International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: November 25,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: The government said it was unable to
raise salaries to end
a strike of magistrates and state prosecutors that has
crippled the
Zimbabwe's court system, official media reported
Sunday.
The Public Service Commission said magistrates were classed as
civil
servants whose salaries were only due to be reviewed early next year,
the
state Sunday Mail newspaper said.
Other civil service pay demands
have been put off after the government said
it had run out of money in the
current budget to meet pay increases in the
crumbling, hyperinflationary
economy.
A magistrate earns about 20 million Zimbabwe dollars a month, or
US$15 (€10)
at the dominant black market exchange rate, a third less than
the official
poverty line.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation
of 15,000 percent though
unofficial estimates put it closer to 40,000
percent.
Prices of individual items are not reflected in inflation
calculations. A
regular pack of six pork sausages was on sale at a Harare
supermarket Sunday
for 11 million Zimbabwe dollars (US$9, €6), more than
half a magistrate's
salary and a thirty fold price increase this
month.
In July, the government ordered prices of all goods and services
slashed by
about half to combat inflation but the move left shelves bare of
the corn
staple, meat, bread, sugar and basic foods.
The government
has allowed some prices to be raised to restore supplies but
has not been
able to enforce remaining price controls.
A magistrate's salary buys ten
liters (two gallons) of scarce gasoline.
The Sunday Mail, a government
mouthpiece, quoted one unidentified striking
magistrate saying he was forced
to hitch rides to the court before he
stopped work.
"When I come to
court, I usually catch a lift with the public, some of whom
turn up in my
court as an accused person. Because of low salaries, we remain
exposed to
corruption," he said.
Besides some 30 judges, hundreds of magistrates run
provincial and district
courts. The Sunday Mail said senior magistrates and
police prosecutors were
keeping some courts open to reschedule a growing
backlog of cases.
Zim Online
by Hendricks Chizhanje Monday 26 November
2007
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) says it is will press
ahead with demarcation of constituencies for
next year's elections despite
pleas by the opposition to shelve the exercise
until the conclusion of talks
with the ruling ZANU PF party.
ZEC public relations director Shupikai Mashereni said the commission
had the
"legal mandate" to prepare for the polls including drawing up
constituency
boundaries, adding it would only stop doing so if ordered by
the
government.
"We work according to the law and as things stand, we
have the legal
mandate to draw the (constituency) boundaries," Mashereni
told ZimOnline at
the weekend.
"We will only stop when we are
told to or if the law changes," the ZEC
official said, adding that it was
only reasonable that the commission starts
its work now or it would fail to
meet deadlines.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party led by
Morgan Tsvangirai has called on ZEC to delay the delimitation
of
constituencies, saying while the commission had the mandate to demarcate
constituencies, its composition was still subject for discussion at the
ongoing talks with the ruling ZANU PF party.
The MDC and ZANU
PF are engaged in talks under South African mediation
aimed at resolving
Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis. A key objective
of the talks is to
ensure next year's joint presidential and parliamentary
polls are free and
fair.
A constitutional amendment enacted by the government last
August with
backing from the MDC among other key provisions empowers the ZEC
to take
over registration of voters, demarcation of constituencies and
overall
management of elections.
However, the MDC says the
spirit of the constitutional amendment was
that a new commission and not a
"sanitised" version of the existing one be
appointed to register voters,
demarcate constituencies and oversee
preparations for next year's
elections.
The MDC accuses the current ZEC led by former soldier
and High Court
judge George Chiweshe of bias in favour of President Robert
Mugabe and ZANU
PF, a charge the commission denies.
Postponing
demarcation of constituencies until conclusion of
inter-party talks could
mean moving the polls to a date later than the
scheduled March.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a debilitating economic crisis that is
highlighted by the world's highest inflation rate of nearly 8 000 percent, a
rapidly contracting GDP, the fastest for a country not at war according to
the World Bank and shortages of foreign currency, food and
fuel.
Political analysts believe truly democratic polls next year
are a key
requirement to any initiative to pluck Zimbabwe out of an
ever-worsening
political and economic crisis. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Prince Nyathi Monday 26 November
2007
HARARE - Teachers in rural areas are being forced to
contribute money
towards the hosting of the ruling ZANU PF party
extraordinary congress
slated for next month, their union said at the
weekend.
The Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said reports
of teachers
being forced to finance the special ZANU PF congress had been
received from
Midlands, Mashonaland East and West as well as
Manicaland.
"This is extortion. We all know that teachers are suffering
and they are
taking more money from them. It is criminal," said PTUZ
secretary general
Raymond Majongwe.
Zimbabwean teachers earn an
average $17 million a month while official
estimates put the cost of
sustaining a family of six at around $30 million a
month, assuming they only
paid for basic goods and services.
It is alleged that ZANU PF district
co-ordinating committees have during the
past two weeks moved from school to
school in most parts of the country,
ordering teachers to
contribute.
Each teacher is required to contribute $300 000 towards the
cost of holding
the December congress set for Harare. Headmasters are forced
to pay $500 000
each.
A teacher at Chibiya Primary School in Murewa
said all the 27 teachers at
the school had paid the money by Friday last
week.
"We were ordered to pay the money or else we would not get
protection during
the forthcoming elections. In the rural areas, if you fail
to pay such
monies you will be in for big trouble during election time
because they
label you an opposition supporter," said the teacher who
requested anonymity
fearing victimization by ZANU PF
supporters.
Majongwe said the forced contributions were in violation of a
2005 promise
by ZANU PF secretary for education and information minister
Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu that no teacher would be coerced to contribute money
towards ruling
party business.
"So we are urging our members not to
pay anything," said Majongwe.
Contacted for comment, Ndlovu said he was
not aware that teachers were being
forced to pay for the hosting of the
ruling party congress.
"I am not aware of that but talk to (David)
Karimanzira. He is responsible
for the party's finances," he
said.
ZANU PF secretary for finance Karimanzira said the party has
appealed to
supporters and well-wishers to contribute towards the congress
but insisted
that no one was being forced to contribute.
"There is
nothing like that. That information is coming from people who want
to
tarnish the image of our party as we go towards elections," he
said.
Karimanzira said the party was targeting to raise $6 trillion for
the
congress, which is set for December 11 to 14 in Harare.
"But that
figure could increase depending on the economic outlook by the
time of the
congress," he said.
The special congress is set to endorse Mugabe as the
party's election
candidate for the polls next March. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Lizwe Sebatha Monday 26 November
2007
BULAWAYO - The Bulawayo city council has warned that it
could be forced to
decommission one of the last two dams that are supplying
water to the city
this week due to "critically low" water levels in the
dam.
Residents in Bulawayo, numbering over a million people, have had to
endure
persistent water cuts over the past months as the city battled to
ration the
little water that was available.
Bulawayo's two remaining
dams, Insiza and Inyankuni are currently supplying
less than 55 000 cubic
meters of water a day against daily requirements of
about 145 000 cubic
meters.
Bulawayo mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube told ZimOnline at the weekend
that
Inyankuni Dam could be decommissioned this week if does not rain
heavily
this week as water levels had dropped to "critical
levels."
"We are only hoping that it rains heavily this week otherwise we
would be
left with no option but to just decommission the dam anytime this
week.
"It just has to rain on a daily basis as we are facing a serious
crisis,"
said Ndabeni- Ncube, a senior official of the main opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Even the rains that
lashed Bulawayo at the weekend appeared not to have
raised Ndabeni-Ncube's
spirits with the mayor saying he was still to be
briefed if the rains had
any impact on the dam's water levels.
"I am still waiting for the results
from city council personnel who are out
there at Inyankuni Dam collecting
data on the water levels following last
night's rains.
"But the last
time we had rains, the in-falls were very insignificant
because of the dam's
location," said Ndabeni-Ncube last Saturday.
Bulawayo, which lies in the
drought-prone southern Matabeleland province,
has battled severe water
shortages for decades.
An ambitious scheme to draw water from the Zambezi
River, some 450km away,
has remained on the drawing board since 1912 with
successive governments
failing to allocate funds for the project. -
ZimOnline
VOA
25 November 2007
Millions of Zimbabweans are
depending on distributions of food aid to
survive due to a poor harvest last
year and the economic crisis besetting
the country, but a new report by a
nongovernmental organization says food is
being handed out on political
lines to reward backers of the ruling party
and exclude supporters of the
opposition.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project said it documented 267 cases in
September in
which the distribution of food and other forms of aid, such as
the provision
of seed, was carried out on political lines. Such
discrimination, which in
some cases included harassment and violence,
occurred nationally, according
to the organization. But the pattern of
discrimination was strongest in
Masvingo and Midlands provinces, it
said.
It cited "malicious damage to property, physical attack on
community members
and in a serious case a village head was allegedly shot in
a dispute over
food aid. For women, some food distributors were demanding
sex in exchange
for food aid."
In 70% of cases, those denied food or
other aid were opposition members,
said the civil society group, while 8% of
the victims were members of the
ruling party, and 3% were penalized for an
affiliation with some
nongovernmental organization.
The Peace Project
report said instances of discrimination on grounds of
political party
affiliation or participation in NGO activities "abound in
the food
distribution process."
The report said such abuses were most commonly
associated with distributions
by the Grain Marketing Board, the Zimbabwean
state cereals monopoly.
"Traditional leaders, councilors and community
food committees mostly
recommended by ZANU-PF leaders orchestrated the
removal of non-ruling party
members from the list of beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries were expected to chant
ruling party slogans and to produce
party affiliation cards before receiving
food," the report
said.
Zimbabwe Peace Project Director Jestina Mukoko told reporter
Patience Rusere
of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that traditional leaders such
as village
headmen are commonly responsible for enforcing discrimination in
food
distribution.
Although winter is upon us there
has been no cooling of support for the
Vigil's campaign for a free and
democratic Zimbabwe. There was a bitingly
cold wind when we set up but
singing and dancing kept us warm and the
temperature rose as the wind eased.
It was a long day for the Vigil
management team who gathered two hours ahead
for a meeting with Stendrick
Zvorwodza and Justin Shaw-Gray of Restoration
of Human Rights in Zimbabwe
(ROHR) to discuss the logistics of our new
partnership. One of our team,
Ephraim Tapa, said that ROHR and the Vigil
are different sides of the same
coin. ROHR would be working on the ground
in Zimbabwe for human rights and
we would be their support in the UK. We
agreed that the best way we could
help them was to publicise their efforts
and fundraise on their behalf.
Stendrick told us of a meeting he had with
a group of 155 orphans. They had
no food and he had nothing to give. ROHR
has set up structures throughout
Zimbabwe and hold mass meetings to educate
people that they can stand up for
their rights. They are conducting a
campaign to 'name and shame' violators
of human rights. We plan to
regularly feature their activities in our
diary. ROHR is filling a vacuum in
Zimbabwe and we are 100% behind them,
united in a non-party political cause.
We are putting on a permanent link to
their website (see menu in the right
hand column).
Supporters stayed long after the close of the Vigil to
discuss how we could
maximise our impact at the EU/AU summit in Lisbon on
8/9 December. Thanks
to generous donors we have already been able to book
flights for 20 people
and are hoping to take another 10 or so. If Mugabe
goes to the summit we
will be there to greet him. If he doesn't turn up we
will be there to tell
the world that Zimbabwe needs help.
At our
post-Vigil meeting, we were pleased to have with us Brendan Cox of
Crisis
Action. This international organisation aims to help avert conflicts,
prevent human rights abuses and ensure governments fulfil their obligations
to protect civilians. It has an office in Lisbon. Brendan outlined some
imaginative plans for demonstrations at the summit and we were asked for our
support for these. The consensus of the meeting was that we were very happy
to work with them. We are now co-operating with several groups in
Lisbon.
While we hold our protest in Lisbon the Vigil in London will take
place as
normal. There is a possibility that it may be augmented by
protesters from
Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) and the trade unions.
ROHR also plans a
protest in Zimbabwe on the same day so we will be
advancing on three fronts.
For this week's Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 150 signed the register. Supporters from Addlestone,
Becontree,
Bedford, Bexley, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bradford, Brighton,
Bristol,
Byfleet, Coventry, Crawley, Derby, Dudley Port, Guildford,
Hatfield,
Huddersfield, Kettering, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool,
Loughbourough, Luton,
Manchester, Milton Keynes , Northampton, Nottingham,
Oxford, Portsmouth,
Romford, Sheffield, Sittingbourne, Slough, Southampton,
Southend, Tunbridge
Wells, Wolverhampton and, of course, many from London
and
environs.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday, 26 November at 7.30 pm. Central London
Zimbabwe
Forum. The speaker is Judith Todd, author of "Rhodesia: An Act of
Treason"
and the recently published "Through the Darkness: A life in
Zimbabwe". She
is the daughter of former Rhodesian Prime Minister Reverend
Sir Garfield
Todd. Judith's father became a supporter of the Liberation
struggle and an
opponent of Ian Smith's regime. Judith's relentless fight
for democracy in
Zimbabwe has seen her being exiled by Ian Smith and
vilified by Mugabe.
Venue: downstairs function room of the Bell and Compass,
9-11 Villiers
Street, London, WC2N 6NA, next to Charing Cross Station at the
corner of
Villiers Street and John Adam Street.
Vigil
co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand,
London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against
gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
africasia.com
LISBON, Nov 25 (AFP)
Two weeks from hosting the second-ever summit between
Europe and Africa,
Portugal is scrambling to ensure that Zimbabwe's
contentious presence does
not eclipse the chance for a true partnership
between the EU and the world's
poorest continent.
"This is about a
summit that has not been held for seven years, a summit on
human rights, on
climate change, on migration, on problems of the EU and the
African Union,"
Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, which currently
holds the rotating
EU presidency, was quoted as saying Thursday.
"I would like the summit
not to be about one country or one leader," he
said, according to the
Portuguese news agency Lusa, referring to Zimbabwe
and its controversial
leader, Robert Mugabe.
The day before, Portugal's foreign minister Luis
Amado astonished European
diplomats by judging it "preferable" if Mugabe did
not attend, since he
might divert participants from essential
issues.
Amado had previously fought for Zimbabwe's presence at the
summit.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its 1980 independence from
Britain and
is accused by the West of stifling democracy and leading his
southern
African nation to economic ruin, has said he means to attend the
Lisbon
summit, although he faces an EU travel ban.
British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown has vowed that neither he nor any senior
cabinet
member will attend if Mugabe turns up.
"In this story, the Portuguese are
playing a double game. They want their
summit. They'll have it, but one must
wait to see who will come and at what
level," a European diplomat
said.
Amado's remarks have been greeted with irony in some parts of
Africa, where
southern African governments in particular have threatened to
boycott the
summit if Mugabe is barred from attending.
"It is not
possible to invite someone and to ask him to leave his arm or
finger a
home," Mario Feliz, Africa director at Angola's foreign ministry,
was quoted
by Lusa as saying, in reference to the African Union.
No EU-Africa summit
has been held since the first and only one in Cairo
seven years ago, as
several European countries rejected inviting Mugabe,
accused of human rights
violations.
Other European capitals have conditioned Mugabe's attendance
at the Lisbon
summit to the organising of a debate on Zimbabwe.
But
during a visit to Portugal, Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane
Gadio
adopted Lisbon's line of downplaying the Mugabe question.
"We are 52
countries in Africa. Why reduce Africa to Zimbabwe?" asked Gadio,
who
thanked Portugal for offering an opportunity for Africa and Europe to
discuss "fundamental questions" through the summit.
The Independent, UK
Ian Smith,
leader of the racist regime in Rhodesia, died last week. Robert
Mugabe took
over the newly independent Zimbabwe in 1980, and for years the
nation was
the breadbasket of Africa. But now, illegal blogs from the
benighted nation
tell a very different story
Published: 25 November 2007
"We have been
waiting for bread for nearly two hours in a rubbish-strewn
lane behind a
supermarket. It is mid-morning, the sun blazing down on the 50
or so people
in line, when three policemen stroll to the front. A rumble of
discontent
rolls along the line like a thunderstorm.
In Zimbabwe, where runaway
hyperinflation has reached 7,900 per cent and
people have used their entire
savings just buying food, life has been
reduced to this: the
queue."
Moses Moyo
"After a prolonged drought and very short rainy
seasons (if they happen),
Zimbabwe is experiencing real troubles with water.
Parts of Bulawayo are
dry; you may be living in a modern house with very
beautiful fittings in the
bathroom, but you may only get a trickle of water
once a week out of said
fittings."
Shona Tiger
"My doctor put
me on an antibiotic and a course of vitamin B injections. She
was very kind
and understanding of my pecuniary circumstances, and charged
me only Z$1m
(£1.80) for the consultation and first injection. The
pharmacist wasn't so
sympathetic. My monthly medication and the antibiotic
came to more than
Z$13m. I came home with my bag (we don't use purses here
any more; they're
simply too small) a good deal lighter than when I went out
(Z$14m is a lot
of notes) and found an electricity cut."
My Paradise Lost
"Grow
your own vegetable garden. When you see something in stock - buy it
all.
Freewheel downhill (the angel gear) whenever possible and save fuel,
coz
you're not going to get a refill any time soon. Cut down your garden
trees
for firewood, due to having a maximum of three days of power in the
capital
a week. Drive to Mozambique for a monthly grocery shop, but make
sure to
hide it carefully, so that the police don't confiscate it on the
grounds of
"hoarding". Fill up your bathtub with water, because the two-day
water
shortages make one very stinky toilet. Most importantly, get used to
eating
pork sausages."
Fat Cat
I looked at the menu [in Meikles Hotel]
and saw that a toasted sandwich cost
Z$1.3m, which means that a teacher's
salary is equivalent to about 12
toasted sandwiches per month. I thought I'd
rather go for a piece of anchovy
toast, some Marmite toast and a coffee. The
waiter returned five minutes
later to say that there wasn't any anchovy, so
I changed my order to Marmite
toast and a scone. The waiter returned to say
that there wasn't any Marmite.
So I had a scone, without butter. And this is
a five-star hotel."
Bev Clark
"Chipo left her two starving
children with their grandmother to go to
Botswana. She says: "I shed my
tears before embarking on the 760km journey
to Gaborone. Right now, I don't
know whether my children have had a decent
meal during the past three weeks,
because my grandmother is poor and she
receives Z$100,000 per month from the
Department of Social Welfare. This is
hardly enough to buy two loaves of
bread."
Mike Coleman
"In my home town this week there was air
freshener, window cleaner, some
vegetables, Indonesian toothpaste and
imported cornflakes from South
Africa - one single packet costing more than
half of a teacher's monthly
salary."
Cathy Buckle
"A friend
volunteered for a few months to do household surveys of rural
families in
Masvingo. The main focus was to find out how they were being
affected by
HIV/Aids, and what kind of coping strategies they had developed.
She was
shocked by how poorly the majority were doing. HIV was hitting the
adult
population hard, making it difficult to carry out the basic chores and
activities needed to survive. When the price controls hit and goods vanished
off the shelves, relatives and caregivers in many cases stopped
visiting."
Amanda Attwood
"At Chicken Inn, two street kids were
begging food from a fat woman. The
woman scowled and drew her food closer,
shouting at the security guard to
"come and do your job!" The guard, who
looked hungry himself, used his baton
on one of the urchins, but they
suddenly returned with four others. He stood
there helplessly as they
swarmed all over the woman's table. She stood up,
clutching chicken pieces
to her bosom and shouting obscenities at the
departing figures.
Surprisingly, she continued to eat, ignoring the guard's
suggestion to move
to a safer table indoors. But then a whole pack of street
kids surrounded
her, grabbing everything, including the piece she was
holding to her
mouth."
Natasha Msonza
"A friend had 100 tractor tyres he
purchased three years ago, and has been
selling them. He bought them for
Z$50,000, equivalent to 500 [South African]
rand at that time. The police
accused him of hoarding and wanted to see the
purchase invoice. The
government insists only 20 per cent mark-up is
allowed, so they told him to
sell the tyres for Z$60,000 each. That is
equivalent to R3 today, so his
loss is R49,700. But the worst part is that
the police phone all their
friends once they discover situations like the
one above. Government
officials purchased all the tyres and sold them on the
black market for R900
each. They are profiteering at the expense of the
economy."
Rat
"I am safe [in Johannesburg], but am very
worried about my wife and children
because of the food situation in
Zimbabwe, and try and send them as much as
I am able, so that they can
survive. I want South Africa... and the rest of
the world to put pressure on
the government of Zimbabwe to ensure that there
are free and fair elections.
If this happens, I have no doubt that the
Mugabe government will be
defeated, and I will be able to go home and live
with my
family."
Sokwanele
Further reading: 'Mugabe: Power, Plunder and
the Struggle for Zimbabwe's
future' by Martin Meredith,
£8.99
Sunday Times, S A
Sunday Times
Foreign desk
Published:Nov 25,
2007
President
Thabo Mbeki reportedly riled his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert
Mugabe, on
Thursday when he raised allegations of continued violence against
opposition
members.
The heads of state were meeting in Harare to discuss
the status of
negotiations between Mugabe and the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC).
Mbeki was on his way to the Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting, which
kicked off on Friday in Kampala,
Uganda.
Mugabe is said to have scoffed at the allegations, labelling them
the "usual
accusations" made by the MDC.
Mbeki, appointed by the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) in
July this year to mediate
in the Zimbabwean crisis , first met MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai and other
opposition leaders, who apparently raised the
issue of ongoing political
violence .
The MDC told Mbeki that despite the SADC-sponsored talks,
Mugabe's state
security agents were still harassing opposition officials and
supporters.
Tsvangirai, the leader of the main faction of the MDC,
insisted that it
expected a firm commitment from the ruling Zanu-PF
regarding the cessation
of violence if the talks were to succeed.
was
subject to sweeping electoral reforms and repeal of draconian media and
security laws, which presently limits the political activities of the
opposition;
a.. Other issues raised by the opposition with Mbeki
were the timing of next
year's polls will be held;
a.. the legitimacy
of the Constitution; and
a.. the freeness and fairness of next year's
elections and the commitment to
observe SADC guidelines on staging of
democratic elections. The MDC is
adamant the political climate in the
country is not yet conducive for the
staging of free and fair polls citing
the political violence, the
politicization of food and traditio
Mbeki
told journalists, after meeting Mugabe and the MDC, that he was
confident
the talks would succeed.
"The talks have been going on very well. I came
to Harare so that we can
reflect where we are and give my own perspective.
It was basically to inform
President Mugabe and the MDC leaders, as the
principals," he said.
It is understood Mbeki is under pressure to
conclude the talks before the
European Union Africa Summit to be held in
Portugal early next month.
European leaders are at loggerheads over the
attendance of Mugabe, with
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisting he
and senior government
officials will not attend if the Zimbabwean leader is
present.
Mbeki is said to have shared notes with Mugabe over Africa's
position
regarding the summit.
Meanwhile, it was reported this week
that Mugabe unleashed a devastating new
blow to Zimbabwe's economy when he
announced a new law giving the state a
controlling stake in mines operating
in the country.
Under the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, the
government can take over
51% of companies mining strategic fuels and
minerals, taking 25% without
payment.
The Bill brazenly asserts that
payment will come from dividends earned from
the state's shares in the
companies.
The affected companies include Zimplats, the local subsidiary
of South
Africa's Impala Platinum, and the world's second-biggest platinum
producer,
as well as London-based Rio Tinto's Murowa diamond mine
.
No comment was available from the two companies.
Mmegi, Botswana
Friday, 23 November 2007
*TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
And what a shame it is, indeed!
African presidents are busy buying suits and
bow-ties to impress those who
make suits and bow-ties when they attend a
summit where, in spite of the
continent's wealth, they are going to beg like
no subway beggar has ever
begged before. It is a shame.
In a published letter to Portuguese
President Anibal Cavaco Silva, (Mmegi,
November 16, 2007), I pleaded and
urged Silva and his government to justify
their invitation of Robert Mugabe
in contravention of European Union travel
bans on Mugabe and his lieutenants
because of their deplorable human rights
violations.
I pointed out
that since Portugal had chosen to invite Mugabe, Portugal
should put
Zimbabwe on the agenda and, thus, possibly offer an effective
alternative to
Gordon Brown's stand of isolating Mugabe.
Portugal, of course, is barren
of human rights decency in foreign lands and
is doing things that fly in the
face of the EU and thereby neutralises the
EU's policies.
But I am,
however, humbled that, early this week, the EU itself leapfrogged
over
Portugal and demanded that Portugal, which holds the EU presidency,
puts
Zimbabwe on the agenda.
Many people feel rewarded, especially me.
Even
then, for now, I dare stand and demand for Mugabe's complete isolation.
There should not be any letting up until the dictator is uncoiled. The EU
says 'No Mugabe' on its soil because of the transgressions he is committing
against innocent people but Portugal says 'yes.' It is clear to me that
African dictators are not the only ones who violate constitutions and
collective agreements.
ZimOnline reported that the European Union had
"agreed to have the human
rights situation in Zimbabwe put on the agenda for
a summit with African
leaders set for next month."
It went on to say
that EU foreign ministers met last Monday in Portugal to
discuss, among
others, the 8-9 December Europe-Africa summit and resolved to
give a "clear
and tough" message to President Mugabe on his government's
human rights
record" and then further quoted an EU official as having said
that Britain,
Sweden and the Netherlands had pushed for "a real discussion
on human rights
and governance in Zimbabwe" during the summit.
"We will organise a debate
(at the summit) so that Mugabe can receive a
clear and tough message," an EU
official said.
That's all I wanted. Thank you, Lord!
I, however, feel
extremely embarrassed that Europeans have to arm-twist
Africa's
inconsiderate presidents into taking note of the atrocities being
committed
in an African country called Zimbabwe. The EU is trying to do
something to
bring some relief to the long suffering Zimbabwean people while
those
occupying state houses across Africa appear to approve of sadistic
practices
of their fellow heads of state.
I declare that African presidents are a
horrible and ghastly disgrace and I
wish they could boycott the Portugal
summit for whatever reason because none
of them represents or espouses
African people's attitudes.
Africans are not sadists nor are they
warmongers but our so-called
presidents are a totally different species,
offering the world a false
picture of Africa.
African presidents are
collectively responsible for the deaths and mayhem in
Zimbabwe, Darfur, DR
Congo and elsewhere on the African continent for, if
they do not wish to
assist, they should leave those who have the desire to
assist to do so. When
my life and family are under threat, shall I, being
African, insist on the
unwilling African president Thabo Mbeki to rescue me
while a foreigner is
already doing something to save us before being even
asked?
Two weeks
ago, Mbeki said he was quite satisfied with the negotiations that
he is
chairing between Mugabe and the opposition. That is very encouraging;
wouldn't you say, especially considering the deaths and violence being
perpetrated by Mugabe on defenseless people? On Wednesday, Mbeki said he
would make a whistle-stop visit to Zimbabwe en route to Uganda for the
Commonwealth meeting. He said he would be talking to Mugabe's
representatives and those who represent the opposition. To Mbeki, Zimbabwe
is an afterthought. I was under the impression that serious negotiations
were being held in South Africa.
Three days ago, South Africa's
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz
Pahad, parroted his master's voice
and said that South Africa "is happy with
the progress that has been made
regarding efforts to resolve the problems
currently facing
Zimbabwe."
While Africa, and, indeed, the world, is still trying to clear
the
unpardonable cobwebs from the atrocities of Rwanda, where men, women and
even children along with priests and nuns went mute and attempted to cover
up atrocities, we now have South Africans actively denying and covering up
the maimings and political murders in Zimbabwe.
What progress are the
South Africans always spouting about that we don't
know of? Or are they
saying they are satisfied with the daily political
violence and death toll?
What kind of progress is it when the other half of
the negotiating partners
does not report any such progress but complains?
The day Pahad made that
obviously false statement of satisfaction,
Zimbabwean parliamentarian,
Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC)
expressed his party's concerns over current
talks being brokered by South
Africa in a report he presented to the
on-going ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary
Assembly meeting in Kigali. So why are
the South Africans, yes, including
their president, lying about the
situation over these talks?
And a
day before Mbeki and his crony lied to the world about progress in
Zimbabwean mediation talks, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, had urged Mbeki to pressure Robert Mugabe to end political
violence and repeal tough security and press laws. It is surprising that so
late into the negotiations, the MDC is still begging for an end to political
violence and the repeal of repressive laws. No talks should have been
started while such serious curtailments existed. However, I am curious to
know what 'progress' Mbeki and Pahad are talking about?
Portugal and
South Africa, two countries that have always connived to save
renegade
leaders in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, should be warned not to play
exterminator
games with Zimbabweans whose lives are already at stake.
South Africa
should be aware that Zimbabweans view it, especially Mbeki, as
a
co-oppressor with Mugabe. Zimbabweans are well aware that it is South
Africa, especially Mbeki in his personal capacity, that stands between
meaningful assistance to end the repression, mayhem and killings in Zimbabwe
and the continued suffering and murder of the innocent people in our
country.
SADC, and indeed the world, rightly defer the Zimbabwean
issue to South
Africa. It is protocol. It is diplomacy and it is getting
more and more
people killed in Zimbabwe because South Africa, because of
Mbeki, is
impotent and is preventing the emancipation of the Zimbabwean
people.
Without South Africa manning the doors, freedom could long ago have
poured
into Zimbabwe. Without South Africa protecting a murderous dictator,
the
issue could have been laid to rest a long time ago. I salute the
European
Union and I deplore so-called African presidents who, with a
colonial
mentality of always imitating what former colonisers did, are still
at the
stage of oppressing their own people. I chide all African presidents
for
their short-sightedness. I rebuke them for bringing shame to the
continent.
Oppressing the 'natives' appears to be the only thing these
presidential
charlatans learned from the former colonisers. I do declare and
say that I
am ashamed of all African leaders. Robert Mugabe is twice the man
they are,
for Mugabe parades his evil and frolics in it proudly and publicly
yet the
other African leaders try to hide their evil but expect the world
and the
people to applaud just because, in every respect, they are all a few
thebes
short of a pula.
African presidents should wake up and rescue
Africa. Whatever happened to
our pioneering spirit? Where is that individual
and personal initiative so
prevalent among early pioneering leaders that we
used to see as we tried to
dislodge colonialists?
We have always
given our support to our leaders, mostly against our will,
but look at what
they are doing to Africa against our will. I am a son of
Africa and am
totally ashamed of all my African leaders.
God have mercy!
*Tanonoka
Joseph Whande is a Botswana-based Zimbabwean writer.