The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
1 December 2001 - Page 1
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COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
Farm invasions and Security Report
Thursday 29th November 2001 



This report does not purport to cover all the incidents that are taking place in the commercial farming areas.  Communication problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers from reporting all that happens.  Farmers names, and in some cases farm names, are omitted to minimise the risk of reprisals.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Virginia – Shot farmer improving
Wedza – Farm chemicals stolen
Darwendale – Farmer assaulted at Darwendale Clinic
General - Huge pressure to do land prep for settlers because of the recent rains
Nyabira –Farm manager abducted
REGIONAL NEWS
MASHONALAND EAST
Featherstone - Kuraman had a work stoppage and all the cattle forced into the paddock around the house. The owner’s son and 2 workers were told to leave the farm immediately and the rest to be given notice. The next day the workers were chased out of their houses.  This was all done by the youth league. The owner spoke to the Lands Committee who said they would look into it. The owner is only allowed to milk the cows. Harvieston has had a work stoppage since Monday but was allowed to start work again today.  On Pennyfather the manager was told the settlers were holding 5 cattle for compensation. No reason for the compensation demands were given.
Marondera North – On Lekkerwater illegal settlers are pulling up tobacco and planting maize.  The settlers are from Maganga farm they were removed by the police and told to stay away.
Macheke \Virginia – On Flint workers were chased out of the granadillas by illegal settlers. Workers huts were burnt down on Nyagadzi.  Castledene Pines had a gum tree plantation burnt down.  The farmer from Royal Visit who was shot on Sunday, had a good night he is now off the breather and his arm has been cleaned & stitched. He still has some infection but is less sedated.  For the time being visitors are being discouraged.
Wedza – O Plymtree illegal settlers have pulled seedlings from 25 tobacco seedbeds and taken them elsewhere. This has been reported to the police.  A man named Moyo from Waddilove mission arrived on Bichleigh with a tractor on a lorry and wanted accommodation for three days while he offloaded the tractor. The illegal settlers have threatened to beat up the cattlemen if they put the cattle into certain paddocks.  On Markwe a tractor from Monis winery has ploughed up the Polocross field, a horse paddock and two contours of Rhodes grass pastures.  Seven gunshots were heard around midnight on Fels and the police were called an arrived five hours later.  On Numwa chemicals were stolen from the Chemical storeroom. The chemical depot on Iamba was also broken into and chemicals taken.  The owner’s son’s house was broken into on Igudu and various items were stolen. The asbestos roofing was stolen off 24 farm village houses.  On Hull and Lynton poachers were stopped and refused to open their car boot. The poacher was a Lt. Colonel in the army. When the farm assistant followed the poacher, the poacher stopped and fired 3 shots in front of them.  War vet Kwenepa arrived in a 3 ton lorry and demanded paprika seedlings. When they were refused, Kwenepa said he would be back the next day.  On Laurel 11 cattle that strayed next door were impounded by the illegal settlers and locked into the cottage security fence and damages of $4500 were demanded. The police arrived and instructed the cattle owner to break the lock. When the owner refused the police broke the lock and released the cattle. Later the settlers again impounded the cattle but released them. Cattle operations are often interfered with on the farm.  Illegal settlers are building new houses on Ruware.
MASHONALAND WEST (NORTH)
Trelawney/Darwendale – Weltevrede Farm has a work stoppage as settlers are demanding that land prep be carried out for them, but the farmer is away. A neighbour has agreed to try and resolve the situation.
Doma - Vrede. Northend, Kismet, Chicheneni farms are not working and Whindale Ranch is  working "on and off".  On Southend 'B' Farm the person who was causing trouble was removed a while ago, he has since returned and is causing trouble again.   
General - Huge pressure on to do land prep for settlers because of the recent rains, and settlers have received their seed maize from the GMB.
Chinhoyi  - Settlers from Harare have pegged Sligo Farm and a messenger from Chief Chirau came to investigate why the town settlers were on land already claimed by rural settlers.
Norton - Suffron Walden Farm was visited by war vets and a Herald reporter.  Settlers are now planting on the farm.
Banket - On Koodoohill Farm a rural council tractor hired by a settler pitched up to plough a ratepayers farm.
General - Fertilizer and seed are being delivered by the army.
Nyabira - The manager of Mede Farm was abducted.  His shoes and shirt were seen on the other side of the security fence.  The security fence was locked with a strange padlock, and the manager’s wife cannot get to her house.  The vehicle and cell phone were taken. The Nyabira police initially would not react, and then would not answer their phone.  Manyame headquarters got them to react.  A vehicle was sent to collect the ZRP at Nyabira.  It has been ascertained that the Manager is alive and talking to ZRP and the vehicle has been recovered.
Tengwe  - Numerous farms, two of which are unlisted, are bring pegged for the A2 scheme  There have been several demands for labourers on Chobeni to vacate their houses to make way for occupiers, but this has been partially resolved. Internal paddock fences on the farm are being removed.  Occupiers on Madzimoyo farm have stated that the barns were going to be dismantled to build a school and clinic. On this farm they have planted crops in both last years tobacco lands, which was meant to be planted to maize, as well as the land that was ridged for this years tobacco crop. One of the local school teachers has requested seedlings from a neighbouring farmer to plant in this ridged land.  At Alpha farm the farmer has been told he cannot use the barns unless he does some land prep for the chairman of the settlers (Moyo).
MASVINGO
Masvingo East and Central Area – The owner of Wares Estate and Wondedza Farm has received Section 8 Orders.
Chiredzi Area – On Faversham Ranch an illegal occupier known as Mapanzurie accompanied by 15 other people notified the owner that a work stoppage would commence on the 27th November 2001. The work stoppage did commence, however no illegal occupiers arrived on the property to enforce work stoppage.  Political Commissar Mr. Hwarare accompanied by 20 other people in a ZANU PF vehicle and a ZANU PF banner arrived on Samba Ranch. He informed the owner that they would be taking up the irrigation block and issuing 50ha plots. These plots would be taken up on Monday 3rd December 2001.
Mwenezi Area – The situation remains the same. Theft, poaching snaring, ploughing and planting continue unabated.
Save Conservancy Area – The situation remains the same. Poaching and snaring continue.
Gutu / Chatsworth Area – On Wheatlands Farm illegal occupiers rounded up 300 head of cattle and forced the cattle into a kraal. Indications are that illegal occupiers want all the cattle off the property.  All the cattle have been forced off Berry Springs, Chibakwe Farm, Lorn Farm and Crownlands Farm.  The owner of Allenwish A of Grasslands previously received a Section 8 Order. Illegal occupiers are forcing the owner to remove all his cattle. The other property belonging to the owner has not yet received a Section 8 Order however cattle are not allowed onto the property due to illegal occupiers that have planted maize. The owner’s wife employs 3000 women who knit goods for export and sale. The future of these women is now in jeopardy due to the Section 8 Order served and all are very unhappy.
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Zimbabwe Independent

Muckracker


WE were literally shocked to read in the Daily News this week that Zanu PF,
a very patriotic party indeed if ever there was one, owes the city of Harare
almost $20 million in rates and water bills.

This is a “political issue” and municipal officials have been warned to keep
their dirty hands away. Only recently the loud-mouthed Jonathan Mafikizolo
Moyo described as a racist plot a boycott by some companies and residents to
pay rates for shoddy service. What mischief is Zanu PF up to, we wonder?

And this is the organisation that has been refusing to hold mayoral and
council elections in the city for nearly two years now. We understand why. A
legally-constituted council not beholden to Zanu PF would refuse to be
abused. They would be forced to meet their bills as they fall due.

Meanwhile, one Edgar Moyo from the Herald was on Tuesday this week dragged
into ZBC studios by Obriel Mpofu to do some PR in defence of the Chanakira
commission.

The commission was doing a fantastic job, enthused Edgar, because it had
reduced the workforce from 14 000 to 9 000. The council’s overdraft had been
reduced from over $100 million and the council was now collecting almost $30
million a day from the ratepayers, he said.

But footage of ratepayers showed people completely disaffected with the
commission. There was no garbage collection, they said. Sewerage pipes were
left unrepaired long after reports were made and a lot of water was wasted
from burst water pipes. Fantastic figures from Edgar, but where is the money
going? And why are we being told council cannot hold elections because there
is no money?

People are not interested in statistics that are not commensurate with
service provision. And why is Zanu PF not paying its bills when everybody
else is threatened with disconnection of electricity or water just for
skipping one month? Isn’t this a clear case of selective punishment —
pushing the very poorest in our society to the limit of their resources
while the fatcats at Zanu PF headquarters live a life of obscene luxury
unperturbed by rates and water bills?

Muckraker was reading Campus magazine, the University of Zimbabwe students’
publication, when he came across the following quotation attributed to
professor Hart on the concept of law: “Wicked men will enact wicked laws
which others will enforce. What surely is most needed in order to make men
clear-sighted in confronting the official abuse of power is that they should
preserve the sense that the certification of something as legally valid is
not conclusive of the question of obedience, and however great the aura of
majesty or authority which the official system may have, its demands must in
the end be submitted to a moral scrutiny.”

We were immediately reminded of the indecent impertuosity with which even a
word such as terrorism could be perverted (we never before thought it
possible to pervert evil) to describe all citizens of this country opposed
to Zanu PF. But we have realised one can’t put anything beyond this corrupt
regime. In the past Zanu PF was able to infiltrate and break up political
parties such as Forum Party of Zimbabwe, ZUM and ZUD. The complaint then was
that such formations were opportunistic. We particularly recall President
Mugabe boasting eloquently that it was not his business to promote or foster
an opposition party. It was up to the people to form one if it was
desirable.

Come MDC and Zimbabweans thought finally we had a solid and credible
opposition party and Mugabe is the first to cry “Wolf!”

The MDC has been declared a terrorist organisation and government has all
but proclaimed a fatwa against all those who support it. This became clear
last week with plans by Zanu PF to use its slim majority in parliament to
smuggle into our statute books apartheid South Africa’s “pass laws”.

Surely such laws cannot pass even the most cursory moral scrutiny. The mere
act of government claiming that there are terrorist organisations in the
country is alarming. But to then proceed to virtually declare a state of
emergency is immoral and cannot justify the law. Why should the police be
given carte blanche to stop, search and arrest anybody at will as if
Zimbabwe were in a state of war?

The Herald made a hopeless attempt to justify the reincarnation of the
National Registry Act, claiming carrying national IDs would curb terrorism.
From the analysis by Leonard Makombe on Monday this week, the only reason
this depraved Act is being reintroduced is to help identify people at
mortuaries. He said the Act became “notorious as police officers went
overboard in arresting anyone found without any identity particulars”. That
is the reason the Act was challenged in court and struck down.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have rightly criticised the law and
exposed government’s hypocrisy. “Rhodesia used to have the notorious pass
laws,” said the lawyers in a statement. “By curious irony, the liberation
movement leaders in government now seek to reinforce these anti-democratic
laws as if Zimbabwe is in a state of emergency.”

The lawyers pointed out Zimbabwe had enough laws to police the affairs of
the state without resorting to immoral statutes. “Zimbabwe has more than
sufficient laws to deal effectively with issues relating to public order,
acts of insurgency, banditry, sabotage, terrorism, treason and subversion,”
they said. “It is our considered opinion that the law is made in bad faith
and intended to give government drastic powers.”

While Jonathan Moyo and President Mugabe claim to have brought democracy in
this country, it is ironic how they seem to be enamoured of the instruments
of the former oppressors. How soon we forget!

The law is completely devoid of any moral authority and reeks of spite and
malice — a law that is applied by those who believe it will hit everybody
else but themselves. And such a law can only be the handiwork of very wicked
men and enforceable under a very wicked system of government without any
claim to democratic values. Which is what colonial Rhodesia was.

Lovemore Mataire had a go at MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda, claiming he
was in a dilemma because he was being overshadowed by Morgan Tsvangirai and
David Coltart. We were told Sibanda had all along supported President Mugabe
and Zanu PF. He allegedly advocated land reform, access to education and
health care. Mataire then asks rhetorically “what has happened to all those
noble beliefs”? But the question is better directed at Zanu PF and Mugabe.
Where did they go wrong to lose the support of Sibanda? Where did they go
wrong to lose the support of nearly half the people who voted in last year’s
referendum and the parliamentary election?

In any case, at what occasion did Sibanda say he was against land reform?
Land reform and Zanu PF thuggery are one and the same thing to Mataire, it
appears.

Mataire avoided completely Jonathan Moyo’s embarrassing metamorphosis from a
fiery Zanu PF critic to become its top most propagandist!

In a gratuitous racist diversion, Mataire said Sibanda had lost his way by
mixing with the likes of Coltart, Mike Auret and Eddie Cross. “Are these
figures not symbols of capitalism?” Is capitalism now just a matter of skin
colour? Are we then to conclude that Dr Timothy Stamps is the symbol of
capitalism in Zanu PF?

Is Tafataona Mahoso’s media ethics committee watching? Last week the Herald
took it upon itself to carry a denial of a story in the Sunday Mail by the
US embassy that it held a meeting with MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. But
they made a crude job of it. They had their “predictable” government
spokesman saying the denial was predictable but lacked credibility. “For the
denial to be credible it would have been helpful if they also deny the
Financial Gazette story which claimed the US embassy said it will not accept
the result of the presidental election.”

It’s either you admit you got it wrong and retract or stand by your story.
It is patently unethical to refer to a story in a separate publication on a
completely different story. What if the Financial Gazette story was correct?
Is that how we are expected to respond to an aggrieved party? Over to you
Mahoso.

Jonathan Moyo seems to have now become a full-time Mukadota professor. His
love for theatre is growing in leaps and bounds. In a long-winded article in
his Sunday Hate Mail, the learned Mukadota bleated on about the MDC and
something he dubbed a “clean-up” campaign on opposition terrorism.

As usual, the slapstick comedian — unwavering in his defence of vile
dictatorship and Stalinist repression — took pot shots at the independent
media accusing journalists of being terrorists.

In the process Moyo also jumped headlong to defend his comrades-in-arms at
ZBC and the Herald. He tried hopelessly to protect Reuben Barwe for his
disastrous coverage of Cain Nkala’s abduction and murder and Philip Magwaza’
s Rwandan-style hate speech. While we were surprised at the minister’s
efforts to camouflage Barwe’s amateurish reporting, we were not amazed by
his support for his soulmate Magwaza. Moyo is trying to consolidate the Ford
Foundation-LaVanhu alliance which is facing legal hurdles. Birds of the same
feather!

It is worth pointing out that while Moyo virtually accused the MDC of
killing Nkala, he, by saying no-one should interfere with the judicial
process, displayed customary hypocrisy. “It’s now going to be up to our
courts of law to decide and there is no reason for anyone, especially those
who preach the rule of law, to try and prejudice the judiciary,” Moyo
declared.

But earlier on in the same piece he said: “The real challenge is the MDC’s
abduction, torture, and murder ‘clean-up’ campaign. Those involved in this
terrorist campaign will be held accountable under the law, come rain or
sunshine.” Are we to assume Moyo has become the said law himself?

Next to Moyo’s rigmarole lay Munyaradzi Huni’s. Why did Moyo and Huni tackle
the same subject using the same tasteless language? Both pieces referred to
“Selous Scouts” and “shoe laces and twines” as if there was collaboration
between the two. It’s difficult to understand why Huni seems to enjoy being
used as a toboggan by political mandarins.

Still on the state media circus, last week on Wednesday the Chronicle
carried a hilarious story headlined “Family plots to oust govt” written by
emerging “playwright” Innocent Madonko, conveniently referred to as a
“Special Projects Editor”. His long script claimed the Oppenheimer family
was plotting to topple Mugabe. Muckraker was initially alarmed because he
thought it was a news story. As it turned out, this was part of Madonko’s
collection of write-ups. We didn’t know the Chronicle had comedians of note
who, given the opportunity, could surpass the late Mukadota’s efforts.
Congratulations to Chronicle editor Stephen Ndlovu for exposing Madonko’s
showcasing in buffoonery.

Ndlovu himself is the former Sunday Mail journalist who after travelling to
Europe with President Mugabe claimed that Mugabe had scored diplomatic
victories in two European capitals — France and Paris. Just imagine!

Luckily the Oppenheimer family was quick to realise they were dealing with a
clown and not a journalist. In his response to the Chronicle fiction, Nicky
Oppenheimer wrote:

“People living in a time of crisis are often in need of a little (we suppose
comic) relief. This is presumably why you decided to entertain your readers
with the article. Indeed, some might regard it as re-assuring that the
Chronicle retains a sense of the absurd in these difficult days for all
Zimbabweans.

"There is, however, always a danger that some of your gullible readers (or
editors) — those with a taste for conspiracy theories of the ‘aliens have
landed’ variety, might fail to understand Madonko’s flight of fancy.”

Phillip Chiyangwa (Sunday Mail 30/07/95) commenting on the national budget:
“What government has done is like dumping the black population in the
country in the middle of an ocean knowing quite well they cannot swim, and
coming back the next day to find them dead ashore.” Kind of rings true of
today doesn’t it. How times have changed. Let the gravy train chug on!
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Zimbabwe Independent

Opinion 2

By Learnmore Ndlovu
THERE is something badly wrong in Zimbabwe. Many of us believe that we live
in a democracy, but that, increasingly, is only true if you are happy to
agree, think and behave in a manner strictly acceptable to the ruling party.
Any other way of thinking or behaving is totally unacceptable to the ruling
party, and sufficient to have you branded as a terrorist by President Mugabe
and Jonathan Moyo.

A terrorist is someone who causes terror and or causes people to live in
terror. The so-called war veterans have been creating terror for the rural
population in particular, for the best part of two years. Are they not
terrorists by virtue of the acts of terror they have inflicted and are still
causing for a very large part of the population?

I have no interest in being a politician. Nor do I mind who is president,
minister or member of parliament. I have no desire to hold any one of these
money-generating positions. But I do feel very strongly about how these
people behave and run the country.

Constructive criticism, however valid or well-intentioned, is not allowed,
in fact, it is now prohibited by presidential decree. Negative, destructive
and corrupt behaviour is welcomed and encouraged.

Take the most recent example where police happily escorted war veterans
through Bulawayo while the war veterans terrorised and beat up the locals.

Peaceful demonstrations supporting good governance or democratic rule are
confronted by the riot squad. There is something wrong in that. It does not
take a great deal of imagination or education to understand why the ruling
party is seeking more ways to disenfranchise voters it is not able to
intimidate or coerce into voting for it.

It is becoming a case of vote for the ruling party or else you won’t vote.
Any suggestion that you wish to exercise your democratic right and vote for
the candidate of your choice is sufficient to remove your name from the
voters roll.

Many of us believe that a democratic election will be the solution to our
problems. But there will be no free and fair election. Only selected ruling
party sympathisers will be allowed to vote.

There is only one solution to the problem of legitimate voters being
disenfranchised and disqualified from voting, and that is for everyone to
boycott the election. The world will not recognise the result of a one-sided
election where only Zanu PF faithfuls are allowed to vote.

The government does not have the slightest interest in the economic welfare
of the people who elected it. Which is the reason why voting is now being
restricted to those who remain party faithfuls, presumably because they are
on the gravy train, or hope to get on board the gravy train of corruption.

Ministers and other party beneficiaries are guilty of hypocrisy of the worst
sort. Not a word is said about the violence inflicted on the population,
including children too young to know about politics, by the war veterans.
But listen to the self-righteous and hypocritical statements made when they
believe they have the opportunity to condemn others for the very acts that
they are guilty of on a daily basis.

One war veteran is abducted and killed in very suspicious circumstances.
This is enough to cause the president and the vice-presidents to suggest
that there is an enemy amongst us and that there is reason for a bloodbath.

Did any of them make the same condemnations when far more people were
abducted or killed during last year’s parliamentary election? We all know
the answer and the reasons for the two-faced behaviour.

Who is the enemy amongst us? Me, you? I must qualify to be disenfranchised
as a voter, and for the status of enemy and terrorist as defined by our
ruling party leaders. My crime – wanting a government concerned about a
healthy economy where commerce prospers and people can find employment that
enables them to earn a reasonable income that supports their daily basic
needs. Asking too much?

If our economy was reasonably healthy, I would not object to the president
buying himself one of the most expensive cars in the world. How can the
president justify spending so much precious and scarce foreign currency on
an unnecessary luxury vehicle? Explain to me why Mugabe needs to surf the
Internet while being driven around?

Zimbabwe is being blacklisted as a credit risk because we are in arrears
with many of our foreign payments. We are not able to import adequate stocks
of fuel, raw materials for industry, food for the masses. Many people have
lost their employment because their companies have closed down because they
are unable to import essential raw materials. This is obviously of no
consequence to Mugabe who puts his own personal comfort and status ahead of
the people’s needs.

The saddest part is that the people of Zimbabwe will continue to suffer in
silence, and continue to accept whatever is dished out to them, however
unreasonable and unacceptable. We will walk to work because we are not able
to afford the cost of a bus ride, or because there is no fuel for the bus.
We will continue to accept that we can only provide our families with one
inadequate meal a day if we are lucky. We will continue to accept that there
are fewer and fewer employment opportunities because companies are being
forced to close.

We will continue to accept that ministers can make blatantly unfactual
statements and be completely hypocritical. We will continue to live for
today, and not worry about the day after today.

We, the people, will not stand up and object, complain, express our demands
for a good government, a prosperous economy, or affordable food, let alone
our democratic rights.
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Zimbabwe Independent

Europe and the US resolve to act against Mugabe

By Dumisani Muleya
THE United States and the European Union (EU) have taken off the gloves to
deal decisively with Zimbabwe on its violent repression and continuing
anarchy in the country.

US House of Representatives chair of the subcommittee on Africa, Ed Royce,
on Wednesday said the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill should
be passed.

“With the election approaching, and the conditions on the ground in Zimbabwe
rapidly deteriorating, it’s important that we pass this legislation before
adjourning,” he said.

“The State Department has indicated that this legislation, as passed
unanimously by the senate, would be quite helpful to its diplomatic
 efforts.”

The Bill has been passed by the senate and is headed for the House floor for
consideration.

In an unprecedented attack on the Zimbabwean leader, Royce described Mugabe
as a withered dictator who has set his country ablaze.

“In Zimbabwe, we’re sadly seeing a power-crazed, aged dictator literally
burning his country down,” he said.

“Desperate to keep his perks and avoid accountability for his crimes,
President Mugabe has sanctioned utter anarchy in his homeland in an attempt
to win an election he has been pressured by Zimbabweans into holding. If he
had his way, Mugabe would undoubtedly run Zimbabwe as the one-party he ran
through the 1980s.” In Brussels, EU MPs were also breathing fire.

Andrew Griffiths, spokesman for prominent EU MP Neil Parish, told the
Independent time had run out for Mugabe.

“Parish is now calling for strong measures against Mugabe,” Griffiths said.
“He is saying we must now enforce the measures we have been calling for. We
will be calling for an immediate enforcement of smart sanctions, travel
bans, and freezing of Mugabe and other officials’ assets abroad.”
Griffiths said Mugabe would now be tackled head-on.

“Time for talking is over. That time has passed and we have reached a point
of no return. We have to move swiftly to bring pressure to bear on Mugabe
and make his life uncomfortable,” he said.

Parish was in Zimbabwe during last year’s parliamentary election. The EU MPs
will meet December 10-13 during the last EU parliamentary plenary session
this year at Strasbourg, France, to push for action against Harare.

The legislator, a Zimbabwe election monitor for the conservatives, will work
closely with the 232-member European People’s Party-European Democrats
(EPP-ED) grouping — the largest alliance in the EU Assembly — to press for
tough action.

EPP-ED foreign affairs spokesman Geofrey Van Orden’s assistant, Steve Pagan,
told the Independent: “Unless the situation changes the EU parliament will
make a decisive resolution on Zimbabwe.”

EU Commissioner Chris Patten’s spokesman, Gunnar Wiegand, said the clash
between Mugabe and the EU delegation in Harare last week was a major set
back. Mugabe walked out of a meeting with the group, led by Belgian deputy
Prime Minister Louis Michel.

Royce was razor sharp in his verbal assault.

“Mugabe has spared no means in his attempt to suppress democratic
expression,” he said. “His Zanu PF thugs have employed murder, mass
beatings, systematic torture, gang rape, house burning, death threats and
every type of police brutality.”

In Britain there was a stormy debate in the House of Commons on Zimbabwe
this week.

MP for Romford Andrew Rosindell introduced the motion. British foreign
secretary Jack Straw in reply said London was concerned about Mugabe’s
“disastrous economic and political management of Zimbabwe.”

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MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE

Rebuilding Fund for the MDC Bulawayo Offices This fund has been set up to finance the rebuilding of our Bulawayo Offices, which were recently gutted by fire. Almost total reconstruction is required. It is with regret that we turn once more to our faithful supporters for their assistance in cash or kind. Donations may be sent to:

Building Fund

P.O. Box 9400

Hillside

Bulawayo

All donations will be receipted/acknowledged and confidentiality will be respected. A Bank Account is being set up for direct deposits, but is not yet operational - we will advise on progress.

Regrettably we must make it clear that WE CAN ONLY ACCEPT FUNDS FROM ZIMBABWEAN SOURCES, as fundraising for political parties from external sources is illegal under Zimbabwean law.

In addition we are appealing for office furniture and equipment - desks, tables, chairs etc. Please phone 011-631 229 to arrange delivery / collection.

Let us unite in support of our people and take one more step on the way to rebuilding our beloved Zimbabwe!

As it will be very difficult to raise funds under the current economic / political climate, this will be largely a self-help/labour only project. We will need the skills of our supporters and well-wishers. Already the Youth have been flooding in to provide their labour - now we need our Seniors!  We need builders / bricklayers, plumbers, glaziers, carpenters etc!  Should you be in a position to assist please phone in details of volunteers to 011 631 229.

VOTE FOR CHANGE - VOTE MORGAN TSVANGIRAI FOR PRESIDENT !

THE POWER IS IN YOUR HANDS !

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Harare Rejects UN Panel Report

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

November 29, 2001
Posted to the web November 29, 2001


The Zimbabwean government has dismissed findings by a UN panel of experts
that it is involved in the plundering of natural resources in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).

"We are not really worried about the report because we know that it is a
pack of lies," Minister of Foreign Affairs Stan Mudenge said on Tuesday. "In
fact, we know that the report has been created by the British government,
who are keen to discredit Zimbabwe at all costs," the official Herald
newspaper reported him as saying.

The findings by the panel, an addendum to an earlier report on the Illegal
Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC, was
submitted to the UN Security Council earlier this month. Alongside the
detailed description of Rwandan and Ugandan activities in the Congo,
Zimbabwe was accused in the addendum of using its military presence in the
DRC to directly benefit "top military and party officials".

The commercial activities of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces revolve around
mining concessions in areas of the mineral-rich country it controls. But the
report noted that Harare views "these exploitation activities" as legitimate
business links. Invited into the DRC by a Kinshasa government under threat
in 1998 from Rwandan and Ugandan backed rebels, Zimbabwe has justified its
costly involvement to a sceptical public in terms of the profitability of
the commercial opportunities.

"The revenues from these ventures have yet to have a positive impact on
Zimbabwe's weakened economy, however. The reason for this", the report said,
"is that Zimbabwe's holdings in the [DRC] seem to be controlled by top
military and party officials who are also the direct beneficiaries".

However, a source close to Zimbabwe's ruling party denied the accusations.
She pointed out that the board of OSLEG, the commercial arm of the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces, was common knowledge. "The structures are very clear and
very public. There is no personal business by politicians, individuals are
not making money. These are legal concessions," she told IRIN.

The conflict in the DRC is often dubbed a "resource war", in which the
security interests of the protagonists intersect with the more prosaic goal
of profit - providing a powerful inducement for its continuation. "Zimbabwe
is genuinely fighting a mercantilist war," Richard Cornwell of the
Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies (ISS) told IRIN. "The war is
used as a money laundering operation in the light of the collapsing Zimbabwe
economy."

But Zimbabwe's "legitimate" business interests in the DRC are no different
from European ventures, for example, the Harare-based source alleged: "If
Belgium is doing it, its normal business ... If the (report) is going to
look at business arrangements, why not look at European interests?"

She added that Zimbabwe's 12,000 troops in the DRC are regarded as
disciplined professionals who are a force for stability. "People don't seem
to ask where we would be if Zimbabwe hadn't intervened. Zimbabwe is a
stabilising factor and I think it's criminal it is not said publically (by
the international community)."

According to the UN report, the "effective collapse" of state institutions
in the DRC "offers significant financial opportunities and rewards to
unscrupulous elements operating under the garb of various governments,
businesses, mafias, individuals etc".

It added: "The initial motivation of foreign armies to intervene in the
[DRC] was primarily political and security-related in nature; over a period,
and owing to the evolving nature of the conflict, it has become the primary
motive of extracting the maximum commercial and material benefits. This
holds true for both government allies and rebel supporters."

However, according to Human Rights Watch, a glaring omission in the expert
panel's findings is the failure to fully acknowledge the human cost of the
fight for DRC's resources.

The belligerents "have no interest to see an end to the current situation in
eastern Congo," Suleiman Baldo of the US-based rights group told IRIN.
"There is a level of violence they can tolerate because the violence is
targeting civilians ... The end result is that the Congolese will continue
to die as (leaders) line their pockets with gold and diamonds."

It is estimated that 2.5 million Congolese have died as a result of the war.
Baldo equates that loss of life with the horrors of Belgian colonialism,
which claimed 7 million Congolese. He said that African leaders involved in
the DRC conflict had a colonialist mentality" which failed to value the
lives of the local population.

"The Congolese are not only facing material losses, they are being crushed
in the exploitation of natural resources," insisted Baldo.

UN Representative Reports On Progress of Mission


UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

November 29, 2001
Posted to the web November 29, 2001


The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), Namanga Ngongi, said on Wednesday that Zimbabwe had
"reaffirmed its willingness" to comply with UN Security Council resolutions
on the DRC.

He was commenting on his Tuesday meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe. Ngongi said that judging from his recent meetings with parties
involved in the peace process, "a new tendency, more favorable towards
dialogue rather than armed battles" was developing. He added that during his
visit to Rwanda two weeks ago, the government "reiterated its willingness to
participate in the realisation of resolution 1376". The resolution calls for
the establishment of a joint coordination mechanism on disarmament,
demobilisation, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration (commonly known
as "DDRRR") of former combatants. He added that it was MONUC's job to "bring
the different perspectives closer together so that the objective of
disarming, demobilising, repatriating, reinstalling and reintegrating the
combatants into civilian life in their country can be achieved".

With regard to the recent screening of 1,805 former Rwandan Hutu fighters in
Kamina by the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (known by its French
acronym, MONUC), Ngongi said he discussed the matter with Rwandan
authorities during their recent meeting. He had proposed that the Rwandan
government "send a small group of people" to meet with those in Kamina. The
task of the government delegation would be to convince the Kamina people
that they could voluntarily return home without facing security problems.
Then, the government would in Rwanda receive a delegation from the Kamina
group to discuss conditions for their return. The Kamina group would also be
allowed to assess whether their security needs could be guaranteed.

On the subject of the start of MONUC's third phase, Ngongi said that a
mission had been sent to the northeastern city of Kisangani on Wednesday to
assess whether the security of civilians would be guaranteed once it has
been demilitarised. "We need to do a lot of prospecting, look at the sites
that will be occupied and the places where additional MONUC forces will be
deployed. There is a lot of short-term work to be done," he said.

In response to a question about the recent addendum report by a UN panel on
the illegal exploitation of DRC resources, he said it was sad that the
natural resources of the country were not serving its citizens. He added
that the UN Security Council would discuss the report in December.

Reporters raised the issue of payment of civil servant salaries in
rebel-held areas. It was recently alleged that an installment of these funds
was confiscated by the Ugandan-backed Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo
(MLC) armed opposition movement. Ngongi clarified that MONUC's role in the
matter was purely of a logistic nature - in helping out with
transportation - and that technicalities about delivery and distribution of
the funds were a matter between the government and the MLC. Ngongi expressed
the wish to avoid misunderstandings in the future on the matter of MONUC's
transportation of civil servant salaries to areas controlled by the MLC,
based in Gbadolite in the northwestern province of Equateur.
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"Better news today!

Alan is showing signs of improvement. They have reduced his sedation to
encourage him to breathe on his own to strengthen his lungs, and are using
an epidural to administer painkillers. His temperature seems to be under
control. His eyes have been open a bit more today, and seemed to be
recognising the family, although he still has all the tubes etc, so can't
talk. They are not sure how much he is actually aware of.

Anthea was a lot happier when I spoke to her a few minutes ago. The doctor
said if all goes well he could be out of Intensive Care by about Monday. I
presume they are hoping to be able to remove the breathing tubes soon.

Thank you all for the messages and good wishes. Ant has brought her computer
in from the farm and set it up at the folks town residence, so I will be
forwarding all the messages to her."
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Guardian

Mbeki predicts more turmoil in Zimbabwe

Chris McGreal
Friday November 30, 2001
The Guardian

President Thabo Mbeki conceded yesterday that international pressure on
Zimbabwe to end political repression was not working and said he doubted
that next year's presidential elections would be free.
The South African leader warned that without a democratic vote, Zimbabwe
would be plunged into even greater turmoil: "Clearly in a situation where
people get beaten up, where people get disenfranchised, obviously there
cannot be free elections."

Speaking at his annual briefing for foreign journalists, Mr Mbeki admitted
pressure on the Zimbabwean government from the Commonwealth, the regional
Southern African Development Community and the EU had not curbed President
Robert Mugabe's attacks on the opposition ahead of an election due before
April.

"These things are not working. The situation is not improving at all," he
said.

But the president added that South Africa would not unilaterally impose
sanctions.

Mr Mbeki also defended his Aids policies in the week that his government was
fighting a legal challenge aimed at forcing it to make drugs available in
public hospitals to prevent HIV-positive pregnant women from passing on the
virus to their babies.

The government was still studying the feasibility of providing such drugs,
he said.



MSNBC

SAfrica's Mbeki says Zimbabwe getting worse



PRETORIA, Nov. 29 — South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday
the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe was getting worse and may deteriorate
further if presidential elections next year were not free and fair.
       ''The situation is not improving at all,'' Mbeki told foreign
journalists at a briefing.
''If you had elections in Zimbabwe which were not seen by the people as
legitimate...then you'd then probably end up with a situation worse than it
is now,'' he said. Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, 77, is seeking to
prolong his 21 years in power in elections due by next April.
       But the opposition, human rights groups and, increasingly, Western
governments, accuse Mugabe of planning to steal victory at the polls.
       Zimbabwe's relations with its vastly richer and more powerful
southern neighbour, South Africa, are also at a low ebb but Mbeki has
avoided condemning Mugabe in public.
       Asked if free elections would be possible after the intimidation of
the opposition and the independent media, the effective disenfranchisement
of voters abroad and plans to further tighten public order legislation,
Mbeki said: ''Clearly in a situation in which people get disenfranchised, in
which people get beaten up so that they don't act according to their
political convictions, obviously there can't be free elections.''

ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE LIMITED
       South Africa's room for manoeuvre is partly limited by the negative
impact the Zimbabwe crisis is having on the rand currency and by fears that
full-blown chaos will trigger an exodus of impoverished migrants across the
frontier.
       Mbeki recalled that South Africa had argued against a
''confrontational'' approach to Zimbabwe's most divisive problem -- the
redistribution to landless blacks of farmlands owned by a dwindling number
of white farmers.
       Hopes for a gradual and peaceful handover of land have been dashed by
occupations and violence.
       Zimbabwe's white population has shrunk to some 35,000 compared with
270,000 in the last days of Rhodesia -- the former British colony which
declared independence in 1965 and vainly waged a guerrilla war for 15 years
against black majority rule.
       Under a 1979 peace deal, Britain made pledges about financing land
distribution but says Mugabe's behaviour has made it impossible to honour
all those undertakings.
       Mbeki appeared to reflect a widespread view in Africa that London is
passing the buck on its post-colonial responsibility.
       ''One of the principal players with regard to Zimbabwe, which now
seems to have landed in our lap, is Great Britain.
       ''We never colonised Zimbabwe, we never made commitments about land
in Zimbabwe,'' he said.

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Daily News

US envoy coming to Zimbabwe

11/29/01 9:53:59 AM (GMT +2)


Political Editor

THE United States government is stepping up its efforts to deal with
Zimbabwe's errant government with the US administration's point man for
Africa, Walter Kansteiner, expected in the country to discuss issues of
political violence, next year's presidential poll and the collapsing
economy, among other issues.



The tough-talking Kansteiner, the US Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs, who is on record as saying the US will only restore normal
relations with Zimbabwe when violence ends and the rule of law is
re-established, is expected in the country between 7 and 13 December.

A spokesperson for the Department of State in the US yesterday said
Kansteiner, who will also travel to South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia, will
discuss with President Mugabe's government international concerns about the
continued disregard for the rule of law, the deteriorating human rights
situation in the country, the crippled economy and related issues.
Kansteiner will discuss with African leaders the global campaign against
terrorism, among other topics.


Massive 200% increase in postage stamps prices
Business Reporter

ZIMPOST has increased its postal service charges by up to 200 percent with
effect from today.
Private bag rentals went up by 200 percent from $1 000 to $3 000 at urban
post offices while at rural post offices the rentals will go up to $2 500.
Rentals for a large private box at an urban post office went up by a wide
percentage margin from $750 to $2 000.

Neil Moyo, the postal manager said the increase in the cost of services
other than mail was not a big issue as they contributed little revenue to
Zimpost.
"Private boxes, bags and business reply services do not contribute as much
revenue to the company as letters do," Moyo said. "Letters and parcels
contribute about 80 percent of business to Zimpost."

Local postage for letters, printed papers and postcards weighing below 20
grammes goes up from $8 to $12 each while postal items weighing between 20
and 100 grams go up from $13 to $20 each.
The new postage for letters, postcards, aerogrammes, printed papers and
literature for the blind to international destinations by airmail varies
according to regions.
Airmail weighing up to 10 grams to destinations within Africa will cost $25,
and $35 to Europe while the postage to the rest of the world goes up to $45.
Rates of postal items on international surface mail increased again and the
tariffs vary from region to region.

Letters, postcards and printed papers weighing up to 20g will now cost $20
each within Africa while literature for the blind will not be charged
anything.
Letters weighing between 20g and 100g will now be charged $25 and those
between 500g and one kilogramme will be charged $160.
Letters, postcards and printed papers destined for Europe and weighing up to
20g will cost $25 while postal items weighing between 1kg and 2kg will cost
$270.
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Daily News

We won't campaign for Mugabe says Mavhaire

11/29/01 9:50:29 AM (GMT +2)


By Ray Matikinye

ZANU PF has failed to persuade a defiant faction of the party in Masvingo to
support President Mugabe's bid for re-election next year and campaign for
him.


The party's vice-president, Joseph Msika, held two unsuccessful meetings
with Masvingo's two strong men, the former provincial chairman, Dzikamayi
Mavhaire, and its former legal supremo and Zanu PF MP for Masvingo South,
Eddison Zvobgo, to win back their critical support ahead of next year's
presidential election.
In an interview over the week-end, Mavhaire said efforts spearheaded by
Msika to persuade them to campaign for Mugabe had failed.
Last Saturday, Msika returned empty-handed from a fence- mending mission
with the two Masvingo politicians.

It is understood Mugabe had asked Msika to persuade Zvobgo and Mavhaire to
spearhead his presidential campaign in the province.
"We told Msika we have nothing to lose but they have because of their
positions in government," Mavhaire said.

"I have kept in touch with people in my former constituency in Masvingo
Central and Zvobgo has kept the party alive in his by holding rallies.
"I have yet to see a Zanu PF candidate who lost a seat in the June election
going back to the constituency to revive the party."
Mavhaire said Msika failed to persuade them to take a more active role in
the Mugabe campaign, preferring to allow a provincial executive led by
Samuel Mumbengegwi, the Minister of Higher Education and Technology, to do
that unimpeded.

"We don't want to be seen as impeding the provincial executive's work and
usurping their power," Mavhaire said.
His executive was ousted by the Josiah Hungwe faction with the assistance of
war veterans. The weekend meeting is the second in a fortnight.
The first was held at General Vitalis Zvinavashe's Tynwald plot in Harare,
and attended by Zanu PF heavyweights from the Midlands - Frederick Shava,
Emmerson Mnangagwa and July Moyo. The meeting ended in a stalemate over
demands by the two Masvingo politicians.

Zvobgo and Mavhaire demanded as a pre-condition the removal of Hungwe as
governor and his replacement by non-constituency MP, the retired Air
Marshall Josiah Tungamirayi.
They demanded fresh party provincial elections in Masvingo and that a more
senior politician, other than the Youth Development, Gender and Employment
Creation Deputy Minister, Shuvai Mahofa, represent Masvingo in the
politburo.
"After analysing intelligence reports," Mavhaire said, "Zanu PF knows it can
hardly pull through the forthcoming presidential election without the
Masvingo vote. They now want to use us as bulldozers and try to persuade us
from positions of threatened privilege. But we will not allow ourselves to
be used again."

While Msika was persuading Zvobgo and Mavhaire to rescue Zanu PF in
Masvingo, the other party vice-president, Simon Muzenda, accompanied by
Josaya Hungwe were disbursing $75 million in drought relief to seven
districts of Masvingo province at Jerera Growth Point.

"We asked Msika whether his counterpart was prepared to ditch Hungwe and he
assured us that he had been given a free hand over our demands," Mavhaire
told The Daily News in Zvobgo's presence. "But we await the outcome."
Followers of Zvobgo and Mavhaire are likely to boycott Zanu PF's congress
next month.
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FinGaz

Mugabe fortifies State House

By Basildon Peta Special Projects Editor
11/29/01 4:48:52 AM (GMT +2)

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, who is facing relentless internal and external
pressure over his rule, is tightening security and will spend millions to
construct underground security trenches or bunkers at State House and at
another secret location, authoritative sources said this week.


Bunkers are underground bombproof chambers built of reinforced concrete and
designed to withstand intense military pressure that includes aerial
bombings.

The sources said Mugabe was preparing for any eventuality in Zimbabwe,
including the possibility of a civil war should he lose next year’s
presidential election and should his ZANU PF party refuse to give up power.

The plan to construct the bunkers was in fact a long-delayed idea first
mooted by Mugabe’s top security advisers at the height of tensions between
Zimbabwe and the then apartheid government ruling in South Africa in the
mid-1980s.

It resurfaced in 1997 but was not pursued until recently when the spy
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) that is extremely loyal to the
Zimbabwean President insisted that it was time the project was followed up.

Bunkers are known to be effective in protecting leaders from aerial
bombardment. They are credited for having successfully saved Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War when the Allied Forces destroyed his
surface bases.

They were also constructed at State House in Zambia during the reign of
former president Kenneth Kaunda but their existence only became known after
President Fredrick Chiluba came to power.

After Chiluba exposed the bunkers, Kaunda justified them saying they were
used to house guerillas fighting for the liberation of southern African
countries.

Even American President George W Bush is said to have spent nights in
bunkers when terrorists attacked Washington and New York in September.

Mugabe is also importing a fleet of bullet-proofed state-of-the-art Mercedes
Benz limousines from Germany as part of his new security measures.

Plans to tighten Mugabe’s security also coincide with information that the
government is continuing with its importation of arms from Europe despite an
embargo imposed by the European Union last year.

Part of the arms being sourced would be used to arm ZANU PF youth brigades
who are undergoing training in Mt Darwin.

Defence sources said the government had also sourced 86 new Steyr personnel
carriers and armoured vehicles to beef up the Zimbabwe National Army’s
armoury. It is understood that the vehicles originated from Austria.

Although the EU imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, a recent report in this
newspaper said Zimbabwe was using its allies in the war in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to buy arms from European
manufacturers.

Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola have been fighting rebels supported by Rwanda,
Burundi and Uganda trying to topple the DRC government.

Huge quantities of guns and ammunition are also being imported into
Zimbabwe, including a consignment of 20 rail wagons stuffed with guns and
ammunition that was said to have left Beira destined for Harare this week.

It was not possible to get comment from the Zimbabwe government as
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has banned all interviews with the
Financial Gazette and the independent Press.

Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi snubbed this newspaper when he was
originally contacted for comment on Zimbabwe’s arms importation programme
three weeks ago.

This week the CIO, which is jointly working on the bunkers project with the
Ministry of Defence, refused to comment. A spokesman said the organisation
did not speak to the Press.
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Daily News - Feature

Was it necessary to mourn Nkala in this way?

11/29/01 9:44:41 AM (GMT +2)


A view from Matopos with Saul Gwakuba

ON Friday, 16 November, a group of Zanu PF members and war veterans ran riot
in Bulawayo, ostensibly expressing their grief over the murder of Cain
Nkala, who was allegedly abducted from his house in Magwegwe suburb by MDC
members.

Before his body was found in a shallow grave on a farm near Solusi
University, some senior Zanu PF officials had already said they knew who had
violently kidnapped Nkala, and that the act was a declaration of war by the
MDC on Zanu PF.

Vice-President Joseph Msika went a step further when he publicly said there
would be a bloodbath. Two senior Zanu PF officials, former Minister of Home
Affairs, Dumiso Dabengwa, and acting political commissar Dr Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu addressed the mourners at Bulawayo's Stanley Square, and then led
them into town.

The group was accompanied by police. Property, including, ironically,
Ndlovu's college and the MDC offices went up in smoke. Some people were
injured, some of them seriously, during riots initiated by the group of
mourners.

The question many Zimbabweans are asking is: Was it necessary to mourn
Nkala that way? In answering that question, we must remember that Zanu PF is
the governing party, and that, as such, some of its duties are to protect
every person and all property within Zimbabwe.

Some of these duties are supposed to be carried out by the police without
fear, favour, discrimination or undue influence from any person. The police
should serve the whole population of Zimbabwe irrespective of people's
political persuasion, racial or tribal group, regional or religious
affiliation, gender or social standing.

The police are a public and not a private force, let alone an arm of Zanu
PF. That is the constitutional basis on which the police force should render
its services to every Zimbabwean as well as visitors to this country. It is
also on the same non-discriminatory constitutional basis that the police
should protect property, and the flora and fauna of Zimbabwe.

When the group of Zanu PF mourners set alight the MDC offices, the police
should have acted swiftly to drive the group away and let the fire brigade
put out the blaze. However, they did not, resulting in some MDC members
running down 14th Avenue to set fire to Ndlovu's college. It was outrageous
that property was destroyed, and innocent people were injured by a group of
people actually accompanied by the police.

It is unprofessional for a professional police force to take orders from
political party leaders. This is even more so during election campaigns when
rival parties may employ unlawful methods, such as what happened on 16
November, in order to assert themselves on the electorate.

The police should uphold the law. They have no legitimate right or
responsibility to behave like party functionaries. They should be strictly
impartial. The obvious danger in a political police force in a
constitutional multi-party democracy is that each disadvantaged political
party is likely to create its own police force. That would cause chaos
similar to Somalia.

It is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Zimbabwe for some Zanu
PF leaders to say the police should be assisted to maintain law and order,
and then for the same leaders to organise some of their supporters to riot,
after their party has ordered the police to take a low profile.

Police officers who are members of political parties, and these include
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, should do the only honourable thing:
resign and join their parties as full-time functionaries, most probably as
security chiefs. We should understand that Zimbabwe is much, much more
important than any single individual, and that the future does not belong
only to those in the afternoon of their lives.

Houses and human lives that have been destroyed by whoever, wherever and for
whatever political reason were assets for the whole nation and not for Ndlov
u, MDC members, a councillor from Magwegwe in Bulawayo or for Chitemerere of
Rimuka in Kadoma. The houses were counted as part of the wealth of the
nation of Zimbabwe, and the people as resources.

How many people in Zimbabwe's urban centres live in houses that they
themselves built? Very few indeed. Most of the houses were constructed 90
years ago by people some of whom died probably 50 or so years ago.

It is, therefore, a very serious crime against the whole nation to destroy
property in order to impose a single political party.

Similarly, killing people because of political differences in a multi-party
constitutional democracy is unpardonable. This is because the aim of the
Zimbabwean liberation struggle was to create an environment in which people
are free to elect their representatives without let or hindrance. It is, in
fact, against the aims of the liberation struggle to force people to vote
for whatever party.

Anyone who uses physical force or bribery to win political support is acting
against the objectives of the liberation struggle. We fought for one-person
one-vote and got it. We should now let the people vote freely for whomever
they please. It is their constitutional right to do so. If voters prefer a
party with feudalistic policies, for heaven's sake, let them have it rather
than force them to support some other party. We did not struggle so that
only the people who took part in the struggle could govern. We fought to
enable every Zimbabwean adult to be free to vote.

If our aim was that particular individuals should rule the country, that
individual would have been Dr Joshua Nkomo, that one person who had
spearheaded the nationalist liberation struggle. He could have ordered his
party's armed wing, Zipra, to continue fighting after the 1980 general
elections until he was in State House in Harare.

But he did not because, as a patriotic democrat, he accepted the choice of
the majority of the people of Zimbabwe. That choice was Zanu PF of President
Robert Mugabe.

The people had exercised their constitutional right and he respected it.

That constitution has not been changed to allow anyone to take away that
right from the people.

No party has the right, therefore, to frustrate or question the people's
right to elect their representatives freely.

The duty of the police is to protect the people against those who want to
trample upon that freedom.
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FinGaz

War vets descend on old people’s homes

Staff Reporter
11/29/01 4:40:21 AM (GMT +2)

SEVERAL old people’s homes were closed early this week after marauding bands
of war veterans descended on the properties demanding a 30 percent cost of
living pay adjustment for workers.

One official who preferred that his name and that of the home should not be
mentioned for fear of victimisation by the war veterans said the former
guerrillas were invited by workers irked by the refusal of management to
award them the salary increases.

The government announced in September that workers and management could
start negotiating for cost of living adjustments ranging from 20 to 30
percent but stopped short of gazetting the increases.

Zimbabwe, which this month announced that inflation had almost reached 100
percent, is battling mounting poverty caused by government mismanagement,
corruption and the flight of capital because of its controversial land
reforms.

According to officials at one home, the administrators of the properties are
arguing that they cannot just award salary hikes because they are charitable
organisations that depend on the goodwill of the people.

Some of the homes affected include Dorothy Duncan, Nazareth, Blue Kerry
Cottages, Rescue Workshops, Fairways Old People’s Home, BS Leon and Athol
Evans, all in Harare.

Edith July, Coronation Cottages and Garden Park Trust in Bulawayo and
Pioneer Lodge in Masvingo and Borrowdaile Trust in Marondera were also
affected.

"We had to evacuate patients to Gelfand Clinic while others were taken to
Dandaro Retirement Village in Borrowdale," another official at a
Harare-based home told the Financial Gazette.

At one home in the capital, ambulances spent four hours evacuating
residents, some of them terminally ill, after the war veterans demanded its
closure.

Normal operations resumed yesterday following intervention by the government
which asked both employees and employers to submit their positions to the
Registrar of Labour.
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FinGaz - Comment

Chilling reminder


11/29/01 3:40:50 AM (GMT +2)

MATURE Zimbabweans will remember the United African National Council’s
ruthless youth brigades that caused much suffering in the black townships in
the late 1970s.

The youth brigades were innocent young boys and girls indoctrinated to hate
and stop any opposition to the UANC, then the largest and most visible black
political party inside Zimbabwe.

Their violent crusades in the townships and rural areas — including wanton
acts of murder, rape, abductions and assassinations — went largely
unpunished.

That was one of the reasons voters rightly shunned the UANC and dumped it at
the 1980 general election.

The blood of law-abiding Zimbabweans must have chilled on Friday when
President Robert Mugabe evoked memories of the 1970s youth brigades when he
paraded his own young military recruits being trained in Mt Darwin.

Mugabe must have chosen last week, less than a hundred days to the
presidential election, to unveil his own child soldiers to instil more fear
in the opposition by displaying this new arsenal to augment his ragtag army
of violent but ageing so-called war veterans.

What is worrying is that this secretive national service has gone on without
even a murmur from churches, the civic society, parents and opposition
political parties.

As Zimbabwe hurtles towards anarchy, the image of hundreds of indoctrinated
young men and women in green military fatigues showing unwavering support
for Mugabe is ominous.

Does anyone outside the ruling party, Mugabe and Zimbabwe Defence Force
officers know how many of these youths are currently under military training
ready to be unleashed countrywide?

What safeguard is there that these youths and thousands of other unemployed
school leavers joining the so-called national service will not be used as
another weapon for ZANU PF to cow the entire nation into submission?

The whole world knows very well the heinous war crimes committed by innocent
children-turned-soldiers in the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi.

The time has surely come for Zimbabweans to show some spine and demand
access to camps such as the one in Mt Darwin and stop the rot.

It is time ZANU PF, or any other party, is stopped from taking advantage of
unemployed youths who are abused to take guns against their fellow citizens.

By denying ZANU PF and other militant parties new recruits, their evil
machinations to steal the ballot through violent means will come to nought.
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FinGaz

50 white farmers given 90 days to vacate properties

Staff Reporter
11/29/01 4:44:48 AM (GMT +2)

THE government has given 50 white farmers 90 days to vacate their
proper-ties under a preside-ntial decree gazetted three weeks ago to amend
the Land Acquisition Act, Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) presi-dent Colin
Cloete said this week.

The presidential decree, which the CFU says immediately applies to about 800
farms on the government’s list of properties earmarked for compulsory
acquisition, allows the state to give farmers 90 days’ notice to cease work
on their properties and vacate them.

"The government has so far written to 50 farmers under the amendment of
Section 8 of the Land Acquisition Act, giving them three months to leave
their farms," Cloete told the Financial Gazette. "We don’t know how many
will be given notices before the end of this year."

Analysts have warned that Zimbabwe’s economy could lose at least 3 000
companies and $7.2 billion in revenue every month because of further
destabilisation of the agricultural sector caused by the government’s latest
mass eviction bid.

The government plans to take over 90 percent of about 12 million hectares of
land owned by white farmers for the resettlement of landless blacks.

About 1 200 comme-rcial farms have already been adversely affected by the
disruption of work caused by the illegal land invasions from ruling ZANU PF
party supporters.

Cloete said it was unlikely that these farms would engage in any
agricultural activity in the next season since the planting period was
almost at an end.

"There are no farming activities on 1 200 farms and this has been the
situation for quite some time now since September," he said.

The CFU last month published a survey warning that agricultural production
could fall by up to 40 percent because of the turmoil in the farming sector,
which was forecast to generate $50 billion in revenue this year.

There are fears that this revenue might be reduced substantially following l
ast week’s announcement by the government that it would reduce farm sizes.

The reduction in farm sizes would affect large-scale plantations producing
tea, coffee and citrus and which contribute heavily to Zimbabwe’s foreign
currency earnings.

The CFU has warned of massive disinvestment from Zimbabwe’s agricultural
sector if the government presses ahead with implementing the new measures.
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FinGaz

Mugabe imposes unofficial emergency rule

By Basildon Peta Special Projects Editor
11/29/01 4:36:39 AM (GMT +2)

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has effectively imposed a state of emergency through
the backdoor by his continued use of the police to arrest opponents under
the guise of "fighting terrorism" and evoking sweeping presidential powers
to circumvent Parliament, experts said this week.

"In almost every way, Mugabe is now running this country under an undeclared
state of emergency," said Lovemore Madhuku, a constitutional law lecturer at
the University of Zimbabwe (UZ).

Madhuku, who is also chairman of the independent National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA), was interviewed before police arrested him on Tuesday after
he led a peaceful march to protest against Mugabe’s plans to tighten
electoral laws.

"Mugabe is using the Presidential Powers Act to amend existing laws and
create new ones without having to put them to Parliament. The way he is
operating, he does not need to declare a state of emergency," he noted.

Greg Linington, a constitutional law lecturer in the UZ’s department of
political science, said Zimbabwe was now under an unofficial state of
emergency because of the way Mugabe abused his presidential powers.

"It is a very sad situation. The Presidential Powers Act enables President
Mugabe to do exactly the same things he would do under the Emergency Powers
Act in an official state of emergency," said Linington.

He compared the Act to similar legislation in South Africa that had been
declared unconstitutional by that country’s Constitutional Court in 1995.

Linington said the South African Constitutional Court had ruled that the
separation of powers doctrine stipulated that the executive should not
shortchange the authority of parliament to make primary legislation.

While the legislature could confer powers on the president to make
subordinate legislation, just as it did to ministers and municipalities, the
head of state could not make primary legislation.

"It thus follows that all regulations created by President Mugabe under the
Act are unconstitutional," said Linington, adding that he saw no reason why
Zimbabwean courts should not adopt the South African constitutional court’s
view of the presidential powers.

Welshman Ncube, another leading local constitutional law expert, said
Zimbabweans were now at the mercy of Mugabe and he could do whatever he
wanted to trample on their fundamental rights.

"The Presidential Powers Act permits Mugabe to make whatever regulations he
wants and even to repeal primary legislation instituted by Parliament. The
safeguards against the abuse of the Act are so ineffectual as to be any
safeguards at all," said Ncube, who is also a senior official of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Scores of MDC supporters have been arrested and jailed in the past two weeks
under the guise of combating "terrorism" after a prominent Mugabe supporter,
war veterans’ leader Cain Nkala, was abducted and murdered.

The jailed MDC activists have told the courts that they were badly tortured
by police and forced to confess that the party was responsible for Nkala’s
death.

Mugabe has also increasingly circumvented Parliament, ordering troop
deployments, ruling by decree and branding critics as "terrorists".

He has used the Presidential Powers Act to pass legislation banning private
radio stations and regulating other broadcast media.

The same Act has banned strikes and been used to pardon perpetrators of
political violence, most of them members of his ruling ZANU PF party.

Mugabe, who faces a crucial presidential election early next year, has also
used the Act to take away the rights of white farmers to facilitate his
controversial land acquisition drive for black resettlement that he has
picked as his re-election ticket.

A ruling made under the Presidential Powers Act is valid for six months
before it can be turned into draft legislation and put to Parliament.

Mugabe and his information minister, Jonathan Moyo, have also labelled
opposition leaders and some journalists critical of his rule as terrorists.

His government has announced plans to re-activate the notorious Public Order
Security Bill that punishes acts of "insurgency, banditry, sabotage,
terrorism, treason and subversion" with life imprisonment or death.

In other widespread measures to contain the opposition and deal with
perceived enemies, the ZANU PF leader ordered troops to the Lupane district
in Matabeleland North to combat what he described as "political hooligans".

MDC legislator David Coltart this week urged the international community to
start planning for the consequences of Mugabe stealing the ballot next year.

Coltart said the Harare authorities have already made it clear that they
would rig the presidential poll to get Mugabe re-elected.

Last week, the President told off a visiting EU delegation for "lecturing"
him on human rights and the rule of law.

The EU, which has been told its monitors are not welcome in Harare for the
presidential election, has already set in motion a 75-day process leading to
the severance of trade privileges and the imposition of targeted sanctions
on Zimbabwe by the end of January next year.

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FinGaz

Mugabe deploys troops in MDC base

By Abel Mutsakani Assistant News Editor
11/29/01 4:30:09 AM (GMT +2)

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe this week deployed troops in the opposition’s
stronghold in northwestern Zimbabwe in a move analysts warned could hasten
the total collapse of a nation that has in the last few years dramatically
leapt from crisis to crisis.

Analysts said Mugabe’s decision to send armed soldiers in the predominantly
opposition supporting provinces of Matabeleland just when the international
community is calling on him to uphold democracy and human rights could be
the last straw to break the patience of both Zimbabweans and the
international community.

"Mugabe is living dangerously," said University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political
science professor Masipula Sithole.

Sithole was referring to Mugabe’s insistence that he will not heed the
growing international calls for more democracy and his threats that if need
be, the crisis-ridden southern African nation would go it alone without the
rest of the world.

Sithole said: "More powerful nations before have failed to get far along
this go it alone path. How far can Zimbabwe go with an ailing economy and
with the whole world united against it?"

Mugabe last week bluntly told off European Union (EU) council of ministers
president Louis Michel, foreign policy chief Javier Solana and commissioner
for external affairs Chris Patten that the EU had no business in Zimbabwean
affairs.

That was after the visiting trio had requested, during talks in Harare,
guarantees that next year’s presidential election will be free and fair.

Michel told the Press after meeting Mugabe that the EU would not recognise
the outcome of the critical presidential poll unless Mugabe and his
government allowed it to be organised by an independent electoral commission
and unless it was held under the spotlight of the whole world.

Analysts say Mugabe fears a free presidential ballot could easily be won by
the popular opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.

The MDC weathered political violence in which more than 32 people, most of
them its supporters, died to almost defeat Mugabe’s ruling party by grabbing
57 seats against ZANU PF’s 62. Another smaller opposition party won the
remaining seat.

Similar threats by the US government not to recognise the presidential
ballot unless it was truly democratic have also been laughed off by Mugabe
even as Washington is currently preparing legislation to impose sanctions on
him and his top lieutenants for failing to uphold democracy and human
rights.

To cap a grand plot under which Mugabe has tightened election rules and
other laws in his favour and clamped down on the media, the 77-year-old
president earlier this week ordered heavily armed troops into some parts of
Matabeleland.

A government spokesman told state television the army was in Matabeleland to
quell terrorism following the recent killings of two ZANU PF supporters in
the region.

The deployment of the soldiers has revived bitter memories of a bloody army
crackdown in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the early 1980s that
left more than 20 000 civilian supporters of the late nationalist Joshua
Nkomo dead.

UZ Institute of Development Studies associate professor Brian Raftopoulos
said the deployment of the army was a ploy to destabilise the MDC ahead of
the presidential poll and to create conditions that made it impossible for
the opposition party to campaign.

Raftopoulos said Mugabe was going to continue defying international calls
for a free and fair presidential poll and that he will go ahead and stage
the ballot under conditions well below acceptable standards of democracy in
the hope that other southern African leaders will back him anyhow.

He added: "Mugabe knows that there are many among his southern African
colleagues equally less committed to democracy and that they will simply
endorse the election even if it was not free and fair."

With the blessings of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC),
Mugabe could try to re-engage the international community by offering some
compromises even on the contentious land issue in order to get back
international support, Raftopoulos said.

"It is a gamble that might not pay. But it could also be a successful gamble
given the fact that the international community itself can be very flexible
at times," Raftopoulos noted.

But Sithole was adamant that even this strategy would not pay off for Mugabe
because the international community was not going to relent on its demands
that he upholds democracy and the rule of law.

According to Sithole, even if SADC leaders were to endorse an undemocratic
presidential election, such recognition would not be beyond SADC borders.

"There is a higher price to pay for staging a kangaroo election and Mugabe
and his government may not survive that price," Sithole observed.

The international community, which until now has only threatened to impose
targeted sanctions against Mugabe and top officials of his government, could
react to any attempts to steal the ballot with more severe and comprehensive
sanctions, Sithole said.

UZ business studies professor Tony Hawkins said Zimbabwe’s tottering economy
would not be able to withstand sanctions for long.

But much more worrying, said Sithole, was that if Mugabe used the army to
suppress growing but peaceful opposition to his rule, that could eventually
lead to an underground and violent resistance by the people.

"If you discourage democratic politics by denying the people a peaceful
means to change the situation, what recourse have they but to turn violent?"
he asked.
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Independent (UK)


Zimbabwe passes law to license journalists

By Basildon Peta in Harare
01 December 2001
Journalists expressed outrage yesterday over a new law giving the Zimbawean
government the power to determine who will work as a journalist.

The law is seen as tightening the government's grip on the media ahead of a
crunch presidential election next year.

Under the new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy bill,
journalists will be issued with one-year renewable licences for them to work
in Zimbabwe. The licences will be issued only to Zimbabwean citizens who
meet the criteria prescribed by the Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo. He
will also have the power to withdraw the licences from "offending
journalists".

Although the full criteria for qualifying for a licence is yet to be
disclosed, the media fraternity in Harare said it was clear that the
government was desperate to weed out of the profession critical journalists.

Journalists who write stories that will "discredit people on the basis of
sex, race, age, nationality, language, religion, profession, place of
residence and work and political conviction" will be fined Z$100,000 (about
£1,250) or jailed for two years.

Sydney Masamvu, an official with the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, said:
"The only good thing about the bill is that it does help foreign governments
understand our repeated arguments that Zimbabwe is now effectively under
fascist rule. Even Ian Smith or successive apartheid governments in South
Africa did not go to this extent to muzzle the media."
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Guardian

Zimbabwe Press Vows To Fight Mugabe

Friday November 30, 2001 7:00 PM


HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Hundreds of ruling party militants marched through
Zimbabwe's capital on Friday to support proposed legislation that would
further restrict the media, stoning the offices of two independent weeklies
and attacking vendors selling independent newspapers.

Militants loyal to president Robert Mugabe's party chased vendors from their
stalls and tore up bundles of The Independent and the Daily News. Police
escorted the marchers, did not try to stop the mayhem and made no arrests.
One photographer was injured.

Independent journalists vowed to fight the proposed legislation, which would
establish a restrictive license system for journalists and authorize fines
and imprisonment for violations of government-imposed standards.

Under the legislation, only Zimbabwean citizens would be able to obtain a
license to work, and special permission would be required for a Zimbabwean
to work for a foreign news organization, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo
said.

``This must be fought with all the legal powers we have to prevent it seeing
the light of day,'' said Trevor Ncube, publisher of The Zimbabwe Independent
and Sunday Standard, the country's two main independent weeklies.

``We must never acquiesce to this dictatorship,'' he said.

The proposed legislation marks the Mugabe government's latest effort to
control independent and foreign media, which have covered its crackdown on
the political opposition and state-sanctioned occupations of white-owned
farms.

Journalists have been beaten and arrested, and some foreign reporters have
been deported.

Last week, a presidential spokesman accused some journalists from foreign
media of being terrorists after they reported on political violence by
ruling party militants. That charge prompted diplomatic protests from
Britain and the United States.

In an interview with the state-controlled Herald newspaper, Moyo said
Mugabe's Cabinet approved the legislation this week and that it would be
enacted before presidential elections expected early next year. Parliament
is dominated by the ruling party and is likely to pass the bill.

Mugabe, 77, has ruled since independence in 1980 and is seeking a further
six-year term in office. But Zimbabwe's economy has fallen apart since the
farm occupations began last year and his popularity has plummeted, placing
him in danger of losing the race.

The details of the media bill have not been released. Moyo said the
legislation would impose sentences of up to two years in prison and fines of
up to $1,800 for defying ``professional and ethical standards'' that will be
imposed by a government media commission.

He said it would make it an offense to ``cause alarm and despondency'' or
spread information that discredits a person based on race, political
conviction or a number of other categories. The commission would have the
power to revoke licenses, he said.

Also Friday, The Daily News reported that two men arrested in a high-profile
killing retracted statements that implicated members of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party, saying they signed them after being
tortured by police.

Khethani Sibanda and Remember Moyo, two drivers for the opposition party,
had signed confessions implicating opposition party officials in the Nov. 5
death of Cain Nkala, a leader of the ruling party militants in Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe's second-largest city.

The newspaper reported that the two repudiated the confessions in testimony
this week, telling a judge that neither they nor any party official were
involved in Nkala's killing.

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BBC
 
Wednesday, 28 February, 2001, 16:10 GMT
Zimbabwe's spokesman: Professor Jonathan Moyo
Professor Jonathan Moyo
By former Zimbabwe correspondent Grant Ferrett

Few people in Zimbabwe, apart from President Robert Mugabe, evoke such strong emotions as Professor Jonathan Moyo.

He is a former critic of the government who, in the space of 18 months, has been elevated to the position of information minister and the president's closest adviser.


Professor Moyo's rise to one of the most influential positions in Zimbabwe has been breathtaking

In that time he has succeeded in offending all sides.

The letters pages of privately owned newspapers frequently include denunciations of Professor Moyo.

One recently described him as "the most hated man in Zimbabwe".

Conversion

Professor Moyo's rise to one of the most influential positions in Zimbabwe has been breathtaking. As recently as May 1999 he was still writing newspaper articles that condemned President Mugabe in the strongest terms.

President Robert Mugabe
Moyo is now a close adviser to President Mugabe
"His uncanny propensity to shoot himself in the foot has become a national problem which needs urgent containment," wrote Professor Moyo in the Zimbabwe Mirror.

"Does the president not realise that when he belittles universal issues such as basic human rights he loses the moral high ground to his critics?"

Within months of that writing that article, Jonathan Moyo, had become the spokesman for the government-appointed Constitutional Commission.

His public relations style was characterised by an almost obsessive energy combined with vitriolic attacks on those who did not share his views.

The state-controlled media was saturated with news reports and advertisements supporting acceptance of a proposed new constitution.

But it was not enough as Professor Moyo and the government lost.

The draft document was rejected in a national referendum in February 2000.

Party promotion

In spite of this setback, Jonathan Moyo was appointed as the ruling Zanu-PF party's campaign manager for the June 2000 general election.

The approach that proved unsuccessful in the run-up to the constitutional referendum was repeated.

Voters during the election
Moyo's election campaign failed to persuade nearly half the population
The government's manifesto, which Professor Moyo clearly played an important part in drawing up, described the opposition as "plagiarists, sell-outs, shameless opportunists and merchants of confusion".

Support among whites for the opposition was summarised as "embittered racists using black mouthpieces to preach mean-spirited democracy".

After a campaign marked by widespread violence and intimidation, the ruling party won a narrow majority in parliament.

Political adviser

Professor Moyo was rewarded with a seat in the cabinet and the ruling party's policy-making body, the politburo.


How can he be effective when he's so unpopular?

Former Zanu-PF insider
Although he did not contest the election, President Mugabe appointed him as a non-constituency member of parliament.

His immediate superior in the politburo, Nathan Shamuyarira, describes him as "a very sharp, very bright intellectual.

"He's good at rebutting the arguments of the opposition and at articulating the [ruling] party's policies. He's a definite asset."

A former Zanu-PF insider disagrees: "It's only Mugabe who thinks he's an effective campaigner. How can he be effective when he's so unpopular?

"Mugabe is surrounding himself with people like Moyo - people who were appointed by him and owe their political fortunes to him."

Unexplained change

A former friend, who worked with Jonathan Moyo at the University of Zimbabwe before he launched his political career, said he was shocked to see Professor Moyo as part of President Mugabe's government.

"He was so anti-government in those days. He was the loudest critic. And now here he is as Mugabe's main cheerleader. I just don't understand it."

During a recent chance encounter at a local luxury hotel, the former friend asked, "Are you the same Professor Moyo I used to know."

The reasons behind his apparently sudden and complete change of heart remain unclear.

The opposition's information spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, is scathing about his opposite number: "He's done a wonderful job for us."

"He tends to say things which the public couldn't possibly believe, and that just makes them angry. We hope that eventually he'll come clean and admit that he's on a one-man mission to destroy the Zanu-PF government."

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