tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92007652118207858142024-03-14T08:53:48.992+02:00ZIMDEBATE!!!PLEASE KINDLY SUBMIT YOUR VIEWS TO mufarostig@gmail.comThe Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-63505314038019726862009-03-30T10:39:00.005+02:002009-03-30T14:50:31.634+02:00MAWERE'S COMPANY APPEALS TO BITI OVER ASSETS!!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/SdC_9VghziI/AAAAAAAABk0/ZxISXZWTXyA/s1600-h/biti.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 261px; height: 337px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/SdC_9VghziI/AAAAAAAABk0/ZxISXZWTXyA/s400/biti.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318962220391058978" /></a>
<br /><br clear="all"> <div class="box_breadcrumb"><a href="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/"><font color="#ca0405">Home</font></a> | <a href="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/index.1.html"><font color="#ca0405">Zimbabwe</font></a> | <strong>Mawere's company appeals to Biti over assets</strong> </div> <div id="article_holder"> <h1>Mawere's company appeals to Biti over assets</h1> <div class="article_metadata"><span class="metadata_time">29 March, 2009 01:43:00</span> <a href="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/author/admin/"><font color="#000000">The Standard</font></a> <ins style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; VISIBILITY: visible; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; WIDTH: 468px; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; POSITION: relative; HEIGHT: 60px; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"><ins style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; DISPLAY: block; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; VISIBILITY: visible; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; WIDTH: 468px; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; POSITION: relative; HEIGHT: 60px; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"></ins></ins></div> <div class="font_size">Font size: <a href="javascript:tsz('article_body','12px')"><img alt="Decrease font" src="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/themes/tpl_4003/img/font_decrease.gif" border="0"></a> <a href="javascript:tsz('article_body','16px')"><img alt="Enlarge font" src="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/themes/tpl_4003/img/font_enlarge.gif" border="0"></a> </div> <div id="article_body"> <div class="image" style="WIDTH: 318px"><img alt="image" src="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/thumbnail.php?file=mutumwa336_630167575.jpg&size=article_medium"> <span class="image_caption">Zimbabwean South Africa based businessman Mutumwa Mawere lost SMM to the government of Zimbabwe under counter accusations of alleged externalisation claims</span> </div> <p><strong>HARARE - SOUTHERN Asbestos Sales (SAS), a South African company currently in liquidation has appealed to Finance minister Tendai Biti to intervene in its dispute with SMM over asbestos sales bringing a new dimension into the fight over Mutumwa Mawere's assets</strong></p> <p>SMM is a company formerly owned by Mawere's Africa Resources Limited (ARL).</p> <p>The government seized the company under the controversial reconstruction laws that subsequently put the entity under judicial administration.</p> <p>SMM accuses SAS of not remitting asbestos sales amounting to US$18 464 595.19; CAD$628 071.84 and R4 515 367.48.</p> <p>In a letter to Biti, SAS director Pariwana Mariemuthi accused SMM administrator Arafas Gwaradzimba of trying to frustrate the SAS liquidation process.</p> <p>"You are aware that SAS has been identified as culpable and liable for the same amounts that SMM has claimed in South Africa from the estate," Muriemuthi said in the letter.</p> <p>"We appreciate that the effect of declaring SAS, ARProjects Services (Pty) Limited (ARPS) and Petter as culpable is effectively to ensure that any claims against SMM by all these companies will not be honoured in terms of Zimbabwean law." </p> <p>SAS said its indebtedness to SMM was at the centre of the Reconstruction Order being issued in respect of SMM as well as the extradition application and the subsequent specification of Mawere.</p> <p>Mariemuthi said SMM was also indebted to other companies owned by Mawere and had used SAS to settle the amounts.</p> <p>According to Mariemuthi, SMM had acknowledged that it was indebted to Coma Transport (Ply) Limited and Petter Trading (Ply) Limited, companies wholly owned by ARPS. </p> <p>He said SMM owed Coma R8 829 704.04 and was indebted to Petter to the tune of R21 701 975.64 and US$89 669.25. </p> <p>"In addition SMM was indebted to Eastern Shipping a portion of which was settled by SAS in the amount of R4 225 000 subsequent to March 31, 2004. </p> <p>"SMM supplied a list of debtors that still owe SAS in the amount of US$6 852 023.98 and CAD$362 163.72."</p> <p>An additional amount of R994 605.72 that SMM owed to Shipping Consolidated Holdings (Pty) Limited was settled on its behalf by SAS," he said.</p> <p>He said Gwaradzimba had not availed himself to the liquidators to confirm SMM's indebtedness to ARPS' subsidiary companies as well as confirming the receipt by SMM of the amounts that were remitted by SAS subsequent to March 31, 2004.</p> <p>"It is for this reason that Ms. Keevy on behalf of the liquidators visited your office to seek your intervention in resolving the issues with a view to winding up the affairs of SAS," he said.</p> <p>Kareen Keevy, the SAS liquidator was in the country last week and held meetings with Biti, Giles Mutsekwa, co-Minister of Home Affairs and Samson Mangoma an Assistant Commissioner with the police appointed to investigate claims that Mawere had externalised large sums of money.</p> <p><br>Mariemuthi said Gwaradzimba had instructed SAS to stop paying for asbestos delivered and Mangoma was not aware of the development.</p> <p>"He (Mangoma) was also ignorant of the payments made by SAS to SMM as well as the advances made by SAS to SMM's South African creditors," Mariemuthi said.</p> <p>"It is evident from my dialogue with Mr. Mangoma that notwithstanding the fact that the externalisation allegations arose from the fact that SAS was allegedly indebted to SMM, no attempt has been made by him or his colleagues to contact the liquidators in whose control the affairs of SAS is vested."</p> <p>"As the Minister of Finance, we believe that you have a substantial interest in this matter to the extent that the state may have advanced any funds to SMM pursuant to the implementation of the so-called reconstruction."</p> <br>-- <br><a
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<br /><a href="http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/2002.html">SOURCE!!! </a>
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<br />CHECK ALSO <a href="http://zimdebate.blogspot.com/2009/03/tendai-biti-is-best-choice-mutumwa_4373.html">"MAWERE SAYS TENDAI BITI IS THE BEST CHOICE!"</a>The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-81872398090080407152009-03-30T10:23:00.005+02:002009-03-30T14:53:32.756+02:00"TENDAI BITI IS THE BEST CHOICE!" MUTUMWA MAWERE<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/SdDArauUTxI/AAAAAAAABlE/0a0FgCyyKTA/s1600-h/biti+2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/SdDArauUTxI/AAAAAAAABlE/0a0FgCyyKTA/s320/biti+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318963012065054482" /></a>
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<br />SOUTH AFRICA - RIVONIA — On 21 February 2009, an article authored by Gareth Moyo under the title: “Biti is not the best choice” published by ZimDaily.com allegedly based on comments made by Professor Jonathan Moyo (MP) to journalists in Harare raises some fundamental and foundational issues that are critical in informing the nation building process.
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<br />I should like to believe that Professor Moyo may not be the only one who has questioned the wisdom of appointing Hon. Biti as the Minister of Finance at this defining moment in Zimbabwe’s post-colonial history.
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<br />If Biti is the only one who is not the best choice then who is and by whose standards?
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<br />Who should be a Minister? What criteria should be used for assigning Ministerial duties?
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<br />After 29 years of control of the state by one political party led by one leader, it must be accepted that it becomes difficult to look at governance in isolation of President Mugabe’s known and predictable approach.
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<br />He has rightly or wrongly set the standards and it is, therefore, not unusual for people to expect new players to follow suit.
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<br />Independence brought with it sovereignty to the people of Zimbabwe. Civil rights were restored to all and a republican constitution was adopted conferring universal rights to all.
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<br />One of the arguments used in denying the majority of the population the right to vote during the colonial era was that the outcome would be unpredictable as people with no interests in a civilised society could not be trusted to make rational choices.
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<br />A responsible government under the colonial system could only emerge, therefore, if the right to vote was reserved for civilised people.
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<br />In all phases of colonial development in Zimbabwe a striking feature was the link between education and wealth to governance.
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<br />It was argued that educated and propertied blacks could be assimilated in the colonial system but the values informing the construction of the state could never be the values of the black majority who were perceived to be uncivilised.
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<br />It was argued that a colonial state could serve no purpose to a people who had no history of institution building. The colonial system was an interest based construction in which the colonialist never saw themselves as subservient to the English government.
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<br />Rhodesia emerged as a company owned by Cecil Rhodes stemming from a charter granted by the Crown. Under the charter, sovereignty over Rhodesia was transferred to a stock company with full governmental authority being vested in the company itself.
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<br />Although under the colonial system it was clear who the state was expected to serve, under the post-colonial system it has been a challenge to construct a new social contract that can produce outcomes that promote and protect a state that was never meant to be of value to non-income and propertied class of citizens.
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<br />Appreciating that the majority of the people in Zimbabwe are poor, rural and illiterate, the connection between the state and the majority of the people has been at best remote and academic.
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<br />The post-colonial constitutional democratic order vested sovereignty in the people, a majority of whom had no defined interest in the state resulting in state actors assuming the same role as colonial actors.
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<br />Under this system, citizens were responsible for electing parliamentary representatives as well as the President (since 1987). The President would then choose his cabinet from among the elected parliamentary representatives as well being able to nominate a designated number from outside the elected representatives.
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<br />To the extent that the selection of the President has less to do with his/her intellectual competence and capacity, it means that citizens who have the right to choose have nothing to base their choices on other than references to historical revolutionary struggles or promises.
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<br />It must be observed that citizens who are financially illiterate are inherently incapable of supervising their own representatives in the state.
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<br />Democracy with no accountability is nothing more than tyranny. The appointment of Biti cannot, therefore, be shocking as there is no constitutional impediment to disqualify him. In fact, there is no requirement that a Minister be an expert in the field that he is expected to preside over.
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<br />Ministers are after all political players who are selected by citizens using the same yardstick as that used in electing a President. No country has found a mechanism for selecting politicians and subsequently appointing them on merit.
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<br />The construction of a cabinet need not, therefore, be based on the criteria suggested by Professor Moyo. It is also important to appreciate the role of Ministers in the state. Should Ministers be technocrats?
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<br />I do not believe that it is necessary for Ministers to be experts rather it should be the responsibility of citizens to ensure that they participate in the governance process by using the different branches of the state to ensure that there are checks and balances.
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<br />What has been lacking during the last 29 years is the vigilance of citizens in holding their government accountable.
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<br />Given the role and place of President Mugabe in the history of Zimbabwe and his personality, it has not been possible for citizens to exercise any control over the state resulting in Ministers being only accountable to the President. Even parliament’s oversight role has not been of relevance in the post-colonial state.
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<br />Given Prof Moyo’s close relationship with Governor Gono, his alleged criticism of Hon Biti’s appointment is understandable. Why would MDC be expected to behave differently from ZANU-PF? If President Mugabe has the prerogative to appoint his Ministers; then it not clear why Prime Minister Tsvangirai; should not have the same right.
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<br />Any change in political behaviour has to be a consequence of citizen action. If Zimbabweans want the system to change then it behoves on them to change their attitude towards the state and the obligations to be the change they want to see.
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<br />No politicians will have an incentive to change behaviour unless he/she knows there are consequences.
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<br />When Prof Moyo was in government, he was accountable to no one. Zimbabwe’s prospects will only be lifted up by the actions of citizens who out of self interest want their circumstances to change and less by the actions of state actors operating in a vacuum.
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<br />The state can only be viable if funded by income generated from the activities of citizens rather than from donations or external support.
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<br />What are important factors are not the skills or experience of Hon Biti but the courage of Zimbabweans to reclaim their future. It would have been more beneficial for Prof Moyo to suggest what he proposes as the options open to Zimbabwe rather than focusing on the qualifications of Biti.
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<br />The inclusive government will have to rely on the inputs of organised citizens rather than on the perspectives of well established cynics. Prof Moyo has made the point that ZANU-PF nominees to cabinet are deadwood as described by President Mugabe.
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<br />What is different now is that there is a framework that has not existed before where executive power is shared and Ministers now have to report to a power structure that is not monolithic.
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<br />This framework provides a unique window for citizens to channel their complaints to a broader constituency and also allows for the deadwood to be exposed much more easily than before where Ministers’ obligations were only to please President Mugabe.
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<br />The country needs the help of all to move forward. It is not necessary that the contribution be restricted to only serve the state. Citizens should use the new framework to build a new system of governance that relies less on the intellect of the state actors but on the interests of the people that the state is expected to serve.
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<br />The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. ZimDaily is not responsible for what they say. Please keep your comments short and sweet. Obscene, tribalistic, racist, vulgar comments will be deleted. </SPAN></SPAN><BR><SPAN class=style1>(HTML Codes not allowed)</SPAN><BRww.google.com
<br />></FONT><FONT face=Verdana size=2></DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">MINISTER OF FINANCE</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">LISTEN FOLKS TSVANGIRAI NEEDED AN MDC PERSON TO RUN FINANCE. ALL THE PEOPLE WHO JONATHAN MOYO THINKS ARE PRON TO ABUSE BY ZANU PF. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NEUTRAL. IF NEUTRAL AND MUGABE IS STILL IN CHARGE OF CIO, THE NEUTRAL MINISTER OF FINANCE WOULD BE BULLIED TO ZANU PF ALLERGIANCE IN PRIVATE AND APPEAR NEUTRAL IN PUBLIC. SO A STRONG UNWAVERING BITI WAS THE RIGHT CHOICE WHO CAN NOT BE BULLIED OR MYSTIFIED BY ZANU PF MIGHT FOR FOREIGN CURRENCY OR STATE MONEY FOR PERSONAL OR PARTY GAINS. WELL DONE TSVANGIRAI</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>CADDY , BOTSWANA </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 05:41 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">GONO MUST GO CAMPAINE</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">lm asking this news site to do us a favour and kick start GONO MUST GO CAMPAINE PLEASE.thank you.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>WP , scotland </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 05:56 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Professor of WHAT?</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">The problem is once someone becomes a professor they think they are above the rest and are better qualified to rule us villagers. Myself as a villager i cannot recall one positive this professor ever did for us. Freedom of expression were erroded below pre-independence era by the so called highly qualified professor who was incharge of the Ministry of Information. Independent media including Joy TV vanished because the PROFESSOR knew what was best for us as villagers because we had never attended university. Let start a debate to find out whether this PROFESSOR was best qualified to run any ministry. My understanding is professors are trained to lecture students not to run ministries. Mark my word!</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Villager yeGrade 7 , Uppertop High School </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 06:20 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">CLAIM YOUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">I agree with Mawere's analysis especially when he states that the President, Prime Minister, Ministers and Deputies must be accountable to the electorate. Zimbabweans from all walks of life must be brave enough and stand up and say enough is enough, deadwood must go! It is about you and me being brave to stand up and challenge non-performing politicians. The system must be improved to allow all citizens to exercise their rights. It's no poit criticising for the sake of criticizing. Everyone has a role to play and only when people understand they can make a difference, then there will be change that cannot be stopped by any politician.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Mandingo WaMandingo , UK </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 07:41 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px"><I>I Love ZimDaily</I></DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Well said.I couldn`t agree with you more,Mr Mawere.This is the only article I`ve read whereby you`re not crying about your stuff that ZANU took away from you.Its high time we Zimbabweans voted people into office based on performance.We should remember that Zimbabwe is a company owned by Zimbabweans.We are the bosses of this company and therefore we shouldn`t call the people that we hire to run our company,CHEF/SHEFU.Politicians we put in office should be answerable to us the owners.We have the power to hire or fire.When your business is making a loss year after year,what do you do? You fire the CEO/MANAGER and replace them with competant individuals.That hasn`t been the case in Zim.We have to do away with this chef mentality.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Venhengo,Ras , Amaven,Kwekwe </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 08:06 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Well Said</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Well said Mr Mawere, hope you go back home soon and help rebuild Zimbabwe.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Zvichapera , London, UK </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 08:27 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">I do not understand you Mutumwa and will probably not</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Mr Mawere not all ministers are political players and chosen by the people. Again I fail to get you when you say ministers do not need to be experts in their fields of work to be good ministers. Which world would do you live in Mr Mawere, you need to have the expertise to be able to deliver as a minister. I have concluded you might have penned your article while in a hurry to attend to some other matters. PLEASE, PLEASE, Please Mr Mawere do not make us endure your half thought ideas. Munenge makangodhumanawo nemari imi vakuru imi. Makaishadndira chokwadi mari yenyu imi?</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>PROUD ex-C.I.O. , </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 08:50 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Message to CIO operatives in diaspora</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Very important message: Please be aware that with immediate effect, you shall be paid US$100 at the end of the month. This directive has been received from the office of the Minister of Finance. We cannot reach comrades Gandanga, College Boy/vekumapako/kenneth mamvura as their phones have been constantly switched off for the past few days. We apologise for late payment of the first US$100, please go back to work on the forums as the money will show in your accounts shortly. Best regards</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Office of the President , Harare </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 09:44 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">MR</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Please Mawere you are bitter about your loses you made from zanu, never forget you where once one of them until you crossed their line.They made you what you are but now you are a bitter man. Gud luck</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Zimudzi , uk </SPAN>: Feb 22 2009 10:40 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Mawere</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Uri right pahuwrong hwako!</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Rombe , Harare </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 12:37 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Mr. Mutumwa Mawere</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Could I please have your personal email address?</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Sinyoro Wenyoro , Port Elizabeth, South Africa </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 07:07 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Mutumwa is simply logical</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">I have followed your articles Mr Mawere and it suffices to say you have Zimbabwe at heart. Narrow minded and selfish people like Mafikizolo should also be reminded that they ruined Zimbabwe and should shut up. His repressive laws such as POSA where meant to fix Zimbabweans who had nothing but pain of witnessing the country being ruined. We are in a new era Jonso, raise up and face the truth. </DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Magugu , Kitwe Zambia </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 08:12 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">You are Ryt</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Very ryt .. anyway lets wait and see lets give them a chance..</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Soft Spoken , Harare Zimbabwe </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 08:15 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">sir</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">he is the best biti iyeye.jonathan moyo must first tell his boss how wrong wrong is he in appointing the same government that we are fighting.corruption and the downfall of zimbabwe.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>edy , chit </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 08:33 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Zimudzi</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">hey wat are you sayin even if mutumwa was zanu pf but then he saw how bad he was tradin then he repend don`t insult the man i support his philosophy 100 per</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>taps , harare Zim </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 08:34 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Finance Minister</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Whether Mawere is logical or Moyo is a jealous former minister and self proclaimed spin doctor, Biti should have stuck to his guns and refused to soil himself with this dirty GNU. Now what we want from him is to fire GONO forthwith, now, pronto without delay. Already we are judging him to see if there is anything that these sell outs can do that will be listened to. I know the evil Bob is the only one who can fire the bustard but lets see if they can make the recommendations.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Brainbox , </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 09:48 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">well done</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">brilliant mawere</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>gono gone , yuropu </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 01:05 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Viilager Ye Grade 7</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Well, yours is a peace of gold. Professors are not naturally talented, they do not have the natural art of most things. Moyo is resposible for all breakdown of press freedom in Zim. He makes me sick. I could not reconcile myself when I heard he's gonna be a minister again. The guy was cruel to the media unless it was pro Zanu. What does he have to judge Biti. Prof Moyo spare us this time. To be honest we dont ke you at all</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Zibhora Zato , Budac, Epi centre ye Cholera </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 01:25 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">proud ex- cio</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">chakazokuitisa ex- cio chii.dofo.can yu tell me what qualifications muzenda had.what about chikowore.Gono's qualifications have brought hunger and misery to zim citizens.Zanu pf ministers.whwt did they do vana parirenytwa.zvitunha muzvipatara.kwana mhani iwe.WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DO YOU HAVE TO EVEN DARE CHALLENGE MAWERE.DOFO.Pindura tinzwe.ka---tsi.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>GONO GONE , YUROPU </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 01:28 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Biti is the Right Choice</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">In Zimbabwean Politics, the position of the minister is not that of a technocrat, but a politician. His/her role as a minister is to explain and sell government policies to the public. And those policies are formulated by experts who should be recruited from organisations such as World Bank and IMF, organisations 'that are full of Zimbabweans'' as Mr Moyo told us. I was appalled by the so called professor's lack of understanding the role of a minister in Zimbabwe. </DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Frederick Chimbidzikai , Birmingham </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 01:31 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">jono & mawere</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">you both fell from grace with zanu. you both ate at the same table with the zealots that have destroyed the country. you are both made from the same fabric, political-<I>****</I>-prostitute-poly fibre. thus what you are no good for anything. mawere is missing his former pay masters not the country he participated in decimating before running to Rivonia an aflluent dwelling area smacks of zanu traits living in luxury plotiing against the voiceless you sordid sacriligious cow. you and jono are just trash, you belong to the dust bin your use by date is long gone so shut the two of you.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>, </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 01:50 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">FOOLS ARE MANY</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Paul Matavire once said Do not enumarate your chicks before the eggs are hatched. So to say Mbiti is the right or wrong choice is very immature- judge not. However there plenty reasons to want to say he is a wrong choice if we consider the job specifications and qualifications required. Hameno we will see. What i know is that he needs to do a lot of home work in recruting qualified and suitable juniors in his depasrtment to carryout this gigantic task ahead of him.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Man Kambtzs , Harare </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 02:00 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px"><I>I Love ZimDaily</I></DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Hapana apa Biti was the best choice ana Jona varikusviba mwoyo ngekuti havana kuluma mucabinet</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>tate , Harare </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 02:28 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">biti wrong for job</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">love him hate him jonso is the most charismatic zimbabwean and the man had class and exuberance and he was a joy to watch even if i didnt agree with all his views. biti is not right for post coz he is too emotional and always looking for fights and if you are emotional you seldom lose a fight before you enter it. put biti and gono here and give them a minute to articulate a point. biti will waste his to emotions while gono will get things said and understood. people beware MDC and dont think that its not incapable of doing wrong coz thats what got us into problems thinking zanu could not do wrong. biti and and tsvangirayi own houses in south africa and have fat bank accounts but we choose to ignore. harvest house all of a suden everyone mdc is wearing designer and driving latest navara. we must not support blindly once again. not everything said by a zanu supporter is wrong and not everything said by mdc supporter is correct. we need to analyse. mawere is a bitter zanu pf akasvipwa nesystem. he should have resigned from politics and followed footsteps of ours truly mr PHILLIP CHIYANGWA vakungodya cash yavo vachityaira rolce royce phantam without fearing anyone. biti mdc zanu we are now one and we need results chete</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>anogona , zimbabwe bulawayo </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 02:33 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">BITI</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Anyone disliked by Jonathan Moyo miust be good.Jona seems to think that Zimbabweans have a short memory.Please we need a Truth and Reconciliation Committee .Mai Sekai Holland,Gibson Sibanda and John Nkomo please work on this one fast.Jona will melt away when the truth and pain he inflicted on many people is told</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>New Ideas Now , Rusap </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 02:56 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Haiwawo Kwanai Mese!!!</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Biti aita sei! Mazuva ese i jus read yo comments and i don't comment apa mazondibhowa manje. Zanu PF inongoisa vanhu vasina kudzidza panyanga wani? Biti aita sei???? atori right coz he is loaded with education. Siayanai naye achatonga mari iyoyo kusvika masvotoka.!!!!</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>fayie , Asia </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 03:15 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Mawere</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">You surely do not expect to be taken seriously with such REACTIVE articles. It sounds you just want to divert from Moyo's view and you get stuck inan akward position of declaring that Biti is the best choive...whch i obviously doubt you said. Sounds like somene clamouring for relevance or "daring to have a different opinion". I dont know but I think its important we rise above the zanu pf way of dong things and that includes selecting ministers. I think you risk losing relevance.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Kwame Buthelezi , KwaZulu </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 03:30 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">I SALUTE YOU GUYS</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">I strongly agree with what some guys are saying about positive and constructive critising. We want leaders who are accountable for their actions and decisions. We can still stand by their side playing our part. I will appreciate if we could have the open debates system in parliament so that we can see who is saying what. I hope we are going to have some thing positive on the way . Guys lets not get tired our voices can be heard no matter what. I love you all Zimbabweans.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Rasmoses , Leeds, UK </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 03:34 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px"><I>I Love ZimDaily</I></DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">renowned economist like Robertson and Bloch vanga vakaipei, yet Biti is a mere commercial law guy, with no known background of economics, whats the difference with what Bob did to take a civil engineer Chris Mapondera to run Zisco, the biggest steel company in Africa, these type of challenges don't need "on the job training, and experienced economist or a reputable Phd guy would have been most ideal, you take a 1st year apprentice to overhaul a knocked engine.......HAMENO</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>PEPEPE , Harare, Zimbabwe </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 06:39 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Nonsensical!</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">This is the polemic just for the sake of it, and let me assur you it serves no purpose; its bankrupt, to say the least. The argument is that because Zim is at an extremely critical juncture, needs the skilled & knowledgeable guys, it is poor judgment on the part of th PM to make such overtly political; appointments</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Nguta , SA </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 09:54 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Africans</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">The Ministries and the Presidency are institutions..Only if you Africans could understand this principle your countries could be better governed...Do you think Obama is a Health Expert, Military Expert or a Foreign Relations Expert, well he is not!, but he knows how to run the institution.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>People , Zimbabwe </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 10:10 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">biti</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">mutumwa's article goes nowhere painfully slow. Although he's got a point that ministerial posts are for politicians, he's probably wrong that biti's the right person. He's a good opposition politician, granted. But now he needs to realised he's part of the gvt and stop fighting it. How can he, with his legal background, and legislative experience label gono's monetary policy as illegal. my main problem with him is he's fighting the wrong battle. he continues to fight the gvt that he decided to join (his fight with gono is just that). if the he and the mdc agreed to work with mugabe and his "worst cabinet in histroy", why not work with gono. concentrate on changing the gvt as promised, not personal battles which he'll mist likely lose. when those guys went to SA, begging bowl in hand, did they have a clear assessment of the amt of money needed to get zim working again or they just added up civil servant's salaries plus 71new mercs with all extras available for the cabinet and the 3 new presidents. there was not enuf time for him to have consulted industry and commerce, or even within gvt (or the ministry) and come up with a write up detailing how much we need. we need someone who can do better. donor funds in part drove us to where we are today. esap wanted us to retrench to create a culture of entreprenuership, kana ndimiwo. biti, please give us policies that ensure viability of industry and financial independence for the country, not dependency on western, or even african donors.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>diasporan , diaspora </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 10:14 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">WHY IS BITI RIGHT CHOICE</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Mawere is just praise singing. He needs to qualify why Biti is the best for the post. The fact that Moyo was a wrong choice does not make Biti a right choice. I was expecting a list of reasons to justify the chice of Biti. Instead he just repeated the sloganeering of Gutu. I maintain that Biti does not have the technical and conceptual understanding of finance. This is a technical area just as health and legal affairs. How can Biti challenge Gono and his deputyon technical matters. How can he challenge the Perm Sec o technical matters or his own deputy from ZANU as well as the numerous executives in the Finance Ministry, RBZ and the cash cows such as ZIMRA etc. Biti just has an LLB general. He will learn as time goes on, but do we need a student or a master at thsi hour.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Lt Col Masoja , </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 10:25 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Mawere be serious !</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Its a plain fact that Biti is not qualified as Fin Minister. You just want to oppose Jonathan Moyo and steal the lime light. After all Jonathan has been a minister before and knows what he is talking about and you know that you can go round and cheat Biti on financial issues, which is what what you are reputated for. I had respect for your articles but now I see you hate and fight anything against ZANu or former ZANU, we know where your bitterness comes from.You should comment fairly. Look at the way US elected its secretaries ( ministers) . I thought you always emulated Obama judging from your articles about him. Be consistent bro.Maybe you think if you support anything becoz its MDC you will be pardoned by MDC for your financial crimes. Stop serving your own interests and be patriotic.Selfishness is your problem , its becoz of it that you are not in your home country. Acquiring wealth through unorthodox means.We are better off without your postings.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Tindo , UK </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 10:29 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">maybe good but not best</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">Mawere you are seeking for a favour on this obvious issue. You call Biti the best choice ? Unbelievable. The best ha-ha-ha !!!</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Con , Hre </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 10:33 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">mr</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">BITI IS THE RIGHT MAN GIVE HIM A CHANCE PLIZ.MUTAMBARA IS THE WRONG MAN MUTENGESI HE SUCKS MUGABE,S USS.LETS WAIT AND SEE WE ALL WANT TO GO BACK HOME GUYS. LETS ALL PRAY FOR THE BEST. WE NEED A BREAK GUYS ZIMBABWEANS TANZWA NENHAMO</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>zimbo zimbo , uk </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 10:35 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">By people 10:10 pm</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">This is the dullest posting i have come across.Very poor comparison. </DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>, </SPAN>: Feb 23 2009 10:37 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">GONO gone whatever you call yoursel</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">My first qualification is being Zimbabwean, secondly I have the qualiication of a human being who can air his views on an open and free platform like this one without insulting anyone and lastly I carry a qualification of being level headed when others like you Mr or Mrs Gone Gone fail to substantiate their facts but find solence in provocation. True to your word Muzenda had limited qualifications hence we all know his abilities and again Chikowore had his shortcomings and again the results are there. I have failed to conjure what you really wanted to put across in your writting because being ex-C.I.O has nothing to do with the debate on the floor. Maybe Im slow but you have to bare with me because there are people like that from your motherland. My worry to what Mawere had said was on his conclusiveness on that all ministers are politicians and they do not need to be experts in their field of work. In Zimbabwe we have and still have ministers who are not politicians. People like Guy Georgians, Timothy Stamps, Nkosana Moyo, Naomi Nhiwatiwa. I am ex-C.I.O nekuti I found some better work that was not as pressing as working for the intelligence org.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>PROUD ex-C.I.O , </SPAN>: Feb 24 2009 05:02 AM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px">Mawere may be after something</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">I am fascinated by Mawere, his articles make a good and interesting read. thats why all you guys are here either as readers or commentators maybe both at times. In his articles though there is a bit of some campaigning to get back into the lime light, I sence a bit of confession from this guy. He slept with the devil then suffered the consiquences. So now he is trying his luck with a new bread of leadership whom he hopes will help him get his said assets back. Apart from the mistrust that I have for Mawere, i like his ideas and his arguments. i agree with Mawere on the issue of Biti as the finance minister and that ministers need not be technocrats but people or say Human beings who are accountable to the electorate. Even dofo rikatungamirira, as long as richiziva kuti kana zvagozha ndinobvunza vanoziva. kana raita basa rouya kuzotaura kuti zvafamba, thats ok with us. Mugabe has so many degrees including Economics, sadly non of those degrees have been manifested in his 29years at the helm of Zim. Surprisingly the odd thing he has done is prove that he is a violent man thereby earning the Degrees in violence during his tunure ari panyanga. I agree with Mawere that what Zimbabwe right now is an Executive which is accountable and honest in its dealings. The abuse of state funds has been the major blow to our government policies. We have some of the best brains working within the ministries but their work comes to naught because of corruption. Biti must focus on eradicating fraud at RBZ and the lack of accountability in RBZ where people fogget to do their jobs and all is let to slide. Biti must use all the power vested in his office to bring RBZ into line. Moyo is a former beneficiary of the patronage system at RBZ so whatever he says its just meant to save his skin. RBZ must produce audited reports of all forex movement from the day Gono sat foot in office. Biti must show that the ministry can function well and rain in rampant spending and abuse of funds even in the local government. biti must now ensure that his ministry is reformed even ZIMRA were corruption and fraud are a daily routine. ZIMRA needs to be reformed and systems must be in place to effectively collect revenue.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>Mbiti , Harari, Zimbabwe </SPAN>: Feb 24 2009 10:11 PM</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-TOP: 10px"></DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 3px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #dfdfdf; PADDING-BOTTOM: 3px; COLOR: #990000; PADDING-TOP: 3px"><I>I Love ZimDaily</I></DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; COLOR: #ffffff; PADDING-TOP: 8px">jonathan you are evil.</DIV> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-SIZE: 14px; BACKGROUND: #272a2f; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; COLOR: #ff9933; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #d8d8d8 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: right">Posted By <SPAN class=anon-comment-author>, </SPAN>: Feb 28 2009 04:52 AM</DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> <P class=style1 align=left> </DIV> <P class=style1 align=left> </DIV></DIV></CENTER></DIV></td></tr></table><br>
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<br /><a href="http://www.zimdaily.com/news/mawere27.6929.html">SOURCE!!!!</a>
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<br />CHECK ALSO <a href="http://zimdebate.blogspot.com/2009/03/maweres-company-appeals-to-biti-over.html">"MAWERE'S COMPANY APPEALS TO BITI OVER ASSETS!!"</a> The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-721526870085990322007-09-04T13:56:00.000+02:002007-09-04T13:57:27.712+02:00SADC leaders betrayed Zimbabweans at Lusaka summit!!<a href="http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1947">LINK!!!!!!!</a><br /> <br /> Tuesday 04 September 2007 <br /> <br /> <br />By Tanonoka Joseph Whande <br /><br />GABORONE – President Robert Mugabe got another standing ovation for capably pulling in the opposite direction of where the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is trying to go. <br /><br />The ovation came, not from those rent-a-crowd mobs we see at airports whenever an African president leaves or arrives home, but from the African Heads of State themselves. <br /><br />In the last 15 years and more, Mugabe has done nothing but ruin a country, murdering a nation and its economy. It’s sad that we are losing count of those citizens whose deaths he is responsible for. <br /><br />Mugabe has literally chased judges and magistrates out of the country, with most of them now in Britain, Botswana, South Africa and surrounding countries. So are Zimbabwean engineers, doctors and other professionals. <br /><br />Many Zimbabwean journalists, in and outside the country, have been attacked; many have gone missing, with others turning up dead. <br /><br />Mugabe withholds food from the hungry citizens because he suspects them of being loyal to opposition political parties. <br /><br />The economies of South Africa and Botswana, countries both whose presidents were in the crowd applauding Mugabe, are the saddest victims of Mugabe’s behaviour. <br /><br />Mugabe has even had the temerity to refuse food help for the starving people and, for years now, has even been denying women access to donated sanitary pads, which are no longer available in the country. <br /><br />As they gathered in Lusaka, Mugabe achieved an inflation rate of 7 634.8 percent. And for that, he got a standing ovation! <br /><br />SADC leaders applauded Mugabe for killing a nation. So it came to pass that I was betrayed in a little town called Lusaka in Zambia. The whole nation of Zimbabwe was betrayed by these leaders. <br /><br />Villagers in Angola, Lesotho, the DR Congo, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and women and tribesmen in the whole of southern Africa were betrayed as well. <br /><br />And they are the ones who are paying for the now conspicuous and indefensible buffoonery of regional leaders. How many of its men, women and children does Africa bury everyday? <br /><br />Dead at the short-sightedness of Africa’s leaders. We are at war with ourselves. And we kill while our presidents applaud. As per their annual custom, our leaders met to deliberate on our difficulties. <br /><br />Africans, always full of faith, bred in compassion and optimistic, waited expectantly. The wart on Africa’s face remains. <br /><br />Our leaders came back home to be met, at the airports, by cabinet ministers and cheering members of society congratulating them for having put, like Pink Floyd said, another brick in the wall, closing out any possibility for change in Zimbabwe. <br /><br />Like numerous times before, all SADC leaders applauded a murderer in their midst. It was betrayal and treachery of continental proportions. <br /><br />Thabo Mbeki, who miraculously succeeded to get all SADC leaders into a full nelson, poisoned the gathered leaders and shielded Mugabe. And none of the SADC leaders dissented or yelled for help. <br /><br />Instead, they applauded the murderer among them, calling him a liberator to whom, apparently, they gave the assignment to kill his own citizens and top it all with destroying not only their countries but the progress of the African continent. <br /><br />Treachery is ugly and that is what we all got from our leaders. Who is Mugabe fighting in Zimbabwe? Mugabe is fighting his own defenceless citizens. Zimbabwe is not at war but lives worse than one at war. <br /><br />Zimbabwe is not under sanctions but, rightfully, Mugabe and his cohorts are. SADC leaders lackadaisically ignore that. For years now, SADC leaders have been betraying the African people. <br /><br />SADC leaders must be charged with negligence, sedition and treason. They always claim collective responsibility, don’t they? Oh, George Bizos, where are you? <br /><br />The shameful betrayal in Lusaka sent totally wrong messages beyond our region. <br /><br />SADC continues to betray Africa. And someone must pay. I am more pained because we were betrayed by presidents from our own region who had gathered to debate the problems in our own region and yet decided to ignore the source of our region’s regression. <br /><br />The fiend, Mugabe, himself, calls African leaders ‘cowards’ and SADC leaders congregated in Zambia to prove Mugabe right. Instead of censuring Mugabe, they promised him money which, of course, they don’t have. <br /><br />A collection of what I would like to believe was ‘a bevy of popularly elected southern African leaders’ gathered in Zambia and decided that what is happening in Zimbabwe is inconsequential; they decided that it did not warrant urgent action or intervention. <br /><br />Mwanawasa made a u-turn and declared that the problems in Zimbabwe are exaggerated, really? African leaders said they would rather give Zimbabwe money than stop Mugabe from killing his citizens and messing up the region. <br /><br />And we heard the regular nonsensical ‘tough talk.’ This time it was from SADC executive secretary, Tomaz Augusto Salomao.<br /><br />In a report, Salomao repeated the International Monetary Fund’s war cry, saying Zimbabwe must undertake “comprehensive economic reforms that should include currency reforms, expenditure cuts and a stable policy environment.” <br /><br />Utter rubbish! Why skate the issue? No amount of money will make a difference in Zimbabwe unless there is political, not economic, reform. <br /><br />The prevailing political atmosphere in Zimbabwe can neither support nor accommodate an economic renewal. <br /><br />Who would invest in Zimbabwe today when property ownership depends on the pillow talk between the president and his spouse? Where there are no property rights, there are no human rights. <br /><br />Zimbabwe needs political reform first before an economic renaissance. And no meaningful political reforms will ever materialise as long as Mugabe is around or in power. <br /><br />The IMF is interested in money matters, which is why they have always bankrolled dictators around the world. Why, I wonder, do Africans so easily forget the rancid experience of oppression? <br /><br />Unless Salomao is only there to mime his masters’ voices, he should just quietly enjoy his perks. SADC leaders left for Zambia knowing fully well how Mugabe, the individual, not Zimbabwe the nation, is hurting their nations. <br /><br />They ignored that but agreed on decisions that do not benefit their own countries or the people of Zimbabwe. And, for what even God would love to understand, they decided to please Mugabe, the one individual who has destroyed not only Zimbabwe but is disturbing the entire region. <br /><br />They applauded Mugabe, the very man who is causing them sleepless nights. How could they? Yes, just how could they? I do not believe for one moment that President Festus Mogae, let alone Botswana, agrees with what transpired in Lusaka. <br /><br />Are Tanzania’s Kikwete and Zambia’s Mwanawasa sure about what they are letting happen in Zimbabwe? I agree that we should all forgive Thabo Mbeki because the man is out of his depths. <br /><br />Mugabe’s defenders tell the world that the Zimbabwean issue can only be solved by Zimbabweans themselves. And yet they know what kind of grip the country is under. Zimbabwe ceased to be an ‘internal problem’ decades ago. <br /><br />Have we not seen what Mugabe does to elected parliamentarians, the very custodians of democracy in any normal country? Zimbabwe needs outside help. <br /><br />SADC leaders will be surprised to find that, since the last time they blinked, Mugabe had turned them into unwitting dictators; for one does not have to oppress his own people to be a dictator or tyrant. <br /><br />SADC leaders huddle behind the irresponsible and reckless notion of collective responsibility. They should not continue to play games. There now exists a serious possibility of an armed insurrection in Zimbabwe, an armed struggle - if you prefer. <br /><br />And, when it happens, the dissenters will not ask for permission from neighbouring countries. It is called spontaneity and spontaneity is untamed. <br /><br />SADC leaders, you better listen; this catastrophe is coming to a country near you. That is collective responsibility! <br /><br />*Tanonoka Joseph Whande is a Botswana-based Zimbabwean writerThe Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-87174420990119404532007-09-04T13:29:00.000+02:002007-09-10T07:23:18.941+02:00WHY AFRICA FINDS IT HARD TO SUPPORT THE MDC!<a href="http://zimfinalpush2.blogspot.com/2007/09/trying-to-assist-reason-wafawarova-why.html">LINK TO CORRECTION DONE BY IZZY MUTANHAURWA!</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=24062&cat=10">LINK!!!!!</a><br /><br />By Reason Wafawarova<br /><br />THE March 31 2007 Sadc Dar-es Salaam communiqué on Zimbabwe; the July 2007 Accra AU Conference’s position on the same; and the reaffirmation of the African stance at the 27th Sadc Summit in Lusaka, Zambia; have all but sent one clear message to the MDC:<br /><br />Africa stands by Zimbabwe. <br /><br />These three gatherings unanimously expressed solidarity with the position of the Government, officially (and maybe rightly) stated as the "people of Zimbabwe". Africa has, three times in a row; in a period of five months, unequivocally and solidly stood by Zimbabwe in relation to the illegal sanctions regime, the land reform programme as well as the validity of the last three national elections in which the MDC participated and lost.<br /><br />That solidarity has expressed condemnation of the Western-administered economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, supported the land reform policy and validated the election results for 2000, 2002 and 2005 as free and fair.<br /><br />The solidarity has gone further and proposed packages to rescue Zimbabwe from its current problems. <br /><br />All this has been against expectations of a heavy-handed approach and hard-line stance on Zimbabwe from the Western ruling elite and members of their MDC political project.<br /><br />Both the MDC and the Western ruling elite are clearly less than amused that African leaders have not lived up to their bidding on Zimbabwe in general and President Mugabe in particular.<br /><br />The question to be asked is why Africa finds it so hard to support a party that claims to be a champion of democracy or better still; why have these African leaders failed to see the alleged excesses and inhumane nature of the Zimbabwean Government? <br /><br />The simple answer that has often been put forward is that all those African leaders supporting or failing to condemn Zimbabwe are either equal "dictators" or simply too impressed by President Robert Mugabe’s credentials as a liberation icon.<br /><br />Some have even inferred that it is all because all Africans are inherently corrupt and genetically incapable of handling complex matters related to things like economic policies.<br /><br />This, of course, is not only simplistic and reductionist thinking but also smacks of gross inferiority complex on the part of Africans who embrace such warped thinking.<br /><br />The MDC has expressed its disappointment with South Africa, Sadc, Comesa and the AU so many times since its formation in 1999 that one actually wonders if political insight and free and fair political space are a phenomenon only as young as eight years; the life span of the MDC? At least judging by the rulings of the MDC on each and every decision taken by any of these African stakeholders on Zimbabwe.<br /><br />Every time a position is made on Zimbabwe, it turns out that the position falls short of MDC expectations and is subsequently lampooned as "unfree and unfair." <br /><br />If there is one thing the MDC factions have always got right, it is the assertion that the problems in Zimbabwe need a political solution. However, that political solution does not necessarily lie in illegal regime change nor does it lie in an MDC government.<br /><br />The solution lies in resolving the bilateral conflict between Harare and London, a conflict that has been given a semblance of multi-lateralism when Britain lobbied the EU to back its position.<br /><br />As the 19th century Prussian conflict theorist, Carl von Clausewitz put it; conflict or war "is politics continued by other means." Marx and Engels regarded conflict as the continuation politics of the powers concerned. In this context it is more than important to analyse all the political aspects of a conflict or a crisis as the Zimbabwean situation is often termed. <br /><br />Here, there is need to find the real policies (not the stated ones) of which a conflict is a continuation, and the policies of the players involved in that conflict. There is need to examine all the belligerent powers, not just one.<br /><br />If one agrees with the policies that have led to the conflict from one side of the conflict, then they agree with the politics of that particular side, even when such policies are pursued through the means of a struggle, revolution or force.<br /><br />Conversely, if one is a political opponent of the policies from another side, then they do not put aside their political opposition simply because the side they agree with has decided to confront the conflict by forceful or revolutionary means. <br /><br />What happens is that one remains an opponent of the policies and politics that led to the conflict itself and not necessarily to the means by which the conflict has been pursued.<br /><br />Only pacifists are opposed to conflict just for the sake of attaining peace through maintaining the status quo and those politicians heading African states are most certainly not a bunch of moralistic pacifists bent on turning the other cheek each time an imperialist blow is thrown at them. They are like every other politician worthy the name; visionaries sworn to fight for emancipation and a legacy of positive social change.<br /><br />They support Zimbabwe’s land reform programme, not necessarily because they agree with the modalities of how the policy has been implemented so far but primarily because they support the politics behind the land reform programme. <br /><br />They support Harare’s position with regard to the Western-administered sanctions regime, not necessarily because Harare is home to fellow Africans but because they fundamentally agree with the politics that led to those sanctions; or conversely, they disagree with the politics that motivated the Western allies who have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.<br /><br />The stated politics behind the sanctions are that they are firstly not economic sanctions but mere travel bans, a fact disputed even by the US State Department itself, if one looks at their March 2007 announcement that they are actually stepping up the anti-Zimbabwe programme through the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act.<br /><br />The other stated politics behind the sanctions states that Zimbabwe is pursuing "unsound policies", that Zimbabwe is governed by a tyrannical regime, that there is a culture of human rights violations, that the political playing field is uneven, that the declining wealth of the country is a result of gross looting by those in power, that elections after the formation of the MDC have all been fraudulent and that President Mugabe is the sole dictatorial individual making everybody in Zimbabwe suffer.<br /><br />The Government, with apparent support from the African family, disputes the stated politics and asserts that the real politics is nothing more than the bitterness of the British and their western allies over the seizure of white-held, not owned, farms for onward distribution to landless black people.<br /><br />After all, they seem to argue; no imperialist goal has ever been pursued in the name of its real intentions. No imperialist army, of course, marches off to war under the slogans "Higher Corporate Profits!" or "Blood for Oil!" on its banners.<br /><br />No, the army marches behind the massive power of the imperialist rulers’ ideological agents-its politicians and their mass media.<br /><br />These work overtime to create a pretext that can convince the ordinary people that the imperialist rulers are fighting against tyranny, for democracy, for the defence of their families, against terrorism, for freedom and human rights, against any evil their minds can cook up or for any "noble" causes their imagination can muster.<br /><br />It is the expectation for these super attractive happily ever after sweet freedoms and liberties that many of the youthful Zimbabweans in the MDC have come to a point where they now consider themselves citizens of a "new Zimbabwe", pretty much the same way we hear religious people saying they do not belong to their homes here on earth but to a new home in Heaven.<br /><br />For 90 years, Zimbabweans were made servile citizens in their own homeland under brutal apartheid British rule and that yoke was broken on April 18 1980. For 27 years, Zimbabweans have considered themselves citizens of an independent Zimbabwe and they have always believed that they are African Zimbabweans.<br /><br />In comes the western money bags, thrown right into the hands of one Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC and we have a whole bunch of youngsters and misguided elderly people clamouring for a new status as Western Zimbabweans, hailing from what they call "new Zimbabwe".<br /><br />In 1992, Noam Chomsky, a prolific and renowned intellectual, was asked by Heinz Dieterich why some Latin Americans had turned themselves into "Ibero-Americans" (after 150 years as Latin Americans) and how a bit of Spanish money could make such a change possible after such a long time of a solid identity.<br /><br />Noam Chomsky replied, "People have a price, some will sell themselves for five cents, others will demand a million dollars."<br /><br />To this writer, it would appear like many in the MDC have given themselves for two cents and it is because of this cheap price that Africa finds it hard to support or stand by the MDC. The opposition has just postured as a cheap outfit of donor mongers bent on selling our birthright for two cents and its simply difficult if not impossible for any African worthy the name to identify with the MDC.<br /><br />Africa, through South Africa, Sadc, Comesa or the AU, has simply refused to support the western politics behind the problems in Zimbabwe. To the contrary, they have openly supported the Zimbabwean politics behind the Harare-London bilateral conflict. To this end they have refused to be mere pacifists blinded by bruises of rebels who come second best in physical showdowns with the police.<br /><br />They rather choose to view the conflict in the context of its politics, regretting what might be considered the excesses of the conflict but never losing sight of the just cause for which Zimbabwean politics stands.<br /><br />In this context, the MDC is right in pointing out that the solution lies in politics. It lies in the politics of the MDC realising that a Western Zimbabwe is not going to materialise and that Zimbabwe can never be bought for five cents. <br /><br />The solution lies in the realisation that the imperial agenda of reversing the land reform programme is not worthy supporting, regardless of the baited silver. It is not worthy supporting because it is a tool of permanent subjugation of one’s own people. It seeks to reinstate our pre-1980 status as servile citizens in our own motherland.<br /><br />As for Arthur Mutambara; the message is very clear. There is absolutely no need to make a fool out of oneself by trying a hopeless juggle between the western money-bags and one’s birthright. <br /><br />It only makes one look plain ridiculous in the eyes of both Zimbabweans and the Western ruling elite. <br /><br />The learned Professor has to simply come home to himself and tell the Westerners that he is no longer for sale and return every cent "donated" to his faction after he was installed to the presidency by Professor Welshman Ncube.<br /><br />It is almost cruel to advise Tsvangirai to do the same because in all honesty, the man deserves the money since he is basically career-less and politically hopeless. This writer would insist that Tsvangirai should desist from calling for more sanctions on the country and should stop misleading his sponsors by telling them that change is in the pipeline.<br /><br />However, he deserves to keep whatever proceeds of treachery he has so far acquired, purely on the moral grounds of the uncertainty of his future. After all, the crumbs did take Bishop Abel Muzorewa a substantial amount of time before we began to hear rumours of destitution.<br /><br />Anyway, this may be the lighter side of our Zimbabwean politics but the serious side is that the MDC; in all its shapes, factions and formations should seriously consider transforming itself into a home-grown opposition party by firstly cutting its unholy ties with our country’s erstwhile oppressors.<br /><br />The sooner those in the MDC realise that their politics cannot be supported in Africa the better for all who genuinely want to promote democracy through a multi-party system. <br /><br />This writer is certain that Zimbabweans are a hopeful people and will soon solve the current problems and shame the vultures waiting for land re-grabbing disguised through the vehicle of freedom and democracy or maybe property rights.<br /><br />l Reason Wafawarova is a Zimbabwean writer writing from Sydney, Australia. He can be contacted at wafawarova@yahoo.co.ukThe Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-37563733740305856402007-07-03T10:35:00.000+02:002007-07-03T10:49:48.511+02:00MESSAGE TO ARCHBISHOP PIUS NCUBE!!<strong><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/RooK8lIs4TI/AAAAAAAAAg4/_jYWQIHGKJw/s1600-h/pius+ncube+2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/RooK8lIs4TI/AAAAAAAAAg4/_jYWQIHGKJw/s400/pius+ncube+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5082887165318062386" /></a><br />We hold you in High Esteem!<br /><br />However, it is more honourable for a people to fight for themselves!<br /><br />Please be brave enough to seek equipment for us to liberate ourselves!<br /><br />It is more honourable that we do the job of liberating ourselves!<br /><br />CHINYAVADA!<br /><br />chinyavada1@yahoo.com </strong><br /><br /><strong>Cell: 0848239724 South Africa! </strong>The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-69587338060850220012007-05-13T10:46:00.001+02:002007-05-13T10:46:52.134+02:00MBEKI: A SCAPEGOAT FOR MDC "FAILURES!" SAYS SOME INTELLECTUAL!<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=blogEntryTitle><STRONG>Zimbabwe: Mbeki a scapegoat for MDC failures</STRONG></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=9><STRONG></STRONG></TD></TR> <TR height=12> <TD class=blogPageDateTime align=left> <DIV style="FLOAT: left"><STRONG>May 12, 2007 12:36 PM</STRONG></DIV></TD></TR> <TR> <TD height=12><STRONG></STRONG></TD></TR> <TR> <TD class=blogPageBlurb align=left width=450> <div class=MsoNormal><?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>By Dr Sehlare Makgetlaneng</STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG><?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN> </div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> <A href="http://www.africanpath.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogEntryID=737">http://www.africanpath.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogEntryID=737</A></STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P></O:P></SPAN> </div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">MORE and more people are facing the brutal reality that the effective national response to </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s socio-political and economic problems is the key starting point in the resolution of these problems.<O:P></O:P></SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></STRONG></div> <div><STRONG></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>Central to this national task is the reality that Zimbabweans under the leadership of their political parties and civil society organisations must organise themselves to have dialogue among themselves to find means to resolve their country's problems. This is the case despite their different and antagonistic socio-political and economic interests.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>Any political party which is in practice committed to the resolution of the national problems must struggle to bring together the people of its country to discuss strategies and tactics essential for the resolution of the national question.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>If the people of a particular country through their political parties have failed to execute this national task, they should not blame people of other countries. They should blame themselves and their individual and organisational leaders.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The political parties of </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> have failed to execute this task. The leading opposition political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has failed to execute this task. It has attributed this failure to the programme of action embarked upon by the ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front to entrench itself in power. It has reduced this programme of action to President Robert Mugabe.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The key reason behind this failure is the lack of serious well-organised opposition to the present political governance in the country. As a result of this failure, the MDC and its internal and external supporters have blamed political leaders of </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> for what they regard as their failure to resolve </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s problems as if it is not the task of the people of </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> under the leadership of the MDC to resolve the Zimbabwean problems.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>This is their means to hide the profound and unique practical and theoretical weakness of the MDC. The task of African political leaders and the people of other African countries through their organisations is to support Zimbabweans in their efforts to resolve their national problems.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">While the MDC has sustained the politics of opposition in </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, few people are convinced that it is capable to take care of the political administration of the society or to govern. There is an emerging popular position that it has failed to oppose the ruling party. Its practical and theoretical weakness has been intensified by its division into two organised factions under the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara. They are referred to as MDC Tsvangirai and MDC Mutambara.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>The two MDCs' lack of leadership and ideas appropriate even to challenge the ruling party, not to mention to mobilise Zimbabweans into action and to articulate strategies and tactics to convince Zimbabweans that one of them is capable to govern the country and to lead its reconstruction and development programme, is unique and frightening.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>They are disorganised and divided to pose any serious, well-organised threat to the ruling party. Despite their unity which is their opposition to Mugabe, they have individually and collectively failed to formulate appropriate strategy and tactics to exert pressure upon the ruling party to see the structural and fundamental need to have a serious dialogue with them.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>The failure of Zimbabweans to organise themselves, to have dialogue among themselves and to find means to resolve their country's problems has led the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to appoint President Thabo Mbeki to facilitate dialogue between Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition party.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>Far from being the victory of the MDC, this development has further marginalised the MDC by demonstrating that it has been so far incapable of impelling the ruling party to see a need for a serious dialogue with it.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>The ruling party has not been weakened by this development. Far from regionalising the Zimbabwean conflict, it has re-affirmed that the Zimbabwean crisis is the national question to be resolved by Zimbabweans. It has re-affirmed the position of African leaders that Zimbabweans, not external actors, must solve their own national problem.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This development has led some of those who maintain that the task of resolving </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s problems is primarily that of African leaders, not of the people of </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, to abandon their position which is obviously incorrect.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This incorrect position has its fundamentalist supporters in the former frontline state of the settler colonial rule in </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Southern Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, the former settler colonial South </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. It is articulated in the Southern African national newspapers.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The Weekender, published in </SPAN><ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Johannesburg</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, in its 21-22 April 2007 editorial maintains that it is the task of president Mbeki to solve </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s problems. Questioning his intentions as the facilitator of dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition of Zimbabwe, The Weekender maintains that Mbeki ''will not bring back 4-million escapees'' or ''4-million Zimbabweans'' who represent ''a third of the country's population'' who have ''fled their country of birth to set up home everywhere, from the obvious places such as'' the United Kingdom and South Africa, to ''the less likely locations of Taiwan, Eastern Europe and the Far East.''<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It continues, pointing out that Mbeki ''cannot reverse </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s brain drain and its inexorable economic slide, nor stem the rot of its institutions of governance. He can do nothing about the social ills that have resulted from </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s meltdown, such as unemployment and worsening HIV/AIDS burden.''<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This position of The Weekender is as if Mbeki is the president of </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> or as if </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> is a </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><ST1:PLACETYPE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">province</SPAN></ST1:PLACETYPE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> of </SPAN><ST1:PLACENAME><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACENAME></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. The point is that Zimbabweans' problems which we are told that Mbeki cannot solve are obviously problems to be solved by Zimbabweans, not by Mbeki.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>President Mbeki has become a target of some European South Africans. Some of these European South Africans are against Africans of South Africa. They claim to be for Africans of Zimbabwe. This is interesting aspect of the position of a considerable number of European South Africans. They are against Africans of South Africa and claim to be for their brothers and sisters of other African countries.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">David Bullard of Sunday Times, another national newspaper published in </SPAN><ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Johannesburg</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, had a published piece, 'Offer Zimbabweans dignity and visas'', on </SPAN><ST1:DATE month="4" day="22" year="2007"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">April 22, 2007</SPAN></ST1:DATE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. He maintains that various newspapers articles have ''described how highly qualified Zimbabweans are having to eke out a living as security guards or waiters. Desperately as they are, they run the risk of being exploited because they are not legal citizens and there's no chance of them filing an official complaint.''<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This is the problem faced by Zimbabweans, not only in </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> but also in other countries throughout the world. It is the problem faced by Africans of other African countries and by those who are not Africans throughout the world. David Bullard argues as if this is the problem faced only by Zimbabweans only in </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Bullard's position is the same position of regarding </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> as one block which is unjust and the rest of </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> as another block which is just. It is the same position which isolates </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> from the rest of the continent in terms of contributing towards the solution to problems faced by the continent or some African countries such as </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. This can best be understood if we take into account Bullard's position that the South African ''government's stand on </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> is an international disgrace, particularly for a party that fought for racial equality and justice.''<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Which political party in </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> which is either now or was in the past the ruling party which fought for racial inequality and injustice? The ruling parties of the colonial </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, not of post-colonial </SPAN><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, fought for racial inequality and injustice.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Bullard maintains the position that it is the responsibility of </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> to solve </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s problems. If </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> does not make serious efforts to solve </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s problems, these problems ''are bound to get worse.''<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">He argues that it is because the South African government has refused to solve </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s problems that these problems are going to increase. Maintaining that quiet diplomacy ''loosely translated,'' means ''we can't be bothered to do anything and, besides, we're hoping the problem just goes away,'' he concludes that the problem ''hasn't and, thanks to the ANC government's spinelessness, things are bound to get worse.''<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>Bullard concludes his article by appealing to President Mbeki to ''offer Zimbabweans dignity and visas.'' In his words: ''So please Mr Mbeki, stop being a pipe-smoking intellectual for once and set up a fast-tracking system to legalise these unfortunate [Zimbabwean] people. Having betrayed them for so long it's the least we can do.''<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">President Mbeki of </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> has betrayed the masses of the people of </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> by not solving their national problems? Really?<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><STRONG>This is the same problem of not critically viewing the Movement for Democratic Change. Mbeki has been used as a means to avoid the issue of confronting the internal dynamics of the MDC particularly its weaknesses and failure to constitute itself as a viable opposition political party practically threatening to assume state political power.<O:P></O:P></STRONG></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It is a tragedy of Zimbabwean politics of opposition that as the leading opposition party, the MDC continues regarding such individuals as its supporters individuals who support the interests of their fellow Europeans in </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> and throughout the world.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It should not oppose in theory what it supports in practice that the resolution to </SPAN><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Zimbabwe</SPAN></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">'s socio-political and economic problems is not within itself, the MDC Tsvangirai or the MDC Mutambara, but within the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></STRONG></div> <div class=MsoNormal><EM><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></EM></div> <div class=MsoNormal><EM><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><O:P><STRONG> </STRONG></O:P></SPAN></EM></div> <div class=MsoNormal><STRONG><EM><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dr Sehlare Makgetlaneng is the Head of Southern Africa and SADC programme at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria, </SPAN></EM><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><ST1:PLACE><EM><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">South Africa</SPAN></EM></ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION><EM><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">.</SPAN></EM></STRONG></div></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-2984373930907439712007-05-09T12:20:00.001+02:002007-05-09T12:20:45.013+02:00THE INTERVIEW BY THEARCHBISHOP PIUS NCUBE!<div><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000>PLEASE CLICK BELOWAND SEE AND HEAR FOR YOURSELF!</FONT></STRONG></div> <div> </div> <div><A href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=bHb_VwTIPm4"><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>http://youtube.com/watch?v=bHb_VwTIPm4</FONT></STRONG></A></div><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> The <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail/uk/taglines/default/nowyoucan/free_from_isp/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=40565/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html">all-new Yahoo! Mail</a> goes wherever you go - free your email address from your Internet provider.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-89998758549538872382007-05-09T09:16:00.001+02:002007-05-09T10:58:15.161+02:00"NO,.... NO AMNESTY FOR ROBERT MUGABE!"by Siphosami Malunga.<DIV align=left> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=4>Amnesty for Mugabe out of question</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Verdana size=4></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/opinion265.16376.html">http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/opinion265.16376.html</A></DIV> <DIV><BR>I HAVE </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>been following with great interest the reports of Robert Mugabe's possible exit from power with certain guarantees of immunity from prosecutions for criminal offences committed during his rule.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The story of Mugabe's possible vacation of the Presidency is certainly good news, but the reports of an immunity deal accompanying that exit is not.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The debate regarding Mugabe's exit with or without immunities is a political one in which the whole nation should openly participate in. The question of Mugabe's immunity for past crimes is both a moral as well as a legal one. It too should be openly debated by all.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Before we can delve into a discussion of immunity for Mugabe, it is necessary to consider just what it is that he would be receiving immunity for. Only once the full range of prosecutable offences committed by Mugabe or under his stewardship is understood can a debate on whether he should be granted immunity be held.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Political expediency cannot and should not be allowed to subordinate the interests of justice and rule of law considerations. I will set out the various issues that accompany considerations relating to immunity for human rights atrocities in transitional societies. As will be shown below, immunity or amnesty for Mugabe and his henchmen for the serious human rights violations committed during his reign is totally out of the question.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Arguments in favour of amnesty</STRONG><BR>It has often been said that however compelling the demand for peace may be, there can be "no peace without justice". This view has gained ground in the past decade, with concerted efforts in many states where human rights violations have occurred on a wide scale, for accountability for such violations. The arguments for trading justice for peace have been motivated by the fact, achieving peace and obtaining justice are at times incompatible goals.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Justifications for immunities have included the fact that, in order to put an end to civil strife or internal or international armed conflict, it is at times necessary to negotiate with the very same political, civilian or military leaders who have been responsible for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in those societies.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>According to Michael Scharf, in such instances, insisting on prosecutions may unduly prolong a conflict or strife and result in more deaths, destruction and human suffering. The compelling need to alleviate human suffering is clearly a pressing one. An analysis of the manner in which several States have dealt with their former rulers who have committed serious human rights violations shows that this consideration has played an important part in determining that amnesty provisions be included as part of the exit strategy for an exiting abusive government.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The cases of South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Cambodia, El Salvador, Haiti, Uruguay and Guatemala where amnesties have been granted for international crimes committed by former rulers in those countries illustrate this point. In such cases, the amnesty provisions have often been a part and parcel of the peace deal between the outgoing and incoming governments.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Zimbabwe is itself no stranger to the concept of amnesties. In 1980, the Amnesty Ordinance 3 of 1979 and the Amnesty (General Pardon) Ordinance 12 of 1980, both passed during the transitional administration by Lord Soames, provided that the there would be no lawful prosecution of members of the former Smith Regime or the security forces or persons or forces acting in opposition to that regime for any act done by them. This meant that those responsible for the most heinous crimes in the 1970's including members of the Rhodesian army, ZANLA and ZIPRA were not made accountable for their crimes.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Scharf, citing Payam Akhavan of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, says: "It is not unusual in the political stage to see the metamorphosis of yesterdays war monger into today's peace broker. Examples of this abound."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>In Sierra Leone, the Abidjan and Lome Peace Agreement had to be negotiated with, among others, the former rebel leaders at peace talks including Foday Sankoh, now facing prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Likewise, Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, who died during trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, played a crucial role in the Dayton Peace Accord that brought an end to the armed conflict in the Former Yugoslavia.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Even during the negotiations of the Dayton Accord, calls for a commitment to prosecuting known perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity were conveniently given a deaf ear by the peace brokers with the Chief U.S negotiator Richard Holbrook stating regarding the question of Milosevic's alleged participation in committing serious human rights violations that it was "not his role to make a judgement" and adding that it was not possible to "make peace without President Milosevic."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Needless to say, the turn of events whether deliberate or not has seen Slobodan Milosevic stand trial in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In Haiti, the military junta led by General Raol Cedras and Brigadier General Phillipe Bamby, which regime executed over 3000 civilian political opponents and tortured many others, agreed to relinquish power in the Governors Island Agreement in return for a full amnesty for their crimes which had been described by the some world leaders as "crimes against humanity".</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>In South Africa, following years of the State-sanctioned policy of apartheid during and pursuant to which serious human rights violations were committed, the apartheid regime negotiated a settlement, which culminated in the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which comprised of a Committee on Human Rights Violations, a Committee on Amnesty, and a Committee on Reparations and Rehabilitation. In terms of the process in South Africa, persons who made full disclosure of their apartheid crimes accompanied with a personal application for amnesty could receive it. Proponents of this transitional system have argued that it staved off civil war and allowed for the "peaceful transfer to a fully democratic society." </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>As appears from above, the granting of amnesty for human rights violations is not a novel issue. What the example of South Africa demonstrates is the insistence on some form of accountability for known human rights violations. The absence of prosecutions for human rights violations must not necessarily entail immunity or the absence of justice.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Michael Scharf calls this a "misconception that the granting of amnesty from prosecution is equivalent to the absence of accountability and redress." Often as occurred in South Africa, and Haiti, the amnesty provisions are accompanied by provisions for compensation or monetary reparation to victims and their families, the establishment of a truth-telling requirement in the form of truth commissions set up to officially identify perpetrators and document atrocities. The proponents of these measures argue that although they may not be exactly the same as criminal prosecutions, they achieve much of what prosecutions are designed to achieve such as, "prevention, deterrence, punishment, and rehabilitation "</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>The Advantages of Prosecution</STRONG><BR>I will now turn to the benefits of prosecutions. As has been shown above, in most cases where amnesties have been granted, it has not been because prosecutions have not at all been considered. Indeed, most societies faced with such situations have had a preference for prosecutions as opposed to amnesties. What is important to consider is that amnesties have not been the logical option chosen. They have been resorted to out of a lack of choice or as a measure of last resort.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Recalling that amnesties only benefit those to whom they are granted, it is no surprise that they are used by those most responsible for serious human rights violations who invariably brutally hold the reigns of power as a bargaining tool for their exit. Much like a situation of "absolve me from all my past serious human rights violations or else I will remain in power and continue to commit them." </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>There are many advantages of prosecutions of human rights offenders. The most readily ascertainable one is that prosecuting those persons responsible for serious human rights violations serves to discourage future human rights abusers from committing them. This ensures that the rule of law is enforced and respect for the law guaranteed. Societies where human rights are violated are often societies where the rule of law has ceased to exist. Zimbabwe is a case in point. In such societies, a return to democratic government must be accompanied by a re-establishment of the rule of law and this is signalled by the punishment of those persons most responsible for human rights violations.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>It is difficult to countenance the restoration of the rule of law without the attendant prosecution of well-known human rights violators. A new regime that attempts to instill democracy or rule of law without taking the necessary steps to hold accountable known human rights abusers undermines the very thing it seeks to build and by so doing assumes responsibility for failing to provide justice and institutionalising impunity. This is particularly the case where the alleged human rights abusers are political, civilian and military leaders. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Another advantage of prosecutions is that it deters vigilante justice. A system of justice that does not ensure accountability or applies it discriminatorily encourages those whom it disadvantages to take the law into their own hands. This resort is understandable. It is impossible to imagine, say, what the victims of the serious human rights atrocities in Matabeleland, and indeed throughout Zimbabwe, should be expected to do in the absence of a formal justice system to address the acts committed against them, but take the law into their hands.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>It will be recalled that in Haiti there were several reported instances of vigilante justice with members of the public exacting violence against the former members of the military regime who had been granted amnesty for their human rights abuses. Similar instances of instant mob justice have occurred in Romania during the revolution, where members of the public killed the former ruler Nikolaea Ceausescu. This resort to vigilante justice should be discouraged.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>However, it should be recalled that where members of the public have confidence in the justice system to deal with human rights violators, they would generally submit them to it. The most important consideration in all this is whether the public is assured that the State judicial system will adequately deal with human rights violators. The greater that confidence, the less likely the resort to vigilante justice. Where a political transition is accompanied by amnesties for human rights abusers, it often leaves victims or families of victims with a permanent sense of helplessness and despair at the loss of the only opportunity for justice. This is what encourages vigilante justice. It is my submission that in Zimbabwe, the lack of prosecutorial measures regarding those responsible for serious human rights abuses including Mugabe and his henchmen would translate into a serious threat to the peace of the entire country not to mention constituting a festering sore.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>A failure to prosecute those leaders responsible for serious human rights atrocities breeds contempt for the law and encourages future human rights violations. This is particularly the case in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe received wide acclaim for his magnanimous speech at Independence in 1980, where he agreed to "draw the line through the past" in order to achieve reconciliation of all the parties involved in the conflict. Although there were numerous advantages to this stance by Mugabe, such as the restoration of political stability, confidence in the political system, economic stability and thereby investment promotion it had as many disadvantages.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The main disadvantage with this policy is that it gave those persons who had committed serious human rights abuses the impression that it was not only acceptable but also commendable to commit such offences, as some of them were retained or absorbed into the civil service and the military often at very high levels. Whilst an attempt can be made to understand the motivation for the Independence amnesties as mentioned above, the subsequent selective and discriminate use of amnesty powers by Mugabe to benefit only his supporters and political cronies, shows a clear abuse of a mechanism that me only be resorted to only in exceptional circumstances.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Most horrendously, the use of amnesty provision in Zimbabwe has done exactly what amnesty provisions do -- perpetuate impunity. The seriousness of this can be gleaned by considering that the same perpetrators of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe have continued to hold official positions in both government and the military. The worst result of the use of amnesty provisions in Zimbabwe has been the continuation of grave violations of human rights.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Following the Independence amnesties, the Fifth Brigade went on to commit incontestably heinous human rights atrocities in Matabeleland in the 1980's. Ironically, this spate of state-sanctioned human rights abuses was followed by a blanket amnesty for perpetrators. What is important to note with regards to the Fifth Brigade atrocities is that the amnesty provisions may have been also designed to cover Mugabe himself and his senior political and military lieutenants.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>According to the doctrine of command responsibility, Mugabe could be considered as being individually responsible as a superior/commander for the criminal acts (including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by members of the security forces including the Fifth Brigade as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence at the relevant time where he failed to prevent the commission of such offences or failed to punish them after their commission. Mugabe's involvement in the crimes committed by the Fifth Brigade can be gleaned from his statements at its passing out parade where he called on it to "work with the people" and to "plough and reconstruct." He is also reported by the <EM>Chronicle</EM> of 18 April 1983 as saying that:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>"Obviously it cannot ever be a sane policy to mete out blanket punishment to innocent people although in areas where banditry and dissident activity are rampant, civilian sympathy is a common feature and it may not be possible to distinguish innocent from guilty."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Yet another indication of Mugabe's involvement in serious human rights abuses by the Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland is his comments reported by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in April 1983 where he is alleged to have said that: "Where men and women provide food for dissidents, when we get there we eradicate them. We do not differentiate when we fight, because you can't tell who is a dissident and who is not..."<BR><BR>Similarly, the then Minister of State Security, Emmerson Mnangagwa, then responsible for the Central Intelligence Organisation may also be considered responsible for the actions of those of his subordinates who are found to have committed serious human rights abuses. This is particularly the case considering among other things, the following statements attributed to Mnangagwa at a rally in Victoria Falls in March 1983, and reported in the <EM>Chronicle</EM> where he allegedly told the rally that the government had the option (which it had not yet chosen) of burning down "all the villages infested with dissidents" and that " the campaign against dissidents can only succeed if the infrastructure that nurtures them is destroyed."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>In April 1983, Minister Mnangagwa allegedly conceded at another rally that the attacks against dissidents had also wiped out their supporters. He reportedly went on to state that those who followed government laws would have their lives prolonged while those who collaborated with dissidents would have their lives shortened. It is ironic some of the reports of an exit strategy for Mugabe have suggested Mnangagwa as his possible successor.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Needless to say, the then Commander of the Fifth Brigade, Perence Shiri, would also fall into this category. It may be necessary to point out that ironically, Retired Colonel Dyke, who was recently reported to be mediating an exit strategy for Mugabe may himself be a possible target for prosecution arising out of his Command of the Paratrooper Regiment in the Matabeleland campaign where thousands of innocent civilians were killed.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>In relation to his own role in Matabeleland, Retired Col. Dyke is reported in the report Breaking the Silence: Building True Peace which cites statements allegedly made by Dyke to K. Yapp and cited in her paper presented at the Britain Zimbabwe Society's Research Day, June 8, 1996, as saying that had an "operation like the Fifth Brigade not taken place, that battle would have gone on for years and years as a festering sore."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>He reportedly went on to say: "I believe the Matabele understand that sort of treatment far better than the treatment I myself was giving them, when we would just hunt and kill a man if he was armed.."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>He went on to say, "the fact is that when the Fifth Brigade went in, they did brutally deal with the problem. If you were a dissident sympathiser you died. And it brought peace very quickly."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>It is indeed ironic that Dyke should be playing a part in the reported exit plan but not at all surprising as naturally he would be expected to seek an amnesty for himself. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The "break with the past" or "drawing a line through the past" as Mugabe called it at Independence, should never amount to "sweeping everything under the carpet" as has happened in Zimbabwe. Following periods of undemocratic rule during which serious human rights violations have occurred, new or reinstated democracies need, more than anything else legitimacy. The primary challenge to Mugabe's rule since the March 2002 Presidential elections has been that it is illegitimate. Establishing a legitimate democracy requires that the past misdeeds of the previous regime are revealed in their entirety. This involves a transparent, credible and fair account of violations as well as those responsible for committing them. By their nature, criminal trials can generate this information comprehensively.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The starting point of accountability would be the factual allegations by the Prosecution regarding the acts committed, including the identities of the perpetrators and the various roles or forms of participation in committing the crimes. The next stage would be the evidence presented in support of these allegations and the evidence of the accused persons in rebuttal. Ultimately, the extent of information a criminal trial may expose includes the nature and extent of the violations, the method by which they were planned and carried out, the fate of the individual victims, the identities of the architects and the perpetrators of the crimes.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>While it is true that truth commissions such as the one in South Africa can also provide a historic record of human rights violations, the criminal justice system has always been the primary form of accountability for criminal conduct. The fact that a criminal trial affords both the victims and the accused the opportunity to tell their story and culminates in a decision or verdict and punishment makes this form of accountability the obvious choice.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>According to US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany, the most important legacy of the Nuremberg Trial was that it provided the documentation of Nazi atrocities "with such authenticity and in such detail that there can be no responsible denial of these crimes in the future." In a statement subsequently quoted by the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia, he went on to say that the trial process had involved proving "incredible events by credible evidence". </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Taking these views into account, Zimbabwe stands out clearly as needing prosecutions for past human rights violations. The Zimbabwean government has not only stifled debate of these human rights violations but has totally ignored calls for action. In the height of the Matabeleland atrocities in the 1980's, the government imposed a curfew in the affected areas and expelled foreign journalists much like it has done in recent times. This to a great extent prevented the accurate recording of the full extent of violations by the media and the dissemination of this information outside the affected areas.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Although the Mugabe government bowed to local and international pressure by establishing the Chihambakwe Commission to investigate alleged human rights atrocities by the Fifth Brigade and other security agencies, it has refused to date to make public the findings of that Commission. The government has responded to the damning report of the Catholic Commission and Justice, Breaking the Silence Building True Peace regarding human rights atrocities in Matabeleland and the Midlands with indifference, contempt and scorn. What this illustrates is that the Mugabe regime has neither interest nor inclination to account for its past human rights abuses.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Instead of punishing known perpetrators like Perence Shiri who commanded the Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland, it has rewarded him with elevation to the position of Airforce Commander. This makes the argument for prosecutorial options of accountability more compelling. Not only has the government committed human rights violations, it has attempted to "sweep them under the carpet" and reward perpetrators. <BR><BR>Another benefit of prosecuting human rights violators is that in most cases, national reconciliation cannot realistically take place unless justice has been achieved. In Zimbabwe, the majority of the victims of the human rights atrocities of the Fifth Brigade are Ndebele-speakers who either supported PF-Zapu or were perceived by their attackers to support it. As a result the human rights atrocities have created a divide along ethnic lines where the Ndebele speaking part of the Zimbabwean population habours feelings of fear and mistrust for the government which at the time is perceived as having been Shona.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>While in the past great efforts have been made by both Zanu PF and formerly PF-Zapu leaders to stifle discussion of these important issues, it cannot be denied that the Unity Accord between Zanu PF and PF-Zapu is widely regarded as having been the capitulation of PF-Zapu. In the absence of an accountability mechanism in relation to human rights abuses committed by the then Zanu PF government, victims of human rights abuses whether or not they were supporters of PF-Zapu remain skeptical of a government that has targeted then for human rights abuse in the past. It cannot be said that national reconciliation in the classical sense in which it must be pursued and achieved had been so achieved in Zimbabwe.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The prosecution of those persons who committed serious human rights violations would assure the victims, largely people from Matabeleland, that indeed the actions of the then Zanu PF regime are widely condemned, not condoned and that the general Zimbabwean society has no room for ethnic divisions or perceptions of discrimination on ethnic lines. Only such an approach would achieve true and total national reconciliation. Mugabe's exit from power should give an incoming government an opportunity to achieve true reconciliation of the entire country, taking into account events of the past.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>A new government is not expected to have any political baggage relating to persecution of part of the population. It would therefore be folly for it to inherit it -- something akin to moving into a dirty house without cleaning it out. A new government in Zimbabwe, however, has a duty to assure all citizens of the protection of the State regardless of their ethnic or political backgrounds. Only by doing this will a new government gain and maintain the confidence of its entire population. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Yet another reason why Mugabe and his henchmen should be prosecuted is the responsibility of an incoming government to provide justice. While a State or government can validly forgive, via amnesty, crimes solely against itself such as sedition, treason, and other related offences, as the only injured party or victim of those crimes is the State itself, it is difficult to justify forgiving serious crimes against the person such as murder, rape, torture, unlawful detentions and other inhumane acts causing great physical and mental suffering to victims. For the latter offences, holding those responsible for committing these crimes is a duty owed to the victim. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>By way of illustration: shortly after its deployment into Matabeleland in March 1983, the Fifth Brigade shot and killed 55 unarmed villagers in coldblood in one incident in Cewale, Matabeleland North. In another incident reported by the CCJP, 52 villagers were shot in a small village of Silwane in Lupane on 6 February 1983, while other examples include the shooting of 7 villagers to death by the Fifth Brigade after ordering them to dig their own grave at Kumbula School in Pumula Village in West Tsholotsho on 13 February 1983, and the shooting of 5 villagers by the Fifth Brigade and their burial in a shallow mass grave at Sahlupheka in West Tsholotsho, the shooting to death by the Fifth Brigade of 12 people after forcing them into two mass graves at Tankahukwe, West Tsholotsho in February 1983.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Five villagers were shot and buried in a mass grave at Egomeni, West Tsholotsho, in February 1983, the CCJP also recorded the shooting to death by the Fifth Brigade of 12 people including two teachers by the Fifth Brigade at Cawujena in West Tsholotsho on 8 February 1983, the burning to death in one hut of 22 villagers at Solonkwe in West Tsholotsho in June 1983, the killing of 7 villagers in Salankomo, West Tsholotsho on 28 January 1983 after rounding 12 villagers into a hut and setting it alight and shooting 6 of the 12 people, including a baby and a girl as they ran out of the burning hut, the shooting to death of 12 people by the Fifth Brigade at Musikawa near Tsholotsho Town in Matabeleland on 30 January 1983. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>These examples are not exhaustive. The question to be asked would be: "In what way would an amnesty for Mugabe and other human rights perpetrators ensure that justice is delivered to the victims of these crimes?"</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>There is no doubt that prosecuting and punishing those members of the Fifth Brigade who committed these crimes, together with their commanders, would provide the victims or their families with the solace that their suffering has at least been recognised and partially remedied. In addition, prosecuting and punishing violators would restore the victims' sense of worth as human beings and citizens of Zimbabwe. Prosecuting violators may also be accompanied by orders regarding financial or other compensation or restitution for victims.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>In Matabeleland for example, many families of victims, through the acts of the Fifth Brigade, lost breadwinners and have had to scrounge to survive. At the same time, there are many reported cases of the Fifth Brigade burning down whole villages together with victims' entire life possessions and at times pillaging property and money from their victims. Justice would be met in such instances by orders for restitution or compensation. It would also ensure that those violators who are prosecuted are punished and send the message that such gross violations of human rights are intolerable in modern democratic states. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>I have already pointed out the challenges that a new democratic dispensation would have with regards to delivering justice and re-establishing the rule of law. The positive act of prosecuting human rights violators constitutes an important signal to all Zimbabweans that the new government is committed to reinforcing the rule of law and assumes total responsibility for this important duty. On the other hand, failure to prosecute known violators engenders feelings of hostility and cynicism towards the new government, which "now possessed with the power to actually do something chooses to do nothing."</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>It is often said in post-oppressive regimes that have not sought accountability for past human rights violations that, once the former opponents of the regime "taste" or assume power, the interests of the victims who have suffered serious human rights abuses cease to matter, and these victims must continue to live with their suffering while politicking and amnesia takes centre stage at the highest political levels. It should be recalled that even with the so called Unity Accord between PF-Zapu and Zanu PF, the plight of the victims who suffered countless human rights abuses was never addressed or advocated insistently even by PF-Zapu as a condition of the Accord.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><EM>An amnesty for Mugabe and his henchmen would mean that he enjoys an extremely comfortable retirement at the expense of the brutalised Zimbabwean citizens while they remain grappling with the suffering caused by his government during his rule without respite. This cannot be expected to endear the new government to the people.</EM></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Finally, one of the most compelling reasons for the prosecution of Mugabe is the need to discourage future leaders in Zimbabwe from committing similar human rights violations. It has been shown that the magnanimous independence amnesties insured that none of the human rights violations during the colonial regime were properly accounted for. Those persons who committed these human rights abuses were not punished. This can only be expected to have encouraged the perpetrators of the Fifth Brigade atrocities to commit similar if not worse violations. Subsequent amnesties for the Fifth Brigade atrocities can only be expected to have encouraged further or continued human rights abuses by government authorities or agents in Zimbabwe as has been seen from the Parliamentary elections in June 2000 and the Presidential elections in March 2002.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Indeed, the serious human rights violations currently occurring in Zimbabwe including murders, torture and other forms of persecution of the opposition can be considered as spin-off of previous human rights violations which have gone unpunished. To illustrate this point, one only has to draw parallels with the shooting of Patrick Kombayi by the then Vice President Muzenda's CIO operative aides in the 1990 election, and their subsequently being granted amnesty by Mugabe following their conviction, and the recent brutal killing of the MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai's election agents allegedly by CIO operatives among other recent cases of election violence.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>There is further credence, gleaned from a global analysis to the view that failure to prosecute violators encourages future leaders to commit similar or worse violations. There is historical evidence for example that Adolf Hitler took a cue, twenty years later, from the Turkish massacres of the Armenians in he First World War. The Turks had received an amnesty for their crimes. There have been suggestions that the failure to prosecute the likes of Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, and perhaps even Robert Mugabe may have encouraged the Serbs to unleash their policy of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and the Hutu's to do the same against the Tutsis in Rwanda. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><EM>On a positive note, in recent times, the international community through the United Nations has taken the position that amnesties cannot be granted for international crimes.</EM></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>This has been the case in Sierra Leone where following years of armed conflict, the Special Envoy of the Secretary- General appended a disclaimer to the Peace Agreement which ended that conflict and granted amnesty for previous serious human rights abuses, to the effect that the United Nations did not recognise the principle of granting amnesty for international crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>The fact that an agreement has been concluded between the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone for the prosecution of those persons most responsible for committing international crimes during the conflict in that country indicates that amnesties are indeed out of the question. Similarly, the prosecutions of persons responsible for serious violations of human rights in East Timor both in East Timor and in Indonesia further adds weight to the arguments for prosecution of Mugabe and his henchmen.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>In conclusion, the granting of an amnesty is in itself an act of official forgiveness for past misdeeds. It follows that it must be the person to whom the misdeed has been directed or the victim who exercises the choice to forgive. In order to be motivated to forgive, a victim might take into account the fact that his attacker has shown remorse and "come clean" by confessing all that he has done. The victim might also consider that the attacker has apologised for his past misdeeds and offered some form of restitution or compensation. It might also be considered by the victim that an attacker has repented and chosen the virtuous path thereafter desisting from repeating the same acts. Evidently none of these preconditions exist in relation to Mugabe and his human rights victims. Who will dare grant him amnesty?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><EM>Malunga is a Zimbabwean lawyer based in South East Asia. Acknowledgements: Michael P. Scharf: The Amnesty Exception to the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, 32 CORNELL Int'l L. J. 507 (1999)</EM></DIV></DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p> The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-81204058296280678742007-05-09T07:51:00.001+02:002007-05-09T07:51:19.609+02:00"MUGABE AT HIS SUNSET BUT OPPOSITION IS IN DISARRAY!"<div><STRONG><FONT size=4>As Mugabe era ebbs, opposition is deeply divided in Zimbabwe</FONT></STRONG></div> <div><STRONG><FONT size=4></FONT></STRONG> </div> <div><STRONG><FONT size=4></FONT></STRONG><!-- /kicker & headline --><!-- subhead --><!-- /subhead --><!-- byline --></div> <DIV class=byline> <DIV class=dots><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://img.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif" width=3></DIV> <DIV id=author style="FLOAT: left"><A href="http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=By Michael Wines&sort=publicationdate&submit=Search"><FONT color=#225577><STRONG>By Michael Wines</STRONG></FONT></A><STRONG> </STRONG></DIV> <DIV id=pubDate style="FLOAT: right"><STRONG>Published: May 8, 2007</STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=dots><STRONG><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://img.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif" width=3></STRONG></DIV></DIV><!-- /byline --><!-- body text --> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript> document.writeln('<div id="bodyText" style="font-size: ' + currentTextSize + 'px; line-height: ' + currentLineHeight + 'px;">'); </SCRIPT> <DIV id=bodyText style="FONT-SIZE: 13px; LINE-HEIGHT: 18px"><!-- article tools - narrow (used with span photos) --> <DIV class=ISI_IGNORE id=at_narrow_wrapper> <DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV id=at_narrow_inner><!-- email article --> <DIV class=at_link><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV><!-- /email article --><!-- audionews --> <DIV id=at_listen> <DIV class=at_link> <div> <div> <div> <div> <FORM id=listenForm style="DISPLAY: inline" name=listenForm action=/bin/listen.php method=post target=listenPopup><STRONG> </STRONG><A onmouseover="window.status='Listen to Article'; return true;" onclick="form2pop('listenForm','300','240'); return false;" onmouseout="window.status=''; return true;" href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/news/zim.php#"><STRONG><IMG height=12 alt="" src="http://img.iht.com/images/articletools/icon_at_audionews.gif" width=12 border=0> Listen to Article</STRONG></A></FORM></div> <div> <div> <div> <FORM style="DISPLAY: inline" name=listenForm action=/bin/listen.php method=post target=listenPopup><STRONG></STRONG> </FORM></div> <div> <FORM style="DISPLAY: inline" name=listenForm action=/bin/listen.php method=post target=listenPopup><STRONG></STRONG> </FORM></div></div></div></div></div> <div> <div> <div> <FORM style="DISPLAY: inline" name=listenForm action=/bin/listen.php method=post target=listenPopup><A href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/news/zim.php"><STRONG>http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/news/zim.php</STRONG></A></FORM></div> <div><STRONG></STRONG> </div></div></div></div></DIV></DIV><!-- /audionews --><!-- printer friendly --> <DIV class=at_link><STRONG> </STRONG></DIV></DIV></DIV><!-- /article tools - narrow (used with span photos) --><!-- copy --> <div><STRONG>JOHANNESBURG: The last couple of years have been exceedingly tough for the Movement for Democratic Change, the only opposition political party of any note in Zimbabwe.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Party officials have been beaten with stones and logs; their cars have been hijacked; their posters have been methodically stripped from street poles. In one memorable instance, thugs tried to toss the party's director of security down a sixth-floor stairwell at the party's headquarters.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>And those are just the attacks they have endured from their own members.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Even more than the Zimbabwean government's frequently brutal abductions and assaults on members of the MDC, the internecine brawls are evidence that all is not well inside Zimbabwe's political opposition, the force upon which the West has pinned its hopes for democratic change.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>As President Robert Mugabe's 27-year rule enters what many analysts call a terminal phase, the self-proclaimed democratic opposition is near its nadir. The Movement for Democratic Change is split into two bitterly opposed factions, at war over ideology, power and prestige. Each has called the other a tool of Mugabe's spy service, the Central Intelligence Organization, and each has accused the other of betraying the party's democratic ideals.</STRONG></div><!-- sidebar --> <DIV class=ISI_IGNORE id=sidebar><!-- today in links --> <DIV class=sidebar_content_box> <H3>Today on IHT.com</H3> <DIV class=dots><STRONG><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://www.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif" width=3></STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=sidebar_item style="MARGIN: 4px 0px; OVERFLOW: hidden"> <DIV class=sidebar_item_link><A href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/news/carbon.php"><FONT color=#225577><STRONG>UN program to fight global warming is target of criticism</STRONG></FONT></A></DIV></DIV> <DIV class=dots><FONT color=#225577><STRONG><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://www.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif" width=3></STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV class=sidebar_item style="MARGIN: 4px 0px; OVERFLOW: hidden"> <DIV class=sidebar_item_link><A href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/09/business/09insider.php"><FONT color=#225577><STRONG>Inquiry expected into possible Dow Jones insider trading</STRONG></FONT></A></DIV></DIV> <DIV class=dots><FONT color=#225577><STRONG><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://www.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif" width=3></STRONG></FONT></DIV> <DIV class=sidebar_item style="MARGIN: 4px 0px; OVERFLOW: hidden"> <DIV class=sidebar_item_link><A href="http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/09/asia/AS-GEN-East-Timor-Elections.php"><FONT color=#225577><STRONG>Troubled East Timor goes to the polls to elect president</STRONG></FONT></A></DIV></DIV> <DIV class=dots><FONT color=#225577><STRONG><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://www.iht.com/images/dot_h.gif" width=3></STRONG></FONT></DIV></DIV><!-- /today in links --><!-- 170 x 60 ad --> <DIV align=center><FONT color=#225577><!-- No ad for news_170x60_article --><STRONG></STRONG></FONT></DIV><!-- /170 x 60 ad --></DIV><!-- /sidebar --> <div><STRONG>Now, with a crucial national election looming, the question is whether the two factions can reform their tactics and patch up their differences long enough to mount a serious challenge to Mugabe - and if they do, whether ordinary people will care.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Some Zimbabweans are skeptical. "They don't seriously challenge the regime," said Mike Davies, who leads a civic group, the Combined Harare Residents Association. "You ask young people here what they want, and their No. 1 answer is 'I want to get the hell out of Zimbabwe.' They don't buy into the MDC."</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Another expert, a political analyst in Harare, the capital, who refused to be identified for fear of expulsion by the government, was dismissive. "As a political party," he said, "they haven't cut the mustard."</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>An unlikely amalgam of whites and blacks, trade unionists and intellectuals, the Movement for Democratic Change nearly won control of Parliament in 2000, just a year after its founding, and nearly beat Mugabe in the 2002 presidential contest.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>By the end of 2006, however, repeated miscalculations and sometimes violent infighting had divided the party into two feuding camps, both almost irrelevant.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>They might still be, had Mugabe's riot police not severely beaten dozens of opposition members during a protest March 11, including Morgan Tsvangirai, the popular figure who now heads the party's largest faction.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Although Tsvangirai and his loyalists presided over the party's decline - and not a little of the violence - his head wound and swollen eye instantly elevated the party's profile in the world press, turning him into a symbol of democratic change in Zimbabwe.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>For the MDC, Tsvangirai's drubbing could be a godsend. Though the economy is in ruins, millions of citizens have fled the country and most of those who remain resent Mugabe, who at 83 has declared his intention to seek a new term as president in elections next March.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Zimbabwe's neighbors, belatedly alarmed at the unraveling next door, have appointed President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to mediate guarantees of a free and fair election.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Most political analysts say Mugabe has already begun his campaign, in his own way. In February his agents began a wave of kidnappings and beatings of hundreds of Movement for Democratic Change leaders - a crusade, critics say, to destroy the opposition's will to contest another election.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Faced with that campaign, the two MDC factions have declared a temporary truce and pledged to wage a single campaign against Mugabe. But with 11 months left before the vote, they have yet to choose a presidential candidate or a parliamentary slate, much less a campaign plan.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>Brian Raftopoulos, a Zimbabwean political scientist at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, says the clock is ticking. "They have to agree at the very minimum on a common election strategy and a common nominee for president," he said. "I think they've got very little time to do that."</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>In interviews, both Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube, the general secretary of the opposing MDC faction, said that they were in serious talks to put aside their rivalry and refocus their energies on defeating Mugabe.</STRONG></div> <div><STRONG>That will be a tall order, for as Ncube says, the two sides are at odds over bedrock issues about the role of a democratic opposition. One is the principle of majority rule; the other is the acceptability of violence as a political tactic.</STRONG></div></DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-32236989502986746652007-05-09T07:00:00.001+02:002007-05-09T07:11:32.428+02:00"PLEASE END VICIOUS CYCLE OF EVIL" PLEADS MR SILENCE CHIHURI!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/RkFX7xAuVaI/AAAAAAAAAUk/OfiAGDPiEHw/s1600-h/Silence.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/RkFX7xAuVaI/AAAAAAAAAUk/OfiAGDPiEHw/s400/Silence.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062424140421420450" /></a><br /><H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB><U><FONT size=3>Tsvangirai's overture is a sobering thought</FONT></U></SPAN></H1> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>The proposition by Morgan Tsvangirai of an amnesty for Mugabe and his inner circle for the good of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans should be hailed by all genuinely peace loving Zimbabwe. This vicious cycle has to be ended somewhere. It cannot be a continuous orgy of retribution and retaliation. Common sense has to prevail from source with the national and political leadership.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>If Mugabe could wave the olive branch to Ian Smith and <I>Co</I> then surely there should be nothing untoward about Tsvangirai doing the same to Mugabe. Smith killed thousands of innocent Zimbabweans not to mention the guerrillas who sacrificed their lives to liberate us. When Mugabe tore into the airwaves on the even of independence with his statesmanlike speech of reconciliation and forgiveness, he was hailed as a pragmatic leader who was a breath of fresh air. I think Tsvangirai is mulling the route that makes great leaders because as he said in an interview a short while ago, no amount of retribution will ever heal the wounds of those who have suffered at the hands of the monstrous dictatorship that is ZANU PF.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Nelson Mandela emerged from the ashes of apartheid South Africa to become one of the greatest leaders Africa has ever produced. Yet the bedrock of Mandela's policy was enmeshed in conciliation and reaching out to the very people who had humiliated him, killed most of his comrade-in-arms and oppressed Black South Africans. Mandela was never vilified but he was lauded as a great man of wisdom and integrity. I personally think that Tsvingirai has latched a gear up his ladder of leadership with a statesmanlike and visionary proposition for peace and brotherhood. Zimbabwe is desperate for that spirit today - of conciliation and tolerance.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Yes the wounds are still fresh and the fire of pain is still burning in the hearts of Zimbabweans, but Tsvangirai is no less a victim himself. He has endured as much pain and suffering at the hands of the dictatorship and he is merely chatting the way as a leader. Of course bold moves always come with at times misplaced recriminations. I am one of those people who in the past have yearned to see bold moves being taken by our political leadership and I should be among the first to welcome when such signs of political sanity manifest themselves in the form of propositions and overtures that would certainly guarantee peace and continued prosperity in our strife torn country.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Zimbabwe today is a country that is deeply divided with the seeds of division being largely sown by politicians who are the government of the day. Ours is a dangerously polarised country today, and it would be a recipe for full-scale strife should no bold efforts be made by future leaders to normalise the trend towards worse disintegration. This is a very opportune moment to start chatting the conciliatory course of futurist politics because the successful reconstruction and rehabilitation of Zimbabwe will hugely hinge upon wisdom and peaceable existence rather than animosity.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Yes Mugabe has presided over one of the worst regimes in our time and overseen the worst decadence during his tenure. But history has told that those who mess up never do it with an intention to clean up because if this were the case, then they would never do it in the first place. However, it is always the duty of others to do the clean up and our country is one that needs quite a bit of cleaning up in the comings years. That kind of national purification will have to start with plugging the source of the dirty that is Mugabe. If you rapture a leaking pipe then you will end up with more sewage on yours hands. Mugabe is no different because he is dragging a lot of dangerous baggage with him.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>People may clamour for Mugabe's blood but they may needlessly prolong the suffering of the innocent citizens of our country some of whom are dying needless deaths due to lack of ordinary medicines. Others are going for days on end without a decent meal while sleeping in the open. All this is because Mugabe cannot be dislodged and will not yield power without force. The consequences of employing force on Mugabe, entrenched as he is at the moment, is a disastrous deterioration and prolongation of the prevailing situation. The circumstances obtaining in our country are precarious and any further slip down the slop will be catastrophic and even much more difficult to recover from. The more threats we hail at Mugabe the deeper he digs in his heels.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Tsvangirai's proposition maybe misconstrued for a fall on the last hurdle or maybe given as a sign of someone looking for a quick fix to the current problem, but that is no quick fix at all. In fact that move will prove to be the largest block on the foundation of the future of Zimbabwe. It should be known that Zimbabwe is one nation and that the electorate is the same that is courted by ZANU PF and the MDC. There has to be a constructive approach towards reaching out to that electorate no matter how divided it is between ZANU PF and the MDC. The people who today sing ZANU PF songs and vote ZANU PF are the same who tomorrow might vote for the MDC. They will not be won over by force but rather, they will need to be reached out to. And that includes their leadership as well no matter how cruel. They have to be shown the way because following their footsteps would be total failure to raise the bar of leadership.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>The Zimbabwean crisis will only take a homegrown solution and that solution can only be found if our leaders start exploring the ways that benefit the nation more than themselves. Tsvangirai is exploring one such avenue and it is a very refreshing move. Mugabe will not listen to anyone and least of all Thabo Mbeki. This so-called South African initiative fronted by Mbeki will be in the sand in no time and the sooner Zimbabweans realise that the better. Mugabe will never willingly retire as long as the prospect of prosecution and incarceration lingers over his conscience. The man knows what he has done and because power has its limits, he is powerless to forgive himself. It will only take the people to forgive disgraced leaders like Mugabe and Co and people like Tsvangirai do have the morale high ground to seek consensus on such an essential national issue. Tsvangirai is simply seeking consensus and the people of Zimbabwe should duly yield it. <o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>It should be bone in mind that Mugabe still has a significant following in Zimbabwe. His supporters are a cocktail of genuine admirers and sympathisers who still view Mugabe as the hero of our liberation struggle. Then there are the crooks that would love to have Mugabe where he is for as long as possible, not because they love him, but because it is enriching them. Of course it would be a loss and painful experience to allow such people to go scot-free and not be brought to book. However, the benefits of allowing all Zimbabweans the experience of all-inclusive and peaceful reconstruction and re-integration into economic and political existence, far out ways the loss of revenge through the prevalence of common sense over animalism.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Mugabe and his inner circle are all terribly arrogant and they would beat their chests loud but this is the time for nation builders rather than nation wreckers to assume the national mantle. It is time for leaders who have the vision to take Zimbabwe into that next level and it will take tough decisions take by humble citizens with the pragmatism to forgive and move on. Leaders need the support of their people to see through those difficult but necessary decisions.<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3><STRONG> </STRONG></FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3><STRONG>Silence Chihuri is a Zimbabwean who writes from Scotland. He can be contacted on silencechihuri@hotmail.com<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p> The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-87847103903797082602007-05-08T09:00:00.001+02:002007-05-08T09:00:21.389+02:00EXILED ZIMBABWEANS PRINT A "ONCE-OFF" COPY OF THE "DAILY NEWS!"<div><STRONG><FONT size=4>Amnesty Int'l publishes version of The Daily News</FONT></STRONG></div> <div><STRONG><FONT size=4></FONT></STRONG> </div> <div><STRONG><FONT size=5><FONT size=3>ex </FONT><A href="http://www.talkzimbabwe.com"><FONT size=3>www.talkzimbabwe.com</FONT></A><FONT size=3> 8 May, 2007.</FONT></div> <div><BR></div></FONT></STRONG> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width=1 align=left border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD><IMG alt="Geoffrey Nyarota - founder and former editor-in-chief of the The Daily News" src="http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/clients/talkzimbabwe/5-8-2007-1-04-55-AM-1919915.jpg" align=left></TD></TR> <TR> <TD align=middle><FONT class=CAPTION>Geoffrey Nyarota - founder and former editor-in-chief of the The Daily News</FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <div><FONT class=BYLINE>Itayi Garande 08.MAY.07</FONT></div> <div> </div> <div><BR>EXILED Zimbabwean journalists and researchers published a one-off issue of the banned and closed newspaper, <I>The Daily News</I> dedicated to covering the current state of Zimbabwe's media on Press Freedom Day. <BR><BR>The paper aptly named <I>The Daily News in Exile</I> is a six-page report of violence, repression, and struggle in the troubled country.<BR><BR>Focussing mainly on the Zanu PF government's clamp down on freedom of expression, Geoffrey Nyarota (founder and former editor-in-chief of the <I>The Daily News</I> and now editor of the online paper - thezimbabwetimes.com) writes about "his experience as a Zimbabwean newsman and his fears for the colleagues he was forced to leave behind." <BR><BR>Other contributors to the special edition are Sandra Nyaira (former political correspondent with <I>The Daily News</I>), Nyasha Nyakunu, (Research and Information Officer for the Media Institute of Southern Africa) and Simeon Mawanza, researcher on Zimbabwe with Amnesty International.<BR><BR>The edition tells the story of <I>The Daily News</I>, from its founding in 1999 up to the time it stopped publishing on February 6 2004. <BR><BR>When it eventually closed in 2004, it had risen to become the nation's leading independent news source, despite the bombing of its printing press, the arrest of its staff, the occupation of its offices by police, and constant harassment by state monitors.<BR><BR><I>The Daily News in Exile</I>carries the slogan "Telling It Like It Is For World Press Freedom Day" (May 3). It carries detailed reports, statistics, editorials, cartoons, and photographs that recount recent and historical press freedom violations in Zimbabwe.<BR><BR>The paper was published by the Amnesty International Irish Section, and is written by Geoffrey Nyarota (the founder and former editor-in-chief of <I>The Daily News</I>), Sandra Nyaira (a correpondent for <I>The Daily News</I>), and researchers Nyasha Nyakunu and Simeon Mawanza.<BR><BR><BR><A href="http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/clients/talkzimbabwe/DailyNewsInExile.pdf" target=_blank>Please click here to read <I>The Daily News In Exile</I> in PDF format</A><BR></div><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail/uk/taglines/default/nowyoucan/spam_1gb/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=40565/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html">Inbox full of unwanted email?</a> Get leading protection and 1GB storage with All New Yahoo! Mail.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-40482220114780533002007-05-07T07:51:00.001+02:002007-05-07T07:51:02.035+02:00"More journalists persecuted while we talk endlessly !" Geoff Nyarota.<TABLE class=contentpaneopen> <TBODY> <TR> <TD vAlign=top colSpan=2> <div><SPAN><A href="http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=857&Itemid=44"><FONT size=1>http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=857&Itemid=44</FONT></A></SPAN></div> <div><SPAN></SPAN> </div> <div><SPAN></SPAN> </div> <div><SPAN>Presentation by Geoffrey Nyarota, Managing Editor of The Zimbabwe Times.com in Medellin, Colombia, on Friday May 4, on the occasion of the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day.</SPAN></div><SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>I WISH to start by saying, "Gracias", to UNESCO for extending an invitation and for availing me the opportunity to participate in this very important forum on the momentous occasion of the commemoration of World Press freedom Day.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>I was requested to prepare a presentation for this session of the conference which addresses the important issue of what action should be taken to promote the safety of journalists. </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Having made the necessary preparation, I was advised, much to my dismay, just before the beginning of the session that, in making their presentations, panelists would be restricted to only five minutes each in the interests of time. It is not possible for me to compress that presentation into five minutes, while doing full justice to an issue which touches on the very survival of members of my profession. I am therefore putting my prepared presentation aside in order to make a short statement on a matter that I believe to be of crucial importance. </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>If you detect a certain frustration in my statement your observation will be quite accurate. I am going to be deliberately provocative, though. I will, however, do my very best, Madam Chair (Catherine Gicheru of Kenya), to respect your time restriction.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>As a rule, journalists are fascinated by statistics. We always seek to impress with our profound knowledge of statistical data, much of it downloaded from the Internet moments before we show it off. </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>I will cite an example. I will dazzle you with shocking statistics about my country. Zimbabwe attained nationhood as an independent state in 1980. We inherited from our former colonial rulers a country that was rich and prosperous, although it was emerging for a protracted period of guerilla warfare and international economic sanctions. Our immediate challenge was to rebuild our war-torn nation, while restoring it to peace, dignity, full democracy and prosperity. We were determined to achieve success.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Our new leader, Mr Robert Mugabe, was a man of rare qualities and determination. We regarded him as a national hero. On the international scene he was held in equally high esteem as a world statesman. As I stand before this august gathering today, some of those early ideals, expectations and optimistic objectives are now confined to the annals of our short history. The Zimbabwe story has become one of tragedy and suffering.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Today an estimated 3 million of Zimbabwe's population of 14, 5 million live outside their country as economic and political refugees. They will be found in large numbers in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and further afield. </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>The majority of citizens, who remain inside the country, live in abject poverty. Through the poor economic planning of the same Mr Mugabe's government, they now experience serious shortages of essential commodities, such as basic food. There is a serious shortage of foreign currency to import petroleum products. As a result there is a thriving black market for both foreign currency and for petrol. The official rate of exchange is one US dollar to $250 Zimbabwe dollars. On the black market, where even cabinet ministers conduct business, the amount currently fluctuates between $2 500 and $3 000. It may be of interest to you to know that 27 years ago the Zimbabwean currency was slightly stronger than the US dollar.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>More statistics the rate of unemployment currently stands at more than 80 percent, while at more than 2 300 percent Zimbabwe's rate of inflation is the highest in the world. The second highest inflation is that of Iraq, a country at war for the past four years. Even then, I believe Iraq's rate of inflation is well below 50 percent.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>More than 20 000 innocent Zimbabweans were massacred in an orgy of violence unleashed by government in what was early evidence of Mr Mugabe's intolerance to opposing political views. Meanwhile, in the same spirit of intolerance, four newspapers have been banned by the government, including The Daily News, the newspaper of which I was the founding editor back in 1999. Now, for a country that was destined for peace and prosperity only 27 years ago, these are, indeed shocking statistics. </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>But my question to you is, "How many among you have ever stopped to think what the closure of newspaper actually entails in terms of human suffering."</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>But before I put that question, let me state that when I leave this conference, one very brief statement will be printed indelibly in my mind. It was a statement made by Mr Julio Munoz, executive director of the Inter-American Press Association, IAPA.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Speaking in the session immediately before this one he said: "More action, less rhetoric."</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Brief statement, profound meaning.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Journalists are trained and paid to write. I have since discovered that we also love to talk just like the politicians, whose rambling speeches we so love to despise. Over the past two decades I have attended many media conferences. At these conferences we have dedicated and re-dedicated ourselves to continuing to wage the campaign for press freedom and democracy. But authoritarian politicians have since discovered that we are mere talkers. They explore that weakness to their benefit and to our utter undoing. </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>In my book, Against the Grain, I named Chapter 12, "The sword is mightier than the pen", a cynical play with the famous saying, "The pen is mightier that the sword." I have become skeptical about that.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>As I stand before you, I am living testimony to the insecurity and vulnerability of journalists in my part of the world. If the situation of press freedom in my country was free I would be back in Zimbabwe today. I would be celebrating the run-away success of the award-winning Daily News with the paper's staff and with it's readers. Instead I live in exile.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Not only was the paper's printing press bombed; the paper itself was banned. The paper's journalists were harassed and arrested on spurious charges. As the editor I was arrested several times. I was publicly declared an enemy of the state and received death threats. An assassin was hired to execute me. Fortunately, his conscience got the better of him. The paper was very effectively infiltrated by government agents. I was eventually driven into exile.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>People tell me, now that it's no longer there, that they now realize or appreciate what a crucial role The Daily News played in the campaign to restore democracy to Zimbabwe. Sometimes mankind does not appreciate the value of freedom until that freedom is taken away. More sadly, rarely do professional colleagues, friends and those of my compatriots that I communicate with ever to stop to ask how I survive in the Diaspora. They somehow assume that the United States has some mechanism that automatically guarantees the sustenance of editors or other journalists arriving on its shores after fleeing from the ravages of one Third World dictator or another.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>But, let me assure you, no journalist from the Third World should arrive at The New York Times or other US mainstream publication with a starry-eyed expectation to be shown to their new desk just because they are refugees fleeing from persecution. Many of these papers say they are cutting down on editorial staff, anyway. When this truth eventually dawned on me I hit on an enterprising idea launch a Zimbabwe-based news website for the benefit of the millions earlier referred to and of those Zimbabweans in the homeland who are fortunate enough to have access to the Internet. Such venture would hopefully also create gainful occupation for some of those jobless or grossly underpaid journalists still in the country.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>When I attempted to canvass for sponsorship for what I considered to be a worthwhile venture in the national interest, I was in for disappointment. I was told in more than one case that to qualify for any assistance I would have to be based back in the country. </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>I could not believe my ears.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Undaunted the project proceeded, courtesy of the charitable intervention of patriotic and progressive friends. Much to my wife's consternation, our own meager family resources have constantly been exploited to ensure that our correspondents inside Zimbabwe are adequately compensated for their enterprise and courage.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>The closure of The Daily News entailed loss of employment for more than 300</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>bread- winners. But how many of you gathered here today have ever proceeded</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>beyond the statistics to consider what this instant loss of income entails; what it </SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>means to be suddenly without income to pay for shelter, for food for the family,</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>for transport, for clothing or for school fees for the children?</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"> </div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Cynically, this situation arises, not because the journalist has failed to perform in</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>his or her job, but because he or she has been excellent or outstanding, much to</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>the chagrin of a non-performing ruling elite. We are talking here about loss of</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>income, not just for one month or so but, in the most extreme cases, for more</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>than three years now.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Many of those journalists who have left the country now survive by working in</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>menial jobs, far removed from the hustle and bustle of the newsroom. Instead,</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>some now take care of patients in homes for the aged. Not only does this break</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>the back of once powerful journalists; it also breaks their proud spirit. How many</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>of you here today have ever stopped to consider what it means to the spouse or</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>the children when the head of a family is arrested, tortured, jailed or murdered? </SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>To me these are the real issues of safety of journalists. Is there safety after persecution.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe continues to inflict anguish and injury on those</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>journalists who still go about discharging their lawful duty while working in</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Zimbabwe's shrinking independent press. Over the past two months one</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>journalist, Edward Chamboko was murdered. This is the first time a journalist</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>has been killed in Zimbabwe. Two others, Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, the award-</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>winning photographer of the United States-based The Zimbabwe Times, and Gift</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Phiri, a correspondent for the United Kingdom-based The Zimbabwean were</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>arrested. Both were severely assaulted while in police custody.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>The large number of internet-based Zimbabwean publications now flourishing on</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>the internet bears testimony to the indomitable spirit of the country's journalists</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>in the face of remarkable hardship and persecution.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe continues to willfully subject journalists to torture with</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Total impunity and arrogant disdain. Since I attended my first media conference</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>More than 20 years ago countless resolutions have been passed by various media</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>organisations. Meanwhile, the state of insecurity among the enterprising and</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>valiant journalists of my country has actually deteriorated significantly.</SPAN></div><SPAN> </SPAN> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. </SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN> </SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN>(Geoffrey Nyarota is the laureate in 2002 of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award. This year' award was presented posthumously on wednesday to Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist who was gunned down in cold blood in October 2006. Nyarota has won nine other international journalism awards, including the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award (2002), the Media Institute of Southern Africa's Press Freedom Award (2001), the Commonwealth Press Union's Terry Pierce-Goulding Memorial Award (1989) and the National Association of Black Journalists of America's Percy Qoboza Memorial Award (1989 and 2004).)</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN></SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#003366 size=3><A href="http://www.thezimbabwe.proboards92.com/index.cgi?action=login" target=_blank><STRONG>JOIN THE DEBATE IN THE FORUM</STRONG></A></FONT></SPAN></div></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-63848261754224576072007-05-06T11:20:00.001+02:002007-05-06T11:20:36.362+02:00"HAS ZIMBABWE PASSED THE TIPPING POINT?"<DIV class=story-headline><STRONG><FONT size=4>Zimbabwe: "We Have Reached the Tipping Point"</FONT></STRONG></DIV><FONT size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 80%"> </SPAN><BR></FONT> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=180 align=right border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD><FONT size=2><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://allafrica.com/img/static/s_trans.gif" width=7 border=0></FONT></TD> <TD align=middle><A href="http://allafrica.com/" target=_blank><FONT size=2></FONT></A></TD></TR> <TR> <TD colSpan=2><FONT size=2><IMG height=7 alt="" src="http://allafrica.com/img/static/s_trans.gif" width=1 border=0></FONT></TD></TR> <TR> <TD rowSpan=2><FONT size=2><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://allafrica.com/img/static/s_trans.gif" width=7 border=0></FONT></TD> <TD align=middle> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=180 bgColor=#e8e8ff border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD vAlign=top align=left width=10 height=10><FONT size=2><IMG height=10 src="http://allafrica.com/img/curnw10_2_ffffff_e8e8ff_e8e8ff.gif" width=10 border=0></FONT></TD> <TD bgColor=#e8e8ff><FONT size=2></FONT></TD> <TD vAlign=top align=right width=10 height=10><FONT size=2><IMG height=10 src="http://allafrica.com/img/curne10_2_ffffff_e8e8ff_e8e8ff.gif" width=10 border=0></FONT></TD></TR> <TR> <TD bgColor=#e8e8ff><FONT size=2><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://allafrica.com/img/static/s_trans.gif" width=1 border=0></FONT> </TD> <TD vAlign=top align=left width=160 bgColor=#e8e8ff><!-- left --><!-- text goes here --> <DIV class=small-headline> </DIV></TD> <TD bgColor=#e8e8ff><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://allafrica.com/img/static/s_trans.gif" width=1 border=0></TD></TR> <TR> <TD vAlign=bottom align=left width=10 height=10><IMG height=10 src="http://allafrica.com/img/cursw10_2_ffffff_e8e8ff_e8e8ff.gif" width=10 border=0></TD> <TD bgColor=#e8e8ff><IMG height=1 alt="" src="http://allafrica.com/img/static/s_trans.gif" width=1 border=0></TD> <TD vAlign=bottom align=right width=10 height=10><IMG height=10 src="http://allafrica.com/img/curse10_2_ffffff_e8e8ff_e8e8ff.gif" width=10 border=0></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR> <TR> <TD colSpan=2><IMG height=7 alt="" src="http://allafrica.com/img/static/s_trans.gif" width=1 border=0></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <DIV class=story-dateline><A class=blue href="http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=allAfrica.com&passed_location=Washington,%20DC#detail">allAfrica.com</A></DIV> <DIV class=story-dateline> </DIV> <DIV class=story-dateline><SPAN class=story-kind>INTERVIEW</SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=story-dateline><SPAN class=story-kind></SPAN><BR>5 May 2007</DIV> <DIV class=story-dateline><BR><SPAN class=story-posted-date>Posted to the web 5 May 2007</SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=story-dateline><SPAN class=story-posted-date></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV class=story-writer>Washington, DC</DIV> <DIV class=story-writer> </DIV> <DIV class=story-writer><A href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200705050060.html?viewall=1">http://allafrica.com/stories/200705050060.html?viewall=1</A></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>Democracy advocates in southern Africa have been posing the question recently: When does Zimbabwe reach a "tipping point", where popular opposition to the regime of aging president Robert Mugabe is greater than the government forces arrayed against it. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>A delegation of political and civil society leaders who have been visiting the United Nations and Washington, DC says that time has come. They accuse the government of intensifying a campaign of violence against opponents, of accelerating arbitrary detentions and abductions and of exacerbating a humanitarian crisis that has given Zimbabwe the world's lowest life expectancy. </EM></DIV> <DIV align=center valign="middle"> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 align=right border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align=right> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="http://ads.allafrica.com/adx.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript type=text/javascript> <!-- if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ','; phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11); var str = "<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src='"; str += "http://ads.allafrica.com/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random; str += "&what=en,_inset,_zimbabwe,-nonstory,en,_inset,_conflict,-nonstory|en,_inset,_ros,-nonstory"; str += "&exclude=" + document.phpAds_used; str += "&source=en,_inset,_zimbabwe,-nonstory,en,_inset,_conflict,-nonstory|en,_inset,_ros,-nonstory"; if (document.referrer) str += "&referer=" + escape(document.referrer); str += "'><" + "/script>"; document.write (str); //--> </SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="http://ads.allafrica.com/adjs.php?n=003846828&what=en,_inset,_zimbabwe,-nonstory,en,_inset,_conflict,-nonstory|en,_inset,_ros,-nonstory&exclude=,&source=en,_inset,_zimbabwe,-nonstory,en,_inset,_conflict,-nonstory|en,_inset,_ros,-nonstory&referer=http%3A//allafrica.com/stories/200705050060.html%3Fpage%3D4" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> <A href="http://ads.allafrica.com/adclick.php?bannerid=140&zoneid=0&source=en%2C_inset%2C_zimbabwe%2C-nonstory%2Cen%2C_inset%2C_conflict%2C-nonstory%7Cen%2C_inset%2C_ros%2C-nonstory&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fallafrica.com%2Fcommerce%2Fafrica2007%2F" target=_blank><IMG title="Africa 2007" height=160 alt="Africa 2007" src="http://ads.allafrica.com/adimage.php?filename=2k7_inset.gif&contenttype=gif" width=180 border=0></A> <DIV id=beacon_140 style="LEFT: 0px; VISIBILITY: hidden; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 0px"><IMG style="WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px" height=0 alt="" src="http://ads.allafrica.com/adlog.php?bannerid=140&clientid=82&zoneid=0&source=en%2C_inset%2C_zimbabwe%2C-nonstory%2Cen%2C_inset%2C_conflict%2C-nonstory%7Cen%2C_inset%2C_ros%2C-nonstory&block=0&capping=0&cb=c6286285ea952a18b7e08a0e10e3e7ca" width=0></DIV><NOSCRIPT> <a href="http://ads.allafrica.com/adclick.php?n=pzh6bzx9e" target="_blank"> <img src="http://ads.allafrica.com/adview.php?what=en,_inset,_zimbabwe,-nonstory,en,_inset,_conflict,-nonstory|en,_inset,_ros,-nonstory&n=pzh6bzx9e&source=en,_inset,_zimbabwe,-nonstory,en,_inset,_conflict,-nonstory|en,_inset,_ros,-nonstory" border="0" alt=""/> </a> </NOSCRIPT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>With 83-year-old Mugabe planning to run again in presidential elections next year, they are appealing for international pressure to support the internal pro-democracy struggle. Members of the group say they find it inexplicable that African leaders have failed to take a strong stand on Zimbabwe in the context of African Union commitments to political and economic reforms on the continent. They say they are angry that SADC, the southern African regional organization, declined to censure Mugabe during its March summit, which followed a brutal crackdown on government critics. They say they are particularly dismayed that neighboring South Africa, whose quest for democracy was aided by sanctions against the former white government - and whose president was charged by SADC with mediating the Zimbabwe crisis - has not taken a firmer stand for change. And they say they are saddened that African Americans, who they feel should identify with their struggle, are perceived by democracy activists in Zimbabwe as apologists for Mugabe. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>The delegation included Deputy International Relations Secretary Grace Kwinjeh of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main political opposition; National Constitutional Assembly Chairman Lovemore Madhuku; Otto Saki of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights; and Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition National Coordinator Jacob Mafume. They were accompanied by Isabella Matambandadzo, program manager for Zimbabwe of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and former executive director of the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>After meetings with human rights groups and other NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and members of the U.S. Congress, the group participated in a lively seminar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington titled "Keeping Democratic Hopes Alive Amid Rising Repression." Participants described the events of Sunday, March 11 as a pivotal moment. About 50 people were beaten and arrested en route to a prayer meeting sponsored by the Christian Alliance, an ecumenical organization described as an effort by religious organizations to cooperate in resolving social and economic problems and to promote justice. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>Zimbabwe 's economy is in desperate straits. The International Monetary Fund says the annual inflation rate, already a world record, neared 3000% in February. Last month the Fund revised its inflation projections to 5000% by year end. Unemployment runs between 80 and 90 per cent. A severe drought has further exacerbated the suffering, as hunger mounts. Due in part to an uncontrolled HIV epidemic, life expectancy averages 34 for women and 37 for men. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>The country's media have long been shackled, and the pressure appears to be growing. Blogger and web analyst <A href="http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1370">Ethan Zukerman wrote on April 5</A> about the murder of a prominent journalist following his March 11 reporting. "I'm sad to report a tragic reminder of just how dangerous journalism in Zimbabwe can be. <A href="http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/rwbonChikomba050407.htm">Edward Chikomba</A>, a freelance cameraman, who frequently worked for state-controlled ZBC (the sole terrestrial television network in Zimbabwe) has been found <A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6529887.stm">beaten to death</A> on a roadside 50km outside of Harare. Chikomba is believed to be one of the cameramen who shot footage of Morgan Tsvangarai emerging from the courthouse showing evidence of his injuries while in police custody for Mighty Movies Zimbabwe, a production company that sells footage to international broadcasters .It's a good bet that his journalistic activities were a major factor in his death as Zimbabwe is in the middle of a sometimes violent crackdown on independent journalism. Gift Phiri of The Zimbabwean has been in custody since April 1st, charged with practicing journalism illegally. Luke Tamborinyoka, former editor of the defunct Daily News, has been hospitalized under court orders since March 30th, after losing consciousness during his trial - he'd been arrested in the March 28 raid on MDC headquarters and severely beaten in police custody." </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>On May 4, World Press Freedom Day, four media organizations in Zimbabwe issued a <A href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200705040433.html">statement</A> saying: The widely condemned Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Public Order and Security Act and the Broadcasting Services Act, continue to be used with impunity to muzzle the media and harass journalists The intimidation, harassment and unlawful arrests, detentions and torture of journalists going about their professional duties continue unabated As we mark this day, hundreds of journalists and media workers have been thrown into the streets following the closure of The Daily News, Daily News on Sunday, The Weekly Times and The Tribune. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>The crackdown appears to be producing an unintended effect - a widespread sense that the government has gone too far and that the moment has come to take major risks to oust it. "Analysts have long been forecasting that the next step in Zimbabwe's political development will be an alliance between opposition political parties and civic and church groups to form something equivalent to the mass democratic movement, which took over the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa after the African National Congress was banned and exiled," wrote Sarah Dlodlowhich of the <A href="http://www.iwpr.net/">Institute for War and Peace Reporting </A> on March 21. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>Women have been at the forefront of the rising protests. Two years ago, dozens of marchers from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) were arrested in Zimbabwe's capital Harare under a sign saying, "The Power of Love can conquer the Love of Power". Six weeks later over 100 Woza members holding a peace vigil were arrested. <A href="http://www.blackprof.com/archives/2006/03/bella_matambanadzo.html">Blogger Daniel Moshenberg</A> last year quoted a Woza press release on International Women's Day describing police action against them: "In Bulawayo, 174 women, 7 men and 14 babies were arrested and in Harare, an estimated 242 women and 5 babies were arrested, many of whom spent more than three days in custody." </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><EM>On May 1, AllAfrica's Francois Gouahinga and Yudaya Mawanda talked to <STRONG>Grace Kwinjeh </STRONG>and <STRONG>Isabella Matambandadzo</STRONG>, who stayed in Washington a few days later than the other delegation members. </EM></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Kwinjeh: </STRONG>The purpose of the trip was to highlight the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. The situation did not really start on 11 th of March but in February, when President Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC tried to launch his presidential campaign. He was stopped, and after that there was a ban on all political rallies for three months in many of the big cities. [Even] before the ban it had been difficult to meet. I am one of those who had been arrested several times before that for holding what they call "illegal" demonstrations under the securities laws.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>But March 11 th was a dramatization of a situation that was bad already, in the sense that the kind of brutality we experienced was beyond anything that we had psychologically prepared ourselves for. Prayer meetings in Zimbabwe are not governed by the security laws. You can meet to pray anywhere, any religion. There's freedom of religion. There's an alliance of churches that call themselves the Christian Alliance. These are credible church leaders we have known since independence. So they invited all political parties, not just the MDC, and all civic groups to a united prayer meeting in one of the high density suburbs, Highfields.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>We went to this prayer meeting thinking that, well, it's a prayer meeting. We have been invited. And when we got there, to our surprise, we heard that some of our colleagues had been arrested. We went to find out why, because this was a legal prayer meeting on a Sunday morning when everybody is in church. I actually learnt later that one of the churches was raided, and people were beaten up who were just having their own normal congregation for that Sunday.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>We were tortured for more than four hours with all sorts of objects baton sticks, army belts, iron bars If you look at my ear - they bashed me several times on the head with an iron bar. I fainted. The president of the party, Morgan Tsvangirai, was specifically targeted. For every one lash somebody got, he got five. He was always the main target. It got to a point where he lay there still, and I thought he was dead. To this day I really think that the power of God worked and intervened, because the kind of beatings with an iron bar on the head and surviving and actually coming out still walking is a miracle.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>Dr. Lovemore Madhuku of the National Constitutional Assembly was also assaulted so badly. At one point he was beaten in front of an assistant commissioner, Mabunda. And this assistant commissioner called Dr. Madhuku and said, "Madhuku, what did I tell you yesterday? Now you deserve what you are getting". The moment he said that there was an orgy of violence to beat up Dr. Madhuku. He's back home now - today he was addressing May Day celebrations, after all they did to him!</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>After the beatings we were put in a lorry [truck] like animals on top of each other. I was put in a cell with three other guys, feeling very faint because of the bleeding from my ear, and my head was swollen. In the morning, the army came again. Apparently an army bus had been burnt while we were being held. They came to interrogate me on who had burnt the army bus. I said, "I've been in police custody since morning. How can I be responsible for burning an army bus?" That is when they started to torture me again, until I couldn't stand. Then they made me sit and started to hit the soles of my feet. I don't know what else to say, because I passed out completely. You can see that my legs are still swollen, and I am still on medication. Colleagues were also being attacked in their cells.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>There was a quick international outcry because prominent figures like President Morgan Tsvangirai, the National Constitutional Assembly chairman, Dr. Lovemore Madhuku, and two legislators - Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa were there. Mr. Chamisa was later attacked at the international airport in the departure lounge. He was leaving for a joint parliamentary assembly meeting of the African Caribbean Pacific [group of states] and the European Union.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>You know security rules around all airports - the departure lounge is not a place where thugs can just go into, but he was assaulted and left for dead in the lounge. This is an elected legislator who is leaving on legislative business, but they attacked him, and he had to be hospitalized again.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>"We fear for our lives" </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body>And so our trip is to highlight the kind of brutality that is in Zimbabwe today. All rules have been suspended - notwithstanding that the rules were really unfair to us, the opposition - but even those have been suspended. We fear for our lives. We fear for the lives of the opposition.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>There are now assassination lists being leaked of people to be assassinated by hit groups. There are cars with no number plates going from door to door abducting opposition supporters. Some we know where they are, some we do not know, and others are hiding. This is ten months before key elections are held. It's hardly an election environment at all, where people cannot express themselves, where everybody who belongs to the opposition has been criminalized.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>We thought that at the United Nations level, at the U.S. government level, it is important for them to understand that what is happening in Zimbabwe is a real crisis. There might not be guns on the ground, like what is happening in Somalia and the crisis in Darfur. What is happening in Darfur and Somalia is wrong - and so is what is happening in Zimbabwe.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>"The pattern becomes more brutal" </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body>As a Zimbabwean society, we are a religious society, a peace loving society, and we are a traumatized society at the moment. We have seen protests repressed before. In 2000 [the government dismissed the opposition as controlled by] white commercial farmers, because Mugabe wanted to correct past land injustices by giving land to black people. And we had the same thing in 2002 and 2005. So the pattern of violence repeats itself but becomes more brutal. You are supposed, as a citizen, to seek protection from the police. In my country, we now run from the police because you never know what can happen to you. So I am lucky to be here to tell my story.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>But the real story is that of the 28 activists who are being tortured and with whom I would be in Remand Prison with right now [except for international pressure to allow medical evacuation to South Africa]. Mr. Morgan Chomicki is a member of our standing committee, one of the highest office bearers. We hear that he is being tortured and is bleeding from the nose and mouth. There's Ian Makoni, who is an adviser to [MDC] President Morgan Tsvangirai. He has been tortured, and he has been there for two months. Several other activists are being denied bail and are being tortured. Part of our mission is a campaign for them to become prisoners of conscience, to bring to the attention of the international community the kind of brutality that we are living.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>You have been quoted as saying that this delegation is the voice of the Zimbabwean people who have no access to international public opinion. </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Matambandadzo: </STRONG>I think when you consider how this is a shared story about the many hundreds of Zimbabweans who have disappeared, been abducted - to date our figures stand at about 600 people who are missing in some shape or form - then you understand that [the delegation members] bear testimony. They carry the scars on their bodies and in their minds of what happens when a police station becomes a site of torture and of violence. They are the voices of the citizens who are being brutalized with impunity.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>Police stations are locations where you go to seek justice and to seek safety and security in the event that you have been denied those things. We would have expected the commissioner of police in Zimbabwe to call a commission of inquiry into the ten police stations that were involved in the incidents pf March 11. We would have expected the minister of home affairs to demand accountability from his office bearers around the incidents of March 11. In fact, we would have expected the president of our nation to demand accountability. Instead, on national television, national radio, in the national press, the president said, "They deserved to be beaten". So that is really a shocking revelation of the extent of brutality in our society from office bearers who receive salaries that are directly related to tax payers' contribution.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>You are suggesting that this incident, this day, is a kind of iconic representation of what's happening in Zimbabwe. </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Matambandadzo: </STRONG>Yes. Dr. Madhuku calls it the 'tipping point,' when he speaks. How do so many people who are representatives of lawfully registered non-governmental organizations, who are members of parliament, of an opposition that is registered and recognized by the government, who are members of the political opposition, that is also registered and recognized by our government and our laws, get beaten up in police custody?</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>What do you expect to happen when you go home? </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Kwinjeh: </STRONG>We expect retribution. You know, we were not taken to the courts, we were not charged, and we did not have the right to reply to the charges brought against us. But I am encouraged by the activists on the ground, my comrades on the ground. Today was May Day celebrations, and with all that has been happening over the past weeks, the past days, Zimbabweans attended the May Day celebrations. People like Dr. Madhuku, who have been tortured and left for dead, stood up to address the celebrations. The secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, who was almost murdered on the 13 th of September in 2006, was there to speak on workers rights, political rights.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>So as Zimbabweans we will not give in to political dictatorship. We will continue to speak out and not to be cowed into silence. I think our strength and resilience comes from the courage of the Zimbabweans who continue to say that we do not accept the situation we are in. Only a few days ago, some women organized themselves and held a demonstration against the high electricity tariffs. They were arrested and 30 of them were stripped naked and tortured.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>Whatever happens to us, we are going back home, we are Zimbabweans. It is in Mugabe's favor for us to stay here and say, "Look we cannot go back." He wants us to run, but we will not run. I faced evil in its eyes on the 11 th of March and looked at it and I think God saved me. The God who worked on the 11 th of March is the God who is going to continue to work on behalf of the oppressed, the poor, and the hungry in Zimbabwe.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>What do you expect from the international community? </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Kwinjeh: </STRONG>We expect the international community to deal with the Zimbabwean situation within its right context. Talking about elections is not the right context, at a time when there is no election environment. A situation where we are still denied access to public media, where we have to apply to police to have rallies and meetings is not the right environment for elections. We have young people who have turned 18 since 2005 who do not have identification cards, because we do not have the capacity, according to the government, to produce [them], which means they cannot be registered to vote. In the diaspora, there are three million Zimbabweans who have been disenfranchised. Electoral rules and laws in Zimbabwe are very much in favor of the regime. The right context would be to deal with proper political transformation through a new constitution. That is what people are saying. We want a new constitution. We want to be able to vote freely and fairly for a leader of our choice. That is what Zimbabweans want.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>In your Fahamu guest column of April 11, you noted that when you were harshly beat up by the riot police officers on March 11 </STRONG><STRONG>th </STRONG><STRONG>, "It was about me as a woman and what I stand for or represent". </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Kwinjeh: </STRONG>I have been in the women's movement with Bella since our college days, since our teens. At times women are said to be less equipped for continuously getting arrested. I wrote that article with many women in mind who continue to stand up and challenge the regime. At times we get targeted because we are women, and we are doing something outside the norm. When they target you by name and start beating you up, it is because of how you have been standing up to them and refusing to succumb to fear.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>Sekai Holland [the MDC secretary of policy who was seriously injured on March 11] was called a whore - called a lover of white men because she is married to an Australian. She's 64 years old, she's a war veteran. She fought for Zimbabwe's liberation, but she was called a whore, and she was beaten up.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>Then there is the use of sexuality. We made to lie down on the floor, and they would hit us on the buttocks with baton sticks. They would beat us up and say, "The prostitutes, whores, and Tony Blair's whores", and so on.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>But, really, when I wrote about the woman in me, it was really as a feminist. There's backlash on all fronts, because Zimbabwe is still mainly a patriarchic society where - even in the movements we might be in - the word 'feminist' is still taboo. You can't call yourself a feminist; your comrades look at you. But feminism is about the women's struggle and liberation, which is part and parcel of political liberation of Zimbabwe. So, there is always backlash, labeling of women who stand out.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>What is your appeal to the countries in your region and to the government of South Africa, which was tasked by the region to mediate in Zimbabwe? </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Matambandadzo: </STRONG>South Africa is playing a brokerage role that brings forward the political elite of Zimbabwe and South Africa to discuss our future. Four men are seated at a table somewhere in Pretoria to talk about the future of millions and millions of Zimbabweans. They do not have a structure of accountability, they do not have an agenda that explains to us what they are discussing, but above all they are not discussing with us the issues that we see as priorities for our society.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>We would expect, at the very minimum, that South Africa use the process it learned out of its own experience of interim government, where many people were consulted and included in a question saying, "What do you dream for your own future?" We would expect that South Africa would respect the processes of civil society in Zimbabwe - the processes of drawing up a draft constitution, the process of a women's charter, which outlines what women expect from the constitutional process. We would expect a starting point there - not to broker a deal for the political elites. That is a big shame for both countries. It is even a greater shame that SADC even endorses such a process and that the African Union seems to support it.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>We were hoping that Africa's leadership would step up to the issue of the violation of rights. I want to put it in that context: that we have seen the most horrific violation of rights in Zimbabwe. March 11 is the violation of the right to be free of torture. But there are other violations of rights in our society, among them economic rights. We live in a society where inflation, officially, is 2000 percent. Where you walk into a supermarket to buy toothpaste, you wish and pray that the manufacturer would make a smaller tube. You wish and pray that you could buy one sanitary towel at a time, because you can't afford a month's supply. We live in a society where parents who can pay fees to send their children to school receive a letter from the school saying "send more money" before the term is out. The economic violations are very severe, and they are a sign of an incredibly irresponsible government. They occur in a context of phenomenal corruption and in a context where our state is incredibly excessive with the meager resources that we currently have.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>There are further violations in our society, like the rights of women that Grace has talked about; the rights of media; the rights of freedom of assembly - no more than four people can meet at a time in Zimbabwe to discuss political issues.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>When we look at that broad array of rights that's being violated, many of which I haven't named in this conversation, we would have expected African leaders to recognize that what is happening is a shame for the whole continent. It is an embarrassment that the vast majority of Africa's leadership can keep quiet. It is a huge embarrassment for the mechanisms we have worked very hard to establish on the continent that are meant not only to promote but to protect human rights. What it does is to send a very clear signal that [the political leadership's commitment to rights] is rhetoric; that the reality is very different.</DIV> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=9 width=180 align=left border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align=right> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" bgColor=#000000 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD> <TABLE cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width="100%" bgColor=#ffffff border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=basic-seventy align=middle>Relevant Links</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR> <TR> <TD align=middle> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width="100%" bgColor=#ffffff border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=nav align=middle><A class=blue href="http://allafrica.com/southernafrica/"><B>Southern Africa</B></A> <BR><A class=blue href="http://allafrica.com/zimbabwe/"><B>Zimbabwe</B></A> <BR><A class=blue href="http://allafrica.com/conflict/"><B>Conflict, Peace and Security</B></A> <BR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Is there a country that you could look to today on the continent as an honest broker? </STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=story-body><STRONG>Matambandadzo </STRONG>: Every single African nation, if we were to invoke the mechanisms we have in the NEPAD [New Partnership for African Development] Peer Review Mechanisms, is enabled to be an honest broker. The question, really, is about the leadership - on whose side are they? We harbor in Zimbabwe, Menghistu [the former Ethiopian ruler] who for many years was responsible for death and destruction that Ethiopians faced. He is looked after through resources gathered through our central budget. This is irresponsible. We have not made him available to the rest of the African community to stand judgment and to take responsibility for what he did as a leader.</DIV> <DIV class=story-body>Through the mechanisms we have, be at the level of SADC or at the African Union, every single nation on the African continent, even the tiniest island, has the ability to show leadership and honest brokership on the question of Zimbabwe. It's a question of will.</DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-74944809045155737412007-05-03T12:27:00.000+02:002007-05-03T12:29:26.033+02:00ZIM INTELLECTUAL LOOKS AT MBEKI'S FOUR OPTIONS!<strong><strong><strong><strong>Mbeki's mediation - four scenarios<br /><br /><br />'It is Zanu(PF)'s intention to completely destroy the MDC by June this year'<br /><br />By John Makumbe<br /><br />FOR LINK PLEASE CLICK ON HEADER!<br /><br /><br />The designation of South Africa's Thabo Mbeki as mediator in the worsening Zimbabwe crisis seems to be generating four possible scenarios that may happen in the next 10 - 12 months. <br />Scenario One relates to a successful start to the dialogue, with both Zanu(PF) and the MDC participating at first, then civil society being included later in the process. An agreement to write a new democratic constitution will be reached and this will result in a referendum being held prior to the holding of the 2008 parliamentary and presidential elections. Efforts will probably be made to make these elections free and fair to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.<br />Scenario Two envisages most of the developments pertaining to Scenario One, except that after some time of negotiating with the other parties, Zanu(PF) will then throw a spanner into the whole process, thereby causing a deadlock . Mugabe will quickly push the proposed Constitutional Amendment Number 18 through Parliament. The amendment will obviously pass easily given the fear that Zanu(PF) MPs have of the dictator. <br />The MDC will immediately announce that it will boycott the 2008 elections and Mbeki's negotiating team will be thrown into disarray. As has happened in the past, Mugabe will go ahead with the elections and claim victory – resulting in worse economic problems.<br />Under Scenario Three, the best possible development for this country, Mugabe co-operates fully with Mbeki and his negotiating team. An agreement is reached and Mugabe gracefully retires from office several months before the holding of elections under a democratic constitution. A National Transitional Authority (NTA) is set up to oversee the electoral process and run national affairs in the interim. <br />This authority will comprise representatives of such critical sectors as MDC, Zanu(PF), the churches, business, women's groups, students and professional bodies. Once constituted, the National Transitional Authority can elect two respected and acceptable individuals to be Acting President and Acting Vice President. The NTA will proceed to devise various ways and means of rehabilitating the national economy. The international community will come to Zimbabwe's aid through bilateral and multi-lateral agreements.<br />Scenario Four is perhaps the most intriguing of these possible scenarios. Desperate to retain power, Mugabe and his Zanu(PF) will cause a deadlock to develop in the dialogue process. This will result in both the MDC and civil society embarking on nationwide civil disobedience with the attendant police brutality perpetrated by the despotic Mugabe regime. <br />Military elements within Zanu(PF) will then force Mugabe out of office by force and create an interim leadership to oversee the running of elections under the current demented constitution. The SADC will reject the newly "elected" government which will essentially be a Zanu(PF) faction masquerading as a democratic government. Zimbabwe's problems persist as the international community shuns the sham regime.<br />A few footnotes may be necessary for readers to better appreciate these four scenarios. First, it is Zanu(PF)'s intention to completely destroy the MDC by June this year. In this, the draconian regime will fail, but the violence and brutality will be ratcheted up to unprecedented levels in the history of this country. Second, Mugabe is currently actively recruiting additional Zanu(PF) militia in order to bring the number up to 15 000, while the police force is being increased to more than 45 000. <br />Both of these forces will assist the notorious CIO to subdue the MDC and civil society, including the churches, to ensure that Mugabe and Zanu(PF) remain in power long after the 2008 elections. We need to pray that Scenario Three be the one that is realised, even thought the chances of this are remote indeed.</strong></strong></strong></strong>The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-68289196885747450102007-05-03T07:24:00.001+02:002007-05-03T07:31:40.685+02:00"BE CAREFUL OF THESE CHURCH LEADERS!" Letter from Kutama.By Mthulisi Mathtuhu<br /><br />http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mthuli28.16350.html<br /><br />THE Zimbabwean Church leadership is a hotchpotch of fairly educated people of a considerable cultural level and downright gullible people of highly questionable intellectual acumen and moral standing.<br />Among them you will find narcissistic power mongers and wealth seekers with a fair sprinkling of dishonest men and women of renowned insincerity. <br />Not to be outdone are those of different political persuasions making the grouping naturally given to polarisation which is why the Anglicans and the Catholics will issue totally different statements on the situation obtaining in Zimbabwe as if they reside in two different planets.<br />This composition renders the Church leadership vulnerable to manipulations and hi-jacking as the politicians seek to use them as a camouflage for their<br />tyranny.<br />So when the Church leaders met last year to produce the Zimbabwe We Want document, it was apparent to some of us in the ecumenical movement that the gullible lot among them had swung the ship to take the route that was welcome to the government and help Robert Mugabe pretend that he was doing something.<br />The blunder of the Church today has been to enter the Zimbabwean debate with the thinking that Zimbabwe is a victim of some conspiracy. The scope of their reasoning is essentially pleasing to Mugabe.<br />They speak about Zimbabwe in a manner that would rather please the tyrant in Mugabe than challenge and implore the normal person in him to see sense in the drive for the other Zimbabwe.<br />Rather than use their moral authority to diplomatically bring a sense of guilt and consequently, the urgent need for reform, they will use it to shield him. Mugabe is certainly relieved than challenged by the bond he has with the Church leaders who often concoct eulogies for him under the guise of theological reflection and patriotism.<br />The Church Leader’s spokesperson Bishop Trevor Manhanga’s "patriotic" statements and gesturing are all that counts to Mugabe and are enough to please him as they are within the premise of blaming somebody else other than the Dear Leader.<br />The contents of the Zimbabwe We Want document are not important to Mugabe, after all that is what is written every day in the opinion pages of newspapers by the Lovemore Madhukus and the Brian Kagoros.<br />What Mugabe is interested in are the Bishops who purchase into and defend the fallacy that Zimbabwe is under attack and is a victim of vitriolic imperialist propaganda.<br />That is why there is no difference today between Manhanga’s utterances and the state adverts praising the trees, mountains, rivers, Victoria Falls and the country’s literacy levels as if anybody ever questioned the beauty of Zimbabwe.<br />What is under attack is not Zimbabwe in its entirety, but is the obtuse leadership that has sunk deep down to the levels of the ancient kingdoms of the Old Testament era.<br />What is under attack is not the contents of the document, but the spirit and the purpose behind its release because we have always been saying what it says anyway.<br />It is the willingness of the Church leaders to expose their ethical weaknesses by being on the same platform of views with Mugabe while at the same time producing a ‘good’ document that he will evidently not take serious in order that they may claim in future that they never conducted themselves questionably.<br />The Zimbabwe We Want document should not be used to cover up for the Church leadership’s folly which is a windfall for Mugabe.<br />Even as they still cling on to it, nothing has come out of the document because there was never going to be anything except that they were always going to end up being "patriotic Zimbabweans" giving interviews to the official press which customarily doesn’t give space to democrats but to confused apologists.<br />It is for this reason that the document is unacceptable because instead of it being an instrument to engage Zimbabwe and Mugabe for change, it is used to cover up for the Church’s support for the establishment which is what Mugabe intended in the first place.<br />Criticise the Church leaders today, and their apologists will be quick to say its bigoted criticism because they (primates) produced a "good" document. But didn’t Mugabe present a "good" speech at Independence in 1980 but only to walk out of Rufaro Stadium to set up the Fifth Brigade that went on to mete out unprecedented violence on the civilian population in Matabeleland in a spectacular betrayal of his promises. Wasn’t his speech a good statement used to cover up for his wayward and evil ways that were to unfold just a few weeks from its delivery?<br />"Even a madman can say something with sense but watch out because he will soon add something to it which will show you that his mind is still spoilt," writes Chinua Achebe.<br />It is the case with Trevor Manhanga who will produce a good document (regurgitating what has been said over and over again) but will go on to extend solidarity to the very class that is a hindrance to the Zimbabwe he wants.<br />He will go on to excoriate the defenders of democracy, as he did with South African editor Mondli Makhanya recently, but will keep quiet or just "regret the situation" when the state descends on democrats and opposition politicians seeking to air their views freely.<br />If Manhanga and his friends are ever so ready to frankly dispute the claims of the supposed detractors of Zimbabwe in the South African media, they should explain why are they reluctant to comment on murder and beatings of Zimbabweans by the state.<br />It is hypocrisy for them to condemn "violence" under the cover of being non-partisan when it is clear to everybody that what we are faced with is not just "violence" but state terrorism. It is not something to "regret" but something to condemn in frank and forthright terms.<br />There is very nearly no indication that the Church leaders abhor Mugabe’s un-statesman-like political behaviour. Their spectacular readiness to condemn "violence" and "attacks on Zimbabwe" is opposed by the reluctance to condemn state terror, electoral theft and un-diplomatic violent language from State House.<br />If they were indeed concerned about bad journalism, they should have long complained in strong terms about the state publications which use their statements to defend Mugabe.<br />While Manhanga is at liberty to show his vehement displeasure with the South African journalists, he will not show the same forthrightness in the face of journalism practiced by the ZBC and the Herald.<br />Actually he is silent because it is the kind of journalism serving the person he is not only in bed with but whom he is not willing to be frank in his dealing with.<br />Evidently, the best way to deal with Mugabe is not through documents but civil disobedience which Archbishop Pius Ncube is talking about.<br />Hasn’t history shown us that Mugabe resents documents of discussion? Think of the Chihambakwe report, CCJP report, Zimrights report, African Union Human Rights Commission report, Constitutional Commission draft Constitution etc.<br />To want to discuss with Mugabe is to miss the fact that what is obtaining in Zimbabwe is not a battle of minds. It is something less about views but more about murder, brazen repression and madness.<br />Zimbabweans including Mugabe know that his time is up. He knows that he has raped the country and will not leave because he fears accounting. It is not that he thinks he is a victim, although he says so.<br />There is no doubt that the Church leaders are currently not doing anything because the document is dead and buried. It will forever be useless in as far as Zimbabwe’s future is concerned. They have come to a dead end. The only thing they have to do is to complain about some people not being patriotic because the person who sent then to the people has shown them that they were wasting their time.<br />Perhaps they may as well tell Zimbabwe the source of new vehicles driven by some of the Church leaders. They should say who is funding their secretariat on the so-called Zimbabwe We Want project.<br />Mthulisi Mathuthu is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist. He can be contacted at: thuthuma@yahoo.comThe Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-50245037101402879312007-05-03T07:17:00.001+02:002007-05-03T13:21:57.641+02:00URGENT "STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS" FROM THE OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT!<H3 class=post-title><A href="http://zimfinalpush.blogspot.com/2007/05/state-of-nation-address-by-your.html"><FONT color=#6131bd>"STATE OF THE NATION" ADDRESS BY YOUR PRESIDENT!</FONT></A> </H3> <DIV class=post-header-line-1></DIV> <DIV class=post-body> <div><A href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/RjlojxAuUyI/AAAAAAAAAPg/mBtYrZ8Uoqw/s1600-h/mugabe+akaoma.jpg"><IMG id=BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060190619988546338 style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fuvTXxQxEmA/RjlojxAuUyI/AAAAAAAAAPg/mBtYrZ8Uoqw/s400/mugabe+akaoma.jpg" border=0></A><BR><BR><EM><STRONG>I think there is a bit of confusion in our beloved country of Zimbabwe today!<BR><BR>Who ever said I won the Presidential Elections of 2002?<BR><BR>I never said so!<BR><BR>All I said was Tsvangirai's Election Petitions are "frivolous and vexatious."<BR><BR>I also pleaded with all patriots to "recognize" me as the Executive President.<BR><BR>I am the only person who can keep this country of Zimbabwe together!<BR><BR>If I removed myself from the top seat, the country will degenerate into chaos (racialism, tribalism, regionalism and all the negatives you can think of!)<BR><BR>Now we are in this whole mess because you simply refused to do the obvious- JUST RECOGNIZE ME. PERIOD!<BR><BR>Do you honestly think Tsvangirai can run this country?<BR><BR>I'm very disappointed with you, my fellow countrymen!<BR><BR>Running a country is a very complicated, delicate task!<BR><BR>You do your best and you are still accused of not doing your best!<BR><BR><STRONG>WHO REALLY COULD HAVE MANAGED THIS ECONOMY BETTER THAN ME?</STRONG><BR><BR>Now about the so-called rigging and the so-called-violence!<BR><BR>Your focus should be on the major issues!<BR><BR>Would we really stand by and allow Mr Blair to re-colonize our country, take away our Sovereignty and take over all our resources?<BR><BR>Would you allow someone to take your wife and you just stood by?<BR><BR>Please lets be very serious, Ladies and Gentlemen, Comrades and Friends!<BR><BR>About assassinations:be very careful!<BR><BR>This may break the whole Nation apart!<BR><BR>Who killed Cde Hebert Chitepo?<BR><BR>So why do you ask who killed General Josiah Magama Tongogara?<BR><BR>About the so-called "Truth and Reconciliation Commission!"<BR><BR>Where and when do we start?<BR><BR>Who will remain without blood on his hands?<BR><BR>Do you know how Dr Parerenyatwa died? Was it Smith's men or was it an internal struggle?<BR><BR>So will you raise the dead to ask them to testify?<BR><BR>Then last but not least: where in the world are "perfect people"?<BR><BR>The words "rigging", "assassinations" etc are English words!<BR><BR>Are they Shona words?<BR><BR>MUTIKWANIRE! (STOP THIS LUNACY!)<BR><BR>Please recognize me, rally behind me as your God-given father and lets move forward and re-build our Nation!<BR><BR>About the unfortunate isolated incidents in the Southern part of our country (the so-called "Gukurahundi Massacres"), please lets not open old wounds!<BR><BR>The Ndebeles can be very naive if they think we have forgotten their vicious raids against our peace-loving Shona people in the 1890s!<BR><BR>Please let all bye-gones be bye-gones!<BR><BR>MAY THE GOOD LORD ABOVE BE WITH YOU ALL!<BR><BR>Yours Faithfully,<BR><BR>ME.</STRONG></EM></div></DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. <a href="http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTEydmViNG02BF9TAzIxMTQ3MTcxOTAEc2VjA21haWwEc2xrA3RhZ2xpbmU">Try it now</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-52885052728343429852007-05-02T12:45:00.001+02:002007-05-02T12:45:40.668+02:00A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE LAND ISSUE BY PROF SAM MOYO!<div class=news-body><FONT face="Book Antiqua">28 April 2007</FONT></div> <div class=news-body><FONT face="Book Antiqua"></FONT> </div> <div class=news-body><FONT face="Book Antiqua">By Sam Moyo</FONT></div> <div class=news-body><FONT face="Book Antiqua"></FONT> </div> <div class=news-body><A href="http://www.nehandaradio.com/sammoyoland280407.html"><FONT size=1>http://www.nehandaradio.com/sammoyoland280407.html</FONT></A></div> <div class=news-body> </div> <div class=news-body><FONT face="Book Antiqua">Zimbabwe's colonial distribution of land was unjust and needed redress. White individuals and corporate land owners held about 4 000 farms in landholdings averaging more than 2 000 hectares. By 2000, policy and laws, markets and international intervention had failed to transform change this. By the early 1990's most blacks were still marginalised. Agricultural production and exports grew, but enriched a few. Deindustrialisation, massive retrenchments and wage erosion ensued. <BR><BR>A generation of young graduates could not find meaningful jobs. Aspiring black capitalists failed to compete with established white businesses and farmers. Income and wealth inequalities grew. National debt grew, as did dependence on erratic external financial flows and aid. Small farmers' food production and incomes, which had been bolstered in the 1980s by state support, became precarious. Farm labour conditions deteriorated. Rural and urban landlessness grew and agitation intensified leading to a revived politics of land reclamation by 1997, and opposition to it. <BR><BR>The fast-track reform process was complex. Redistribution has redressed the imbalanced racial legacy, but has spawned new inequalities as well as challenges to the outcome by former land owners. Reforms extended access to land to more than 150 000 families and significantly downsized the average size of commercial landholdings. More than 120 000 beneficiary families hold less than 100ha each. About 12 000 new medium scale farms now exist with an average of 200ha each. <BR><BR>But there are still approximately 4 000 landholders with farms of about 700ha each. These include foreign landholders, large agro-industrial corporate estates and conservancies, individual white farmers, and old and new black farmers. Less than 10% of the land beneficiaries are former farmworkers. There are still 200 000 agricultural workers, most of whom continue to reside as farm tenants on redistributed land without secure land rights, and those displaced to communal and other areas.<BR><BR>A significant number of poor peasants, women and various other middle class peoples also claim to have been excluded from the redistribution. The tenure of the significant number of white farmers who remain is contested around questions of parity and privilege. Access and ownership have in general been democratised, although there is continued politicisation of reform, by both ruling and oppositional forces.<BR><BR>The main effect of reform has been to transform agrarian social and labour relations, as well as land utilisation. It increased the range of self- and family-operated farms. Agricultural production declined by about 50% since 2001, as did full-time agricultural jobs and wage levels. There primary debate now is over what caused the decline -- whether it was the land transfers and tenure change or other factors. Production declined for various reasons, which suggests that recovery is feasible. <BR><BR>Production of the staple maize, for instance, suffered severely, not because of land transfers but due to the frequent droughts and inputs shortages. Tobacco, wheat and oilseeds production declined due to reduced areas planted on the transferred land, limited financing of new farmers and their limited skills. Loss and withdrawal of farm machinery and irrigation equipment affected plantings for most crops. Reduced livestock production arose from rapid cattle slaughtering and rustling, limited breeding stocks and limited skills. There was also a decline in private agricultural financing.<BR><BR>The reduction of agro-industrial capacity to supply inputs, largely because of forex shortages and price controls, affected production of all crops. International sanctions also affected the sector. <BR>Agricultural production can be recuperated in the medium term, but reversal of the land redistribution is neither a prerequisite for this nor politically feasible. Sustainable land utilisation requires key land, agricultural and economic policy reform measures. The process of land distribution needs to be concluded and compensation for land improvements should be speeded up. <BR><BR>The security of leasehold land tenure among "commercial" farmers can be improved by making leases transferable and by enabling financial institutions to secure their loans. A sustainable agrarian reform strategy should consistently focus on improving the livelihoods of the majority. Smallholders can play a critical role in future production, if policies are supportive of them.<BR><BR><I>Professor Sam Moyo is executive director for the Institute for Agrarian Studies in Harare</I></FONT></div> <div class=news-body><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700; FONT-FAMILY: Book Antiqua; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Do you have a story? Then e-mail <A href="mailto:news@nehandaradio.com">news@nehandaradio.com</A> . If its a good one you might earn yourself money for the effort.</SPAN></div> <div class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: 700; FONT-FAMILY: Book Antiqua; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">For general comments and feedback e-mail: <A href="mailto:editor@nehandaradio.com">editor@nehandaradio.com</A></SPAN> </div><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. <a href="http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTEydmViNG02BF9TAzIxMTQ3MTcxOTAEc2VjA21haWwEc2xrA3RhZ2xpbmU">Try it now</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-59512660003988417792007-05-02T12:26:00.001+02:002007-05-02T12:30:48.842+02:00MUTUMWA MAWERE LOOKS AT SUCCESSION POLITICS IN AFRICA!Trust and succession politics in Africa<br /><br /><br />By Mutumwa D. Mawere<br /><br />Last updated: 04/30/2007 10:19:26 <br /><br />http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/mawere73.16345.html<br /><br />THE planning for succession of the Chief Executive Officer or the President of a country has become a very important issue in the governance of many societies.<br /><br />Ensuring that in the event of a problem with a sitting President, a country will continue to function efficiently and effectively creates tremendous value for citizens.<br /><br />To the extent that succession is a widely debated issue in Africa, it is important that our conversations are enriched by a better understanding of the interplay between trust and succession and between succession and progress.<br /><br />In the context of property, succession of property at law covers two distinct concepts of inheritance (a gift made by will or other testamentary document on death) and heirship, which applies to property passed to one or more dependants according to a formula set out in law, religion, custom or under the terms of a trust.<br /><br />Succession may also apply to artificial persons usually through reorganisations or corporate mergers. With respect to family succession, it is the passing of one person’s assets and role in the family to an heir. <br /><br />Succession is essentially the action of one party, person or product being replaced by another that has become obsolete, incapacitated, retired or deceased. Ideally, one would expect that a political leader who has finished his constitutional term, or whose policies are undermining the interests they purport to represent, or whose age is beyond the normal retirement age would step down voluntarily to allow a successor to bring new energy and leadership.<br /><br />However, the experience of post-colonial Africa would suggest that the attitude to succession that citizens ordinarily hold to in respect of their personal affairs is not different from the attitude of the political leaders. <br /><br />Even in the context of failing businesses, it is rare for a corporate leader in such circumstances to voluntarily relinquish power. The attitude is not only limited to the failing institutions but is equally applicable to successful institutions where corporate leaders are found wanting in the area of succession planning. Their hereditary successors are often ill-prepared or groomed to take over.<br /><br />For the progress of any society, succession is important not only because each product or individual has its own life span and no one can defy the laws of nature. Ordinarily, new products should replace old and mature ones in order to ensure that there is no interruption of service. Succession, therefore, should provide a way in which things follow each other in space or time: consecution, order, procession, sequence, progression etc. <br /><br />The lack of economic progress and dynamism in the political space of Africa can be attributed to the attitude that most of the continent’s leaders have on the question of power. In fact, the experience is that when a country elects even a well meaning leader as a President, the pattern is invariably the same i.e. they start as democratic and with increasing speed end up believing in their infallibility and indispensability. They start believing that no-one else can step into their shoes and more often than not, acquire the status of super citizens who know better than the citizens who create them. But the tragedy is that the attitude is not a preserve of politicians.<br /><br />The silliness of this attitude is best exemplified by the manner in which Deputy Presidents in Africa are treated by their Presidents. While in the political parties where such leaders acquire their initial legitimacy they are both elected into office, when they form governments at the national level something fundamentally wrong takes place in the state houses of Africa. You find the ridiculous situations where the President begins to believe that the source of his power and legitimacy is actually above the people who elected him and invariably like a small God, he begins to lose confidence in the capacity of his deputy to step into his shoes.<br /><br />The pre-independence attitude of colonial administrations was no different and in those cases, the political leadership had no problems assimilating cultured natives and allowing them to vote. What they had a problem with was universal suffrage where citizens, despite their standing in society, would be allowed to determine who should govern them. The problem that confronts Africa today even after the completion of the decolonisation process is that the raw materials of political power are the ordinary poor people whose interests are never at the centre of the political establishment that they infrequently have an opportunity through elections to create. Many governments pursue policies in the name of the majority but with little or detrimental impact on the target beneficiaries. <br /><br />Many African leaders do not trust even the people they purport to represent. In many cases, succession is often discussed while openly disregarding the power structures that are clearly set out in the Constitutions of the political organisations that the leaders originate from. This makes the post of Deputy President the most dangerous position in Africa. If you have any inclination of ever becoming a President in Africa, the message is that you should never allow yourself to be elected a Deputy. Yes, we have a few exceptions in Africa but the pattern is well established to suggest that any rational person should be concerned if they are elected to the number two position.<br /><br />Like their white predecessors, many African Presidents genuinely believe that the continent has no capacity to produce leaders like them. In fact, they are encouraged everyday to believe that they are the messiahs of the continent and any change will interrupt progress.<br /><br />When it comes to trust, many Africans are found wanting. Trust indicates a depth and sense of assurance that is based in strong but not logically-conclusive evidence, or based on the character, ability, or truth that someone or something has shown over time and across situations. Trust, therefore, makes for a sense of being safe or of being free of fear, enough so that one’s focus can be on other matters because the subject matter is taken of already.<br /><br />The leaders of Africa have failed to build trust among and between citizens. For us in Southern Africa, we easily trust institutions like Old Mutual instead of creating our own New Mutuals. When one considers Africa’s leading brands in business even after 50 years of Uhuru, one would arrive at the inescapable conclusion that Africans have more Eurocentric values and are more prone to trust foreign solutions than their own.<br /><br />Some adopt the Look East policies while others adopt the Look West policies and never apply their minds to what the implications are when a President pins his own country’s development on wise men and women from the East and West. Ideally, any President who looks East or West for salvation should be given a red card by the citizens for openly displaying a lack of confidence in their ability to solve their problems. Perhaps one defining area in which the lack of trust is evident in Africa is in banking.<br /><br />How many of us trust African banking institutions? Why is it that after 50 years of Uhuru, Africans have not been able to create their own pan-African banking institutions? Even in the case of mining, African governments would trust wise men and women from the East and West with their mineral rights than their own nationals. How many of our African governments would be courageous enough to sign joint venture agreements with African businessman without being accused of cronyism?<br /><br />It is not unusual for some of us who have ventured into big business to be labelled cronies and agents of other people’s agendas in as much as anyone who tries to succeed a sitting President is easily labelled a puppet, surrogate or stooge of other people’s agenda. This kind of simplistic analysis is more prevalent among our intellectuals.<br /><br />Many Presidents in Africa, therefore, take comfort from the messages that we generate daily about the motives and interests that inform their competitors to the extent that they end up believing that it is treasonous for anyone to dream of being their successor. For those who are forced to relinquish their offices by constitutional impediments, they then go out of their way to manipulate elections so that they end up reproducing themselves through their chosen successors. <br /><br />To what extent are African leaders solely responsible for creating the succession confusion is an issue that needs debate. It may emerge from the debate that intellectuals and seemingly informed Africans and their partners in the West and East are culpable for creating the leadership mess in the continent by increasing expecting bad leaders to choose their successors. If a leader is bad, then surely why would any rational person expect him to choose a successor? Equally if a party is capable of producing a bad leader and sustaining him in power to the detriment of the majority, how can any rational person expect a progressive leader to emerge from the clutches of such a party? <br /><br />When we encourage incumbent Presidents to believe that they are super citizens we should not cry foul if they go on to behave accordingly. We all may be guilty of telling the Presidents of what they want to hear. How many of us genuinely believe that Presidents have more wisdom than the ordinary African? How many of us have accepted that incumbents have a prerogative to inflict pain and suffering on citizens with impunity? How many of us would even in the face of tyranny choose to be indifferent and become silent while expecting more from neighbours than ourselves? How many of us would sacrifice a good meal to finance change in Africa? Do we really trust each other as Africans on issues of governance and economic power?<br /><br /><br />Mutumwa Mawere's weekly column appears on New Zimbabwe.com every Monday. You can contact him at: mmawere@ahccouncil.com<br />JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS<br />newsdesk@newzimbabwe.comThe Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-47966545108874965482007-05-02T07:22:00.001+02:002007-05-02T07:22:06.547+02:00TSVANGIRAI AND OTHERS: UPDATE ON TALKS WITH MBEKI<DIV align=left> <div><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color=#0000ff size=1><FONT color=#000000 size=4><STRONG>Interview Part 1: Tsvangirai, Madhuku and Mutambara</STRONG></FONT></FONT></div> <TABLE height=93 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width=250 align=right border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD width=250 height=91> <HR> <FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1> <STRONG>Interview 2:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview33.16349.HTML">Archbishop Ncube, Pastor Motsi and Bishop Manhanga</A></FONT> <FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><BR><BR> Interview Part 1: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview32.16285.html">Archbishop Ncube, Pastor Motsi and Bishop Manhanga</A></FONT> <div><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1> <STRONG>Interview:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview31.16245.html">Kembo Mohadi and Grace Kwinjeh</A></FONT> </div> <div><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1> <STRONG>Interview: </STRONG><A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview30.16219.html">human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama</A></FONT> </div> <div><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1> <STRONG>Interview:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview29.16189.html">Ayittey, Makgetlaneng and Black</A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1> Interview: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview28.16150.html">US Ambassador Christopher Dell</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 2:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview27.16039.html">Coltart, Tsunga and Majongwe</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview26.16005.html">Coltart, Majongwe and Tsunga</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 2</STRONG>: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview25.15973.html">Margaret Dongo</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview24.15939.html">Margaret Dongo</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 2:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview23.15900.html">Morgan Tsvangirai</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview22.15866.html">Morgan Tsvangirai</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 4:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview21.15840.html">Prof Moyo and Thornycroft</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 3: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview20.15804.html">Prof Moyo and Thornycroft</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 2: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview19.15676.html">Prof Moyo and Thornycroft<BR><BR></A> Interview Part 1: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview18.15646.html">Prof Moyo, Prof Raftopoulos and Thornycroft</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 3:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview17.15614.html">Masamvu and Prof Mukasa</A><BR><BR> Interviewe Part 2: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview16.15085.html">Masamvu and Prof Mukasa</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview15.15055.html">Masamvu and Prof Mukasa</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview14.15013.html">Muleya on Ziscogate</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview13.14989.html">Archbishop Pius Ncube</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Part 2:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview12.14955.html">Bishops on Zimbabwe We Want</A><BR><BR> Part 1<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview11.14926.html">Bishops on The Zimbabwe We Want</A><BR><BR> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview10.14901.html">Interview: Thabitha Khumalo</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 3:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview9.14866.html">Kagoro and George Ayittey</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 2<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview8.14839.html">Kagoro and George Ayittey</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview7.14797.html">Kagoro and George Ayittey</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 2:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview6.14783.html">Eric Bloch</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview5.14740.html">Eric Bloch</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 6:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview4.14569.html">Madhuku, Prof Ncube and Biti</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 5<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview3.14531.html">Madhuku, Prof Ncube and Biti</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 4<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview2.14488.html">Madhuku, Prof Ncube and Biti</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 3<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview.14455.html">Madhuku, Ncube and Biti</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 2<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate224.14430.html">Madhuku, Ncube, Biti</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1: <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate218.14396.html">Madhuku, Ncube and Biti</A><BR><BR> <STRONG>Interview Part 3:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate209.14344.html">Raftopoulos, Moyo and Robertson</A><BR><BR> <FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><STRONG><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Interview Part 2:</FONT></STRONG></FONT> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate205.14308.html">Moyo, Raftopoulos and Robertson</A><BR><BR> Interview Part 1<STRONG>:</STRONG> <A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/senate204.14307.html">Moyo, Raftopoulos and Robertson</A></FONT></div></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <DIV align=left> </DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>On SW Radio Africa's 'Hot Seat' progframme, journalist <STRONG>Violet Gonda</STRONG> interviews MDC President <STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai </STRONG>followed by a teleconference with another MDC President <STRONG>Professor Arthur Mutambara</STRONG> and NCA chairman <STRONG>Dr. Lovemore Madhuku</STRONG>:<BR></FONT> <HR> </DIV></DIV> <DIV align=left> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color=#0000ff size=2> <SCRIPT language=Javascript><!-- // *********************************************** // AUTHOR: WWW.CGISCRIPT.NET, LLC // URL: http://www.cgiscript.net // Use the script, just leave this message intact. // Download your FREE CGI/Perl Scripts today! // ( http://www.cgiscript.net/scripts.htm ) // *********************************************** document.write("<b>Last updated: "+document.lastModified+"</b>"); //--> </SCRIPT> <B>Last updated: 05/02/2007 01:52:34</B> </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><BR><STRONG>Broadcast on May 1, 2007</STRONG></FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is the guest on the programme 'Hot Seat' today. Welcome Mr Tsvangirai</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> Thank you Violet</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet Gonda:</STRONG> Now people have experienced a wave of brutality in recent days in Zimbabwe and you were one of those who was brutalised recently. Are you surprised at how brutal the regime has become?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> Things that you need to make an assessment Violet is that all dictators reach a point where they have to reach a point of no return and actually raise up the stakes in the confrontation between the state and the people. We are not surprised that the regime has upped the ante in response to peoples' genuine concerns by resorting to this kind of brutal violence, but it's indicative of a regime which is under siege, which is not able to respond to the demands of the people.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> And with what you're seeing on the ground right now, is 2008 a good year for elections and does the Opposition stand a chance of defeating Zanu PF with the level of violence that is currently taking place in Zimbabwe right now?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> We are already witnessing the pre-emptive strike of Zanu PF characteristic of any pre-election preparations; the attack on the Opposition, dismantling of the Opposition ability to hold meetings, the seizure of Opposition equipment and Secretariat services, the targeting of Opposition activists at various layers of the Party.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>It's all trying to dis-enable the Opposition from functioning normally in a democratic society. So without removing those kind of obstacles it is difficult to hold an election under those circumstances because you are going into a situation in which there is no level playing field because the Ruling Party is determining, by its own rules, the outcome.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> So while preparations or negotiations for talks are underway what is being done right now to stop the violence and what is the MDC doing in terms of voter education?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> Well, let's separate the two. There is a State sponsored violence by Zanu PF, State machinery against the MDC, which has resulted in over 600 people being abducted, being beaten, and, about 150 sustaining injuries that required hospitalisation. This on going campaign is, as I've said, targeting the MDC in order to weaken its ability to operate normally. So, the second part of the equation, which is voter education, becomes irrelevant because the State will always ensure that those kind of meetings don't take place. And you know, by no means, that no one is allowed to carry out voter education except the Commission which has no capacity to carry out such a mammoth task which would require a wide range of civic society to carry it out. </FONT></div></DIV> <DIV align=left><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> So, how can you have a free and fair election by next year and when there are serious media controls and a frightened population?</FONT></DIV> <DIV align=left> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> It is almost impossible to talk of a free and fair election in Zimbabwe under the current circumstances if the current circumstances prevail. One of the things that you have to understand is that as long as Zanu PF controls the machinery of elections it is like having a referee who throws the whistle away and joins the other team. It is almost impossible to talk of a free and fair election under the current circumstances in which the electoral machinery is militarised, the voter registration is bastardised and there is massive disenfranchisement, including, of course, disenfranchisement of Zimbabweans living abroad in the Diaspora. We can't even talk about the manner in which there is a central command of the election results. We can't even talk of the whole machinery excluding external observation so from my experience over the last seven years; the last seven and a half years; it is almost impossible to talk of a free and fair election in Zimbabwe.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Violet: So what is your vision of the way forward and what do you expect from South African President Thabo Mbeki?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Morgan Tsvangirai: We hope that President Thabo Mbeki, as he's already outlined his focus is to ensure that, and of course by his admittance, that he accepts in Zimbabwe there has never been any free and fair election and what he is focusing is to ensure that this time around the election is conducted in a free and fair manner. That it will not be a disputed outcome again which has been the source of the dispute and the source of the crisis in Zimbabwe. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Violet: And what is the status of the talks right now?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Morgan Tsvangirai: So far what has happened is that President Thabo Mbeki has written to all the political leaders in Zimbabwe; me, Mutambara and the President, Mugabe, outlining how he foresees his new mission, and we hope that he is given all the support to succeed because the country cannot afford to postpone this crisis as it has reached unacceptable levels. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet: </STRONG>Right. And, you know in your talks with President Mbeki, what is your impression about his capacity to negotiate a settlement; a peaceful settlement.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> I think that one has to make a distinct distinction between his earlier initiative on quiet diplomacy as the concern of a neighbour as opposed to this initiative which has the backing of the whole SADC region. This crisis, as somebody has said, Zimbabwe cannot behave as if it has got a Chinese wall around it, but what happens in Zimbabwe affects everyone around and that is the collective concern that has been expressed by this mandate that has been given to President Mbeki.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>I hope that there has been a serious paradigm shift in the approach to the crisis, that once bitten twice shy, that President Mugabe cannot be trusted to engage in meaningful principled dialogue because of his stubbornness. And I hope that this time there's enough leverage to ensure that the parties that are engaged in negotiations actually do so to a successful conclusion.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> So given that his quiet diplomacy has not changed much in Zimbabwe, do you think Mbeki is an honest broker and is it reasonable to expect much from South Africa's mediation?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai: </STRONG>Well, it's immaterial who has been chosen as a mediator. All I know is that President Mbeki is the mediator who has been chosen by the region, it could be somebody else but they chose President Mbeki because of the leverage that he has on the region. And, we hope that he uses that leverage, the collective wisdom of the region and the collective pressure on the region and international community to bear on President Mugabe to come to the negotiating table.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Of course, it is not just sufficient to rely on the mediation of President Mbeki but I think that the people of Zimbabwe themselves must realise that they have to continue to mobilise pressure on the regime to realise that there is no option but to negotiate. Now, the problem we have is that people have made their own personal sceptical assessment whether President Mbeki is an honest broker or not. For me, it is not a personal assessment. I think that he has a new mandate and I think that he can act responsibly within the context of the whole SADC mandate. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> You know the reason I asked that question is because it is widely believed that the Opposition is being told to follow a particular path, a path that has been agreed by Mbeki and Robert Mugabe. Now, do you think Zimbabweans will get a fair deal this time?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> We have not been instructed by anyone to follow a particular path. We have put our views that in our view the most viable option is the Roadmap to legitimacy which we have outlined with three signposts, that there has to be negotiated settlement, there has to be a new constitution, that there has to be free and fair elections. We have not been directed to take any other route other than what we have already put on the table and I hope that President Mugabe and President Mbeki have got, & if President Mugabe has got any other views they should be put on the table. And, I don't think that President Mbeki, as a mediator or as a facilitator can dictate what course of action Zimbabweans have to devise, design for themselves. Let me underline the fact that President Mbeki is not the negotiator; he is the mediator, the facilitator. The negotiators are the two political, or the various political actors in the political crisis in Zimbabwe. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Now, we've, it's been reported that Joyce Mujuru, the Vice President, has held talks with South African officials and we have heard that the two Secretary Generals in the MDC; Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti; have also held talks. But, have the political leaders themselves, for example yourself; have you held talks with Thabo Mbeki yourself? </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan:</STRONG> No, I have not met President Mbeki. I hope to do so at the most opportune time available. But, let me say that there is no way in the world where the National leaders negotiate I mean you send teams and define their mandate. In this case, our Secretary Generals went to South Africa at the invitation of the Mbeki's Office to discuss the preliminary examination of what is possible. And I think that's what was done - to outline what we believe is the way forward. The negotiations have not started yet. And I think in any negotiating process there are always preliminary discussions in order to lay down the basis for those negotiations and this is mostly done by junior officers.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Right, and what is your commitment to a CODESA kind of arrangement with all stakeholders and not just politicians negotiating behind the scenes. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> All Zimbabweans have a stake to the future of the country and it is not the monopoly of political parties to define that path for the future of Zimbabweans. I have no hard feelings whatsoever about the participation of all Zimbabweans but you know that you have to limit the number of people that will be at the negotiating table. This is a political contest and political contest require political actors. I know the concerns of civic society but sometimes it is necessary to limit the number of actors that will be at the negotiating table and in most cases it is the political parties that actually negotiate with of course, the support of their civic society allies. But, if it can be defined as to who wants to be at that table, I have no hard feelings against anyone participating in that process.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Now, Dr Lovemore Madhuku, the NCA Chairperson, says the stakeholders in the Save Zimbabwe Campaign are not being consulted at all and that the civic society is being left out. Should they not be playing a role in these talks, even at this preliminary stage?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> Well, it depends who is consulting who. As far as I'm concerned, we, together with our civic society partners we briefed them of what is taking place but of course what Dr Madhuku is requesting is a formal place at the negotiations or at those discussions. I cannot determine who should be at that table. As I said, I've no hard and fast rule as to who should be there provided we are all guided by the fact that we need to find a way forward for the crisis. As for our civic society partners, we have a General Council. I hope that at the next General Council we will find an opportunity to brief our civic society partners as to what has been taking place. We are not hiding anything.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet: </STRONG>Who determines who participates in these talks, is it Thabo Mbeki or Robert Mugabe?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> No, it's supposed to be the mediator, the mediator is the one who determines who should be at the negotiating table. And I hope that he can determine who he wants to engage and who are the main principle protagonists in the whole process. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> And while this is going on, you said earlier that at least 600 activists have been either beaten or are in jail, meaning that the violence continues in Zimbabwe. Now do you think Thabo Mbeki has the capacity to persuade Robert Mugabe to adopt democratic reforms and dissuade him from using violence?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> Well let's say that President Thabo Mbeki has been given a mandate. Of course President Mugabe will continue to claim his sovereignty but he has got a crisis on his hands and that crisis has to be resolved. I hope that President Thabo Mbeki will impress upon President Mugabe to stop this violence because it is not contributing to the conducive atmosphere for dialogue. It is not building the necessary confidence in the Opposition ranks and such kind of state sponsored violence may actually undermine the very same negotiating process we are all aiming to achieve.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Right, and some have said that all Mbeki has to do is threaten to close the border, like what South Africa did with Ian Smith. Do you agree with this?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai: </STRONG>Well, the tactics that, the pressure that President Mbeki will use are I can't define how he will use it but I suppose that he knows his pressure points to apply and I cannot certainly determine which pressure, which tactics to use to impress upon President Mugabe </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> And finally, Mr Tsvangirai, do you think it's in Mugabe's interests to get a new Constitution? </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> Well, let me be very frank, that the country is in the crisis because it is in because it has closed all democratic space and any form of reform for Mugabe is capitulation. But without reform there is no future for the country. So, he has an option. It's a no-win situation. Without reform there is no future for the country, with reform it means that Zanu PF cannot survive the will of the people because the will of the people have already been expressed in 2002, 2005, and he knows full well that his call for recognition as a legitimate head is now hollow.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>It's like Muzorewa in 1979 where he went to an election but the election was never legitimate because it was challenged by Robert Mugabe himself. So, the current situation is that Robert Mugabe may shout, may scream, but the ultimate thing that should be upon him is that he needs the legitimacy of the people. We have reached a defining moment in so far as the next election will be very crucial in how the country is able to be rescued, is able to be saved from this current crisis. But it depends on the good will of the Ruling Party, of the Opposition in putting our heads together in finding a solution to the crisis.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>But of course, this is not of the benevolence of Zanu PF, on the part of the Opposition and on the part of the Zimbabweans, it's a demand that Zanu PF must realise it has no option unless of course they want to burn down the building, in which case of course it's suicidal.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet Gonda: </STRONG>OK, thank you very much Mr Tsvangirai.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Morgan Tsvangirai:</STRONG> Thank you bye. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet Gonda: </STRONG>And that was the leader of one of the MDCs, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai. I then caught up with the other MDC leader Professor Arthur Mutambara and constitutional law expert and civic leader Dr. Lovemore Madhuku. Welcome on the programme Hot Seat.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Arthur Mutambara:</STRONG> Thank you very much for the opportunity</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Lovemore Madhuku: </STRONG>Thank you.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet: </STRONG>I am going to start with Prof Mutambara, when you first entered mainstream or active politics last year you said the MDC needed new strategies. You said the opposition could not afford to go to elections without Plan B and also Plan C, D and E. Now elections are going to be held next year and nothing seems to be happening on the ground besides an increase in violence, what inroads have you made since last year?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Arthur Mutambara: </STRONG>Ya, in fact everything is happening on the ground. We are making it very clear that we don't want any election in our country without a new people driven constitution. We don't want elections in our country without electoral law reform. We don't want elections in our country without removal of repressive legislation such as AIPPA and POSA.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Our demands are very clear that before any elections in our country we must create conditions for free and fair elections and those demands are shared among the opposition parties and also shared with the civic society players as well. So we are very organised on the ground. We are very clear in our minds. We do not want to participate in a fraudulent process, which has predetermined results because when we do that we are basically legitimising criminal conduct on behalf of ZANU. So we are very clear on our minds as to what we want and how we are going to get. So our defiance campaigns in the country are to agitate for dialogue for communication between all stakeholders in a very inclusive way so that ZANU, civic society, the opposition parties can sit down and come up with minimum conditions that will allow us to have free and fair elections in the country. Secondly </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Violet: But what you are seeing on the ground right now in Zimbabwe, you know with the violence, is 2008 a good year for elections and does the opposition stand any chance of defeating Zanu PF if you are being brutalised?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Arthur Mutambara:</STRONG> So you must understand the sequencing of our agenda. Before you discuss elections you talk constitution. Before you talk elections you talk electoral law reform. Before you talk constitution you talk about removing AIPPA and POSA. That is the first business of the day. After that then we say once we have conditions for free and fair elections how do we fight those elections? How do we ensure we will win? That's where we come to the second agenda, which says a united front informed by a single candidate principle where in every election presidential, parliament, senate, mayoral, council there will be one candidate in every constituency against Mugabe. We will make sure every vote will count against Mugabe. That's part two on the agenda. After we have achieved minimum conditions then we are going to make sure as the opposition in Zimbabwe, as opposition parties, we are going to close ranks. We are going to put national interests before self interests and push for a united front inspired by a single candidate philosophy as our stage two in our struggle to destroy and defeat Zanu PF.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Now Dr. Madhuku, this is what the opposition would want to see happening in Zimbabwe but with the situation as it is right now, do you see these things happening?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Lovemore Madhuku: </STRONG>Ya, very much so. I think the whole point that Professor Mutambara is making is that we simply have to have a clear agenda and the agenda that we have is to democratise our country. You create conditions that will allow Zimbabweans to participate fully in the political processes. So we are working on a programme of unity, fight together for a new constitution, fight together for electoral reform, and get repressive legislation removed.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Once you have these things done and clearly you can move on to the next stage, which he says really clearly where the political parties have to play the role now. You know campaigning, getting one candidate and so forth. So these things can happen and they are actually happening. I think you have already seen what has already happened in the past one month or so.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Now you have been organising street protests in Zimbabwe for about 7 years and some people will say all that has been noted is the brutality of the regime. In your opinion what effect have the demonstrations had or what have demonstrations achieved so far?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Lovemore Madhuku: </STRONG>They have achieved a lot. What they have not achieved is to produce a new constitution but have achieved everything else that we have been intending. Conscientising the public, get people to realise what they have to do. As we speak now I am very happy that all the forces in the country believe that we need a new people driven democratic constitution. That's what those demonstrations have been all about and that is an achievement. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Professor Mutambara are constitutional reforms an antidote to national despair and isn't more required like accountability & transparency? </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Arthur Mutambara:</STRONG> The constitution is a starting point. It defines the terms of reference of our struggle. Everything else follows after the constitution. As Dr. Madhuku would like to put it, "seek first the kingdom of the new constitution everything else will follow." So we believe that unless and until we resolve the issues around the constitution we can't even begin to talk about transparency, accountability these are secondary matters. Once we have in place a people driven democratic constitution we then move on to resolve the issue of illegitimacy in our country, resolve the issue of governance in our country, resolve the issue of our economy, the economic stabilisation, economic recovery, economic transformation, to convert Zimbabwe from the economic crisis from poverty to the promise land to make Zimbabwe a globally competitive economy. To make Zimbabwe a country characterised by business growth, entrepreneurship, beneficiation, exports and FDI. Those things cannot happen unless and until we resolve the agenda of the big law the framework sector in our country, which is the constitution. So it is not incidental it is the main agenda. And then electoral law reforms and removal of AIPPA will allow us to have these free and fair elections so that whoever is elected President they are not contested, they are not challenged by those who have lost. As long as we go through elections that are fraudulent, that are defined by a fraud we cannot have legitimacy in our country. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>On brutality and violence: it is a confirmation of what we have said all along. Mugabe is a brutal dictator. Mugabe is not a liberator. Mugabe is not a land revolutionary he is simply a despot who is brutalising Africans Black Africans! Who is denying Africans human rights, who is denying Africans economic rights and economic opportunities and so the violence taking place in the country the torture and brutally is a clear demonstration to Africans that Mugabe has become a negation of the liberation war. Mugabe has become a negation of the principles of emancipation, freedom and justice and consequently Africans in SADC, Africans in South Africa, Africans in Africa and the Diaspora must stand together with the opposition in their condemnation and fight against Mugabe. What are we doing about it </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet: </STRONG>We will come back to the issue of what Africa can do about the situation in Zimbabwe but I want to go back to the issue of Mugabe and the constitution. Now he has vowed that he will never allow the opposition the MDC, to take power while he is alive. Now do you honestly think it is in Mugabe's interest to get a new constitution?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Arthur Mutambara:</STRONG> Here is the answer. Yes, Mugabe does not want to give us a new constitution. Yes, Mugabe does not want to give us electoral reforms. Yes, Mugabe does not want to give up POSA and AIPPA but what choice does he have? We are not depending on Mugabe to commit political suicide. We are not depending on Mugabe to self-destruct on our behalf! We are saying the people of Zimbabwe will force Mugabe screaming and shouting to the negotiating table. The people of the region the Africans will force Mugabe to do what is right about Zimbabwe. We are not depending on his benevolence. He has no choice but to give in to the demands of the people of Zimbabwe. In the same way that Ian Smith gave in to the people of Zimbabwe. In the same way that the South African Whites gave in to a new dispensation. He has no choice but to give justice, independence and freedom a chance in our country. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> Now what about this SADC initiative. Is it reasonable to expect much from South Africa's mediation?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Arthur Mutambara:</STRONG> Yes, we believe that the SADC summit was a great victory for the people of Zimbabwe. Mugabe tried to grandstand and give an impression that he won at the SADC summit. That it was an excellent meeting and it was victory for him. It wasn't. He was grilled at the SADC meeting and the Africans made it clear to him they won't allow his behaviour and conduct within SADC. What they did publicly was to do some PR to appear as if they are not taking instructions from Europe and America. But the content of that debate was positive for the people of Zimbabwe. The fact that they met to discuss Zimbabwe is victory. The fact that they came up with a mandate for Mbeki and appointed Mbeki as an inter-mediator and facilitator was victory. It is an acceptance that Mugabe has failed to run the affairs of our country.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>So we have cautious optimism that something will come out of the initiative and we are saying to the West, we are saying to everyone let's allow the Africans space to intervene and try to bring about change in the country. So we are very keen to make sure that we give SADC a chance, that we give Mbeki a chance to facilitate dialogue among Zimbabweans. Mugabe lost at that summit. He tried to carry out propaganda but if you look at the details of that conference Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia gave Mugabe a roasting on the issues of Zimbabwe. And now Mbeki is operating with a regional mandate, which mandate says there must be dialogue among Zimbabweans. Zimbabweans must become masters of their own destiny.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>South Africa cannot succeed when there is chaos in Zimbabwe. South Africa cannot have the 2010 soccer the World Cup in their country, when there is chaos in Zimbabwe. So South Africa has a vested interest to ensure that there is progress and there is dialogue and resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis for purely their own national strategic interests. There is no way in hell South Africa can have a successful 2010 World Cup when there is chaos in our country. The demise of Zimbabwe is the demise of SADC, the demise of Zimbabwe is the demise of South Africa. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> But Dr. Madhuku, if there should be dialogue among Zimbabweans things seem to be going on at a higher and only political level right now what role is the civic society playing in these negotiations?</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Lovemore Madhuku:</STRONG> Well I think before I answer that I wanted to just add a point there that the success of the SADC initiatives, Mbeki's involvement, would depend very much on what kind of pressure is going to be exerted on Mugabe internally here I think more and more pressure would have to be put before the initiative itself has chances of success. To come to your question, which is the involvement of civic society, I think we still are going to be involved. We have not yet been involved at the level of the discussions. I am not sure how much has taken place at the moment. But I believe that at some point we will be asked to get involved. But at the moment not yet. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet: </STRONG>When I spoke with you for our Newsreel programme you had said that civic society were not being consulted about this, is this still an issue with the civic society? </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Lovemore Madhuku:</STRONG> It's obviously an issue. But there has been some development. Some of our colleagues from the political parties have been talking to us just giving us some information on what they have been discussing with the South African officials. But that is still very much informal. We really don't know what type of negotiations are going to take place. We really are not clear on this, I should be honest with you. The civics don't know what is happening. We believe that when the time comes for us to be involved we really have to put our issues.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>We are currently happy that the political parties are speaking the language that we are all sharing, the language of fighting for a new constitution, democratising space before elections. But we don't trust political parties. We know that when the time comes there will be a lot of compromises that will be made and it is at the stage of making compromises where we feel that we need to be more alert ourselves as civic society because we are obviously operating from a different angle. Political parties seek power we want to get into office. Professor Mutambara has been speaking very well but we are not ourselves believing that they will go all the way - the way he is speaking. I mean if he is going to do that then he will get all our trust but this habit that politicians tend to change and tend to make compromises and that is where we have difficulties. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet:</STRONG> And also still on that issue, will dialogue alone work and do you have faith in this Mbeki led initiative? </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Lovemore Madhuku:</STRONG> I think we should give it a lot of chance really because at the moment it is an initiative that is coming after clear action on the ground in Zimbabwe and then it's also really blessed by SADC. It's a SADC initiative; I think it's better to be described as a SADC initiative. And so we should give it hope but our problem here is that we continue to hear Mugabe making quite militant statements and his latest outburst recently at the Independence celebrations at Rufaro (Stadium) tends to show that he is still believing that there should be no pre-conditions relating to the 2002 Presidential election and he keeps on accusing the opposition and all of us of being puppets of the West and I believe he wants to buy time.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>And if the mediation process does not take place quickly, then we run the risk that Mugabe will simply once again put in place an election time table that does not take into account the mediation efforts. And it will be at that point that two things will have to be clear.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>First what SADC would say if Mugabe starts initiating electoral processes and then secondly - what the road for civic society and the opposition would say because once he initiates electoral processes there has to be a response. Either a response of saying "well will allow Mugabe to go on" because let me give you an example, under the initiatives that Zanu PF has brought up is the question of trying to put Amendment 18 to the constitution.</FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>I foresee a situation where you need two months for bills to be gazetted, which is already a process to amend the constitution the way Mugabe has been doing it. It is responses to those kinds of initiatives, which will tell whether there is any serious efforts on the part of SADC to really resolve the crisis here and also whether there is any serious effort among ourselves to respond really decisively to those kind of initiatives. </FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>Violet Gonda:</STRONG> We spoke to Professor Arthur Mutambara and Dr. Lovemore Madhuku for an extended period of time about many issues and we will bring you more of that interview on Tuesday's Hot Seat programme next week. </FONT></div> <div> </div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT color=#000000> <SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-3811101359216804"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 15; google_ad_format = "468x15_0ads_al"; google_ad_channel = ""; //--></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type=text/javascript> </SCRIPT> </FONT></FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT color=#000000></FONT></FONT></div></DIV> <DIV align=left> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><EM>Audio interview can be heard on SW Radio Africa's Hot Seat programme. </EM></FONT></div> <div><EM></EM> </div> <div><A href="http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview34.16355.html">http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/interview34.16355.html</A></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><EM></EM></FONT> </div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><EM>Comments and feedback can be emailed to <A href="mailto:violet@swradioafrica.com">violet@swradioafrica.com</A></EM></FONT></div> <div><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT color=#000000><A href="http://newzim.proboards29.com/index.cgi?"><STRONG>JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS</STRONG></A><STRONG><BR><A href="mailto:newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com">newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com</A></STRONG></FONT></FONT></div></DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. <a href="http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTEydmViNG02BF9TAzIxMTQ3MTcxOTAEc2VjA21haWwEc2xrA3RhZ2xpbmU">Try it now</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-55865077803455997112007-05-02T07:08:00.000+02:002007-05-02T07:10:21.529+02:00BILL SAIDI LOOKS AT ABUSE OF PARLIAMENT!CLICK ON HEADER FOR LINK!<br /><br /><strong>By Bill Saidi<br /><br /><br />THE Nigerian election farce, fiasco or charade -- even they spoke of it with a sneer, a smirk -- reminded me of this quip by John Makumbe a few years ago:<br /><br />The President can run this country without Parliament.<br /><br /> <br />And now, we hear noises the Chinese will finance the construction of a new Parliament building.<br /><br />Zanu PF intends to boost the number of Senators and Members of the House of Assembly.<br /><br />That strategy is not in the national interests, but those of Zanu PF and the dignified exit of their president. The party has other strategies up its sleeve, most dedicated only to its survival.<br /><br />Who needs a pretension monstrosity when ordinary people are jobless, food-less, water-less and power-less?<br /><br />Moreover, who needs Parliament when Zanu PF can bash its way to power?<br /><br />The Nigerian charade was held after Olusegun Obasanjo failed to persuade, coerce, browbeat or seduce his people into giving him a third term.<br /><br />His retribution was to unleash his wrath on his Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, using trumped-up charges, which, like defective glue, could not stick.<br /><br />Abubakar, like many other Nigerians, saw an Obasanjo third term as an unmitigated disaster.<br /><br />Moreover, he only managed to get his name on the ballot after the Supreme Court decided there was no reason for him not to challenge for the plum job.<br /><br />Obasanjo's party did well in other elections before the presidential poll. How those elections could have been fairer and freer than the big one is impossible to imagine.<br /><br />Obasanjo himself admitted the elections were "flawed", now acknowledged as a euphemism for "rigged".<br /><br />But the former soldier ruler said this was not enough to make a difference to the outcome, by which he meant "you can take it or lump it".<br /><br />Yet, as I write this, Abubakar and his opposition partner, Mohamed Buhari -- himself a former military dictator -- were announcing a plan to call out their people into the streets to protest.<br /><br />It's difficult to predict how Obasanjo's "dummy", Umaru Musa Yar' Adua, will survive the opposition onslaught, or the fury of the military, who may want to influence matters in the only way they know how.<br /><br />After a bold attempt to return the country to another civilian administration, Nigeria could be back to gun rule.<br /><br />It makes you wonder whether there is something about African genes which reacts violently to the injection of freedom enzymes. Are we happiest in bondage?<br /><br />Is the idea of a real Parliame-nt alien to the African psyche?<br /><br />Tafadzwa Musekiwa might tell us a thing or two. He was an MP, but decided it wasn't worth dying for. He fled to the UK.<br /><br />What prompted Makumbe to say what he said was that, under an all-powerful executive president, there was very little for Parliament to do, except to shout the occasional Aye! and Nyet!<br /><br />The history of the Parliament of Zimbabwe since independence is one of Dzepfunde! After a few sentences, the Shona storyteller pauses for the listeners to acknowledge with Dzepfunde!<br /><br />The former Zanu PF MP for Mhondoro, Mavis Chidzonga, delighted her audience of journalists and MPs with that characterisation of the then single-chamber Parliament at a 1998 meeting in Nyanga.<br /><br />There have been patches of humour, drama and passion during these days of sycophancy.<br /><br />After 2000, there were many expulsions from the House, giving us real fun for a change.<br /><br />Before that, exchanges between white and black MPs during the 20 Reserved Seats period provided pure comic theatre.<br /><br />Edgar Tekere and Margaret Dongo made their own magic with telling barbs at their former party.<br /><br />Before the executive presidency removed the Prime Minister, Question Time provided memorable comic relief to the deadly dull business of the House.<br /><br />As Prime Minister, Robert Mugabe was put through the wringer by Backbenchers, some of who delighted in embarrassing the often stern-faced Prime Minister with questions cooked up in such gobbledygook. Mugabe could only mumble something about referring them to his officials.<br /><br />As an instrument for real democratic change, Parliament has been as effective as a willow in a windstorm. On a number of occasions, Mugabe has used the Presidential Powers Act to put into effect laws not debated in Parliament.<br /><br />One effect was to settle the ownership of a house in a high-density suburb, another on the speed limit of buses.<br /><br />These laws are effective only for a specified period, but their effect has often changed people's lives.<br /><br />Relevant Links <br /> <br />Southern Africa <br />West Africa <br />Zimbabwe <br />Nigeria <br />Asia, Australia, and Africa <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />All this has made Parliament mostly redundant. So, what purpose does an election serve? Stuffing a whole building with more than 250 or more people in stuffed shirts, designer suits and skirts and blouses and Gucci shoes, to engage in a never-ending charade of backslapping, is hardly the stuff of which good governance is made.<br /><br />In Zimbabwe today, everything must start and end with a new constitution. Otherwise, abolish Parliament and give me back my tax money.<br /><br />Or let the Chinese buy and operate ZINWA, Zesa and Zupco with the billions.</strong>The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-45038355980140334192007-04-30T12:10:00.001+02:002007-04-30T12:10:16.679+02:00Press walks a thin line in Zimbabwe!<H1><STRONG>Some papers surviving crackdown on dissent </STRONG></H1> <DIV class=subheadline><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV class=byline><STRONG>By Scott Calvert</STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=byline><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV class=titleline><STRONG>Sun Foreign Reporter</STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=titleline><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV class=date><STRONG>Originally published April 30, 2007</STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=date><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV class=date><STRONG><A href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.zimbabwe30apr30,0,2787324.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines"><FONT size=1>http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.zimbabwe30apr30,0,2787324.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines</FONT></A></STRONG></DIV> <DIV class=date> </DIV> <DIV class=text><SPAN class=story-dateline>JOHANNESBURG, South Africa // </SPAN>It was an error that would have chagrined most newspapers. But editors at Zimbabwe's weekly Standard felt another emotion - fear - when an article this year misstated the type of fancy Mercedes-Benz delivered to the central bank governor. <DIV>The bank threatened to go to the Media and Information Commission, which licenses newspapers, recalled Deputy Editor Bill Saidi. He worried that the commission might use that "falsehood" to close the newspaper, just as it had shut down three others in recent years for running afoul of Zimbabwe's draconian press laws. <DIV> <TABLE id=cubead style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 6px 10px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap"> <DIV style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px" align=center><BR> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/trb.baltimoresun/news/natworld;ptype=s;slug=bal-tezimbabwe30apr30;rg=ur;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=97560283?" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT> <SCRIPT language=JavaScript1.1 src="http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/js/3344-15254-7490-5?mpt=4870392&mpvc=http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh=v8/3544/3/0/%2a/v%3B94876447%3B0-0%3B0%3B12924988%3B4307-300/250%3B20588296/20606190/1%3B%3B%7Eaopt%3D2/0/ff/0%3B%7Esscs%3D%3f"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh=v8/3544/3/0/%2a/v%3B94876447%3B0-0%3B0%3B12924988%3B4307-300/250%3B20588296/20606190/1%3B%3B%7Eaopt%3D2/0/ff/0%3B%7Esscs%3D%3fhttp://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/3344-15254-7490-5?mpt=4870392 "> <img src="http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/bn/3344-15254-7490-5?mpt=4870392" alt="Click Here to Visit Richmond American Homes" border="0"> </a> </NOSCRIPT> <SCRIPT language=VBScript> on error resume next For mp_i=11 To 6 Step -1 If Not IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash." & mp_i)) Then Else mp_swver=mp_i Exit For End If Next </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/trb.baltimoresun/news/natworld;ptype=s;slug=bal-tezimbabwe30apr30;rg=ur;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=97560283?" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/trb.baltimoresun/news/natworld;ptype=s;slug=bal-tezimbabwe30apr30;rg=ur;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=97560283?" width="300" height="250" border="0" alt=""></a></NOSCRIPT></DIV> <DIV style="BORDER-RIGHT: #036 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: #036 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 9px 0px 0px; BORDER-LEFT: #036 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #036 1px solid"> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD><!-- quigo adsonar content ads begin--><!-- quigo adsonar content ads end--></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>"We do make the occasional mistake," Saidi said in an interview, "but what's terrible about the situation here is they consider it a crime. And for that, you can actually get banned." <DIV>The Standard survived the car gaffe and continues to publish, conscious that the plug could be pulled anytime. It and a sister business paper, the Zimbabwe Independent, are among the last independent news sources left in Zimbabwe, where the repressive regime of President Robert G. Mugabe has moved to silence dissent as the country plunges ever deeper into economic meltdown. <DIV>There are various theories for why the government has let The Standard operate. Those include its small circulation of 23,000 and a possible desire by authorities to use it as evidence of supposed press freedoms. The chairman of the media commission, reached in the capital, Harare, would not answer questions over the telephone. <DIV>Whatever the case, the result is a situation where parallel realities are presented for Zimbabweans to consider. <DIV>According to state media (most newspapers, all television, all radio), Zimbabwe's woes are the work of a fire-bombing opposition and meddling by Britain and the United States, which are overly concerned with evicted white farmers. <DIV>But every Sunday, The Standard paints a different picture: That Mugabe's ruling party has brought on the southern African country's slide from prosperity to poverty through self-serving, corrupt policies, and that it now uses state violence to suppress calls for change. <DIV>In the past, reporters have been arrested for writing that Mugabe "commandeered" a jet of the national Air Zimbabwe for personal purposes. And since 2002, all newspapers must obtain a government license or face criminal charges; individual journalists must be registered. <DIV>Given the climate, the newspaper's pointed critiques of Mugabe's 27-year-old regime have been remarkable, media observers say. "I think it's heroic that they're publishing that kind of stuff in this environment," said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York. <DIV>In late March, freelance cameraman Edward Chikomba was abducted by armed men and killed, reportedly after video he shot of police brutality made it out of Zimbabwe and onto international airwaves. Simon has written to the Zimbabwean police asking that Chikomba's death and the beatings of three other journalists (none from The Standard's staff) be investigated. <DIV>At The Standard, Saidi received a bullet and threatening note in the mail after a January article detailed the desertion of soldiers from Zimbabwe's army. He also found a nail suspiciously embedded in one of his car's tires and says he constantly checks to see if he is being followed. <DIV>Yet he has not been tempted to quit. "So far, nothing has deterred me; I don't think anything will," he said. "We owe it to the country to tell the other side of the story, as it were." <DIV>The Sunday Mail bills itself as "the most widely read family newspaper." Although it is not clear how many copies are printed, the government-controlled paper circulates widely. It is the sister paper of The Daily Herald. The twice-as-expensive Standard circulates mainly in Harare. And with its price rising to the equivalent of about 70 cents in U.S. currency to keep up with runaway inflation, few ordinary Zimbabweans can afford The Standard. <DIV>On April 22, The Sunday Mail reported that a house at the Glen Norah police camp was bombed "by suspected MDC supporters in yet another round of unprovoked attacks on the law enforcement agents." MDC stands for the Movement for Democratic Change, the main but fractured opposition party. <DIV>No one was hurt, the article reported. A police superintendent said it was the 11th "terror bomb" in a month and that "thugs and people bent on causing mayhem in the country are at work." <DIV>Also on the front page was an article about a deal with China to give Zimbabwe farm equipment worth $25 million in return for tobacco. A photo showed a grinning Mugabe, 83, and a Chinese official holding an oversized yellow key. The article noted that Mugabe's "Look East" policy was "bearing fruit." <DIV>The same day's Standard did not report on any bombing or the China deal. Its front page had two other articles. The first, "Police intensify MDC repression," stated that police had "continued abductions and arrests of opposition MDC activists in a purge apparently ordered by a desperate government ahead of next year's elections." <DIV>That bylined article said that an MDC official was abducted from his home and that two others with opposition ties were arrested. An MDC lawyer said police had confirmed the arrests but would not tell him where the activists were being held or give other details. <DIV>The other article quoted unnamed "ruling party sources" to portray divisions within the Zanu PF party on Mugabe's stated intentions to stand for re-election next year. The lone person quoted by name was the minister of information and publicity, who confirmed only that Mugabe's Cabinet had sent proposed electoral changes back to Zanu PF's central committee for further discussion. <DIV>The differences between the papers extend to the opinion pages. The Sunday Mail printed a letter to the editor under the heading, "Criticism levelled against President unwarranted." On the same page was an essay by Tafataona Mahoso - executive chairman of the Media and Information Commission - railing against the limited sanctions imposed by "Britain and their white racist allies." <DIV>Meanwhile, in The Standard, Saidi wrote a withering column titled "Nation of bashers, bashees, eunuchs." Bashers are Mugabe allies who think "any citizen who doesn't subscribe to this doctrine deserves to be bashed, which can be broken down into a thorough beating, imprisonment without trial and death." <DIV>The bashee, he wrote, "is likely to be a citizen who demands accountability from the government," while eunuchs are "politically castrated" wealthy individuals who eschew politics and focus on making more money. <DIV>Another column ran under the headline, "The godfathers of the Zanu PF Mafia." <DIV>The publisher of The Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent, Trevor Ncube, said his staff tries hard to avoid breaking any laws, mainly by being accurate. Still, he cannot say for sure why his papers have not been shuttered. (One other independent paper exists: The Zimbabwean, which is printed outside Zimbabwe and trucked in weekly.) <DIV>"I'm a devout Christian, and I believe it is by the grace of God; nothing else would explain it," Ncube said at the Johannesburg office of a South African newspaper he also runs. "They see me as an enemy of the state, sponsored by the British government." <DIV>Attempts to contact The Sunday Mail were unsuccessful. Repeated phone calls did not go through, and an e-mail went unanswered. <DIV>At the Media and Information Commission, Mahoso declined to comment by phone, saying, "It's difficult these days to carry out interviews over the phone. You don't actually know who is on the other side."</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. <a href="http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTEydmViNG02BF9TAzIxMTQ3MTcxOTAEc2VjA21haWwEc2xrA3RhZ2xpbmU">Try it now</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-16186380939961306962007-04-30T07:34:00.001+02:002007-04-30T07:34:19.637+02:00"You Can't Kill Journalism!" WILF MBANGA.<H3 class=entry-header><A href="http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2007/04/you_cant_kill_j.html"><FONT size=1>http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2007/04/you_cant_kill_j.html</FONT></A></H3> <DIV class=entry-content> <DIV class=entry-body> <DIV><EM><A href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37541"><FONT color=#003366><STRONG>A new IPS interview</STRONG></FONT></A><STRONG>...</STRONG></EM></DIV> <DIV><EM></EM> </DIV> <DIV><EM><STRONG>Zimbabwean publisher and editor Wilf Mbanga will mark this year's World Press Freedom Day (May 3) in Britain, along with several other reporters from his country who have fled the repressive regime of President Robert Mugabe. As the political and economic difficulties gripping Zimbabwe have intensified, so have [the] government's efforts to clamp down on journalists covering the crisis.<BR><BR>Media is restricted in its activities by legislation, notably the 2002 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which requires all reporters and media organisations to register with the Media and Information Commission (MIC), controlled by government. <BR><BR>The law has enabled officials to take action against press outlets which have been critical of Mugabe's rule, such as Zimbabwe's sole privately owned daily -- the 'Daily News'. This paper was denied registration, and shut down in 2003. <BR><BR>In addition, journalists who work without MIC authorisation face legal action. But, this may be the least of the dangers facing them, as the recent abduction and murder of Zimbabwean cameraman Edward Chikomba suggests. A former employee of the state broadcaster, he was reportedly beaten to death, and his body dumped outside the capital of Harare in March. <BR><BR>The killing has been linked to Chikomba's alleged leaking to international media of footage showing the injuries sustained by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, during a Mar. 11 prayer meeting in Harare that was violently dispersed by police. Images of the battered Movement for Democratic Change official were viewed around the world, prompting renewed criticism of the situation in Zimbabwe. Foreign correspondents are effectively blocked from working in the country. <BR><BR>Mbanga has responded to these challenges by editing and publishing a weekly, </STRONG><A href="http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/"><FONT color=#003366><STRONG>'The Zimbabwean'</STRONG></FONT></A><STRONG>, outside his country -- then getting the papers back across the border into Zimbabwe. He spoke to IPS writer Moyiga Nduru about the difficulties faced in putting out the publication.</STRONG></EM><STRONG> <BR><BR>IPS: Where do you publish? <BR><BR>Wilf Mbanga (WM): We publish simultaneously in London and Johannesburg. Since the draconian AIPPA laws were promulgated in 2002, five newspapers have been closed. This makes it impossible for us to operate in Zimbabwe. <BR><BR>On top of that, there's a hit list of 27 names Somebody posted a copy of the list to me; we think [that] it's a scare tactic. We scanned and published it in 'The Zimbabwean' There are only two journalists on that list -- myself and Gift Phiri, our correspondent in Zimbabwe. The rest are politicians and civic leaders such as Morgan Tsvangirai and Lovemore Madhuku. <BR><BR>IPS: What's your circulation? <BR><BR>WM: We began with 5,000 copies in 2005. Now we distribute 40,000 copies weekly We could send more if we had the means. The problem is transport Interestingly, there's also demand for second-hand newspapers. People read it and sell it. <BR><BR>IPS: How is the newspaper delivered to Zimbabwe? <BR><BR>WM: We move the papers by road transport; it's expensive to transport it by air. In Zimbabwe, it's sold freely on the streets of Harare and Bulawayo. <BR><BR>IPS: Doesn't this indicate a certain tolerance for freedom of expression in Zimbabwe? <BR><BR>WM: You can't say [that] there's freedom in Zimbabwe The government monopolises the media: it owns two dailies and four weeklies. Zimbabwe's only TV station and radio stations are owned by the government They refused to grant licences to private radio and television stations. They have gone to the extent of confiscating radio sets in rural areas so that people cannot listen to foreign news. <BR><BR>IPS: Do officials tamper with your newspaper in any way? <BR><BR>WM: So far they haven't tampered with it, but they intimidate our vendors. Recently, a (cabinet) minister was spotted buying a copy of 'The Zimbabwean' and reading it (laughing) There's incredible thirst for news in Zimbabwe I have got people on the ground who send me stories and pictures whenever something happens. Some of them are not even journalists. <BR><BR>IPS: Recently, Gift Phiri was reported as having been abducted and tortured by state security agents. What is his situation at present? <BR><BR>WM: Gift has joined the long list of journalists who've been arrested and tortured. He's much better now, but they broke his fingers, which makes it difficult for him to type. The beatings on his soles and buttocks were severe. For days he could not stand or sit. He's undergoing psychological counseling; he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming that they are coming to get him More than 100 journalists have been arrested, detained and tortured in Zimbabwe since 2002. No-one has been convicted (for these crimes). <BR><BR>IPS: How many journalists have left Zimbabwe? <BR><BR>WM: I don't have the figure. But almost the entire staff of the 'Daily News' has left the country. It was the largest employer of journalists in the private media. <BR><BR>IPS: How do you see the future of journalism in Zimbabwe? <BR><BR>WM: You can't kill journalism. We have young talented journalists who are interested in getting stories out. <BR><BR>IPS: There are claims that your paper receives funding from Britain, which Mugabe has long accused of seeking to destabilise Zimbabwe. What's your reaction to this? <BR><BR>WM: This is not true. We appeal for funding from well wishers. We got assistance from organisations such as the Open Society (in South Africa), Free Voice and Press Now in the Netherlands. We have not received assistance from the British establishment We have attacked the British government in our editorials. We don't see eye-to-eye with the British government on asylum cases for Zimbabweans. <BR><BR>(But) they don't kick us out of Britain for criticising them. They don't accuse us of being a puppet of Mugabe or Zimbabwe.</STRONG></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-42521624565582101082007-04-29T08:20:00.001+02:002007-04-29T08:20:27.441+02:00ZIMBABWE'S LONELY FIGHT FOR JUSTICE!<H2>Zimbabwe's Lonely Fight for Justice</H2> <DIV class=entry><SPAN class=jump><A href="http://inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com/2007/04/28/zimbabwes-lonely-fight-for-justice-2/#comments"><FONT color=#000000>Jump to Comments</FONT></A></SPAN> <DIV class=snap_preview> <DIV><STRONG>Stephen Gowans</STRONG><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=1><BR></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>March 30, 2007</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><A href="http://inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com/2007/04/28/zimbabwes-lonely-fight-for-justice-2/"><FONT size=1>http://inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com/2007/04/28/zimbabwes-lonely-fight-for-justice-2/</FONT></A><BR></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=1><BR></FONT><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Ever since veterans of the guerrilla war against apartheid Rhodesia violently seized white-owned farms in Zimbabwe, the country?s president, Robert Mugabe, has been demonized by politicians, human rights organizations and the media in the West. </FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>His crimes, according to right-wing sources, are numerous: human rights abuses, election rigging, repression of political opponents, corruption, and mismanagement of the economy. Leftist detractors say Mugabe talks left and walks right, and that his anti-imperialist rhetoric is pure demagogy.</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I?m going to argue that the basis for Mugabe's demonization is the desire of Western powers to change the economic and land redistribution policies Mugabe's government has pursued; that his lapses from liberal democratic rectitude are, in themselves, of little moment to decision makers in Washington and London; and that the ultimate aim of regime change is to replace Mugabe with someone who can be counted on to reliably look after Western interests, and particularly British investments, in Zimbabwe.</DIV> <DIV>I am also going to argue that the Zanu-PF government?s abridgment of formal liberties (including freedom of assembly and freedom to travel outside the country) are warranted restraints, justified by the need to protect the political program of the elected government from hostile outside interference. In making this argument I am challenging a widely held, and often unexamined, view that civil and political liberties are senior to all other liberties, including rights related to economic sovereignty and freedom from oppression and exploitation.</DIV> <DIV>Before 1980 Zimbabwe was a white-supremacist British colony named after the British financier Cecil Rhodes, whose company, the British South Africa Company, stole the land from the indigenous Matabele and Mashona people in the 1890s. British soldiers, who laid claim to the land by force of arms on behalf of Rhodes, were each rewarded with nine square miles of territory. The Matabele and Mashona those who weren't killed in the British land grab were rewarded with dispossession, grinding poverty, misery and subjugation. By the turn of this century, in a country of 13 million, almost 70 percent of the country's arable agricultural land was owned by some 4,500 mostly white farmers, many descendant from the original British settlers.</DIV> <DIV>After a long campaign for national liberation, independence talks were held in 1979. Talks almost broke down over the land question, but Washington and London, eager for a settlement, agreed to ante up and provide financial support for a comprehensive land reform program. This, however, was to be short-lived. Britain found a way to wriggle out of its commitment, blocking the march toward the national liberation struggle?s principal goal.</DIV> <DIV>George Shire's grandfather Mhepo Mavakire used to farm land in Zimbabwe, before it was handed to a white man after the Second World War. Shire argues that "The unequal distribution of land in Zimbabwe was one of the major factors that inspired the rural-based liberation war against white rule and has been a source of continual popular agitation ever since." (1)</DIV> <DIV>"The government," says Shire, "struggled to find a consensual way to transfer land," but with inadequate funds and insufficient assistance from London, land reform made little headway. (2) Frustrated, and under pressure from war veterans who had grown tired of waiting for the land reform they'd fought for, Mugabe embarked on a course that would lead him headlong into collision with Western governments. He passed legislation enabling the government to seize nearly 1,500 farms owned by white Zimbabweans, without compensation. As Zimbabwe's Foreign Affairs Minister from 1995 to 2005, Stan Mudenge put it, at that point "all hell broke loose." (3) Having held free and fair elections on time, and having won them, Mugabe now became an international pariah. Overnight, he was transformed into a dictator, a stealer of elections and a thug.</DIV> <DIV>Displeased with Mugabe?s fast track land reform program and irritated by other economic policies the Mugabe government was pursuing, the EU concluded that Mugabe would have to go, and that he would have to be forced out by civil society, the union movement or NGO's, uprisings in the street, or a military coup. On 24 January, 1999, a meeting was convened at the Royal Institute of International Affairs to discuss the EU?s conclusion. The theme of the meeting, led by Richard Dowden, now the executive director of the ppro-imperialist Royal African Society, was "Zimbabwe - Time for Mugabe to Go?" Mugabe's "confiscating" of white-held land compelled an unequivocal yes to the conference's rhetorical question. Dowden presented four options:</DIV> <DIV>1) a military coup;</DIV> <DIV>2) buying the opposition;</DIV> <DIV>3) insurrection;</DIV> <DIV>4) subverting Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.</DIV> <DIV>A few months later, Washington weighed in. The US State Department held a seminar to discuss a strategy for dealing with the "Zimbabwe crisis." Civil society and the opposition would be strengthened to foment discontent and dissent. The opposition would be brought together under a single banner to enhance its chances of success at the polls and funding would be funnelled to the opposition through Western backed NGO's. Dissident groups could be strengthened and encouraged to take to the streets. (4)</DIV> <DIV><STRONG>The Milosevic Treatment</STRONG></DIV> <DIV>The program the US State Department prescribed to rid Zimbabwe of Mugabe and his land reform politics had been used successfully to oust Yugoslavia?s president Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. The basis of the program is to pressure the civilian population through a program of bombing, sanctions or military threat, in order to galvanize the population to rise up against its government, the proximal cause of its discomfort. (In Zimbabwe, the hoped for response is: If only Mugabe hadn't antagonized the West, we wouldn't be under this pressure.) This was illustrated by US Air Force General, Michael Short, who explained the purpose of the NATO?s 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia was to create disaffection with Milosevic. "If you wake up in the<BR>morning," explained Short, "and you have no power to your house and no gas to your stove and the bridge you take to work is down and will be lying in the Danube for the next 20 years, I think you begin to ask, 'Hey, Slobo, what's this all about? How much more of this do we have to withstand?'" (5)</DIV> <DIV>Paired with outside pressure is the enlistment of a political opposition and grassroots movement to discipline and organize the population's disaffection so that it's channelled in the direction of forcing the government to step down. Western powers create the pain, and inject a fifth column of 'democracy' activists and a 'democratic' opposition to offer the removal of the current government as the cure. In the end, the people administer the cure themselves. Because the Milosevic treatment is typically deployed against the leaders of revolutionary societies (though the revolution may have happened some time ago), the opposition can be thought of as a counter-revolutionary vanguard. The vanguard has two components: a formal political opposition, whose job it is to contest elections and cry foul when it doesn't win, and an underground grassroots movement, mandated to carry out extra-parliamentary agitation and to take to the streets in planned 'spontaneous' uprisings, using allegations of electoral fraud as a pretext for pursuing insurrectionary politics.</DIV> <DIV>In Yugoslavia, the underground movement, known as <EM><STRONG>Otpor</STRONG></EM>, was established, funded, trained and organized by the US State Department, USAID, the US Congress-funded <EM><STRONG>National Endowment for Democracy</STRONG></EM> (which is said to do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly) and through various NGO's like <EM><STRONG>Freedom House</STRONG></EM>, whose board of directors has included a rogues' gallery of US ruling class activists: Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Otto Reich, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Steve Forbes.</DIV> <DIV>Otpor has been the inspiration for similar groups elsewhere: <EM><STRONG>Zubr</STRONG></EM> in Belarus, <EM><STRONG>Khmara</STRONG></EM> in Georgia, <EM><STRONG>Pora</STRONG></EM> in the Ukraine. Otpor's Zimbabwean progeny include <EM><STRONG>Zvakwana</STRONG></EM>, "an underground movement that aims to undermine" the Mugabe government and Sokwanele, whose "members specialize in anonymous acts of civil disobedience." (6) Both groups receive generous financing from Western sources. (7) While the original, Otpor, was largely a youth-oriented anarchist-leaning movement, at least one member of Sokwanele is "A conservative white businessman expressing a passion for freedom, tradition, polite manners and the British Royals." (8)</DIV> <DIV>Members of Zvakwana say their movement is homegrown and free of foreign control. (9) It may be homegrown, and its operatives may sincerely believe they chart their own course, but the group is almost certainly not free of foreign funding. The US Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, signed into law by US President George W. Bush in December 2001, empowers the president under the US Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to "support democratic institutions, the free press and independent media" in Zimbabwe. It's doubtful Zvakwana has not been showered with Washington's largesse.</DIV> <DIV>Zvakwana's denial that it's under foreign control doesn't amount to a denial of foreign funding. Movements, political parties and media elsewhere have knowingly accepted funding from Western governments, their agencies and pro-imperialist foundations, while proclaiming their complete independence. (10) Members of these groups may genuinely believe they remain aloof from their backer's aims (and in the West it is often the very groups that claim not to take sides that are the favored recipients of this lucre), but self-deception is an insidious thing and the promise of oodles of cash is hard to resist.</DIV> <DIV>There's no doubt Zvakwana is well-financed. It distributes flashy stickers, condoms bearing the movement's Z logo, phone cards, audiotapes and packages of seeds bearing anti-Mugabe messages, en masse. These things don't come cheap. What's more, its operatives study "videotapes on resistance movements in Poland, Chile, India and Serbia, as well as studying civil rights tactics used in Nashville." (11) This betrays a level of funding and organization that goes well beyond what the meager self-financing of true grassroots movements even in the far more affluent West are able to scrape together.</DIV> <DIV>If Zvakwana denies its links to the US, other elements of the Western-backed anti-Mugabe apparatus are less secretive. Studio 7, an anti-ZANU-PF radio program carries programming by the Voice of America, an agency whose existence can hardly be said to be independent of promoting the aims of US capital around the world. The radio station SW Radio Africa, the self-styled "independent voice of Zimbabwe," broadcasts from the UK by short-wave radio. It may call itself independent, but the broadcaster is as independent as the British Foreign Office is, which, one suspects, is one of the principal backers of the "international pro-democracy groups" that fill the station's coffers with the cash that allow it to operate. (12) The radio station's website evinces a fondness for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's take on Zimbabwe, which happens to be more or less equivalent to that of the formal political opposition in Zimbabwe, which also happens to be more or less equivalent to that of foreign investors, banks, and shareholders. That the station operates out of studios in London and it seems, if it had its druthers, would not only put an end to Harare's crackdown on foreign meddling in Zimbabwe's internal affairs, but see to it that policies friendly to the rent, profits and interest of foreign owners and investors were allowed to flourish should leave little doubt as to who's behind the "international pro-democracy groups" that have put SW Radio Africa on the air.</DIV> <DIV>In late March 2007, Robert from SW Radio Africa contacted me by e-mail to find out if I had been hired by the Mugabe government to write an article that appeared on the Counterpunch website, titled What?s Really Going On in Zimbabwe? (13)<BR>-<BR>Stephen,</DIV> <DIV>Do you promise (cross your heart) that you received no money from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Information (or any group acting on their behalf) to write this piece?</DIV> <DIV>The rhetoric does sound awfully familiar.</DIV> <DIV>Richard</DIV> <DIV>Richard,</DIV> <DIV>From your e-mail address I take it you work for UK-based SW Radio Africa, which broadcasts Studio 7, the Zimbabwe program of the Voice of America, funded by the US government.</DIV> <DIV>I don't receive money, support, assistance not even foot massages from anyone in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwean government or any of its agents or representatives.</DIV> <DIV>Now, do you promise (cross your heart) that you receive no money from the US or British governments or from the US Ministry of Truth, viz., the Voice of America, (or any group acting on their behalf)?</DIV> <DIV>Your rhetoric sounds awfully familiar.</DIV> <DIV>Steve<BR>-<BR>Robert replied with assurances that "We are, in truth, totally independent, sponsored by a variety of groups that support democracy and freedom of expression," but didn't explain how Radio SW Africa could be "totally independent" and at the same time dependent on its sponsors. When I asked who the station's sponsors were, he declined to tell me.</DIV> <DIV>An equally important component of the counter-revolutionary vanguard is the formal political opposition. This to be comprised of a single party which unites all the opposition parties under a single banner, to maximize the strength of the formal political forces arrayed against the government, and therefore to increase the probability of the anti-government forces making a respectable showing at the polls. The united opposition is to have one goal: deposing the government. In order that it is invested with moral gravitas, its name must emphasize the word "democracy." In Serbia, the anti-Milosevic opposition united under the banner, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. In Zimbabwe, the opposition calls itself the Movement for Democratic Change. This serves the additional function of calling the government's commitment to democracy into question. If the opposition is "the democratic opposition" then what must the government be? The answer, of course, is undemocratic.</DIV> <DIV>Integral to the Milosevic treatment is accusing the government of electoral fraud to justify a transition from electoral to insurrectionary politics. The accusations build and build as the day of the vote approaches, until, by sheer repetition, they are accepted as a matter of indisputable truth. This has a heads I win, tails you lose character. If the opposition loses the election, the vote is confirmed to be illegitimate, as all the pre-election warnings predicted it would be, unleashing a torrent of people onto the streets to demand the government step down. If the opposition wins the election, the accusations are forgotten.</DIV> <DIV>The US, the European Union and international human rights organizations denounced the last election in Zimbabwe as tilted in favour of the governing party. The evidence for this was that the state controls the state-owned media, the military, the police and the electoral mechanisms. Since the state of every country controls the military, the police and the electoral mechanisms, and the state-owned media if it has one, this implies elections in all countries are titled in favour of the governing party, a manifestly absurd point of view.</DIV> <DIV>So far the Milosevic treatment has failed to achieve its desired end in Zimbabwe. One of the reasons why is that the formal political opposition has failed to execute the plan to a tee. The lapse centers around what is known as Plan B. The Los Angeles Times describes Plan B this way: "Insiders are asking what happened to the opposition's Plan B "that they had designed to put into operation the day after the March (2005) elections. The plan called for (the MDC leader, Morgan) Tsvangirai to claim a confident victory, with masses of his jubilant supporters flooding the streets for a spontaneous victory party banking on the idea that with observers from neighbouring African countries and the international media present, Mugabe's security forces would hesitate to unleash violence." (14) (Note the reference to the planned "spontaneous" victory party.) That Plan B wasn't executed may be the reason Tsvangirai is no longer in control of a unified MDC, and is vying with Arthur Mutambara, an Oxford educated robotics engineer who worked as a management consultant, to lead the opposition.</DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Countering the Milosevic Treatment</STRONG></DIV> <DIV>The problem, from the perspective of the US State Department planners who formulated the Milosevic treatment, is that if you do it too often, the next victim becomes wise to what you're up to, and can manoeuvre to stop it. With successes in Yugoslavia, Georgia and Ukraine, but failure so far in Belarus, the element of surprise is lost, and the blatancy of what the US government is up to becomes counter-productive. So obvious has the Milosevic treatment become, US government officials now express surprise when the leaders they've targeted for regime change put up with it. (15)</DIV> <DIV>Mugabe, however, hasn't put up with it, and has imposed a number of restrictions on civil liberties to thwart destabilization efforts. One measure is to ban NGOs that act as instruments of US or British foreign policy. NGOs that want to operate in Zimbabwe cannot receive foreign funding and must disclose their sources of financial support. This stops Washington and Britain from working within the country, through proxy, to meddle in the country's internal affairs. For the same reason, legislation was put forward in Russia in 2005 to require the 450,000 NGOs operating there to re-register with the state, to prevent foreign-funded political activity. The<BR>legislation's sponsors characterized "internationally financed NGOs as a fifth column" doing the bidding of foreigners. (16)</DIV> <DIV>In a similar vein, foreign journalists whose reporting appears to be motivated by the goal of promoting the foreign policy objectives of hostile nations, like the US and UK, are banned. CNN reporters are prohibited from reporting from Zimbabwe because the government regards them, with justification, as a tool of US foreign policy. What reasonable person of an unprejudiced mind would dispute CNN's chauvinism? Given that one of the objects of US foreign policy is to intervene in Zimbabwe's affairs to change the government, the ban is a warranted restraint on press freedom.</DIV> <DIV>Limitations on press freedom are not unique to Zimbabwe, although those imposed by Mugabe are a good deal more justifiable than those imposed by the West. In the wake of the March 2006 re-election of Belarus president Aleksandr Lukashenko, the US planned to sanction 14 Belarus journalists it labelled "key figures in the propaganda, distortion of facts and attacks on the democracies (i.e., the US and Britain) and their representatives in Belarus." (17) In 1999, NATO bombed the Serb Radio-TV building, because it said Serb Radio-TV was broadcasting propaganda.</DIV> <DIV>Laws "sharply curbing freedoms of the press and public assembly, citing national security" were enacted during the 2002 elections. (18) Mugabe justified the restrictions as necessary to counter Western plans to re-impose domination of Zimbabwe. "They want our gold, our platinum, our land," he argues. "These are ours forever. I will stand and fight for our rights of sovereignty. We fought for our country to be free. These resources will remain ours forever. Let this be understood to those in London." (19)</DIV> <DIV>Mugabe's warning about the danger of re-colonization "underpins the crackdown on the nation's most formidable independent forces, pro-democracy groups and the Movement for Democratic Change, both of which have broad Western support, and, often, financing,? as the New York Times put it. (20) (Note the reference to the opposition being independent even though it's dependent on broad Western support and financing.)</DIV> <DIV>This "fortress-Zimbabwe strategy has been strikingly effective. According to a poll of 1,200 Zimbabweans published in August (2004) by South African and<BR>American researchers, the level of public trust in Mr. Mugabe's leadership has more than doubled since 1999, to 46 percent even as the economy has<BR>fallen into ruin and anger over economic and living conditions is pervasive." (21)</DIV> <DIV>Mugabe, his detractors allege, secures his support by focusing the public's anger on outside forces to keep the public from focusing its anger on him (the same argument the US government and anti-Castro forces have been making about Castro for years.) If this is true, the groundswell of opposition to Mugabe's government that we're led to believe threatens to topple Mugabe from power any moment, doesn't exist; it's directed at outside forces. Consistent with this is the reality that the US-based Save Zimbabwe Campaign "does not have widespread grassroots support." (22)</DIV> <DIV>Implicit in the argument that Mugabe uses anti-imperialist rhetoric to stay in power is the view that (a) outside forces aren't responsible for the country's deep economic crisis and that (b) Mugabe is. This is the view of US ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell, and many of Mugabe's leftist detractors. "Neither drought nor sanctions are at the root of Zimbabwe's decline. The Zimbabwe government's own gross mismanagement of the economy and corrupt rule has brought on the crisis." (23)</DIV> <DIV>Yet, in a country whose economy is mainly based on agriculture, the idea that drought hasn't caused serious economic trouble, is absurd. Drought is a regional phenomenon, whittling away at populations in Mali, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mauritania, Eritrea, southern Sudan and Zimbabwe. Land redistribution hasn't destroyed agriculture in Zimbabwe; it has destroyed white commercial, cash-crop farming, which is centred on the production of tobacco for export.</DIV> <DIV>Equally absurd is the notion that sanctions are economically neutral. Sanctions imposed by the US, EU and other countries deny Zimbabwe international economic and humanitarian assistance and disrupt trade and investment flows. Surgical or targeted sanctions are like surgical or targeted bombing: not as surgical as their champions allege and the cause of a good deal of collateral damage and suffering.</DIV> <DIV>Left critics of Mugabe ape the argument of the US ambassador, adding that Mugabe's anti-imperialist and leftist rhetoric is, in truth, insincere. He is actually right-wing and reactionary a master at talking left while walking right. (24) But if Mugabe is really the crypto-reactionary, secret pro-imperialist some people say he is, why are the openly reactionary, pro-imperialists in Washington and London so agitated?</DIV> <DIV>Finally, if Mugabe uses outside interference as an excuse to keep tight control, why not stop interfering and deny him the excuse?</DIV> <DIV>Mugabe's government also denies passports to any person believed to be travelling abroad to campaign for sanctions against Zimbabwe, or military intervention in Zimbabwe. The justification for this is the opposition's fondness for inviting its backers in Washington and London to ratchet up punitive measures against the country.</DIV> <DIV>No country has ever provided unqualified public advocacy rights, rights of association, and freedom of travel, for all people, at all times. Always there has been the idea of warranted restraint. And the conditions under which warranted restraint have been imposed are conditions in which the state is threatened. There's no question the ZANU-PF government, and the movement for national liberation it champions, is under threat.</DIV> <DIV>Archbishop Pius Ncube tells a gathering that "we must be ready to stand, even in front of blazing guns, that this dictatorship must be brought down right now, and that if we can get 30,000 people together Mugabe will just come down. I am ready to lead it." (25) Arthur Mutambara boasts that he is "going to remove Robert Mugabe, I promise you, with every tool at my disposal" and that he's not "going to rule out or in anything the sky's the limit." (26) If I declared an intention to remove Tony Blair with every tool at my disposal, that no tool was ruled out, and I did so with the backing of hostile foreign powers, it wouldn't be long before the police<BR>paid me a visit.</DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Why the West wants Mugabe gone</STRONG></DIV> <DIV>It's not Mugabe per se that Washington and London and white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe want to overthrow. It's his policies they want to be rid of, and they want to replace his policies with their own, very different, policies. There are at least five reasons why Washington and London want to oust Mugabe, none of which have anything to do with human rights.</DIV> <DIV>The first reason to chase Mugabe from power is that in the late 90's his government abandoned IMF-mandated structural adjustment programs programs of bleeding people dry to pay interest on international debt. These are policies of currency devaluation, severe social program cuts anything to free up money to pay down debt, no matter what the human consequences.</DIV> <DIV>The second is that Mugabe sent troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo to bolster the Kabila government. This interfered with Western designs in the<BR>region.</DIV> <DIV>The third is that many of Mugabe's economic policies are not congenial to the current neo-liberal orthodoxy. For example, Mugabe recently announced the nationalization of a diamond mine, which seems to be, in the current climate, an anachronism. If you nationalize anything these days, you're called radical and out of date. The MDC which promotes the neo-liberal tyranny wants to privatize everything. It is for this reason that Mugabe talks about the opposition wanting to sell off Zimbabwe's resources. The state continues to operate state-owned enterprises. And the government imposes performance requirements on foreign investors. For example, you may be required to invest part of your profits in government bonds. Or you may be required to take on a local partner. Foreign investors, or governments that represent them, bristle at these conditions.</DIV> <DIV>The fourth is that British companies dominate the Zimbabwean economy and the British government would like to protect the investments of British banks, investors and corporations. If you read the British press you'll find a fixation on Zimbabwe, one you won't find elsewhere. Why does Britain take such a keen interest in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe? The usual answer is that Britain has an especial interest in Zimbabwe because it is the country's former colonial master, but why should Britain's former colonial domination of Zimbabwe heighten its interest in the country? The answer is that colonization paved the way for an economic domination of the country by British corporations, investors and banks and the domination carries on as a legacy of Britain's former colonial rule. If you're part of the British<BR>ruling class or one of its representatives, what you want in a country in which you have enormous investments is a trustworthy local ruler who will look after them. Mutambara, who was educated in Britain and lived there, and has absorbed the imperialist point of view, is, from the perspective of the British ruling class, far more attractive than Mugabe as a steward of its interests.</DIV> <DIV>Finally, Western powers would like to see Mugabe replaced by a trustworthy steward who will abandon the fast track land reform program, which apart from violating sacrosanct principles of the capitalist church, if allowed to thrive, becomes a model to inspire the indigenous rural populations of neighbouring countries. Governments in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also look askance at Mugabe's land reform policy, and wish to see it overturned, for fear it will inspire their own aboriginal populations.</DIV> <DIV>Mugabe's government accelerated its land redistribution program in the late 90s, breaking with the completely unworkable, willing buyer, willing seller policy that only allowed the government to redistribute the country's arable land after the descendants of the former colonial settlers, absentee landlords and some members of the British House of Lords were done using it, and therefore willing to sell. Britain, which had pledged financial assistance to its former colony to help buy the land, reneged, leaving Harare without the means to expropriate with compensation the vast farms dominated by the tiny minority of white descendants of British colonists.</DIV> <DIV>Zimbabwe finally abandoned the "willing buyer, willing seller" formula in 1997. The formula was crippled from the start by parsimonious British funding, and it was a clear that the program's modest goals were more than Great Britain was willing to countenance. In a letter to the Zimbabwean Minister of Agriculture in November of that year, British Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short wrote, "I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe." Referring to earlier British assistance funding, Short curtly stated, " I am told that there were discussions in 1989 and 1996 to explore the possibility of further assistance. However that is all in the past." Short complained of "unresolved" issues, such as "the way in which land would be acquired and compensation paid clearly it would not help the poor of Zimbabwe if it was done in a way which undermined investor<BR>confidence." Short was concerned about the interests of corporate investors, then. In closing, Short wrote that "a program of rapid land acquisition as<BR>you now seem to envisage would be impossible for us to support," as it would damage the "prospects for attracting investment" (27)</DIV> <DIV>It was only after Mugabe embarked on this accelerated land reform program that Washington and London initiated their campaign of regime change, pressuring Mugabe's government with sanctions, expulsion from the Commonwealth, assistance to the opposition, and the usual Manichean demonization of the target government and angelization of the Western backed opposition.The MDC, by comparison, favours a return to the unworkable willing seller, willing buyer regimen. The policy is unworkable because Harare hasn't the money to buy the farms, Britain is no longer willing to finance the program, and even if the money were available, the owners have to agree to sell their farms before the land can be redistributed. Land reform under this program will necessarily proceed at a snail's pace. The national liberation movement always balked at the idea of having to buy land that had been stolen from the indigenous population. It's like someone stealing your car, and when you demand it back, being told you're going to have to buy it back, and only when the thief is willing to sell.</DIV> <DIV><STRONG>Conclusion</STRONG></DIV> <DIV>One thing opponents and supporters of Mugabe's government agree on is that the opposition is trying to oust the president (illegally and unconstitutionally if you acknowledge the plan isn't limited to victory at the polls.) So which came first? Attempts to overthrow Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF government, or the government's harsh crackdown on opposition?</DIV> <DIV>According to the Western media spin, the answer is the government's harsh crackdown on opposition. Mugabe's government is accused of being inherently<BR>authoritarian, greedy for power for power's sake, and willing do anything from stealing elections to cracking skulls to hang on to its privileged position. This is the typical slander levelled at the heads of governments the US and UK have trouble with, from Milosevic in his day, to Kim Jong Il, to Castro.</DIV> <DIV>Another view is that the government's authoritarianism is an inevitable reaction to circumstances that are unfavorable to the attainment of its political (not its leaders' personal) goals. Mugabe's government came to power at the head of a movement that not only sought political independence, but aspired to reverse the historical theft of land by white settlers. That the opposition would be fierce and merciless has been so was inevitable. Reaction to the opposition, if the government and its anti-colonial agenda were to survive, would need to be equally fierce and merciless.</DIV> <DIV>At the core of the conflict is a clash of right against right: the right of white settlers to enjoy whatever benefits stolen land yields in profits and rent against the right of the original owners to reclaim their land. Allied to this is a broader struggle for economic independence, which sets the rights of investors and corporations abroad to profit from untrammelled access to Zimbabwe's labor, land and resources and the right of Zimbabweans to restrict access on their own terms to facilitate their own economic development.</DIV> <DIV>The dichotomy of personal versus political motivation as the basis for the actions of maligned governments recurs in debates over whether this or that leader or movement ought to be supported or reviled. The personal view says that all leaders are corrupt, chase after personal glory, power and wealth, and dishonestly manipulate the people they profess to champion. The political view doesn?t deny the personal view as a possibility, but holds that the behavior of leaders is constrained by political goals.</DIV> <DIV>"Even George Bush who rigs elections and manipulates news in order to stay in office and who clearly enjoys being 'the War President,' wants the presidency in order to carry out a particular program with messianic fervor," points out Richard Levins. "He would never protect the environment, provide healthcare, guarantee universal free education, or separate church and state, just to stay in office." (28)</DIV> <DIV>Mugabe is sometimes criticized for being pushed into accelerating land reform by a restive population impatient with the glacial pace of redistribution allowed under the Lancaster House agreement. His detractors allege, implausibly, that he has no real commitment to land reforms. This intersects with Patrick Bond's view. According to Bond, "Mugabe talks radical especially nationalist and anti-imperialist~(to hang on to power) but acts reactionary." He only does what's necessary to preserve his rule.</DIV> <DIV>If we accept this as true, then we're saying that the behavior of the government is constrained by one of the original goals of the liberation movement (land reform) and that the personal view is irrelevant. No matter what the motivations of the government's leaders, the course the government follows is conditioned by the goals of the larger movement of national liberation.</DIV> <DIV>There's no question Mugabe reacted harshly to recent provocations by factions of the MDC, or that his government was deliberately provoked. But the germane question isn't whether beating Morgan Tsvangirai over the head was too much, but whether the ban on political rallies in Harare, which the opposition deliberately violated, is justified. That depends on whose side you're on, and whether you think Tsvangirai and his associates are earnest citizens trying to freely express their views or are proxies for imperialist governments bent on establishing (restoring in Britain's case) hegemony over Zimbabwe.</DIV> <DIV>There's no question either that Mugabe's government is in a precarious position. The economy is in a shambles, due in part to drought, to the disruptions caused by land reform, and to sanctions. White farmers want Mugabe gone (to slow land redistribution, or to stop it altogether), London and Washington want him gone (to ensure neo-liberal "reforms" are implemented), and it's likely that some members of his own party also want him to step down.</DIV> <DIV>On top of acting to sabotage Zimbabwe economically through sanctions, London and Washington have been funnelling financial, diplomatic and organizational<BR>assistance to groups and individuals who are committed to bringing about a color revolution (i.e., extra-constitutional regime change) in Zimbabwe. That includes Tsvangirai and the MDC factions, among others.</DIV> <DIV>For the Mugabe government, the options are two-fold: Capitulate (and surrender any chance of maintaining what independence Zimbabwe has managed to secure at considerable cost) or fight back. Some people might deplore the methods used, but considering the actions and objectives of the opposition and what's at stake the crackdown has been both measured and necessary.</DIV> <DIV><U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><A href="http://gowans.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/zimbabwe's-lonely-fight-for-justice/" target=_blank rel=nofollow><FONT color=#1c9bdc>http://gowans.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/zimbabwe%e2%80%99s-lonely-fight-for-justice/</FONT></A><BR></FONT></U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><BR></FONT><STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>More about Zimbabwe and Demonization in general (in French) :<BR></FONT></STRONG><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><BR>1. The Guardian (January 24, 2002)<BR>2. Ibid.<BR>3. Zimbabwe's Land Reform Programme (The Reversal of Colonial Land<BR>Occupation and Domination): Its Impact on the country's regional and<BR>international relations. Paper presented by Dr I.S.G. Mudenge, Zimbabwe<BR>Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the Conference 'The Struggle Continues',<BR>held in Harare, 18-22 April 2004.<BR>4. </FONT><U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><A href="http://www.zimfa.gov.zw/speeches/minister/min014.htm" target=_blank rel=nofollow><FONT color=#1c9bdc>http://www.zimfa.gov.zw/speeches/minister/min014.htm</FONT></A><BR></FONT></U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>5. Globe and Mail (May 26, 1999)<BR>6. ?Grass-Roots Effort Aims to Upend Mugabe in Zimbabwe,? The New York<BR>Times, (March 28, 2005)<BR>7. Los Angeles Times (July 8, 2005)<BR>8. Ibid.<BR>9. New York Times (March 27, 2005)<BR>10. See Frances Stonor Saunders, ?The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the<BR>World of Arts and Letters,? New Press, April 2000; and ?The Economics and<BR>Politics or the World Social Forum,? Aspects of India?s Economy, No. 35,<BR>September 2003, </FONT><U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><A href="http://www.rupe-india.org/35/contents.html" target=_blank rel=nofollow><FONT color=#1c9bdc>http://www.rupe-india.org/35/contents.html</FONT></A><BR></FONT></U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>11. New York Times (March 27, 2005)<BR>12. Globe and Mail (March 26, 2005)<BR>13. ?What?s Really Going on in Zimbabwe? Mugabe Gets the Milosevic<BR>Treatment,? Counterpunch.com. March 23, 2007,<BR></FONT><U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><A href="http://www.counterpunch.org/gowans03232007.html" target=_blank rel=nofollow><FONT color=#1c9bdc>http://www.counterpunch.org/gowans03232007.html</FONT></A><BR></FONT></U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>14. Los Angeles Times (July 8, 2005)<BR>15. New York Times, (December 4, 2005)<BR>16. Washington Post (November 18, 2005)<BR>17. New York Times (March 29, 2006)<BR>18. New York Times (December 24, 2004)<BR>19. Globe and Mail (March 23, 2007)<BR>20. New York Times (December 24, 2004)<BR>21. Ibid.<BR>22. Globe and Mail (March 22, 2007)<BR>23. The Herald (November 7, 2005)<BR>24. Patrick Bond, ?Mugabe: Talks Radical, Acts Like a Reactionary:<BR>Zimbabwe?s Descent,? Counterpunch.com, March 27, 2007,<BR></FONT><U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><A href="http://www.counterpunch.org/bond03272007.html" target=_blank rel=nofollow><FONT color=#1c9bdc>http://www.counterpunch.org/bond03272007.html</FONT></A><BR></FONT></U><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>25. Globe and Mail (March 23, 2007)<BR>26. Times Online (March 5, 2006)<BR>27. Gregory Elich, ?Zimbabwe?s Fight for Justice,? Center for Research on<BR>Globalisation, May 6, 2005, globalresearch.ca/articles/ELI505A.html<BR>28. ?Progressive Cuba Bashing,? Socialism and Democracy, Vol. 19, No. 1,<BR>March 2005.<BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV> <DIV class=post_meta> <DIV class=num_comments>0 Comments</DIV> <DIV class=tagged>Filed under <A title="View all posts in World Order/Imperialism" href="http://wordpress.com/tag/world-orderimperialism/" rel="category tag"><FONT color=#1c9bdc>World Order/Imperialism</FONT></A></DIV></DIV></DIV><!-- You can start editing here. --> <DIV id=comments><!-- If comments are open, but there are no comments. --> <H2 class=form_head>Leave a Reply</H2> <FORM id=comment_form action=http://inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com/wp-comments-post.php method=post> <DIV><INPUT class=text_input id=author tabIndex=1 name=author><LABEL for=author>Name </LABEL></DIV> <DIV><INPUT class=text_input id=email title="Your Google Toolbar can fill this in for you. 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Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-4793636340387076892007-04-26T11:29:00.001+02:002007-04-26T11:29:13.927+02:00CDE MUNYARADZI GWISAI INTERVIEWED IN NEW ZEALAND!<A href="http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/2007/04/munya-on-national-radio-new-zealand.html" target=_blank><FONT color=#003399>http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/2007/04/munya-on-national-radio-new-zealand.html</FONT></A> <BR><BR><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200765211820785814.post-25100673958775551042007-04-26T07:08:00.001+02:002007-04-26T07:08:08.969+02:00"MDC MUST CALL OFF SANCTIONS!"<H3>MDC must call off sanctions - Mugabe</H3> <div>HARARE</div> <div><A href="http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?linkcategoryid=3&linkid=8&id=4225">http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?linkcategoryid=3&linkid=8&id=4225</A></div> <div><BR>President Thabo Mbeki's mediation between MDC and Zanu (PF) is virtually dead in the water following farcical pre-conditions set this week by Mugabe. The aged dictator is insisting that MDC call off European Union and American "sanctions" and acknowledge him as a legitimate leader before talks can take place.<BR>Zanu (PF) spokesman, Nathan Shamuyarira confirmed the demands. <BR>"There can't be talks with people who are calling for sanctions that are affecting everyone in the country," he said. "We demand that they should start by calling off sanctions by their sponsors in the West and acknowledge the legitimacy of the president otherwise there can't be any talks. That is the position we maintain to President Mbeki."<BR>The hard-line stance by Mugabe is set to preclude any prospects of meaningful dialogue between his party and the opposition, which has submitted to Mbeki the need for Mugabe to accept constitutional and electoral reforms ahead of next year's elections. <BR>The opposition has also called on Mugabe to stop political repression, which the aged leader has repeatedly defended, alleging the opposition had an agenda to destabilize the country through terrorism. Itai Dzamara<BR></div><BR><BR><div> </div><p>  <hr size=1> Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, <a href="http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/winter07.html">sign up for your free account today</a>.The Radical Mindset!http://www.blogger.com/profile/06773394621026095967noreply@blogger.com0