Zim ready to crush protests

Fin24

                  10/09/2006 19:34

                  Harare - Zimbabwe authorities said on Sunday security
agents were on high alert and ready to crush planned anti-government
protests by the main labour union, which vowed to press ahead this week with
demonstrations.
                  The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) says it plans
countrywide demonstrations on Wednesday to protest against poor wages and
workers' lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs to fight HIV/Aids, which
kills an estimated 3 000 people each week.

                  This comes as Zimbabwe battles its worst economic crisis
in two decades of independence, marked by years of foreign exchange, fuel
and food shortages.

                  "The various arms of the State responsible for security
are ready for them," Security Minister Didymus Mutasa was quoted as saying
by the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper.

                  "...They should not blame us because they are provoking us
as well as the country's wrath," added Mutasa.

                  But ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe vowed the
protests would go ahead and accused Mutasa of trying to intimidate workers.

                  He said the labour body had notified police around the
country on the demonstrations, contrary to comments by chief police
spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena who told the Sunday Mail that the ZCTU had not
sought permission for the protests.

                  "The protests are going ahead as announced and this will
be countrywide," Chibebe told Reuters.

                  "Trade unions are exempted from notifying the police when
protesting but we did this out of courtesy knowing how our government
reacts," he added.

                  President Robert Mugabe's government has kept opponents of
his 26-year-old rule in check through tough policing and security laws
barring protests without approval.

                  ZCTU says workers need a minimum salary of about Z$90 000
($360) per average family per month and would want the government to reduce
income tax to 30% from 35%.

                  Protracted wage negotiations have so far failed, with
employers insisting they cannot afford the pay demands, as the majority of
them already operate below 30% of production.

                  The ZCTU is an ally of the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), which has threatened similar nationwide protests at
an unspecified date.

                  Mugabe, 82, denies responsibility for Zimbabwe's woes and
says his local opponents are being manipulated by Western powers he accuses
of sabotaging the economy as punishment for his seizure of white-owned farms
for blacks.

The Magic of the Matopo Hills

When Mzilikazi fled from the wrath of Shaka in Natal in 1820, he crossed the
Limpopo River and then traveled another two hundred kilometers to the Matopo
Hills. He went through the hills and made his new home at a place he called
Gubulawayo - the "place of slaughter" or "killing". He felt safe on the
other side of the hills and knew that if he ever needed sanctuary, it could
be found in those same hills and valleys.

From this base, the Impi's of the Ndebele traversed the central African
region - going as far north as modern day Malawi, west to the Bamangwato
flood plains in Zambia, south into the area controlled by the Tswana people
and east into Mozambique. Theirs was an economy based on pillage and murder.

Today the City of Bulawayo is built close to the original site of the
original Capital of the migrant Ndebele people. It lies about 40 kilometers
from the Matopo Hills and the remnants of the descendents of Mzilikazi can
still be found there in numbers. When I was a boy growing up in the eastern
section of the hills I can remember visiting the villages in the hills and
seeing old men with the hair ring on their heads signifying their status as
fighting men and officers in the Ndebele army. They recounted to me stories
of their raids into the domain of other tribes seeking cattle and women and
perhaps grain, each winter. Running in disciplined groups covering long
distances on foot demanding that the villages through which they passed
provide food and water.

The Matopo Hills run for over 100 kilometers east to west and some 30
kilometers deep. They are amongst the oldest granite formations in the
world. In my experience, they are unique in many ways - the piles of rocks,
granite mastiff's and the green, densely forested valleys with running
streams fed by the run off from the granite hills that effectively doubles
the rainfall of the area.

In the center of the hills is the Matopo National Park, originally set aside
by Cecil Rhodes and later to become his burial site. The Park is half an
hour's drive from Bulawayo and contains a wide variety of plains game and
significant numbers of both white and black Rhino. It is also home to many
predators especially Leopard and the Black Eagle.

The latter are found here in numbers supported by the large population of
Dassies (Rock Rabbit or Hyraxes) in the hills that form their basic diet.
They are magnificent birds - perhaps one of the finest Eagles in the world,
superb flying machines nesting in spectacular rock formations throughout the
area. Local enthusiasts working through Birdlife Zimbabwe have monitored the
Black Eagles in the Matopo Hills for over 40 years. This is, to the best of
our knowledge, the longest continuous survey of a raptor in the world of
ornithology.

Last weekend I had expected to spend my time in one of Mugabe's notorious
jails after our Friday march in Harare. When that did not happen I was then
able to travel to the Matopo hills early on Saturday for two days of Black
Eagle watching. The Eagles have nested and breed from about March onwards
and their chicks are now getting ready to fledge and fly.

For those of you who have never seen a Black Eagle nest - let me tell you
something, you have missed one of the great natural sights of the world. The
Eagles choose the most inaccessible sites for their nests - high up on a
sheer granite rock face is a shallow ledge - on the ledge they build an
untidy nest of sticks and leaves. The nest site has to inaccessible to
baboons, monkeys and snakes - all would make short work of an eagle egg or
young chick.

The Eagles mate for life and usually lay two eggs shortly after the rains
stop. These are incubated for six weeks and after hatching, the stronger of
the chicks usually kills the weaker. The remaining chick is fed once a day
by its parents who will kill a Dassie every day if possible. They grow
rapidly and soon rival their parents in size - going from a fluffy white
ball to a brown fledgling. Eventually they start flying short distances -
encouraged by their parents and once they have become self sufficient the
parents drive them out of their territory. The young birds will then fly as
far as several hundred kilometers to find their own territories - returning
when mature, to their native environment to seek a mate and start their own
nesting regime.

On Sunday we walked a few kilometers through open veld to a site in the
Matopo National Park, then we climbed a short way up a hill and were
rewarded with a clear view of a 10-week-old chick on a superb nest site just
across a deep ravine. It was no more than 40 metres away. Above us were the
parents who watched us anxiously and at one stage flew down to hover on the
breeze in front of us - between the nest and our lookout site.

It was a beautiful day - clear blue skies, about 25 c and zero humidity. We
passed a small herd of Wildebeest on our way in and going out we passed 7
white Rhino. It was spectacular bird watching by any standard - and it was
45 minutes from my home! We stayed in the nearby lodges and had a braai with
18 others who had come for the weekend - including some from South Africa
and one person from the UK. Below us in the valley next to the lodge was a
Fish Eagle nest with two chicks in it. Their wild cries woke us in the
morning.

The cost - about US$4 per person for the two days. At the end of the second
day we traveled home - feeling well satisfied that our Eagles were well
protected and fed and had successfully bred again. Suntanned and refreshed
and ready again to do battle with the regime in Harare and to continue to
try and make a living. Does it get any better?

There is magic in those Matopo Hills and perhaps one day soon the magic will
spread out into the whole country and we can start living again. Tension is
mounting throughout the country, the State abruptly announced the delayed
Rural District Council elections will be held in October - we were only
given a week to register nearly 2000 candidates. Next week the Unions take
on the regime and the students are battling with the authorities right now.
Their leadership was arrested this past week for protesting over conditions
in schools and colleges.

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 8th September 2006.

ZCTF painting auction update

Mugabe seizes third farm for himself

IOL

      Basildon Peta
          September 10 2006 at 12:12PM

      Despite his numerous exhortations for cronies to surrender extra
farms, President Robert Mugabe has completed the seizure of three for
himself and is now a major multiple farm owner in Zimbabwe.

      But it's not only the seizure of the three prime estates totalling
more than 6 000 hectares that has incensed Zimbabweans. It is the open abuse
of government resources and staff to work on these farms.

      Mugabe and his young wife, Grace, are the proud owners of Highfield
Estate in Norton, 45km west of Harare. Access roads have been built using
staff and resources from the District Development Fund.

      The Mugabes are also the owners of the plush Iron Mask Estate in
Mazowe, about 40km from Harare.

      The first family took occupation after evicting John and Eva Mathews,
the elderly couple who owned it and who have since left Zimbabwe to live in
South Africa. Grace Mugabe personally oversaw the eviction of the Mathewses
(in their late 70s) after she visited the farm accompanied by state security
agents and ordered them to leave.

      The Mugabes have also completed the seizure of Foyle Farm in Mazowe,
formerly owned by Ian Webster and adjacent to Iron Mask Farm, and renamed it
Gushungo Farm after Mugabe's own clan name.

      Zimbabwe's private media exposed how agricultural experts from the
state owned Agricultural Development Authority (ARDA) were being used to
work on Mugabe's farms without paying the state. ARDA's resources were also
being used for Mugabe's private work.

      Not only ARDA experts were spending time working on Mugabe's farms,
but Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who has overseen the destruction of
Zimbabwe's once mighty agricultural sector, was visiting the farms to
supervise ARDA workers.

      The Standard newspaper speculated that this could be because Made, who
has been criticised by Mugabe before for repeatedly lying that the country
had enough grain stocks, was facing the chop and he was thus desperate to
impress Mugabe and keep his job after a rumoured cabinet reshuffle. -
Independent Foreign Service

      This article was originally published on page 9 of Sunday Argus on
September 10, 2006

Outages short Zim revival

News24

10/09/2006 14:15  - (SA)

Godfrey Marawanyika

Harare - Zimbabwe faces the prospect of growing power outages in the coming
months as neighbouring suppliers pull the plug, according to power chiefs
and business leaders.

Zimbabweans have increasingly had to grow used to living with blackouts that
have affected production and business, quite apart from causing further
hardship to an already weary population.

The southern African country currently imports 40% of its power needs - 100
megawatts a month from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 200 megawatts from
Mozambique and up to 450 and 300 megawatts from South Africa and Zambia
respectively.

But the chief of the country's stretched electricity provider says imports
are likely to stop next year as all these countries are expected to run out
of surplus power due to increased demand.

In addition, money has so far not been forthcoming to enable Zimbabwe to
repair old equipment and become self-sufficient.

Technical problems

"We are approaching the 2007-2008 period which will result in the region
having a power deficit," Ben Rafemoyo, acting chief executive officer of the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Holdings told AFP.

"We need $3.8bn to be able to generate our own power and to produce an extra
2 000 megawatts.

"The sooner we get the funds the better for us as a nation."

The creaking nature of the power network has been amply highlighted in
recent months in businesses and homes.

In December, the teeming township of Chitungwiza southeast of Harare was
plunged into darkness for two weeks due to technical problems at a local
power station.

Calisto Jokonya, president of Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, said
that the power cuts were biting hard on industry.

"As a nation we have lost a lot of money because of the electricity
problem," said Jokonya, whose organisation groups some 300 companies.

Acute shortage of foreign exchange

"The country has invested in purchasing generators, something which we did
not need and that is wrong. We need to sit down as a nation and discuss the
way forward for the electricity sector."

Brownouts have also affected hospitals, which are making do with skeletal
services and outdated equipment as the effects of a seven-year economic
downturn take their toll.

"Most hospitals have generators," Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the
Hospital Doctors Association said.

"Even if power is switched off for about ten to 20 minutes, the generators
automatically switch on because important departments like the Intensive
Care Units need electricity 24 hours a day."

Rafemoyo said the electricity provider's efforts to repair, change or
service equipment were hamstrung by an acute shortage of foreign exchange.

"Until we do machine overhauls at Hwange power station we are unlikely to
get out of this situation.

"The overhaul will not be cheap though, we need almost US$30m and another
$3.2m to fully rehabilitate Hwange which is now only producing almost 280
megawatts instead of 750 megawatts," Rafemoyo said.

Generators snapped up

The coal-fired Hwange plant, the country's largest, supplied half of
Zimbabwe's power needs a decade ago before a majority stake was sold to a
Malaysian company instead of US and European bidders.

"The other problem we have is that other three power stations that are
supposed to be producing 170 megawatts are not generating anything because
of lack of coal," he added.

The only ones laughing their way to the banks are those selling generators
or solar panels.

"The generators are selling very well," said Mike Dzvokora, a sales manager.

"The cheapest generators we had in stock were sold for Zim$110 000 (US$440),
but they are out of stock right now."

Tutu attacks 'betrayal' of liberty ideals

On the eve of his 75th birthday, one of the great figures of the
anti-apartheid struggle condemns South Africa's leadership

Andrew Meldrum
Sunday September 10, 2006
The Observer

With his implacable faith and irrepressible spirit he made an inspiring
hero. In a South Africa gripped by the brutality of apartheid, he harnessed
his effeverscent yet indomitable personality with the weight of his church
to galvanise world support for democracy and human rights.
Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, will turn 75 next month.
He cuts an elf-like figure, this old man who survived the liberation
struggle and went on to win a Nobel prize for his efforts in the name of
peace, and who remains a sharp thorn in the sides of the wayward or
unscrupulous.

Without the stature and handsome gravitas of Nelson Mandela but sharing his
friend's refusal to rest on his ageing laurels, Tutu remains an embattled
figure in the new South Africa, whose political leaders, he says, are
betraying the ideals of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Being a nation's conscience is not a comfortable job and in recent years
Tutu has annoyed and angered many, from white South Africans and President
Thabo Mbeki to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and even Mandela himself.
Now, sitting in his characteristically modest office in Cape Town's
working-class Milnerton district, he is happy to do it again. Keenly aware
it will throw fuel on an already raging controversy, Tutu repeats a demand
he made in a recent lecture, urging former deputy president Jacob Zuma to
abandon his campaign to become the next leader of the African National
Congress, and eventually President. 'I pray that someone will be able to
counsel him that the most dignified, most selfless thing, the best thing he
could do for a land he loves deeply, is to declare his decision not to take
further part in the succession race of his party,' says Tutu.

Although Zuma was acquitted of rape, Tutu says he had disqualified himself
from leadership by sleeping with an HIV-positive woman, 30 years his junior,
without using a condom. Further, he had not reined in his supporters who
vilified the woman who made the rape charge.

'I for one would not be able to hold my head high if a person with such
supporters were to become my President, someone who did not think it
necessary to apologise for engaging in casual sex without taking proper
precautions in a country that is being devastated by the horrendous HIV/Aids
pandemic.' Zuma's supporters wasted no time in lashing out at Tutu,
demanding that Tutu provide his own sexual history before casting stones at
Zuma.

Tutu, who says he has a 'hotline' to God which compelled him to make many
historic stands during the anti-apartheid struggle, shakes his head sadly
when speaking of such bitter criticism. 'I am just sorry for them. They are
proving what I was saying, that the supporters of this person (Zuma) do not
want to give the respect to others that they claim for themselves,' he says,
adding tartly: 'I will not engage in a ding- dong with them. It is not a
question of sexual histories. It is the irresponsible example he set for the
nation.'

Tutu still walks with his customary bounce and greets visitors with verve,
but appears tired when seated and in thought. Having recovered from prostate
cancer in 1997, his life is run at the demanding pace of a head of state:
this week he is in New York at the UN calling for better understanding
between the West and Islam, then it's off to Los Angeles for a glittering
celebration of his legacy and back to Cape Town for his birthday on 7
October.

Tutu says he finds his current role of 'nagging' South Africa to live up to
its glorious history as difficult as tilting at the apartheid regime.

'I realised this right at the beginning, after freedom came. So soon after
winning the first election (1994) the new government raised their salaries.
I criticised that and it caused trouble. Later when I said to Madiba
(Mandela) that he was setting a bad example for not making a decent woman of
Graca Machel and he should marry her, that angered people,' said Tutu. 'It
is so easy to be criticised for being unpatriotic.'

A few months ago Tutu said that the white minority did not appear to be
grateful for how magnanimous black people had been to them after apartheid.
'That got me into a bit of hot water,' he confesses. Then there was his
criticism of President Mbeki's reluctance to battle the scourge of Aids and
of the policies that have propped up Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. 'My heart
aches because I had the highest regard for President Mugabe. He was the
brightest star in our firmament. It is unbelievable what he continues to do
to destroy a country we were so proud of,' he says.

But he insists his criticisms are his effort to hold South Africa true to
the selfless heroes of the battle against apartheid. 'In the struggle,
people overwhelmingly were altruistic. They were clear they were striving
not to subjugate anybody but to throw off the shackles of oppression and
injustice, to usher in a new age of freedom for everyone.

'I naively believed that come liberation these ideals and attitudes would
automatically be transferred to how you operated in the new dispensation.
And there's no question at all, it is a very disillusioning moment when you
discover that we jettisoned very, very quickly those high ideals and this
sense that you were there for the sake of a struggle and not for your own
aggrandisement. The most devastating thing is discovering that we are
ordinary, we are so human. We have succumbed to the same kind of
temptations. We are not a special breed. We have feet of clay.'

Weary and vexed as he is over such issues as corruption, crime and Aids,
Tutu still raises a ringingly optimistic view of his nation's future.

'We are regarded with awe and admiration for showing the world that it is
possible for those who had been involved in bloody conflict to evolve into
comrades; to undergo the metamorphosis of the repulsive caterpillar into the
gorgeous butterfly by opting for the path of forgiveness and reconciliation
instead of retaliation, retribution and revenge. Let us become what we are,
the rainbow people of the God, proud of our diversity, celebrating our
differences that make not for separation and alienation but for a gloriously
rich unity.'

Mbeki eyes role as 'Africa's spokesman'

Times of Oman

      CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- South Africa is steadily courting alliances
with fellow regional powerhouses in a bid to position itself as the
continent's diplomatic pointman beyond its upcoming stint on the UN Security
Council.

      Fresh from hosting Russia's Vladmir Putin in Cape Town, South African
President Thabo Mbeki heads to Brazil this week for a three-way summit with
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
of India.

      According to analysts, Mbeki is keen to ensure widespread backing for
its ambitions to become a de facto spokesman not only for the poorest
continent but the wider developing world. South Africa begins a two-year
stint as a rotating member of the Security Council in January but it has
made little secret of its desire for a permanent seat under long-awaited
reforms of the United Nations' power structure.

      "He's definitely courting these guys to get their support" for a
permanent seat, said Janis van der Westhuizen, a lecturer in international
relations at South Africa's Stellenbosch University. "It's part of an
overall (project) to position South Africa as the leading spokesperson for
the south. It's part of an organised attempt to punch above its weight."

      Putin assured Mbeki at their talks in Cape Town that he would "work
closely" with South Africa on the Security Council. The declared aim of the
three-way summit on Wednesday in Brazil, another country which wants a
permanent Council seat, is to fine tune the bloc's "common vision" on major
international issues.

      Kurt Schillenger, an analyst at the South African Institute of
International Affairs, said that Mbeki was keen to pursue his vision as a
champion of the developing world.

      "The pursuit of a seat on the Security Council... is part of that
broader effort to redefine global priorities and the distribution of global
resources," said Schillenger.

      "We have seen this president try very hard to articulate different
perspectives on the war on terror... to point out that he disagrees with
priority the West places on global security.

      "For Mbeki the more pressing concern is on issues of poverty and
development."

      Mbeki's independence of thought from the West has been amply
demonstrated in recent months by the identity of visitors. Quite apart from
Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Pretoria has also played host to
ministers from North Korea, Iran and Ukraine. Mbeki's unwillingness to
publicly criticise Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has also put him at
odds with Washington and Brussels.

      An editorial in the Cape Times newspaper bemoaned that Mbeki appeared
willing to let Russia off the hook over its rights records in cosying up to
Putin -- drawing a contrast to the era of former president Nelson Mandela.

      "The growing business cooperation between the two countries must be
applauded," it said. "But are we being un-Putinlike and sentimental to look
back a little nostagically to the Mandela era when championing human rights,
and democracy in the world was a central pillar of our foreign policy?"

      Van der Westhuizen said that Mbeki was unwilling to allow qualms over
human rights to undermine relations with world powers. "Under Mandela there
was a big interest in human rights but especially under Mbeki's presidency
the big stand on human rights has taken a back seat. It's power politics and
how to move on the chess board," he said. -- AFP

Protest as Majongwe denied UK visa

New Zimbabwe

By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 09/11/2006 04:33:41
RAYMOND Majongwe, a leading critic of President Robert Mugabe's regime has
been denied a visa for travel to the United Kingdom, New Zimbabwe.com can
reveal.

Majongwe, secretary general of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe,
was due to arrive in London later this week for an Open Forum discussion on
the Zimbabwe crisis on Saturday.

Last night, a spokesman for the Britain Zimbabwe Society, organisers of the
Open Forum called the decision to bar Majongwe "absolutely concerning".

Lois Davis of the Britain Zimbabwe Society said the British Embassy in
Harare had told them that Majongwe was likely to claim asylum in Britain,
but at the same time granted visas to Nicholas Mkaronda (Crisis Coalition)
and Thabitha Khumalo (ZCTU) who have almost similar circumstances with
Majongwe.

Davis said Sunday: "It seems a very arbitrary decision. What is quite
perturbing about this is the reason they have given that Majongwe is
unlikely to return to Zimbabwe if granted a visa. Where they get that idea
from is unclear, especially if you consider that he is a prominent and
active civic leader in Zimbabwe."

Majongwe was said to have travelled to his rural home on Sunday, and was
unreachable.

In December last year, Majongwe was one of several prominent government
critics who had their passports withdrawn under a new government directive,
later ruled illegal by Zimbabwe's High Court.

Majongwe had just returned from a trip to Nigeria, via South Africa, when he
was ordered to surrender his passport, sparking a volley of protests from
human rights groups.

The Open Forum which is in its third year has previously hosted successful
meetings with a speaker line-up which has included South African President
Thabo Mbeki's brother, Moeletsi Mbeki, lawyer Brian Kagoro and the former
National Constitutional Assembly chair, Thoko Matshe.

Davis said: "It would be very very concerning if Raymond fails to come
purely from the point of view that he is an important civic leader in
Zimbabwe, and many people in the UK would like to hear from him.

"What is also worrying is that we gave the same details to the embassy for
Majongwe and Mkaronda's applications, but for some unaccountable reason
Raymond was refused a visa.

"We sincerely hope the Home Office has made an error and will correct
immediately. If they fail to do so, I think questions should be asked
because this strikes me as some kind of censorship when they can bar one
speaker whose circumstances are very much the same as the other speakers."

Britain, which has imposed travel sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and
about 100 of his closest supporters, has been rigorously enforcing a new
visa regime designed to stop the flow of Zimbabwean migrants into the UK.

Several Zimbabwean sporting and entertainment stars have been barred from
the UK over fears that they would not return, but Majongwe's appears to be
the first case that a high profile opposition figure has been denied a visa.

The Open Forum 2006 under the theme 'Zimbabwe: Skills and Reconstruction'
will be held on Saturday, September 16 from 2pm to 5:30pm at the University
of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1. Speakers include Nicholas
Mkaronda (Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe co-ordinator), Raymond Majongwe
(subject to confirmation), Thabitha Khumalo (Vice President ZCTU), Dr
Stephen Munjanja (consultant obstetrician at Harare Hospital), Forward
Maisokwadzo (Journalist) and Shane Lunga (Zimbabwe Futures)

Bootlicking gospel artistes in unholy trinity

From The Standard, 10 September

By Vusumuzi Sifile and John Mokwetsi

Gospel musicians Mercy Mutsvene and Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave's
bootlicking of the First Family has finally paid off following reports that
the First Lady, Grace Mugabe, facilitated the allocation of housing stands
in Southerton, Harare, for the two. According to recent media reports,
Mutsvene and Zvakavapano-Mashavave used their close association with the
First Family to get stands in the medium-density suburb. In a interview with
Standardplus, an official at the City of Harare's Housing Department
confirmed that they were pestered to allocate stands to the two gospel
musicians, but refused to explain how this happened, fearing possible
victimisation. The official in turn referred further enquiries to James
Chiyangwa, Harare City Council's acting director of housing and community
services, who was said to have received direct instructions from Grace to
facilitate allocation of the stands. Chiyangwa refused to comment on whether
the two were on the waiting list initially."I am not allowed to speak to the
media. You can only speak to Toriro (Percy) about that." Toriro, of the
Harare City Council Public Relations section, could not shed light on the
involvement of the First Lady in the allocation of the stands, only saying:
"I have been advised that the two were on the waiting list by the Department
of Housing and Community (Services). However, for more on the issue talk to
the gospel artistes."

Contacted for comment, both musicians would neither deny nor confirm the
allegations. Mutsvene, who is staying with her in-laws in the high-density
suburb of Highfield, said this was a personal issue that could not be
discussed in the media. She said: "I cannot discuss it with you. Do I have
to go around telling everyone that I have bought a stand at this or that
suburb? These are personal issues that should not be discussed with
everyone." The Rebecca Malope sing-alike then refused to entertain further
questions. Zvakavapano-Mashavave confirmed she got the stand, but said there
was nothing unusual about it. She said: "I had a lodgers' card, which I used
to apply like everyone else. There was nothing unusual at all. I applied
through the normal process and was invited for an interview at the Housing
Offices at Remembrance Drive, and my application was approved." When asked
what role Mugabe had played resulting in her acquiring the residential
stand, Zvakavapano-Mashavave then claimed to be in a meeting, despite having
earlier mentioned that she was at home and was ready to talk. Two years ago,
she was the official entertainer at President Robert Mugabe's birthday party
held in Zvimba. Her efforts to take her gospel music to the United Kingdom
hit a snag after she was refused admission to the country. It was believed
then that her association with the First Family was deemed to be support for
government's repressive policies, and was the reason behind her failure to
secure a visa.

New executive for MDC UK elected

zimbabwejournalists.com

     By a Correspondent

      OXFORD - The MDC UK that is aligned to founding president Morgan
Tsvangirai has a new executive following successful elections yesterday that
were presided over by national chairman, Isaac Matongo, at the party's
congress here.

      Ephraim Tapa, the chair of the Central London branch who suffered at
the hands of Zanu PF activists and war veterans when he was abducted and
kept for several days ahead of the 2002 presidential election, is the new
chairman of the MDC UK.

      He replaces Washington Ali who had since been relieved of his duties
as chair.  Lawyer Julius Mutyambizi is the new secretary. He will be
deputised by Virgina Ncube while Rodwell Mpungu is Tapa's deputy.
      Mathew Nyashanu retained his position of information and publicity.

      Adella Chiminya, whose husband Tichaona was doused in petrol and
killed while campaigning for the MDC in 2002, was elected the women's league
chairperson while Jameson Mashakada became the youth chairman.

      Jaison Matewu was elected organising secretary with Edward Nyakudya as
his deputy.

      Commenting on the congress and the elections, Grace Kwinjeh, who
formed part of Matongo's delegation said: "It was brilliant to have such a
wonderful meeting, especially when you think of all the problems the MDC UK
used to have. The consensus and the spirit here is just uplifting and the
mood. Everyone has accepted the outcome of the elections and the winners and
the losers have pledged to work together to help uplift the party."

      She said it was important that the party's external structures be
strong enough to carry their democratic fight ahead in the event of an
unexpected crisis back home in Zimbabwe.

      "We need a strong structure outside that carries over the work of the
party - say for example if we all get arrested back home - the party would
have to survive one way or the other," she said.

      "So many other countries fighting for change have had strong external
structures and succeeded, even during apartheid, the ANC had strong external
structures that supported its cause even when its leaders were imprisoned.
It looks like the group put into office today has a vision and they
understand what they should do in the next phase of the struggle."

      Nyashanu said the delegates were happy with the way elections were
conducted and were ready to go back to their various stations to continue
mobilising support for MDC activities here and at home.

      "The new executive should not harbour any grudges that were created in
the run-up to the elections but should now focus on the main issue to create
a new political dispensation in Zimbabwe by removing Robert Mugabe from
power," said Nyashanu.

      "We should support the people back home in their impending democratic
resistance against the autocratic Zanu PF government."