Mineweb
By: John
Helmer
Posted: '17-OCT-06 10:00' GMT © Mineweb
1997-2006
MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) --An announcement last week by
Zimbabwe government
officials in Harare that a Russian group has signed a
pledge to invest $300
million in Zimbabwe's mining, power, and aviation
sectors is unsupported by
the Russian side, and may even be a hoax. On the
other hand, the past
history of Russian visitors to Harare suggests that
RusAviaTrade may be the
camouflage for something more serious that is yet to
be disclosed.
"These MOUs [memorandums of understanding] are worth $300
million, but we
hope we will develop our relations so that we bring more
investments into
the country," Yury Panchenko, external affairs director of
RusAviaTrade, was
quoted by wire services as saying after the signing
ceremony. The investment
pledge wound up a visit reported to include 31
Russian businessmen and 17
journalists, who had been invited by Gideon Gono,
governor of Zimbabwe's
Central Bank. Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Moscow,
Phelekezela Mphoko, has
refused to identify the names of the Russian
delegation members, or their
company affiliations.
Russian Ambassador
to Harare, Oleg Scherbak, also declined to respond to the
same questions
from Mineweb. According to the Zimbabwe media, he reportedly
said: "These
investors have various business interests ranging from
transport, power and
mining to tourism, telecommunications and agriculture.
Russian journalists
will meet local journalists from various media houses
and will have an
opportunity to share and exchange ideas."
In Moscow, Panchenko's company
is so small, it is unknown to the major
aircraft builders located at
Zhukovskiy, the Moscow suburban aviation
centre. Sources at Renova, the
Russian mining group most active in southern
Africa, said RusAviaTrade is
unknown. Renova owns an unrelated company
called RusAviaAuto; this is a bus
operator at a small airport Renova owns.
Russian Aviation Company
(RusAvia) told Mineweb that, despite the similarity
in name, it has never
heard of RusAviaTrade. RusAvia says it operates only
within Russia,
repairing World War II-vintage aircraft, and publishing books
and magazines
for Russian plane enthusiasts. A company source said RusAvia
has a
representative in India, but it has never been in Zimbabwe.
RusAviaTrade
has no website, and two telephones listed at its identified
office do not
work. The company has been identified through the Russian
Center of Small
Aviation Omega, where officials confirmed that RusAviaTrade
is their
subsidiary. Omega says it operates small aircraft for joyrides
around the
Moscow region. It also claims to sell Cessna, Piper, and
Beechcraft imports,
and to enable novice Russian fliers to attend local and
European flying
schools and receive European pilot accreditation. "Flying
with us," Omega's
website declares, "you become the pilot of a private
plane. You will get
acquainted with very interesting people, the
surprisingly fine world of
aircraft, and you will expand your horizons."
Noone at RusAviaTrade could
explain how Zimbabwe has suddenly appeared on
the investment horizon.
Panchenko was uncontactable.
The Russian Foreign Ministry told Mineweb it
has no information on the
delegation's visit to Zimbabwe, or its
outcome.
The zealousness with which Zimbabwe government officials have
pursued the
appearance of international investment has led to Russian
embarrassment
before. In July 2003, a burst of local publicity surrounding
the visit of a
group of Russian corporate executives led to an embarassed
announcement that
there was no Russian intention to buy into Zimplats. A
year later, fresh
evidence indicated that that intention was under
discussion at the time in
Harare.
The categorical Russian denial
followed a report in the Zimbabwe Herald,
claiming that three officials of
Norilsk Nickel had visited Zimbabwe a few
days earlier, and met with
executives of Zimplats to discuss a Russian
interest in the company. Norilsk
Nickel, Russia's leading mining company, is
a natural rival of South African
producers of platinum and palladium, and
the news triggered special interest
in Johannesburg. According to the Herald
report, the meeting had been
arranged by the Russian Embassy in Harare, and
the results were under review
by Norilsk Nickel.
Sergei Chernitsyn, Norilsk Nickel's principal
spokesman, responded at the
time: "the report by the Zimbabwian newspaper is
nonsense. No delegation of
Norilsk Nickel was in Zimbabwe."
Dmitri
Suslov, who was then in charge of the Russian Embassy in Harare, told
Mineweb the embassy had helped arrange a meeting with Zimplats for a recent
group of Russian visitors, but he said there were no representatives of
Norilsk Nickel in the group. According to Suslov, the group included
Vladimir Shubin, an academic from the Moscow-based Institute of Africa, who
had stopped in Harare after visiting South Africa. Suslov said the visit may
have been exaggerated in the Zimbabwean media to counteract negative reports
about business conditions in Zimbabwe in the western press. "The visit was
not officially prepared," Suslov said, "and the embassy was not warned about
it in advance." He said he does not know what the results were of the
visit.
At the time, a source close to Norilsk Nickel claimed that,
following the
completion of its acquisition of US palladium producer,
Stillwater Mining
Company, Norilsk Nickel was not in the market for further
foreign
acquisitions. Nine months later, in March 2004, Norilsk Nickel
bought Anglo
American's 20% stake in Gold Fields for $1.16
billion.
What was not known until some time after the July 2003 visit to
Zimbabwe was
that among the Russian visitors at the time, was Andrei Dubina,
the South
Africa-based lobbyist and business scout for the owners of Norilsk
Nickel,
Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov. Dubina had set up a
Johannesburg
office with an associate, Artem Grigoryan, and they prepared
the ground for
the Gold Fields bid. At the time, their role was so secret in
Moscow, senior
executives at Potanin's holding company Interros, and at
Norilsk Nickel,
claimed to know nothing about it. On the other hand, in
South Africa, Dubina
introduced himself to international and South African
corporate sources as
advising Norilsk Nickel and Interros.
The
attempted Russian takeover of Gold Fields was subsequently abandoned,
and
the prime mover at Norilsk Nickel, Leonid Rozhetskin, was ousted from
the
company in January 2005. This week, Moscow prosecutors told Mineweb they
have issued an international warrant for his arrest in relation to another
investment operation. The prosecutors added they do not know where
Rozhetskin is now living abroad. Grigoryan currently sits on the Gold Fields
board of directors.
By Lance Guma
17 October 2006
The trial
of 31 trade union members accused of holding an 'illegal'
demonstration last
month was postponed for a second time this Tuesday
because the state has yet
to provide details of the charges. The next court
date has been set for 30
October. Alec Muchadehama, the lawyer representing
members of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), says the police
accused his clients of
'carrying placards and shouting political slogans'
and that some of them
ridiculed Robert Mugabe. He told Newsreel in an
interview that no specific
details have been provided and the police are
simply trying to find
excuses.
Muchadehama says his clients were clearly assaulted by police
during
the demonstration and up to now no investigation has been carried out
into
that brutal response. The police have denied the assault charges and
say the
union leaders were 'heavily resisting arrest,' and this forced them
to use
'minimum force to calm the situation.' This is despite a secretly
filmed
video showing police officers beating up union leaders and forcing
them into
a Mazda B2200 truck even though there was not enough space inside
to
accommodate all of them. Muchadehama says they will use the video in
court
and that if the police have their own video showing ZCTU leaders
assaulting
them they were free to use it.
ZCTU president
Lovemore Matombo told Newsreel they felt sorry for some
of the police
officers involved in the trial because they are being forced
to sign false
affidavits claiming things, which never happened. He
questioned how they
could be accused of jumping from police vehicles and
hurting themselves when
they were in fact locked inside the same police
vehicles. The ZCTU staged a
protest on the 13th September against the lack
of HIV/AIDS drugs and poor
wages in the country. Mugabe's regime responded
with a countrywide
deployment of security forces and the assault of the
unionists was seen as
an attempt to send a message to the opposition, which
has in the past said
it is planning similar protests.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
IOL
October 17 2006 at
11:29AM
Harare - Zimbabwe is trying to persuade close ally China to
help
construct houses for more than a million people in need, a newspaper
reported on Tuesday.
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo
told the head of a visiting
Chinese delegation that providing housing in
Zimbabwe's towns and cities was
his government's biggest challenge, reported
the Herald daily.
"We think joint ventures with your people will
help. We understand you
have big construction companies in Hubei (province
in China). We can make
use of them in road, water and sewer construction,"
the minister said.
The lack of housing in Zimbabwe was
controversially worsened last year
when President Robert Mugabe's government
demolished shacks in a shock
campaign that the UN said left up to 700 000
people homeless and jobless.
The authorities said
Operation Restore Order was meant to bring back
cleanliness to Zimbabwe's
teeming cities and promised more than a million
new houses would be built in
the wake of the chaos.
But so far only 3 000 have been confirmed
built and cash-strapped
local authorities have resorted to handing out plots
of land.
Chombo said the Zimbabwe authorities were becoming
interested in the
high-rise models of low-cost Chinese housing.
"We were used to large stands which consume a lot of land. We should
now
begin to densify and house more people. It is also cheaper to provide
electricity and water on such housing units," he told the delegation from
Hubei, led by political official Ding Fengying.
Shunned by many
Western countries because of concerns over land reform
and alleged rights
abuses, Zimbabwe has turned to strong ally China for
increasing numbers of
business and investment deals in the past three years.
But concerns
have been raised by government critics who believe Mugabe
may be mortgaging
Zimbabwe's rich mineral reserves in return for a quick
financial fix from
the Chinese. - Sapa-dpa
VOA
By
Patience Rusere
Washington
16 October
2006
Zimbabwean civil society groups are developing a program of
outreach to
residents of provincial cities to mobilize grass-roots support
against the
government of President Robert Mugabe, hoping to build on a
recent wave of
demonstrations.
Groups such as the National
Constitutional Assembly, the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition and the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights were to hold a meeting
in the Midlands town of
Kwekwe on Tuesday, civic leaders said. The Zimbabwe
National Students Union
and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions were also
to
participate.
NCA Chairman Lovemore Madhuku said a recent lull in street
protests reflects
a shift to organizational activities outside the capital
in provincial
cities like Bulawayo, Mutare and Masvingo. Organizing efforts
are also
slated in Mashonaland Central and East provinces, and the coalition
intends
to organize at the level of rural districts.
Madhuku told
reporter Patience Rusere that: the NCA organizers are meeting
with ordinary
people "to persuade them to be courageous and join
demonstrations."
Meanwhile, Movement for Democratic Change founding
president Morgan
Tsvangirai told supporters in Bulawayo on the weekend to
brace for extended
protests to force President Mugabe to step down.
Correspondent Netsai Mlilo
reported.
NY1 News
October 16, 2006
While their numbers here are
small, immigrants from Zimbabwe play a
huge role in helping their families
back home stave off hunger, and in some
cases, starvation. As NY1's Solana
Pyne explains in Part 1 of her series
"From New York to Zimbabwe," families
are being torn apart to stay alive.
Tears come to her eyes as
Sibusisiwe Gadhlula looks at photographs of
her two children. The pictures,
which I carried back from Zimbabwe, were the
first she has seen since she
left the country for the United States six
years ago. She only recognized
her son, who was two when she left, by the
shirt in this photograph. One she
had sent him.
"It is so difficult, but there's nothing I can do
because I'm here to
work for them," said Sibusisiwe.
Sibusisiwe
moved to Harlem from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, when her family
could not afford
her father's medical care. She got a job as a live-in home
care assistant
Monday through Friday and works odd jobs on the weekends.
More than half her
salary goes to her family in Bulawayo, often more than
$1,000 a
month.
"I would say roughly about 15, 15 people are being
supported," said
Babriba Gadhlula, Sibusisiwe's brother.
Fifteen people in an extended family that has become increasingly
dependent
on her support to make ends meet. The Zimbabwean economy is in
free fall.
And inflation now routinely tops 1,000 percent, the highest in
the
world.
"So now you find that with your salary you cannot make ends
meet up to
the end of the month," said Babriba.
Gaps that have
to be filled by the money Sibusisiwe gives if the
family is going to
eat.
"It is very important to the family because we buy food,
school fees,
rent, everything," said Sibusisiwe's sister, Lindiwe
Gadhlula.
This household is entirely supported by the money that
Sibusisiwe
sends. It buys everything from the seed that planted vegetables
to pots and
household appliances.
And it is not just money.
Sibusisiwe packs suitcases with new and used
clothes, that a friend carried
over to neighboring Botswana, where her
sister picked it up.
"It's a lot of clothes," said Sibusisiwe. "I think I won't even take
them
all. I will pack a new bag for next time. There's always next
time."
Working for that next time helps carry Sibusisiwe and her
family
through rough moments, like when her father died and she was unable
to
return for the funeral.
"She cries through the phone," said
Adelaide Molebatsi, Sibusisiwe's
cousin. "She always listens to people
crying through the phone. It's so
painful."
As is the fact that
even her 13-year- old daughter, who said she
misses her mother most on
birthdays, understands. This is the message she
asked me to carry to her
mother.
"Thank you very much for taking care of me," said Millicent
Sibanda. "And
I love you so much"
And for Sisbuisiswe, that
makes the distance bearable.
Globe and Mail, Canada
MARINA
JIMENEZ
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
A human-rights lawyer from
Zimbabwe who was beaten and electrocuted by his
government and forced to
drink his own blood and urine is calling on Ottawa
to use its
crimes-against-humanity legislation to indict the country's
President for
torture.
Gabriel Shumba, executive director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
in Pretoria,
wants Canada to take the lead in bringing Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe
and officials in his government to justice.
"My case is
symptomatic of what is happening to most Zimbabweans who defend
human
rights. More than a million Zimbabweans have been tortured since 2000.
Just
a few weeks ago, a labour activist was assaulted so badly she was
bleeding
through her ears," Mr. Shumba, 32, said in a telephone interview
from
Vancouver. "Canada as a country within a community of nations is bound
by
international obligations to prosecute international crimes, including
torture."
Mr. Shumba was in Vancouver yesterday to begin a three-week
speaking tour
sponsored by Rights and Democracy, a Montreal-based
human-rights
organization.
Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have
become increasingly violent and
repressive in an effort to hang on to power
since a strong opposition party
emerged in 2000. The economy has collapsed,
inflation is now at 1,000 per
cent and people are starving, due in part to a
controversial land
redistribution process.
Ottawa's standing committee on
foreign affairs adopted a motion this past
summer calling on the Justice
Minister to study the feasibility of using
Canada's crimes-against-humanity
and war-crimes legislation against Mr.
Mugabe, and the minister is due to
report back by Nov. 15.
A spokesperson for the Justice Ministry said the
question is under review
and it would be inappropriate to comment before
Nov. 15.
Mr. Shumba, who first put his request forward in 2004, was told
by a
spokesperson in the then-Liberal government that there must be a
Canadian
victim or a Canadian connection for a case to proceed under
Canada's
legislation. He said he has the names of several Zimbabwean victims
of
torture who now live in Canada.
His own horrific case of torture
began in February of 2003, when Mr. Shumba
was abducted by several central
intelligence agents and taken to a torture
chamber outside the capital,
Harare.
"I was kept there for three days, denied food, stripped naked and
then sheer
terror was visited upon me," Mr. Shumba recounted. "They put
electrical
shocks in my mouth and on my genitals and virtually everywhere on
my body. I
was made to drink my own blood and urine." After being forced to
sign a
false confession, he was released five days later and eventually his
case
went to trial. After his acquittal, he received death threats and was
forced
to flee Zimbabwe. He lived in exile in Johannesburg until a recent
attempt
on his life prompted him to relocate to Pretoria. Several armed men
tried to
kill him after an address to a meeting of political
organizations.
His bid to ask Ottawa to prosecute Mr. Mugabe for crimes
against humanity
may seem like a long shot, but his supporters say it is
legally possible.
For the case to proceed, the Attorney-General must give
his permission and
then Canadian lawyers may prepare the case, said Amir
Attaran, a University
of Ottawa law professor who is assisting Mr.
Shumba.
"The government passed the crimes-against-humanity and war-crimes
legislation in 2000 but the previous Liberal government then proceeded never
to use the law," he said. "We are not asking the Attorney-General to
prosecute. We are asking to be given a green light so that we can bring a
case."
Dr. Attaran does not believe that there must be a Canadian
connection for a
case to proceed, and pointed out that the legislation is
open on this point.
"The Liberals were a big disappointment on this file.
The present government
takes a more constructive view and is more concerned
about what is going on
in Zimbabwe than the Liberals ever were."
Business Report
October
17, 2006
African Consolidated said yesterday that "several thousand"
people had
occupied land in Zimbabwe on which it was prospecting for
diamonds after a
dispute over exploration rights.
An unidentified
company had claimed an "alternative kind of" exploration
permit and was
disputing the validity of African Consolidated's licence,
chief executive
Andrew Cranswick said yesterday. The dispute would be heard
this week in the
Harare court.
State-controlled Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe
was trying to
invalidate claims granted to UK-based African Consolidated
earlier this
year, the Zimbabwe Independent reported yesterday, citing
unidentified
lawyers. It gave permission for the illegal mining by artisanal
workers on
condition it had the right to buy any gems found. - Bloomberg
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Well-wishers offer practical help as well as tears for bereaved
Zimbabweans.
From Grace Bhasera in Harare (AR No.79, 16-Oct-06)
A
long-forgotten burial custom has been resurrected to help impoverished
Zimbabweans, who are losing an average of one family member a month to AIDS
and other diseases now classified as "incurable" because of the country's
crumbling healthcare system.
In the distant past, when a poor family
lost a member, neighbours would
bring what little they could afford along to
the funeral to help the
bereaved feed the mourners. For the most part it was
the staple maize meal,
or groundnuts which could be boiled in salt water to
make a quick meal.
These token contributions were known in Shona as
"chema" or "tears",
representing a gift to transform the tears of mourners
into something more
useful.
The rich did not need "chema", for they
prided themselves in being able to
bury their dead in lavish
style.
"We are now seeing the re-emergence of the custom of 'chema' for
two
reasons," a Harare pastor explained to IWPR. "With the AIDS pandemic,
families are losing more members than they would otherwise do; and with the
collapsed economy, families have become so poor that they are looking
increasingly to neighbours for assistance.
"What is interesting is
that this was mainly a rural custom where villagers
were all basically
related. Now the custom has come to the urban areas,
where your neighbour
more often than not is a complete stranger."
Thanks to the revival in the
custom, families in poor suburbs are able to
give reasonably decent burials
to their relatives, as the AIDS pandemic
continues to claim victims with
grim regularity.
"Without the assistance being given through 'chema',
many poor families
would be giving their dead paupers' burials due to the
current harsh
economic situation in the country," said the
pastor.
These days, ordinary Zimbabweans are barely able to meet their
daily needs,
let alone raise at short notice the hundreds of thousands of
Zimbabwean
dollars charged by funeral parlours, and also find the money to
feed
relatives and people who come to console them in the manner demanded by
tradition.
At one reputable funeral parlour, the cheapest coffins
cost between 60,000
and 120,000 Zimbabwean dollars (240 to 500 US dollars),
while the swisher
white coffins favoured in better times now cost anywhere
between 160,000 and
195,500 Zimbabwean dollars. A grave plot at Harare's
Granville Cemetery,
which is mainly for poor urbanites, costs between 20,000
and 38,000
Zimbabwean dollars.
These funeral costs are high for a
country where the unemployment rate has
risen above 80 per cent and the
lowest-paid workers earn less than 15,000
Zimbabwean dollars a month, while
economists estimate the average monthly
salary at 40,000 Zimbabwean
dollars.
Large numbers of breadwinners have died from HIV/AIDS, leaving
most
Zimbabwean households headed by the elderly and children.
In
increasingly harsh times, many town-dwellers can no longer afford the
funeral insurance they used to take out to ensure their loved ones were sent
on their journey to the next world with some dignity and style.
"I
recently attended a funeral of a close friend in Highfield [a poor
suburb]
and was amazed at the unity displayed by friends, people living in
the area,
her church pastor and church members," Mary Badza, a Harare shop
assistant,
told IWPR.
Badza said that when her friend Joyce died, the extended
family had spent
almost all the money they had left on her medication, and
they were so broke
that for a time they could not afford to buy bread and
other basic
foodstuffs.
The head of the family, the late Joyce's
brother, is an unskilled labourer
for a construction company. Badza said
that when he heard the news of his
sister's death, he almost collapsed -
less because of the bereavement than
because he did not know how he would
raise cash for the funeral.
But "chema" came to the rescue. The family
received gifts from friends worth
more than 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars -
over 400 US dollars - for Joyce's
burial from friends while the local church
provided transport to ferry
mourners.
At the graveside, Joyce's the
brother was in tears as he thanked God for the
friends, neighbours, church
and many others in the neighbourhood who had
given them "chema" to buy food
and pay for a grave and other funeral costs.
Badza said Joyce was lucky
that she died at a time while neighbours can
still afford to help each other
out.
"A time will come when we will not be able to bury each other, when
we will
not afford to buy coffins, grave space, pay for other burial costs,"
she
said. "My friend was fortunate that she had so many friends, and people
sacrificed the little money they had to assist. The church has also assumed
a new importance in these circumstances."
Grace Bhasera is the
pseudonym of a journalist based in Harare.
Institute for War and Peace
Reporting
An IWPR contributor gets caught up in the exodus of would-be
refugees,
many of whom are detained in harsh conditions in South Africa and
then sent
home.
By Zakeus Chibaya in Johannesburg (AR No.79,
16-Oct-06)
Timothy Mashinda, a frail Zimbabwean clad in tattered,
dust-impregnated clothes, looked dejected and hungry as he was led by South
African soldiers from an army truck into a detention centre for illegal
immigrants.
Mashinda had earlier been arrested by the military
at a farm on the
banks of the Limpopo River, which forms South Africa's
northern border with
Zimbabwe. The farm, known as Chivaramakura -"tough
land" in the Shona
language - hires many of the hordes of Zimbabweans
fleeing increasing
hardship back home. They work for low daily wages of
45-50 Rand, about five
US dollars, harvesting tomatoes, oranges and
potatoes.
Mashinda had been at Chivaramakura for three weeks and
had not yet
been paid when soldiers, police and officials from South
Africa's home
affairs ministry swooped in search of foreigners without
proper documents.
All along the border, police arrest Zimbabwean
migrants who fail to
verify their identity or legal status, often assaulting
them and extorting
money, according to a new report by the international
rights watchdog group
Human Rights Watch.
Many people drown or
are taken by crocodiles, as they attempt to cross
the Limpopo under cover of
darkness; some are crushed to death by elephants.
The river was memorably
described by Rudyard Kipling as the "great,
grey-green, greasy" Limpopo but
in 2006 it is a wild zone of
people-smugglers, corrupt security forces and a
never-ending flow of illicit
human traffic across the water.
The report, "Unprotected Migrants: Zimbabweans in South Africa's
Limpopo
Province", said Zimbabweans continue to stream into South Africa to
escape
their own country's deteriorating economic and political conditions.
It said
the vulnerability of the estimated 1.2 to three million Zimbabweans
now
living in South Africa is made worse by their frequent lack of legal
status,
effectively making them refugees.
I met Mashinda after I too was
clapped into the open-air detention
centre at the South African border town
of Musina, after trying in vain to
persuade police that my documents were in
order on returning from Zimbabwe.
Mashinda said that in the two days since
his arrest he had been given no
food, and he felt desperately cold and
hungry.
South African president Thabo Mbeki pursues a policy of
"quiet
diplomacy" towards President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean government.
This
policy is so silent that many critics wonder what it actually consists
of.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants from Zimbabwe looking
for
jobs are harassed and ill-treated by South Africa authorities trying to
stem
the human flood across the Limpopo.
During my time as an
inmate in the Musina detention centre, I
discovered that the policy is to
provide neither bedding nor food to
inmates. Instead, the detainees have to
scrounge desperately for scraps of
food and blankets.
I spent
more than two days in detention trying to persuade officials
that my
documents were in order. To my surprise, I met five close relatives
and two
classmates who also had been arrested after fleeing Zimbabwe.
For
some reason, I was regarded as a VIP and was the only person given
food by
police cooks. One Zimbabwean detained for a fifth time as he tried
to enter
South Africa offered me money for my bread, but I decided to share
my food
among as many of my hungry fellow-countrymen as possible. Some were
able to
bribe policemen with small sums of money or cigarettes to bring them
small
plates of "sadza" or maize porridge from outside.
As illegal
immigrants, we were kept in an open-air compound,
surrounded by a chain-link
fence topped with razor wire. From what I heard,
the compound is officially
meant to accommodate 50 people, but it is always
overcrowded, particularly
on Thursdays following the arrival of the weekly
train bringing Zimbabweans
in from the giant Lindela Repatriation Camp, near
Johannesburg, 500
kilometres to the south.
The compound had no latrines or running
water. During the day, we were
escorted on request to an outside toilet, but
at night we defecated and
urinated around the edges of the compound. We were
unable to wash, and to
drink; we scooped water from a single cooking
pot.
The risk of detention and expulsion do not deter Zimbabweans
from
heading for South Africa in huge numbers, as they attempt to earn an
income
to feed and clothe the relatives they leave back home.
Once they are expelled, most avoid contact with officials of the
Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration, IOM, working from
offices in Beitbridge, the small Zimbabwean border town on the north bank of
the Limpopo, who offer food, counselling and transport in attempts to get
the deportees to settle permanently in their own country.
"The
whole [IOM] programme is operated by the Central Intelligence
Organisation
and Border Gezi youth militias who are persecuting us in the
country. I will
not accept their offer unless they work on finding the
solution to the
crisis in Zimbabwe," one Musina detainee, Admore Chihitani,
told
me.
The Central Intelligence Organisation is President Mugabe's
much-feared, ubiquitous intelligence service which enforces governmental
decrees, often violently and extra-legally. The Border Gezi youth militias,
also known as the Green Bombers because of their olive-green uniforms, are
used by Mugabe to enforce rule by his ZANU PF government and to intimidate
and assault opposition supporters.
Most of the deported
Zimbabweans opt to try repeatedly until they make
it into South
Africa.
Tichaona Shava, who told me he had been arrested and
deported five
times in just over two weeks, said, "I will always try my luck
to go back to
South Africa even if they arrest me. I can't survive in
Zimbabwe because of
the economic conditions."
Samson Matobo,
from the southern town of Masvingo, said he lost both
his house and job in
Mugabe's continuing Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out
the Rubbish), in
which soldiers, police and ruling party militias used
violence to destroy
the homes and small businesses of hundreds of thousands
of poor people
living on the outer edges of Zimbabwe's towns.
"My wife and I were
left homeless by Murambatsvina, so I decided to
come to South Africa to look
for a job to fend for my family and parents,"
he told me. "Mugabe has
reduced us to beggars and it is difficult to think
of returning to Zimbabwe
to face another worse starvation."
Food fights are common among the
Zimbabwean detainees as they scramble
for left-over scraps from nearby
prison cells housing South African criminal
suspects.
With my
fellow inmates, I spent most of the daylight hours either
asleep on the
ground or basking in the sun. At night, we all huddled
together against the
cold. Through the hours of darkness we sang church
hymns and choruses - and
our voices were swelled by those of South African
women in the prison cells.
For variety, some of the detainees broke into
anti-Mugabe songs that are
illegal back home.
I watched South African policemen rob my
countrymen of what little
money they had. A group of Zimbabweans from
Lindela gave 100 Rand (ten
dollars) to police officers to buy bread. But
instead of doing so, the
police immediately locked the group in a prison
van.
"Police often mistreat undocumented workers when they arrest
them,"
said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "While
awaiting deportation at police stations, undocumented migrants are given
inadequate shelter and food, and some are detained beyond the 30-day legal
limit."
Civil society organisations in South Africa said they
are very
concerned about conditions at the detention centres. Kaajal
Ramjathan-Keogh,
director of the Refugee Rights Project at South Africa's
Lawyers for Human
Rights, said there had been talk for years about using
army barracks so that
Zimbabwean detainees would at least have a roof over
their heads, but
nothing has ever been done.
The flow of
Zimbabweans coming to South Africa illegally has increased
steadily this
year. There are an estimated million Zimbabweans working on
South African
farms, mostly in Limpopo Province.
I was eventually permitted to
phone South Africa's Department of Home
Affairs in Pretoria, so that
officials there could confirm to the Musina
police that my political asylum
documents were in order. The police
reluctantly released me, ordered me into
the back of a truck and dropped me
on a pavement in central Musina, from
where I hitchhiked to Johannesburg.
Before I obtained my freedom, I
watched Mashinda and other illegal
immigrants being loaded onto open trucks
in preparation for deportation.
According to official figures, an average of
265 of my countrymen are
returned to Zimbabwe each day. But Mashinda said he
and most of the others
would attempt to cross back over the Limpopo within a
couple of nights.
IWPR contributor Zakeus Chibaya is a Zimbabwean
journalist living in
Johannesburg.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Nutrition-based illnesses are seen by the poor and minimally
educated in
both urban and rural areas as the consequences of
witchcraft.
By Benedict Unendoro in Harare (AR No.79,
16-Oct-06)
We began to worry when Innocent, our gardener, told us he was
taking his
wife to the "Apostolics" for faith healing.
A year
earlier, we had helped him pay maternity fees for his wife who
delivered a
healthy baby boy. We now wondered whether we had made as many
inquiries as
perhaps we should have done on the post-natal progress of both
mother and
child.
Innocent works for us two days a week and, frankly, in Zimbabwe's
parlous
economic circumstances with an almost worthless currency, that does
not give
him much. But he is quite enterprising. With the little money we do
manage
to pay him, he finances a trip every Friday to Darwendale Dam, some
45
kilometres outside Harare, the capital, where he buys fresh fish for
resale
to city dwellers.
But recently he began complaining, "The
money isn't enough for anything.
It's like some evil spirit takes it away
from me in my sleep."
For some time, we failed to understand this was not
an Innocent joke. My
response had been to say, "Of course, the problem is
that the tokolosh is
taking your money at 1000 per cent interest a
year."
A word of explanation is necessary here for anyone who does not
understand
that many fascinating spirits stalk Africa's souls. The tokolosh
is
particularly real to many Zimbabweans and other southern Africans. He is
a
dwarf spirit about a metre tall, with one buttock and an extraordinarily
long sex organ that he slings over his shoulder. Some believe he originated
in the womb of a witch as a result of her copulation with a baboon. It is
extremely unwise for women to have an affair with a tokolosh because the
resulting baby may be disabled.
A snakeskin worn around the wrist can
deter him, but he loves stealing
money.
Innocent did not appreciate
my little jest about the tokolosh.
And here you also need to do some
"Zimbabwean money maths", which is
becoming more far-fetched than stories of
the tokolosh. For eight days work
with us each month, Innocent earns 16,000
Zimbabwe dollars [66 US dollar, at
the official exchange rate]. We wish we
could give him more. A trip to and
from Darwendale eats up 1000 Zimbabwe
dollars of his income if the bus
operator has not bought the fuel on the
black market, in which case it can
cost 600 more. By the time he has
transported the fish and resold it, he
perhaps adds 4,000 Zimbabwe dollars
[16.50 US dollars], after expenses, to
his monthly income.
This is
when Zimbabwe's most merciless tokolosh interferes - inflation,
running at
1,200 per cent and forecast by the International Monetary Fund to
reach
4,400 per cent next year. The price of bread and maize meal,
Zimbabweans'
staple diet, has rocketed and increases daily.
The five kilogrammes of
maize meal which Innocent's family needs a week now
costs 700 Zimbabwe
dollars and is rising. They cannot afford meat. Innocent
has rent to pay and
he needs at least one mug of traditional beer, brewed
from millet or
sorghum, each day.
By the time Innocent comes to our garden for his two
days each week, he is
broke. But on those days he eats three or four good
meals at our expense.
But we have been foolish to take comfort at having
fed him. As he ate
heartily at the Unendoro home, we should also, with
hindsight, have given
more thought to his wife and baby.
Just
recently we decided to visit Innocent and his family at their house,
scarcely more than a shack in one of the capital's many deeply impoverished
neighbourhoods. His wife was in their tiny bedroom. The window was covered
with a blanket in addition to the curtain. In the darkness, she told us she
could not stand light. And, indeed, when we removed the blanket and drew the
curtains she recoiled into the bedding.
In the light, we saw that her
skin was inflamed and covered with red
lesions. The baby was crying. On
lifting him, we discovered he was
extraordinarily weightless even though his
little body was heavily swollen.
His hair was feathery.
We summoned
our private doctor who quickly diagnosed in Innocent's wife
pellagra, a
vitamin deficiency disorder which is ultimately fatal if it goes
untreated.
The baby, who weighed only 3.5 kg, had kwashiorkor, a childhood
protein
deficiency illness.
Although we were appalled and moved, we were not
really shocked. Medical
experts have been saying throughout the first years
of this century, as
Zimbabwe plunged ever more deeply into destitution, that
cases of
kwashiorkor and marasmus, another form of acute protein
malnutrition in
children, are increasing exponentially.
Doctors are
noting growth stunting throughout the child population as a
consequence of
inadequate nutrition in Zimbabwe's families, the overwhelming
majority of
whom are deeply impoverished.
As the government regime of President
Robert Mugabe cracks down ever more
ruthlessly on opponents, the people seem
to have accepted listlessly their
predicament while consoling themselves
with the belief that as long as they
can put something, no matter what, in
their stomachs they will somehow be
okay.
The diet of the poor lacks
just about all the essentials - carbohydrates,
protein, fat, vitamins,
mineral salts and fibre - in the correct
proportions.
One medical
doctor, requesting anonymity, told IWPR there will be ever more
problems
associated with lack of nutrients in coming months. "Protein
deficiency is
the biggest problem that we are likely to face," he said.
"Lack of protein
compromises the immune system. And in Zimbabwe, with one of
the world's
highest HIV/AIDS infection levels, we are likely to see a faster
disease
progression, higher infant and adult mortality rates and the
country's
growth continuing to head rapidly into negative territory. Lack of
energy-giving food will impact on the labour force and on the general
performance of the population."
But as the government grapples with
the economic problems it has inflicted
on the population, it is clear that
nutrition is low on its list of
priorities. Ours, after all, is a country
where the second most powerful man
in the land, security minister and
intelligence chief Didymus Mutasa, has
callously asserted that Zimbabwe
would be better off with half the current
number of people.
In the
absence of any coherent government strategy to resolve the people's
hunger,
nutrition-based illnesses are seen by the poor and minimally
educated in
both urban and rural areas as the consequences of witchcraft.
Apostolics
- or "Vapositori", as the poor call them - are an expanding
pseudo-Christian
sect with huge following that mixes traditional beliefs and
biblical
teachings. Innocent has joined the Apostolic flock. They believe
that their
prophets, who are mostly self-professed, can heal through prayer
and the use
of salt and water. The prophets do not allow members to seek
modern medical
treatment. Meanwhile, the collapse of the public health care
system and the
high cost of private hospitals have helped the Vapositori
become the fastest
growing church in the country.
Innocent was urged to drop all his
superstitions by my doctor, who explained
to him, "Human bodies are like
cars, which need a constant supply of fuel to
burn, a reasonable amount of
water to keep the engine cool, a little oil,
and a few new parts now and
then. For humans, the fuel is carbohydrate, the
oil is fat, the parts are
amino-acids and protein."
We told him more simply, "Don't sell all your
fish. Give some to your wife
and baby. And we backed the doctor and said:
forget the Apostolics."
Benedict Unendoro is the pseudonym of an IWPR
journalist in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Ian Nhuka in Bulawayo
THE
brutal police beatings that the leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) suffered following foiled demonstrations last month
will not
extinguish the will of Zimbabweans to liberate themselves from ZANU
PF
misrule, a senior trade unionist and opposition leader said Sunday.
Addressing a rally in Bulawayo to mark the seventh anniversary of the
formation of the Movement for Democratic Change(MDC), Lucia Matibenga, the
chairperson of the women's assembly in the main faction of the party and
also ZCTU vice-president who was savagely assaulted during the
demonstrations, said the strong-arm tactics by police only served to
strengthen the resolve of democratic forces in their quest to free the
country from the ruling party.
"They beat us but our agenda
will continue to go ahead. They beat us
but that gives us more courage,"
she said.
Other trade union leaders who were tortured include
secretary general,
Wellington Chibebe and chairman, Lovemore
Matombo.
Matibenga was the only woman in the group. She suffered a
fractured
arm, perforated eardrum and bruised kidneys and received treatment
at
Johannesburg's Milpark Hospital.
Others suffered multiple
injuries and were also hospitalised.
Doctors who examined them after
the demonstrations revealed that the
trade unionists were tortured. However,
police say the unionists injured
themselves while resisting arrest despite
video evidence to the contrary.
Undeterred by the possibility of
police brutality, Matibenga said the
ZCTU would continue championing the
interests of workers.
In future, she said, when the trade union
calls for street marches;
the masses should pour out onto the streets in
numbers. More than 1000
people braved the searing heat to attend the rally,
which attracted the top
leadership of the main MDC faction. The rally was
held at White City
Stadium in Bulawayo, a stronghold of the
party.
Also addressing the cheering crowd, Morgan Tsvangirai, the
founding
president and leader of the camp, warned President Robert
Mugabe that
his time was up. He said the MDC would not allow the veteran
leader's regime
to dictate the rules of the political process in the
country.
Tsvangirai said that his camp would keep the pressure on
the embattled
Mugabe government until it accepted opposition demands for a
new and
democratic Constitution, one prerequisite for free and fair
elections.
"Mugabe cannot be allowed to set the rules in this
country for us to
follow. We will never succeed if we allow him to do
that. Anyway,
we do not recognise his leadership so there is no need to
allow him to set
the rules for us," Tsvangirai said.
The former
trade unionist slammed Mugabe for consistently rigging
elections since
the watershed parliamentary election in 2000, which
the MDC lost by five
seats.
"We won all the elections since then but lost power," he
said.
Tsvangirai stressed the need for a united front of opposition
forces
in the struggle for democracy. His party, Tsvangirai added, would
continue
to engage any democratic forces that seek to bring about change in
the
country.
He singled out the pact signed by opposition
leaders in the country in
July as one way to achieve change in the
country.
"The challenge to liberate Zimbabwe is on you and that
must be done as
a matter of urgency. All the people of this country must
commit
themselves to the 'Save Zimbabwe Project,'" he added referring
the
opposition agreement.
Tsvangirai said the past seven years
were difficult. However, the
party has managed to survive amid
government machinations to crush it.
"When I look back to the past
seven years, I see a very tough time for
the democracy in this country. I
also see a regime that is determined to
fight against its own people. Its
preoccupation is just power... But Mugabe
must know that the will of the
people will soon prevail despite his
suppression," he said.
VOA
By
Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
16 October
2006
Zimbabwean teachers struggling with soaring living costs
have gotten some
relief from the government in the form of increased
allowances for transport
and housing.
President Robert Mugabe
announced the increased allowances at a ceremony on
the weekend in Gweru,
the capital of Midlands province, as he donated 100
computers to 10 Midlands
schools. Officials said monthly transport and
housing allowances were to
rise more than threefold to Z$16,000 (US$64) and
Z$22,000 (US$88),
respectively.
President Mugabe said teachers' base salaries would also be
reviewed, adding
that teachers deserve respect and proper compensation given
their key role
in society.
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
said the raises were welcome but
long overdue. Secretary General Raymond
Majongwe told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
the government had rolled out
the increases to influence the rural district
council elections coming up
later this month.
VOA
By Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye
Washington
16 October
2006
Zimbabwe football fans expressed outrage Monday at reports
of racial abuse
aimed at Zimbabwean striker Mike Temwanjira by fans from his
Borac Club in
Serbia.
News reports said fans in the town of Cacak put
on white hoods like those of
the U.S. white supremacist organization Ku Klux
Klan and held up placards
saying Temwanjira was not wanted in Serbia and
should go away.
The incident is alleged to have taken place after a match
against Vozdovac
Belgrade Saturday. Police later told reporters that eight
fans had been
detained and would face charges of spreading racial hatred and
intolerance.
About 30 others were released.
Temwanjira's home
supporters said the Zimbabwe Football Association ought to
take action
against the Serbian club to ensure the safety of Zimbabwean
players
abroad.
Sports Commentator Michael Kariati told reporter Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye
of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that ZIFA could lodge a
complaint with the
International Football Federation, or FIFA, and the
Football Association of
Serbia, or FSS.
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Alex T.
Magaisa
Dear Reader,
This is not an academic
piece; at least it's not meant to be. I have
had to refer to the source of
the principal idea, only because it is not my
idea, but rather one that I
have adapted and I was taught that what is not
mine I must acknowledge. Do
not therefore be put off by my reference to my
source, if that makes it
appear like another impenetrable academic piece
meant for a journal - I have
tried as far as possible to keep the model
within the limits of simplicity,
at the risk in fact of oversimplification
perhaps to the chagrin of the more
sophisticated and inquiring reader. You
may find that most of it is probably
obvious but before you condemn it, I
like to think that I have repackaged
the seemingly obvious in order to see
the possible avenues of resistance and
change. And rather sadly, it is
necessarily long and this despite my
strenuous efforts, I have not been able
to avoid. I can only ask for your
patience. But I hope that at the end of
it, it would have been worth your
effort. If not, please accept my apologies
in great abundance for subjecting
you to the torture.
Toita sei/Senza Njani? /How do we do
it?
Fundamental questions that occupy the minds of most people in
Zimbabwe
and beyond who have been frustrated by the economic decline and
increasing
poverty are whether it is possible at all to replace the ruling
ZANU PF and
if so, how that is possible, in the face of failures of the
commonly
employed methods. Such approaches, ranging from participation in
elections
to mass stayaways and street demonstrations have largely proved
ineffectual
in recent years. Despite the visible decline, ZANU PF appears
even more
entrenched and despair has taken over where once there was hope
and
expectation.
I have read a number of contributions and
listened to interesting
debates hosted by Violet Gonda on SW Radio Africa
involving various
activists and commentators engaged with the Zimbabwe
question. Each time,
the question on what to do to overcome the challenge
has been debated
vigorously, but time and again there appears to be no
answer on the question
of what's to be done. As an occasional writer,
similar questions have often
been posed to me. I realize as do many others
that the Zimbabwean problem is
easy to describe but few of us have ventured
to explore ideas on what's to
be done. Toita sei?, is the question. This
here is my attempt to look at the
challenge from another angle, by no means
the best, but an idea shared is
better that one buried in one's
mind.
Problem of Generalisation
First, it appears to
me that one of the weaknesses in approaching the
challenge has been a
generalization of the issues at hand, which has led to
the adoption of
general and predictable methods and a failure to explore
alternatives. The
challenge has been framed as one of taking political power
from ZANU PF
without however posing to explore and understand the nature of
ZANU PF's
power. "Political power" has been defined generally and taken for
granted
yet in reality the nature of political power is multi-faceted and
more
complex. It is a tried and tested rule that when confronting a
challenge, it
is important to fully understand its nature. Long before the
fighters
confront each other in the boxing ring, they would have studied
every move
of the other, noting his strengths and weaknesses - ensuring that
on the big
day he exploits the weaknesses while trying to undermine the
points of
strength. Whichever way, the fighter knows that he must understand
the
nature of the challenge before him, in order to overcome it. My
contention
is that understanding the nature of ZANU PF's power is critical
because it
allows an avenue to see its strengths and weaknesses and also
open up space
for new alternative to approaching it. The question therefore
is: from which
sources does ZANU PF draw its power?
Strange's Model
Having applied my mind to these questions, I have resorted to the work
of
Susan Strange one of the major voices in international political economy.
Almost 20 years ago, Strange brought great insight, in a book entitled
States and Markets, into the nature of power within the international
system. It is appropriate that I explain my decision to use Strange's
illuminating model for international power relations within the national
context and in particular, Zimbabwean politics:
I have always
thought that the most important thing about the
literature we read and the
studies we embark on, whether it is science,
economics, law, fiction or
other discipline, is how we can make it relevant
to our local circumstances.
I do not think we have to read or study simply
for the sake of it or that
certain work must be restricted to academic
journals. In fact, I despair
when I see some brilliant pieces of work that
members of the public should
ordinarily read, packaged and stored away in
thick academic journals in the
vast libraries or sites accessible only on
payment of huge sums and used
occasionally by students to write essays and
pass exams, after which they
gather dust on the library shelves. So although
I am not a political
scientist and whilst Strange's model was designed
within the context of
international political economy, I still found it
useful a few years ago
when I wrote work on intellectual property rights and
have found it useful
again now as I confront the question of power within
Zimbabwean politics. I
have therefore shamelessly borrowed Strange's model
and adapted it to the
national circumstances of Zimbabwe in a bid to
understand the nature of ZANU
PF's power and how it might be approached.
The nature of
Power
It makes sense to give a basic outline of Strange's model of
power as
adapted to the national sphere. Power itself is defined simply as
one's
ability to impose his/her will on others regardless of their
wishes/interests. Strange identified two kinds of power: first, Relational
Power, which is the power that one wields to get another person to do
something that they would not otherwise do and second, Structural Power,
which is the power to shape and determine the structures within which others
operate; the power to set the agenda and decide how things are done. It is
important within this context to understand how ZANU PF uses Structural
Power in the way it sets up the framework in which individuals and entities
including political parties and corporate enterprises operate and relate to
each other within the political and economic landscape. It is understanding
the nature of ZANU PF's Structural Power that is the focus of this
article.
Now, according to Strange, there are four key sources of
Structural
Power namely, Production, Finance, Security and Knowledge. Put
simply, the
proposition is that that have structural power reposes in those
that are
able to:
- exercise control of people's
security;
- make decisions and control the manner of production for
survival;
- control the financial architecture, i.e. supply and
distribution of
finance and
- control the definition, development,
dissemination, storage of and
access to knowledge broadly defined to include
information, ideas and
beliefs.
These facets of power are the
same whether at the family unit,
national or international levels of power
relations. The important thing is
that the control of these structures
determines the balance of power between
the members of a given space. In a
traditional family, the father's power
over the family may arise from
security that he is able to provide, the
control over production because he
has title to and control of the means of
production, the control of family
finances - he holds the purse, pays school
fees, purchases goods, gives
children pocket money, etc, and promotes the
belief systems that privilege
patriarchy and the status of men. However,
this can change over time if the
mother becomes a greater producer, say, by
holding a superior and
better-paying job or when the child graduates from
University and becomes
the bread-winner and provider of security and also
promotes a belief system
that privileges the power and superiority of
education. It is within this
model that I have sought to explore and
understand the power of ZANU PF and
possibly open ways in which it can be
approached.
Production
Structure
This is probably the most commonly known source of
structural power,
Marxists having long argued that power reposes in those in
control of the
means of production. The ones that decide the mode of
production and control
production levels necessarily have the power over
those with an interest in
accessing the means and items of production. They
seek to strengthen and
defend their position and establish rules and
institutions to create
enclosures that others cannot challenge.
It is within this context that we can see ZANU PF's strategy in
relation to
land reform and lately other areas of production such as
industry and the
mining sector. ZANU PF knew that in an agro-based economy,
it lacked
sufficient control of the production structure. Instead, the
commercial
farmers with greater control of the production structure appeared
to favour
the new opposition party, the MDC. It therefore became necessary
to break
this pattern to avoid having the power from the production
structure
residing with the MDC. To be fair ZANU PF probably had illusions
that the
transition from the old to the new farmers would be smooth but as
we now
know, these illusions were without foundation. ZANU PF's power
arising from
the production structure would have been greater today had
agricultural
productivity been maintained at the pre-2000 levels. But this
did not
materialize and while it controls the means of production, its power
from
this structure is actually weak because of low productivity. The only
reason
why it is important is that it has managed to deprive others of the
opportunity to draw power from this structure because of its monopoly that
is supported by a strong security structure as we shall see a little
later.
Before I conclude, I would also point out that it is within
this
context that we can understand ZANU PF's desire to assume greater
control of
the mines and is hard on the local industry, setting the prices
of essential
goods and therefore levels of production and also its active
participation
as a shareholder in local industries.
But it is
also important to realise that people are not without
power - as I will
demonstrate later when people withdraw their labour,
through strikes or
similar action, they are principally demonstrating their
power over the
production structure. For example, while an employer draws
power from his
control of the production system on which employees depend
for employment
and livelihood, employees can whenever they feel the employer
has abused his
power, withdraw their labour or engage in other action that
forces the
employer to meet their demands. We have seen however, that mass
stayaways,
strikes or similar action do not seem to have had the desired
effect on ZANU
PF power This is probably because power from this structure
is already weak
anyway as there is no real production to talk about and so
ZANU PF wouldn't
care less. Withdrawing labour does no more harm to the
power from the
production structure, which is already weak. ZANU PF has
nothing to lose in
this respect. It would be different however if people
engaged in other
parallel forms of production, hereby creating a parallel
structure from
which they draw power but ZANU PF has no control. However
positive action
such as this is difficult where ZANU PF can deploy power
from the security
structure.
Finance Structure
This structure consists
of control over finance, generally defined.
This involves the control and
availability of credit and other financial
facilities. Its influence is more
defined in advanced economies but is
generally important because it affects
the power arising from other
structures - production, knowledge development
and security. The old adage
that he who has wealth has power applies with
equal force in this case. In
Zimbabwe we can see the manifestation of ZANU
PF's power from this structure
in its tentacles spread across the financial
sector, especially major local
banks. It can also be seen in the Reserve
Bank's forays in to the retail
banking sector (under the cloak of temporary
"Operations") - becoming a
principal source of finance for industry and
agriculture and a key player
via institutions like the ZABG and similar
banks. Private institutions have
been forcibly taken over or sidelined by
the all-powerful RBZ and in the
process ZANU PF is effectively assuming
control of the key sites of the
finance structure thereby seeking to enhance
its power.
A question is not often asked - why are there people who
appear to
support ZANU PF, despite its failings? They are often dismissed as
ignorant
and mostly rural folk. But the fact is that when you look at the
way even
the so-called sophisticated corporate entities and urbane
individuals in
business succumb to the power of ZANU PF in respect of this
structure, you
begin to see that supporting or opposing ZANU PF is not
simply an exercise
limited to election time. In other words rural folk are
not the only ones
who supposedly prop up ZANU PF through votes because by
supporting ZANU PF's
power arising from such structures as finance, there
are many others who
unsuspectingly prop up the party. People or entities
that tow ZANU PF's line
do so not necessarily because they believe in its
ideals but only because by
doing so they secure access to facilities within
ZANU PF controlled
financial architecture. They do so because they depend on
it - if the had an
alternative they probably would not tow the line. But
looked at another way,
if they chose to reject it they would be exercising
creating their own
parallel source of power. Looked at in this way, the
parallel market is no
more than a refusal to succumb to the power of the
ZANU PF controlled
financial system. If all the funds circulating in the
parallel market were
in the formal system, it would greatly enhance the
power of those in control
of the finance structure. Given that the parallel
market provides a parallel
finance structure, it is no surprise that ZANU PF
would be very keen to keep
a watchful eye and retain control. To that
extent, participation in a
parallel market can be seen as a mass withdrawal
of consent to the formal
system from which the ruling establishment draws
its power, creating a
parallel power structure of which only the people are
in control. That in a
way is a form of mass action, although it is not
commonly identified as
such.
In addition, and perhaps more
importantly people underestimate their
relative power within this finance
structure. They (including the corporate
world) unwittingly prop up the
banking sector because they keep their
savings within the banking system. By
so doing, they succumb to the power of
the controlled banking system because
they have to restrict their
withdrawals in line with the demands of the RBZ,
again enforced by the power
from the Security Structure. It is their money
but they have allowed their
rights to be restricted because they remain
participants in a banking system
that gives power to their adversary. You
can vote against ZANU PF but as
long as your finances are within the finance
structure that it controls, you
have little cause to complain when it uses
that power to thwart your choice.
You think you have voted against but in
another way you are propping it up.
If there are so many people who oppose
the control, what would be the effect
on the finance structure if they
withdrew their funds from the system? Are
people not playing unwilling
participants in propping up the power of that
which they appear to oppose?
Could mass non-participation or withdrawal from
the finance structure be
considered a form of mass action?
Knowledge Structure
The old saying that knowledge is power is appropriate here. It simply
means
that those who are able to define and control the development, use,
dissemination and access to knowledge have important structural power.
Knowledge is defined broadly to include evolving technology, ideas, beliefs
and information. Knowledge in this sense is important because it controls
the mind and therefore the behaviour of individuals. The control of
knowledge involves withholding certain kinds of knowledge from people
thereby keeping them in ignorance or feeding them certain kinds of knowledge
that favour the controller. Knowledge also affects the other three
structures - in terms enhancing or decreasing security, technology for
finance and also for production. By 1990 ZANU PF had already increased
attempts to control the knowledge structure by enhancing control and
interference with academic freedom at universities via the notoriously
controversial University of Zimbabwe Amendment Act. The same efforts can be
seen in the control of syllabi of key subjects that teach liberation history
and also the increasing attempts to take control of the private education
sector. Similarly, re-education programmes and the national youth service
constitute attempts to control the knowledge - the spread of ideas that
support a certain position. Repeated more often with increased volume and
large print, the ideas, information and beliefs become part of the daily
vocabulary. Used everyday, it becomes part of the routine, part of life.
When the oppressed begin to use the language of the oppressor, you can see
the power deriving from the knowledge structure, even though the oppressed
may not realize their capitulation.
Occasionally, the knowledge
structure relies on the security structure
to ensure that these ideas are
enforced by coercion. More importantly, ZANU
PF has maintained control of
power arising from the knowledge structure
through a system of closure or
withdrawal of knowledge. This is the context
in which we can understand the
media monopoly of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings, the threats and actual
acts of violence against the Daily News
culminating in the continued refusal
to issue a licence, the dominance of
Zimpapers. At the same time we can see
attempts by others to break this
power, such as the radio stations like SW
Radio Africa or newspapers like
the Zimbabwean or online sites like
NewZimbabwe.com. But the interference
with transmission of radio stations
represents the attempt to maintain the
control of the knowledge structure by
preventing alternative voices. All in
all, ZANU PF knows that immense power
resides and can be drawn from the
knowledge structure. That is why it keeps
a tight grip on all aspects that
constitute this structure.
The
question therefore is whether those that oppose ZANU PF's ways
have any
strategy aimed at breaking this source of power. The question is
knowing
what sustains the vehicles through which knowledge is developed and
transmitted - The party mouthpieces need revenue from advertisers and
subscribers but how many among these potential advertisers and subscribers
are unwittingly keeping it afloat? Some people say they buy the paper only
for the classifieds section or for the sports news, but that makes little
difference to its sales figures - they record that newspapers have been sold
and revenue has been received and in that way the power of the knowledge
structure is enhanced because the companies stay in business. What would
happen if all those people who would not otherwise buy if there was an
alternative choose not to buy it at all? And if people chose not to purchase
goods and services from companies that run commercials in that media? Such
power works when exercised collectively and can be more effective in
changing the behaviour of otherwise complicit corporate enterprises who like
to play victim but at the same time exploit the benefits of the
system.
Security Structure
This is probably the most
important of all structures from which ZANU
PF draws power but as we have
seen it is by no means the only one. The fact
that this is a strong
structure of power for ZANU PF should not take away
attention from the other
structures of power, which have their own
weaknesses that can be exploited.
The security structure cannot operate on
its own, it requires the other
structures and hence it is often deployed to
ensure that the other
structures of power remain in existence - sooner or
later it poses its own
threats even to the ruling party, because the real
controllers of the
structure may at any point choose to free themselves from
the party
structures - which is why in some countries military personnel
have used the
power from the structure to take power from politicians
through coups, as
happened recently in Thailand. Since everyone requires
security, those in
control of security have power over those who need it.
But the power to
protect can also mean the power to withdraw protection and
in extreme cases,
to threaten insecurity by using coercion and violence. It
becomes more
extreme when the security machinery itself is used to threaten
the security
of individuals, in which case people conform by means of fear
and
coercion.
As we have seen, power derived from the security
structure can also be
used to support other structures, for example using
coercion of the Youth
Militia to promote certain ideas and beliefs, using
the police force or army
to confiscate funds held by individuals, failing to
provide security to
farmers when threatened with violence during the land
invasions. The most
brutal use of power from the security structure to
coerce obedience and
compliance was the deployment of the notorious Fifth
Brigade in Matabeleland
under the guise of suppressing dissident activity.
The most visible
manifestation of ZANU PF's power arising from the security
structure in more
recent times was the announcement by the uniformed
security chiefs just
before the Presidential election in 2002 that they
would only support a
leader who had participated in the liberation struggle.
This was in effect a
clear demonstration of the superior power drawn from
the security structure.
If one's security cannot be guaranteed by the
security forces all other
interests become secondary and
irrelevant.
It stands to reason therefore that securing power does
not lie in the
realm of elections or mere demonstrations but measures that
neutralize the
power drawn from the security structure. Given the nature of
the Zimbabwe
state and the historical circumstances of its birth it is no
surprise that
the centre of power lies in the security structure. Any
attempt therefore to
win power requires ways of getting some of that power.
An opposition
movement needs some measure of support emanating from within
this structure,
in order to draw the necessary power. To pretend otherwise
is to bury heads
in the sand and refuse to understand and accept the
realpolitik of the
Zimbabwean situation. The opposition movement in
Zimbabwe has largely
pursued textbook politics that describes democracy in
pleasant terms and
assumes that all things are equal but fails to take into
account the power
structures and relations that must be confronted and
overcome in different
situations. We expect elections to be the medium for
change and while this
probably makes sense in the mature democracies but we
do not understand that
within our landscape elections is just a part of the
wider equation.
Penetrating the security structure could involve making
oneself relevant to
the agenda and interests of those that form part of the
security structure.
This is not easy but also not impossible. The MDC tried
it when some
legislators allegedly tried to woo top military personnel a few
years ago,
though their attempt was probably awkwardly executed and
therefore failed.
That was an attempt to have a share of the power from the
security structure
which ZANU PF monopolises.
It must also be
recalled that the security structure is only relevant
to the extent that
people require security. When it becomes a threat, there
comes a point when
people may exercise a choice to reject the security
because it has become
irrelevant to their needs. In that case the power
arising from the security
structure is diminished because the people for
whom it is meant no longer
need it. This much is evident in Zimbabwe's own
history when in the 1970s
the liberation movements chose to reject the
security structure of the
Rhodesian regime and instead created their own
machinery which sought fairly
successfully in the end to establish a new
structure, from which ZANU PF now
derives power.
What emerges from the above is that instead of
talking of ZANU PF's
power in general terms, it helps to dissect its
structures in order to
understand more precisely its strengths and
weaknesses, by understanding its
sources of power. Conversely, this helps
to unravel the various options and
avenues available to those that seek to
challenge its power. When people
have talked about its superior power, they
have largely referred to its
power arising principally from the security
structure. They have not
specifically considered its power arising from
other structures and the
weaknesses that lie therein. When considered in
total, it is easy to see
that because of the weaknesses in other power from
other structures, they
have had to be propped up by the security structure.
That is why people talk
of the militarization of the civil service and other
state institutions -
whereby personnel from the security structure have been
deployed to
positions in otherwise civilian areas. Therefore, ZANU PF is
relying more on
the security structure as a principal source of
power.
Power is Reciprocal
Notwithstanding the
immense power from the security structure, it is
also important to realise
that power is reciprocal. It may not be equal
reciprocity but the fact
remains that one's power is relevant only to the
extent that he controls
things that are required by other people. In return
for their desire for
security the people cede power to those that are able
to offer security.
Conversely, once that security becomes a threat or is no
longer available,
people no longer require it and may therefore seek
alternatives. The history
of Zimbabwe itself is testament to this fact -
when the liberation parties
realised that the security offered by the
Rhodesian Front was not in their
best interests but had instead become a
threat to their freedoms, they
decided to reject that form of security and
create an alternative source of
their own. Similarly, the shopkeeper has
power over consumers only to the
extent that he controls the goods and
services that the consumers desire. If
he sells rotten food or increases
prices beyond the consumers' reach, the
consumers can exercise their
reciprocal power by withdrawing their custom.
If the shopkeeper cannot sell
his wares to any person, he no longer has
power over the consumers and he
may relent. That is the power of consumer
boycotts - mass withdrawal of
custom which tips the balance of power in the
consumers' favour. Is that not
also a form of mass action? But this works
only if the consumers are united
in their effort. So for example, if
everyone chose to walk and avoid public
transport which is expensive; if
everyone chose to walk and abandon their
luxury vehicles until the price of
fuel is reduced, that might force the bus
operators or fuel merchants to
think twice and change their methods. The
point here is that far from being
powerless and lacking in alternatives,
people actually have power which they
can exercise without engaging in any
positive action. No amount of force can
coerce a person to go into a shop to
buy what he does not want; similarly,
no amount of force can push a person
to deposit his funds in a bank or to
use public transport. So even though
the security structure is powerful, it
can only influence the strengths of
the other structures if people are
prepared to participate.
All too often protests in Zimbabwe have
been predicated on the basis
of doing something - demonstrating in the
streets, voting in elections. Save
for the initial stayaways of the late
1990s (whose success owed much to
their novelty), there has been limited
thought given to the strategy of
protests which involve doing nothing when
the system requires you to do
otherwise. Positive action like street marches
has been attractive because
it is visible and helps the showmen to
demonstrate to the world and their
benefactors that they are actually doing
something about the problem but
time and again it has been neutralised via
ZANU PF's power from the security
structure. The predictability probably
explains George Aittey's views
recently that the ZCTU marches were
ill-considered and ineffectual. Other
than providing good material for thick
human rights reports and more
recently video documentaries showing the
brutal force of ZANU PF's security
structure it has done nothing substantial
to influence change. The reports
and videos simply confirm what is already
known about the Zimbabwean regime
and so do not add anything new. The
question is whether there are other
methods that target the structures of
power but are not vulnerable to the
power arising from the security
structure? Perhaps it is useful to look at
other forms of confronting this
challenge - enabling people to realise that
they have power, albeit
invisible, and can in fact if truly united make use
of the power which no
amount of coercion can neutralise.
I have attempted to show in this
lengthy piece, the sources of ZANU PF's
power with the hope that it opens up
alternative ways through which people
can exercise their power, which is
actually available in abundance. The only
question is whether they are
prepared for the sacrifices required in order
to use it. Once people think
of ZANU PF's power they immediately retreat
because they think only of the
power arising from the security structure.
What they have not sought to do
is to appreciate that ZANU PF's power is
drawn from other sources on which
the security structure is also dependent.
That is where the leadership
question arises - the leadership that shows
this vision and explains to the
people the power dynamics involved and what
can be done and achieved. Simply
resorting to the same old methods, the same
catchwords will produce similar
ineffectual consequences. The opposition
also needs to win a share of power
arising from the security structure -
this is a matter of realpolitik,
because no matter how much they win by the
ballot box, they would still need
to win over the power from this crucial
structure. I ma not be what the
textbook democrats want but that is the
demands of realpolitik - the
practical power politics of the Zimbabwean
situation.
Reader
I know it has been a long read, but at the very least, I
hope it has
been comprehensible.
Dr Magaisa can be contacted at
wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Bill Saidi
HERBERT MUNANGATIRE was
on of the most colourful people it was my
pleasure to work
with.
We pent four eventful years together at African Newspapers,
the
publishers of The African Daily News, among other publications. Apart
from
the cigar-chomping, which he did with such gleeful disregard for other
people's sensibilities of the smoke, he was also a master of hyperbole and
theatrics.
The African Daily News may have had its detractors,
but it did try to
live up to its reputation as a first-class, modern
newspaper, working with
the most modern newspaper technology.
For instance, the office was in regular radio communication with a
vehicle
used by reporters in the field. So, when there was a riot in Harare
township, the man on the spot could report "live" to the office desk, a
blow-by-blow account of what was happening.
I was at the wrong
end as Munangatire's voice bombarded me with a
rat-tat-tat account of events
as riot police fired teargas at the crowd.
His most memorable
communication was: "Look, look, look, they are
firing teargas, they are
firing teargas!"
Later, when he was back at the office, I joshed
with him about that
rather melodramatic communication. "It was really
exciting," he said,
earnestly.
Mass action was a method of protest
used frequently by the nationalist
movements. They were obviously effective
in raising the people's awareness
of how numbers mattered in the
head-to-head confrontation with the
colonialists.
I marched in
one from Cyril Jennings Hall to the Harare township
police station, where
they teargassed us as we squatted on the ground
outside the station, in
protest against police harassment - or some other
such acts of abuse or
indignity.
I marched with the late George Silundika, one of the first
people to
be interred at Heroes Acre. We talked a lot along the way.
Silundika was one
of the leaders who would not accuse me of being anti-this
or anti-that, as
far as the cause of the liberation struggle was concerned,
even when we met
in Zambia.
The settlers were visibly unnerved
by the protest marches, for their
reaction grew more and more vicious The
general aim was to demonstrate to
the people the consequences of such
temerity - you could get killed.
Yet nobody actually gave up. They
came back for more of the same
medicine and seemed to love it as it got more
and more vicious. By the time
people were being killed and the air in the
townships reeked of the stench
of rotting corpses, people knew this was a
fight to the finish. The gloves
were off and it was bare knuckles
time.
It may be fashionable for some of the churlish present-day heroes
to
dismiss the mass action then as so much feeble, childish tantrums. Yet
that
is where it all began.
We all know now that mass action can be
an effective form of protest
against unpopular regimes.
What is
paramount is to ensure that, after the tears and the cries of
agony, you can
live happily ever after - in freedom.
After the break-up of the
former Soviet Union in the 1990s, set in
motion by the watershed policies of
glasnost and perestroika by Mikhail
Gorbachev, some of the independent
states which emerged had very short
lives.
One reason was that they
tried to implement the same hard-line
policies as the Soviet Union had used
to keep the people subservient and
docile.
But once the people
had tasted freedom - albeit woefully limited
freedom - under the short-lived
Gorbachev regime, they would never tolerate
any restrictions that smacked
of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
One man who fell victim had
been Gorbachev's foreign minister, Edvard
Shevadznade.
He fled his
country of Georgia and sought refuge in Russia. A few
others took the same
route after their experiment with Soviet-style
totalitarianism found little
favour with their people.
We all know that in The Philippines, it
was "people power" under
Corazone Aquino which toppled Ferdinand Marcos.
Recently, the prime minister
of Thailand, a very wealthy man, was out of the
country when the soldiers
decided they had had enough of his brand of
despotism.
There were no demonstrations against the coup, which meant
that the
soldiers acted with the people's mandate. The people had protested
massively
and loudly against the prime minister and his paternalistic style,
which
they saw through as corrupt and selfish.
In Hungary, we
had the spectacle of a prime minister telling the
people he had lied to them
to get their vote in the last election. Most of
Hungarians were furious and
wanted his head. How he survived may be a
peculiarly Hungarian feat. These
people have a history of acting in fits and
starts as far as their rights
are concerned.
Lying to the people is the stock-in-trade of most
politicians. In a
number of instances, the people react to these lies with
mass action,.
The trade unions and the opposition parties in
Zimbabwe have
threatened to stage mass action for the same reason - the lies
Zanu PF and
the government of President Robert Mugabe have tried to ram down
their
throats.
Reaction to the threats has been typical -
gratuitous violence, not
unlike that of the colonialists.
Yet
they cannot escape the truth: a well-organised demonstration can
be a
challenge to the army and the police. They can't kill everyone.
Moreover, it is futile for either Mugabe or Zanu PF to believe that
the MDC
faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai cannot, by itself, mount a mass
action
which can test the resilience of the army and the police.
This is the
same party which gave Zanu PF a bloody nose in 2000 and
2002.
Even in its present state of seeming disintegration, it can still
attract
many neutrals who know that the chances are enormous that someone
else can
do better than Zanu PF.
Moreover, Zanu PF itself is plagued with
factionalism. There are some
in the party who must wish they had a Nelson
Mandela in the leadership or
even on the periphery of the leadership, as
Madiba is.
Someone of that stature and foresight could quietly convince
every
leader and the rank and file that in-fighting ended with the stupidity
of
the splits of the 1960s,
But who can be as effective a catalyst
for unity in Zanu PF as
Mandela is in the African national congress in South
Africa?
You can hardly point to anyone, with an office at Shake
Shake
building, with that kind of selfless dedication to their country. They
all
seem consumed with greed or an ego the size of the Kariba
dam.
In Zimbabwe today, most people speak only of how much life has
changed, how much corruption in high places there is and how all this has
devalued the meaning of independence and freedom, how old and young people
prefer to risk life and limb crossing the crocodile-infested Limpopo river
for a chance to live happily ever after, in a foreign country, working at
the most menial job imaginable - cleaning public lavatories, for
instance.
It is by no means trite to say, as some of the so-called
unpatriotic
scribes have done, that the country is sitting on a political
powder keg.
Discontent with the government is palpable everywhere - in the
Kombis, in
the 110-passenger buses, on the commuter trains from Dzivarasekwa
into the
city, and on the long-distance trains to Bulawayo or
Mutare.
In the pubs and at the bottlestores people risk being
arrested for
speaking out of turn while under the influence - like calling
the president
of the republic something not entirely
"presidential".
If someone convinced them that mass action would remove
the nightmare
of joblessness, hunger, inexpensive transport to and from
work, disease for
which the cure is beyond them, the lack of schools,
hospitals and clinics,
decent houses, freedom of _expression, freedom from
police and political
harassment - and they made it plausible enough - people
would willingly risk
life and limb.
They must be convinced
that, at the end of the mass action, there
would be no more empty promises
from Gideon Gono, to end the nightmare of a
currency that is so worthless
it's making the citizens themselves feel just
as worthless.
Above all, they must be convinced that, after the blood and the
bruises of
police batons, they can live happily ever after.
There is much solid
evidence on the “ground that not one ordinary,
proud Zimbabwean of average
intelligence could find that proposition
outlandish, unattainable or
unrealisable.
Mineweb
By: Jim Jones
Posted:
'08-MAR-06 09:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004
ST JEAN (Mineweb.com)
-- While Zimbabwe's finance minister Herbert Murerwa
is scampering around
the IMF hoping for help for his country's collapsing
economy, the
announcement that the country's foreign-owned mines are next in
line to be
grabbed does not help his plaint. And that is putting it
mildly.
President Robert Mugabe has already presided over a grab of
white-owned
farms without compensation -- not to help rural peasants but to
hand over
assets to his supporters. Those farms are not being run
efficiently as they
were by their white owners. A kleptocratic government
that inherited a
country once seen as the southern African region's bread
basket is now
responding to the fact that the state-owned granaries have
less than a
couple of weeks' stocks of wheat by putting the army on high
alert as a
precaution against food riots.
Non-agricultural industry,
too, is all but moribund as private-sector firms
close down because of the
chronic shortages of raw materials and foreign
currency that the Mugabe
regime has inflicted on them. White minority rule
by the government of Ian
Smith may have been illegitimate, but the economy
survived despite sanctions
and new mines were opened at a steady rate.
Now, the Zimbabwean mining
industry is facing the threat of expropriation.
Mugabe's cronies want an
immediate handover of 25% of all mines to be
followed by a further 26% by
the year 2009. Sure, the 26% will be paid for,
but payment will be in
virtually worthless Zimbabwean dollars and the price
will be calculated at
exchange rates prevailing when miners such as Rio
Tinto and Impala Platinum
invested US dollars in expansion and mine
development.
Effectively,
then, this is confiscation. And will Mugabe's looters stop
there? They are
not deterred by the fact that investment funds were
introduced into the
country legally and in compliance with
government-mandated conditions
established long after independence. No
chance of blaming previous
governments or former colonial powers for this
one. And Mugabe needs more
assets to enrich his supporters.
The foreign mine owners are faced with
little or no choice in Zimbabwe.
Impala's CFO David Brown has said that the
51% takeover will render his
company's 86.7%-owned Zimplats and 50%-owned
Mimosa mines uneconomic. But if
Impala and others refuse to comply with the
latest snatch, mines minister
Amos Mdizi threatens, their entire assets will
be seized and handed over to
other - Chinese and Indian - natural resource
companies that have already
been identified.
Impala is in an
invidious position. It needs Zimbabwean platinum resources
to maintain
longer-term production as its South African resources start to
run out or
cannot support expanded production. But Impala and other South
African
miners cannot count on any help or protection from their own
government.
Pretoria has been tardy in signing a bilateral investment
protection accord
with Harare. So, even if the South African government felt
inclined to
intervene to support its own country's investors, it has no
ground to stand
on.
Zimbabwe is among Africa's more egregious regimes when it comes to
protecting private property. But others such as Chad and Angola are not far
behind. So it is hard to tell whether corruption or incompetence has left
two iron-ore companies, South Africa's Kumba and India's Mittal in something
of a stand off in Senegal. The Senegalese government has allocated rights to
Mittal that it had already assigned to Kumba and where Kumba has already
spent several million dollars on exploration. And the two companies do not
want to waste time fighting a legal battle.
Across in Kenya, the
government's response to media reports of corruption
that reaches way up
into the cabinet has been to send it elite police and
military units to
close down an independent television station to sabotage
newspaper presses
and to burn newspapers. Government's specious response has
been that the
media company's journalists had been bribed to stir up ethnic
hatred.
Perhaps we should not forget that the emergence from colonial
rule was
hailed in most African countries, right back to the days when Kwame
Nkrumah
emerged as the first president of an independent Ghana and through
to
Zimbabwe's emergence from the white-led regime of Ian Smith.
Next
to Kenya only a couple of years back, Uganda's president Yoweri Musveni
was
being hailed at home and abroad for his perceived success in reversing
his
country's HIV/Aids epidemic. Now he is reviled for rigging elections to
keep
himself in power for another twenty years. How unlike countries such as
South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana where presidents retire quietly from
office at the ends of their constitutionally mandated terms.
Of
course, there is always the option of bribing politicians so as to
protect
one's investment. Trouble with that is finding an honest politician
to
bribe. As Ambrose Bierce defined it in his Devil's Dictionary: "An honest
politician is one who, once bought stays bought."
By Violet
Gonda
17 October 2006
Thabitha Khumalo, the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions 2 nd Vice
President was one of the recipients of
the Women of the Year Award. She won
the Window to the World Award sponsored
by Pilkington plc in the United
Kingdom. She was among 4 recipients of the
annual award by the Women of the
Year organisation, which recognises women
who offer true inspiration,
compassion and who strive to make the world a
better place.
The trade unionist has been arrested and beaten up
several times by
state security agents in her quest to fight for better
standard of living
for Zimbabweans.
This year she embarked on a
campaign called "The Dignity Period
Campaign" to fight for the basic female
human right to have access to
sanitary protection. Several celebrities and
organisations in the UK helped
fundraise and at least 2 million products
were shipped to Zimbabwe to be
distributed.
Sponsors said:
"This award is a salute to a woman whose work and
courage, in often
dangerous or intimidating circumstances, has opened all
our eyes to a world
we otherwise would not have understood."
Kathryn Llewellyn, Action
for Southern Africa - Head of Campaign said;
"Thabitha has been working with
Action for Southern Africa on the Dignity
Period Campaign and obviously
Thabitha, as a Zimbabwe trade unionist, has
been going through a very
difficult time. through her activism. It's a
combination of the work that
the campaign has done along with a recognition
of the struggles that Tabitha
& the ZCTU have had in trying to get the
international community to
listen to the problems that Zimbabweans have,
particularly with this issue
of the lack of sanitary products."
It's reported that as a result
of this awareness campaign, Action for
Southern Africa has teamed up with
the ZCTU and a Zimbabwean manufacturing
company to supply and distribute the
sanitary products to the most
vulnerable areas and schools in the
country.
Thabitha's mission is to continue campaigning and bringing
the plight
of women into the international forum. Life expectancy of women
in Zimbabwe
is 34 and is the lowest in the world. Due to Zimbabwe's economic
collapse
the majority of women are no longer able to afford sanitary pads,
and have
to resort to the unhealthy use of newspapers, rags or even
leaves.
Lorraine Clinton, Director of Architecture & Glazing
from Pilkington
says, "Thabitha's courage and determination to bring the
lack of a basic
human right to the world's attention is truly admirable.
Thabitha's
resolution to fight for the rights of Zimbabwean women in the
face of
imprisonment and intimidation shows remarkable strength of
character".
UK cancer sufferer Jane Tomlinson MBE, who has overcome
her illness to
raise more than £1 million for charity, was among the women
honoured in the
Women Of The Year Awards. They received their awards at a
lunch in London
attended by 400 women, on Monday.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By
Tererai Karimakwenda
17 October 2006
The Department of
Home Affairs in South Africa has been urged to
investigate why a group of at
least 40 Zimbabweans who applied for legal
documents at the Rosettenville
centre were issued asylum-seekers' permits
denying them the right to work or
study in South Africa. The Zimbabwe Exiles
Forum (ZEF) sent a letter to the
department on Tuesday saying they had
received several reports from
Zimbabwean asylum-seekers who had been issued
these permits in the week
beginning October 9. An official at the ZEF said
refugees are legally
entitled to a means of survival and to education in the
host countries they
live in. The ZEF official explained that South Africa's
own constitution
provides for this and the courts in the country agreed.
Even applicants
whose cases are pending are to be extended the same
opportunity to support
themselves.
There are also several international statutes including
the United
Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and the 1969 OAU Refugee
Convention that
extend the right to work and education to asylum seekers.
The ZEF believe
denying the Zimbabwean asylum seekers was illegal, and they
are urging the
Home Affairs department to stop issuing that type of permit
immediately.
ZEF said so far it appears that only asylum seekers
from Zimbabwe had
experienced this injustice and only an extensive
investigation would reveal
whether other nationalities had been
affected.
All the permits that were shown to the ZEF were issued
last week from
Rosettenville. In the same week other centres that process
refugees issued
the standard permits. The ZEF, whose mission is to assist
Zimbabwean
refugees, say South Africa's Home Affairs must take back the
offensive
permits and replace them with standard ones. They also believe
reparations
are due to those affected or they will take legal
action.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Chronicle Newspaper
(Lilongwe)
October 17, 2006
Posted to the web October 17,
2006
KONDWANI MAGOMBO
Lilongwe
The Centre for Human Rights and
Rehabilitation (CHRR) has accused Southern
Africa Development Community
(SADC) leaders of failing to support the
Zimbabwe people in their ongoing
human rights and economic crisis saying the
problems need external
intervention which can best be offered by the
region's leaders.
CHRR
Executive Director Undule Mwakasungura said this Thursday in Lilongwe
during
a press briefing his organisation held jointly with a visiting
Zimbabwean
civil society organization, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) in
a bid to
find ways of helping the Zimbabweans regain their economic and
human rights
freedoms.
Mwakasungura said SADC leaders ought to have supported the
Zimbabweans by
drawing President Robert Gabriel Mugabe into a discussion to
persuade him to
improve the living standards for the people of
Zimbabwe.
"SADC leaders have failed to support Zimbabweans. The people of
Zimbabwe are
in a major crisis and Zimbabwe is collapsing. But what kind of
support are
the SADC leaders giving to the people of Zimbabwe?" queried
Mwakasungura.
He further criticised President Mutharika's failure to take
advantage of
Mugabe's recent visit to Malawi to deliberate on the welfare of
the
Zimbabweans, adding that CHRR would be happy to see the Malawi
government
engaged in a struggle to "free the Zimbabweans".
"We would
be happy if our president (Mutharika) took steps to draw other
SADC leaders
to round table discussions - even at the expense of the
tax-payer's money -
we wouldn't mind. We need to help our friends in
Zimbabwe," said the CHRR
Executive Director with some passion.
In his remarks, Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition Coordinator Jacob Mafume
criticised the current government in
Zimbabwe, describing it as being
repressive and corrupt, with unemployment
and inflation rates estimated at
80 and 1204.6 percent respectively; the
highest in the world.
"This is symptomatic of a collapse in the
socio-economic and political setup
in Zimbabwe which has been caused by a
corrupted governance structure that
is characterised by repressive
legislation; a breakdown of rule of law, a
weak parliament and a total lack
of accountability," said Mafume.
According to Mafume, the Zimbabwe
legislature closed down four independent
newspapers and he said to date,
Zimbabwe does not have any private nor
community radio and television
stations.
He further said the Zimbabwe government has brutally suppressed
the
activities of civil society, trade unions, churches, opposition parties
and
any progressive initiatives.
"A number of civic actors have been
tortured and brutalised in the exercise
and pursuit of their democratic
rights. The latest is the torture and
inhuman treatment, while in police
custody of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) leaders last
month.
".To date there has been no response from African political
leadership to
this human rights violation which is contrary to the
anti-torture provisions
of the African Charter on Human Rights and People's
Rights," said the CZC
Coordinator, who is also a journalist for the
coalition's four-page
newsletter, The Crisis Informer.
He called on
all African leaders in general, and those in the SADC region in
particular,
to realise that the Zimbabwean situation is getting worse as the
Mugabe
government continues to suppress the people of Zimbabwe, adding that
the
region must take leadership in working together with the Zimbabwean
people
to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The CHRR Executive Director, while
admitting that civil society
organisations in the country are divided owing
to different views they hold
as regards Mugabe's visit to Malawi recently,
assured the visiting Zimbabwe
civil society grouping that HRCC would call
its fellow human rights groups
to a discussion table to strategise on a way
forward on the Zimbabwe crisis.
Present at the conference were CZC media
consultant, Luckson Chipare,
Executive Director for Christian Agency for
Responsible Democracy
Development and National Unity (CARDDENU), Bishop
Moses Phiri, and his
deputy Francis Antonio and CZC Programmes Manager for
the South African
desk, Nkosilathi Tshuma.
Last year President Mugabe
launched an unpopular Operation Murambatsvina, an
exercise that rendered
over 700,000 people homeless and affected 2.4 million
people in varying
degrees.
Robert Mugabe by and large, has lost international support and
favour with
many international western countries with some donor communities
cutting
ties with the country. Mugabe, despite this action that has brought
a once
prosperous nation to its knees has never been moved by any of these
withdrawals of favour. He remains largely arrogant and belligerent, further
bringing pain and discomfort to Zimbabwe and its people.
South
Africa's Thabo Mbeki has preferred to play a 'quiet diplomacy' game
that has
seen further suffering for Zimbabweans. Many believe it is this
action by
South Africa that has created difficulties for other SADC leaders
to take a
firmer stand on Mugabe.
President Mutharika's invitation to the Zimbabwe
leader to Malawi where he
named a road in his name caused consternation in
the nation with some
Malawian vandalising the name sign placed on the road.
Mutharika's support
of Mugabe many believe is a result of the ties that the
first lady, Ethel
Mutharika has with that nation. She is a Zimbabwean and
they posses a home
and farms in that country.
The Herald (Harare)
October 17,
2006
Posted to the web October 17, 2006
Noah Pito
Hurungwe
A
HURUNGWE headmaster last week lost three Ordinary Level examination papers
to a stranger he had given a lift on his way from collecting the
papers.
Mashonaland West police spokesman Assistant Inspector James Sabau
confirmed
that on Wednesday last week the headmaster of Dandawa Secondary
School in
Magunje, Mr Makisi Jimu, had boxes containing "O" Level English
Paper 1,
Geography and History Paper 1 papers stolen by the suspect,
Jabulani
Ngwadzayi (19).
"I can confirm receipt of reports to the
effect that boxes containing
examination papers were stolen from a
headmaster and Magunje police made a
follow-up and arrested the suspect in
Karoi on Thursday.
"The suspect is assisting police with investigations.
We are appealing to
anyone with information on the issue to assist the
police," said Asst Insp
Sabau.
Efforts to get comment from the
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council
yesterday were
unsuccessful.
Pupils are scheduled to sit for the English paper this
Friday, History paper
on October 23, and Geography paper 1 on October
25.
According to Asst Insp Sabau, police have recovered both boxes -- one
with
all the packs intact while in the case of the other they are awaiting
Zimsec
confirmation on whether or not the packages were tampered
with.
Asst Insp Sabau said that English Paper 1 was one of the exam
sheets whose
number needed verification by Zimsec.
Mr Jimu told
police that he only discovered that the boxes containing the
exam papers
were missing when he stopped at St Boniface Business Centre,
several
kilometres after Ngwadzayi had alighted.
He then drove to report the
matter at Magunje Police Station the same night.
Mr Jimu collected the
boxes -- one for his school and another for
neighbouring Madzima Secondary
School -- from Magunje Growth Point on
Wednesday afternoon.
From
Magunje, Mr Jimu headed for his school along Chiumburukwe Road and
reportedly gave a lift to Ngwadzayi.
Ngwadzayi indicated that he
would be dropping off at his home in Kandororo
Village and sat at the back
of the truck where the two boxes had been
placed.
In the darkness,
Ngwadzayi is believed to have thought the boxes contained
clothes or other
valuables.
He then allegedly threw out the boxes while the vehicle was in
motion before
alighting a few metres later.
When he dropped at
Kandororo bus stop, he tracked back and took his loot
only to find out that
they were Zimsec November examination papers.
In November 2004, Zimsec
rescheduled the "O" Level Mathematics Paper 1 after
suspicion that the paper
had been leaked through spoilages taken to Kadoma
Paper Mills by the
security printer.
Last year, Zimsec proceeded with "O" and "A" level
examinations despite a
suspected leak after question papers fell off a
vehicle along Simon
Mazorodze Road in Harare while in transit.