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Sep 12, 2009, 12:28 GMT
Harare - In a departure from his
usually defiant tone towards Western
powers, Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe extended a warm welcome Saturday
to the first senior European Union
delegation to visit the country in seven
years.
'We welcome you with
open arms. We hope our talks will be fruitful with a
positive outcome,'
Mugabe said before entering talks with EU commissioner
for development and
humanitarian aid Karel de Gucht, Swedish International
Development
Cooperation Minister Gunilla Carlsson and a representative from
Spain, which
takes over the EU presidency next year from Sweden.
The EU officials were
arriving from South Africa, where they attended an
EU-South Africa summit on
Friday near Cape Town.
In Cape Town, de Gucht had defended the EU's
targeted sanctions against
Zimbabwe in the face of calls from Zimbabwe's
southern African neighbours
for the sanctions to be lifted.
In 2002,
the EU slapped travel bans and asset freezes on Mugabe and scores
of members
of his inner circle. De Gucht insisted the general population was
not
adversely affected.
The EU and the US have said they will not remove the
restrictive measures
until seeing signs of greater reform in
Zimbabwe.
A seven-month coalition headed by Mugabe and former opposition
leader, Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has managed to stabilize the
economy but
Mugabe's opponents, including members of parliament from
Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), continued to be
harassed.
On the eve of the EU visit, Mugabe had been in typically
defiant form,
referring to British and Americans as 'bloody whites' who
wanted to 'poke
their nose into our own affairs' and refusing to halt
controversial white
farm seizures.
On Sunday, the EU troika will meet
Tsvangirai in the second city of
Bulawayo.
http://www.eubusiness.com
(HARARE) - Swedish
Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson said the dropping
of targeted
sanctions against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe had not been
discussed in
talks here Saturday.
"We didn't discuss that. This was not a negotiation
time," she said
following the meeting between Mugabe and a high-level
European Union
delegation.
The meeting, aimed at easing diplomatic
tensions, focused on the troubled
implementation of a fragile unity deal
between Mugabe and former political
rival Morgan Tsvangirai who joined an
inclusive government in February.
The EU and the United States imposed
sanctions on Mugabe and his inner
circle following a disputed presidential
poll in 2002, which Western nations
as well as independent local poll
monitors described as flawed.
http://www.france24.com
Saturday 12 September 2009
The first
meeting in seven years between an EU delegation and Zimbabwean
President
Robert Mugabe has seen progress made and the establishment of "a
good
rapport". However, many problematic issues remain outstanding.
AFP - A
high-level EU delegation said progress had been made during talks in
Zimbabwe Saturday with President Robert Mugabe, who said he had established
a good rapport with the team from the European bloc.
"I think we
should acknowledge that there is progress made here but there
are still
several problems outstanding and we discusseed those with the
president in a
very open atmosphere," European Union Development
Commissioner Karel de
Gucht said.
The first talks between the EU and Zimbabwe ended with Mugabe
saying there
had been no animosity and the parties "established good
rapport".
The meeting, aimed at easing diplomatic tensions, focused on
the troubled
implementation of a fragile unity deal between Mugabe and
former political
rival Morgan Tsvangirai who joined an inclusive government
in February.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com
(AFP)
12 September
2009,
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said
that
he discussed the international sanctions on President Robert Mugabe
during
his talks Saturday with a visiting EU delegation.
Tsvangirai
told reporters after the talks in Zimbabwe's second city of
Bulawayo that
the sanctions would be one of the topics that would be
included in a
recently-launched dialogue with the European Union.
'Yes, the issue came
up,' Tsvangirai said when asked about the sanctions.
'We said there is an
EU-Zimbabwe dialogue. I'm sure it will be tabled within
that bilateral
dialogue.'
But he said the talks focused on issues of political reforms
that the
European Union wants Zimbabwe to make before offering direct
financial aid
to the government or lifting a travel ban and asset freeze on
Mugabe and his
inner circle.
'There are issues of reforms, such as
constitutional reforms... the issue of
media, that are necessary,'
Tsvangirai said.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, September 12, 2009 - The Zimbabwe
Republic Police (ZRP) on
Saturday barred the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) from hold a
meeting to commemorate the arrests and severe
beatings of their members
following street protests held on September 13
2006.
The meeting was supposed to have been held at
Machipisa Shopping
Centre in Highfield but the police told ZCTU leaders that
they could not go
ahead with the meeting.
National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) Chairperson, Lovemore Madhuku,
who was had
gone to attend the meeting in Highfield told Radio VOP that
heavily armed
police officers blocked the venue of the meeting.
"The meeting was
supposed to be a commemoration of the brutality that
was meted out to ZCTU
leaders in 2006 and it has become an annual event . It
was supposed to start
with a small march at the Highfield Hall and then
culminate with brief
speeches," said Madhuku.
"About 20 police officers blocked the
venue and told us that the
meeting was not authorised. This only shows that
there is no change in
Zimbabwe as some people would want us to
believe."
There were fears that the ZCTU leadership were arrested
at the weekend
event as their phones went unanswered.
ZCTU
leaders and about 400 members of the labour group members were
arrested and
severely tortured while in custody on September 13
2006.
A three-member team of International Labour
Organisation (ILO) lawyers
were in Zimbabwe last month to carry out
investigations into the alleged
torture of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union
(ZCTU) leaders.
Several ZCTU leaders and activists incurred serious
injuries including
broken limbs while others are said have suffered some
permanent
disabilities.
Police however denied assaulting or
torturing the ZCTU officials,
insisting that the unionists were injured
after they tried to jump off a
moving police truck.
But lawyers
representing the union leaders alleged at the time that
their clients were
tortured while in police detention at the notorious
Matapi Police Station in
Mbare.
Torture and other forms of inhuman punishment are illegal in
Zimbabwe.
Western governments and local human rights groups
condemned the
torture of the ZCTU activists but President Robert Mugabe
publicly backed
the police for ill-treating the unionists who he accused of
plotting to
topple his government.
An ILO delegation visited
the country early this year to access the
situation of workers' rights in
Zimbabwe and urged the country to adhere to
the international statutes on
workers' rights.
A report on Zimbabwe is to be presented at an ILO
meeting in Geneva,
Switzerland later this year. The report will encompass
the findings of the
three-man ILO investigating team.
http://www.radiovop.com
MWENEZI, September 12, 2009-
About 20 000 families in Nuanetsi Range
who are to be displaced to pave way
for business mogul Billy Rutenbech's
multibillion dollar bio-diesel project,
should be part of the business
venture, according to a top government
officer.
"There must be empowerment of the local people by
the investor; we
specifically want ZBE (Zimbabwe Bio-Energy) to value
...growers being
beneficiaries of the land reform programme who have been
legally staying in
the ranch," said Masvingo Governor and Resident Minister
Titus Maluleke.
"Unless those families are incorporated in the project, then
that would be
what we call empowerment. We will not accept a situation where
the investor
want to have a lion's share and take all the land to himself
without some
form of corporate responsibility."
Rutenbech, through
his Zimbabwe Bio-Energy (ZBE) company, has already
cleared part of the 300
000 hectare farm for sugar production and stock
feeds, crop and animal
husbandry, crocodile growing, and other bio-fuels.
The company has been
insisting that the families, who were legally
settled there in 2002, should
be re-located to allow a complete roll-out of
the multi billion dollar
investment. But for close to a year now, the
villagers have been resisting
eviction, saying they have nowhere else to go.
They also queried why a
foreigner would move them off their land.
"This would be a reversal of
the land reform program. We did not
invade this place violently, but we were
legally resettled here by the
government. So for the state to remove us here
again to pave way for another
white man would be like defeating the whole
purpose of the programme," said
a villager. "We cannot continue to be
victims, we cannot start building
houses, after all, we have nowhere to go.
Unless we have something to gain
from the project, like partnerships, then
we can allow being moved
somewhere."
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=8977
By
John-Chimunhu
Published: September 12,
2009
(HARARE-ZIMBABWE)Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira
has been implicated in
the devastating arson attacks that destroyed the home
of prominent Mugabe
critic Ben Freeth and his wife Laura at the embattled
Mount Carmel farm
recently.
Militias deployed at the farm by
Shamuyarira had earlier destroyed a house
belonging to Laura's parents
Angela and Mike Campbell who fled the farm in
Chegutu district in April
following severe beatings by Zanu PF militants.
The Freeths and Campbells
became prime targets of Zanu PF attacks after they
scored a victory at the
SADC tribunal in Windhoek. The regional court ruled
that Shamuyaira or the
government had no right to take over the farm, which
is home to 500
workers.
In a report to the police cited as RRB No.0611384 on Wednesday
Laura Freeth
named Shamuyarira's hatchet man Lovemore Madangonda as a chief
suspect in
the arson attack. Madangonda has been staying at the farm,
claiming to be
the farm manager and demanding the Freeths should
leave.
He is accused of having led his gang to plunder crops and
equipment worth
millions of dollars prior to the arson attacks.
In a
letter to the police officer commanding Mashonaland West Province,
senior
assistant commissioner Mushaurwa, Laura said the motive for burning
down the
houses was that the militants had looted them of a vast array of
property
when they settled themselves in and they wanted to cover up the
offences.
"I am requesting a thorough investigation into the cause of
the fire due to
the possibility of arson," Laura wrote.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=22546
September 12, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - There were scenes of jubilation and celebration at
Harare Central
Prison on Friday as relatives reunited with their loved ones
as they were
released freed from prison after serving terms of
incarceration.Prison
authorities began releasing hordes of inmates who are
beneficiaries of a
recent order of clemency extended to 2 500 convicts by
President Robert
Mugabe.
While the total number of beneficiaries of
the presidential amnesty was
first reported in the state media last week as
1 544, Zimbabwe Prison
Service public relations officer, Elizabeth Banda,
told journalists Friday
the actual number of those to be freed was 2
513.
Among those granted amnesty were all women prisoners, inmates
serving
three-year terms who had completed a quarter of their sentence, as
well as
those in open prisons and life inmates who had served 20 or more
years.
The amnesty excluded prisoners jailed for serious crimes including
murder,
rape and vehicle hijacking.
Officials say that while
Zimbabwe's prison have a holding capacity of 17 000
inmates, the current
population is about 13 000.
Elated relatives said they had been living in
fear of losing their loved
ones to hunger and disease in Zimbabwe's
notorious jails.
Close to 1 000 prisoners are reported to have died in
Zimbabwe's jails
between January and June this year.
The death rate
is said to have since dropped from three per week to two.
"I cannot
believe this. For the past two nights I have not had sleep trying
to contain
my happiness. I will never move near a jail again," said a
visibly elated
Lovemore Bvuno (63), who was released from Harare Central
prison after
serving for 23 years.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1867 for
murder
Christopher Munyoro (64), who had served 25 years of a life
sentence for the
murder of his employer, said he felt born
again.
Munyoro, whose entire family died of hunger and disease while he
was in
prison, said he was apologetic to both his victim and
family.
Toendepi Mahaso, who volunteered to speak on behalf of a batch of
30 newly
freed prisoners who were paraded for their final briefing by prison
officers, said he was thankful to President Mugabe for the
clemency.
"I say thank you very much to the President Robert Gabriel
Mugabe," he said,
speaking in English. "I say thank you very much for the
clemency.
"Sometimes justice has got to be tampered with mercy. Justice
must have a
human face and we have seen the human face of justice today by
being
released before our EDR (Expected Date of Release).
"We promise
we are going to behave, to do very well out there. This is not
the end of
the world. Imprisonment is not the end of life, this is actually
the
beginning of a new life. Our old life has been destroyed and we are
given a
new lease of life.
"That is what we have received."
The amnesty is
an attempt by the current inclusive government to ease
congestion in
Zimbabwe's 42 jails.
The jails are now viewed as death camps because of
their poor sanitary
conditions and a perennial shortage of food and medical
drugs.
The country's prisons did not survive the deadly cholera epidemic
which
broke out mid-last year killing 4 000 and living more than 80 000
hospitalised.
The epidemic was only contained after the intervention
of humanitarian aid
groups which brought medicine and other forms of
assistance that helped
suppress the continued spread of the dreaded
disease.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Patricia Mpofu
Saturday 12 September 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe is recalling a
judge the government had seconded to the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Tribunal, Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa said on
Friday.
Former Harare High Court Justice Antoinette Guvava was seconded
to the
Tribunal in 2005 by the government. The government now claims it does
not
recognise the Tribunal after the regional court ruled against Harare in
a
key land case.
"We are in the process of withdrawing her from that
Tribunal until the
organisation is properly constituted. At the moment it is
not properly
regularised and its powers are supposed to be derived from a
treaty ratified
by two thirds of the members," said Chinamasa.
The
Tribunal last November dealt a heavy body blow to President Robert
Mugabe's
controversial programme to seize white-owned farmland for
redistribution to
landless blacks when it ruled that the chaotic and often
violent programme
was discriminatory, racist and illegal under the SADC
Treaty.
The
regional court ordered Harare not to evict the 78 farmers and that it
pays
full compensation to those it had already forced off farms.
Mugabe
publicly dismissed the ruling by the Namibia-based Tribunal, while
his
followers in the military and in his ZANU PF party defied the court
order by
continuing to seize more land from the few white farmers remaining
in
Zimbabwe.
Government farm seizures which started in 2000 have resulted in
the majority
of the about 4 000 white commercial farmers being forcibly
ejected from
their properties without being paid compensation for the land,
which Mugabe
has refused to pay for saying it was stolen from blacks in the
first place.
Land redistribution, that Mugabe says was necessary to
correct a "unjust and
immoral" colonial land ownership system that reserved
the best land for
whites and banished blacks to poor soils, is blamed for
plunging Zimbabwe
into food shortages after Harare failed to support black
villagers resettled
on former white farms with inputs to maintain
production.
Critics say Mugabe's powerful cronies - and not ordinary
peasants -
benefited the most from farm seizures with some of them ending up
with as
many as six farms each against the government's stated
one-man-one-farm
policy.
Poor performance in the mainstay
agricultural sector has also had far
reaching consequences as hundreds of
thousands of workers have lost jobs
while the manufacturing sector, starved
of inputs from the sector, is
operating below 20 percent of capacity. -
ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=22531
September 11, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - As the MDC turned 10 on Friday, the party said
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai was free to extend his mandate at the 2011
MDC congress as
party president although he has already served two five-year
terms.
The 56-year-old former union leader, who has survived
assassination
attempts, endured a debilitating treason trial and fought two
presidential
elections and two parliamentary elections, is under pressure
from critics
that he should pass the baton of leadership to someone else
after steering
the MDC ship since the party's launch on September 11,
1999.
A unity government between Tsvangirai and his long-time foe
President Mugabe
of Zanu-PF was formed in February after disputed elections
last year and has
acted to steer the country back to stability and restore
the
hyperinflation-ravaged economy and basic services that collapsed under
Mugabe's three decades of rule.
But the government has been plagued
by power struggles over key posts and
claims of continued persecution of
Tsvangirai's supporters, with Western
governments so far displaying
reluctance to give direct aid without proof of
more positives
reforms.
Critics say Tsvangirai should step down since he has now served
the
stipulated two terms of office as MDC leader and pave way to new
leadership.
They accuse him of suffering from "burn out".
But his
supporters believe there should be a special dispensation to extend
his
standard two five-year terms as he has become the face of the party and
a
symbol of resistance to the Mugabe dictatorship.
At the second MDC
congress held in Harare on March 18, 2006, Tsvangirai
promised to hand over
power once Zimbabwe was restored to full democracy.
"It has never been my
intention to hold on to power after the people have
liberated themselves
from this dictatorship," Tsvangirai said then. "My
contract with the people
does not extend beyond a certain time-frame.
"A new Zimbabwe, a new
beginning has no room for life presidents. My wish is
to execute our mandate
in an honest and vigorous manner; preside over a
transition to full
democracy and pass on the baton to another Zimbabwean.
"I believe there
must be an exciting life for a pensioner - whether that
pensioner is a
peasant, former factory cleaner or a former president. I
pledge to honour my
word."
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told The Zimbabwe Times in an
exclusive
interview on Thursday to mark the party's 10th anniversary that
the MDC
president was eligible to stand again as party leader in
2011.
"The (MDC) constitution speaks to the issue of five-year terms
without
necessarily speaking to limiting people in terms of their offices,"
Chamisa
said. "We insist that the terms of office in the party are supposed
to be
five years then you go back to the elections.
"But in terms of
government, we have said those who should serve government,
they should
serve a maximum of two terms. Meaning to say that if someone
gets into
office as a president, like President Tsvangirai, he will serve a
maximum of
two five year-terms each to have the 10 years as president. It's
the same
thing for all the cadres. That is the position that is clear in the
Constitution of the MDC."
Chamisa denied concerns that there was no
succession plan in the MDC.
"Those who are stricken by succession
problems are the ones who would want
to conjure and manufacture those
falsehoods so that they export their own
succession challenges in their own
political parties," Chamisa said,
insinuating that claims of a succession
crisis in MDC was emanating from
Zanu-PF, itself embroiled in a dog fight
over the replacement of the 85-year
old Mugabe, who has ruled since
1980.
"The succession issue is an ailment that has struck some political
parties.
But certainly for MDC, that is not a challenge. We have our
leadership, we
have our Constitution and we have very clear guidelines on
who should lead
the people.
"And it comes from the people. We are
under the able leadership, competent
and capable leadership of our
president, Mr Tsvangirai. And as we are
speaking, that capable leadership is
going to run until 2011 when we then
have a congress."
Meanwhile the
MDC national executive was meeting in Bulawayo on Friday ahead
of the
so-called 'Big Sunday' where the party will officially mark its 10th
birthday. The Zimbabwe Times understands the National Council was scheduled
to meet on Saturday in Bulawayo before the big event at White City Stadium
on Sunday.
A musical gala has been arranged for Saturday night at the
stadium in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city and a citadel of support for the
MDC.
International delegates from other political parties, civic society
organisations, diplomats, provincial leaders from across the country, MPs,
senators and party members will converge to celebrate "an illustrious 10
years in which the party rose from humble beginnings to become the largest
political party in the land," Chamisa said.
The 10th year anniversary
celebrations are being held under the theme:
'Celebrating a Decade of
Courage, Conviction and Leadership.' The Bulawayo
national event is the
culmination of similar celebrations held in every
province since
February.
Tsvangirai will deliver the key note address.
Chamisa
said there were international visitors expected to grace the event.
"We
are going to have international visitors from other progressive
political
parties, from South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Senegal," Chamisa
told The
Zimbabwe Times.
"We have also invited diplomats who are in the country
and other political
parties.
We have also sent an invitation to
Zanu-PF to come because it's a big event.
We are magnanimous as an
organisation; we feel that we should invite others
when we are celebrating
our own achievements. We have also invited (Simba)
Makoni's party; we have
invited (Deputy Prime Minister Arthur) Mutambara's
party. We have also
invited Comrade Sikhala, if he has a party. We have said
political parties
are invited."
Chamisa said the party will take the occasion of its 10th
anniversary
celebrations to salute thousands of its supporters, who have
been attacked,
murdered, displaced or had their homes destroyed and property
looted in
their fight to bring democracy to Zimbabwe in the past 10 years,
he said.
September 12, 2009 By Talkmore Mudonhi TODAY I bring you the details of the sprawling business and property empire
that Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo as mysteriously built over the
years. Although Chombo clearly attempted to hide his empire under shelf companies
and various other guises its sheer size meant that this was ultimately an
exercise in futility. Chombo is currently locked in battle over property with his senior wife,
Miriam Chombo. Dozens of housing stands and other property amassed by Chombo over the years
have been listed under several shelf companies or in the names of his sons in a
desperate bid to cover up the minister’s sprawling empire. The concealment of Chombo’s properties under shelf companies and third
parties was facilitated by Attorney General Johannes Tomana, who masterminded
the transfer of the properties to some of Chombo’s sons and investment
vehicles. Chombo’s letter addressed “to the attention of Mr Tomana” states: “Can the
following assets be transferred to the named persons as follows:- Chombo’s letter also advises Tomana to transfer 100 percent shareholding of
Growfin Investments – his major investment vehicle – into Chombo Family Trust.
He also advises the AG to transfer new Allan Grange Farm to the Chombo Family
Trust. The contents of other documents in our possession bear witness to Chombo’s
incredible wealth: stands in Epworth, Chirundu, Kariba, Ruwa, Chinhoyi, Mutare,
Chegutu, Binga, Victoria Falls, Zvimba, Chitungwiza, Beitbridge, Harare and
Bulawayo. All these stands are mostly commercial, some of them residential, hidden
under investment vehicles Dilcrest Investments, Hutmat Investments, Growfin
Investments, Teamrange Investments, Waywick Investments, Harvest-Net
Investments, Waycorn Investments, Tonewick Investments, Aixland Investments, and
Nedbourne Investments. All the investment vehicles were created by the minister
to hold his properties. Pride of place must go to the more than dozen housing stands accumulated in
Harare’s leafy suburbs, including Stand 61 in Helensvale which is hidden under
Harvest-Net Investments. It is fully paid for and awaiting title deeds. The minister has also acquired residential stands 257 to 260 in Borrowdale
Estates under investment vehicle Waywick Investments, residential stands 251 to
255 again in Crowhill Borrowdale estates under Tonewick Investments, stand 293
in Avondale under Waywick Investments, and stand 365 Beverly in Harare under
Nedbourne Investments. Below is the full list of some of the minister’s properties: Houses ….. Vehicles … Trucks and Trailers … New Allan Grange Farm trucks and
trailers … Tractors … Total 17 tractors Motor bikes Total 7 bikes … More farm equipment Total 3 combine harvesters … More than 1000 pipes and ancillary equipment such as taps, bends, end plugs
reducers … … Residential and commercial
stands
http://www.time.com
By Alex Perry Saturday, Sep. 12,
2009
For years, much of the debate over Zimbabwe has been preoccupied
with how
much, and how publicly, to criticize its despotic longtime leader
Robert
Mugabe. In the past, the West routinely harangued the ailing
85-year-old
dictator, a former liberation hero who has ruled for 29 years.
Western
capitals and human rights groups have urged Africa to do the same,
believing
that the continent needed to recognize its own problems and sort
them out. A
few African leaders, like those in Botswana and Uganda,
obliged.
But the few powers with any influence over Mugabe's isolationist
regime -
South Africa and the 15-country Southern African Development
Community
(SADC) - tended to avoid public attacks. A year ago, albeit after
a full
decade of repression, that "quiet diplomacy," to use former South
African
President Thabo Mbeki's phrase, finally helped yield a power-sharing
deal
between Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF)
and the longtime opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Now the depressing pattern - vitriolic, ineffective attacks from
the West;
silent or unhurried action from Africa - has begun to change.
Since
February, when MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was installed as Prime
Minister,
the focus has shifted from securing a deal to heal Zimbabwe's
political
divide, to implementing it.
South Africa's stance has
changed too. Mbeki's successor, Jacob Zuma, whose
track record as a mediator
includes facilitating peace between South
Africa's Zulus and Xhosa in 1994
and between warring factions in Burundi in
2005, has a blunter style. As
Zuma prepared to depart for Zimbabwe last
month, his aide (and
secretary-general of his party, the African National
Congress) Gwede
Mantashe said Zuma "will be more vocal in terms of what we
see as deviant
behavior," adding all sides in Zimbabwe must understand they
did not have
the "luxury of adolescent behavior. You must be more mature.
You must
engage."
The international community seems to agree: A World Bank
delegation visited
Zimbabwe earlier this year to assess whether to resume
aid delivery
(verdict: yes, but not too much); the International Monetary
Fund has
dispersed $510 million in aid this month; and individual donations
amounting
to another $500 million have come in from the U.S., Britain and
other
Western powers.
This weekend, a European delegation makes the
E.U.'s first official visit to
Zimbabwe since it imposed sanctions on Mugabe
and his lieutenants in 2002.
Mugabe welcomed them "with open arms" before
the talks began in Harare on
Saturday. But E.U. development commissioner
Karel De Gucht, who is leading
the two-day mission with Swedish development
minister Gunilla Carlsson, was
careful not to name names before he set off.
"There is an urgent need for
all parties to fulfill their obligations," he
said. "By doing this, the E.U.
can once again fully re-engage with Zimbabwe
and help the country on its
return to normality and prosperity."
But
some outside players remain stuck in the same old ruts. A SADC summit
this
month in Kinshasa somehow contrived to remove Zimbabwe - the most
pressing
issue facing the region - from its agenda, resolving merely that a
committee
of three SADC members would "review" progress on power-sharing
between
Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Mugabe himself continues to delay the
formation of a
unity government, while his top brass seem focused on
squirreling away as
much cash as they can for as long as they are able.
Mugabe's foot soldiers
continue to harass, imprison and murder MDC
activists.
The reality is
that a legitimate transfer of power away from Zimbabwe's one
and only leader
since full independence was never going to be quick. As a
Western diplomat
in Harare says: "We used to say we want elections. But
Tsvangirai says he
needs time to build institutions, and he's right. As
we've seen in Zimbabwe,
elections with the present institutions are no
guarantee of change." In
2008, Mugabe unleashed a fresh wave of repression
against the MDC after
losing a general election, violence that ultimately
prolonged his rule. The
fervent hope among the MDC's impatient supporters is
that change will
precede the death of the old tyrant, who is visibly frail
these days, but
whose demise might still be years away.
Comment The Star (SA), 11 September
Peter Fabricius
Whenever he was taken to
task about his boss, former President Thabo
Mbeki's, "quiet diplomacy" on
Zimbabwe, former deputy foreign minister Aziz
Pahad used to retort: "There
is no such thing as loud diplomacy." The
implication being, of course, that
diplomacy is necessarily a rather
stealthy business. Then along came Brendan
Huntley, the white South African
who persuaded Canada's Immigration and
Refugee Board to grant him refugee
status in Canada on August 27, on the
grounds that he had been persecuted by
African criminals and victimised by
affirmative action. And that the South
African government was doing nothing
to protect him. Suddenly the decibel
levels of South African diplomacy shot
off the scale. In Parliament and in
media interviews, South African
officials very publicly and vocally
condemned the IRB's decision as an
affront, possibly quite deliberate, to
South Africa's
reputation.
The Canadian government just issued one statement,
stressing its friendly
relations with South Africa, its respect for the
efforts the South African
government was making to fight crime and to create
an egalitarian society,
and the fact that the IRB was an independent body
and so the government
could not influence its decisions. This could have
been interpreted as
Ottawa simply distancing itself from the IRB's
sentiments about South Africa
but Pretoria took it as meaning that Canada
intended doing nothing about the
IRB decision and so stepped up the
pressure. South Africa's High
Commissioner to Canada, Abe Nkomo, warned that
if the decision were not
reversed, South Africa's relations with Canada -
otherwise pretty good and
uneventful - would be badly damaged. A few days
later, the Canadian ministry
of citizenship and immigration applied to the
Canadian federal court for
leave to apply for the IRB decision to be
reversed on several grounds,
notably that the tribunal had based its
decision "on an erroneous finding of
fact made in a perverse or capricious
manner or without regard to the
material before it".
Nkomo saw
this as the result of South Africa's pressure and said, "They
eventually got
our point." If that is so, then the South African
government's very vocal
and quite aggressive intervention would represent a
significant victory for
"loud diplomacy", for "diplomacy conducted with a
loudhailer", and all those
other pejoratives which the government has
employed to describe the kind of
diplomacy that it refuses to employ in
Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, back on the
ranch, President Jacob Zuma attended a
summit of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) this week in
Kinshasa, where Zimbabwe was very
much on the agenda. Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and his Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) - plus all the
donors and investors waiting to pour
money into Zimbabwe, and indeed all
people of sane mind and reasonable
character - were hoping that the SADC
would, just this once, do the right
thing.
It was hoped that it would come out and stipulate, publicly
and explicitly,
the many things which President Robert Mugabe must
immediately do to keep
his commitments under the unity government, instead
of abusing his executive
powers to make unilateral appointments and arrest
MDC MPs etc. Instead the
SADC leaders said nothing about that and backed
Mugabe's sole grievance by
calling on Western governments to lift targeted
sanctions against Mugabe and
his cronies. Even outgoing SADC chairman Zuma,
of whom Zimbabwe hopes much,
told journalists the SADC leaders had placed no
conditions on the lifting of
sanctions, even though Western governments have
made it clear that sanctions
will only go once Mugabe implements his
commitments. The summit effectively
delegated the MDC complaints to the
troika of the SADC's security organ to
resolve. Perhaps the troika will
finally confront Mugabe. But it is hard to
see why it will when the full
summit could not. And meanwhile the SADC
leaders have given Mugabe another
political boost back home, as the Zanu
PF-controlled state media crowed
about his victory over the MDC. In Ottawa,
an apparent victory for loud
diplomacy. In Kinshasa yet another apparent
defeat for quiet diplomacy.
Dear Family and Friends,
Every day, on
every news bulletin, someone in the leadership ranks of
Zanu PF demands that
sanctions on Zimbabwe must be removed.
We grow weary of their perpetual
whining because everyone knows that
the sanctions are not on 10 million
Zimbabweans but on less than 300
senior Zanu PF officials. The 'sanctions' as
they call them have
frozen foreign bank accounts and prevented foreign travel
of less
than 300 men and women who took Zimbabwe from being a
thriving,
exporting nation to a destitute beggar's bowl in less than
nine
years.
Ninety nine percent of ordinary Zimbabwean do not have
foreign bank
accounts and have never been on an aeroplane, let alone to a
foreign
country, and so it is hard to feel empathy for the less than
300
people in Zanu PF who are on the targeted sanctions
list.
Sanctions! What sanctions? is the question ordinary Zimbabweans
ask
as they pay bills and buy groceries with American dollars and
eat
food, even everyday basics like maize meal, that has had to
be
imported.
Sanctions! What sanctions we ask as we drive into filling
stations
and buy imported petrol and diesel and pay in US dollars or
South
African Rand and not even in our own money.
Sanctions! What
sanctions when international organizations are
providing the money to pay our
teachers, nurses, doctors and civil
servants.
Sanctions! What
sanctions when the IMF are again lending money to
Zimbabwe and the World Bank
are providing financial support to the
government
Sanctions! What
sanctions when the country is awash with
international organisations who
are feeding our hungry, treating our
sick, looking after our orphans and
vulnerable children, providing
chemicals to treat our water and even fixing
our blocked toilets.
They are everywhere: Unicef, UNDP, WFP, Care, Concern,
Goal and so
many more.
And now, to add to the tired litany of less
than 300 Zanu PF men and
women in a country of 10 million, SADC have called
for "sanctions" to
be removed.
How very disappointing that SADC has
again chosen to stand up for the
perpetrators who crippled our land and not
the people who have been
helpless victims for a decade.
Until next
week, thanks for reading, love cathy 12 Sept 2009.
Copyright cathy buckle
www.cathybuckle.com
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
September
12, 2009
Jan Raath in Harare
It's a rare mix that makes a good
cricket commentator: erudite descriptions
of action, comprehensive knowledge
of great players, faultless recall of
statistics, and needle-sharp sense of
timing and judgment.
Zimbabwean-born Dean du Plessis, 32, has all these
attributes and has been
delivering commentaries on matches for nine years.
But he has never seen a
game in his life, because his green eyes are glass.
He was born blind, with
tumours on his retinas.
That has been no
obstacle to him sharing the commentary box in Tests,
one-day and Twenty20
tournaments involving all the Test-playing nations in
worldwide radio
broadcasts.
He has worked with the likes of Tony Cozier (who pronounced
Dean's delivery
"very smooth"), Geoffrey Boycott ("the nastiest person I
have ever met"),
Ravi Shastri and Australia's former spin bowler Bruce
Yardley, who himself
lost an eye. In 2004 the two became the first team to
deliver a commentary
with a single eye between them.
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Mr du Plessis's accentuated sense of hearing makes up
for being sightless.
Wired up to the stump microphones, he can tell who is
bowling from the
footfalls and grunts, a medium or fast delivery by the
length of time
between the bowler's foot coming down and the impact of the
ball on the
pitch. He picks up a yorker from the sound of the bat ramming
down on the
ball, can tell if a ball is on the off or on-side, and when it's
hit a pad
rather than bat. When the wicketkeeper's voice goes flat, it tells
him a
draw is in the offing.
He can't play the role in the commentary
box of the anchor - who delivers
the ball-by-ball passage, who can see the
silently raised finger of the
umpire and the unspoken redeployment of
fielders. Mr du Plessis can only
tell from the crowd noise whether a ball
has been gathered in a fielder's
hands, or spilled. "I have to work with the
anchor," he said. "I am the guy
who supplies, well, the colour."
Last
month Bangladesh were playing a gradually improving Zimbabwe when Mr du
Plessis heard that the visitors' captain had sent a fielder far down to fine
leg after the Zimbabwe batsman Charles Coventry had smashed a four. "A sixth
sense told me it was a double bluff," Dean said.
"He wanted to give
the impression that the next ball would be a bumper, to
make Coventry use a
hook shot." As he suspected, the next Bangladeshi ball
was a sneaky
yorker.
"The thing about Dean is the intuition," said Andy Pycroft, the
Zimbabwean
opening batsman from 1979 to 2001. "The public love to listen to
him. If he
has the right person at anchor to support him he is brilliant."
Mr du
Plessis hated the "blind cricket" he was taught to play with a
plastic-wrapped volleyball at the blind school he attended. One day, 14 and
bored, he tuned the radio in to a station devoted to ball-by-ball
commentaries. It was to change his life: "There was a phenomenal noise in
the background, 80,000 people in a stadium in India, people roaring. I
realised it was cricket. I was fascinated."
Dean pushed his way into
the commentary box at Harare Sports Club in 2001
and was allowed to try out
with the microphone. He never looked back.