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Message to shout from the rooftops
Anton Harber
When government closed The
Weekly Mail for a month in 1988, the
distinguished British ambassador, Sir
Robin Renwick, arrived carrying a bank
bag stuffed with money. With his
Savile Row suit and Tory accent, he was
clearly uncomfortable handling
something as crude as cash. "Use it well," he
said, "I want no receipts, no
thanks, no mention of this at all." This was
her majesty's government's way
of helping us through a difficult month, he
said. On the other hand, he used
a conspicuous cheque to order a
subscription for 10 Downing Street. It would
be of assistance, he explained,
if Pik Botha (then foreign affairs minister)
could be told that Mrs Thatcher
received this paper every week, and would not
be pleased if she failed to
receive it. On the first day of the closure, I
received a call from a US
senator. "I am about to go into the senate and
propose a resolution that we
give you support to ensure you survive," he
said. "What are your costs for
the month?"
I tell these stories to
highlight the way the international community
rallied around during the 1980s
to keep alive as much press freedom as they
could in this country. They
recognised press freedom as a litmus test, a
freedom that could help protect
other freedoms, one that could give hope and
succour to many who lacked other
freedoms. We would not have survived
without such support. On receiving a
warning of state action, we could phone
one or two people in London, such as
the veteran South African activists
David Astor and Anthony Sampson, and
within hours we would get copies of
protest letters sent to government from
every Fleet Street editor. The
Committee for the Protection of Journalists in
New York would sweep into
action and mobilise a network of international
reaction. They didn't care
what we wrote, they never questioned whether we
deserved closure, they just
rallied around when the call was
made.
South African business made its own intervention. One day we
were summoned
to a grand old building in the city centre to meet a major
business leader
who was concerned that closure of our paper would add impetus
to calls for
sanctions. He kept calling our paper the Financial Mail. We
didn't correct
him for fear he would realise we were just a rag-tag bunch of
lefties, but
he rallied support for a letter signed by eight top businessmen
to then
president PW Botha, which was crucial in staying his
hand.
This week the authorities in Zimbabwe closed that country's
biggest daily,
the independent and outspoken Daily News. The paper declined
to register
under the new media laws, they challenged the law in court and
were told
they could not do so unless they first complied with the law and
registered.
Meanwhile, armed police closed them down. Registration of
journalists is
familiar to South Africans, who fought against repeated
attempts to
introduce it in the apartheid era. It was blocked because
journalists and
employers stood together in resisting what would have been a
death knell for
dissident voices; if one paper had agreed, the edifice would
have been
broken, and those who resisted would, like the Daily News in
Harare, have
been isolated. Zimbabwe's other papers decided together to
register under
protest then challenge the law. The Daily News made a lone
stand not to do
so. But their tactics are not the issue. Their survival
is.
It is not a coincidence that as Zimbabwe's democratic
institutions have come
under attack the country has seen inflation rise to
about 450%, unemployment
to 70%, and shortages of food and other essentials
have worsened. These
things seldom happen when democratic institutions are
strong because those
responsible for them are called to account. Nobel
Prize-winning economist
Amartya Sen made the point that you do not get famine
in a democracy of
which a free press is an essential ingredient. You can
predict that the more
Zimbabwe's democratic institutions come under attack,
so the risk rises of
shortages turning to famine. Reading international
coverage of Zimbabwe this
week I noted that most articles in the major global
papers quoted
condemnations of the attack on press freedom from the US state
department,
the British foreign secretary, the Commonwealth secretariat
and
international media freedom organisations. SA's government was
conspicuous
by its absence, probably because its response was so wishywashy
it did not
merit repetition. But South Africans who care about these
things
particularly journalists should not let this stand as our response.
Our
government has chosen the path of diplomacy so quiet no one, least of
all
Zimbabweans, can hear it.
Pass me the megaphone.
SABC
Speculation mounts over Mugabe's deputy successor
September 21,
2003, 06:31 PM
Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean President, choice as a
replacement for his
deceased deputy could shed new light on who the veteran
leader wants to
eventually succeed him, political analysts said
today.
Mugabe announced the death of Simon Muzenda, his first Vice
President, after
a long illness late yesterday. Analysts said Mugabe could
now either elevate
Joseph Msika, the country's second Vice President, to
Muzenda's post, or
appoint a new candidate.
Either way, the new
entrant was likely to be someone Mugabe wanted as his
own successor after he
hinted earlier this year he might be ready to retire,
analysts said.
"Muzenda's death obviously has implications for the whole
succession debate,"
said Brian Raftoupoulos, a professor at the University
of Zimbabwe's
Institute of Development Studies.
Zimbabwe is mired in its worst
political and economic crisis since Mugabe
assumed power at independence 23
years ago. Critics have accused Mugabe of
mismanaging the economy, helping to
push the jobless rate up to 70% and
inflation to nearly 430%.
Muzenda
had served in Zimbabwe's government since independence from Britain
in 1980
and was one of the president's most loyal aides. He would have
turned 81 next
month and was the same age as Msika. Mugabe is two years
younger. Local media
have speculated over the past few months that all three
were under increasing
pressure even from within their ruling party Zanu-PF
party to retire and make
way for younger blood.
"The two most likely contenders at the moment
appear to be John Nkomo and
Emmerson Mnangagwa," Raftopoulos said, referring
to Zanu-PF's national
chairperson, and speaker of parliament respectively.
Mnangagwa has long been
touted as Mugabe's favoured successor, but the
president himself has
publicly kept quiet on his preferred heir.
It
was not clear when Mugabe would fill the vacant deputy post. It took him
five
months to name Msika as a replacement for veteran nationalist Joshua
Nkomo
who died in 1999. - Reuters
Jang, Pakistan
Africa’s battle with AIDS raises security and
terrorism fears
By Richard Ingham
PARIS: Already a human disaster
of almost unimaginable proportions, Africa’s
AIDS pandemic is also fast
emerging as a security concern, with fears it
will breed regional wars, civil
strife and terrorism.
Experts speaking ahead of a major conference on
Africa’s AIDS crisis opening
in Nairobi on Sunday said the disease is
inflicting such grim costs that
more countries may join Somalia, Sudan and
the Democratic Republic of Congo
on the list of sick, war-ravaged
states.
South of the Sahara, some 30 million people have AIDS or the
human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which cause it, according to the UN
agency
UNAIDS. Last year alone, 2.2 million Africans died of the
disease.
In seven southern African countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia,
South
Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe) at least a fifth of the
adult
population has the virus. In these worst hit countries, a whole
generation
of human capital is being wiped out by AIDS.
The economic
and social cost is such that their stability is at threat, the
experts
say.
Fields are lacking labourers to sow and harvest. Schools are going
without
teachers. Hospitals are losing their doctors and nurses. Business is
losing
entrepreneurs who bring dynamism and investment.
The decimation
of the rural workforce creates a vicious circle, for it adds
to the food
shortages in famine-stricken countries, UNAIDS’ chief advisor
for Africa,
Michel de Groulard, said. People with HIV, who are the least
resistant to
malnutrition, are often the first to die.
They leave behind a ragged army
of AIDS orphans, whose numbers are set to
reach some 20 million by the end of
this decade. These children, uneducated
and shunned, are easy targets for
criminals and militias, de Groulard said.
"These children fall prey to
all kinds of organisations and manipulators,
who can turn them into child
soldiers or eventually terrorists. It’s a
genuine risk," he said.
Put
together, these ingredients are a potent formula for dislocation and
civil
violence, de Groulard said. "This especially concerns southern
Africa —
Mozambique, Zimbabwe and to a lesser degree Botswana. All of this
zone is
very vulnerable in that respect," he said in an interview.
Meanwhile, the
security forces, which underpin stability in many African
countries, are
getting progressively weaker. A military conference in
Gaborone, the
Botswanan capital, was told last week that in southern African
countries as
many as 60 percent of troops have HIV.
The pandemic "could be a source
for intra- and interstate conflict,"
Botswanan Major General Bakwena Oitsile
said. "If the security forces become
weaker due to ill health, the countries’
constitutions could be easily
challenged.
The political structures
that ensure democratic governance could be
threatened." Devastated,
turmoil-ridden countries, where law and order have
broken down and the
economy amounts to little more than a black market, are
ripe for becoming
terrorist havens, as was the case in Somalia, US analyst
Patrick Garrett
said.
"If an economy implodes as a result of massive AIDS prevalence,
then
certainly terrorism can take root," Garrett, an associate at
Washington
think tank Globalsecurity.org, said.
Such worries clearly
figure in the thinking behind the five-year,
15-billion-dollar US initiative
to help African and Caribbean countries
against AIDS. In February, Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief George
Tenet branded the pandemic a threat to
US national security for its ability
to "further weaken already beleaguered
states."
"It’s not just a health crisis, it’s a crisis of nation states.
Nations will
collapse if they don’t fix this problem," US Secretary of State
Colin Powell
warned in May.
The six-day Nairobi forum, the
International Conference on AIDS and STIs
(Sexually Transmitted Infections)
in Africa, known as ICASA, is the biggest
regional forum on the continent’s
AIDS problems. It is held every two years,
alternating with the International
AIDS Conference.
New York Times
The Tyranny of Robert Mugabe
In The Daily News of
Zimbabwe readers could follow the long, cheerless saga
of President Robert
Mugabe's slide into dictatorship. But the most telling
illustration of
Zimbabwe's decline is the case of the newspaper itself. The
four-year-old
daily, the only one not controlled by the government, has been
bombed twice,
its staff and distributors beaten and harassed, its founding
editor driven
into exile. Now the government has closed the paper, using
undemocratic laws
to extinguish one of the last embers of free speech in
Zimbabwe.
Mr.
Mugabe's current assault on the country's most popular newspaper is
built
around a 2002 law that compels media to register. The government has
used the
law to bring charges against or deny accreditation to critical
journalists.
The Daily News argued that the requirement was unconstitutional
and refused
to register. On Sept. 11, the Supreme Court ruled that if the
newspaper
wanted to challenge the media law, it had to register first. Last
week the
paper did — and it was promptly denied a license to operate. It is
now
appealing to the courts, but it is unlikely to be successful in a
justice
system controlled by Mr. Mugabe.
In 23 years as president, Mr. Mugabe has
gone from independence hero to
tyrant. Zimbabweans now go hungry, in part
because his policy of
confiscating white-owned farms has led to food
shortages. The once-strong
economy is near collapse. Mr. Mugabe rigged his
own re-election last year,
and courts are now prosecuting Morgan Tsvangirai,
the leader of the
democratic opposition, for treason — a charge that can
carry the death
penalty.
So far, the near-united opposition of the
outside world has had no effect.
But one reason is that the nation with the
most influence has not joined in.
Although South Africa has leverage — it
controls Zimbabwe's electric power,
for one thing — President Thabo Mbeki
argues that diplomacy is more
effective than sanctions. Mr. Mbeki, who
refuses to criticize a fellow hero
of Africa's liberation struggles, should
reconsider. The collapse of
Zimbabwe is affecting all southern Africa. For
the good of the entire
region, Mr. Mugabe must step down.
SABC
Editors Forum condemns banning of Daily News
September 21, 2003,
07:26 AM
The African Editors' Forum yesterday criticised the decision by
the
Zimbabwean government's Media and Information Commission not to allow
the
publication of The Daily News.
Mathatha Tsedu, the forum's interim
chairman, said, "The denial of a licence
to publish Zimbabwe's Daily News by
a government commission is a regrettable
and unfortunate occurrence that
signals a hardening of attitude by the
Zimbabwean government."
His
remarks followed an unsuccessful bid by Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe,
publishers of The Daily News, to register as "a mass media
service". Tsedu
said: "The African Editors' Forum, representing editors and
senior editorial
executives from more than 35 countries on the continent,
condemns this high
handed measure by the Zimbabwean government. The Daily
News has been a thorn
in the sides of the Zimbabwean government but that is
no reason to stop it
from publishing.
"The ban, if made permanent, would have the effect of
shutting down the
voices of dissent in a country where democratic gains of
the liberation
struggle have been rolled back significantly in the past three
to four
years. We call on the government of Zimbabwe to allow The Daily News
to
resume operation in terms of existing laws of the land," Tsedu
said.
"We further call on all African governments who have committed
themselves to
free speech in terms of the African Union charter to voice
their displeasure
at the action taken by the Zimbabwean government. The
efforts of so many
African leaders and citizens all over the continent to
change the image of
this continent cannot be sabotaged by dictators intent on
clinging to
power," he added.
Tsedu said the African Editors' Forum
and the South African Editors' Forum
were requesting an urgent meeting with
the South African department of
foreign affairs to discuss the matter. -
Sapa
ZIMBABWE
SOKWANELE CIVIC ACTION SUPPORT GROUP
Enough is Enough
PROMOTING NON VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO
ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY.
POLICE OFFICERS BURN EX-FARM WORKEERS' HOUSES TO
FORCE THEM TO WORK ON REESETTLED FARMS
Zimbabwe Republic Police officers
and Zanu-Pf youths from Tengwe burnt
houses of ex-farm workers and destroyed
valuable property worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars on the 13th and
16th of September 2003 at Mazhaka 1,2
and 3.
About 300 families of
ex-farm workers were evicted from Zinyewe, Mudiki,
Wilko, Tengwe, Chitonga,
Horizon, Bonanza, Meadow, Garuwa, Magonera and
Oldonyo farms, are now living
at Mazhaka 1, 2 and 3 where they resettled
themselves in year 2000.
On the 13th of September at 12midday six police officers from Tengwe
under
the leadership of Zanu-Pf Youth Chairman Kasengu set all the houses on
fire
destroying everything on site. After this incident the Zanu-pf youth
promised to destroy the remaining property in Mazhaka area 2 and 3, which
they later did on the 16th of September. 40 houses were burnt on the second
day and the ex-farm workers are living in the open and have nowhere to go.
The Zanu-Pf youths and the police threatened to do more harm if the ex-farm
workers had not vacated their homes by the 17th of September. The violent
attacks were selectively being exerted on the ex-farm workers although there
are so many people living in this same area known as the game reserve.
Villages belonging to Chizhanje, Chikwenhere, Rusere the Zanu-Pf councillor
and Nenguke families have been spared.
These violent clashes started
because of disputes between some Zanu-pf
officials and the ex-farm workers
with the latter being accused of illegally
resettling themselves in Mazhaka
area in year 2000. Although the victims are
accused of supporting MDC, the
main reason for all this is that Zanu-Pf
members and new settlers in the
area want to deprive the ex-farm workers
pieces of land they got, after
their former employers lost farms during the
farm invasions which started in
year 2000. The Zanu-pf officials want to
create an environment that would
force the ex-farm workers into working for
the new settlers who are too
abusive and pay as little as $ 3 500 per month.
The evicted farmers were
growing tobacco in these farms, which the settlers
are failing to do because
they lack the experience and expertise.
The latest raids and destruction of
property were conducted with the Karoi
District Administrator's approval.
During all these raids the Zanu-Pf youth
were using a lorry marked Karoi
Rural District Council. Some Zanu-pf members
who wanted to get advice
approached the DA and they were given the green
light to evict the ex-farm
workers from Mazhaka, alleging that the ex-farm
workers resettled themselves
in an area meant for game reserve. Sometime in
August the Member of
Parliament for the area Cde Marumahoko addressed a
rally at Madziyo were he
indicated that the ex-farm workers were supposed to
be evicted from the
Mazhaka areas 1, 2 and 3. Another meeting was held at
Tengwe golf club on
the 10th of September and the Zanu-pf settlers agreed to
evict the ex-farm
workers
The farm invasions, which started in year 2000, have been
characterised with
brutal murders, loss of property and evictions, which
have reduced Zimbabwe
to a basketless nation. The controversial land reform
programme has been
condemned internationally because of the style Zanu-pf is
using, is not
working and is causing massive suffering to an ignored group
of ex-farm
workers countrywide. Many people in Zimbabwe including the white
farmers
have suffered as a result of the farm invasions but the ex-farm
workers have
suffered more than anyone else. The sad story is that the
majority of
ex-farm workers are of foreign origin being Malawians or
Mozambiqeans and
have never known any other home except the farms they call
home.