• Zimbabwe Police Quiz Opposition Head Over "Incitement"
• Time to Play Hard Ball over Zimbabwe, Say Tories
• No sign of wrongs being righted
• Democracy in Africa still in tug of war after decade
• Amnesty to hold silent vigil in support of Daily News
• Bang pots in protest against domestic violence
• Nigeria ditches Zim
• ‘Set up autonomous bodies to draft laws’
• Public outcry goads Politburo to discuss notorius land jingle
• Zimbabwe threatened with inclusion on ILO blacklist
• ANZ bars workers from premises
• New RBZ rule turns pay day into nightmare
• Mudzuri remains suspended: court
• Zim exclusion threatens to tear C’wealth apart
• Zimbabwe’s health delivery system shuts the door to health
• Save health system from certain death
• Nation at mercy of a bunch of anarchists
• ...And now to the notebook...
• Fragmentation of people’s resistance: Part 2
• Thabo Mbeki’s shameless cop-out
• Mbeki upbeat on political solution for Zim
• Critical need for non-food aid
• ZANU PF gets rare chance to get things right
• African ministers discuss Zimbabwe
• A Portrait of the Comrade as an Angry Man

      Copyright © 2003, Dow Jones Newswires

      HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)--Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was
summoned to a police station Thursday and questioned for two hours about
accusations he incited violence during campaigning for a by-election in
central Zimbabwe, his party said.

      Tsvangirai addressed a rally Thursday in the provincial town of
Kadoma, where an election is scheduled this weekend to replace an opposition
parliamentarian who died earlier this year.

      Tsvangirai was instructed to present himself to the local police
station after the event to answer questions about a reported assault of a
ruling party supporter by opposition militants, his aide, William Bango,
said.

      The unidentified ruling party supporter accused Tsvangirai of inciting
his followers to attack their rivals.

      Tsvangirai was released without charge, Bango said.

      Police could not immediately be reached for comment.

      The two sides have traded blame for violence which has marred
campaigning for the vote scheduled Saturday and Sunday in Kadoma, about 140
kilometers southwest of the capital, Harare.

      President Robert Mugabe's government has stepped up a crackdown
against dissent, arresting opposition leaders and shutting down the
country's only independent daily newspaper.

The Government must steel itself to take tough action over Zimbabwe and stop
appeasing President Mugabe, Tories urged today.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram condemned the failure to mention it
in the Queen’s Speech and accused ministers of a “feeble” approach.

During the second day’s debate on the speech, he said Britain must prepare
to play “hard ball” with Mugabe’s regime.

He demanded: “If we believe in releasing oppressed people from despotism and
restoring democracy, why does this belief appear to disappear into the sands
of the frontiers of Zimbabwe?”

“Why when the people of Zimbabwe look to us to provide international
leadership to end the deliberate starvation, the murders, the beatings, the
ethnic cleansing, the abuse of human rights and the suppression of free
speech – all of which are hallmarks of Mugabe’s brutal regime – are we so
feeble in response?”

Mr Ancram continued: “Why are we so half-hearted about targeted sanctions?

“Why don’t we do what the Americans have done and actually take action
against those who bankroll Mugabe?

“Why do we continue to baulk at raising Zimbabwe in the United Nations
Security Council?

“Why do we always walk by on the other side?

“The time for appeasing Mugabe is over, quiet diplomacy has failed. It is
time to play hard ball.”

Mr Ancram said Zimbabweans, both black and white, had told him Britain – as
the former colonial power – had a responsibility to help the country.

“They heard the Prime Minister say at his party conference that he would not
tolerate the behaviour of Mugabe of his henchmen and then they saw nothing
happen at all and they feel betrayed,” he added.

“I feel shame at the way they feel betrayed by the British government.”

Also missing from the Queen’s Speech, he said, was any mention of
celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of British sovereignty over
Gibraltar.

“The Government should be seeking to rebuild the shattered bridges of trust
with the people of Gibraltar who have constantly been loyal to this country.

“It should be a natural instinct to want to celebrate 300 years of British
history and to reassert British sovereignty over The Rock,” he added.

Zimbabwe Cricket is a powerful analogy of the country itself – once
beautiful but ruined by greed and mismanagement. The economy is now facing
collapse with constant shortages of basic necessities. Fuel is one of them
and for the first time in 30 years the inter-city club competition was
cancelled because there was no reliable transport. The Zimbabwe cricket team
has to play under these kinds of conditions on a regular basis.

A lot has changed since I left Zimbabwe in March 2003. I knew my life would
never be the same after Andy Flower and I donned our black armbands. It was
an exciting, albeit bittersweet, time. Zimbabwe grabbed a Super Six slot in
the World Cup, yet our country was reeling from economic strain and
political turmoil. I remember thinking how lucky it rained the whole day of
our match against Pakistan; our progression to the Super Six gave me an
opportunity to leave Zimbabwe.

One thing has not changed. On a New Zealand tour our player-coach David
Houghton reminded us of the power we had to raise the spirits of people at
home. Cricket means so much to so many. It is the one piece of white history
left intact in a country where the government has declared white people
enemies of the state. The blacks are still creating a legacy but many see it
as a way out of the hardships of life. Countries need heroes and cricket is
offering that. Its survival there is as important as the survival of the
economy. Whether either survives depends on the political elite, who are
also the custodians of the game. Eyebrows were raised at the ZCU's AGM this
year when Robert Mugabe was re-elected patron. The dictionary definition of
patron is one who supports, protects or champions someone or something. It
is hard to know which category Mugabe falls under.

Like the country itself Zimbabwe's cricket needs someone who will protect
and champion its people. But there is not the political will. Recently two
of my peers, Brian Murphy and Gavin Rennie, "retired". Rennie was told he
was too old for the national team. He is 27. The team that toured England
this summer clearly lacked experience. Murphy is one of the unsung heroes of
the World Cup. Flower, I understand, was going to be dropped for the Pool A
game against Australia. Murphy stood up with others and told the management
he would not play if this happened. He was told he would never play for
Zimbabwe again.

There are more examples of victimisation. The 2000 England tour was
threatened by a player boycott over pay. ZCU administrators have not
forgotten or forgiven the offence. The battle lines were drawn when the
players set up a union to protect themselves. It has since become almost
routine for any player who shows dissent to be shown no mercy.

As long as the players and administrators feel polarised true progress will
never be achieved. Players have left en masse since the 1999 World Cup –
players whom Zimbabwe could ill afford to lose. Remember the class of Neil
Johnson and Murray Goodwin, the reliability of Andy Whittall, the talented
Strang brothers, Alistair Campbell, Guy Whittall and Pommie Mbangwa? Everton
Matambanadzo and Brighton Watambwa, two of Zimbabwe's most experienced black
players, have gone to the United States for good. At our best we had the
potential to beat a lot of teams. Losing one of these players is bad enough
but losing a whole generation is terrible. There has to be something wrong
with a system that chases players away.

One reason is that in Zimbabwe's economy you need foreign currency. World
Cup players had half their money taken by the government who then paid out
in local currency. One said he stood to lose 40 million Zimbabwean dollars,
which could comfortably have bought a four-bedroom house. At the time of
writing the ZCU had still not paid up for my World Cup appearance. And I do
not expect them to.

Henry Olonga is a former Zimbabwe pace bowler

      The people had little real control over how elections were conducted.

      "Indeed, not amenable to effective popular control, democratic
multiparty electoral systems in southern Africa have co-existed with, and
even nurtured or sustained, authoritarianism and/or despotism in some of the
regional states," he said.

      As a result, election results were often contested, stoking conflict
rather than resolving it.

      Reginald Matchaba-Hove, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network, noted that in Zimbabwe the election commission was run by a retired
army colonel.

      Professor Guy Mhone, head of the Graduate School of Public and
Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, said that
despite the commitments to democracy and good governance and all the
excuses, most people in the region were no better off today than they had
been 40 years ago.

      He blamed governments for choosing what he called "enclave
capitalism" - the market economics which benefited foreign investors and
domestic elites but not most of the people.

      However Dr Khabele Matlosa of the Electoral Institute of Southern
Africa saw the political landscape of southern Africa as having been
transformed tremendously over the past decade.

      But the consolidation of democracy was not assured in all countries.

      SA, Botswana and Mauritius had good prospects for sustainable
democratic consolidation. But Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Swaziland "have not even undergone the transition and it is not ... possible
to even assess prospects for consolidation".

      Other countries fell between these two extremes, he said.
      In Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia transitions had occurred but were
threatened by violent conflict, usually sparked by contested election
results.

      In Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Malawi the democratic transitions
were relatively stable but "embryonic" and still "fraught with enormous
challenges".

      Overall, "enormous challenges still remain for democratic
consolidation" in the region, Matlosa concluded.

      These challenges included the need to institutionalise poliitics, to
end the personality politics of the past and to increase public
participation beyond occasional elections - to create a true democratic
culture in the region.

"I am only one, but still I am one. I can not do everything, but still I can
do something. And because I can not do everything, I will not refuse to do
something I can do" Helen Keller

WOZA to march during the 16 days of activism against Domestic Violence.

ZIMBABWEAN WOMEN
It is time to come out of the kitchen - Join us in the streets!
OUR POTS ARE EMPTY - OUR CHILDREN ARE HUNGRY!
LETS US BEAT OUR POTS TO PROTEST AGAINST THIS FORM OF 'DOMESTIC VIOLENCE'!

The United Nation's World Food Programme estimates that 5.5 million
Zimbabweans will be in need of food aid this year.
Why can Zimbabwean not feed its people? WOZA regards this as a form of
'Domestic violence'
---------------------------------------------
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) is organising a street protest against high
prices of FOOD and shortages that are leading us into starvation. Women must
beat their POTS IN PROTEST so that our message will be delivered with
impact!

When: Wednesday 3rd December 2003 - 12 noon to 2pm
Where will we meet:
Bulawayo - outside St Patrick's Church in Makokoba near Renkini
Harare - date and meeting place yet to be advised.
Our message is:
BEAT YOUR POTS IN PROTEST AGAINST THIS FORM OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!
ZIMBABWEANS ARE HUNGRY AND FOOD PRICES GET HIGHER EVERY DAY!

What we will expect of participants:
* Attend the walk to show solidarity with other women - we are all
suffering together. Every day we struggle to feed our children.
* Bring empty pots and cooking sticks. We must demand affordable FOOD
and supermarkets must stop profiteering and sympathise.
* We will walk peacefully through the streets of Zimbabwe, but we
shall make a loud noise to demand equal distribution of FOOD within our
communities.
* If you cannot join us, make your own demonstrate at your closest
shopping centre or church. All we ask is that you try to do it as the same
time so that we are together.
* If the Police arrest protesting women, telephone your nearest police
station and beat your pot in the officers ears until those arrested are
released. After all we also protest for police officers - they eat the same
food.
WOZA contact numbers Coordinator mobile: 011 213 885

WOZA is a Zulu word meaning 'Come forward'.  WOZA is currently run by a core
group of women's rights activists, they call themselves 'Mother WOZA'.

WOZA was formed as a women's civic movement to:
Y Provide women, from all walks of life with a united voice to
speak out on issues affecting their day-to-day lives.
Y Empower female leadership that will lead community
involvement in finding solutions to the current crisis.
Y Encourage women to stand up for their rights and freedoms.
Y Lobbying and advocacy on those issues affecting women.

From Pambazuka News 133: A Weekly Electronic Newsletter For Social Justice
In Africa
Visit http://www.pambazuka.org/ Comments on this editorial -
editor@pambazuka.org

Excerpts from: A GENDERED DIMENSION TO THE ZIMBABWE CRISIS By Gee Charos

Zimbabwe has been experiencing a number of problems in recent years.  This
is due to both man-made and natural causes leading to human suffering and at
times death. The major problems can be traced back to the rejection of a
government sponsored constitutional reform that was followed by "fast track"
land reform as the government blamed commercial farmers for its demise.

Finger pointing, chaos, violence, and destabilization of the political and
socio-economic environment followed this process. Civic society and the
international community responded by putting pressure on the government to
respect the rule of law, central to the Abuja agreement
brokered by Nigeria and South Africa. To worsen matters, Zimbabwe
experienced a serious drought in the 2001/02 agricultural seasons.

The combined effect of the above mentioned problems resulted in,
predictably, serious problems of food shortages, unemployment of over 70 %,
high inflation of over 525,8 %, increased poverty of over 80 % of the
population living below the poverty line and lack of foreign currency.

The most affected by this crisis have been the poor, especially in rural
communities. Their only means of livelihood is subsistence agriculture.
Hence, the drought dealt a big blow to their welfare since they now have to
rely on a very imperfect and unreliable market for supply of food and other
basic commodities. Food inflation continues to rise despite the Government's
efforts to arrest it with price controls and price freezes. This, obviously,
has serious gender implications.

Women, children, the disabled, terminally ill and the elderly have to bear
the biggest burden. In rural Zimbabwe a lot of households are female headed
as the husbands are employed in urban areas. This means the mothers have to
fight a lone battle in providing for the family and the father is not
available to fend for the day-to-day needs of the family.

Some traditions and customs in the Zimbabwean culture expose children,
particularly girls, to abuses. For example, practices like kuzvarira, which
literally means swapping the girl child for food to save a starving family,
condemns the girl to perpetual suffering. She is forced to marry early and
is therefore denied a chance to prepare for her future through attending
school. The marriage is often to a very old husband - not of her choice -
and it is mostly polygamous, making life a living hell for the young girl.
Those who don't find themselves in this predicament may still suffer in
different ways. Some are forced to drop out of school as resources run dry
in the family. Child labour is rampant in the country and is actually rising
due to food shortages.

Some women and girls walk into loveless, unplanned marriages due to
desperation. Their aim is to escape starvation but, unfortunately, they
expose themselves to abuses by their husbands who can take advantage of
their desperation at will. Prostitution becomes another option for others
who fail to make ends meet. Hunger knows neither limits nor dignity and
induces reckless and dangerous behaviour.

The forced marriages and prostitution put women in danger of contracting
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), or worse still HIV/AIDS. This partly
explains why HIV/AIDS cases have been on the increase in the country. In
fact, the district hospital in Insiza district reported an increase in cases
of STDs and HIV/AIDS related aliments amongst girls as young as 12 years
old. More and more people are going to die due to food shortages as rational
behaviour has been suspended. Desperation is now leading them to take
dangerous or risky decisions.

Unscrupulous business people have been quick to take advantage of the
suffering people, making matters even worse. The writers of this report
witnessed a pathetic situation in rural Zimbabwe (Chiendambuya in Makoni
district) where a miller approved to mill and sell maize meal at controlled
prices by the Grain marketing Board was selling the product at nearly double
the price. Not only was he overcharging, but was selling off his truck in
the bush. The people - estimated to be 90 % women - had to wrestle for the
scarce commodity and each time the driver thought the situation was getting
out of hand he would drive away for a distance of about a kilometer.

The poor villagers - comprised of the elderly, the disabled, pregnant, sick
and those carrying babies - would race each other to the truck where they
would buy on a "first come first serve" basis. It was a sorry sight to see
people undertake such a physically demanding exercise. This is a typical
survival of the fittest scenario where vulnerable groups like women are
obvious losers. The few who are young and energetic outrun the vulnerable,
thus buying most of the food, since they were able to catch up with the
lorry and join the queue more than once.

Each day, mostly women and children are seen in queues as early as 4 am at
retail and wholesale outlets in anticipation of deliveries which usually do
not come. Often they go back home empty handed, depressed and dejected, yet
continue to hold hope that one day Zimbabwe will be back on track as the
food basket for Southern Africa.

Zimbabweans can no longer afford to buy basic foodstuffs in the shops as the
rate of inflation has continued to escalate with the latest figure rising by
70,2% from 455,6% in September to 525,8 percent in October 2003. (The Herald
of November 20 2003). To overcome these hardships, people are engaging in
illegal activities. Some are selling gold on the black market and illegally
exporting it to neighbouring countries. Others are doing fuel deals and some
have joined the money lending business where the poor are being exploited
with interest rates in the range of 30 - 80% per month.
(The author lives and works in Zimbabwe. For political reasons, she does not
wish her real name to be used.)

      11/27/2003 9:08:56 AM (GMT +2)

      A DISPUTE has arisen between management and workers at the closed
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) over management’s decision to deny
the employees access to the company’s premises.

      The workers were this week sent on forced but paid leave following the
closure of the private publishing house by the government in September this
year for allegedly operating without a licence.

      There was pandemonium at the company’s head office in Harare as dozens
of workers tried to force their way into the offices, arguing that although
they were on leave, they still had the right to visit the offices for
various purposes.

      ANZ are the publishers of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday.

      ANZ chief executive officer, Sam Sipepa-Nkomo, defended the decision
to bar the hundreds of workers from entering the company’s premises,
accusing some of them of spying, stealing, vandalising the company’s assets
as well as abusing telephones.

      "What do they want to do in the offices?" Sipepa-Nkomo said. "Apart
from abusing phones while doing no work at all, we have lost a number of
assets like laptops and some equipment has been vandalised, that is the
reason they should stay at home."

      He added: "We also know that most of those who do not want to stay at
home are employed by other people either as moles or anything so they would
want to keep their ears to the ground and this is why they are resisting . .
. they have nothing to lose since they are on paid leave."

      The workers will meet tomorrow to discuss how they should react to the
decision by their employer to lock them out. — Staff Reporter

      11/27/2003 8:23:07 AM (GMT +2)

      ZIMBABWE’S is reeling from a collapsing health delivery system and
elsewhere in this issue we carry a story on the disastrous condition of this
vital sector. The still unfolding medical nightmare is a catastrophe
foretold a long time ago when government turned a deaf ear to a chorus for
it to prioritise health on its social agenda.

      The crisis in the sector is so deep-seated that there is need for a
complete overhaul of the entire health delivery system. It has lost a raft
of key personnel and the numbers continue mounting as demoralised, underpaid
but overworked medical personnel vote with their feet in a rush of
impatience against what they feel is an insensitive employer, to go abroad
for pastures anew.

      Apart from giving rise to the recruitment of failed expatriate medical
personnel with dubious credentials, this situation has also brought about a
marked increase in lack of accountability by doctors who seem to have
adopted an I-don’t-care attitude. With a depleted medical staff, the
authorities’ hands are tied, as they would rather leave the doctors to do as
they please as long as they stay! This is putting the welfare of patients at
great risk.

      Not only that but there is also a critical shortage of imported
medical equipment, essential drugs and medicines on the back of the
prolonged foreign currency crunch, among other factors. Where these are
available, they are way beyond the reach of a wider cross-section of the
community.

      It is no exaggeration to say, therefore, that public health
institutions, without exception, are for want of a better expression, in a
pathetic state. In fact, there has been precious little in the way of good
news from the dying sector, which ironically should minimise deaths.

      This is the kind of situation that has dealt a crushing blow to a once
vibrant health system and made the government’s call for "health for all by
the year 2000" simply a could-have-been-that-never was.

      The imminent collapse of the public health sector exposes weaknesses
in government’s economic policies where critical financial resources are
channelled towards certain areas for nothing more than appeasement and
political expediency. As a result, the economic fall-out of government’s
decision not to prioritise health has now bitten deep into the health
delivery system.

      Admittedly, the initially slow but now accelerating decline in the
health delivery system was touched off at the turn of the 1990s when
government had to scale down on essential services to the public as most of
the funds needed to provide the actual services expected of it were to be
borrowed. This was when it was under pressure to borrow as little as
possible from the sometimes blundering International Monetary Fund, whose
missionary zeal and often wrong-headed stance on fiscal rectitude might have
complicated the Zimbabwean situation.

      Be that as it may, this does not absolve the government. The
deteriorating situation in the crisis-hit health sector is something that
could have been prevented if government had not chosen to ignore the voice
of reason and the influence of realities. It is indeed a sad reflection on
Zimbabwe that the health delivery system which should be right at the centre
of the government’s social agenda, has itself become a casualty of
upside-down priorities where there is no sufficient funding to ensure
adequate health care. What else can one say for a government which, despite
acknowledging the dependence of the economy on agriculture, sees it fit to
allocate $1.27 trillion from the fiscus to defence and security and just
about a third of that to the all-important agricultural sector? The mind
boggles.

      11/27/2003 8:46:03 AM (GMT +2)

      EDITOR — Having been a visitor on several occasions to Hippo Pools, on
the banks of the Mazowe River in the Mupfurudzi area, I find the invasion of
that area a complete disgrace.

      If President Robert Mugabe wants to know why he is finding it
difficult to get any friends in the international world, he needs only to
look at this latest event.

      Ian Jarvis, who runs Hippo Pools, does not own the property which was
invaded by pea-brained so-called war vets. The land is owned by the
Department of National Parks, which essentially means that it is owned by
the Government of Zimbabwe. Jarvis runs Hippo Pools on the basis of a lease
from National Parks and to get to his camp, you have to pass through two
National Parks gates.

      This is one invasion that the Minister of Agriculture should have
condemned. Where, also, is the Minister of Environment and Tourism in all
this? Perhaps the ministers do not realise that when these things occur long
after President Mugabe himself has declared the land reform exercise
"complete", it reinforces the message that no business is safe in Zimbabwe.
Events are out of control. In short, the country is now at the mercy of
anarchists while responsible ministers pick their teeth with the ribs of
slaughtered babies.

      This latest expression of madness must be condemned and the culprits
brought to book.

      When the world community speaks of the "rule of law", they are
speaking of issues like these. Silence on the part of government means that
the government is approving this cannibalism, where members of its own
support base are essentially chewing off ZANU PF’s legs. It is madness and
the ministers responsible should be ashamed of themselves: not because they
have not defended the rights of a white man; not because they have allowed
illiterate thugs to tarnish the country’s image at a time when we need all
the friends we can get, but because they appear incapable of realising that
this latest invasion is not an assault on Jarvis and his workers, but a
naked assault on the authority of a group of airheads who are under the
illusion that they are "running the country".

      The ZANU PF youths in Mazowe, it would appear, have gotten away with
castrating the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Environment and
Tourism and the entire leadership of ZANU PF. The contempt they have shown
for the ZANU PF leadership shows beyond all doubt that the party has no
control over even its own droolingly idiotic supporters.

      Jarvis is a man committed to the preservation of the environment. The
way he reclaimed a rocky patch of land on the banks of the Mazowe and his
struggles to keep this area pristine leaves no doubt about this. He has
never denied access to locals who want to enjoy the area and has followed
the dictates of the National Parks Authority to the letter. If the
government wanted to reclaim the land they were leasing to him, all they had
to do was to inform National Parks to withdraw his permit. He would not have
objected and would have found somewhere else in Zimbabwe or elsewhere to put
his passion for the environment into practice. There was no need at all to
let the great unwashed masses to physically assault this man. In fact these
same people enjoyed the benefits of trading with the traffic to the Jarvis
camp, since travellers invariably stopped at their shops to buy
refreshments, smokes and the like.

      Both overseas visitors and local tourists used to buy the sculptures
that were displayed on the road to Mupfurudzi. Now they have thrown it all
away.

      Jarvis is no racist, I know that for sure.

      Denford Magora,

      Harare.

      11/27/2003 8:44:05 AM (GMT +2)

      Freedom
      Recently CZ had the privilege of visiting Tanzania, one of the many
countries where many of our war veterans got their training so that they
could liberate us. From his own judgment, the citizens of that country enjoy
much more freedom than any average Zimbabwean, who is not a war vet, would
dream to enjoy in the next 1 000 years!

      As soon as CZ arrived in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam (it’s
called Dar), the government said that in line with its media reform
exercise, it was pleased to announce that as many private individuals as
would want could now set up radio and television stations in the country as
long as the new ventures are managed and owned at least 51 percent by
locals. The country has more than 100 newspapers appearing on the streets
any time of the day and any day of the week. Is this not freedom when
compared to our own Zim where some politicians still dream of some crazy
laws like AIPPA as if we are in Kumuzu Banda’s Malawi or Communist East
Germany?

      CZ could not believe that President Ben Mkapa was sick and needed to
undergo a hip bone operation in Switzerland and all this information was
made available to the media with out anyone requesting for it.

      The President’s office would issue regular statements about anything
concerning Mkapa . . . that he had been admitted at the Hirslander Clinic in
Zurich, Switzerland; had been seen by doctors; he has had a hip bone
operation; he can not make his trip home because doctors advised him to rest
. . . anything including the picture of the Zurich clinic he was admitted
to.

      Any information is given to whom-so-ever likes it without conditions.
What else would one want? Yet in our beloved country, no such thing happens.
One would be inviting trouble for themselves just by trying to inquire how
the powers-that-be are. We are given the impression that the powers-that-be
never get sick.We wonder whether we need this thick veil of secrecy on basic
issues like this!

      Trillions

      CZ now understands why junior doctors wanted monthly salaries of a
cool $30 million. Why not when Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa tells the
nation that they are now budgeting in terms of trillions, not millions and
billions any more? Yes, why would $30 million appear to be a wild figure and
not the $9 trillion the government is planning to spend mainly on useless
foreign trips and expensive imported whiskies? From past experience, we know
for sure that sometime in July next year, the same Murerwa will come back to
Parliament to justify a supplementary budget which is much higher than the
original budget. So we can safely say in 2004, we will happily spend at
least $20 trillion on ourselves and still remain poor.

      Any serious businessperson or crook in Zimbabwe should now be
targeting at least a trillion in their bank accounts if they are not going
to be swallowed whole and raw by the galloping poverty.

      Colleagues are now asking each other: From trillion we go to what? And
then to what? And then to what? Maybe by 2008, we would have coined new
words for our budgeting purposes alone. Maybe words like Zimbillion,
Chinotim- billion or something like that! Please God may we all be alive
then to witness the zenith of our madness!

      Jurnos again!

      When journalists in Zimbabwe thought they had had enough embarrassment
from two veteran scribes from Bulawayo at the national journalistic awards
dinner, one tired woman from Zimpapers thought it was not enough, so she had
to take it a step further by going on to insult some of the sponsors. The
reason? The prize money was too little for her and therefore it would have
been better had they not even offered the sponsorship . . . she blurted. The
woman in question knew fully well how much the prize money was before she
even decided to enter the competition, but surprisingly after receiving the
prize money, she felt it was not enough to look after her oversized family
and she decided to make unnecessary noises.

      But it is a fact that it is not the duty of ZUJ sponsors to look after
journalists’ children. When they conceive those children, they should be
fully aware who would look after them instead of just conceiving them for
the fun and pleasure of it in the hope that any well-wisher who offers to
sponsor ZUJ activities should as well be responsible for the over-sized
families.

      It is spoilt brats the likes of these who needlessly put the
journalism profession into disrepute. If this wayward behaviour is for
whatever reason tolerated in some newsrooms, it should be confined to those
newsrooms alone!

      cznotebook@yahoo.com

      11/27/2003 8:45:11 AM (GMT +2)

      IN my last contribution I argued that real and imagined methodological
differences on how best to deal with the Zimbabwean crisis are fragmenting
the pro-democracy movement and that this is entrenching retrogressive
sectional particularism.

      It was also noted that these so-called methodological differences
started manifesting themselves in the immediate post-referendum period in
2000 and that they have led to fragmented, isolated and unco-ordinated
efforts by various political groups and that because of this divided
approach, we have lost many critical political battles to the ZANU PF
regime.

      In fact the regime’s major ally to date is our refusal to have a
cross-sectional consciousness that will enable us to create a popular front
and harness the pent-up forces of the disgruntled Zimbabwean masses into a
formidable unified force against the ZANU PF totalitarian regime.

      In my view, the major reason why the progressive movement is being
fragmented is because of failure by civic leaders and opposition political
leaders alike to come up with an agenda that cuts across all the various
sectional interests that currently appear superficially irreconcilable.

      There is also a problem of personality clashes and "political turf"
among the leaders of the various political organisations in this country —
this dogmatic obsession with power to the extent where anyone with any
political acumen decides to form their own organisation or fiefdom where
they are chairperson or president or some other high-sounding post where
they want to prove that they have better following and command of the
masses.

      There has been a mushrooming of multiple civic organisations in the
post-referendum era and this further consolidated the fragmentation of the
people’s resistance. I personally have nothing against Zimbabwean citizens
organising themselves in some form to agitate for recognition of their
claims, but what I find particularly repulsive is the failure by these
multiple organisations to network in a positive way, identify common areas
of interest, and find a way of harmonising the outstanding differences and
create a co-ordinated common-action front against our common adversary.
After all love is more natural than hate; cooperation more natural than
strife. In fact the lack of common ground for solid identification is one of
the major cancers of the progressive movement.

      It is one of the marks of good democratic leadership that there exists
a sympathetic understanding of the people and their struggles and an attempt
as far as possible to help them achieve the object of their longings.

      If we see each other as part of a great unity inspired by common
ideals, we shall get a glimpse of that spirit in the presence of which all
will be possible. After all why shouldn’t all sections within the
pro-democracy movement contribute what is theirs into a common pool? It is
not that what some can give is more valuable than that of others; it is just
that these contributions are different — nothing more.

      Just as the effective co-operation among all parts of the human body
is necessary for bodily health, so the harmonious cooperation of all
progressive forces in this country is necessary in order to secure for all
the best possible conditions, and such utilisation of our diverse resources
as will make the standard of living the highest obtainable.

      To achieve this there must be mutual respect and understanding and
goodwill and the removal of everything that stands in the way of its
achievement. The realisation that in our several ways we are all necessary
to each other must remain the basis of the principles that govern our
struggle.

      Because of the prevailing sectional consciousness there are now
different understandings of what the struggle is or ought to be. In fact it
is now very dangerous to assume that when we, in the pro-democracy movement
talk of "the struggle" we are talking the same language and that we have the
same understanding. Some of us who interact with the man on the ground on a
daily basis know that the people are now confused.

      People are worried that this corrupt and incompetent regime is gaining
some form of "illegitimate legitimacy", especially now that the MDC seems to
have reached their limit in terms of what they can do to keep the regime
under pressure. Legitimacy is attained when the rest of the society accepts
a political order and act in habitual obedience to the dictates of that
particular order, either out of realising the impossibility of changing the
political result or as a quid pro quo for peace and stability.

      It is my humble submission that all progressive organisations and
individuals in this country go back to the drawing board and carry out an
autopsy of our political failures and successes since the referendum. Before
the referendum it was clear that the struggle was for a new democratic
constitution which would level the political playing field and create an
environment conducive for free political contest. With the current set-up
the definition of the struggle is less clear-cut.

      So let’s go back to the drawing board and try to redefine the struggle
by coming up with a programme which enables us to create a popular front and
rally the pent-up forces of the disgruntled masses to meaningful and
directional opposition.

      I propose that an All People’s Convention be convened and should be
attended by representatives from all the multiple civic organisations,
opposition political parties, individuals and other identified stakeholders.
The formation of the MDC was a result of deliberations of similar
conventions. This convention should then try to find a way of harmonising
the differences that may exist among the attending organisations and try to
map a way forward.

      In particular the convention should define what the struggle is or
ought to be, identify specific political battles to be fought and come up
with broad fundamental principles to guide the conduct of the struggle.
Short, medium and long-term measures should be mooted. This should then be
followed by working out the logistics of a coordinated popular front which
would execute the identified battles in a systematic manner. This will help
us have spontaneous faith in a common ideal.

      If confidence and an increased faith in ourselves is achieved, we
shall the more readily give loyal and intelligent support to a bold and
courageous lead, those who lead and those who follow both being guided by
those broad fundamental principles which we would have come up with. The way
out of our difficulties is the application of remedies which arise out of
our collective and collaborative consciousness, out of the seachings of our
hearts and minds, out of our present and therefore out of the understanding
of our past.

      Transformative social action comes from the collective acts of many,
each contributing his/her portion, however small, of intelligence, vision
and courage. Only by such a communal act across those lines of race, tribe,
class, gender, religion or political affiliation that so often divide
humanity, can there be a chance that liberty and justice will one day
prevail for all.

      This can only be achieved when we are true to national standards, and
when selfishness, sectional particularism and class hatred are at a minimum,
not because we have stampeded them out by force, but because we wish them to
disappear.

      Isaya Muriwo Sithole is a Harare-based legal practitioner

      11/27/2003 8:44:34 AM (GMT +2)

      A SHAMELESS cop-out. That is the only way to describe a statement on
the crisis in Zimbabwe made by South African President, Thabo Mbeki, during
a visit to France last week.

      Defending his dubious "quiet diplomacy" approach, President Mbeki was
quoted as saying that no country, not even South Africa, could "import" a
solution to Zimbabwe.

      Ever on the lookout for ways to avoid taking responsibility and
demonstrating leadership, President Mbeki has, once again, twisted issues to
enable him to come up with a response to something no one is asking him or
South Africa to do as an excuse for his inertia.

      This is the same man who sometime ago responded to domestic criticism
of his failure to speak out on the Zimbabwean situation by stating
indignantly that there was no way South Africa would send troops to invade
this country. The fact of the matter is that no one is asking South Africa
to invade Zimbabwe or to "import" a solution as President Mbeki puts it. The
South African President, who clearly knows the paralysing effect of the
ruthlessness of President Mugabe’s regime on the local population as well as
the deadfall of the conspiracy of silence of African leaders, is only too
eager to accept that nothing can be done. He seems quite elated to argue
that he and his colleagues should continue to fold their hands and look the
other way while the people of Zimbabwe languish in the clutches of a
repressive dictatorship.

      But let anyone show an interest in coming to the aid of the oppressed
Zimbabweans and President Mbeki adopts a different stance. During American
President George Bush’s visit to Africa earlier this year, President Mbeki
sabotaged any potential new United States initiatives by stating that a
breakthrough was imminent on the problem of Zimbabwe. And now he says no one
has a right to "interfere".

      Personally, I have never trusted President Mbeki. The tinder that
sparked my pique can be traced literally to the moment he took over the
mantle of leadership from the great Nelson Mandela.

      Soon after being confirmed as the new leader of the party at an ANC
Congress and, therefore, the candidate to succeed Mandela as head of state,
Mbeki was asked how he felt about the prospect of stepping into Madiba’s
shoes.

      Watching the proceedings on a South African Broadcasting Corporation
channel in those good old days when I could still afford to pay my satellite
television subscriptions, I remember vividly expecting President Mbeki to be
gracious by paying tribute to his predecessor and mentor who groomed him for
the top job. But President Mbeki did no such thing. Refusing to be generous
and acknowledging the attributes of a statesman of global stature, President
Mbeki’s response was a mysterious comment to the effect that he did not wish
to fill Mandela’s shoes because Madiba wore ugly shoes. What the hell did
that mean?

      I decided there and then that a man who could be so ambivalent and
grudging on such an historic occasion could never be trusted to be clear and
focused on other issues. It turns out that my gut feeling was not wrong.
President Mbeki has since proved a letdown on several fronts but
particularly on the question of Zimbabwe.

      When he pronounced his questionable policy of "quiet diplomacy" more
than three years ago, President Mbeki argued that this was the only approach
likely to yield results. When challenged from time to time about the lack of
signs that he was making progress, President Mbeki would declare impatiently
that South Africa continued to "engage" the President Mugabe and he was
committed to finding a solution.

      Now, after all those years of apparently aiding and abetting the
Zimbabwean regime, enabling it to buy time and consolidate its tyranny,
President Mbeki now has the audacity to tell us he was taking everyone for a
ride and never intended his "whispering campaign" to produce any results.

      President Mbeki’s equivocation on the Zimbabwe crisis has been
highlighted by a call made by Sir Ketumile Masire last week. Instead of
adopting the evasive and defeatist attitude that nothing can be done to
break the impasse, the principled former Botswana president has suggested
that Zimbabwe should be subjected to New Economic Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD)’s peer review mechanism to ensure that it adheres to
universally accepted democratic principles and practices.

      The question that has to be asked is why President Mbeki, as the
architect of NEPAD and the African Renaissance is not keen to spearhead the
application of dispensations such as the peer review mechanism to address
real life issues such as the tragic situation in Zimbabwe? Does he have a
soft spot for dictators?

      From the very beginning, a vitiating weakness of President Mbeki’s
"quiet diplomacy" was that nobody knew exactly what he was saying to
President Mugabe and whether he was indeed saying anything at all. There was
never any feedback or evaluation to determine whether his approach was
having any impact. And as this modus operandi was by design, one cannot
avoid the conclusion that the South African president’s prevarication is a
gross abuse of power and trust. After all he was perceived as Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC)’s and indeed Africa’s main
troubleshooter on the Zimbabwe crisis.

      By pretending that he was tackling the problem quietly while
apparently doing nothing, President Mbeki has not only thrown the suffering
people of Zimbabwe to the wolves, he has also proved beyond doubt that he is
grossly over-rated as a leader.

Mbeki upbeat on political solution for Zim

By Jeremy Michaels. Political Bureau

South Africa, the United States and Britain are on standby to help
Zimbabwe's economic recovery as soon as a political settlement is found,
according to President Thabo Mbeki. And in another development, some ANC MPs
yesterday applauded Paul Themba Nyathi, information secretary of the
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), drawing
pronounced frowns from other ANC MPs. Answering MPs' questions in the
National Assembly yesterday, Mbeki said his government had held discussions
with the Zimbabwean government regarding the escalating economic crisis in
that country, but thought it was best to allow them to find a political
solution first. "We've been talking to the leadership of Zimbabwe, both the
ruling party and the opposition, for a very, very long time," Mbeki said in
reply to a question about what South Africa was doing to assist the
Zimbabwean people. The aim of the discussions was "generally to encourage
them to find solutions to their problems ... and we're convinced that
progress is being made".

However, Mbeki said there were "some problems that have not been resolved"
in informal talks between the two sides, but South Africa would continue to
engage both sides as well as civil society organisations. "We had discussed
in the past what sorts of interventions were necessary to address the
economic challenges," Mbeki said. However, "it seems that it was important
that we sort out these political matters first before we engage these other
issues. "But we are ready to re-engage the Zimbabwean government
specifically on the matter that regards the economic recovery in that
country. We have also been maintaining close contact with the British and
the US governments on this particular matter. We'll be able to move on this
as soon as we can - it depends on the movement that is achieved with regard
to the political situation."

Earlier in the day, Nyathi made an impassioned plea for South African
solidarity with the plight of Zimbabwe's suffering people, prompting
applause from some ANC MPs while others appeared bemused by the open display
of apparent sympathy with the MDC official. Addressing the portfolio
committee on foreign affairs, Nyathi painted a picture of desperation amid
food shortages, soaring inflation - which, according to government figures,
was currently at 500% and would reach 700% early next year - a crackdown on
media freedom, a ruling party which was clinging to power by intimidating
ordinary Zimbabweans, a chaotic land redistribution programme, and a
judiciary that had lost its independence. "I hope you have time to think
about the ordinary men and women who go to bed hungry and the thousands who
have been tortured," Nyathi said. Regarding external pressure on the
Zimbabwean government, he said: "Neighbours should speak with clearer
voices."

      IN the first fortnight of December 2003, the foundations of Zimbabwe's
future will be laid as the annual congress of Zanu PF takes place.

      All eyes will be upon this party that has ruled Zimbabwe for 23 years
and taken our country and its economy almost to the point of no return.

      There are two possibilities from the Congress and both are simple. One
is that 79-year- old President Mugabe will announce his successor and step
down as the head of the party and President of Zimbabwe.

      The other is that he will dig his heels in, gather his party around
him and do nothing. Whatever happens at the Congress, the die for the future
will be cast.

      If President Mugabe decides that he is not ready to relinquish the
reins of power the months and years ahead look very bleak.

      No matter how hard Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa tries, our economy
will continue to plummet. Annual budgets will continue to soar from billions
and trillions into zillions, if there is such a figure!

      No matter how loudly President Mugabe and Zanu PF declare that they do
not need the outside world, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the
World Bank, Zimbabwe cannot continue to stand alone.

      Before much longer Zimbabwe's regional neighbours will abandon us to
our own devices.

      Foreign currency will become even scarcer and without it the few
remaining companies and industries still operating will close down as fuel
and spare parts are exhausted.

      Without a radical change in Zanu PF's governance and leadership,
inflation and unemployment will continue to rise, as will public discontent
and civil disobedience.

      The democratic world is becoming increasingly impatient with Zanu PF's
governance and have few options left to express their unhappiness at
Zimbabwe's oppressive rule.

      The next step will possibly be the widening of targeted sanctions to i
nclude the families, friends, relations and business acquaintances of our
leaders and those high in the ranks of Zanu PF.

      Fewer and fewer of President Mugabe's friends and allies will be left
to support him in 2004. In the last week we have seen both Malawi's
President Muluzi and Mozambique's President Chissano announcing that that
they are stepping down from power.

      Undoubtedly their replacements will not be as willing or able to prop
up and make excuses for our collapsing country.

      Mugabe's staunchest supporter, South African President Thabo Mbeki, is
also facing elections in 2004 and the amount of time he will be able to give
to quietly and diplomatically defending Zimbabwe is certain to decline
dramatically.

      If President Mugabe does announce his resignation and retirement in
the next fortnight, Zimbabwe may have finally arrived at the turning point.
A junction which demands a new election, new faces, thoughts and ideas and
the possibility of regaining international recognition.

      Whoever is prepared to fill President Mugabe's shoes will have an
almost impossible task on his or her hands.

      It is hard to even work out what the priorities are anymore: the
economy, inflation, unemployment, food security or law and order?
Zimbabweans hope that Zanu PF has been following events of the past week in
Georgia, seen the parallels and taken note of what happens when people
finally say "enough is enough."

      In just one weekend tens of thousands of people stood together and
ousted their 75-year-old President who had been in power for too long.

      They had had enough of endemic corruption, of their leaders living
lives of luxury while they struggled to survive and of their President who
ran the country more to suit himself than the people of Georgia.

      In the coming fortnight Zanu PF will have to decide if they can risk
another year of internal collapse and international isolation.

      Their policies have caused such decay that belonging to the ruling
party can no longer protect them. Members of Zanu PF also have bank notes
with expiry dates, are also subject to 525 percent inflation and are also
losing almost half of their monthly income to prop up the government's
uncontrollable spending and corruption.

      Having a Zanu PF membership card cannot protect them from postal and
medical strikes, from water shortages and uncollected garbage.

      The time for members of Zanu PF to do the right thing is coming in the
first week of December.

      We will see how democratic the party really is and how true to
Zimbabwe their members really are.

      By The Litany Bird