Daily News online edition
UZ students forced to attend youth
militia training
Date: 30-Nov, 2004
THE government
has ordered all students under the Faculty of Education
at the University of
Zimbabwe to undergo national youth service training and
to campaign for the
ruling party in next year's parliamentary elections.
The
students, mostly teachers who are on study leave, will undergo a
two-week
training on patriotism and basic drills to complement the
government's
national youth service graduates in the pre-poll campaign.
"We
were all ordered to undergo the training as the government felt
that as
teachers, we could be on the forefront in mobilising the
people.
"We are not sure how the basic military drills will
help us but
everything was compulsory and there was no time for questions,"
said one of
the students, adding that their passout would be held this
Friday at the
university campus.
The students said they
started their drills two weeks ago and they
were told that they would be
further briefed on their mandate after their
"graduation" on
Friday.
Since the Presidential elections in 2002, the
government opened
several notorious centres for "youth training" where
thousands of suspected
opposition supporters were beaten up, raped, tortured
or killed.
The UZ students in the Faculty of Education,
numbering over 100, said
they were not sure whether they would operate in
similar camps or would be
given a different role.
"We are
not sure how we will be operating but we were told that as
beneficiaries of
an education system made possible by Zanu PF, we should
serve the party
after our pass-out on Friday," the student said.
Efforts to
contact the university authorities or the Ministry of
Higher and Tertiary
Education were fruitless.
Zim Online
MUGABE PURGES ZANU PF REBELS
Tue 30 November 2004
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe is in two weeks time expected to purge
senior ruling ZANU PF party leaders opposed to the selection of Water
Resources Minister, Joyce Mujuru, as his potential successor, sources told
ZimOnline.
Two of the government's lead hawks, Information
Minister and
propaganda chief, Jonathan Moyo and Justice Minister, Patrick
Chinamasa, are
expected to be dropped from Cabinet for their role in helping
Speaker of
Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, try to block Mujuru's nomination
two weeks
ago.
Mnangagwa, for years seen as Mugabe's heir
apparent was surprisingly
ditched by Mugabe, who threw in his weight behind
Mujuru, who is the wife of
powerful former army general,
Solomon.
Also to be fired are deputy Minister of State Flora Bhuka,
Transport
and Communications deputy minister, Andrew Langa, Foreign Affairs
deputy
minister Abedinco Ncube and Masvingo provincial governor Josiah
Hungwe.
All are said to have worked hard to block Mujuru and prop
up Mnangagwa
in open defiance of Mugabe, who had made it clear he wanted
Mujuru appointed
ZANU PF's second vice president.
Six
provincial chairmen, who attended a meeting allegedly convened by
Moyo in
his home area of Tsholotsho a week before the nominations to plot a
flopped
rebellion against orders by Mugabe and ZANU PF's politburo to
nominate
Mujuru for the
vice-presidency, will also be fired from their posts,
the sources
said.
As the purge got into motion, the six
chairmen were yesterday hauled
before ZANU PF's disciplinary committee
chaired by party chairman John Nkomo
to explain their actions.
The provincial chairmen, July Moyo for Midlands province; Mike Madiro,
Manicaland; Themba Ncube, Bulawayo; Daniel Shumba, Masvingo; Lloyd Siyoka,
Matabeleland South; and Jacob Mudenda, Matabeleland North were asked to
submit written explanations by end of day yesterday why they defied party
orders.
A source privy to yesterday's disciplinary hearing
said: "The chairmen
will face the music for their actions. They have been
asked to give
individual reports. The national disciplinary committee wants
to deal with
this sensitive issue before we hold thecentral committee and
politburo
meetings on Tuesday."
Nkomo, who presided over the
hearing with party political commissar,
Elliot Manyika and his deputy,
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, refused to speak about the
chairmen's case or the
impending dismissals of government ministers.
ZANU PF spokesman
Nathan Shamuyarira also refused to speak about the
matter when contacted by
ZimOnline last night.
But the sources said the ZANU PF politburo,
which normally meets on
Wednesday but will meet today, was scheduled to
discuss the final action to
be taken against the chairmen as well as endorse
the dismissal of Moyo,
Chinamasa and others.
The sources said
it was not clear yet what action Mugabe will take
against his one time
closest lieutenant, Mnangagwa, who is said to be the
leader of the faction
opposed to the ascendancy of Mujuru.
According to the sources, it
is Mnangagwa who is close friends with
Zimbabwean-born British businessmen,
John Bredenkamp, who is accused of
pumping out Z$7 billion which was to be
used to buy the support of
provincial
executives that nominate
party leaders.
A plane also said to have been hired from Bredenkamp
was used to ferry
the provincial chairmen to Tsholotsho for their
meeting.
Last week, a visibly angry Mugabe lashed out at party
leaders he
accused of using "dirty money from imperialists" to try and buy
their way up
the political ladder. Mugabe vowed to crack down against the
party leaders
whom he referred to as "cunning knaves."
Matters
are said to have come to a head during a hot-tempered marathon
politburo
meeting last Wednesday when Mujuru (Solomon) demanded that Moyo,
Chinamasa
and the others be dismissed from the Cabinet because they were
bent on
splitting the party.
Mugabe is said to have agreed with Mujuru on
the need for drastic
action but said this had to come after a thorough probe
of the whole saga. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Government tightens treason law
Tue 30 November 2004
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government is tightening its treason laws, imposing
life imprisonment on citizens for receiving training in sabotage, terrorism
or banditry, according to a Criminal Law Bill presently before
Parliament.
Under the Bill, which seeks to tighten and codify the
country's
criminal law, it shall be assumed that any Zimbabwean who receives
training
in sabotage or insurgency whether outside or inside the country did
so for
the purpose of subverting the government, unless they could prove the
contrary.
Those found guilty of helping to conceal treason will
be jailed for up
to 20 years according to the Bill which is now being
reviewed by
Parliament's Legal Committee that scrutinises draft legislation
to ensure it
conforms with the country's Constitution.
The
draft law reads in part: "Any person who attends or undergoes any
course of
training, whether inside or outside Zimbabwe, for the purpose of
enabling
him or her to commit any act of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or
terrorism
in Zimbabwe shall be guilty of training as an insurgent, bandit,
saboteur or
terrorist and liable to imprisonment for life or any shorter
period.
"If it is proved that the accused attended or
underwent a course of
training whose effect was to enable that person to
commit an act of
insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism in Zimbabwe, it
shall be
presumed, unless the contrary is proved, that he or she did so for
that
purpose.
"(Any person) guilty of concealing treason and
(shall be) liable to a
fine up or exceeding level fourteen or imprisonment
for a period not
exceeding twenty years or both."
Under
existing law, treason is punishable by death but merely
receiving training
in banditry or sabotage without actually committing
subversive acts did not
automatically entice life imprisonment. However,
people can still be jailed
under the present law for helping to conceal
treason. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Reserve Bank faces Z$7 billion suit over Homelink tag
Tue
30 November 2004
HARARE - A Harare businessman has threatened to sue the
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe for Z$7 billion in damages for using the name
Homelink Money
Transfers for its scheme to lure hard cash from Zimbabweans
working abroad.
Charles Nyachowe, who applied to the Registrar of
Companies in 2003
for registration of Homelink under his name with the
application approved in
April this year, told journalists in Harare he would
also ask the courts to
force the central bank to pay three percent of all
income raised by the bank
through use of the name.
He said:
"The idea was stolen from me. I want a $7 billion payment (as
damages.) I
also want an annual 3 percent of the gross volume of the
initiative for the
next five years."
In a bid to improve currency inflows into the
country, the RBZ last
May embarked on a major drive to entice Zimbabweans to
send hard cash home
through its Homelink scheme.
Under the
scheme, local recipients of money sent by relatives from
abroad receive it
at a higher exchange rate of about $6 200 to the US dollar
compared to $5
600 to the greenback for anyone else selling hard cash.
The bank
last month also launched a Homelink Housing Development
scheme under which
Zimbabwean exiles are encouraged to use their earnings
abroad to buy
residential properties back home.
But Nyachowe said he was the
originator of the whole Homelink
programme saying the RBZ only got wind of
the idea when he applied to then
acting bank governor, Charles Chikaura, for
the registration of his money
transfer company under the same name. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Amnesty postpones Mugabe protests
Tue 30 November 2004
JOHANNESBURG - Amnesty International South Africa has postponed to
February
14 protests against human rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe
and his
government.
The human rights watchdog, which is organising the
protests in
conjunction with other regional civic bodies, had planned to
hold
demonstrations on December 10 at Zimbabwe's border posts to highlight
human
rights violations in the southern African nation.
Amnesty
official Joseph Dube said: "The protests originally scheduled
for December
10 have been re-scheduled on account of the huge expression of
interest from
civil society in the SADC region which calls for additional
time to plan the
activities."
He however would not say whether Amnesty and its
partners were working
together with the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU) which has
threatened to blockade Zimbabwe's lifeline
Beitbridge border post on the
frontier with main trading partner, South
Africa.
Dube however said Amnesty had invited the powerful trade
union body to
join in their demonstrations next year. - ZimOnline
Independent (UK)
Tutu and Mbeki clash over Pretoria's 'sycophantic'
stance on Zimbabwe
By Basildon Peta in Johannesburg and Stephen Castle
30
November 2004
A war of words has erupted between the South African
President Thabo Mbeki
and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond
Tutu over Mr Mbeki's
handling of the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Mr Mbeki's
African National Congress and its ruling alliance partner, the
Congress of
South African Trade Unions, are also clashing over Zimbabwe,
leaving South
Africa's ruling tripartite alliance on the verge of
disintegration.
Archbishop Tutu, delivering the second annual Nelson
Mandela lecture in
Johannesburg, asked why the ANC was not taking Mr Mbeki
to task over the
troubled neighbour. He has often urged the South African
government to
publicly disapprove of President Robert Mugabe's abuses and
bring pressure
on him to reform. He said the ANC government was guilty of
"uncritical,
sycophantic, obsequious conformity".
Mr Mbeki wrote in
his ANC's newsletter: "As in all other instances, it would
be good [if]
those who present themselves as the greatest defenders of the
poor should
also demonstrate decent respect for the truth, rather than
resort to empty
rhetoric. We must avoid the resort to populism and catchy
newspaper
headlines that have nothing to do with the truth and everything to
do with
the pursuit of self-serving agendas. Rational discussion also
demands that
we should take the effort to think, rather than submit to the
dictates of a
reassuring herd instinct."
Mr Mbeki also accused Archbishop Tutu of
"gratuitous insults". The
archbishop replied with a statement, saying:
"Thank you Mr President for
telling me what you think of me, that I am a
liar with scant regard for the
truth and, a charlatan posing with his
concern for the poor, the hungry, the
oppressed and the voiceless," said Mr
Tutu in his statement.
"I will continue to pray for you and your
government by name daily as I have
done and as I did even for the apartheid
government. God bless you."
Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, who met MEPs in Brussels
yesterday, condemned the England
cricket tour, saying that it was being used
to confer legitimacy on Mr
Mugabe's rule. "How do they feel when the Mugabe
regime is committing
actions of murder and brutality?" he asked
Aids Activist Arrested Over Unpaid Hotel Bill
The Herald
(Harare)
November 27, 2004
Posted to the web November 29,
2004
Harare
AN Indian Aids activist who is in Zimbabwe to raise
money for an HIV and
Aids awareness campaign has been arrested for allegedly
failing to pay his
hotel bill of $2,5 million.
Balasubramanian
Manoharan was on Wednesday brought before Harare magistrate
Ms Memory
Chigwaza for contravening the Tourism and Development Act.
He pleaded
guilty and was remanded in custody to yesterday for sentence but
did not
appear in court after the Zimbabwe Prison Services failed to bring
him owing
to fuel shortages. Prosecutor Ms Barbara Mupawaenda said on
September 4 this
year the accused arrived in the country and booked into
Aqua Lodge in
Belvedere.
He stayed at the lodge from September 20 to November 22 and
accumulated a
bill of $2,5 million, it is alleged.
Manoharan
allegedly failed to pay the bill and the case was reported to the
police,
leading to his arrest.
The 30-year-old cyclist came to Zimbabwe with the
objective of going around
the country on his bicycle and holding discussions
with Aids organisations
and people living with the disease.
Through
the bicycle campaign which started in 1997, Manoharan and his
colleagues
have been to more than 30 countries including Canada, United
States,
Singapore and Malaysia.
From Zimbabwe Manoharan intended to proceed to
South Africa, then
Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya.
Reserve Bank Gave Zanu PF $800m
Zimbabwe Independent
(Harare)
November 26, 2004
Posted to the web November 29,
2004
Vincent Kahiya
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon
Gono is probing the disbursement of
$800 million to a Zanu PF shelf company
by the RBZ last year.
In an interview this week, Gono said he was not
aware of the transaction
until the Zimbabwe Independent brought it to his
attention. The transaction
did not take place during his tenure as governor.
He however said the
central bank was not washing its hands of the matter as
he takes
responsibility for "all transactions" done by his
predecessors.
The Independent has it on good authority that Gono on
Tuesday summoned
prominent lawyer Edwin Manikai as part of the probe into
the disbursement of
the loan. Manikai's legal firm, Dube, Manikai &
Hwacha, has been fingered in
the report as being instrumental in the
formation of the briefcase company,
Smoothnest, which allegedly received the
$800 million from the RBZ.
The RBZ has been disbursing loans under the
productive sector facility (PSF)
to distressed companies to boost
productivity. A Zanu PF politburo report on
the party's enterprises cites
Smoothnest as the recipient of a loan from the
Reserve Bank. There is no RBZ
facility catering for such a disbursement.
It is not clear whether the
party, through Smoothnest, has repaid the RBZ
loan.
The report,
compiled by a team probing the party's decaying business empire,
says
Smoothnest, described in the document as a "shelf company", applied for
and
got the money when Zanu PF was preparing to raise funds for its
conference
held in Masvingo in December last year.
The four-member team which
prepared the report interviewed the party's
secretary for administration
Emmerson Mnangagwa who made the startling
revelation about the loan from the
central bank
"Zanu PF wanted to raise $2,1 billion for the Masvingo
conference and
requested the money from the party company (M&S Syndicate
Pvt Ltd)," the
report says.
"There were 38% shares in Southern Africa
Reinsurance Company and the party
decided to offer the shares for sale. (The
shares were however not sold.) A
shelf company (Smoothnest) was then formed
by Dube, Manikayi (sic) & Hwacha.
Smoothnest applied to the Reserve Bank
and they were given $800 million,"
the report said.
Gono this week
said under normal circumstances the RBZ "does not advance
loans to
individuals but transactions were made through financial
institutions".
"The central bank also advances loans to (the)
government of Zimbabwe. Based
on this observation, a transaction such as
this one would be an anomaly," he
said.
The curious loan from the
central bank is one of numerous murky deals
highlighted in the report, which
has caused serious ructions in the ruling
party.
Party sources this
week said there were also concerns that the money raised
from the RBZ might
not have been used to finance the staging of the
conference. The report, in
a rather intricate way, explains how the party
also raised money from other
sources over and above the $800 million.
"$1 billion was also paid to
Smoothnest by First Bank as a loan and the
money was deposited into the NDH
Special Investment Account where it raised
$811 million which was withdrawn
by Mr D Pandya (a director of several Zanu
PF-linked companies)," it
said.
"Cde (David) Karimanzira (secretary for finance) managed to raise
$1,2
billion from donations, so the $811 million which was withdrawn was
re-invested (in) NDH and raised $38 million."
This arrangement is
also curious as Smoothnest also warehouses Zanu PF
shares in both First Bank
and NDH. This means a bank in which Zanu PF has
major influence extended a
loan to a Zanu PF company, Smoothnest. The money
was deposited into NDH
where Zanu PF also holds sway and yielded $811
million. The interest was
reinvested to produce an additional $38 million
interest. Thus the party
raised $849 million in interest from a loan
provided by First Bank in which
Zanu PF held a 27% stake.
Meanwhile, the RBZ is expected to name and
shame companies which accessed
PSF funds and converted part of the loans
into dividends to shareholders.
Gono this week confirmed a number of
companies cutting across all sectors of
the economy had diverted RBZ loans
to pay dividends.
"An example of this development is the payment of
dividends where PSF loans
have been called back in full and are due for
payment by 30 November 2004,"
said Gono.
"Both the Reserve Bank and
issuing commercial banks have the joint
responsibility of ensuring that
borrowed funds are used for their intended
purposes."
The Telegraph
Punishment really should fit the crime
(Filed:
30/11/2004)
Outrage. It rains, it pours, it coagulates into one huge,
hard lump until
you can't tell the difference between Jermain Defoe flashing
his vest and
the murderous criminality of Robert Mugabe. Sport produces such
passionately
exaggerated responses in its onlookers that all semblance of
reason is lost.
The result: dear Jermain is lambasted with a yellow card for
being in love
with his girlfriend and a perpetrator of genocide can watch
England play
cricket in his Harare back garden.
The crimes and
punishments of sport make no sense. On a scale of one to a
million, Defoe's
'crime' is a one. If you are incited to riot by the sight
of a man in a
short-sleeved vest upon which the legend "Happy Birthday Babe"
has been
fairly illegibly scrawled in pen, you are a sad, strange little
person.
Obviously Tottenham Hotspur may be possessed of such characters -
they are
called season-ticket holders - but no mayhem was reported after the
Middlesbrough match.
On the other hand, the straight reporting of
England's "victory" over
Zimbabwe in Harare really did feel like an outrage.
Paul Collingwood run out
for one seemed a supreme irrelevance when our
country's team had fetched up
in a country systematically murdering its
citizens under the brutal
dictatorship of an ungoverned madman. And he,
patron of the sport, lives
next door to the cricket ground.
What a
pitiful situation this represents. Players competing in our name on a
watered green and pleasant field in the middle of a country raped dry by its
so-called father.
The tour is sickening. It is not a tour at all, it is a
show of force
against England by an African despot and a tinpot set of
bullies called the
International Cricket Council. We should have stood up to
them, as a sport,
as a country, to a man.
~~~ Newsletter 053
~~~
Sing for the moment
Revolutionary products keep on Getting Up on supermarket shelves
near you.
As the
dishonourable house recently passed into law another repressive
amendment to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) it
is important to reflect on the important role that writers and journalists play
in our society.
A Way of Being Free
For, essentially, it is
love that we are talking about here; love for the better life that could be real
for all the people; love for the greater possibilities of the future that are
being murdered in the present by short-sighted leaders; love for a higher
justice; love for better breathing in the beggar and the basket-weaver; love for
ordinary women and men; love for the children; love for the regeneration of a
people who deserve so much better and who never seem to get any justice or much
hope on this round earth. And when this love has been sentenced to death, then
those who have hearts that beat with blood, those with flesh that feels the wind
and the caress of a lover and life’s infinitely graded sufferings, anyone who
feels life within should hear this cry—writers are being sentenced to death,
executed for trying to remind a nation, in their own way, of something that
should be an acknowledged law that governs the rise and fall of nations and
people: what does not grow, dies; what does not face its truth, perishes; those
who believe that they can suppress freedom and yet live in freedom are
hopelessly deluded. Either a nation faces its uncomfortable truths, or it is
overwhelmed by them; for there is a prophetic consequence in the perpetuation of
lies, just as there is an unavoidable fate for all those who refuse to see.
There are some things on earth that are stronger than death. One of these is the
eternal human quest for justice; a people cannot live without it, and in due
course they will be prepared to die to make it possible for their children.
More at the end of our stories from Ben Okri
Do you want to get some regular nyayas direct to your cellular
telephone?
After a big foot to door campaign within HDAs
whereby Zvakwana leaflets requested people to send in their cell phone numbers
we are pleased to be starting up our cell phone outreach project. If you want to
be included simply email us your cell phone number to news@zvakwana.org
While (some) MPs debate whether there is enough food, Zimbabweans
are crying
It’s not so wonderful so far to see some MPs
getting fatter and sitting in Parliament debating whether there is enough food
in the land. Talk is cheap while we are starving and the truth is very much
obvious. Whilst politicians play their games in da
dishonourable house, everyday we are failing to come out on
exploitative minimum wages in the face of the small dictator's induced
inflation. Our political leaders and MPs must be held accountable and must work
for the best interests of the people. Zvakwana is asking you to break the cycle
whereby you support someone not just because he or she is an
opposition MP or she or he buys you a warm Coke. If your MP is not doing a good
job in your area, they must not come back. In fact when it comes to MP
representation in Parliament the Chinese backed zanu pf do a far much better job
that the MDC. Even during important sessions when the NGO Bill or AIPPA are
being debated MDC MPs don’t bother to turn up. No show? – go now!
Tsvangirai: global hip hopper and diplomatic
shuffler
Over the past two months Zvakwana has been getting
so many emails and feedback from the groundswell of agitators on the street
about two main issues:
- The MDCs suspension of
participation in the election
- MT’s diplomatic regional
shuffle
“Tsvangirai must seriously
start to mobilise, agitate and struggle inside Zimbabwe. What autonomy and
respect will Zimbabweans have if everything is done for them by Cosatu and the
South African government”. Zvakwana is asking MT to make sure that he also does
a very extensive tour of Zimbabwe when he comes back so that he is not so lulled
into false hope just because he has been puffed up by ululating exiles. The
majority of the struggle is rooted here in Zimbabwe. Yes, surely it is important
for MT to lobby regional and international leaders but the fact of the matter is
that this is where people need to Get UP. And on the point of the MDC’s
continued suspension of their participation in the elections: Zvakwana sends them a very big POM POM. From every walk of
life people are agreeing with this position. Indeed how can we have elections in
a country that is so lacking in freedom and when the outcome is already
recorded? Have you seen that there are so many leaflets circulating in HDAs
agreeing on non-participation? Contribute to the debate and write to news@zvakwana.org - yes, or no to
participating in the elections?
Bankrupt zanu pf seeking new ways to pay for their
elections
Did you hear about the zanu republic police going
around the CBD with loud hailers warning people that walking here and there on
the roads will cause them a spot fine of $100 000. Instead we are told that
pedestrians must cross at the zebra markings or the traffic lights where
motorists fail to stop so putting peoples lives in jeopardy. Zvakwana encourages
Zimbabweans to disregard these bogus police officers who are solely bent on
feeling up the organs of the illegitimate government. Yes of course we must be
careful on the roads, both pedestrians and motorists but this is just another
ploy on the part of the Chinese backed zanu pf to make some money and harass
peaceful citizens.
Fake dead bc licences are everywhere
dead bc
has stopped issuing tv and radio licences because they say that all over the
country there are fake dead bc licences being sold by sham dead bc officers.
Zvakwana is impressed with Zimbabweans DIY (do-it-yourself) activism. We say
subvert the illegitimate government at every turn! And Stand Up and Get Up for
your rights. Refuse to buy a licence until we have a representative public
media.
World AIDS Day – 1 December 2004 – No condom, no
way!
Remember! When you have sex - do it safely. Please put
on a condom to protect yourself and your partner. Our advice to sistas is: do it
for yourself! Make sure you take your health into your own hands. Either use a
Femidom or help your partner put the condom on so as to make sure that it’s done
properly.
Zvakwana activists are speaking OUT to their
MPs!
Zvakwana activists from around the country have been
writing to their MPs from all political parties to let them know what they think
about the current mess Zimbabwe is in. In particular, they have been writing to
the ministers responsible for a variety of portfolios to target the shambles
these many ministries are in. This activity even made the news when Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister paul mangwana received a letter from
a Zvakwana activist complaining about the lack of jobs and questioning what
mangwana is doing about it, and why he is spending his time pushing forward a
bill to close down many NGOs when what Zimbabwe needs is more organisations
operating here and more jobs! This letter upset mangwana so much because it went
straight to his home in Kadoma! Anyone can write to the MPs and ministers—they
are OUR representatives in OUR government and they need to be kept on their toes
at all times and held accountable to the people! You can look up their addresses
on the Parliament website on www.parlzim.gov.zw
Or write to us at news@zvakwana.org so we can give you more
information. It’s time to speak OUT and make sure our voices are
heard!
Bush boogies after another election victory: never mind the
peace sign, where are the weapons?
1) Go to www.google.com
2)
Type in "weapons of mass destruction" (DON'T hit return)
3) Hit the "I'm
feeling lucky" button, NOT the "Google Search"
4) Read the "error message"
carefully and thoroughly. Someone at Google has a sense of humour, and will
probably be fired soon!!!!
Make Sure You Read The Whole
Error.
Non-violent interventions
Gene Sharpe once
published 198 ways to create social and political change. A Zvakwana subscriber
wrote in recently and listed the many ways in which social justice activists in
Zimbabwe are toiling for democracy. Here is some of what we’re doing:
-
Petitions
- Graffiti
- Underground newspapers and leaflets
-
Underground music cassettes, CDs and video tapes
- Disruption of
international sporting events (watch out England)
- Symbolic gestures:
motorists persistently make rude gestures at the small dictator's black
benz
- Public prayer meetings and vigils
- Protest theatre
- MP walkout
of Parliament (stayout, don’t just walkout)
- Boycott of the herald, rates,
dead bc licences
- Withholding of income and sales tax
- Refusal to use
the regime's banks
- Refusal to use the shops or organisations of regime
sympathisers or regime chefs
- Strikes by many different constituencies:
teachers, postal workers, doctors
- Suspension of participation of
councillors
- Suspension of participation in flawed election
process
Some of these are big
interventions, and some small but its important to recognise that resistance is
alive in Zimbabwe.
Reminders of resistance
Last week Zvakwana
activists made sure that the England cricket team knew that their tour to
Zimbabwe was unwelcome. While we Zimbabweans are lacking very basic freedoms the
small dictator simply wants to show a normal face to the world. Zvakwana
graffiti was making headlines everywhere.
From the Mail &
Guardian
England Captain Michael Vaughan and his squad did not have
to wait long for a reminder of why they hesitated so long before travelling to
Zimbabwe on Friday. Just around the corner from Meikles, their five-star
downtown hotel, on a wall on Robert Mugabe Avenue, someone has scrawled "England
go home, shame on England." And "England go back". The opportunistic graffiti
could hardly have been missed by the players as they departed for practice at
the Harare Sports Ground, venue for the first match.
Roy Bennett – some information
One has to
wonder why it takes the detention of certain famous people to draw attention to
the disgusting conditions inside Zimbabwe’s prison cells. However we must take
every opportunity to urgently highlight the unjust treatment of the criminals
detained within our penal system. And we must be asking what organisations like
Amnesty Zimbabwe are doing to lobby for better conditions. Zvakwana got some
notifications from the Free Roy Bennett Campaign telling of the difficult
conditions inside. Meanwhile many more prisoners are suffering similar inhuman
treatment like Pachedu while fat cat chefs like chinamasa eat in expensive
hotels.
As Roy enters his third week
in custody, his family are becoming increasingly concerned about his well-being.
With only one visit, for 10 minutes, every two weeks it is difficult to get an
accurate picture of how he is being treated. He is sunburnt and the lack of
nutrition is beginning to become apparent. In addition, his long hours in the
sun mean that as Roy sweats the lice become more active and increasingly
painful. Roy is still not allowed any additional food or medication and
continues to share a cell designed for four people with 17 other prisoners. We
continue to pursue every avenue to secure his release but are constantly
frustrated by bureaucracy and intransigence on the part of the government and
all arms of State Security. On Tuesday 9th November Judge Hungwe heard our High
Court appeal against the severity of Roy's sentence for a relatively minor
crime. Judgement has still not been handed down in this matter. We believe that
the fact that patrick chinamasa, the man Roy pushed, is the Minister for
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary affairs may have something to do with this
delay. We have had an overwhelming response from people asking for a copy of the
petition calling for Roy's release. If you want a copy then please e-mail us
with the word "petition" in the subject line. Free Roy Bennett campaign freeroybennett@yahoo.com
And now we are hearing that
Pachedu has been moved by the regime to Mutoko police station. This is clearly a
political game going on. At least this gives Pachedu the opportunity to spread
the word to people all around Zimbabwe.
Thugs in parliament
It’s very painful to learn
that mugabe presides over these evil people in parliament. As a show of
solidarity, I propose that all MDC parliamentarians resign en-mass. What are
they to gain anyway as the three months remaining do not need them. When will
they rise to some meaningful challenge against chinamasa and moyo? By copy of
this letter I am notifying the brutality of this regime to the UN and White
House. Its all I can do for now. If these thugs need money to free him, please
give us the account number so we put in our small contributions.
- Tabeth,
Zvakwana subscriber
Want some activist stuff from Zvakwana?
Email
us at news@zvakwana.org with your postal
address (Zimbabwe only) and we’ll send you leaflets, matchboxes, and information
packs. Our Get UP cassettes are so popular – write to us if you’d like one and
make sure to listen to it everyday and turn up the volume! On this point we have
sent everyone who asked for a tape; if you haven’t by now received it please
tell us.
Fables are Made of This: For Ken Saro-Wiwa
(1941-96)
Ben Okri (From A Way of Being
Free)
If you want to know what is
happening in an age or in a nation, find out what is happening to the writers.
Are the writers sleeping? Then the age is in a dream. Are the writers strangely
silent? Then the era is brooding with undeciphered disturbances. But when you
hear that writers have been inexplicably murdered, silenced, that their houses
have mysteriously burnt down, that grotesque lies are told against them, that
they have fled their countries, that they dwell restlessly in exile, but above
all when you hear that writers have been sentenced to death by unjust tribunals,
then you can be sure that perils and the demons of war and the angels of
fragmentation have already begun their dreaded descent into the blood and the
suffering of the millions of people who inhabit that land.
The writer is the barometer
of the age. Elections can be rigged, their results undemocratically annulled,
and the rightful leaders installed in the presidential quarters of prison
houses. The people can be frightened into sullen acceptance, into cynicism, for
the sake of their children, for the sake of food. And they can go on living,
blessed by their incredible ability to wait for the diseased time to consume
itself, for better seasons to return, and for the earth to decompose the
arrogant certainties of tyrants.
But the writer, bristling
with the unacceptable that grows swollen in their sleeplessness, unable to carry
on for the sheer smell of dung in the age, the writer cannot help but break
faith temporarily with the wisdom of the people who have seen so many
monstrosities come and
go, so many famines consume themselves to death, so
many wars devour their children and eventually expire in a landscape devastated
and deserted.
The writer breaks cover; the
writer cries out at the injustices that run over and now spill out in floods
across the streets and byways; the writer wails words of blood at the death of
democracy, the beginning of fragmentation and civil war; the writer sometimes
even
abandons the pen out of monumental frustration, and takes other routes
to warn and draw attention to what can no longer be accepted—they become
activists, they become soldiers, or they take to politics as an extension of
their loving rage.
For, essentially, it is love
that we are talking about here; love for the better life that could be real for
all the people; love for the greater possibilities of the future that are being
murdered in the present by short-sighted leaders; love for a higher justice;
love for better breathing in the beggar and the basket-weaver; love for ordinary
women and men; love for the children; love for the regeneration of a people who
deserve so much better and who never seem to get any justice or much hope on
this round earth.
It is love that makes the
writer weep when a blood tide announces itself just over the horizon.
And when this love has been
sentenced to death, then those who have hearts that beat with blood, those with
flesh that feels the wind and the caress of a lover and life’s infinitely graded
sufferings, anyone who feels life within should hear this cry—writers are being
sentenced to death, executed for trying to remind a nation, in their own way, of
something that should be an acknowledged law that governs the rise and fall of
nations and people: what does not grow, dies; what does not face its truth,
perishes; those who believe that they can suppress freedom and yet live in
freedom are hopelessly deluded. Either a nation faces its uncomfortable truths,
or it is overwhelmed by them; for there is a prophetic consequence in the
perpetuation of
lies, just as there is an unavoidable fate for all those who
refuse to see.
There are some things on
earth that are stronger than death. One of these is the eternal human quest for
justice; a people cannot live without it, and in due course they will be
prepared to die to make it possible for their children.
Just A Little Bit More
By Anjum
Malik
Fighting over
mother earth
In the name of religion
In the name of state
In the name
of history
We sacrifice our futures
We destroy our hopes
We see only
revenge
We want death
We all want that
Piece of land
Which was once
our homeland
Some of us create new lands
Others want the old ones
back
However we name it
It is all destruction
Fighting, killing
It
is all murder
It all comes down
To our blood pouring
Our bodies
returning
Too early to this earth.
|
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