government stopped food supplies reaching the
chronically
drought-stricken area.
It became apparent that the
violence was part of Mugabe's drive to
consolidate his power. It continued
until December 1987 when a broken Joshua
Nkomo agreed to allow his party to
be swallowed by Mugabe's Zanu-PF. The
creation of a one-party state, Mugabe's
stated goal, was within his grasp.
Somehow, Robert Mugabe managed to
emerge from the horrors of Matabeleland
with his reputation relatively
unscathed. No longer an untarnished hero, to
be sure, but he remained a
plausible leader. The lot of the majority of
Zimbabweans continued to
improve.
Zimbabwe remained a beacon beaming the light of hope on South
Africa's dark
system of minority rule. Anti-apartheid activists of all
colours flocked
there and insisted that its democracy pointed the way for
South Africa's
future. It also became a hive of South African spies carrying
out
assassinations and terror bombings. It was an engrossing place to work as
a
journalist.
When Nelson Mandela was freed, Zimbabwe was the first
country he visited,
underlining the crucial role it had played in the
struggle against
apartheid.
But South Africa's progress was not
entirely good news for Robert Mugabe.
The international community ceased to
see him as the lesser of two evils,
compared to apartheid. A wave of
democracy swept across southern Africa in
which Malawi's Hastings Banda and
Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda were toppled by
overwhelming votes.
When
Mugabe proposed to declare Zimbabwe a one-party state, members of his
own
party's central committee blocked it, saying that they would be going
against
the democratic tide, and that they could enjoy de facto one-party
rule
without the trouble of imposing de jure control.
Compared to the glowing
magnanimity of Nelson Mandela, Mugabe appeared
bitter and spiteful. A turning
point came in August 1996 when, while opening
the Zimbabwe International Book
Fair, he spewed out a hate-filled tirade
against gays.
I remember
scribbling down his furious words describing gays as "worse than
pigs and
dogs" and suggesting that homosexuality was akin to having sex with
dead
bodies. A group of schoolchildren sat dumbfounded by the speech. From
that
point on Mugabe's international image began its decline to despot.
This
should not paint a picture that everything has been negative in
Zimbabwe. My
experience there has been overwhelmingly positive. Friends who
are doctors,
teachers, artists and lawyers bound together to create a
community always
encouraging fairness and democracy. But by 2000 the
opposition to Mugabe's
rule had grown so great that the churches, women's
groups, human rights
defenders and lawyers groups pressed for a new
constitution.
Mugabe
agreed but, wily as ever, he created a document which increased his
power
rather than reduced it. His draft constitution was presented to the
country
in a referendum in February, 2000.
Despite saturation coverage in the
media, the voters rejected it. It was a
stinging slap in the face.
Two
weeks later the first invasions of white-owned farms began. Mugabe
was
fighting back. The invasions were illegal but the police were ordered not
to
take any action against them. It was the beginning of the transformation
of
the police into a political entity which simply carries out its
master's
bidding.
In June 2000 came the parliamentary elections. The
opposition party, the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had already won
widespread popularity
and campaigned valiantly despite a programme of
violence in which more than
200 people, virtually all opposition supporters,
were killed. The MDC
narrowly lost the elections, which all credible
international observer teams
said were not free or fair.
In addition
to the often ugly political developments in Mugabe's Zimbabwe,
he has
tragically failed to give effective leadership in the two huge
social
challenges facing the country, Aids and famine.
Aids spread so
rapidly that a few years ago Zimbabwe had the world's highest
HIV infection
rate: 35% of the adult population. Shying away from effective
public
education, the government created an Aids fund and then allowed
Mugabe's
cronies to loot it.
After Mugabe's seizures of white-owned farms little
was done to keep the
land cultivated. It was no surprise when famine gripped
the country. Even
when more than half the population were forced to depend on
international
food relief, Mugabe could not resist trying to starve areas
which supported
the opposition.
Repression of the press began in 2000.
Just before the parliamentary
elections, immigration officers served
deportation orders on the BBC
correspondent Joe Winter. He won a court order
giving him a week to pack and
wind up his affairs.
But that night
government thugs went to his house, ransacked it and
terrorised him, his wife
and young daughter. Winter left the country and
within days the government
deported the legendary South American journalist
Mercedes Sayagues, whom we
called La Pasionaria for her fearless reporting
on human rights
abuses.
A few months later the Telegraph's correspondent, David Blair,
was forced to
leave the country. I became the last foreign journalist in the
country.
The determination of the Zimbabwean press, particularly the
reporters on the
privately owned Daily News, the Zimbabwe Independent and the
Standard,
inspired me with their commitment to exposing corruption, beatings,
torture,
murder and other unsavoury aspects of Mugabe's rule.
The
printing press of the Daily News were blown up, the editor of the
Standard,
Mark Chavunduka, and his reporter, Ray Choto, were abducted by
army officers
and viciously tortured. Yet Zimbabwe's journalists refused to
be deterred
from writing about events as they happened.
Systematic human rights
abuses, the thwarting of democracy, corruption -
these are the issues any
journalist is obliged to cover. I continued to do
work, the best work I
could, and that led to my arrest and imprisonment last
year.
After my
trial and acquittal and the government's failed attempt to deport
me, I
returned to my work. The steady drivel of articles vilifying me in the
state
press did not get me down, largely because of the hearty support
and
encouragement I received from people of all colours and walks of life
when I
walked on the street.
That support, and phone calls and emails
from fellow Zimbabwean journalists
helped me to shrug off the government's
threats.
But last Friday I was abducted and thrown out of the country,
despite a
court order to halt the action.
When all is said and done, I
still blame Ian Smith for Zimbabwe's troubles
today. He ran a system which
deprived the majority of their rights and
dignity. The Rhodesian regime was
so violent that only violence could unseat
it. Only the most ruthless could
overthrow Smith's system, and that was
Robert Mugabe. Violence begets
violence. And we can see now that Mugabe only
values his own power and will
use any force to maintain it.
I am angry at how Mugabe has subverted
Zimbabwe's democracy and reduced
people to misery. I am appalled that the
police kidnapped the opposition
member of parliament Job Sikhala a few months
ago and tortured him with
electric shocks. I am furious that the regime has
targeted ordinary citizens
such as Raphinos Madzokere, who has been
hospitalised twice for torture, has
seen his home destroyed and now lives on
the run with his wife and three
children.
I am determined to continue
reporting on these abuses in the hope that they
will stop, and to help bring
the perpetrators to justice.
I am confident that the people of Zimbabwe
will succeed in restoring the
country's democracy and basic freedoms, and
will rebuild the economy
to
prosperity.
The
Star
Zimbabwe faces crippling
strike as anger over fuel prices hots
up
May 19,
2003
By Basildon
Peta
Zimbabwe's powerful labour movement
has called on its supporters to
stock up on food in readiness for an
indefinite job stayaway that could make
or break the
country.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions warned yesterday that it would
mobilise for an indefinite strike
unless recent fuel price increases
were
reversed.
ZCTU president Lovemore
Matombo hinted that the mass strike could
start at the beginning of next
month.
Addressing workers in the city of
Kadoma, 150km west of Harare,
Matombo urged supporters to "store a bucket of
mealie meal and some of their
meagre earnings at home because when we go on
stayaway this time around we
will not come back until our demands have been
addressed".
He said the government had to
"clearly, unreservedly and unambiguously
reduce fuel prices" or face the
strike action.
But the government has
ridiculed the ZCTU's demand to reduce fuel
prices, saying the union was
"dreaming".
Matombo also accused the
government of "constantly taking labour for
granted" and disregarding calls
for a minimum wage.
"It is like talking to
an insensitive chimpanzee - they feel no
remorse about the current crisis.
But I promise you that if workers unite,
we will tame the chimpanzee. We want
all workers to earn at least Z$125 000
(R1 250) a month by the end of June,"
Matombo said.
Meanwhile about 40 people
have reportedly died from malnutrition in
Bulawayo due to food
shortages.
Over 7-million Zimbabweans
require food aid due to shortages caused by
a drought and President Robert
Mugabe's chaotic land seizures. - Independent
Foreign
Service
The
Star
Mourning the reign that
buried us
May 19,
2003
By Thandi
Chiweshe
As South Africa and the
progressive world mourned Walter Sisulu over
the last two weeks, I felt a
deep sense of sadness.
Not so much for
Walter Sisulu himself, but for Robert Mugabe and
others like
him.
This was brought home very keenly to
me when my aunt, who has never
really been involved in politics, said to me,
"I wish I could go to that
man's funeral. I didn't know him, but just the
things that have been said
about him make me want to go and bid him
farewell."
I asked her what she would do
if Mugabe died, and she declared: "That
one, I will dance on top of this
roof!" She told me that she would take a
week off to "celebrate" adequately.
I felt so sad. Not hurt. Just sad.
My aunt
is 48 years old. She lived through the worst years of our
national armed
struggle. She experienced the pains of colonialism. And she
was there when
independence finally came. I learnt a few of the
revolutionary songs from
her. In those days she spoke fervently about the
new Zimbabwe, and the new
vistas opening up for women like her.
Her
two children, myself, and many others we know, went to school for
free. We
were the beneficiaries of free health care, affordable housing,
good wages,
and most importantly, of peace. I remember most of that. I just
assumed that
these are normal things that every normal human being
simply
gets.
That was ten or so years
ago. We are no longer there. We have sunk
somewhere down into the mud of
misery and despair.
This is what my aunt
now knows, lives through, and will remember about
Robert
Mugabe.
My aunt exemplifies where millions
of Zimbabweans are today. As we
marvel at the outpourings of love, adulation
and celebration of Walter
Sisulu, we wonder if our very own erstwhile
revolutionaries are listening
and watching? How do they feel, we want to
know? Do they see the sadness of
all
this?
In Shona we say, "usapunze mukombe
wasvika", meaning don't drop the
gourd of water when you are so close. So
close to delivering it to the
person who needs it. So close to home. Of
course for those who have never
fetched water 5km away as some of us women
have done, the meaning of the
idiom might be
lost.
There is no chance of going back to
the well. What is it that the
people of Zimbabwe will remember most when
Mugabe dies?
Let's make some comparisons
between him and Sisulu.
Sisulu was 90
years old and showed it. At least in the grey hair. What
is it with our
president and Pallette hair dye number 10? Or is it number 1?
We all want to
look and feel good but having a Michael Jacksonesque identity
crisis at that
age is laughable.
Secondly, everyone
speaks about Sisulu's love for his wife and family.
Unlike many others of the
revolutionary ilk who traded their old wives for
newer models, Walter stuck
to his.
Then there are the children.
Sisulu's children look like his children,
not his
grandchildren.
Imagine meeting Mugabe and
Chatunga, his and his second wife Grace's
pre-teen son. Any man who
reproduces at Mugabe's age displays a selfishness
and a recklessness that
should immediately disqualify such a person from
public
office..
After many years of struggle,
Sisulu handed over to the next
generation of leaders in South Africa.
"Kutonga madzoro" as we say in
Shona - leadership is taken in
turns.
Not for Mugabe. He sees himself as
the alpha and the omega of
Zimbabwean nationalism. Hearing Mandela tell the
world that he was recruited
into the ANC by Sisulu is so
refreshing.
It is only recently that
Edison Zvobgo consigned Mugabe to a footnote
in the history of Zanu. "When we
formed Zanu - myself, Enos Nkala,
Ndabaningi Sithole and others ...," Zvobgo
told us. No prizes for guessing
who the nameless others
are.
Zimbabwe's history has been rewritten
to unashamedly give Mugabe a
starring role and write others out of the
story.
How a person can so monumentally
self-destruct the way Mugabe has can
only be regarded as profoundly
remarkable.
To build a legacy in one
decade and destroy your own achievements in
another must take either great
genius or great megalomania and stupidity.
No amount of historical revisionism is going to remove the terrible
legacy
Mugabe is leaving us. The bad has eclipsed the good in a way that
makes it so
hard to remember the good.
Yet there was
so much that we could choose to remember.
Even the revered Nelson Mandela did not deliver a quarter of what
Mugabe
delivered to the people post-independence. That is a
fact.
While Mandela was the nice dancing
president, symbolising a new South
Africa, Mugabe at the time provided what
people wanted - practically. But
try to tell that to a person born in 1991
and she will spit in your face:
"Matakadye kare haanyaradzi mwana" - once
upon a time won't quieten a
crying
baby.
To get to a point where
you hate your own people and your people hate
you must be a very lonely and
painful place to be. Unless of course you
don't
care?
Today we mourn Sisulu and celebrate
his life. We are mourning Mugabe's
reign and will celebrate his
passing.
a.. Thandi Chiweshe (not her
real name) is a Zimbabwean feminist
living and working in
Harare
World Socialist Web
Site
US and Britain in plans for "road map" for
Zimbabwe
By Chris Talbot
19 May 2003
A series of meetings
involving African leaders and representatives from the
United States and
Britain have taken place in Southern Africa aimed at
forcing the removal of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The plan is to
bring in a transitional
government in Zimbabwe made up of the ruling Zanu-PF
party and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that will then
adopt economic emergency
measures.
The US is taking a more prominent role in Zimbabwe in exchange
for British
support for the war in Iraq. US Under Secretary of State for
Africa Walter
Kansteiner has just completed a weeklong visit to South Africa
and Botswana.
In an interview with the British Independent newspaper he
declined to use
the term "regime change" for Zimbabwe-preferring instead to
demand "regime
legitimacy" which he said called for a "Road Map" like that
which the US is
seeking to impose in the Middle East.
Last week
Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa and
Bakili Muluzi of Malawi met Mugabe for talks followed by a
separate meeting
with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe has intimated
that he may be
prepared to retire, though he refused to consider
negotiations with the MDC
unless they drop a court case challenging the
validity of last year's
presidential elections.
So far Tsvangirai has refused to recognise Mugabe
as president. He also
demanded a halt to jailings and torture of MDC members,
the repeal of the
Public Order and Security Act and anti-press laws
introduced by Mugabe last
year.
African leaders are under great
pressure from the West to effect Mugabe's
removal. They have been told that
future trade and investment plans,
including the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (Nepad) intended to
gain more western support for Africa, depend
on them showing that they can
bring about "good governance" among their
peers. Mbeki, in particular,
appears to have got the message after the Iraq
war that the "little
countries" of Africa, as he put it in a speech to the
African Union last
month, could "be punished if we get out of
line".
None of the African leaders want to be seen openly to be acting as
a Western
stooge, however. One of the criticisms they have of Tsvangirai is
that he
has lost much credibility for being so obviously dependent on the
support of
the British and wealthy white farmers. Earlier this year Obasanjo
called for
the Commonwealth-made up of Britain and its ex-colonies-to lift
the
suspension of Zimbabwe it imposed last year after accusing Mugabe of
rigging
the elections. Since no more land occupations are taking place he
even
argued that the situation in Zimbabwe was improving.
It seems
that Obasanjo was only persuaded to abandon this conciliatory
position and to
hold the meeting with Mugabe after manoeuvrings by
Commonwealth
Secretary-General Don McKinnon. Commonwealth observers made no
criticisms of
the fraudulent Nigerian presidential elections and McKinnon
immediately
recognised Obasanjo as president.
Mbeki is also under pressure to abandon
his previous refusal to be seen
interfering in the affairs of his smaller
neighbour.
South Africa risks destabilisation if Zimbabwe continues to
spiral out of
control. Zimbabwe now faces over 200 percent inflation; large
sections of
its industry are no longer functioning and up to 60 percent of
skilled
professional workers are said to have left the country. Over half
the
population face starvation due to famine and despite the country's
fertile
land, agricultural production has slumped. Many of the black farmers
that
seized land under Mugabe's occupation programme have been forced to give
up
through lack of investment. Hundreds of refugees are attempting to
cross
into South Africa.
Kansteiner promised US financial support to
smooth the path for Mbeki to
persuade Zanu-PF leaders to remove Mugabe and
agree to work with the MDC.
According to the Financial Times he said,
"Zimbabwe will need a tremendous
amount of reconstruction, and if the process
leads to a breakthrough, we are
ready to jump in with both technical and
financial resources."
This could include technical aid to rebuild
infrastructure, paying for new
elections, as well as direct bilateral
aid.
Diplomatic efforts are now concentrated on sorting out the
infighting within
Zanu-PF over Mugabe's possible successor. Commentators are
suggesting that
Mbeki; the US and Britain are all backing Simba Makoni who
was sacked by
Mugabe as Zanu-PF finance minister last year. Makoni is known
to favour
International Monetary Fund policies, but is said to lack support
in the
Zanu-PF hierarchy.
Clearly pleased by the support from
Kansteiner, Britain's Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw made a two-day visit to
South Africa this week to put more
pressure on Mbeki. In an interview with
the Financial Times last month Prime
Minister Tony Blair requested "a bigger
focus by the international community
on Zimbabwe".
He explained, "I
have never had a difficulty with the concept of
intervention, it doesn't, as
I say, necessarily mean that it is armed
intervention, it can be diplomatic
intervention, it can be pressure."
Whilst full scale armed intervention
in Zimbabwe may have been ruled out,
given the exhausted and overstretched
state of Britain's armed forces, there
have been several rumours of covert
operations being planned. This could
presumably involve giving the MDC more
support in its campaign against the
Mugabe regime. The latest report from the
pro-Zanu PF Sunday Mirror is of a
secret meeting that took place in the
Kalahari Desert in Botswana, not far
from the Zimbabwe border.
The
meeting is said to have been at a game ranch belonging to the
powerful
Oppenheimer family, associated with De Beers diamonds and
Anglo-American
gold mining. It was attended by South Africa's foreign
minister Aziz Pahad,
whose spokesman confirmed to the Mirror that the meeting
had taken place.
Also present were a British military general, an official
from the World
Bank, a US official (this could have been Kansteiner since he
was in
Botswana at the time), and British ex-Tory minister for Africa,
Baroness
Chalker-an advisory director to Unilever, the British multinational
with
extensive operations in Africa.
The meeting was hosted by
Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of the president and
deputy director of the South
Africa Institute for International Affairs, as
well as a prominent Zimbabwean
businessman Strive Masiyama. Also in
attendance was Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni, said to have stopped over
on his flight to London to discuss the
conflict in the Democratic Republic
of Congo. Apart from the fact that it
discussed the "problems in Zimbabwe",
the Mirror has no further information
on what was being plotted.
Our man in Harare
Democracy needs dissenting voices
Leader
Monday May
19, 2003
The Guardian
It is no surprise
that a president who has used intimidation, police torture and electoral fraud
to hold on to power, would not want events in his country reported overseas.
Until three days ago, there was only one foreign correspondent left reporting
inside Zimbabwe, the Guardian's Andrew Meldrum. Now there are none.
Meldrum was seized by police and security agents last
Friday, driven to Harare airport and illegally expelled. This was in
contradiction to a high court order, secured by his lawyer that day, declaring
his deportation would be unconstitutional. As Meldrum noted yesterday, it was
not a deportation but an abduction. Unlike other foreign correspondents assigned
to Harare, Meldrum had permanent residency rights. He first arrived in 1980 and
has written for the Guardian from there for the past 20 years. Earlier moves to
expel the reporter by the Mugabe regime came to a full stop last July, when
another brave high court judge ruled Meldrum's residency rights gave him all the
rights of a Zimbabwean citizen.
Compared to many Zimbabwean citizens, Meldrum was
lucky. He was manhandled into a car by the police and security agents and driven
out to the airport with a hood over his head. But, unlike many Zimbabweans, he
was not beaten up or tortured. Nor, even worse, did he just disappear. No one is
safe from the once-respected Zimbabwean police.
As Meldrum reported earlier this month, 10
high-profile Zimbabweans, including three members of parliament and one lawyer,
have accused the police in the past two months of torturing them with electric
shocks. Earlier allegations of systemic abuse in the country have been confirmed
by Zimbabwean civil rights organisations and Amnesty International. Then there
is the daily plight of civilians across the country. What was once a thriving
capital city, now suffers regular power cuts, mile-long petrol queues and empty
supermarkets. A newly elected mayor, from the opposition party, was illegally
sacked by ministers. GDP has declined by 12%, unemployment risen to 60% and
inflation exceeded 200%. Outside the capital, life is even grimmer. A UN report
suggested 6 million people in rural areas were facing famine.
Meldrum has diligently - and bravely - chronicled
this catastrophic collapse of Zimbabwe's economy and its government's lack of
respect for human rights. Hence his expulsion. Thankfully, a few courageous
voices still remain in the country. Two different high court judges tried to
protect Meldrum's rights. A brave independent daily paper, plus three
independent weeklies, continue to scrutinise the government. A few local
reporters still courageously file for the international press. Ultimately, like
earlier repressive regimes, Mugabe's mob will realise that truth cannot be
suppressed.
World Net
Daily
The South African mirage
Posted: May
19, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
There's more
wrong in Africa than AIDS, although you'd never know it from the headlines.
All the focus seems to be on that totally preventable, killer disease
because of the price tag and the massive lobbying behind it.
The Senate last
week passed HIV-AIDS bill which is close to identical to the one approved by the
House earlier this month.
It's big money: $15 billion over 5 years for 12
countries in Africa plus Haiti and Guyana. We already spend $1.2 billion a year
on AIDS. This will more than double that.
It's said that the hope is our
"contribution" will encourage other nations to be more generous.
Right.
But while AIDS is an emotional, hot-button issue with enormous activism
behind it (read: politicians are worried about votes), the reality of Africa is
more than that. Unfortunately, the pols and the media are focusing their
attention on the Middle East, ignoring the simmering broth of problems on that
vast continent.
I've written before about the horror of Zimbabwe with the
political corruption, the ominous cooperation with Libya, the intentional
destruction of the economy, the deliberate starvation of the people, the
genocide and thievery practiced against the white population, the wanton
devastation of wildlife to say nothing of the enormity of the damage to the
environment. It only gets worse.
The reaction of most of the world is to
ignore it. When was the last time you saw any major media coverage of these
horrors?
The poster child of Western media, of course, is South Africa and
the patron saint is Nelson Mandela. It's great PR, but the image is far from the
truth.
I was in South Africa recently and was able to see it through the
eyes of a newcomer, but a view enhanced by the people who live there. I stayed
with family and friends, associated with residents and talked to business people
and journalists. The picture of the real South Africa left me with mixed
feelings and most uneasy about the future.
On the surface, you might not
know anything was amiss. In fact, if you were there solely as a visitor on
"tour," you would not get the real picture. And that is unfortunate.
I
arrived there without a preconceived notion of what to expect. Quite frankly,
just the logistics of doing the trip took all my attention, so, when I arrived,
it was, in a way, like being there with a clean slate. I had no expectations and
so the impact on me was strange.
Without doubt, South Africa is an
exquisitely beautiful country. The coastline from Durban to Capetown takes your
breath away at every turn of the road.
Johannesburg is a sprawling city with
a built-up downtown that once was thriving and now has become more unused and
shabby at the edges. The outskirts are filled with the millions of poor blacks
with no jobs and no futures. Whites and blacks with any level of money, live in
fortified homes. Crime is rampant.
But the major coastal cities of Durban,
Port Elizabeth and Capetown are different. At first glance, they look like
suburban U.S. cities. They have malls and parks and housing and schools and
businesses. There are well-paved streets and highways.
Of course, when you
see monkeys in the trees and baboons on the roadside, you know it's not "home"!
In areas inland, small towns seem to be thriving. The wine country of South
Africa looks just like Napa and Sonoma in California and their products are
sensational.
While the image of the country portrayed in Western media is of
whites exploiting blacks, that's not universally true. There are many examples
of white owners opening opportunities for their employees. One case in point is
the Paul Cluver Winery. Dr. Cluver and his family provide housing and schools
for employees, train managers in the wine business, provide travel and education
for them in the United States and Europe, and give land to these black employees
to develop their own wines under their own label.
They have created
entrepreneurs and new opportunities for blacks who, before that, had no viable
economic future. And, by the way, the wines are absolutely superb.
Away from
the coast, some of the small towns are so insulated from the realities of the
country as a whole, that people feel safe enough not to lock their doors. But
those are rare and, in fact, that sense of security may not last long.