Zim Online
Tuesday 18 September 2007
Own
Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - The International Crisis Group (ICG) says
the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) must use its leverage to
ensure
credible elections next year in Zimbabwe, including the reinstatement
of
voting rights to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.
The Belgian-based
think-tank said SADC should use current South
African-mediated Zimbabwe
crisis talks and a possible economic rescue
package for Harare to seek
concessions from President Robert Mugabe on the
constitution and "related
legislative and regulatory measures that permit
free and fair
elections".
Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party is locked up in talks with the
main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) aimed at resolving a
seven-year-old
political and economic crisis.
"SADC should use its
leverage and extend the desperately needed aid package
to and ask the West
to lift its sanctions - such as they are - only in
exchange for full ZANU PF
cooperation with the mediation process and
implementation of reforms that
will allow free and fair elections as early
as possible in 2008," said ICG
in a new report released on Tuesday and
titled Zimbabwe: A Regional
Solution?
ICG said SADC must be prepared to isolate Mugabe in the event
the Zimbabwean
leader, 83 and in power since independence from Britain 27
years ago, again
became the stumbling block to an amicable resolution of the
crisis.
Mugabe has used the lifting of a Western travel ban and asset
freeze against
himself and more than 100 of his lieutenants to refuse to
talk to the
opposition, which he accuses of working with his enemies in a
scheme meant
to effect an illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.
He is
understood to be against a SADC economic rescue plan for Zimbabwe,
fearing a
Western hand in the regional package desperately needed by his
country where
more than 80 percent of the people are living in abject
poverty and
inflation is more than 7 600 percent, the highest in the world.
One of
the concessions suggested by ICG is the repeal of controversial laws
such as
the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the Access to Information
and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Voluntary Organisations
Act.
Mugabe's government has since 2002 selectively used the AIPPA and
POSA
legislations to stifle democratic space in the country.
Enacted
in March 2002, AIPPA is among the harshest media laws in the world,
providing for the imprisonment of journalists for two years for practising
in the country without licence from the state-appointed Media and
Information Commission.
The POSA legislation has regularly been
invoked to deny the opposition its
democratic right to organize political
meetings.
ICG called for the introduction of a non-partisan and
independent electoral
commission, which should be merged with the Election
Supervisory Commission,
the Registrar General's Office and the Electoral
Delimitation Commission.
The four bodies are currently separate entities,
with overlapping
responsibilities.
Mugabe must agree to the repeal of
provisions of the Electoral Commission
Act, particularly those that allow
the secondment of military, police and
prison service personnel for election
tasks, ICG said.
Other reforms must include an audit of the voters' roll
by the non-partisan
electoral commission to weed out ghost voters as well as
introduction of a
new electoral law.
The report also spelt out a role
for the international community, including
a public undertaking to support
efforts to rebuild the comatose Zimbabwean
economy once the crisis is over
as well as "refraining from statements
undermining that
initiative".
The ICG report was released as it emerged that opposition
MDC legislators
were today expected to support a controversial
constitutional amendment
following drastic changes made to the original
document by their negotiators
at the SADC-initiated talks being brokered by
South African President Thabo
Mbeki.
Authoritative sources said
legislators from both the Morgan Tsvangirai and
Arthur Mutambara formations
of the MDC would today support Constitutional
Amendment Number 18 provided
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa tables the
Bill together with the agreed
amendments before the lower House of
parliament.
The opposition had
previously objected to the amendment, which they said was
being used to
strengthen Mugabe's hold on power by allowing ZANU PF to elect
his successor
as state president internally without going for a popular
vote. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 18 September 2007
By Batsirayi
Murenje
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
party will back a controversial amendment Bill that will be
tabled in
Parliament today following drastic changes made to the original
document,
ZimOnline has learnt.
Both factions of the MDC had in the
past promised to fiercely oppose
Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 18,
arguing that President Robert
Mugabe wanted to use the new law to deal with
his own succession issue
within the ruling ZANU PF
party.
Authoritative sources within both factions of the MDC told
ZimOnline last
night that the opposition would support the Bill following
significant
changes that were agreed to at the ongoing President Thabo
Mbeki-led talks
between the opposition and ZANU PF.
Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa is expected to table the amended Bill
before Parliament
today.
Chinamasa and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche are
representing ZANU
PF at the Pretoria talks while the MDC factions are being
represented by
Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti.
"We will support the
Bill today in the spirit of what we agreed at the
talks," said a senior
official of the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC who is
familiar with the
developments.
"As long as the agreed amendments are tabled, we will
support the Bill in
line with the negotiations that are currently taking
place," said the
official who requested to remain
anonymous.
ZimOnline understands that the Bill will be heavily watered
down following
presentations made by the MDC at the Pretoria
talks.
The MDC negotiators are said to have agreed to constitutional
amendments
after it emerged that a new, democratic people-driven
constitution could not
be put in place before the next elections that are
tentatively set for
March.
The Bill that will be tabled today will
include the complete synchronisation
of all elections including local
government and mayoral elections that ZANU
PF wanted to be held separately
in January 2008.
The MDC negotiators insisted on a synchronization
arguing that ZANU PF
wanted to use the polls as a barometer of the national
mood before critical
parliamentary and presidential polls two months
later.
The new Bill will also see the complete removal of the President's
right to
nominate non-constituent Members of Parliament (MPs), with all MPs
being
directly elected by the people.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC), which will deal with delimitation
of constituencies, will
be the sole body responsible for the voters' roll
and voter registration.
The ZEC will also have powers to produce ward-based
voters'
rolls.
Both Nelson Chamisa and Gabriel Chaibva, the spokespersons of the
two MDC
factions could not be reached for comment on the matter.
But
ZimOnline reliably understands that Mbeki impressed upon Tsvangirai and
Mutambara, who were in South Africa over the weekend, to support the amended
Bill and the far-reaching electoral reforms to be announced soon while a
parallel process for a new, democratic constitution is being mooted for
future elections. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 18 September 2007
By Farisai
Gonye
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's spokesman has ordered state
media editors
to impose a partial blackout on Vice President Joice Mujuru,
whose camp
within the ruling ZANU-PF party has been actively seeking the
veteran
leader's ouster, ZimOnline established
yesterday.
Authoritative sources told ZimOnline that George Charamba
summoned top
editors from Harare-based state media last Thursday and ordered
a blackout
on Mujuru and her known allies.
Editors of the state
media's print flagship The Herald, its sister The
Sunday Mail as well as the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation attended the
meeting held at Charamba's
Munhumutapa offices.
The presidential spokesman tightly controls state
media entities because of
his position and closeness to Mugabe.
The
sources said Charamba, who is also permanent secretary in the Ministry
of
Information and Publicity, told the editors that they should amplify
support
for Mugabe's candidature in next year's watershed presidential
elections.
"We were told to bring to the limelight the fact that most
party organs
support Mugabe's candidature," said an editor who attended the
meeting but
spoke on condition he was not named.
The editor said
Charamba was emphatic that the Mujuru faction should be
blocked out from
news coverage.
"Mujuru herself would have her coverage reduced to a bare
minimum. We can't
completely ignore her because she is the vice-president,"
the editor said.
Charamba was not available for comment. His boss,
Information Minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu refused to comment on the matter
yesterday, insisting that
he did not attend the meeting.
"I don't
even know that my secretary had a meeting with editors recently,"
said
Ndlovu, a Mugabe loyalist.
The partial blackout is seen as part of the
bitter internal infighting in
ZANU PF over who will succeed
Mugabe.
Mujuru and her husband, retired army general Solomon Mujuru, lead
a ZANU PF
faction that is vigorously pushing for Mugabe's
retirement.
The faction has on two occasions since last year successfully
blocked
Mugabe's efforts to win endorsement as the ZANU-PF candidate for
next year's
presidential election, forcing the necessity of a special ZANU
PF congress
in December to settle the matter.
Another faction led by
Rural Housing and Social Amenities Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa and supported
by war veterans, has thrown its hat in with Mugabe,
hoping for a swap
deal.
The state media has of late given acres of space to war veterans
and other
pro-Mugabe party organs such as the ZANU PF Youth League and
Women's League.
"Charamba also ordered that we should slow down on our
criticism of
under-performing parastatals. He mentioned that we should give
more positive
coverage to ZINWA (Zimbabwe National Water Authority) and ZESA
(Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority) to protect the government's image,"
the source
said.
ZINWA has come under fire recently for water
shortages being experienced
across the country following its take-over of
water and sewerage operations
of city councils.
ZESA has failed to
maintain a constant supply of power to keep industries
going, citing
shortages of foreign currency to buy spares and import
electricity.
Charamba is also understood to have asked the state
editors to do damage
control on current shortages of basic
commodities.
Zimbabwe is facing acute shortages of most commodities
following an
ill-conceived decision by the government to impose a freeze on
price
increases last June. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 18 September
2007
By Justin Mutasa
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's NMB Bank Limited has failed to reimburse
depositors their funds
four months after the central bank revoked the bank's
foreign currency
trading licence, raising fears the bank had hit a cash
crunch.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on May 15 cancelled NMB's foreign
currency dealership licence after discovering that US$4.79 million in
depositors' funds had been siphoned out of the country by a senior treasury
official.
NMB is one of the banks that were hit by a liquidity
crunch that saw
the closing of indigenous banks in 2004 after RBZ chief
Gideon Gono cracked
the whip on errant financial institutions, most of which
were trading
foreign currency on the black market.
Forensic
auditors have since discovered NMB lost more than US$6.3
million.
"We are working flat out to give clients their money,"
a senior NMB
manager told ZimOnline.
"The money should already
have been reimbursed but after discovering
the magnitude of the fraud was
bigger than initially thought, it will now
take more time to settle
depositors' funds," the official said.
In July, NMB wrote to its
clients that it would inform them by August
15 on when it would settle the
arrears.
But until last Friday, the bank had yet to communicate to
depositors.
Bank officials say despite the cash crunch, the bank
had also fallen
victim to bureaucracy between the central bank and the
Finance Ministry.
But depositors are angry and fear they could lose
their money, in a
move reminiscent of the collapse of Trust Bank Limited,
which saw foreign
currency account holders given the equivalent of their
money in shares
calculated using the official exchange rate.
"I
am disappointed because I had a bit of savings in the bank and now
I am
beginning to doubt I will get my money," said one depositor, who
refused to
be identified but said he had US$3,600 stuck in the bank.
NMB chief
executive David Hatendi was unavailable for comment while
officials at the
bank referred all questions to the RBZ and police fraud
squad.
The bank management however hopes that negotiations with an unnamed
suitor
to pump in about US$7 million would enable NMB to settle with
depositors.
Reports suggest financial group ABC Holdings is the
suitor seeking a
stake in NMB.
Questions have been asked on how
the bank could have been defrauded
without raising suspicion even from top
management.
The alleged fraudster Shane Mandara, who skipped the
country earlier
this year, is said to have made several transfers from NMB
from abroad
without being caught.
Internal and external
auditors also failed to detect the scam at the
time, raising the possibility
that the fraud was a well-orchestrated inside
job.
Eyebrows
have also been raised as no official at the bank has been
arrested.
In 2002, the RBZ withdrew NMB's foreign currency
licence but later
restored it after the bank paid a penalty.
NMB directors then argued they were not the only ones flogging foreign
currency on the thriving parallel market as this was an industry-wide trend
and that the RBZ was actually buying hard cash on the outlawed
market.
Zimbabwe is battling a crunch shortage of foreign currency,
which has
paralysed industry and government operations.
The
Zimbabwe dollar, which officially trades at $30 000 to the US
dollar, now
fetches ten times the amount on the illegal parallel market. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 18 September 2007
By
Patricia Mpofu
HARARE - Three members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) were
on Monday severely assaulted and later abducted by
suspected state security
agents for distributing fliers urging workers to
join a labour organised
two-day protest that begins tomorrow.
ZCTU
spokesperson Khumbulani Ndlovu said the three union officials were
severely
beaten and later taken to an unknown destination by people
suspected to be
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives.
"Three officials from
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions have been
abducted after being heavily
beaten up by suspected CIO operatives in
Harare's Workington industrial
areas," said Ndlovu.
The ZCTU spokesperson identified the three as
Michael Kandukutu, the labour
federation's national organiser, Tennyson
Muchepfa, from the National
Engineering Workers Union, and another member
only identified as Mucheni,
from the Food Federation, both affiliates of the
ZCTU.
"The ZCTU is working flat out to locate where they have been taken
and ZCTU
lawyers have been informed (about this development,)" Ndlovu
said.
The assault and abduction came just two days before the labour
federation
embarked on a two-day mass protest to force President Robert
Mugabe's
government to address an eight-year economic crisis that has seen
most
workers struggle to put food on the table.
Ndlovu said the
abduction would not dissuade the union from forging ahead
with the planned
job protest.
"The strike is still going ahead on Wednesday and Thursday,"
she said.
Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said he was not aware of
the matter
when contacted for comment last night.
"I will look into
the issue and then get back to you," said Mandipaka.
Human rights groups
and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
party have in the
past accused CIO agents of beating up and abducting Mugabe's
political
opponents.
Several ZCTU leaders including the union's secretary general
Wellington
Chibebe were last September severely assaulted after they
attempted to lead
street protests in Harare over the worsening economic
crisis in Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean government defended the crackdown,
accusing the ZCTU
officials of working with Western powers to effect illegal
regime change in
the troubled southern African country. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 18 September 2007
By
Sebastian Nyamhangambiri
HARARE - The Zimbabwean government has deployed
state secret agents at the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) following last
week's strike by workers
demanding a 500 percent salary increment, ZimOnline
has learnt.
The industrial action that paralysed operations at the
country's borders,
ended last Friday after management promised to honour
workers' demands for a
salary hike.
Workers who spoke to ZimOnline on
Monday said there was now a climate of
fear among employees after the
deployment of Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) operatives to sniff
out "trouble makers."
"We knew all along that there would be a secret
agent among us but since
last week's strike, one new person was recruited in
almost all departments.
"We are not happy with this new arrangement as
there is now a lot of
mistrust among the workers," said a worker who refused
to be named for fear
of victimisation.
ZIMRA boss Gershem Pasi
yesterday denied that the parastatal had recruited
CIO agents to monitor and
intimidate workers.
"ZIMRA is not a small organisation and people are
changed from one post to
another and you cannot tell me that every person
would know the new people
at every point," said Pasi.
"We know the
people spreading such rumours. The people peddling these lies
are the very
people who led last week's strike," he said.
Pasi said the parastatal had
"amicably resolved last week's
misunderstanding" after the workers were
promised a "reasonable" salary
hike following their
demands.
ZimOnline could not immediately verify yesterday how much ZIMRA
had promised
to pay the striking workers.
Sources that attended the
meeting that broke the impasse told ZimOnline that
the parastatal had
indicated that it was not in a position to accede to
workers' demands for a
500 percent salary.
ZIMRA argued that a controversial government price
blitz that began last
June had seriously affected revenue collection at the
country's borders,
leaving the parastatal in a weak position to offer
meaningful salary
increments.
Last week's strike plunged operations
at the country's border posts into
chaos and crippled revenue collection for
the cash-starved Harare
authorities.
Analysts say Zimbabwe could be
headed for stormy times as workers in the
private and public sectors
pressure employers to pay more money to cushion
them from a severe economic
crisis that has seen inflation zoom beyond 7 600
percent, the highest in the
world. - ZimOnline
Independent, UK
Published: 18 September 2007
Does the Archbishop of York know
something we don't? How else to explain his
apparent confidence that the
Prime Minister is preparing to make "some kind
of response" to the fast
deteriorating situation in that country. An
announcement could be made as
early as this week.
The tentative way in which the news came out suggests
ground being carefully
prepared. The Archbishop, John Sentamu, disclosed
that he had had a
conversation with the Prime Minister about Zimbabwe and
urged him to lead an
international campaign against President Mugabe's
regime. All the signs are
that, far from exerting unwelcome pressure, Dr
Sentamu was knocking at an
open door.
We hope that he was, and we
hope that his tentative prediction about a
toughening of British policy
turns out to be true. As Southern Rhodesia,
Zimbabwe was, after all, a
British colony. We oversaw the - delayed -
transition to majority rule, and
we helped establish the institutions that
Robert Mugabe has so successfully
subverted.
There was a time, before Zimbabwe was expelled from the
Commonwealth in
2002, when British ministers and diplomats deliberately held
back from
criticising Mr Mugabe and the increasingly autocratic way he ran
Zimbabwe.
They feared, not unreasonably, that their condemnation would be
held up as
an example of "imperialist" interference and perversely help to
keep Mr
Mugabe in office.
In those days the preference was for a
Commonwealth solution - in which
Britain would be just one member of an
international collective urging
change. This policy foundered, however, when
Mr Mugabe failed to change his
ways. And the downside of Zimbabwe's
expulsion was that the Commonwealth
lost any leverage it had previously
had.
Thereafter, an African solution was preferred. The particular hope
was that
the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, would be persuaded to
constrict
Zimbabwe's economic lifeline. Regrettably, his sense of African
and
anti-colonial solidarity trumped his sense of justice. While South
Africa
now shoulders much of the refugee burden from Zimbabwe, Mr Mbeki must
also
share blame for the dire straits in which the country finds itself
today.
The argument against tougher action, including stricter sanctions,
was
always that it would be Zimbabwe's poorest who would suffer most. Now,
as
the Archbishop of York argues, it is hard to see that sanctions could
make
daily life any worse for ordinary Zimbabweans. Sanctions targeted
against
the elite - including, for instance, restrictions on the number of
diplomats
in Western capitals, as Dr Sentamu suggests - would be a start. It
is high
time that Britain took a stand.
Mail and Guardian
Mail &
Guardian reporter
17 September 2007
11:59
Stiff challenges to President Robert Mugabe's
controversial
economic policies are now coming from within his own party. In
a move that
is likely to rankle Mugabe, his own legislators on Wednesday
summoned the
Deputy Minister for Industry and International Trade, Phenias
Chihota, to a
ruling Zanu-PF party caucus meeting where he was told to
"revise his price
controls'' and stop "disruption [to]
business".
"Next we want to meet not just the minister, but
also the
Cabinet task force of price controls and monitoring," said a
Zanu-PF
legislator from Manicaland province, who declined to be
named.
"We are likely to lose next year's elections if they
don't
revise their policies. There is nothing on the shelves; people are
going for
days without bread, cooking oil, even sugar and soft drinks," he
fumed.
The heated meeting, which lasted four hours, saw at
least 10
legislators severely criticising the deputy
minister.
Among the most outspoken legislators were Masvingo
Province
Senator Dzikamai Mavhaire, the Deputy Minister for Water Resources,
Walter
Mzembi, Zanu-PF chief whip Joram Gumbo and Deputy Minister for Local
Government Morris Sakabuya.
"We told him they should go
back to the drawing board; companies
are closing down and people are losing
jobs. This nonsense should stop and
we are listening to what the people are
saying," an anonymous MP said.
Mugabe has told Parliament in
the past that multinationals were
trying to effect a regime change by
increasing prices of basic food
commodities to foment civil
unrest.
More than a thousand business people and company
executives have
been arrested and sentenced to community service for defying
price controls.
Zanu-PF parliamentarians fear that current
shortages will make
their lives difficult in the forthcoming presidential,
parliamentary and
municipal elections campaign.
Already,
the party is battling to raise close to US$700 000 to
oil its campaign
machinery, which requires more than 100 vehicles, over 500
000 shirts,
computers, and food and fuel.
"We can't take the risk of
losing elections by keeping quiet,"
the parliamentary source
said.
"The risks are high. Many feel they may be voted out in
the
elections because [of] the shortages and the looming food crisis," he
added.
While Mugabe maintains his government is a victim of
international sanctions, economists in Zimbabwe say the crisis is
man-made.
Presenting his US$142-million supplementary budget
last week,
Finance Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said the "withdrawal of
international lines of credit, absence of balance of payments support,
disinvestment by foreign firms, [lack of] foreign currency for the
importation of raw materials, equipment, fuel and electricity continue to
affect the operations of key sectors of the economy".
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
17 September 2007
After nearly six months
of halting discussions, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF
party and both factions of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
will brief lawmakers on
Tuesday on the progress of the South
African-mediated
negotiations.
ZANU-PF sources said Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
representing the
ruling party, will open the briefing, followed by Thokozane
Khupe, vice
president of the MDC faction headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, and
finally
Welshman Ncube, secretary general of the MDC faction led by Arthur
Mutambara.
Chinamasa is also expected to unveil changes to the
constitutional amendment
which the ruling party tabled in parliament last
week, and which has moved
to center stage in the discussions given that it
could significantly affect
the electoral dispensation.
South African
President Thabo Mbeki, named by the Southern African
Development Community
in March to mediate the Zimbabwe crisis, reportedly
met with Tsvangirai and
Mutambara on the weekend to brief them about the
talks.
Ncube
confirmed that the meeting took place but declined to provide further
details, saying the discussions were confidential. But sources in Pretoria
told VOA that the two opposition leaders voiced concern about the timing of
the proposed changes to the constitution, given the proximity of March 2008
presidential and general elections.
But ZANU-PF and MDC
representatives have reportedly been meeting daily in
Harare, briefing
briefing Pretoria every three weeks. Mr. Mbeki was said to
be scheduled to
meet with non-governmental organizations for their further
input in the
talks.
Some civic groups remain skeptical about the usefulness of the
talks.
Executive Director Arnold Tsunga of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights,
among the NGO leaders consulted by Mr. Mbeki, said he is worried
that the
views of ordinary Zimbabweans and human rights won't weigh enough
in an
eventual deal.
Cape Town-based political analyst Glen Mpani
told reporter Blessing Zulu
that it is significant Mr. Mbeki met with the
principal players in the
talks.
IOL
September 18 2007 at 01:01AM
Harare - Seventeen police officers
have been arrested in eastern
Zimbabwe for dealing in diamonds at a site
they were supposed to have
protected, state television reported on
Monday.
Ten of the arrested officers, who were apprehended while
guarding the
diamond field, have already been convicted under the Police
Act, said the
radio.
The arrests took place September 15 at the
Chiadzwa diamond field in
the eastern Marange district, said the
report.
Three of the officers were found in possession of 30 pieces
of
diamonds on arrest, said the report quoting police spokesperson Oliver
Mandipaka.
The others were found in possession of money
believed to have been
received as bribes from illegal diamond
miners.
Chiadzwa has been the site of a diamond
rush since late last year when
President Robert Mugabes government revoked a
claim to the area by an
international mining firm.
Thousands of
Zimbabweans, including impoverished peasant farmers
joined the frenzied
search for the gems causing massive environmental damage
and fuelling
rampant smuggling and dealing in diamonds with buyers from as
far away as
Asia.
The government then stepped in, fencing off a large area of
the
diamond field that was put under police protection. But locals
complained
police were involved in illegal deals.
The officers
have not yet been sentenced.
Earlier this year the government
tightened regulations that place a
mandatory five-year jail term on anyone
found dealing in diamonds.
This month Finance Minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi revealed that Zimbabwe,
which is strapped for hard currency was
losing up to $50-million worth of
precious minerals like diamonds every
month to rampant smuggling.
Reports this weekend said the state-run
Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC) had finally begun full-scale
commercial mining in
Marange's diamond fields. - Sapa-dpa
FROM ZIMBABWE VIGIL
Demonstration in solidarity with ZCTU - Thursday 20th
Sept 12-2 pm outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, London
We have had a special
request from ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa) for
Vigil support for this
demonstration so please join them outside the
Zimbabwe Embassy, London on
Thursday between 12 and 2 pm. More information
about the demo
below.
Vigil co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy,
429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to
protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
_____________
Dear
all,
The ZCTU has announced National Actions on the 19th and 20th of
September in
response to a Presidential decree that has frozen all wages for
six months
despite having signed the Prices and Incomes Stabilization
Protocol on 1st
June 2007. ZCTU members will hold 2 nationwide stayaways on
these days and
have withdrawn from the Tripartite Negotiation Forum until
the Presidential
powers used to issue the order have been
clarified.
ACTSA and the TUC are urging supporters to stand in solidarity
with ZCTU by
taking to the streets in support of their struggle. There will
be a
demonstration outside the Zimbabwean Embassy, The Strand at 12-2pm on
Thursday 20th September to mirror the stayaway taking place in Zimbabwe and
in protest of the deepening crisis for Zimbabwean workers. Please let us
know if you can make it by sending a quick email to campaigns@actsa.org. We
really hope
that you can make it!
In solidarity,
ACTSA
Simon
Chase
Campaigns Officer
Action for Southern Africa
231 Vauxhall
Bridge Road
London
SW1V 1EH
T: 020 3263 2001
F: 020 7931
9398
E: simon.chase@actsa.org
W: www.actsa.org
£10 can provide Zimbabwean
women with essential sanitary protection for a
year. Visit www.actsa.org
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
17
September 2007
Eleven members of the newly formed
Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe were
released Monday, after spending
three nights in police cells for
demonstrating against the economic
hardships and police brutality.
The members were expected to appear in
court Monday, but police instead
released them after making each of them pay
a Z$40,000 fine for disorderly
conduct.
Restoration of Human Rights
Zimbabwe was formed three months ago to champion
human rights issues and
claims to have a following of more than 1,000
members across the
country
The group's Vice President Stan Zvorwadza told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that their members were severely
beaten up by
police, and that they intend to sue.
Zvorwadza vowed to
press on with protests despite the arrests and police
brutality on their
members.
Daily Times, Pakistan
The
obvious way for Mugabe to leave at age 83 would be to announce that he
has
changed his mind about running again in the presidential election now
scheduled for March 2008
At least for purposes of public consumption,
southern Africa's political
leaders continue to stand by Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe, despite his
country's ever-deepening economic
crisis, which is directly attributable to
his tyrannical rule. Indeed, years
of economic mismanagement have produced
an unemployment rate of 80%, with
annual inflation nearing 5,000%.
Though Zimbabwe was once known as "the
breadbasket of Africa," many of its
citizens now go hungry and depend on
international food donations for
survival. About 3,000 people flee the
country every day, often risking their
lives when crossing the
crocodile-infested Limpopo River - celebrated in
Kipling's tale of "How the
Elephant Got Its Trunk" - and scaling a border
fence to enter South
Africa.
By now, emigration is more than three million, about a quarter of
the
population. Yet when Mugabe was introduced at the most recent meeting of
the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Zambia's capital,
Lusaka,
his fellow heads of state heartily applauded him.
There are
reports that, behind the scenes, things are different. South
African
President Thabo Mbeki is said to be trying to negotiate a way for
Mugabe to
leave the scene. Yet there have been similar rumours before, and
it is
difficult to know whether Mbeki and the other southern African leaders
are
finally willing to tell Mugabe that he must go. Up to now, paying their
respects to him as a revolutionary leader, and catering to his megalomania,
has been more important to them than alleviating the suffering of Zimbabwe's
people.
The obvious way for Mugabe to leave at age 83 would be to
announce that he
has changed his mind about running again in the
presidential election now
scheduled for March 2008. Of course, should Mugabe
stand down, a fair
election next March probably would not be possible. The
political opposition
would have little capacity to organise an effective
campaign in an
environment in which Mugabe has shut down independent media,
rewritten
electoral rules, and used the police to pummel - literally - his
adversaries.
So a period of transition would be required for a proper
election to be
organised under the auspices of the SADC, with support from
the African
Union, Europe, and the United States, in order to get a fair
result and
launch a recovery process. Yet, given the brief period that
remains until
the scheduled election, an announcement is required soon if a
fair result is
to be achieved and a recovery process launched to halt the
country's slide
into chaos.
A big factor in any timetable for
Zimbabwe's rescue is Thabo Mbeki's tenure.
He has just over a
year-and-a-half to go to complete his second and final
five-year term as
South Africa's president. In certain respects, he has been
a success. Under
his leadership, South African's multiracial democracy has
been consolidated,
and, in dramatic contrast to neighbouring Zimbabwe, its
economy is
flourishing.
Yet Mbeki's achievement is severely marred by two failures.
Domestically,
his poor performance in addressing South Africa's HIV/AIDS
epidemic will
ensure that he is judged harshly. Internationally, his record
is stained by
his lack of leadership up to now in dealing with
Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, even at this late date, Mbeki has a chance to
salvage a good
part of his reputation by taking the lead in organising a
transition in
Zimbabwe. But, given the amount of time a transition will
take, he must act
now.
Even when a transition does take place in
Zimbabwe, the crisis will not be
over. The country has been so devastated by
the Mugabe regime that
substantial international engagement will be required
to put it back on its
feet. For now, however, the SADC should, at long last,
tell Mugabe that he
must step aside, and it should take responsibility for
managing an electoral
process whose result Zimbabweans will recognise as
fair, thereby providing
the legitimacy needed for recovery to begin.
-DT-PS
Aryeh Neier, the president of the Open Society Institute and a
founder of
Human Rights Watch, is the author most recently of Taking
Liberties: Four
Decades in the Struggle for Rights
New Zimbabwe
By
Torby Chimhashu
Last updated: 09/18/2007 09:24:39
ZIMBABWE's leading
playwright Cont Mdladla Mhlanga has launched a new
movement, which he says
is aimed at promoting protest arts.
The movement - Voices For Change -
will be officially opened at Amakhosi
Cultural Centre in Bulawayo on October
12.
In an interview, Mhlanga said Voices For Change is the final artistic
assault on the government, which he accused of shutting out all dissenting
voices.
Said Mhlanga: "Voices For Change is not just a forum but a
movement that
aims at promoting protest art in all art forms and creative
disciplines from
the 12th of October 2007 when it is officially launched at
Amakhosi Cultural
Centre until our concerns are addressed by
government.
"People no longer have a voice in Zimbabwe. Media is tightly
controlled by
the government. The only independent radios operate over
short-wave
frequency, only for a few hours and it is expensive to find a
receiver.
"The weekly independent papers are prohibitively expensive,
while the
national television station is controlled by the government.
Silence and
fear have replaced dialogue and discussion in Zimbabwe and a new
movement is
needed to restore a voice to the people of Zimbabwe."
The
pencil slim Amakhosi director says as artistes in Zimbabwe, they have a
duty
to restore the voice of the people through song, dance, plays,
storytelling
and other art forms.
Voices For Change, said Mhlanga, will give artistes
the platform to
empathise with people's daily struggles, and inspire them to
find their
voices as well as speak out against their
oppressors.
Mhlanga said the movement is aimed at breaking fear and fight
for access to
the media.
He added: "Fear in Zimbabwe has risen to
alarming proportions to the benefit
of the government. It is a way of
suppressing the majority to organise
themselves to change the difficult
conditions that the government has
created for them.
"The voices or
shall I say the whispers of those that have a different
thought or a
different opinion to that of government are not allowed to
access daily
newspapers or 24/7 radio and television channels.
"No-one in Zimbabwe is
allowed by the state to access mass media to talk
about and express the
conditions in which they live in, let alone discuss
the causes of the
conditions.
"You are allowed to discuss only two issues: those that have
nothing to do
with the difficult conditions the majority of Zimbabweans find
themselves
in; or those that support the view of the
government."
Fresh from a successful tour of the United States where he
penned a deal
that saw his play Members being accepted on US television
channels, Mhlanga
promised more fireworks.
He said his banned play -
The Good President - would make a welcome return
to Bulawayo as he is
prepared to fight for the right to be heard.
The Good President was
banned when armed police stormed the Bulawayo
Amphitheatre where Mhlanga and
his crew had planned to premiere the play
said to be critical of President
Robert Mugabe and his government.
The play re-visited the assaults of MDC
faction leaders Morgan Tsvangirai
and Arthur Mutambara who were among a
group of civic leaders bludgeoned by
the riot police in the poor township of
Highfield in March.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
17 September
2007
Like every other necessity of life in Zimbabwe,
life-saving antiretroviral
drugs have soared in price, leading many who
cannot afford them to turn to
herbal treatments.
HIV/AIDS activists
say the rising cost of ARVs despite government-ordered
price freezes has put
the lives of many HIV-positive individuals on the
line. They estimate that
staying on triple-combination ARV therapy for one
month now costs up as much
as Z$25 million (US$75) compared with about Z$12
million two months
ago.
Thus some people living with HIV/AIDS say they have stopped taking
ARVs in
favor of the cheaper traditional Gundamiti herb, which costs under
Z$2
million a month.
Though some medical doctors express skepticism
as to the effectiveness of
the herbal concoction, some people living with
HIV who are taking the herbal
treatment say their CD4 count - reflecting
immune system strength - has gone
up markedly.
Program Officer Martha
Tholanah of the Zimbabwe AIDS Network reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the rising cost of ARVs
stands to have a serious
negative impact on the lives of those living with
HIV/AIDS.
IMPORTANT: FREE HELP:
ONE DAY SEMINAR FOR THE FARMING
COMMUNITY
“Living with Hope”
Farmers and their families are
invited to a one day seminar entitled “Living
with Hope”.
This will
take place on Wednesday 19th September rom 9am to 4pm at the
Dominican
Convent Harare. Entry via Selous gate.
Father Robert Igo who is a
trained psychologist and therapist as well as
being a Benedictine Monk and
Prior at Christ the Word Monastery at Monte
Casino Mission will facilitate
this.
This is the second seminar along this line, those who attended the
first day
found it helpful and empowering. The morning session will
concentrate on
understanding how we react to situations and the afternoon
session will help
teach coping strategies.
This day is aimed at
assisting us in dealing with trauma, stress and also
looking positively
forward.
There is no charge for the day but teas and biscuits will be
offered at
reasonable cost. Please arrange to bring your own packed
lunch.
I can strongly recommend this day.
Ben Gilpin
Please
register with JAG via email or phone.
Telephone numbers: 799410 or
730507
Email: jag@mango.zw or justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw