• Zimbabweans fear Mugabe's fury
• Govt hands over Zapu properties
• $1,3bn for Zanu PF Congress
• MDC alleges voter intimidation during Kadoma by election
• ‘Bush degree’ brings Mugabe face to face with reality
• Sendekera jingle costs taxpayers $1,1bn weekly
• Govt dips into FCAs
• Police stop JAG meeting, arrest members
• Court stops State move to grab farm
• Zimbabwe doomed without donor funding
• WOZA plans protest
• Internal squabbles rock ANZ
• US envoy urges political dialogue
• TNF on verge of collapse, say major partners
• Refuse pile-up lowers Harare property values
• Trillion dollar charade
• Chogm: Hiding behind sovereignty futile
• What’s in a name? Quite a lot

Increased repression predicted after snub by Commonwealth
Sunday Times Foreign Desk

Zimbabweans should brace for intensified repression in the wake of President
Robert Mugabe's exclusion from the Commonwealth meeting in Nigeria later
this week, a political analyst has warned.

Professor Brian Raftopolous, of the University of Zimbabwe's Institute for
Development Studies, said Mugabe would be vengeful after the snub.

"In the short- to medium-term, I see him hardening his stance and stepping
up repression in a bid to consolidate his position.

"He is very disappointed with his exclusion from the Commonwealth and that
his African allies have not protested."

Zimbabwe has been suspended from the group of former British colonies since
March last year following a presidential election marred by violence,
intimidation and electoral flaws.

Raftopolous, who is also chairman of Crisis in Zimbabwe, a coalition of
civic groups campaigning for democratic reforms, said Mugabe's recent
crackdown on trade unions was evidence of his political direction.

Mugabe's regime last week crushed Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
demonstrations against the country's economic crisis and arrested protest
leaders, including 350 activists.

The crackdown left unions bruised and weakened.

A truculent Mugabe has threatened to pull his country out of the 54-state
organisation altogether.

He said on state radio: "If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be
readmitted into the Commonwealth, well, we will say goodbye to the
Commonwealth, and perhaps the time has now come to say so."

He said Zimbabwe valued its membership of the African Union, the Southern
African Development Community and the UN because they treated it as an
equal.

"We expect no less from the Commonwealth if it merits our membership, if its
claim to be a club of equals is to be sustained. And I want to see whether
that principle of equal membership shall be sustained as we proceed to the
next session of Chogm [the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting]."

He attacked African countries that "are apologetic about being nationalists;
fear to be Africans; hesitate to express solidarity with us and dread to
play keeper to another African brother".

"They allow neo-colonialists and neo-imperialists to drive us to apologise
for representing and pursuing our interests, for being ourselves," he said.

In reaction to Mugabe's comments, Zimbabwe's National Constitutional
Assembly chairman and civic activist Lovemore Madhuku said: "It's a
dangerous development. If he withdraws from the Commonwealth he will attack
his opponents while resisting being held accountable.

"What he is saying is that he sees nothing wrong with what he has been doing
and would rather pull out than change to gain readmission.

"This means continued human rights abuses and political violence."

Madhuku said Mugabe could be dealt with only through "internal popular
resistance and defiance".

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change MP Tendai Biti said Mugabe would
just continue "attacking us and violating human rights on a massive scale".

However, South Africa's Institute for Security Studies director, Jackie
Cilliers , said Mugabe's threats were a "storm in a teacup".

Mugabe said his country's continued suspension was the work of the "white
Commonwealth" - particularly Britain and Australia - which have voiced
objections to the country's land reform programme.

"Is it the strength and power of the few whites in the Commonwealth that
should dominate the view of the Commonwealth?" Mugabe asked, singling out
Australian Prime Minister John Howard - who, along with the heads of Nigeria
and South Africa, is on a Commonwealth troika on Zimbabwe - as one of those
allegedly with a vendetta against his country.

"They tell me he's one of those genetically modified because of the criminal
ancestry he derives from," Mugabe said, adding that "criminals were banished
to Australia and New Zealand by the British".

Howard and Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, of New Zealand, were
instrumental in deciding to maintain Zimbabwe's suspension beyond its expiry
after a year in March.

Govt hands over Zapu properties
Pamenus Tuso

In a move widely seen as a desperate attempt to contain increasing
discontent among former Zapu politicians within the ruling Zanu PF,
government has returned Zapu properties which it seized from the political
party in the 1980s, it has emerged.

During the height of the internal conflict between Zapu, then led by the
late former vice president Joshua “Mqabuko” Nkomo and Zanu PF in 1984,
government confiscated the political party’s properties that included farms,
buildings and vehicles following the discovery of an arms cache at one of
the properties. At the time Zapu disassociated itself from the arms cache,
saying it was set up by the government. The government, on the other hand,
by unleashing its notorious North Korean trained fifth brigade soldiers in
both Matabeleland and Midlands regions to ruthlessly crackdown on what it
called dissident activities. Highly placed sources within former Zapu
circles in Bulawayo told the Sunday Mirror last week that the returned
properties, which include The Castle Arms Motel in Bulawayo, Woolglen farm
in Mguza, West Egg farm and Hampton farm in Gweru, were handed over to
Nitram management team. Nitram Holdings Company was formed in 1981 by more
than 20 000 Zipra freedom fighters. The company was bought with $50,000 they
had raised while they were still at the Assembly points. Ex-Zipra
commanders, including the party’s former intelligence supremo Dumiso
Dabengwa, organised the deal whose main objective was to assist
disadvantaged Zipra cadres and their families. An ex Zipra combatant who is
part of the team compiling an inventory on the assets said last week: “Some
of our major assets that were at the motel and farms disappeared. These
include refrigerators, cattle, chickens and other livestock.” The Castle
Arms is also said to have developed a number of architectural defects due to
lack of maintenance. Some of the properties were placed under liquidation by
the government and only a meagre $113 000 was realised from the liquidation
process. Although the government has formally handed back the properties to
their rightful owners, it is understood that the company is finding no joy
in securing legal titles to these properties. Bulawayo politicians who spoke
to the Sunday Mirror last week questioned the timing of this latest
government move which they say was supposed to have been done immediately
after the signing of the unity accord in 1987. “It’s almost 16 years after
the signing of the unity accord. Why was the government clutching on to the
properties? Given the recent events in the party in this region, we are
bound to suspect that the return of these properties is a last minute bid by
government to contain increasing disgruntlement in former PF Zapu cadres in
the unified party,” said one politician who declined to be named. Recently,
there has been reports of squabbles with the merged party with former PF
Zapu cadres accusing government of marginalising them and the province. The
party also maintained that the boiling point in the simmering acrimonious
relationship between the two factions in the ruling party was the politburo’
s unprecedented decision last month to declare the late former Zipra
intelligence chief, Tarcisious Swazini Ndlovu, a national hero, six days
after his death, and when he had already been buried at Stanley Cemetery in
Bulawayo. This politburo’s belated decision to confer Ndlovu with national
hero status, according to senior party members from the former Zapu, was
taken following intensive pressure from his colleagues, especially Dabengwa,
whom the late Ndlovu worked closely with during the liberation struggle.
“Apart from John Nkomo all former Zapu senior party members in both the
government and war veterans from this region were united in their bid to
lobby for Ndlovu’s national hero status. They all felt enough is enough”,
said another party source. Speaking during Ndlovu’s burial, which was
largely ignored by veteran politicians from the pre-unity accord Zanu PF,
Dabengwa said, “I have no doubt that Swazini, whom we are burying now is a
hero. We do not know this new phenomenon that one becomes a hero through the
pen. The heroes we know are the ones who fought with a spear. Indeed, he is
a hero.” When reached for comment last week, Dabengwa said he was attending
the funeral of the late former Deputy minister of political affairs and the
party’s central committee member, Norman Zikhali and will only be able to
comment on the issue this week. Zikhali who died at his home in Bulawayo on
Monday, was declared a national hero.

      FOR President Robert Mugabe, the decision by the Commonwealth not to
invite him for the Abuja summit must have come as a terrible blow, not only
to his personal ego but more importantly, to his blazing political career
which started in the late 50s culminating in the disputed Presidential
elections of 2002.

      There is no doubt President Mugabe was desperate to be in Abuja,
Nigeria. His statements during last week’s visit to Harare by summit host,
President Olusegun Obasanjo attested to this. Counting on the support of
fellow African leaders in his crusade against the ‘racist’ West, the
President left no stone unturned in his desperate attempts to make a last
ditch stand to continue being a member of the Commonwealth Club.

      Now his ego was dealt a mortal blow when President Obasanjo, acting on
behalf of the Commonwealth as a whole, informed him he could not travel to
Abuja. He is a disappointed and angry man.

      What angers President Mugabe the most must be that his attempt to
divide the Commonwealth across racial lines has come unstuck. His
pontificating about how Africans must stand together in defence of their
sovereignty is a telling admission of his foiled agenda had he been allowed
to attend Chogm in Abuja this week. He has been denied the chance to poison
the atmosphere in Abuja and the opportunity to score an immense propaganda
‘victory’ over British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australia’s John
Howard.

      And piqued by the exclusion from Chogm, Mugabe’s talk now is one of
wanting to leave this Club of largely former British colonies. In an
emotional piece of theatre to a captive audience of mourners at Heroes Acre
during the burial of former deputy minister, Norman Zikhali, he had this to
say: “If our sovereignty is what we have to lose to be readmitted into the
Commonwealth, well, we will say goodbye to the Commonwealth and perhaps time
has come to say so.” Many must have wondered what the connection is between
his exclusion from Chogm and Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.

      It is worth noting that whenever President Mugabe has been confronted
with uncomfortable realities, his tendency has been to take refuge in the
issue of the country’s sovereignty. Over and over again he says it as if it
is the panacea to the country’s ills. In the absence of tangible economic
benefits and democratic space for self realisation, sovereignty is nothing
more than a nebulous concept.

      It does nothing to improve the lives of the country’s long suffering
masses. For how long should Zimbabweans accept to be innocent victims of the
President’s fiery rhetoric and dynamic bombast which does nothing to bring
relief to their country’s mounting economic and political problems.

      The truth of the matter is that President Mugabe’’s pariah status is
self-inflicted. He has brought upon himself the political humiliation that
he is suffering. It is a dramatic irony that President Mugabe today stands
accused of persistently breaching democratic principles drawn up during a
Chogm summit in Harare in 1991. How times have changed – the same principles
have returned to haunt him and he is now paying a high price for violating
them consistently for the past three years or so.

      The outcome of the Harare Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
(Chogm) of 1991 gave the Club what is now called the Commonwealth Harare
Declaration.

      The Declaration effectively became the Commonwealth’s ‘Mission
Statement’ setting out the Commonwealth’s commitment to such key principles
as democracy, human rights, the rule of law, the independence of the
judiciary, freedom of expression and association, the right of citizens to
choose freely the men and women who would govern them and an undertaking to
pursue sustainable economic development, among many other issues.

      These basic democratic benchmarks and values are universal and have
nothing to do with any one country’s sovereignty.

      Needless to say, the Zimbabwe government’s score card in upholding
these basic tenets of civilised governance is dismal. Instead, our leaders
are noted for their arrogant, self-seeking obstinacy in refusing to listen
to both friend and foe. In direct violation of the Commonwealth Harare
Declaration , the Harare government has gone ahead and crafted obnoxious
pieces of legislation notably the Public Order and Security Act (Posa), the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa)and the General
Laws Amendment Act among others.

      As a consequence of these repressive laws, an independent newspaper,
The Daily News was shut down, to say nothing of the deteriorating human
rights situation in the country: the growing lawlessness and the
politically-motivated violence that has gripped a country that was once the
envy of the world.

      A country that was once the breadbasket of the region has been reduced
to a basket case. The economy has crumbled. Food shortages are stalking the
land compounding the deadly pandemic HIV/Aids on its deadly march. President
Mugabe’s inflexibility might appeal to his faithful as a sign of strength of
character and purpose but the truth is that he is prolonging the suffering
of Zimbabweans in his otherwise unwinnable war.

      The political embarrassment that President Mugabe has suffered by not
attending Chogm for the first time since Zimbabwe’s independence is entirely
of his own making. The litany of misdemeanours on the part of the Zimbabwe
government has evoked a strong Commonwealth response —and rightly so.

      An anguished President is threatening to pull Zimbabwe out of the
Commonwealth at a time when countries are queuing to join it. The
Commonwealth has undisputed moral authority and shared values and we are
cock sure no country or leader in his right mind would want not to be
associated with it.

      Zimbabwe has benefited immensely from the Commonwealth and we believe
no individual, not even the President has the right to hold a whole country
like Zimbabwe to ransom.

      If this were to happen, history will judge such a person harshly.