The ZIMBABWE Situation
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Mugabe,
Tsvangirai & Mutambara meet Friday
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
13 November
2009
The three principals to the Global Political Agreement met in Harare
on
Friday to start a 'renewed drive' to settle their political conflict,
which
nearly derailed the inclusive government. James Maridadi, Tsvangirai's
spokesman, confirmed the meeting but told us he had not been briefed yet of
what transpired.
The SADC Troika summit in Maputo, Mozambique last
week, resolved that the
principals had 15-30 days to engage in dialogue
about all the outstanding
issues in the implementation of the GPA and the
SADC communiqué of 27
January 2009.
The importance of the January
communiqué is that it cleared stated that the
appointments of the Reserve
Bank Governor and the Attorney General should be
dealt with by the inclusive
government after its formation. It added that
negotiators would work out the
formula for the distribution of the
Provincial Governors.
Robert
Mugabe has been saying it was his prerogative alone to appoint the
governors
and the Reserve Bank Governor and AG.
The meeting came on the day that
Botswana President, Ian Khama, said that if
the political impasse in
Zimbabwe cannot be resolved, the best solution is
to hold fresh
elections.
In an address to the nation in Gaborone, Khama said in the
absence of a
genuine partnership, it would be better for all parties to
return to the
people, 'for they are the ultimate authority to determine who
should form
the government of Zimbabwe.'
Negotiators from the three
parties are expected to begin their talks next
week and SW Radio Africa is
reliably informed that the issues that will
dominate the next round of
negotiations are not the ones that Zimbabweans
really need to see addressed.
Instead, the talks will focus on the removal
of targeted sanctions and the
shutting down of independent radio stations
broadcasting from abroad. These
are ZANU PF demands. Tsvangirai has already
said he was not responsible for
the sanctions and the country's
international isolation, and he certainly
has no control over the external
radio stations.
The Prime Minister
has said that Mugabe needs to appoint the Zimbabwe Media
Commission, and
genuinely free up the media, allowing independent radio
stations to
broadcast in Zimbabwe.
The MDC also insist the appointments of Gono and
Tomana as central bank
governor and attorney general, must be rescinded.
Tsvangirai also wants
provincial governors from his party to be appointed as
soon as possible, as
well as deputy Minister of Agriculture designate, Roy
Bennett.
SADC, who are the guarantors of the political agreement that led
to
inclusive government in February, say they are still hopeful the deadlock
between Mugabe and Tsvangirai can be resolved. They appointed South African
President Jacob Zuma, whose country facilitated the unity agreement, to
visit Harare two weeks after the SADC summit, to review progress.
Khama
calls for new Zimbabwe elections
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=25009
November 13, 2009
By
Tanonoka Joseph Whande
GABORONE - Botswana's President Ian Khama has
again called for the holding
of new elections in Zimbabwe as a strategy to
break the country's political
impasse.
In a State of the Nation
address delivered in the Parliament of Botswana
Khama expressed concern at
the continued failure of Zanu-PF to fully honour
the spirit of Zimbabwe's
power-sharing agreement.
"In the absence of genuine partnership," Khama
said, "it would be better for
all parties to go back to the people, for they
are the ultimate authority to
determine who should form the Government of
Zimbabwe."
He said that since independence, the core principles of
Botswana's foreign
policy had remained constant.
"These include a
commitment to promoting good neighbourliness and respect
for the territorial
integrity of all nations, while upholding, in our
international as well as
domestic affairs, our belief in democracy, good
governance, human rights and
the rule of law," said Khama. "Botswana will
continue to work alongside
other countries within the framework of SADC, the
African Union, and the
United Nations to promote adherence to these common
and universal
values.
"In this respect, we will continue to strongly defend the rights
of people
everywhere to elect their own leaders, to live in peace and
achieve better
standards of life in freedom."
As a case in point,
Khama alluded to Botswana's "support for the people of
Zimbabwe towards
reaching political reconciliation and economic
reconstruction, through the
Global Political Agreement".
Khama said that one thing which he fears may
become a trend in Africa if not
stopped, is where an individual and/or a
political party, in order to come
into power or remain in power, engage in
unconstitutional and undemocratic
actions to achieve this, which "as we have
already witnessed", results in
power-sharing arrangements leading to one man
rule.
"There can be no substitution for free, fair and credible
elections, where
people in any country should be allowed to elect
representatives of their
choice, and not have them imposed on them through
rigged elections,
brutalizing opponents, military interventions,
constitutional amendments to
stay longer in power, and one man rule that
goes on for decades."
Khama said every country has a pool of people who
have the ability to lead.
Old
Mutual involved in plans to mine Chiadzwa diamonds
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
13
November 2009
South African insurance giant Old Mutual, which this week
admitted to being
a major shareholder in Zimpapers, is now also set to reap
its financial
share of the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
It has emerged
that the financial group, which has faced pressure this week
to revoke its
stake in Zimpapers, is a part owner of the South African
company that has
secured a mining deal at the diamond fields. The company,
Reclamation, was
exposed last month by a South African documentary on the
diamond crisis, as
having an estimated 50% share in Grandwell Holdings,
which in turn has
partnered with the Marange unit of the state, owned by the
Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation.
Grandwell Holdings, which is therefore
effectively part owned by Old Mutual,
was this month set to start mining at
the fields, where rampant human rights
atrocities are still being committed.
Zimbabwe earlier this month managed to
escape a ban from international
trade, after the regulatory body responsible
for ending trade in conflict
stones, the Kimberley Process, gave the
government more time to comply with
international standards. The decision
taken at the body's annual meeting in
Namibia has shocked human rights
groups, who were campaigning for a full ban
as a result of the widespread
abuse at the fields.
Old Mutual's
involvement in mining the fields is set to further outrage
human rights
groups who this week started campaigning for the financial and
insurance
corporation to cut its ties with the vehicle of Robert Mugabe's
propaganda
and hate speech.
Muchadeyi Masunda, the Chairman of Old Mutual Zimbabwe,
has said the
insurance giant is an 'institutional investor' and does not
influence the
running of companies that the group has invested in. Masunda,
who is also
the Mayor of Harare, was responding to queries about Old
Mutual's ties with
Zimpapers, and it is likely this same defence will be
used over the Chiadzwa
mining claim.
Chombo
strikes again as he dismisses deputy of Mayor of Mutare
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
13 November 2009
Local government minister Ignatious Chombo
has dismissed the deputy Mayor of
Mutare and replaced him with a discredited
councillor who recently defected
to ZANU PF.
Chombo was in the
eastern border town on Wednesday where he unilaterally
dismissed Itai Masaka
as deputy Mayor and substituted him with Admire
Mukorera, in a move that has
left the MDC seething with rage.
The Mutare council is dominated by the
MDC who won all the 19 council wards
during last year's elections. Mukorera
was elected on an MDC ticket but fell
out of favour with the party after he
was condemned for stealing meat, meant
for mourners at Susan Tsvangirai's
funeral in Buhera earlier in the year.
Immedately after this fall-out he
defected to ZANU PF but still held his
seat in council.
The MDC
provincial leadership held a crisis meeting in Mutare on Friday and
resolved
not to recognise Chombo's directive. The MDC spokesman for the
province,
Pishai Muchauraya, told SW Radio Africa that the MDC led council
will ignore
Chombo's latest manovoures to bring in ZANU PF people through
the back door.
He said the MDC will not brook any interference from Chombo
in council
affairs, and called for the urgent reform of the Urban Council's
Act, which
gives too much power to the minister.
'As far as we are concerned Masaka
is still the deputy Mayor of Mutare.
Council statutes clearly state that the
Mayor and his deputy shall be
elected by a full council caucus. So when has
Chombo become a Mutare
councillor? Asked Muchauraya.
The Makoni South
MP said as far as they were concerned the only people who
recognise Mukorera
as deputy Mayor are those from the Local government
offices in Harare and
not the people of Mutare.
'This is what we call abuse of power by Chombo.
He has no mandate to dismiss
a deputy mayor for no apparent reason. In fact
we know he was carrying out a
ZANU PF mandate,' Muchauraya said. This is not
the first time that Chombo
has meddled in the affairs of the Mutare council.
In 2005, he ousted mayor
Misheck Kagurabadza and his council, and in their
place appointed a
commission chaired by Fungai Chayeruka.
MDC
accuses soldiers of beating up orphans
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
13 November
2009
The latest MDC-T newsletter carries a report saying that a dozen
gun-toting
soldiers ransacked an orphanage in Bulawayo last week and beat up
children
in the process. The soldiers went on the rampage in the Trennance
suburb of
the city, in what has been described as an operation to look for
MDC
supporters.
The Changing Times newsletter spoke to Charles Ncube
who runs the Thuthuka
Orphanage, and he confirmed that soldiers wielding
AK-47 rifles arrived in
an army truck and forced their way into the
premises. They accused
authorities at the centre of habouring MDC
activists.
But Ncube says they suspected that a 'disgruntled' soldier,
named only as
Tafadzwa, may have been behind the raid. Tafadzwa is said to
have visited
the orphanage trying 'to propose love' to a 15 year old girl at
the centre
but was turned away by authorities. He later returned with a
dozen soldiers
as reinforcements and they unleashed 'an orgy of
indiscriminate violence at
the orphanage leaving scores of children nursing
injuries,' with 7 of them
said to be in serious condition.
'Seven
children have injuries on their faces, ankles, thighs and backs as a
result
of baton and weapon battering,' Ncube said. The children were
initially
taken to Mpilo Hospital but were later referred to the Galen House
private
clinic. Ncube said they were battling to raise the money to pay for
X-rays
and medical tests.
The MDC has identified Sergeant Tshabalala, who is
stationed at Bulawayo's
State House, as the ring leader of the group. After
the soldiers left the
orphanage they then went on to Trennance Shopping
Centre and started
assaulting shoppers. During the chaos they kept accusing
shoppers of being
MDC supporters.
During last year's bloody
presidential election, over 200 senior soldiers
were deployed in the
provinces to coordinate 'Operation Mavhotera Papi -
Where Did You Vote?'
soon after the MDC had defeated ZANU PF in the March
elections. Over 200
people are thought to have been killed with tens of
thousands more maimed in
violent retributions. Many observers are concerned
that soldiers are now
becoming increasingly violent and believe they are
completely immune from
prosecution. A prospect that does not bode well for
the future of
Zimbabwe.
ZCTU
call for both Home Affairs Ministers to resign
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
13 November
2009
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has called on the co-ministers
of Home
Affairs to resign their positions over the abuse of power being
exercised by
the police. After ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and fours
members of the
union were released by a Victoria Falls magistrate, Secretary
General
Wellington Chibhebhe issued a hard hitting statement accusing police
of
acting on instructions from politicians.
Chibhebhe said, 'This is
not the kind of police that Zimbabweans want, but
unfortunately we have to
live with such. This point's to the fact that we
definitely need to reform
the police so that we have a professional
non-partisan force. The infamous
POSA clearly does not cover trade unions
but the police continue to disrupt
trade union activities in the name of
POSA. The police should be undoubtedly
ashamed of their actions."
Matombo and the four unionists were arrested
on Sunday for holding
consultative meetings with workers in Victoria Falls.
Police claimed the
leaders had violated the Public Order and Security Act by
holding the
meetings without police permission. The magistrate however ruled
that trade
unions were exempt from seeking police authority and so ordered
their
release. The arrests triggered condemnation from trade unions
worldwide.
Activists in the country say they are more disappointed by the
silence of
Giles Mutsekwa, the co-home affairs Minister from the MDC-T
party. Although
they appreciate he does not wield as much power as his ZANU
PF colleague
Kembo Mohadi, they expected him to at least protest the
arbitrary arrests.
The basis of the MDC-T insisting on control of the Home
Affairs ministry
during the power sharing talks was to be able to stop their
abuse of the
law. Mutsekwa has so far been apparently completely unable to
change the
system.
Chibhebhe in his statement asked both the
Ministers to resign, saying they
had failed the nation by not being able to
ensure the police upheld the rule
of law.
120
soldiers allegedly tortured at KG VI
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24995
November 13, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Brutal torture is being meted out on 120
Zimbabwean soldiers at KG
VI Barracks in Harare as members of the army's
military intelligence, the
military police and the Central Intelligence
Organisation intensify
interrogation of personnel following the alleged
theft of weapons from an
armoury two weeks ago.
A human rights
organisation, Zimbabwe Democracy Now (ZDN) quotes sources as
saying shifts
of militia were being transported into the barracks day and
night to beat
and torture the soldiers.
Meanwhile the state-owned newspaper, The
Herald, has reported that Major
Maxwell Samudzi had committed suicide in
military cells. However, the ZDN
sources warn that he was in fact beaten to
death.
The paper reported that a black electrical cord was tied around
Samudzi's
neck while blood was coming out of his nose and mouth. According
to official
reports, Samudzi allegedly carried three packets containing
cotrimoxazole,
aspirin and nevirapine tablets in his left trousers
pocket.
The ZDN report says another soldier, Colonel Garira, who is
alleged to have
master-minded the theft of the weapons, is believed to be
close to death.
On October 31, The Zimbabwean newspaper reported that at
least 12 soldiers
had died the previous week after they were brutally
tortured by military
intelligence agents following the disappearance of an
assortment of guns and
bombs from Pomona Barracks.
This took place
just two days after the government barred United Nations
torture expert
Manfred Nowak from visiting the country on a mission to probe
torture and
the treatment of prisoners.
The 12 soldiers had died at Two Medical
Company Hospital at KGV1, while
additional soldiers were admitted to
hospital following interrogation at the
hands of the Military Intelligence
Division.
The Zimbabwean reported that foreigners, possibly Congolese or
Angolan
nationals, were being were being assigned to torture the
soldiers.
Expressing grave concern for the safety of the soldiers,
leading human
rights activists warn that once again crimes against humanity
are taking
place in Zimbabwe.
They have called on the country's
transitional government to ensure
immediate access by medical and legal
practitioners to these members of the
Zimbabwe National Army.
The
human rights activists have also called for the urgent intervention of
the
United Nations Human Rights Council, the highest political body of the
UN
dealing with human rights.
After Nowak was expelled from Zimbabwe, he
told a news conference in
Johannesburg that he would ask the UN Human Rights
council to investigate
the situation in Zimbabwe. He also said the UN would
not abandon its work
in Zimbabwe.
"I am still very concerned by the
serious and credible allegations of
torture, ill-treatment and inhuman
prison conditions in the country," Nowak
said. "Each hour is critical."
U.S., South
Africa Press Govt Over Diamonds
http://allafrica.com
Andre van Wyk
13 November
2009
South African and American diplomats said this week that they
expected
Zimbabwe to implement "stringent controls" according to a "very
tight work
plan" to make the country's diamond exports comply with the
Kimberley
Process (KP).
In a statement issued in Washington, DC, U.S.
State Department spokesman Ian
Kelly said that Zimbabwe would be suspended
from the process if it failed to
adhere to the policies outlined in a work
plan adopted at a recent meeting
of parties to the process.
"In light
of serious concerns about Zimbabwe's compliance with the KP rough
diamond
certification scheme, we await full and expeditious implementation
of the
stringent controls that were agreed at the KP plenary in Swakopmund,
Nambia... for exports of rough diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange fields,"
said Kelly. He noted that Zimbabwe had agreed not to export diamonds from
Marange until their production was properly monitored.
The Kimberley
Process is an initiative designed to prevent the export of
diamonds mined in
areas of conflict. More than 200 miners were allegedly
killed by soldiers
during a military operation that sought to gain control
of the Marange
fields last year. The fields are a source of alluvial
diamonds, which are
found by sifting through gravel and sand in river beds.
In a briefing to
journalists in Pretoria this week, Ayanda Ntsaluba,
director-general of
South Africa's Department of International Relations,
said discussions at
the Swakopmund meeting had been "very heated."
"Some people... called for
the suspension of Zimbabwe," Ntsabula said,
according to a transcript.
"Others, the majority... [were ready] to agree
with the government of
Zimbabwe on a very tight work plan which will try to
restore the
operations... to fully accord with the expectations and the
decisions of the
Kimberley Process."
South Africa thought that giving Zimbabwe more time
to comply with the
process was "the correct outcome," Ntsabula said. "We are
particularly happy
with that outcome."
POSA
must be amended
Innocent Gonese, MDC-T Chief Whip and MP for Mutare Central, recently
presented parliament with a motion seeking the permission of the House to bring
in a Bill to amend the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).
POSA has its origins in the Rhodesian Law and Order Maintence ACT (LOMA),
used by the colonial government under Ian Smith to suppress political expression
and organisation by the black majority. Rather than get rid of the much reviled
law, the Mugabe regime kept it, revised it and strengthened it to become what it
is today.
POSA is an extensive piece of legislation, which includes provisons to
control political gatherings – it requires individuals and groups to notify
police before any gathering is held.
POSA is an insult to democracy. In 2004 Sokwanele wrote an article looking at some of the more
repressive elements of the law, which include the incredible provision that it
is an offence to “undermine the authority of or insult the
President” . (Can you imagine any democratic country anywhere in the
world getting away with a provision like this?) The law also penalises an
individual’s failure to carry identity documents, among other things.
Innocent Gonese’s Bill seeks
“to ensure that public gatherings are regulated in a manner that will allow
Zimbabweans to fully exercise their fundamental democratic right to engage, to
express themselves through the medium of peaceful assembly and association and
to clarify some of the existing provisions in the current Act”.
Veritas explain that his Bill would re-define terms, reduce police powers,
transfer the power to prohibit meetings from police to magistrates, and repeal
the provision penalising failure to carry ID documents.
POSA needs to be revised. In its current form – especially with the Zimbabwe
Republic Police’s fast and loose interpretation of it – POSA undermines the
Global Political Agreement which contains an Article on Freedom of Assembly and
Association:
12.1 Recognising the importance of the freedoms of assembly and association
in a multi-party democracy and noting that public meetings have to be conducted
in a free, peaceful and democratic manner in accordance with the law, the
Parties have agreed:
(a) to work together in a manner which guarantees the full implementation and
realisation of the right to freedom of association and assembly;
and
A critical fact that everyone should note about POSA, is that despite its
frequent use by the Zanu PF party – and its continued use today – it has never successfully resulted in a
prosecution. That fact, plus the point that no Zanu PF officials or supporters have ever
been arrested under POSA, demonstrates that the law is little more than a
tool for political oppression.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights drive home the above facts in their most
recent edition of The Legal Monitor, highlighting arrests and
prosecutions under POSA since 2003:
STATISTICS ON THE USE OF POSA AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
2003
- There were 55 cases involving the arrest and detention of Human Rights
Defenders (HRDs), involving a total of 822 HRDs
- Of the 822 HRDs arrested, 274 individuals were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2004
- A total of 155 HRDs were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2005
- A total of 547 HRDs were arrested during this year
- 52 of the HRDs were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2006
- A total of 577 HRDs were arrested during the year
- Of these, 65 HRDs were charged under POSA
- None of them were successfully prosecuted by the State
2007
- There were 96 cases of arrest and detention of HRDs, involving a total of
1,127 individuals.
- POSA was used in just 5 instances, owing to the advent of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act, which duplicated POSA in entire sections
- As such the code was used in 24 instances of arrest and detention
- None of the HRDs were successfully prosecuted by the state – either under
POSA or the Criminal Code
2008
- There were 1,446 instances of arrest and detention of HRDs
- Of these, 271 were charged with participating in unlawful gatherings and
were charged under either POSA or the Criminal Code
- None of the cases finalised have been successfully prosecuted by the
State
2009
- At least 125 people have so far been arrested and accused of participating
in gatherings and charged under either POSA or various provisions of the
Criminal Code
- None of the cases thus far have been successfully prosecuted by the State,
save for one instance in which the HRDs paid admission of guilt fines. This was
to secure their release and avoid being detained in inhumane and degrading
conditions in police cells. The admission of guilt fines are now being
challenged by the affected HRDs in the Magistrates’
Court.
This entry was posted by
Sokwanele on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 6:46
pm
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the
situation in Zimbabwe
Brussels, 12 November
2009
The European Union is concerned by the arrest on Sunday 8 November of five
prominent members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, including ZCTU
President, Mr Lovemore Matombo, and their continued detention.
This follows a number of other recent cases of harassment and intimidation
directed against political activists and members of Zimbabwean civil society.
The European Union also finds it most disturbing to learn about the alleged
torture in incommunicado detention of MDC member Pascal Gwezere.
The EU calls for the early release of Mr Matombo and his colleagues and for a
halt to all state violence and intimidation of members of civil society and
political activists in Zimbabwe.
It supports the recent call of regional governments for the speedy
implementation of the GPA, following the SADC Organ summit in Maputo. The EU
urges the parties to the GPA to find a way forward to resolve their differences.
The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and
potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and
the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European
Economic Area, as well as the Republic of Moldova and Armenia align themselves
with this declaration.
OUTSIDE
LOOKING IN - A letter from the diaspora
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
Dear Friends,
'Something there
is that doesn't love a wall' goes the first line of a poem
by the twentieth
century American poet, Robert Frost. The events of this
last week
demonstrate perfectly the truth of Frost's poem, the thrust of
which is that
nature itself finds the idea of separation by physical
barriers alien. I
can't be sure but I doubt that ZTV gave much coverage to
the fall of the
Berlin Wall that was commemorated this week. Thanks to Zanu
PF ideology
Zimbabweans live behind their own wall of propaganda - but in
the west the
commemoration received huge coverage. It may mean little to
Zimbabweans
today but the fact is that the collapse of the Berlin Wall led
directly to
the collapse of Marxism and the Soviet Union which in turn had
massive
consequences for the African continent.
What makes all this painfully
relevant for Zimbabwe today is the fact that
it was not politicians who were
responsible for changing the system and
bringing down the Berlin Wall. It
was the courage of thousands of ordinary
people who on November 9th twenty
years ago streamed across the bridge
separating the two sides of Berlin
shouting, "We are the people, we are the
people" and regardless of the
presence of border police proceeded to tear
down the hated wall that
separated them from their fellow countrymen and
women on the other side. It
was a momentous demonstration of the power of
ordinary people to bring about
change and it united Germany, changing
forever the political and human map
of Europe and the world. Twenty years
later, in a rain-swept Berlin, western
leaders stood in front of the
magnificently illuminated Brandenburg Gate and
declared what a great blow
for freedom the collapse of the wall had been.
The leaders' words make for
interesting reading when we consider the state
of the world twenty years
later where walls of one kind or another still
separate people. The French
President said, "The fall of the Berlin Wall
rings today as an appeal to
fight oppression." And Hilary Clinton, the US
secretary of State commented,
"A wall, a physical wall, may have come down
but there are other walls that
exist that we have to overcome and we will be
working together to accomplish
that." But it was the British Prime Minister
who went even further and
listed the countries still behind walls of
dictatorship and tyranny. "An
Africa in poverty, Dafur in agony, Zimbabwe in
tears, Burma in chains,
individuals even when in pain need not suffer
forever without hope." Fine
words from all the leaders but do their actions
match their words when we
see them propping up illegitimate regimes in the
name of stability,
regardless of the abhorrent values those regimes
espouse?
And where was Robert Mugabe while the cause of freedom was being
celebrated
in Berlin? Regardless of the 15 day SADC deadline set to start
solving the
urgent problems at home, Robert Mugabe was in Egypt at a
Sino-Africa Summit.
China, the last officially communist state, despite the
blatantly capitalist
lifestyle of its middle classes, is at the forefront of
the new 'Scramble
for Africa' and their presence has little or nothing to do
with freedom or
human rights for the dispossessed people of Africa. With
very little direct
criticism from the west, anxious not to offend China's
rapidly growing
economic might, the Chinese are now actively pursuing their
exploitation of
Africa's natural resources in Algeria, Congo-Brazaville,
Ethiopia,
Madagascar, Mozambique, Sudan and Zimbabwe. In 2005 when the
British and the
Americans condemned Zimbabwe's recent elections as 'neither
free nor fair'
Robert Mugabe reacted with predictable anti-western rhetoric.
On
Independence Day that year he declared, "We have turned east where the
sun
rises and given our back to the west where the sun sets," In effect,
Robert
Mugabe sold the country's natural resources to China, knowing that
they will
not raise even a whisper against the human rights abuses that
continue to be
perpetrated. This week alone we have seen the arrest of trade
union leaders
on spurious charges, the ongoing farce of Roy Bennett's trial,
the release
of a documentary showing the terrible suffering of farm workers
on the
invaded farms and yet another desperate plea from a white farmer to
Morgan
Tsvangirai to do something to restore law and order on the farms. And
all
the while the country sleepwalks into another agricultural season where
next
to nothing is grown to feed the hungry masses. Today, The Zimbabwean
reports
that even the war vets who occupied the farms are now beginning to
see that
'Mugabe traded land for votes' and in a quotation that has
particular
relevance to the Chinese presence in Zimbabwe, combined with the
all-pervasive corruption of local Zanu PF officials, one resettled war
veteran remarked, "I have often wondered how this US$300 million that this
country is said to be owing to China was acquired and how it was used if the
state still fails to pay farmers for their maize."
It seems that the
wall of propaganda built by Zanu PF's repressive media
laws to silence all
independent voices has been breached! As Robert Frost
puts it, "Before I
built a wall I'd ask to know/What I was walling in or
walling out/ And to
whom I was like to give offence/ Something there is that
doesn't love a
wall."
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH. aka Pauline Henson author
of Case
Closed published in Zimbabwe by Mambo Press, Going Home and
Countdown
political detective stories set in Zimbabwe and available from
Lulu.co and
Amazon.