Raw Story
dpa
German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday October 25, 2006
Harare-
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe Wednesday met a group of
prominent local
clergy who are spearheading an initiative to mend Zimbabwe's
wrecked
economic and political landscape. The churchmen from the Evangelical
Fellowship, the Catholic Bishops Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of
Churches handed over a document during their meeting at Mugabe's official
Harare residence, state television reported.
The initiative - dubbed
The Zimbabwe We Want: Towards a National Vision for
Zimbabwe - has been
shrouded in controversy since it was first touted
earlier this
year.
Critics say the church pastors are being too soft on the
government,
refusing to condemn Mugabe and his cronies for alleged
human-rights abuses
and kowtowing to the 82-year-old leader.
Zimbabwe
is in the grip of severe economic crisis, marked by spiralling
poverty,
inflation of more than 1,000 per cent and acute shortages of food,
fuel and
medicines.
Mugabe, who has been invited to the official launch of the
document on
Friday, is deeply suspicious of some Zimbabwean church leaders,
accusing
them of siding with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a
seven-year-old opposition party that is trying to oust him from
power.
At the National Day of Prayer in June, Mugabe, a former guerrilla
leader,
issued a warning to church leaders he said were meddling in
politics, grimly
saying that he could be vicious toward them.
The
latest church initiative appears to have found favour with the ageing
president because the church leaders claim to want nothing to do with regime
change.
The members of the church delegation reaffirmed their
commitment to Zimbabwe
as a sovereign country. They expressed opposition to
the politics of regime
change and distanced themselves from any attempts to
cause unlawful regime
change in Zimbabwe, state television said.
The
church groups behind the so-called National Vision Document say their
goal
is national restoration.
© 2006 dpa German Press Agency
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
25 October
2006
Zimbabwe Chief's Council President Fortune Charumbira
stunned Masvingo
villagers who gathered last weekend to observe World Food
Day by issuing a
threat to evict them from their homes if they did not vote
for the ruling
party in rural elections.
Zimbabweans are to vote
Saturday on the composition of more than 1,000 rural
district councils -
local government and administrative bodies.
Charumbira further warned his
audience that those evicted would have no
place else to go because other
chiefs nationwide had adopted the same
position. He spoke at an event
organized by the United Nations' Food and
Agriculture
Organization.
Charumbira instructed Masvingo headmen - local leaders
subordinate to
chiefs - to take good note of his instructions. He said he
had already drawn
up a list of people marked for eviction for supporting the
United People's
Party, whose founder, Daniel Shumba, comes from Masvingo, or
the Movement
for Democratic Change.
Charumbira could not be reached
to confirm or comment on his statement.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the
Movement for Democratic Change faction led
by MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai
said Charumbira, the nation's top
traditional leader and a member of
parliament ex officio, had abused his
position of authority.
Chamisa
said his MDC faction intends to take up the issue with parliament
and the
Zimbabwe Election Commission.
Political analyst and University of
Zimbabwe lecturer John Makumbe told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Chief
Charumbira's threats give ruling party
militants a green light to attack
opposition members in the run up to the
rural council elections to be held
across the country on Saturday.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
25 October
2006
Members of a Zimbabwean parliament committee probing alleged
top-level
corruption at the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company say they will
leak a
government report in the matter to the media if the cabinet does not
put the
report officially on the record.
Trade and Industry Committee
members said they have given the government an
ultimatum to put the report
on the record and eventually publish it, or they
will leak the version they
have obtained. The report was written by the
National Economic Conduct
Inspectorate pooling officials of the Central
Intelligence Organization and
the Ministry of Finance. It is said to detail
corruption by ZISCO managers
and top officials.
Committee chairman Enoch Porusingazi said his panel
has asked the
parliamentary speaker, John Nkomo, and parliament clerk Austin
Zvoma, to
demand the full report be transmitted to the committee, which has
obtained a
leaked copy. The committee is expected to present its independent
findings
on the ZISCO scandal next week.
National Constitutional
Assembly Chairman Lovemore Madhuku told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the committee members
would have done better to
summon the ministers involved and charge them with
contempt of parliament
should they fail to comply, rather than appealing to
speaker Nkomo.
The Zimbabwean
BY MIKE
ROOK
LONDON - Recently members of the Human Rights Commission in Zimbabwe
tried
their very best to convene a meeting with the chairperson of the
Commission
of the African Union. The curt response received was, 'too
busy.'
How amazing in a country where homes are arbitrarily demolished: and
their
occupants of babes-in-arms, small children, and their mums and dads,
are
literally left in the streets destitute. How amazing in a country where
the
police violently beat up on women and men taking part in peaceful
gatherings, simply protesting against hunger joblessness and tyranny.
So
who is this over worked and unsympathetic chairperson, who can't find a
few
hours over lunch to assist in putting a stop to gross human rights
abuses in
Zimbabwe?
He is none other than the former president of the Republic of Mali,
professor Alpha Oumar Konare.
It wasn't that long ago in Addis Ababa
Ethiopia, when the day of the African
child was commemorated, that the good
professor made a hard-hitting speech
insisting that violence against
children must cease.
The good professor ended up his address with the words,
'together we will
win.' I say together with whom, ZANUPF or the Human Rights
Commission in
Zimbabwe? On his next visit, and if he does find time in his
busy schedule
to seriously and objectively discuss human rights, let him ask
the people of
Zimbabwe who he should consult with. They'll willingly provide
the answer.
Just a few years ago, June 2004 to be exact, during the 7th
summit of the
Heads of States and Government of the African Union in Banjul
The Gambia,
the African Commission on Human Rights and People's Rights
(ACHPR) and the
African Civil Society Organisations (CSO), celebrated the
25th anniversary
of the African Charter on Human and People's
Rights.
Needless to say Louise Arbour the United Nations Commissioner for
Human
Rights was also in attendance.
After decades of expensive African
Union jaunts throughout the length and
breadth of Africa there must be
massive volumes of agendas, declarations,
decisions, reports and speeches
filed away in the archives. The many
distressed and deprived citizenry of
Zimbabwe must wonder: what's it all
about?
Hot air, luxury travel, and
inflated expenses is what it's all about, with
very little to show for it at
the end of the day.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE -
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe will cede control of most of its strategic
but
loss-making state firms to China, Finance Minister Hebert Murerwa has
said.
Briefing the media on his macro-economic policy framework for
2006-2007, he
said the Chinese were going to invest in the ailing
parastatals and take
over control while in some cases they would provide
loans.
"Chinese deals are purely investment deals in which case the Chinese
would
assume control of the companies and also provide lines of credit to
the
parastatals. We expect tourism growth to provide foreign exchange to
finance
these loans," said Murerwa.
Key state firms set to be taken over
or to receive financial rescue packages
from China include, National
Railways of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority, Air Zimbabwe,
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and the
country's only fixed telephone
company, Tel-One.
The Chinese have already provided three aircraft to Air
Zimbabwe. Murerwa
said they were also working on rehabilitating the
dilapidated national rail
system.
Harare is vigorously pursuing a "look
East" policy after falling out with
traditional trading and development
partners in the West over its appalling
human rights record. Local industry,
however, says Zimbabwe is reaping few
positive results from its association
with China and other Asian states.
For example, a survey commissioned by the
Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries two months ago established that at
least 40 companies were forced
to shut down last year after losing their
market-share to cheaper goods from
mostly China.
And local hotel and
leisure mogul, Shingi Munyeza, told reporters that the
tourism sector had
benefited little from Zimbabwe's association with China.
He said: "The
Chinese are bad spenders, moving in large volumes. They insist
on their
dishes and we have to configure all our systems to suit their
demands. This
puts pressure on the local operators. There is nothing of
significance in
terms of business arising from the influx of the Chinese." -
Own
correspondent
The Zimbabwean
BY GIFT
PHIRI
HARARE - Zimbabwean police intensified a crackdown on illegal foreign
currency trade at the weekend, setting up roadblocks in the capital to
search for hard cash amid a crippling shortage, witnesses said.
Police
set up a roadblock along a main highway into the city from the
airport,
where youths in plain clothes thoroughly searched vehicles and
their
occupants, under the watchful eyes of police.
"I asked them what they looking
for. They said they were looking for forex,
gold, anything illegal," a South
African journalist Ronny Msimang visiting
Zimbabwe said. "They searched the
car, they searched my luggage. I showed
them my wallet. I saw them doing
body searches on other motorists."
The Reserve Bank has also set up a unit to
probe the flow of local banknotes
to neighbouring countries which led to the
knocking off of three zeros from
the country's battered currency four months
ago.
The central bank has come under fire from government officials this year
for
failing to clamp down on a thriving black market for foreign currency
where
the Zimbabwe dollar is trading at up to 1,600:1 to the greenback
compared to
an official rate of 250. In addition to foreign currency, the
black market
has also seen a thriving trade in fuel, minerals and basic food
commodities
not readily available in the normal economy.
The Zimbabwean
BY GIFT PHIRI
HARARE -
Paul Madzore's latest protest album Mhenya Mauro (Change Is
Inevitable)
takes an unusually strong and candid political stand against
President
Robert Mugabe's growing repression.
Despite lack of exposure in the mainly
State-owned media in Zimbabwe, the
eight-track album, which was launched at
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's
rally last month, has sold a massive 10,000
copies in one month, according
to Madzore. He told The Zimbabwean he has
tried to deliver his album to
stores and radio stations, but none would take
it.
To get a copy of Madzore's music, fans go to the MDC Headquarters,
Harvest
House in central Harare, where they are secretly told where to
obtain the
album. The album costs the equivalent of US$1 for a tape and
US$2.50 for a
CD.
Madzore, a trade unionist and MDC activist, has been
arrested twice, beaten
and tortured by police. More recently, he was
targeted in what he said was
an assassination attempt.
Madzore, who
attributes the government's animosity to both his roles, MDC
activist and
protest singer, said he had never tried to hold a public
concert because of
his fear that police would intervene violently.
His music is however
amazingly popular at MDC rallies, having been the
background music blaring
from a PA system at the opposition party's 7th
anniversary at Zimbabwe
Grounds in Highfields two weeks ago.
Madzore aims much of his commentary at
the presidency of Mugabe, whose
26-year rule of Zimbabwe has been corrupt
and violent. Ironically, Madzore's
songs seem to appeal across the political
divide because they speak to human
rights causes, the nostalgic economic
hardships of the poor in the ghetto,
and because they are musically distinct
and often danceable.
Combined with his deep, resonant voice, melodic female
backing vocalists and
a band that features drums, saxophones, guitars and
other instruments,
Madzore's music is more a celebration and reaffirmation
of principles than a
series of mournful laments.
His most famous protest
song is Mhenya Mauro, a Shona riddle that
contextually translates, "change
is inevitable." The song is a blunt warning
to Mugabe that the end is nigh.
Madzore in the song draws parallels between
Mugabe and other fallen African
dictators such as Sani Abacha, Idi Amin,
Charles Taylor who he says all
ended up in misery one way or the other.
"What will be the end of all this?"
he asks in the song, which in essence is
about Mugabe's abuse of power and
riches at the expense of the weak and
poor.
In another song, Handidi
Nenyika Yangu (I will jealously guard my country),
Madzore intimates that
Zimbabweans were better off under the colonial rule
of Ian Smith.
"What
have people benefited from your liberation struggle Gushungo?" sings
Madzore. Gushungo is Mugabe's totem.
Then there is Mitsetse, which means
"queues." The song laments the
commonplace queues in the country, the result
of acute shortages of most
basic commodities. The song urges Zimbabweans to
rise against the Mugabe
dictatorship and launch street protests against his
misrule.
Gumba Zvese, which loosely translates to "grabbing everything", is a
song
that condemns the government's often violent agrarian reform programme,
which has wrecked the agricultural sector and has plunged the country into
an unprecedented food crisis. The song says the land reform has benefited
President Mugabe's cronies. The song also laments the grab of businesses by
Zanu (PF) chefs that has left Zimbabweans suffering from serious commodity
shortages.
The song also condemns the brutal army-led Operation
Murambatsvina that
wrecked more than 700,000 lives last year.
Other songs
such as Ndiye Mambo, Ndomudana, Taura are songs that extol the
virtues of
Tsvangirai as an opposition leader. The songs urge the MDC leader
to remain
resolute in the face of concerted efforts by the Central
Intelligence
Organisation to cause disunity in the opposition party. The
songs point to
the October 12 split and the Ari-Ben Menashe saga.
Madzore, who is married to
Melody and has four children, says that he is not
worried for his safety and
tells The Zimbabwean "I will continue telling it
like it is."
"I don't
fear anybody," he said, adding he envisages a dispensation where
his protest
music will be played on national radio.
Protest music is banned on Zimbabwe's
predominantly state-owned media.
The muting of protest music is aimed at
banning discussion on Zimbabwe's
shrinking economy, widespread hunger, an
HIV infection rate that is among
the world's highest and the frequently
harassment of opposition leaders by
government.
The airwaves, meanwhile,
are filled with endless hours of propaganda songs
praising Mugabe and his
ruling party, Zanu (PF).
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - Zimbabwe deputy
police commissioner, Godwin Matanga, has been
fingered as the one who
ordered the brutal assault on ZCTU and MDC leaders
recently.
The police
commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, was in hospital in South Africa
at the
time.
Senior police officers have told CAJ News that Matanga did a "big
disservice" to the law enforcement agency. But ZRP spokesperson, Chief
Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, refused to give comment, saying:
"My
friend you want to burn my fingers, you would rather get comment from
heaven. The information you want is extremely sensitive. Thank you," before
switching off his cell phone.
According to one assistant police
commissioner, who asked to remain
anonymous, claimed Matanga was a reckless
man who had managed to wreck
beyond repair more than 10 police vehicles
without incurring any
disciplinary action.
"Matanga's history of
delinquency dates back to the years he was at Support
Unit. The Commissioner
is powerless to take action against this man who has
served as his deputy
for 14 years," said the officer.
The police brutality attracted widespread
international condemnation but was
publicly condoned by Mugabe himself.
Several of the victims are still
recovering from their injuries. - CAJ
News
The Zimbabwean
BY LOIS DAVIS
LONDON
- Women attending a Feminist Fightback conference at SOAS (School of
African
and Oriental Studies) on Saturday were wowed by WOZA and concluded
that the
women of Zimbabwe had a lot to teach western women when it comes to
rights
activism. WOZA Solidairty UK, a support organisation helping to
raise
awareness of the issues WOZA campaigns on, was invited to address the
conference organised by UK pressure group Education Not for Sale.
Fellow
rights activists at the conference were amazed to hear about WOZA's
impressive record of action; this year alone WOZA has staged protests about
the right to trade and earn a living, the right to education and the right
to affordable public services, all essential elements in a functioning
democracy. Not to mention action on more specific issues like the WOZA
march on the Reserve Bank in August when they brought attention to the
mishandling of the currency conversion which saw thousands of Zimbabwe's
most vulnerable people harassed, intimidated and robbed of their savings by
state sponsored thugs as they tried to get to banks to change to the new
currency.
WOZA's resilience and courage in speaking out, in spite of
state repression,
was an inspiration to women in the UK who were eager to
hear just how WOZA
managed to mobilise people in such challenging
circumstances. The
conference heard how, since WOZA began in 2003, nearly
1000 women have been
arrested for their attempts to hold their leaders
accountable but the
detentions have not diminished their courage and
determination.
The WOZA motto 'The power of love can overcome the love of
power' elicited a
cheer from women in the audience and they expressed their
admiration by
giving the WOZA 'L'shaped 'love' hand sign to show their
solidarity.
Women's rights activists from Iran and Argentina, also present
at the
conference, were keen to form links with WOZA and learn from their
experiences. It certainly seems that WOZA's reputation is growing around
the world.
It was wonderful to see Zimbabweans attracting positive
attention as
innovative survivors rather than pitiable victims said WOZA
Solidarity
co-ordinator, Lois Davis after the conference. 'The people of
Zimbabwe are
breaking new ground in their resistance to oppression and it is
women who
are leading the way.' she said.
'One thing that we in the
diaspora can do is to make sure that their efforts
are acknowledged.
WOZASolidarity is one organisation that is working to do
this but we could
do with more help from Zimabawean women living in Britain'
said Davis.
'There is much work to be done to counter the propaganda and
intimidation of
Zimbabwe's ruthless ruling elite and it's a job that can be
done as much
here in the diaspora as on the ground in Zimbabwe. We need to
work closely
with the people back home and to publicise and support every
pocket of
resistance we can find.' - To get involved with WOZASolidarity In
the UK
please contact wozasolidarity2005@yahoo.co.uk
The Zimbabwean
MUTARE -The trial of
licensed gun dealer, Peter Hitschman, arrested in March
on spurious charges
of plotting a coup against President Mugabe, opens in
the High Court today
before Justice Alfas Chitakunye who is on circuit in
Mutare.
A family
spokesman said Hitschman was in a parlous condition and his health
had
deteriorated dramatically since his incarceration in a Mutare jail seven
months ago.
"He has seriously lost weight and is health has
deteriorated," a spokesman
for his lawyers and family told The Zimbabwean
this week.
"We are gravely worried because they have refused to let him
doctor. His
urinary system seems to be failing and his hearing is impaired
ever since he
was tortured. He has contracted all sorts of diseases in there
and has been
coughing uncontrollably. We believe it could be TB. He is
generally in a
terrible state and is in acute pain. They just don't care
even if he dies."
Levison Chikafu, the Manicaland Area Prosecutor, is
expected to argue the
case before the judge.
Hitschman, in whose house
the state claimed to have discovered an arms cache
for use in a murder plot
in March, has been on remand ever since and his
trial was expected to
finally open today.
He was arrested with Roy Bennett, who has since skipped
the country to
neighbouring South Africa, MDC shadow Defence minister Giles
Mutseyekwa and
several other MDC officials, who have since been released
after charges were
dropped.
Lawyers representing the activists before
their acquittal told the courts
that they had all been badly tortured while
in custody. Bennett fled for his
life to South Africa, where his asylum
application has been turned down
following the intervention of the Central
Intelligence Organisation.
The State seems to be confused over the exact
charges it intends to prefer
against Hitschman. Initially the State claimed
he had been caught with an
"arms cache" and he was alleged to be part of an
assassination or coup
conspiracy.
When the conspiracy charges could not
be sustained in court, the Attorney
General's office quickly switched to a
more convenient charge of possession
of dangerous weapons.
When it
emerged that he was a licensed gun dealer and charges of possession
would be
non-sustainable, the AG contacted purported ballistics experts to
certify on
oath that some of the guns were so dangerous that the accused
would have
needed a special permit to posses them.
Again his bail application was
defeated on the fresh charges before a
handpicked judge. In the meantime he
was subjected to endless interrogation.
The investigating officers and state
agents would collect him from remand
prison against his will and interrogate
him without his lawyers and behind
the back of his lawyers.
An attempt to
obtain a court injunction against the violation of his
constitutional right
to legal representation was foiled by the cowardice of
the magistrates
before whom the case was placed.
In the meantime, faced with a fresh bail
application, the AG has brought up
new treason charges on the same facts,
the same case. The High Court
reserved judgement leading to toady's
trial.
Part of the State outline reads: "To achieve this, the group agreed to
spill
oil on Christmas Pass highway when (President Mugabe's) motorcade
would be
approaching, so that the motorcade would slip and get involved in
an
accident."
They had also "agreed to throw tear smoke canisters in
tents where the 21st
February Movement celebrations were going to be held so
as to cause panic,
disturbance to ordinary people in attendance," the State
alleges. -Own
correspondent
The Zimbabwean
BY GIFT PHIRI
ARCTURUS
- A rag-tag gang of Zanu (PF) youths, with support from the police,
on
Sunday scuttled an MDC rally here ahead of rural district council
elections
scheduled for Saturday.
The mob of youths intimidated everyone who wanted to
attend the MDC
assembly, foiling the gathering, which was supposed to
precede a Zanu (PF)
rally at Arcturus Stadium 32 kilometres east of Harare.
This reporter was
threatened by the party youths as he sought an interview
from the incumbent
ruling party candidate Elias Juru. The police simply
watched from a
distance. Micho Mavhura will represent the MDC in the
poll.
Despite appealing to one Sergeant Hofisi from Police Internal Security
Intelligence and later to the Goromonzi officer-in-charge one Inspector
Katsande to intervene and stop the Zanu (PF) rally so as to give the MDC a
chance to address the crowd, the opposition party's remonstrations fell on
deaf ears. The police simply refused to intervene, allowing the Zanu (PF)
rally to drag on up to 4:00pm.
The Zanu (PF) youths, who seemed agitated
by the presence of MDC leaders and
vehicles, virtually abandoned
conventional electioneering strategies for
searing vitriol and character
assassination. They even threatened to beat up
any suspected MDC supporters
who got within 100 metre-radius of the venue.
Apparently the timid crowd, of
mainly schoolchildren, seemed more amused
with the Nyau dancers and the
famous Ben Arinoti dance group than with the
campaign message.
The MDC
finally managed to address a small crowd that defied the ruling
party
threats, urging the electorate to turn out in their thousands for the
poll
on Saturday.
Chisvo said he was confident the opposition candidate would win
the poll
despite widespread intimidation.
"It is typical of what you
expect from Zanu (PF)," Chisvo said. "They are
scared of a fair contest. We
are confident of winning in spite of threats,
bribery and intimidation."
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - The tobacco-selling
season has closed prematurely with only a
paltry 55,5 million kilogrammes of
flue cured tobacco worth US$110,7 million
having gone through the auction
floors, according to final figures released
by the Tobacco Industry and
Marketing Board this week.
The Board said 55,466,689 kg of tobacco went under
the hammer at an average
price of US$1,99 per kg, representing a massive
downturn from the
73,376,990kg sold last year.
TIMB deputy general
manager Godfrey Bhuka told The Zimbabwean that
production had been
negatively affected by the government's agrarian reform
programme.
Banks
were reluctant to fund farmers because there "were too many risks",
which
mainly affected large-scale farmers "where the quality production
comes
from".
"We have a problem with funding, banks are nervous as there's a lack
of
collateral value because the land could be invaded, be listed under a
Section 8 (government acquisition) notice anytime," Bhuka
said.
Officially the season ends on December 15, but the auction floors were
forced to close on September 27 because no deliveries had been
forthcoming.
He said the poor tobacco crop would have serious ramifications
for
Zimbabwe's economy.
"At 55,5 million kg the auction sale value of the
tobacco is about US $110,7
million, down from close to US $120 million (in
the previous year). That's
pretty dire, it's chopping hugely our ability to
pay for imports like fuel.
The total national fuel bill is about US $360
million, the value of auction
tobacco was at least covering our fuel bill
(previously)," Bhuka said. -Own
correspondent
The Zimbabwean
Zanu (PF)'s madness knows no
bounds. After wrecking everything that we have
all fought and worked for
over so many years they are now turning their
attention to the country's
labour body, the ZCTU.
A motion has been tabled in Parliament demanding that
the top union leaders
be sacked and replaced with ruling party lackeys - a
pathetically
transparent first step to annexe the powerful but
pro-opposition labour
movement.
The workers will never accept that. The
world will never accept it. We
hope the unions worldwide will make their
view know - loud and clear and
soon.
The ZCTU represents the interests of
the workers in Zimbabwe. Its leaders
are elected by the workers
themselves.
Mugabe has accused the leadership, many of whom were brutally
assaulted by
his thugs in police uniform last month, of unethical conduct,
violating
foreign exchange laws and abandoning the workers to pursue
politics. The
workers themselves have voiced no such complaints. And Mugabe
has provided
no hard facts to back up his allegations.
He feels that the
union leaders should "concentrate on its core business of
representing
workers rather (job) stayaways that have failed to address
bread and butter
issues in the country."
The fact of the matter is that the leaders were
demonstrating precisely over
bread and butter issues. There is no longer any
bread, let alone butter, on
the tables of Zimbabwe's workers or their
families.
It is not the responsibility of any government to appoint the
labour
leaders. Zanu (PF) might have a sufficient majority in parliament to
bring
about legislation enabling it to do this, but any labour movement
resulting
from such political interference will never be accepted by the
workers.
The ruling party already has its own Federation of Trade Unions, led
by one
Joseph Chinotimba, which has been an unmitigated disaster.
This
new attempt is destined to follow in its footsteps. We salute the brave
leaders of ZCTU who have vowed to fight tooth and nail against such tyranny.
The Zimbabwean
BY
JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Once again our country has proven as the laughing
stock of the world. This
time it is to do with the US$300 million bogus deal
that the Governor of the
Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono, is said to have entered
into with bogus Russian
businessmen.
Put into perspective, our nation was
led into false hope that a significant
amount of foreign currency,
investment and indeed opportunity for employment
creation was coming our way
from Russia as Foreign Direct Investment.
That the highest man in our
monetary circles, Gideon Gono, ended up in the
wrong hands and opened our
mining secrets to potential conmen is not only
something that all of us as
Zimbabweans should forever be ashamed of but it
tells us how far the current
government has travelled from the masses back
home.
One fails to
understand how a country that has one of the best trained and
well resourced
intelligence on the continent, the Central Intelligence
Organisation, can
let the Governor of their Reserve bank into the hands of
such people and end
up embarrassing the country on the international public
scene.
Apparently
the CIO was also trained in Russia, then Soviet Union, by one of
the Cold
War's eminent intelligence, the KGB. What it shows is that in
Zimbabwe
priorities have been misplaced.
The CIO, an apparatus of the state whose role
in normal societies would have
been to put an intelligence corridor around
the nation and protect us
against all forms of espionage, sabotage and any
other form of adverse
foreign intervention, is wrongly employed.
They
should have seen Gono falling into a trap, would have known before hand
that
the people he would open our precious mineral wealth to were briefcase
businessmen not worth the briefcases they were carrying, they should have
done a lot for the country to save us the humiliation of being fooled by the
laughing stock of Russia and justify the salaries that they get from the
overburdened Zimbabwean taxpayer.
But they have their sights elsewhere:
they are preoccupied with MDC
supporters, labour leaders, cross border
traders, teachers, footballers,
cricketers, Zimbabwean exporters and
importers, the youth, civic leaders,
church leaders etc. Instead of advising
Gono on who to see in Russia, the
CIO is busy devising ways of silencing
Zimbabweans who are legitimately
fulfilling their roles in a
democracy.
The CIO has taken it upon itself to be the sixth sense of one man,
Robert
Mugabe and one Party, Zanu (PF), instead of looking at the common
good of
Zimbabweans. Real enemies of the state have seen the perforations in
our
wall and they can get there undetected, thanks to a CIO whose sole
purpose
is to attack an innocent citizenry.
The Gono saga helps to show
the nation and indeed the world the truth about
a government selling the
country out by misguiding its security personnel.
The security in Zimbabwe
now thinks that their mothers, sisters, brothers
and fathers are the enemy
and such real enemies of the state as the bogus
Russian businessmen are left
to do as they please with our country.
Our security personnel are the best on
the continent, but they have not been
allowed to do their jobs. They have
been manipulated by one man driven by
greed for power and corruption. They
have become masters of terror as seen
by the recent beatings of labour
leaders and the murders of Tichaona
Chiminya, Talent Mabika, Tonderai
Machiridza, the atrocities in Matabeleland
and many more. They have become
the hand that is perfect in suppressing
democracy as seen by vote rigging,
the training of youth militias and the
general targeting of MDC
supporters.
Like every other Security Agency in Zimbabwe, the CIO has the
potential of
becoming our pride. They have to re-identify with their true
role and start
serving the nation and not become a party functionary. I am
not asking them
to start working for MDC, no. All I am saying is that Zanu
(PF) already has
its own security, Chinyavada.
As for CIO, it is for the
country and must be accountable to the Citizenry.
It is unacceptable for
such a well-trained organization to be so misguided
that they sleep on the
job. They should be ashamed of themselves.
The Zimbabwean
BY D MZOLI
The MDC's
Lucia Matibenga recently took a swipe at desk-top activists and
cyber-revolutionaries, saying they were "quick to criticise those who are in
the trenches while they themselves were doing nothing and remained tucked
away safely, thousands of miles from tyranny".
It's good to see that we
have been noticed, even if it is from a negative
context. Is it getting hot
inside the kitchen?
I spend a minimum of four hours a day doing whatever I
can to help my
country. Is that doing nothing? My cost for doing this is
rather high, given
my occupational charge out rate at around £30 per
hour.
It's common cause these days for some Zimbabweans to attack those who
have
offered constructive or other criticism in the past, only to have it
fall on
deaf ears or be accused of being an armchair warrior or some other
derogatory adjective. I have heard it time and again. This name-calling is
exactly how Zanu (PF) operates.
In politics, a thick skin is required.
Can't the leadership take advice or
criticism? If it can't, it should learn
to because if it doesn't, Zimbabwe
will never make progress. Zimbabwe needs
all the help it can get. Right now,
there is no progress, only regression,
no hope, only depression.
The pity is that until we all unite and share our
skills, we will never win
this one.
For those who don't know, we spend
inordinate time every day, day in and day
out, fighting on another front,
all on our own, with no help whatsoever from
the MDC or anyone else for that
matter.
That means we must be informed about what is going on. We need to
have facts
at our fingertips and a large storage space of current and
historic facts as
our weapons, combined with an ability to articulate the
truth in a
meaningful and positive manner. We use our own resources and we
fund
ourselves. The enemy has many resources is now being actively assisted
by
China with expert personnel and their technology. Make no mistake about
this, the CIO and other Zanufied state organs have realised the importance
and propaganda value of cyberspace. They are becoming more and more active
in spreading their mis-information and it is very noticeable that their
activity has increased substantially over the past few months.
Does the
MDC want to lose the information battle on this front as well? I
say, ignore
this front at Zimbabwe's peril.
From where I am sitting, the only effective
and active MDC desk-top activist
member that I know of, from inside
Zimbabwe, is Eddie Cross. He is doing a
damned fine job but it's pretty
obvious that he cannot do this on his own.
Or can he? Is this what the MDC
want?
So, it begs the question. Does the MDC need/want desk-top activists and
cyber-revolutionaries to operate or not? It is common knowledge that over
the past six years, our numbers have significantly diminished. So many have
given up the fight. Here is an opportunity for the MDC to state its position
very clearly on this matter.
The Zimbabwean
BY GIFT PHIRI
HARARE
- Cargo comprising various household goods sent by Zimbabweans in the
UK to
their relatives back home has been gathering dust for the past six
months at
the Manica Freight depot in Rugare and at Mediterranean Shipping
Zimbabwe
(MSZ) warehouse, also in Harare, because a courier company that
acted as
middleman has failed to pay clearing fees to the two freight
companies.
The Zimbabwean exclusively reveals that the UK-based courier
cartel, Protea
(Europe) Limited, received thousands of Pounds from
Zimbabweans working in
the UK as handling fees for transporting their cargo
to Harare.
Protea then subcontracted Manica Freight and MSZ to do the
shipping of the
goods. Protea officials allegedly now can't pay the freight
companies, who
have vowed to hold on to the goods until all outstanding
amounts have been
paid.
Sibanda and Appuhamy, who are both based in
London, have over the past weeks
received a flurry of threats from angry
Zimbabweans in the UK demanding an
explanation for the prolonged delay in
the delivery of their cargo.
An angry Zimbabwean woman reportedly slapped
Appuhamy at the company's head
office, 64A Abbey Road, Northampton, UK, last
week after failing to provide
a satisfactory answer as to why cargo sent six
months ago had not been
delivered to her Harare home by now. The standard
time for shipping cargo
from the UK is six weeks.
Protea claims the goods
have not been delivered because their clearing agent
in Harare, Laurence
Desmond, has not made efforts to collect the goods at
Manica Freight and
MSZ. But Desmond told The Zimbabwean in an interview in
Harare on Tuesday
that his hands were tied because Manica and MSZ would not
release the goods
before payment is made.
"There is nothing I can do until Protea settles the
outstanding amounts in
the UK," Desmond said. He said Manica Freight and MSZ
were insisting that
they would not release the cargo until Protea made
payment to the two
freight companies' head offices in the UK in Pounds.
Desmond denied that he
was an employee of Protea, insisting he had merely
entered an agreement with
the company to dispatch this batch of freight
after receiving two containers
of his personal cargo free of charge from the
UK through the courier
company.
While it was not possible to obtain
official comment from Manica and MSZ
because of "client confidentiality,"
company sources confirmed there were 10
containers detained at Manica
Freight over non-payment from Protea.
At MSZ, container number MSCU8192673,
was held because Protea had failed to
pay clearing fees.
An irate
Zimbabwean based in London told The Zimbabwean in an interview that
he had
sent four big suitcases, six big boxes and one big parcel containing
ironing
boards weighing 325.7kgs through Protea in April but up to date the
goods
have not been delivered.
"These goods were collected at Luton on 26 April and
the reference number is
575-11," he said. "They have still not been
delivered. I have followed up on
this and I have been referred to a Mr
Laurence who is supposed to be their
clearing agent (in Harare). The last
time I spoke to him he said that was
too big for him I should contact
UK."
The livid customer said after confronting Protea in the UK about the
delay,
the company began dilly-dallying in correspondence, stating in a
shocking
U-Turn that Laurence was no longer the company's agent.
In a
letter seen by The Zimbabwean aimed at placating the restive customer,
Appuhamy wrote: "Please note that Desmond Laurence is no longer our agent.
We have reconsigned the shipment via MSC Ipswich UK to Ronwell Chitambira.
Desmond Laurence was to get the containers but he has not showed up at
Manica or MSC since the 10th of October.
The unconvinced customer said he
had received several of these letters
before from the company assuring him
that delivery would be made soon but
nothing had materialized to
date.
Another Zimbabwean in the UK whose goods cannot be accounted for said:
"It
is very distressing that they can take hard-earned money from innocent
Zimbabweans just like that and fail to deliver," she fumed. "It is a clear
fraudulent operation. As we well know, Zimbabweans, of all people, do not
have money to throw away like that."
She said they were instituting legal
action against "this fraudulent
institution."
Appuhamy however denied
from London that Protea had swindled anybody.
"We did not operate
fraudulently under any circumstances," Appuhamy
insisted. "We have a
contract to deliver and will do so. We can provide the
list of all
Zimbabweans totalling more than 1,300 for whom we have delivered
the cargo
for without any problems or complications since August 2006."
The Zimbabwean
PRETORIA - Seven
Zimbabweans are taking the South African minister of home
affairs, Nosiviwe
Mapisa Nqakula, to court after their applications for
asylum permits were
rejected on flimsy grounds.
The application will be heard in the Pretoria
High Court today and tomorrow.
Wits Law Clinic Director, Abida Bhanjee, will
represent the Zimbabweans.
The department of home affairs has been accused of
rejecting asylum
applications on the grounds that there is no war in
Zimbabwe. Former
Movement for Democratic Change MP and treasurer, Roy
Bennett, was denied
asylum on the grounds that he should face trial in
Zimbabwe.
The South Africa government is coming under fire for actively
supporting the
Mugabe regime. The Mbeki government is accused of making life
difficult for
Zimbabweans by ill-treating and deporting them to face
persecution at home.
Democratic Republic of Congo nationals face the same
fate as they are
rejected on the grounds that elections took place there
recently. - Zakeus
Chibaya
The Zimbabwean
Over a million
whites have left South Africa since 1994, more than 1,600
farmers have been
killed and millions of blacks live in the shadow of
lawless gangs. Christian
leaders are pleading with their arrogant and aloof
president to do
something, reports TREVOR GRUNDY
When Nelson Mandela came to power in 1994 he
declared South Africa would be
a "rainbow nation" free from the hatred
brought by years of apartheid.
Today, millions of South Africans are at
rainbow's end as lawless gangs
terrorise Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and
small towns which lie close to
the most lawless state of them all
-Zimbabwe.
"We think crime has become too big an issue for any one issue,"
says Coenie
Burger of the Dutch Reformed Church which called a meeting of
Christian and
civic societies on October 13.
"Government must take the
lead but we are calling for an alliance of
different institutions, including
government, civil society, the churches,
business leaders and teachers. The
situation in many parts of South Africa
is out of control."
Rev Burger
said that Christian churches were aiming for something similar to
the
National Peace Accord, which churches, business leaders and civic
society
launched in the early 1990s to stem the tide of political violence
following
the release of Mandela and the unbanning of the South African
Communist
Party, the ANC and the PAC in February 1990.
The increasingly high profile
Anglican leader, SA's Archbishop Njongonkulu
Ndungane said recently that the
time for government/church action is now.
Church leaders want to meet
President Thabo Mbeki to discuss a plan to
involve the churches and civic
society into a national effort to fight the
country's rampant
crime.
"Violence and crime erodes communal security and trust. Crime
reduction has
to be a personal choice and commitment of every person in
South Africa,"
says the Catholic Archbishop Buti Tihanale.
Since 1994
well over 1,600 white farmers have been killed. Sources inside SA
tell The
Zimbabwean that while the government blames criminal elements for
their
deaths it is doing next to nothing to implement badly needed land
reforms
that meet black aspirations without destroying the agricultural
sector.
Last year, a leading South African businessman said: "In
Zimbabwe, it was
government policy that created the conditions in which 10
farmers were
killed. In South Africa lack of government policy has led to
the conditions
in which 1,600 white farmers have been killed. It is part of
the same
movement."
But in Zimbabwe, the infinitely smaller number of
white farmer deaths
created uproar all over the world. About South Africa
there has been no such
outcry.
Black anger is growing and armed gangs
carry the message to the stoeps of
European owned farms.
Twelve years
after Nelson Mandela was made SA President, some 40,000 whites
dominate all
aspects of food production. They still own the best land.
Thabo Mbeki, who
sometimes remembers the days of his Marxist youth at Sussex
University, now
and again speaks of the danger of allowing "two societies"
to live alongside
each other. While the police and white farmers call for
law and order,
landless blacks call for the immediate "nationalisation" of
European owned
land.
Recently the Andre Brink told his shocked countrymen that he is no
longer
able to tell outsiders that SA is moving in the direction of
democracy,
truth and justice. "I can no longer do that."
White farmers I
spoke to on the telephone last week told me that their great
fear is that a
"Mugabe-style" land revolution will "just happen."
"We have watched events in
Zimbabwe unfold since 2000, " said one worried
farmer's wife whose children
-all in their 20s and 30s - live in
Commonwealth countries. "Over a million
whites have left South Africa since
1994. We stayed on because we said -This
is our home. But now? We're being
treated like shit."
More and more
whites are packing their bags for Europe, North America and
Australasia
thanks to Justice Minister Charles Nqakula who described whites
who
criticize President Mbeki's policies, or lack of them, as "unpatriotic
moaners."
He said:" They can continue to whinge until they're blue in the
face or they
can simply leave the country."
Desperate need to unite
EDITOR - Most of us can see that something more
drastic needs to be done
about the worsening crisis in our country. It is
interesting to see how many
people are keenly trying to come up with
positive suggestions in the pursuit
of our elusive dream of a new democratic
dispensation.
But what irks is that others have chosen to work against our
noble
aspirations by painting a misleading picture of the opposition
movement. In
a bid to confuse the masses, the misguided critics have kept on
peddling
myths and trumping up unfounded accusations against the MDC
leadership as
well as those solely opposed to the tyrannical policies of
Robert Mugabe's
regime.
I am appalled that they squarely woof and write a
lot of drivel in the
public media without telling what solutions are for our
troubled country.
Lucia Matibenga rightfully calls them "Desktop
Critics".
One wonders what they are up to. They are just an outrageous
liability in
the face of our struggle. Perhaps they are simply myopic or
they have lost
touch with the general reality in our country. We must
disapprove of such
shameful actions in the strongest possible terms.
More
often ignorant people unwittingly become a tool in the hands of
unscrupulous
Zanu (PF) mafia politicians. It is important to know that if
one lacks
judgement about practical political realities one can be easily
abused for
political gains. In this context, what happened recently to
Philip Chiyangwa
and Jonathan Moyo serve as classic examples. But I do not
know why people
fail to register such lessons in their minds.
At a time when we are hostage
to one of the most reclusive fiefdoms in
existence, principally devoted to
serving the interests of the barbaric
elite, people should not be found in
actions which amount to complicity with
our oppressors. We are at a
watershed of history that requires our
procedures to decide whether we
remain in abject misery or we salvage
ourselves.
Given the onslaught of
savage militiamen, escalating poverty, gross human
rights impingements,
muzzling of the private media and wholesale pillaging
of state resources by
the satanic despotism, it is obvious we live in
turbulent times. We cannot
afford to have with us any longer a filthy
dictatorship that has
deliberately defied all the fundamentals of logic for
the purpose of
clinging to the position of authority.
If indeed we are inclined to see our
nemesis fall apart, let us be
foresighted and vigilant. There is desperate
need to unite instead of
aimlessly attacking those determined to liberate
us. We need the intellect
and knowledge to distinguish between a political
killer and political
saviour.
JAY-ZAT,
Jozi
---------------
Where are they now?
EDITOR - Political
oppression and foolishness brought the RF down. Instead
of managing change
through a controlled handover of power, Smith
precipitated
a civil war.
Thankfully, he was forced to the negotiating table before
many more young
Zimbabweans were killed.
A failed economic philosophy that led to economic
mismanagement and
corruption is bringing Zanu (PF) down. Instead of
allowing for a transition
to new ideas and leadership within the ruling party
(contrast China), the
ruling party opted for business as usual - demagoguery
under the same old
leadership and persecution of any voices within its ranks
calling for
change.
When real opposition inevitably arose by the
beginning of the millennium,
Zanu (PF) opted to ignore history and fight
change, by any means necessary.
To break the link between (white) commercial
farmers and the opposition,
they were prepared to virtually destroy
commercial agriculture (using
Hunzvi, Green Bombers and "War Veterans"). For
the media they successfully
used Moyo with near-similar devastation for the
independent media. To
control industry, banking and financial fields, they
have turned to Gono
using the RBZ. For the urban population, civil
servants (the ZRP, army and
CIO) are used against their paymasters - the
people.
In all this, both Smith and Mugabe initially achieved their
objectives and
managed to hold onto power for some years. But they did not
address the
underlying problems. Smith tried belatedly, using the Muzorewas
and
Sitholes that had given false promises that they would deliver. So too
Mugabe and Zanu (PF), who have their own false economic prophet. Yet, where
are Smith and the RF today? In these dark times when all seems bleak, it is
worth reminding each other, be it again and again, that the only certainty
in this life is change, and that it will not take a thousand years this time
either.
RWENDO, Borrowdale
---------
Shame on the
UNDP
EDITOR - Last month the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
invited
government ministers to Kariba to confer on the establishment of a
human
rights commission.
Yes, read that again, it really did happen.
These well remunerated and
misguided UNDP sheep actually got into the same
bed with Zimbabwe's ruling
party foxes.
What an insult and what a harsh
blow to inflict on the long-suffering people
of Zimbabwe. Who is accountable
for such naivety?
The big boss of UNDP was appointed as its venerated
administrator for a five
year term commencing 15th August 2005. His name is
Kermal Dervis.
I have no idea whether Kermal has ever visited Zimbabwe, but
if he ever did
it is pretty obvious he never wined and dined in any of the
high-density
suburbs.
Peace, security, economic development and freedom;
these are the millennium
development goals of the UNDP.
Under Kermal's
leadership, the UNDP is tasked to advocate for change and to
help people
build a better life, and that includes Zimbabweans.
Its main objectives are
to persuade and to promote the practice of
democratic governance, the
reduction of poverty, the avoidance of crises,
and the introduction of
effective programmes for the alleviation of HIV
AIDS.
And so what do the
local UNDP blokes do? They form an alliance with the very
decision makers
whose policies are the complete antitheses of their own.
Such idiocy defies
rational explanation.
Let's give Kernel a break just in case he's never heard
of Zimbabwe. Who's
on the spot? Well now the UN country team in Zimbabwe is
headed up by
resident coordinator Dr Agostinho Zacarias - a senior lecturer
at the
University of the Witwatersrand in S Africa.
Now at last a logical
and rational explanation comes to mind. Could it be
the ever pervading all
powerful and far-reaching influence of President
Thabo Mbeki's policy of
quiet diplomacy?
MIKE ROOK, London
----------
We just have
a new constitution
EDITOR - Our dream of a new Zimbabwe is one that we should
not take for
granted. To realise this dream we need to ponder our past
mistakes in a bid
to learn, rectify, and also prevent repetition.
Many of
us are inclined to the fact that removing Mugabe and his cronies
will ensure
us of a better future. Furthermore, we expect the MDC to work
miracles in
turning over the fortunes of our beloved country. Need I remind
you, we also
thought replacing Ian Smith with Robert Mugabe, in 1980, would
have a
positive effect but look how it turned out. In reality Mugabe is
indeed a
liability to our country but let us not over generalise our demise
by
heaping all blame on him. This would be like heaping all our eggs in one
basket. We need a close scrutiny of all political processes that gave rise
to this quagmire. This will at least ensure we do not repeat some of the
mistakes we already made.
Political power is corrupting, because it
encourages those in power to
exploit their position for personal advantage
and at the expense of the
populace. In the case of Robert Mugabe, we as a
nation endowed him with
political power in 1980. In all grace, he turned out
to be a power- seeking
hypocrite who concealed personal ambition behind the
rhetoric of public
service and ideological convictions.
In view of the
above fact, it is our duty as nation to ensure we have a
mechanism that
allocates authoritative influence and also determines its
boundaries in our
society. Our constitution, as a nation, need to be
rewritten so as give
power to the people not the politicians.
In the present state of affairs
replacing one government with another is
like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Anybody who takes office should be
responsible and accountable to the
people. The only way for us to do this is
if we redraft our
constitution.
TICHAONA SANANGURA, Milton
Keynes
----------
Police brutality condemned
EDITOR - Police
brutality and torture of the ZCTU members should be
condemned instead of
being applauded. Any democratic leader should strive to
distance themselves
from such uses of force but surprising our president
decided
otherwise.
The president 's speech in Cairo actually applauded the police
brutality and
torture of the ZCTU activists at Mutapi Police station. He
even goes further
to warn the public that the police can use violence
against them. The
president had the mettle to praise such unconstitutional
and inhuman
treatment on foreign soil. He decided to tell the people and the
world that
the police in Zimbabwe have presidential blessings when they use
force.
Freedom of expression is one benchmark of democracy and that right has
been
relegated to a privilege in our beloved country. It boggles the mind
that
people lost their lives fighting the Smith regime for its inhibition of
the
freedom of expression among other ills. Police brutality and torture
were
some of the reasons for the war of liberation-now our president decides
to
throw his weight behind the police force.
People thought the police
brutality and heavy handedness were the work of
some overzealous officers at
Mutapi. But the president's words tell us
otherwise and prove beyond
reasonable doubt whose blessings the police have.
The problem now is the
whole force will try to outdo their counterparts at
Mutapi - that will spell
disaster for us.
The least the president should have done was to remain quiet
if distancing
himself from the brutality was difficult. The president should
have
denounced the use of violence by the police. The remarks were
undemocratic
although they were not a surprise to many as police torture and
brutality
has been on the increase.
SAVIOUS HARI, Gweru