The Times
October 12, 2008
Jan Raath in Harare
Zimbabwe's opposition leader
has threatened day to pull out of the national
unity Government after
learning that Robert Mugabe had awarded all top
Cabinet posts to members of
his own party.
"An idiot wouldn't accept that," an angry Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said.
"That's not power sharing,
it's power grabbing."
Thabo Mbeki, the
former South African President, who mediated the
power-sharing deal between
the MDC and President Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party
last month, was due to fly to
Harare today to salvage the agreement, which
was meant to break the
country's long political impasse.
At the weekend Mr Mugabe gave Zanu (PF)
every important ministry, including
defence, home affairs - which controls
the police - justice, foreign affairs
and local government, but said that he
was prepared to discuss the finance
ministry.
Mr Tsvangirai, whose
party won the parliamentary elections earlier this year
and the most votes
in the first round of the presidential ballot, hit back.
It was "not
negotiable" that the ministry of home affairs should be taken
out of the
MDC's hands, he declared.
When Mr Mbeki arrived today, he said: "We shall
negotiate until agreement is
reached. But that doesn't mean we will
compromise. If we don't have the
instruments of change in this agreement,
then it is stillborn. That will be
the end of it. We will go our different
ways."
Mr Tsvangirai was speaking at a rally of 15,000 supporters in a
township
football stadium, surrounded by piles of uncollected rubbish and
suffused by
the stench of sewage from burst drains. It was the first large
gathering
that he had been able to address without disruption in seven
months.
"No, Robert Mugabe, stop that," Mr Tsvangirai said. "We are not
going to be
part of such an arrangement."
Mr Mugabe can now be
expected to drive his unilateral Cabinet through as a
fait accompli. MDC
officials said that they would not be surprised if Mr
Mbeki, who has been
accused of siding with Mr Mugabe, endorses the selection
of
ministries.
The MDC's last hope after that is that the Southern African
Development
Community, the 14-nation regional political alliance that
convened the
talks, will reject what observers describe as a coup. Although
Mr Mugabe's
support in the grouping has dwindled, it is seen as unlikely
that they would
all turn against him.
Mr Mugabe may only be delaying
the inevitable, as Zimbabwe faces a famine,
economic collapse and the demise
of the health and education systems.
"Zimbabwe is closer to the tipping
point than ever before," said a Western
diplomat. "The legendary stoicism of
the Zimbabwean people has never been
tested like this. Mugabe may have
overplayed his hand."
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa News
Oct
12, 2008, 16:23 GMT
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's pro-democracy
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Sunday
a troubled power-sharing agreement with
President Robert Mugabe would be
'stillborn' if Mugabe fails to yield at
least control of the key Ministry of
Home Affairs to Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC).
Tsvangirai's remarks put the agreement on
even shakier ground than it had
been Saturday after 84-year-old Mugabe, the
autocratic head of the Zanu-PF
party, declared Saturday that he had
allocated to his party nearly all key
ministries, including those
responsible for the army, police and the secret
police. Sponsored
Links:
Under the power-sharing agreement, those were meant to be shared
between the
parties of Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, head of a
small faction
of the MDC.
Tsvangirai told about 15,000 ebullient
supporters at a Harare rally Sunday
that Mugabe 'has been allocating himself
ministries, but we haven't agreed.
'Don't take any notice of it. Power
sharing is non-negotiable. If Zanu-PF
takes (the ministry of) defence, we
take home affairs (which includes the
police). That is
non-negotiable.'
Tsvangirai, Mugabe and Mutambara are due to meet in
Harare Monday with
former South African president Thabo Mbeki, the mediator
in negotiations
that led to an agreement signed September 15 for an
'inclusive' interim
government meant to lift the country out economic,
humanitarian and
political chaos.
Tsvangirai said Sunday that 'as
long as there is an opportunity, we will
continue to negotiate until we
reach an agreement.' But he also warned that
the MDC would withdraw from
talks on political power-sharing if mediation
failed to break a month-long
deadlock.
The implementation of the agreement has been stalled for nearly
a month over
the allocation of cabinet posts, with Mugabe demanding all the
government's
important portfolios.
The MDC has insisted on running
the home affairs ministry so it can reduce
Mugabe's control of the country's
security forces. It also wants to run the
finance ministry, although it has
agreed to let Mugabe's Zanu-PF party
retain the defence
ministry.
Mugabe's allocation of the ministries - officially proclaimed
on Friday, 'is
not power-sharing, but power grabbing,' Tsvangirai said. 'Not
even an idiot
would accept that.'
Mbeki was due in Harare on Monday
to help resolve the impasse, Tsvangirai
said. 'We will try by all means to
stick to this agreement. We shall
negotiate until agreement is reached. But
we will not compromise. If that
fails, then we will say that this marriage
failed to consummate (sic).
'If we don't have the instruments affecting
change in this agreement, then
it is stillborn. That will be the end of it.
We will try different ways,' he
said, accusing Mugabe of 'destroying the
agreement.'
Mugabe was 'not concerned about people's problems, but with
retention of
power,' Tsvangirai continued. Zanu-PF does not want the MDC to
run the
police because 'they are afraid' of being investigated for
corruption and
theft of state property. 'We have no plan to arrest,' he went
on. 'Zanu-PF
must understand we have no intention of embarking on a
retributive agenda.'
The rally was the first Tsvangirai has been able to
hold without
interruption by police for the last seven months. Authorities
continue to
refuse to issue a passport to him.
Zanu-PF suffered its
first defeat in parliamentary elections and the
presidential vote in March
at the MDC's hands. But Tsvangirai failed to win
an outright majority in the
presidential ballot, necessitating a second
round.
Mugabe launched a
bloody offensive of violent intimidation that saw about
130 MDC supporters
murdered and thousands severely injured and made
homeless. Mugabe was
declared the winner, but the result was condemned by
the rest of the
world.
IOL
October 12
2008 at 12:35PM
By Peta Thornycroft
In a
pre-emptive strike ahead of former president Thabo Mbeki's
attempt to
unblock the deadlocked Zimbabwe power-sharing agreement,
President Robert
Mugabe has unilaterally allocated cabinet posts to his
Zanu-PF and the two
Movement for Democratic Change parties.
For more than a week, in
repeated negotiating sessions, prime minister
designate Morgan Tsvangirai
and MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara refused
to agree that Zanu-PF could
have the home affairs ministry.
Zanu-PF had already insisted it
would keep state security and the
defence portfolios, and the MDC seemed to
accept this.
When talks broke down finally on Friday between the
three signatories
to the September 15 power-sharing agreement, with
Tsvangirai and Mutambara
blocking Mugabe, he finally relented and said Mbeki
should return to Harare.
Mbeki's spokesperson
Mukoni Ratshitanga confirmed on Saturday that
Mbeki would be going to Harare
on Monday to try to break the deadlock.
Asked if Zanu-PF's apparent
pre-emptive strike by gazetting a cabinet
unilaterally would change Mbeki's
plans, Ratshitanga said: "We are going to
Harare to discuss all matters that
bear on the current dispute".
Sometime after 5pm on Friday, a
gazette was allegedly produced at the
government printer, allocating the 31
ministries to the three parties,
claiming this had been agreed during
negotiations.
The only ministry outstanding, according to the
state-controlled
Herald newspaper, was the ministry of finance, a portfolio
Zanu-PF can never
control if it wants Western aid for Zimbabwe - probably
the only reason
Mugabe has agreed to share power with the MDC.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said: "The Herald-published list of
ministries is a product of unilateral, contemptuous and outrageous
machinations by Zanu-PF. In fact, it is a giant act of madness which puts
the whole deal into jeopardy. Zanu-PF cannot nocturnally allocate ministries
barely hours after the three principals agreed to disagree by referring the
matter to the mediator after a logjam over all key ministries.
"Zanu-PF's ploy is to pre-empt the visit of the mediator and any
attempt by
SADC to try and help Zimbabweans locate exit points to the
current impasse.
The MDC believes that Mr Mugabe, who lost the election on
29 March, cannot
arrogate upon himself the right to unilaterally allocate
ministries outside
the framework of the dialogue process".
Chamisa issued a list of
portfolios which differed significantly from
that apparently
gazetted.
Mbeki could find himself trying to facilitate agreement
and even
naming of the 31 ministries and deputies provided for in the
agreement, as
well as the 10 powerful provincial governors, which Mugabe has
claimed and
already announced appointments.
No work has yet
been done on a constitutional amendment to allow the
new government to begin
to govern. When the amendment is agreed, it has to
be put to parliament a
month before it can be confirmed with a two-thirds
majority.
On
his return to Harare, Mbeki will find that things have taken a turn
for the
worst, with the government admitting it cannot even manage to run
end-of-year school examinations which were due to begin on Monday and half
of the population on brink of starvation.
This article
was originally published on page 15 of Sunday Argus on
October 12, 2008
12 hours
ago
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe's allocation of key
ministries
to his party will be discussed when former South African
president Thabo
Mbeki meets Monday with Zimbabwe's political leaders,
Mbeki's spokesman
said.
"Mr Mbeki is travelling to Zimbabwe tomorrow
(Monday). The allocation of the
ministries and all other issues will be
discussed in Harare when he meets
that country's political leaders," Mukoni
Ratshitanga told AFP Sunday.
Spokesman of the main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC),
Nelson Chamisa, on Sunday made a passionate
appeal to Mbeki and regional
bloc SADC to help resolve the power-sharing
crisis.
"Mr Mbeki, please help Zimbabwe. We need your help. We also need
the help of
and support of the SADC (Southern African Development Community)
in
Zimbabwe," Chamisa said in an interview on SA FM radio.
He
described Mugabe's decision to grab the key ministries for his party as
"arrogant, unilateral and unacceptable."
"It kills the talks
completely. This (action) flies in the face of the
dialogue and an attempt
by the SADC to help us out of this crisis. Clearly,
it is an act in bad
faith," said Chamisa.
A government notice carried by the state-run Herald
newspaper said Saturday
the veteran leader had given his ZANU-PF party 14
ministries, including the
defence, home, foreign affairs, justice, local
government and media
portfolios.
Furthermore Mugabe -- in power since
Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from
Britain -- would retain control of the
army, police and other state security
apparatus, the notice
said.
Mbeki is SADC-mandated mediator in the Zimbabwe crisis.
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com
Local
News
October 12, 2008 | By Gerald Harper
A senior ZANU PF official has
professed ignorance about a 'ministries
allocation' released to the state
media on Friday fuelling speculation that
the move could have been a
propaganda offensive by Mugabe's spokesman George
Charamba before Mbeki
arrives for mediation tomorrow(Monday).
A few hours earlier Mugabe had
met with Morgan Tsvangirai and the two
decided to call in a mediator to
break the impasse over allocation of
defence, information,home affairs and
finance ministries.
"The three leaders agreed to call in the facilitator
to assist in resolving
the outstanding issues. An appeal will be made to the
facilitator for him to
travel to Zimbabwe," said ZANU PF chief negotiator
Patrick Chinamasa.
However a senior ZANU PF official who requested that
his identity be
withheld told Metro that the list was ZANU PF 's negotiating
position and
nothing has been agreed on.
"That is our negotiating
position,and it was foolish by who ever did it to
reveal it,nothing has been
concluded yet. "
It is still not clear why the list was realised but
pundits said initial
observations indicate whatever the strategy was it
backfired.
Newspapers were quick to point out the imbalance and headlines
screamed on
Saturday;
"Mugabe claims all key ministries"-Mail and
Guardian,South Africa
"Power deal crisis as top jobs seized by Mugabe" -Mail
and Guardian,UK
"Mugabe hands key ministries to ZANU-PF"-AFP
"Mugabe grabs
key ministries, angers opposition"- SABC,South Africa
"Mugabe claims key
ministries"-The Sunday Times,South Africa
"Probably ZANU PF wanted to
portray the MDC as being unreasonable,but you
cannot grab all security
ministries and try to portray that as a genuine
power-sharing agreement,"
noted Asher Tarivona-Mutsengi, a Canada based
social commentator who also
hastened to point out that the newly created
Ministry of Prisons and
Correctional Services was missing from the ZANU PF
list.
University
of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure said Mugabe's
action was
designed to pre-empt Mbeki's mediation effort."It's a pre-emptive
move to
Mbeki to say this is what we want. Mugabe has taken the lion's share
and
gave a mouse to MDC," said Masunungure. "What Mugabe has done breeds
ill-wish and it deepens distrust between the parties."
Last week
Mugabe's spokesman claimed that only the Finance ministry was
outstanding
but that statement was quickly dismissed by the MDC.
Mbeki, who clinched
the Zimbabwe power-sharing deal days before he was
forced to give up South
Africa's presidency by his ruling ANC party, has
agreed to continue his
mediation role and will travel to Harare on Monday.
In August this year a
reporter with The Herald revealed that the Mugabe's
spokesman who also
controls the state media George Charamba gave the state
paper the highly
sensitive talks documents to publish before any agreements
were
signed.
'We were surprised when Charamba gave us the documents way before
the talks
were concluded on Tuesday afternoon,and specifically told the
headline
should read ' New dawn:Deal sealed', we published some of the
document
contents the following day. At first we thought indeed a deal has
been
reached,but Charamba called us back with specific instructions on what
the
story should say', the source revealed.
There was no deal reached
then but the state media went on to publish the
story saying MDC faction
leader Arthur Mutambara and ZANU PF had signed a
deal,the story backfired
heavily. In the same story the paper went on to
repeat the mantra that
Tsvangirai is a western puppet,despite a MOU clause
warning against hateful
language.
The MDC warned that irresponsible reporting under the direction
of Mugabe's
spokesman Charamba on the talks will effectively destroy the
talks between
it and ZANU PF.
The MDC warned; 'This report will
fundamentally undermine and kill the
dialogue. ..these are the actions of a
desperate and cornered regime, which
we find corrosive. We urge Zanu PF to
desist from executing this sly,
nicodimus and foolish process but to
navigate Zimbabwe out of the current
crisis."
Charamba belongs to the
Mnagagwa faction in ZANU PF which has long been
accused of trying to
sabotage the talks and was key player in the ill-fated
Ndiyane plot on
December 2004 which was meant to catapult Mnagagwa to the
vice presidency,
Charamba drafted a speech for Mnangagwa for the event and
hired a plane for
the meeting. The plot backfired.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5715
October 11, 2008
By Eddie
Cross
YESTERDAY the World Food Programme issued an alarming statement on
the food
crisis in Zimbabwe. They appealed for an additional US$140 million
to cover
the shortfall in basic food aid for the next six months. What they
did not
say was that this still leaves a shortfall in overall cereal and
oilseed
supplies of 800 000 tonnes for the next six months.
It also
failed to highlight that we are now weeks away from the start of the
rains
and there is very little land preparation, virtually no seed and
fertilizer.
It is too late to import supplies in any quantity and even if we
did we
would have to distribute by air, as local transport capacity is
almost
non-existent. They also did not tell the world that the funds they
had paid
to the NGO's doing food distribution had been taken by the Reserve
Bank and
the organisations could not pay their transporters for transport
services or
buy fuel.
The gold producers have sold gold to the Reserve Bank over the
past nine
months and have not been paid - they are now unable to operate and
are
closingtheir mines down allowing them to flood and in some cases they
will
not be able to reopen them. It is not only the NGO's who have had their
FCA's
looted - virtually every business that I know has had their FCA
cleaned out
and they have been unable to access them to pay
suppliers.
These funds - legally property of the account holders, have
been taken by
the Bank and then sold to Zanu-PF leaders at the "official"
exchange rate -
this is technically legal but is clearly theft. The official
rate is a small
fraction of one cent per US dollar. In fact it is
0,000000003 local dollars
per US dollar. This means that US$10 000 would
cost a Zanu PF heavy
Z$0,003 - not even one cent in the new local
currency.
The physical evidence of this theft of resources is everywhere.
Reports of
people arriving at homes for sale and paying cash in foreign
exchange -
without trying to negotiate the price. New cars without number
plates (we
have run out of number plate materials) are all over Harare. The
reports of
the Governor handing out expensive vehicles as if they were his
own - one
report that the Pastor who buried the governor's younger brother
being given
a new twin cab as a thank you for a few hours work and kind
words.
I would hazard a guess that in the past few months no less than
US$500
million has been pilfered from the State and private coffers in this
way.
That is enough money to feed the entire population for 7 months. No
wonder
they do not want to wrap up this agreement and swear in a new
government.
They must be terrified of anyone getting into the vaults and
records at the
Reserve Bank.
While they fiddle and prevaricate, the
country burns. Lawlessness is
rampant; gangs of thugs are seizing private
property on farms with no fear
of intervention by the police. This seems to
be even encouraged by rouge
elements in Zanu-PF who want the negotiated deal
to fail and at the same
time are lashing out at the defenseless in an orgy
of thuggery and theft.
Since our priority is to feed people the needs of
our animals are being put
on the back burner. I get reports of dairy cows
dying of starvation. The
largest pig producer in the country is about to
slaughter their entire
commercial breeding stock - 33 000 pigs. Poultry
producers have cut back
their activities to the minimum. Once this is
carried out reestablishing
this productive capacity will be a long
process.
Yesterday the president of the MDC and now the new Prime
Minister, held a
press conference in Harare. In that meeting he stated that
no progress had
been made in the past 24 days since the SADC agreement was
signed in
September. He went on to say that he was suspending any further
contact with
Zanu-PF until the regional mediation team was present to
arbitrate those
discussions.
In addition to this he made the
extraordinary disclosure that the agreement
signed and subsequently
published, did not include the full details that had
been negotiated and
signed during the process. He requested that the
mediators remedy this by
publishing a new version of the agreement in full.
He also said that
Zanu-PF - in complete violation of the agreement, was
refusing to review the
appointment of 10 governors to the provinces and to
then reallocate these
posts on the basis of the majority representation in
each Province. The
Governors play an important role in local politics and
the administration
and Zanu is insisting that the 10 people appointed - in
clear violation of
the SADC process, should remain. If the reallocation of
Governors based on
the party majorities in each Province were carried out
MDC (T) would get
five, Zanu PF four and MDC (M) one.
Clearly the SADC process can only
proceed if this impasse in the allocation
of powerful political posts is
resolved. Zanu-PF is reluctant to let go
because of the consequences to
themselves and the loss of privilege and
protection. But that is of little
concern to the region and should not be a
factor. They never sought or
obtained an amnesty for what they have done in
the past and must face the
consequences of their actions.
The delay in the consummation of this deal
is now having very critical
consequences. Every day lost is a serious
matter. Inflation at 1,4 trillion
percent in September is destroying all
forms of economic activity. The
collapse in the economy and in all social
services is driving tens of
thousands of Zimbabweans, skilled and unskilled
out of the country. We are
now into new territory in this saga - one from
where it will be very tough
to claw ourselves back.
The new President
of South Africa said yesterday that he would back Mr Mbeki's
mediation with
the resources and the influence that was needed. If the SADC
mediation team
does not engage very shortly, they will put the country and
the region into
jeopardy.
http://english.ohmynews.com
Zimbabwe Deadlock: Early Signs of a Doomed Marriage
Ntungamili Nkomo
Published 2008-10-12 09:05
(KST)
The mass of hope that cascaded across Zimbabwe on the ides
of September when
an historic power-sharing deal was sealed between
President Mugabe's Zanu PF
and the MDC is now sadly fracturing into
smithereens of despair and
frustration for millions of Zimbabweans, thanks
to Mugabe's refusal to share
key ministries with his
rivals.
Matter-of-factly, both formations of the MDC now find themselves
caught
between the devil and the deep blue sea. The million dollar dilemma
that
faces them is whether to pull out of the skewed agreement, as some
sections
seem to encourage, or fight on.
While pulling out might
sound so fashionable, it might not be the best
choice for a party disreputed
for lacking strategy and contingency when
tackling difficult situations such
as this.
If they do, the consequences may be too ghastly to contemplate.
The
declaration Thursday by Prime Minister-designate, Morgan Tsvangirai of a
deadlock in the negotiations came as no surprise, and his disclosure that
his movement had since sounded up mediator, Thabo Mbeki to fly in and help
break the impasse only made sense.
But the MDC must have realised
from the outset that the marriage they were
committing themselves to with
Zanu PF would not be as easy an affair as pie.
And the refusal by Mugabe and
his lieutenants to cede some of the primary
ministries, out of real or
imagined fear, can only be seen as a microcosm of
more trouble that lies
ahead. These are early signs of a doomed marriage
between a saint and a
prostitute.
The dispute over key portfolios such as Finance, Home
Affairs, Foreign
Affairs, Local Government, etc, has its roots deep in the
flawed document
the three parties signed on Sept. 15.
The document is
generously, but ridiculously open-ended. It has no definite
deadlines for
the implementation of the unity government agreement, and it
maintains a
deafening silence on which portfolios should be parceled to
which political
party. And yet, this must have formed the core of the whole
negotiation
process. The unity government paper is so flawed one would think
it was
drafted by a team of Zanu PF lawyers paired against a bunch of
clueless
layman representing the MDC.
By defying common sense and refusing to let
go any of the key ministries,
Zanu PF is simply exploiting a cocktail of
glaring loopholes in the
agreement.
I am mindful of the fact that
it took a little lot compromise for the
concerned parties to sign up for a
unity government, but I strongly feel
that there was oversight, on the part
of the MDC negotiating teams who
failed to recognize such loopholes and
remedy them before the deal was
signed. Had lawyers who led the MDC teams
applied their legal brains with
ingenuity and insisted on a document that
clearly defined power-sharing
terms, I doubt we would be having the problems
we are currently having with
Zanu PF as a nation today.
MDC-T
spokesman, Nelson Chamisa admitted as much this week. It was an
admission I
found honorable in my elementary judgment because not so many
politicians
make mistakes and admit wrongdoing when things really get ugly.
Judging
from their not-so-fancy history, it appears the MDC resemble a
predator
which has made forays into a new jungle and still battling to adapt
and
learn tricks of an unfamiliar prey.
They just seem to be failing dismally
in their collective wisdom to outsmart
Zanu PF in any respect,
intellectually and otherwise.
Instead of Tsvangirai comfortably relying
on the limited wisdom of his
"kitchen cabinet" on formations to employ when
tackling Zanu PF, I think he
needs a new team of astute brainsmiths who will
breathe a new life in his
advisory board. On his part, Arthur Mutambara
needs to put his foot down and
take charge of his camp. It's a fact that he
has totally lost control.
Reasons vary, and can be too laborious to
elucidate here.
But that aside, at this critical juncture when the nation
is faced with the
ugly reality of a retrogressive and belligerent Zanu PF
repudiating every
key aspect of the power-sharing agreement, I think
Mutambara and Tsvangirai
should temporarily put their differences aside and
fight as a single
formidable force. This, they must do publicly. Yes, they
lead two diametric
formations, but I feel this is a serious time which begs
them to join hands.
As signatories to the unity agreement fighting a common
monster, they should
speak with one voice and confront Zanu PF as one
force.
They should also cast their vision beyond the divvying up of
cabinet posts.
Their focus and scrutiny should center on the finest details
of the
agreement they signed. While I remain optimistic a solution will soon
be
found, with the intervention of the AU, Sadc and its point man, Mbeki, I
hope the current logjam provided some rude lessons to the MDC and its
leadership.
Perennial wisdom has it that a wise farmer does not
engage a wolf to look
after their sheep and then go on a honeymoon. That's
just more than
suicidal.
They should start contemplating problems
that might arise again with Zanu PF
in the constitution-making process and
other power-sharing processes and
proffer contingency measures they will
take. It's obvious the writing of the
new constitution will not be an easy
task. The process will certainly be
grueling due to squabbling, arrogance
and self-serving agendas, mainly on
the part of Zanu PF. The MDC should
beware.
Zanu PF will employ every dirty trick in its book to throw
spanners into the
whole unity government process. It is mind-boggling why
leaders of this
mafia group masquerading as a pan-African political
organisation agreed to
power-sharing when they knew they were not committed
at all.
I think it's high time the AU and Sadc took off their kids'
gloves and deal
decisively with Mugabe and his junta.
Mugabe has
killed enough of our people and should be stopped forthwith
before he
exterminates the whole population. By dragging his feet while the
nation
burns, the geriatric leader and his imbecilic associates are waging a
brutal
war similar to the Gukurahundi which is silently consuming hundreds
of
thousands of Zimbabweans who are succumbing to starvation and disease
daily.
For God's sake, if I may ask; do those in Zanu PF honestly
think it's in the
best interest of the nation for them to retain the Finance
ministry? Will
they be able to turn around the economy they have so
spectacularly wrecked
in the past 28 years? How miraculous will that
be!
Do they heartily believe that the MDC will run rampage, in the spirit
of
vengeance, and throw all of them in jail when it takes over the police
force?
What are they scared off? If they have never butchered,
maimed, robbed and
raped, why are they curling into a bunch of nerves at the
mention of the
Home Affairs falling into the hands of the MDC?
I
believe Zanu PF are a dying horse unleashing devastating kicks, but their
demise is as certain as dawn.
They may dill-dally and play monkey
tricks for now, but one day they will
have to swallow their intransigence
and surrender, just like they did when
they were dragged to the negotiating
table. The only problem is that it may
be too late when they come to
reckoning. It is therefore, the duty of the
Sadc and the AU to make sure no
further time is wasted in dealing with the
Cabinet issue. As Tsvangirai has
requested, they should come in, and come in
quickly.
On their part,
the MDC formations should ready themselves for nasty nights
with the harlot
they declared, "yes we do" to on Sept. 15.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5736
October 12, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
BULAWAYO - About 50 families, among them some claiming to
be veterans of
Zimbabwe's war of liberation, have been evicted from a farm
in Matabeleland
North by a Zanu-PF member who claims to be a brother of
Foreign Affairs
Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi.
The families, now
stranded and living out in the open, were evicted on
Friday from Lettersdert
Farm which they invaded and from which they evicted
a commercial farmer back
in 2000 at the height of the chaotic land seizures
that were sanctioned by
President Robert Mugabe.
The families have now been evicted Dr Tinus
Mumbengegwi, a Bulawayo
businessmen who is known to be Zanu-PF member.
Mumbengegwi is the brother to
the outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister,
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi .
He evicted the families with the help of riot
police on Friday. He allegedly
declared that Lettersdert Farm would be
turned into grazing land for his
cattle. He did not deny this when he was
contacted for comment.
"The police evicted us from the farm and dumped us
with all our belongings
by the roadside," Rodrick Moyo, one of the evicted
war veterans, said at the
roadside on Sunday. "We have been living in the
open since our eviction.
Mumbengegwi said the farm was allocated to him in
2003 and that the land is
earmarked for grazing for his
cattle."
Asked to comment, Mumbengegwi confirmed the eviction of the 50
families. He
said the families were illegally occupying his land since the
farm was
allocated to him in 2003 by the Lands Ministry.
"I was
allocated the farm in 2003 by the Lands Resettlement Ministry and as
such
the eviction of the families is not illegal as I have the offer
letter,"
Mumbengegwi confirmed yesterday producing a photocopied land offer
letter.
No comment could be obtained from the Lands Ministry to
verify the
authenticity of Mumbengegwi's letter.
Mumbengegwi added:
"I am transporting a number of cattle to the farm. I am
turning the farm
into grazing land for my cattle and the families cannot
share the farm with
my cattle as they might steal the cattle."
This eviction incident follows
the eviction of another war veteran from a
farm in Nyamandlovu recently by
Zanu-PF militias and fellow ex.-combatants
who accused her of refusing to
feed them at a base camp which they set up in
April adjacent to her farm as
part of the presidential election campaign.
The war veterans looted maize
as well as farm machinery and other property
after evicting Rejoice
Sibanda-Ncube from Redwood Farm in Nyamandlovu.
Sibanda-Ndlovu occupied the
farm after evicting Alex Goosen, the previous
owner of the farm during the
violent land invasions in 2000.
The new owners of the farm say
Sibanda-Ndlovu should have continued to feed
them long after President
Mugabe won the second presidential election for
which they were deployed to
campaign.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by ZACRO Monday
13 October 2008
"Human Rights for Prisoners": Paper presented
at the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights workshop on October 4 in
Bulawayo.
Preamble
Largely, the Zimbabwe Association for Crime
Prevention and Rehabilitation of
the Offender; (ZACRO) objectives revolve
around catering for the welfare of
prisoners and ex-offenders and seeking
further penal reforms. The
organisation notes that human rights
are;
. Essential to a human being without which one cannot live in
dignity as a
person
. Universal for they are minimum acceptable
standards worldwide.
. Inalienable for they can not be separated from
existence of a human being
nor are they a gift from another; and
.
Interdependent, indivisible and interrelated.
However, it is within the
context of human rights of prisoners which are
civil, economic and social
natured that this paper seeks for their:
. Exploration,
.
Realisation,
. Protection,
. Respect and
.
Acknowledgement.
In this light ZACRO focus on the right to - life,
liberty, protection from
inhuman and degrading treatment, torture,
protection of the law, freedom to
expression, association and assembly
regarding those incarcerated and
released from prison. Further analysis of
the plight of prisoners reveals
that - economic and social rights including
the right to health, education,
shelter, food, adequate clean water and to a
family remain crucial and need
to be attended to.
The Constitution of
Zimbabwe clearly underlines that prisoners possess
certain fundamental
rights which are necessary to preserve their dignity and
humanity. On the
contrary these provisions are not closely respected and
protected because
the constitution has not been revisited and amended in
view of realizing and
protecting the human rights for prisoners. Hence there
is always need for
ZACRO to intervene and lobby for penal reforms which suit
protection of
human rights for prisoners.
Situational Analysis of Prisons in
Zimbabwe
Prisons in Zimbabwe have remained secretive and closed
institutions to
majority people yet real experiences in the prisons reveal
numerous human
rights issues around plight of inmates which demand
intervention by ZACRO.
This comes in the wake that conditions of prisons
have deteriorated
drastically over the past few years while political will
has not been
responding to the challenges facing Zimbabwe's prisons. Most
disturbing is
that the current economic environment has seen plight of
inmates plunging
into deeper levels of despondency while economic problems
are forcing more
people to commit criminal offences.
In addition,
findings reveal that with a capacity around 17 000, the country's
55 prisons
including satellites are holding over 35 000 inmates seeing them
marred with
numerous issues affecting inmates which need urgent address.
These mainly
include:
. Overcrowding,
. Unhygienic conditions,
. Lack of
proper food,
. Medical care,
. Spread of diseases and
.
Deaths in custody.
Many individuals are imprisoned for long periods under
unacceptable
conditions without legal representation. In this context, ZACRO
supports
imprisonment for the benefit of society through correctional means
with
emphasis placed on rehabilitation, integration, provision of
humanitarian
assistance to the inmates and advocacy for penal
reform
. This intervention is in line with complementing efforts by
Zimbabwe Prison
Service (ZPS) which involve introduction of more
professionals like social
workers who are set to rehabilitate inmates while
concerned with human
rights for the inmates. This has become clear testimony
involving shifting
prisons from mere incarceration centers to correctional
and rehabilitative
institutions in the country. On this note - the following
are descriptions
of areas where human rights for prisoners which are
economically and
socially natured are of major concern in the country's
prisons for they are
mostly tampered with.
Plight of Prisoners in
Zimbabwe.
(1) Socio-economic rights
Overcrowding in
prisons
. Many of the prisons are too small and very old with some having
been
converted by government from farm houses into prisons. Examples are
Hurungwe
and Tabudirira farm prisons. Other prisons like Mazoe Farm prison
and
Chikurubi female prison were made of corrugated metal structures during
the
colonial days while to date they need expansion and refurbishment. In
these
prisons - inadequate floor space in cells further results in
overcrowding.
Only few new prisons complexes built after independence
attainment in 1980
like Hwahwa medium depict how a modern standard penal
institution is
supposed to be which relatively matches United Nations
Standard minimum
rules of treating prisoners.
. Most worrying is that
overcrowding has since become one of the
predisposing conditions for the
spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and
opportunistic diseases like TB,
cholera and pellagra which has resulted in
deaths of some inmates in the
country's prisons.
Though national statistics could not be availed by
time of compilation -
deaths continued to be recorded at Chikurubi Maximum
prison and Harare
Central Prisons among other prisons.
Hygiene and
sanitation
. Poor hygiene and sanitation have become major concern in the
prisons.
Water cuts are frequent, thus seeing sanitation consisting of
one bucket in
the corner of a multi-occupied cell, with water for washing
and drinking
being provided in another bucket. Most cells in the country's
prisons with
toilets are not flashing due to unavailability of water and
malfunctions,
thus health hazards were increasing in the prisons. At times
some of the ill
inmates with communicable diseases are not separated - a
situation likely to
see those affected by opportunistic diseases such as TB
affecting others.
Let alone, many of the prisons mainly female ones do not
have cleaning
facilities such as detergents, brooms and protective cloths
when cleaning
their cells and toilets. Also due to lack of sanitary
facilities - inmates
end up tearing their ragged blankets when relieving
themselves in the
toilets which have always seen the toilets blocking. Most
disturbing is that
some cells do not have a toilet which is most common with
female prisons in
the country. Inmates in cells without toilets end up using
a bucket for
relieving themselves. The health hazards associated with this
practice
remains major worry to the inmates who mostly do not have soap to
wash their
hands, bodies or uniforms.
Uniform and bedding
needs
. There is great need for adequate bedding and uniform requirements
in
the country's prisons. In fact shortage of uniforms is major cause of
concern in prisons. Many times prisoners are seen wearing tattered and torn
uniforms. There have been reports of prisoners going almost naked while they
have the right to proper clothing like other human beings. In fact most
inmates were found to be having one pair of shorts and shirts apparently
tattered and rarely washed due to inadequacy of water and soap. Where there
is severe overcrowding, prisoners may sleep on the floor while blankets are
inadequate. Disadvantaged group of prisoners that include women and their
innocent children in prisons are also severely affected in this
regard.
Diet, food and other needs
. Food was available in some
prisons with farms. Those without farms were
facing acute shortage of food.
At times food provided is not properly
prepared and is mostly of inadequate
nutritional value. Just as the whole
country was affected by hyperinflation
among economic problems - shortage of
basic needs like cooking oil and sugar
has continued to affect operations of
prisons and welfare of inmates. The
budgetary allocations to the prisons are
also very low. In fact the general
prisoners' requirements prescribed in
statutory instrument 1 of 1996 are
falling far short in the prisons.
. Prisoners are supposed to be given
bread, tea, margarine or jam, milk,
sugar among basic needs but these are
not available. They are taken for
leisure items as one inmate related.
Mostly they are given sadza (starch
alone) and vegetables and not much
exposed to a full diet. This has seen
some of them suffering from pellagra
which has to date contributed to high
death rates in the prisons. Most
worrying is that children living with their
incarcerated mothers in prisons
are not allocated their own rations and have
to share rations for their
jailed mothers. This has seen the children having
inadequate food and likely
exposed to diseases like kwashiorkor in the
prisons. This calls for stepping
up intervention involving rendering
humanitarian assistance to the
prisons.
Medical and drug supplies
. Predisposing conditions like
overcrowding, poor sanitation, poor food
preparation and inadequate washing
facilities render prisoners extremely
vulnerable to some diseases. Common
diseases continuously affecting inmates
include diarrhea, cholera, malaria,
TB and HIV / AIDS. However what has been
noted is that medicines and medical
equipment are inadequate in most prisons
in Zimbabwe. Prisoners are
therefore obliged to buy their own medicines
through their families. But the
obvious truth is that only those with money
can afford the much needed
drugs.
. On the other hand a high proportion of the general population in
the
prisons is affected with HIV/AIDS which calls for the corporate world,
civic
organizations including ZACRO to step up interventions towards fight
against
HIV/AIDS in prisons. Most appreciated is that - though in Zimbabwe
Anti -
Retroviral Tablets (ARVs) are expensive these are available in
prisons. The
main problem is that nutritious food is not available which is
necessary to
boost immunity of inmates affected by the pandemic. The
shortage of food in
most prisons remains a scenario undermining disease
mitigation programs in
the prisons
Educational needs
. ZACRO
is involved in channeling educational assistance to inmates which
include
sourcing and distributing relevant books to the prison library for
use by
inmates as well as paying for their examination and trade tests fees.
This
is in line with Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
which states that, "everyone (including prisoners) has the right to
education. Although this universally acknowledged right is supposed to be
enjoyed by everybody regardless of social status, many prisoners are unable
to pursue education in prisons. This is due to break down of social
relations and support hence they lack resources to fully pursue education in
the prisons. This has seen ZACRO intervening towards boosting educational
needs and development for prisoners in the country. On the other hand there
are no check and balances on educational development in the prisons. The ZPS
education department was not doing justice to this cause by not channeling
committed prison officials who are teachers to teach the inmates. In fact
prisoners were teaching themselves.
Treatment of prisoners and
work
. Compared to colonial regime days prison management involving
Ill-treatment
of prisoners is gradually going away owing to training of
prison officials
being orientated to realise and respect prisoners' rights
in the country's
penal institutions. However at times work on the prisons
farms by the
inmates is compulsory rather than this taken for a
rehabilitation exercise.
After all prisoners have always complained that the
forced labor is
strenuous. Some of the inmates are found doing work for
prison officers even
though this does not tally with prison rules. Many
times the prisoners
polish shoes for the prison officers while kneeling down
which further
degrades the offender. Reports that some top government
officials hire labor
from prisons without paying for labor rendered is
something yet to be fully
investigated. This deprives ZPS of its labor
benefit which if paid can
cushion some needs in maintenance and up keep of
inmates.
(2) Civil liberties
In the light on human rights for
prisoners - ZACRO further focus on the
right to -
. life,
.
liberty,
. protection from inhuman and degrading treatment and
torture,
. protection of the law,
. freedom to
expression,
. association and assembly.
More attention is placed
on plight of political prisoners whose number has
increased over the past
years owing to political instability in the country.
ZACRO encourages prison
visits by relatives of those incarcerated for at
times relatives may not
know that their relative is in prison more so after
one has been imprisoned
in a far away penal institution. In fact prisons
visits have proved to be an
eye opener to the situation around prisoners
which needs to be valued by
relatives of those imprisoned. Information about
arrests and imprisonment of
inmates is not communicated to relatives in time
hence some inmates end up
having no people visiting them.
Death penalty practice
The death
penalty is not rehabilitative exercise. Since 1980 about 78 death
row
inmates have been executed and still others are on the death row
awaiting
execution. This is despite that capital punishment is dehumanizing,
cruel,
tortuous, degrading and inhumane. Most worrying is that one may go
for five
years awaiting execution. This period of waiting execution is
dehumanizing,
inhumane and psychologically tortuous while hanging which is
Zimbabwe's
execution method is just cruel and immoral. Hence ZACRO's
intervention
towards total abolition of the death penalty in the country is
of paramount
importance and cannot be underestimated.
Legal representation
.
ZACRO notes with concern that the majority of prisoners in Zimbabwe are
relatively poor people. These often lack resources or funds to cater for
legal representation. Some of the people send to prison committed minor
crimes but can not be released. This is because they do not have lawyers who
can represent them. Inmates on remand could spend over two years without
trial.
Prisons visits and their importance
During the course
of our visits ZACRO noted that the legal fraternity ie
lawyers -
prosecutors, judges, magistrates are not visiting prisons as
follow up
exercises to monitor and assess the offenders.
. It is on this note that
ZACRO urges the legal fraternity to avail lawyers
to prisons and cover those
in need of assistance. Many need legal
representation - in particular those
who are remanded and others seeking
appeal against their cases.
. The
same is said of judiciary staff. Magistrates are urged to make follow
ups
with prisons and see for themselves - issues affecting those whom they
tried
and send to prison. Problems associated with overcrowding can be
resolved if
the magistrates have fair view of what affects the inmates.
Where
overcrowding is in place magistrates can always consider befitting
non-custodial sentences like community service. Another main problem and
worry involves reports of magistrates being absent in the courts on regular
basis. Offenders facing trial were not tried in time owing to shortage of
magistrates which is a problem that needs urgent redress. Such a stance has
always seen some inmates spending long periods like two years before trial
leading to a backlog of cases not tried by our courts which seeks urgent
redress by the judiciary. In fact all explains why ZACRO is determined to
articulate human rights programming in all its interventions and redress
problems around human rights for prisoners in Zimbabwe. - ZimOnline
12 October
2008
It is now close to a month since the
historic signing of the September 15 inter-party Agreement and the residents in
Zimbabweans are currently one of the
world’s poorest people; the majority earns far below the
Mugabe displayed sheer bad faith when he (among other things) unscrupulously appointed the male dominated group of 10 governors from his party ZANU PF before an agreement was reached, thus unfairly getting a majority in the Senate, is seemingly consistent; In the same vein Mugabe has dishonorably gazzetted a wishful list of ministerial allocations in which he exhibits pure selfishness and arrogance. The octogenarian allegedly listed, under ZANU PF, the ministries of; Local Government and Urban Development, Home Affairs, Defence and other key ministries. This act endangers the fragile deal and should be unequivocally rejected and dismissed.
The list is a clear sign of denial and a wishful something to appease his beleaguered party with and to continue with his patronage and tokenism on the former PF ZAPU cadres, in preserving the so called unity which has been far too out of touch with its terms and the masses. The mere mention of the Local Government and Urban Development ministry and the acronym “ZANU PF” successively, sends untold shivers down the residents` spines. It reminds them of Operation Murambatsvina, ZINWA water and sewer management takeover, Cholera outbreaks, potholes, mayoral expulsions and councils` dissolution, Commissions, burst sewage and other horrible daily experiences.
The residents would like to explicitly
remind Mugabe and his protégés that; the Agreement does not seek to accommodate
the
CHRA remains committed to enhancing civic participation in governance and demanding adequate and affordable municipal (and other) service delivery in a transparent, professional and non-partisan manner.
Combined
Exploration House, Third Floor
Landline: 00263- 4-
705114
Contacts:
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5739
October 12, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
BULAWAYO - A militant teachers' union has called for street
protests against
President Robert Mugabe's surprise move to allocate key
ministries to his
party after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had
declared a deadlock over
power sharing talks.
The mainstream MDC and
Zanu-PF have reached an impasse over the sharing of
cabinet portfolios,
which has led to the recalling of mediator and former
South African
President Thabo Mbeki.
However, in a government notice published in the
state-controlled Herald
newspaper on Saturday, Mugabe unilaterally allocated
the contested key
ministries to his own Zanu-PF party.
The
power-sharing deal was signed by Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara,
the leader of a breakaway MDC faction on September 15.
Mugabe allocated
to Zanu-PF the key ministries of Defence, Home Affairs,
Local Government and
Foreign Affairs although discussions on the allocations
had been
inconclusive. Mugabe said only the ministry of Finance was still a
subject
of dispute.
The MDC has reacted angrily to the move calling it
contemptuous and
outrageous.
Raymond Majongwe, the secretary general
of the Progressive Teachers Union of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said his union would
lead protests on Monday against Mugabe.
He said Mugabe's action betrayed
the spirit of the power-sharing deal.
Majongwe was speaking at a public
lecture organized by Bulawayo Agenda, a
Bulawayo-based civic organization
which promotes public debate and dialogue
on topical issues related to human
rights and governance among others.
"I urge all members of civic society
and Zimbabweans in general to get onto
the streets, in all cities and towns,
in a clear sign to Mugabe that we are
not accepting this," he said.
"Zimbabweans should all go out and say this is
unacceptable".
"We
should demonstrate against Mugabe who grabbed all the key ministries for
his
party. Zimbabweans should be militants and protest and say we cannot
continue to let Mugabe hold the country and us to ransom."
The public
lecture was attended by more than 500 people, among them various
civic
society organizations that were exhibiting at a two-day "Ideas
Festival"
organized by Bulawayo Agenda at the Small City Hall .
The opposition MDC
has said Mugabe's move jeopardized the power-sharing deal
signed over three
weeks ago. The agreement is now seen as teetering on the
brink of collapse,
with Tsvangirai threatening to pull out of the deal if
Mugabe refuses to let
go of key ministries.
The unity government had been heralded as a panacea
to the country's
political crisis, deep economic recession characterised by
231 million
percent inflation and shortages of all basics.
Jenni
Williams, the leader of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), addressing the
same
gathering also called for popular protests against Mugabe's move to
grab key
ministries from the MDC.
"Mugabe should not be allowed to steal away our
future," said Williams. "The
deal, despite its shortcomings, is the only
sustainable foundation to
rebuild Zimbabwe ."
Mbeki, who brokered the
power-sharing talks, is expected in Harare on Monday
to mediate in the
dispute.
http://www.afriquenligne.fr
Harare, Zimbabwe - As
inflation spirals out of control in Zimbabwe, the
country's central bank
Saturday introduced the ZW$ 50,000 bank note, the
nation's highest currency
denomination. A government statistics agency
announced Thursday that annual
inflation in the country topped 231 million
per cent in July, an increase of
more than 20 times from the 11.2 million
per cent in June.
The
central bank said the new note, which goes into circulation only a week
after the ZW$ 10,000 and ZW$ 20,000 bank notes were introduced, was meant to
make transacting by the public convenient.
The bank also increased
daily cash withdrawals from banks by the public from
ZW$ 20,000 a day to ZW$
50,000.
Because of a shortage of bank notes, cash withdrawals from banks
is rationed
in Zimbabwe.
Harare - 11/10/2008
Pana
Friends
from times past joined us in brilliant sunshine for the Vigil to launch our
7th year outside the Embassy. Unfortunately Glenys Kinnock MEP was
unable to be with us to receive our petition to the EU so we sending it to
Our
partner organisation Restoration of Human Rights in
With
the world financial crisis dominating the news, the
With
a large turnout singing and dancing on the
Letter
to the European Union
“The
Zimbabwe Vigil wish to submit a petition calling on European Union countries to
suspend government-to-government aid to
members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) because of their
failure to help the suffering people of
The
petition reads:
“A
Petition to European Union Governments. We
record our dismay at the failure of the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) to help the desperate people of
As
you will see, the petition has been signed by thousands of people from all over
the world who have recently passed by our Vigil and share our anxiety about the
crisis in our homeland. The Vigil has been held outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in
The
Vigil condemns SADC for recognising Mugabe as President when SADC’s own election
observers criticised the polls this year as deeply flawed. Mugabe consequently
feels free to disregard a power-sharing deal signed last month -- despite the
deepening humanitarian crisis. The UN says that about half the population will
need food aid by early next year.
The
Vigil wants the money saved by our proposal – and it amounts to many hundreds of
millions of pounds a year – to be used to finance refugee camps in
We
are not, of course, calling for a halt to humanitarian aid to the region ….food,
medicine etc. What we are talking about is balance of payments support which
often goes astray. We believe SADC has
failed to live up to its basic responsibilities and must share the pain of
The
For
latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. .
FOR
THE RECORD:
about 300 attended.
FOR
YOUR DIARY:
·
·
“Yours Abundantly, from
·
Next
·
http://sundaystandard.info
by Tananoka Joseph
Whande
12.10.2008 1:36:17 P
I am concerned about the extent to which
Zimbabwe, particularly the MDC, has
become heavily reliant on South Africa
to solve our problems.
Reliance on South Africa to arbitrate or help to
solve the problem in
Zimbabwe has now gone way past the normal mediation
functions to something
resembling a preliminary systematic auctioning of our
country, and it is
being done with the aid of both the MDC and
ZANU-PF.
The MDC's over reliance on South African mediation has now
become a cowardly
way of handling negotiations.
The MDC misled both the
Zimbabwean people and the international community,
and signed an agreement
before the negotiations had been concluded and now
the nation is once again
in despair, marooned in the political darkness of
ZANU-PF's double
dealing.
While the MDC meant well, Robert Mugabe was toying with people
who were
trying to bring some semblance of sanity to our country.
But
the MDC's haste also betrayed a complete lack of foresight and a
disturbing
absence of alternatives that a leading party ought to have.
Instead of a
neutral arbitrator, we got Thabo Mbeki.
He failed.
Instead of an
impartial African eminent person to help bring antagonistic
political
players together, we got Mbeki who fanned more chaos within one of
the
parties at his negotiating table.
Then, instead of an honest mediator, we got
Mbeki again.
He failed and was also immediately fired by his own party and
lost the South
African presidency hardly two weeks after engineering a
barren and
ridiculous agreement between Zimbabwe's opposing sides. What a
missed
opportunity!
But even after losing the support and trust of his
own people, South Africa
again chose Mbeki to "continue" with his
"mediation" efforts in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki is now clearly lethargic and
totally unenthusiastic about this
assignment because he knows that having
failed to achieve something of note
while he was a sitting president of
South Africa, he won't achieve much as a
private citizen.
He knows
his limitations and the damage he caused to himself through his
ill-advised
'quiet diplomacy' which was clearly designed to give one of the
protagonists, Mugabe, an edge in lopsided negotiations.
And now, to
strengthen Mbeki's hand in negotiations, the South Africans have
now sent
their Intelligence Minister to be involved in the ZANU-PF/MDC
negotiations
talks. Intelligence minister, why?
Spies negotiating peace in public as if
these particular ones did not play a
role, through deliberate neglect or
otherwise, in destroying Zimbabwe? Does
Africa not have enough diplomats to
bring warring sides to the table that
Zimbabwe has to be overwhelmed by
South Africans who have let this issue
drag on for so long as they attempted
to keep an unpopular dictator afloat?
The Zimbabwean stalemate requires
another child of Africa to handle it with
firmness, impartiality, fairness
and with clout from SADC, the AU and the
UN. The South Africans rested Mbeki
and they should also rest him in a case
he has failed to solve for many
years. Mbeki might have the time to play
around but Zimbabwe is in dire
straits and needs a real solution now. Mbeki
leaves too much room for Mugabe
to play around with a nation he has ruined.
However, South Africa's
designs go beyond solving the Zimbabwean problem.
South Africa is not
necessarily interested in settling the Zimbabwe
quagmire; they are
interested in establishing a business foothold that will
effectively make
Zimbabwe a province of South Africa.
Only a few weeks ago, South African
farmers had loaded their trucks and
"stood willing to assist Zimbabwe at any
time".
So too were business and financial institutions who have already
put aside
millions and millions to invest in Zimbabwe as they "assist" in
reviving
Zimbabwe.
Mbeki's strategy on Zimbabwe, whether intentional or
otherwise, clearly
benefited South African business. They watched the
country slowly
disintegrating over decades while they prepared precisely for
this moment.
Now, because of their proximity, they are at the doorstep
"ready to help".
The disappointing collapse of the agreement means
further suffering for
Zimbabweans who have not known peace since 2000 and
who have experienced
little of it before that.
I applaud Tsvangirai
and the MDC for going out of their way to seek a
solution to the problem
that confronted the nation. I applaud Tsvangirai for
his patience and honest
attempt to change the fortunes of our country. In
that vein, they pushed and
shoved to get Mugabe and his ZANU-PF to the
negotiating table.
They then
went on to make a big mistake and signed an agreement before the
negotiations were complete.
And now the nation is once again back to
square one after having placed so
much hope in those talks although we
suspected that nothing would come out
of the talks because the people and
civil society had been sidelined.
Now the MDC admits they made a mistake
and the nation is once again
teetering on its weak legs, inviting business
vultures already circling near
our borders.
It is clear now that
Mugabe never had any intention to honour any agreement.
It was all a façade
to buy time and hoodwink the international community
into believing that an
honest effort was being made to resolve the crisis.
Mugabe wanted to use
Tsvangirai to have sanctions removed and to have donors
coming with
money.
Thankfully, it did not work for him and we, once again, find
ourselves
staring into the abyss.
We came close to achieving
something and I would have hoped that we could
just pick up the pieces and
try again. But Mugabe was never serious so he
brings his broom-boy Simba
Makoni back into play again.
It is amazing that at a time when the whole
nation is practically on its
knees praying that something positive comes out
of the agreement, there are
some people who still dream of forming political
parties, especially so soon
after being rejected by the same
constituency.
For the second time this year, Simba Makoni announced this
week that he is
forming a new political party.
What, may I ask, does
Simba Makoni hope to achieve? Who does he want to
replace? Or is he just a
power hungry misguided technocrat who is peeved to
see the likes of
Mutambara enjoying the unholy camaraderie with Robert
Mugabe?
But we
know what Makoni is doing. He is trying to move attention from Mugabe's
handling of the agreement. Makoni is shielding Mugabe again.
Who is
Makoni opposing? The people? ZANU-PF or the MDC? It can't be the MDC
because
the MDC is not in power. It can't be ZANU-PF because ZANU-PF is an
opposition party.
Makoni, just like Welshman Ncube and Arthur
Mutambara, comes to muddy the
political landscape by spouting old manure
about nationalism and
pan-Africanism. As Tsvangirai and his MDC eat humble
pie and admit that
signing the deal was a big mistake, Makoni returns on the
scene and welcomes
"the all-inclusive government deal signed on September 15
between Mugabe and
the leaders of the two formations of the MDC, Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara".
Reports that are yet to be
confirmed say that Mugabe went ahead on Friday
and allocated ministries to
his party (15) and to MDC (13) with the other
faction being allocated
three.
He is doing this unilaterally and outside the good faith of the
agreement.
The move will, of course, be rejected by the MDC again
because, for one,
Mugabe kept for his party the key ministries of Finance,
Defence, Home
Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Information and the
ministry of Lands,
Agriculture and Resettlement.
Tsvangirai's MDC was
reportedly allocated ministries such as Economic
Planning and Investment
Promotion, Sports, Arts and Culture, State
Enterprise and Parastatals Energy
and Power Development and others.
Zimbabwe needs a better, strong, serious,
impartial negotiator not Thabo
Mbeki who actually babysat our problems until
they graduated into
full-fledged and deadly mayhem.
* Tanonoka Whande
is a Botswana-based Zimbabwean journalist.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=5724
October 12, 2008
Mugabe holds hands with
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir during the
EU-Africa summit in
Lisbon.
By Jackson Mukuwisi
THERE is something about President
Robert Mugabe's mentality that only the
best psychiatrist could understand.
He has such hatred for homosexuals one
tends to suspect that he was perhaps
sexually abused either when he was
young or during his long stay in prison
or in detention during the colonial
era.
Notice how he has completely
discouraged the notion of turning his prison
cell and detention camps into
historic places. He has even refused to
revisit them. Yet the likes of
Nelson Mandela and other notable freedom
fighters such as the late Jomo
Kenyatta encouraged the preservation of such
places for history's
sake.
Yet this man will publicly, almost subconsciously, grab another
president's
hand and walk hand-in-hand with him. Omar Al-Bashir, the man now
being
sought by the ICC for crimes against humanity that he continues to
commit in
Darfur, appeared comfortable with his hand in Mugabe's at the
Lisbon summit.
Former President Thabo Mbeki is a "constant victim" of
this public show of
affection.
But while Mr. Mugabe is closer to
Al-Bashir in character than he is to Thabo
Mbeki, his on-off mind is a
greater psychiatric puzzle than the "Breakfast
with Mugabe" stage play could
ever portray. He can be brutal one time,
sending 5 Brigade (correct) into
Matabeleland to commit an orgy of
destruction, yet goes down on full knees
for Mrs Mwanawasa as if he was
seeking absolution for the difference he had
had with her husband.
The world had not seen an African man, least of all
a fully-fledged head of
state, kneeling before a woman. Dr. Hastings
Kaunjika Kamuzu Banda must have
turned in his grave.
All told,
President Mugabe must be a man of many moods. Which mood is
dictating his
actions as he negotiates with the MDC formations is hard to
tell. He is all
sweet one time, sharing sadza in private with Morgan
Tsvangirai and clearly
suggesting he is ready to meet him half way but next
time throwing a real
adult tantrum and refusing to take less than 80 per
cent.
He has a
complex mind but one that is tempered by the vagaries of age. God,
he once
said, was the only one that would take him away from the power he is
hanging
on to; not the suffering of the people; not the elections and not
even the
will of the voters.
It might be an idea for those hanging on to his coat
tails to study the
history of Tunisia. Habib Bourguiba was a national hero
having led his
people's fight against the French. He was his people's
darling. That was
until age took over and the brain refused to stay young.
The people around
him understood one thing and one thing alone: if they
wanted to stay in
power they had lto ock up the old man in a back room and
let him spend the
rest of his days watching his old speech
videos.
George Charamba is too small to play this game. This is the Big
Boys' League
and it is not without its risks.
Right now, the risk is
worth taking. Charamba can always live to be the
cheer leader of the next
President in line. Failing that "Zanu yaora"
(Zanu-PF is now rotten) will
cease to be just a mere MDC song of insult, but
a reality that will leave
some of these politicians with absolutely no
access to free
anti-retrovirals.
http://www.thestar.com
EDITORIAL
Oct 12, 2008 04:30 AM
In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe
and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
have wrangled for weeks over whose
party gets which cabinet posts in a new
government, as their people starve.
Things reached a grotesque low on
Friday, with "breakthrough" news that both
sides agree "there is indeed
deadlock" and seek more
mediation.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki, a past mediator,
may swing into
action later this week, if his schedule permits.
This
impasse is madness, and a betrayal of the 5 million Zimbabweans who
face
starvation. The United Nations has just appealed for another $140
million in
food aid. Bad government, economic collapse, hyperinflation, AIDS
and dismal
weather have made Zimbabwe a unique African basket case. People
are lucky to
have a single meal of corn meal porridge; many live on wild
fruit.
Having run Zimbabwe into the ground, Mugabe got himself
re-elected in a sham
election in June, then was forced by international
pressure to reach a
power-sharing deal with Tsvangirai in September. Mugabe
is now trying to
hang onto the key ministries to preserve his 28-year hold
on power.
Meanwhile, Zimbabweans sink deeper into desperation, and
despair.
As always, Mugabe is more interested in power than the fate of
his people.
And Africa's leaders won't confront him. As Kenya's Prime
Minister Raila
Odinga says, "Many of our national leaders have skeletons
rattling loudly in
their cupboards." For Zimbabwe's living skeletons, such
fecklessness is a
monstrous betrayal.
Comments
|
Heartbroken
I feel heartbroken that the world has let this monster do
whatever he
wants. We were led to believe, by President Bush, that Saddam
Hussein was
the worse person in the world. Think again, Mugabe was and still
is number
one. I guess that it was more important to invade Iraq and
Afghanistan for
oil and greed. It diverted attention away from Mugabe and
the millions of
Zimbabweans who are dying of hunger. It's never too late to
do something
about this.
Posted by Ivan Highland at 10:01 AM
Sunday, October 12 2008
-----
wasn't Mugabe support by a
past liberal goverment?
hmmn if so, shows some knowledge
eh
Posted by Charles Ugene Farley at 9:34 AM Sunday, October 12
2008
Gibson
Nyambayo
Ten zeroes were lopped off as the zeal for a political
deal reached boiling
point. All was in the hope of a better deal, a better
life, a better future,
a hope for just a life. The zeroes went and in came
the zeal. The zeal
yielded the deal. Weeks after the deal, there is no more
deal, no more zeal
to talk about. The zeroes are slowly coming back. We are
back to zeroes. The
curse of the zeroes.
After years of zeroes, the
plague of zeroes .After years of strife, hunger,
political persecution,
joblessness, hunger, malnutrition, economic and
social meltdown, the
prospects of a deal brought some smiles on the faces of
many in Zimbabwe.
Hope and zeal took centre stage. Even the clueless
Governor of the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe had a clue about the imminent deal;
he lopped off the
demonic zeroes. He iced the cake when he introduced new
notes of real money.
He got rid of his trademark bearer cheques. He was
anticipating a new
beginning, a new Zimbabwe, a new life, a new
dispensation, a new sweet
dream. All was hope, hope was everyone could do.
For weeks, if
not months we waited. The long painful wait. A wait in the
valleys of agony
and despair, the masses kept on riding. Riding the slow but
sure wagons of
hope and faith. Hoping faithfully that their leaders will
know what is good
for the people. We waited.
Then came the news, sweet news, a deal had
been reached! We all ululated. We
were happy once again. We had some hope.
We could have solid ambitions. We
were just happy our leaders had agreed to
save us from the jaws of painful
death.
They told us it was
power sharing. Some said it is an all inclusive
government. The learned ones
told us it is a transitional caretaker
government. In the euphoria we did
not care much. After all we had heard a
lot, a lot of new words that brought
nothing on our tables, Diaspora,
homelink, bacossi, the list is endless.
This was the deal. The thing all had
prayed and waited
for.
15 September is the day. It was a Monday. A sweet Monday. It
was an unusual
day; all came to work in a jovial mood. Very few came late.
People were
happy. The masses were exuding hope and confidence. We all
watched with
smiles and grins tearing across our skinny faces when all the
three
principles appended their signatures to the document. The grand
document.
The document was worth more than a Doctor's prescription. An
invaluable
document we all believed, prayed and hoped.
After
the signing ceremony we all waited with zeal. We waited to enjoy the
fruits.
We all dreamt an end to hunger, we dreamt of waving a goodbye hand
to
chronic queuing. The masses waited to see the demise of inflation, an end
to
empty shelves, an end to malnutrition, a goodbye to erratic water
supplies,
an end to cholera outbreaks and an end to the dark era of
loadshedding. Day
after day we all dreamt. The dreams kept us alive. We
waited, patience
tapering away now.
One week, we all agreed to give our dear leaders time.
The second week, we
were divided; some saying the deal was collapsing. The
majority remained
hopeful. Third week, the zeroes have started coming back,
bringing with them
friends from the wilderness. The zeal went away suddenly.
We all knew it's
no more. The deal is in tatters. It's no longer ours, it's
theirs. They are
holding us to ransom. We face death. We stare a painful
death. Starvation is
now a master in our midst.
I went to my rural
home in Nyanga. I saw a sorry sight. God save us. The
masses are staring
starvation in the face. They are surviving on termites.
They are surviving
on anything they can lay their hands on. The children are
sick, they are
malnourished. They have not seen a proper meal for months.
There is no hope;
this will change in shortest period. The shops are
virtually empty. The few
that have something are charging in US Dollar terms
or astronomical local
prices. The hope for betterment to this condition is
slowly and ominously
slipping away. Only God knows who will be called first.
The old folk beckon
to me. They ask if I have brought any good news from
Harare. They wince when
I say no, some drop a tear.
They grouse asking if all the leaders
were human. They don't think so they
all concur. They advise me to tell the
leaders back in Harare to put the
interests of the people first to avert the
humanitarian crisis. This I agree
knowing though that the said people are
like cursed puppies fighting over a
fifty year old bone.
On
my journey back to Harare, I pondered over what the elders had said. I
knew
they did not say all that was in their hearts. They thought they should
listen first. Wisdom. I knew they wanted to tell me that the MDC rushed to
agree. A bad deal is not a deal at all. Better no deal than have a bad deal.
The deal left Mugabe and ZANU PF with all the powers. The MDC is only a
tangential party in the deal, a far cry from what we had hoped and waited
for all this time.
Today we are revising the deal. Today we
are no longer happy. This day we
feel hopeless. Helpless we feel today. We
were cheated. Our dear opposition
leaders were cheated into the deal.
Neither was it an all inclusive
government nor a power sharing agreement,
they did not agree. The opposition
is yet to be included in any system of
the government. Those guys, the same
old people we vehemently rejected in
polls in March are wielding all the
power with diabolical gusto. Nothing
will stop them, not even the
encroaching humanitarian crisis. They want
power. They got it when our
opposition leaders signed them into power on the
15th of September 2008. We
lost. They won.
Today we know
this. It's the painful truth that Mugabe and ZANU PF signed
the deal because
they wanted legitimacy; they wanted credibility or some
semblance of it. The
deal provided just that. Our dear Tsvangirai wanted it
also; he wanted to
save his political career. Soon his two terms will come
to an end. He was
careful to hedge against the possibility of going before
tasting power!
Believe it or not, it's the truth. Mbeki wanted to score a
goal against his
detractors, the west. Remember he is the architect behind
the African
Renaissance dream. African solutions to African problems. He
scored a great
goal, he even invited friends from the region to celebrate,
unfortunately it
was an own goal!
That Mutambara is a gullible professor with such
unmatched gullibility and
naivety that even his kith and fork are mulling
disowning him is an
undeniable fact. An educated fellow who failed to learn.
He is a political
whistle. A gadget to make noise for someone's attention.
He did just that.
He is the biggest winner. He got what he did not deserve,
not anywhere
between Zambezi and Limpopo. The opportunist of the
year.
Today exactly 27 days after Mbeki sold us a mannequin;
Mugabe has
unilaterally apportioned the ministries, violating the power
sharing
agreement. He gave himself the most important and strategic ones.
The move
left many dumbfounded and shell shocked. The news left me in tears,
I was
perplexed to say the least. It boggles the mind to imagine why he had
to
take that root after all the negotiations, the hope and the
promises.
This is totally unwelcome and regrettable, but it was
expected. We all knew
it was going to happen. The sixth sense told us. We
ignored it. We were
wrong. His media street kid Charamba aka Nathaniel
Manheru hinted on his
boss's sinister intentions. The military junta is
nowhere near putting the
interests of the people ahead of their selfish
interest to loot and plunder
resources for the benefit of their families and
faceless fat girlfriends.
The gods did not smile to the people of
Zimbabwe. They sneered at us when we
watched our leaders sign the deal. We
all thought they were smiling in
approval. We were wrong. Our respite in not
nigh. We waited after the
zeroes. We had the zeal after them. Then came the
deal, we were ecstatic.
Now we are back with the totemless zeroes. The
cursed zeroes. From the deal
all the leaders had a one for a score, with
Mutambara scoring a whooping
five and the masses GOT A ZERO. The deal, the
zeal and the zeroes, it's our
life. We are starving. We are now hopeless.
We are dying.
Today the deal is danger. The deal is in intensive
care unit. Today the
pessimists will tell us there is no more deal to talk
about. Today the
cautious will warn us to prepare for Armageddon. The
optimists will today
question the source of their optimism. Surely they will
find the source
being the zeal, the zeal that came after the zeroes were
given another boot
by self appointed Dr Gono. Truly the hopefuls will tell
the nation that they
were misled by too much hope, they hoped too much in a
hopeless. Everyone
will be forgiven. Everyone was hoping blindly. Everybody,
blind, sick, thin,
tall and fat had hoped the deal will be successful. They
had hoped the deal
will bring their lives back again. They were wrong. Very
wrong indeed.
The zeal that was a cornerstone in all our daily
undertakings is no more.
The zeal has died. It has been replaced by anxiety
and grief. From Zambezi
to Limpopo nobody knows what to hope for next.
Nobody has a clue anymore on
who will save us. We thought the talks will but
alas, we were wrong. Today
we have nothing to look forward to. Last time we
thought the devil in Zanu
Pf had transformed, we were wrong again. They are
the same old satanic bunch
of murderers and crooks. Now they have put the
deal in casket ready for
burial. Whether the deposed despot Thabo Mbeki
comes today or tomorrow, the
difference is the same. The deal is no more.
Insincerity, greedy and bad
faith are the doctors who pronounced the deal
dead sometime ago.
The masses are still waiting.
They are waiting for that day when everything
will be fine again. Those days
when you can have bread and butter anytime of
the year. The people are
waiting for that time again when zeroes are not as
frightening as they are
today, the time when an addition of a zero to a
digit on your pay slip won't
be a curse. They are waiting for that day when
they will sing together,
together as one, together as a people of Zimbabwe,
the day they will sing
about the deal, the deal and the zeroes.
As for now we have
nothing. Mathematically we are at ZERO. The plague of
Zeroes is with us
again.
May God richly bless Zimbabwe.
Gibson
Nyambayo can be contacted on gibnyambayo@gmail.com