Messages From Zimbabwe

Howzit

The weather here today mirrors how I feel - grey, overcast and miserable…

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When I read this article, I immediately thought of an email that I received from Zimbabwe yesterday which said that farms evictions in the Lowveld were still going ahead and that it was apparent that the white farmers were bearing the brunt of the onslaught.

The email also indicated that many of the policemen in Chiredzi were unhappy with having to carry out instructions and had indicated to the farmers how sorry they were.

“The seizure of white-owned farms - the so-called land reform programme that has reduced Zimbabwe from the breadbasket of Africa to a land of hungry and desperate people - is still being relentlessly pursued by Mugabe’s supporters.

At the weekend, one of the President’s noisiest lieutenants, Minister of Trade and Industry Obert Mpofu, vowed to clear out the remaining 35 white farmers in his constituency imminently.

At a meeting in the Bubi-Umguza district in Matabeleland North, in the south of the country, Mpofu accused local civil servants of taking bribes from the white farmers to delay any action against them.

And he threatened that if there was more resistance to eviction he would send in ’state machinery’ - by which he meant paramilitary forces - to enforce it.”

I personally feel that the ZANU PF gravy train is beginning to falter - that it has enjoyed all it can and now is at the point of breaking. Now the lesser mortals of the party are exercising their ‘right’ to land and are determined to get their hands on it before the gravy train finally stops altogether.

The point being that once it all comes to a halt, they want to have their hands in as much as possible…

“Last month, a group of heavily armed police invaded the white-owned farm Portwe Estates in the Bubi district. The owners resisted, and the matter has gone to court in Bulawayo. But police officers remain camped on the land.”

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This is one report on the situation in the Lowveld: “Farmers in the sugar growing Lowveld area report that illegal and violent farm seizures have intensified in the last few weeks. White farmers still on their properties believe there is a renewed drive by the government to finally eliminate all whites from commercial farms in the area by the end of the year.“

The report suggests that the timings of the evictions are because the sugar cane is ready to be harvested.

“According to Whitehead, some police have openly apologized to some farmers saying they are under orders to back up the land officials. Whitehead believes there is currently a lot of dissension within the ranks of the Chiredzi police.”

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Mugabe’s security forces know little else than terrorising people and threatening people with violence and worse - actually carrying out those threats.

But when those threats and the act of violence is against women and children, one has to shake their heads in absolute amazement.

“There were warning shots and arrests in Harare’s Kuwadzana high-density area when riot police used force to disperse a WOZA protest on Monday. About 60 people from the Women of Zimbabwe Arise and Men of Zimbabwe Arise were arrested as the pressure group continued with demonstrations demanding ‘power to the people’ at the offices of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA). WOZA said 36 women, 20 men and 10 babies were arrested.”

So in Zimbabwe, if you make a stand against the treatment you are receiving - no matter what that might be - you stand the chance of being arrested. And if you have a child with you at the time - tough!

“…the police also fired warning shots in the air causing a commotion that frightened even the ZESA officials who ran away from their offices.

Members of the pressure group were rounded up and force marched in a line, holding each other’s hands. “And they were being beaten all the way from the ZESA offices to the police station,” Muchemwa said. He said the police had not been provoked and the women and men who were protesting at the premises did not even make any noise. “They were not even singing but they were letting their banners and the flyers do the talking.”

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“President Robert Mugabe’s government is setting up a 15000 member youth militia to spearhead its campaign in next year’s presidential and parliamentary election, leaving nothing to chance in polls that some analysts say it could lose.“

Why is it that Mugabe’s ZANU PF party has got to rely so heavily on threats and intimidation to push through their hold on power?

Is this the only way in which they can hang on to power?

“Young militiamen and women trained under a government national youth programme, together with war veterans, form the centrepiece of the government’s campaign strategy, unleashing violence and terror against the opposition to secure victory for the ruling party in every major election since 2000.”

Victory - at any cost…

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You will all have to excuse me - I am feeling right poorly and still have to go into town.

I will endeavour to try and return to this later.

Take care.

‘debvhu

Howzit

I’m up early as I have to go into town first thing (I’ll be back to 9 o’clock) and then it’ll be a case of waiting to find out what decision the doctor will make over B. And believe it or not I’ll have to go back into town later on today to do other bits and pieces.

My flu hasn’t broken and I still feel like I’ve been swimming in a heavily chlorinated swimming pool.

Never mind…

Foreign currency mid-rates updated…

B phoned just before 11 and told us that we can collect her at midday. Yes!

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“The Zimbabwe government will not repeal tough media and security laws it has used over the past four years to shut down several newspapers and arrest scores of journalists, new Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said.

Addressing journalists at the Quill national Press club in Harare, Ndlovu said the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) would not be changed because they were necessary to control ‘irresponsible journalists’ who wrote lies about the country.”

This is Mugabe’s paranoia manifesting itself, not only in law, but in so far as no journalist can work in Zimbabwe unless they are accredited and vetted by ZANU PF. Accredited journalist are subject to serious observation when they do work in Zimbabwe and the stories that they write must conform to the ZANU PF line.

Journalists working in Zimbabwe without accreditation - and there have been a few - are routinely arrested, thrown in prison and left to rot for a few days before being dragged in front of a Magistrate who hits them with a fine and the journalist is then advised to leave the country.

Alex Perry of Time magazine spent five days in prison in Gwanda, and when he was finally brought in front of the beak, he was fined the equivalent of 1/2 a US cent!

“Besides journalist being required to obtain licences, newspaper companies are also required to register with the state commission with those failing to do so facing closure and seizure of their equipment by the police.”

(In my case they would just take a shorthand notebook and an old BIC biro!)

“Under POSA, journalists face up to two years in jail for publishing falsehoods that may cause public alarm and despondency, while another law, the Criminal Codification Act, imposes up to 20 years in jail on journalists denigrating President Robert Mugabe in their articles.”

Oh dear. I am not a journalist and write what I will, when I will. I have no accreditation and say what I want about Mugabe.

I guess it’s safe to say that if I was in Zimbabwe I would be watching life from the inside of a prison cell.

And these are laws brought into place by a man in charge of a government that has single-handedly ruined the economy of the country. He will deny the charge - stating that the West has broken the country by implementing sanctions - but this man broke the agricultural sector, rearranged the settlement of people with Operation Murambatsvina, and now is intent on reworking the constitution and rigging the ballot box so that he can continue with his reign of megalomania.

“Quizzed by journalists at the Quill, Ndlovu professed ignorance of the abduction of journalists although he said in some cases police arrest journalists for writing ‘blatant lies’.

He said: “I am not aware of such acts (abduction of journalists). I do not have any report from the police or the responsible ministry that there has been any abduction. What you call abduction may be arrests of some journalists for writing blatant lies.”

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“President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party has set in motion a campaign of violence and intimidation and gerrymandering to ensure a premeditated outcome even before the first ballot is cast in the March 2006 parliamentary and presidential election, analysts said.

Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, has in the past been accused by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party of cheating his way to victory in major elections since 2000.”

Mugabe has always, for some reason, had his workings behind the scenes in ballot rigging and voter intimidation either ignored or attention is deflected by another world event.

Because of this, he believes he is protected by some sort of divine intervention. And he believes that whatever he does is right and proper and that everyone else is wrong.

This is an age-old assumption by ZANU PF who labour under the misapprehension that what they do and say is correct and everyone else has got it wrong.

“The government’s critics see the attacks on the opposition as the beginning of a strategy to ensure that the MDC will be unable to win even a reasonably fair presidential race,” the New York Times newspaper said in a recent commentary.

Analysts said violence and terrorism charges slapped on opponents in recent weeks were a tactic to bog down the opposition in endless court appearances, while the clock ticks towards March 2008.”

ZANU PF knows no ‘free and fair’ elections or a level playing field - something akin to the recent elections in Nigeria.

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“It is pitch dark across Harare. By 7.30pm the streets are deserted, with only occasional car headlights moving along the unlit wide avenues, and hazard warning lights blinking through junctions where the traffic lights no longer work.

Power cuts have got worse in the past two weeks. There is a shortage of coal and several of the generators at Hwange power station are broken, awaiting new parts to arrive from who knows where. The Electricity Regulatory Commission has announced that bills will rise by 350 per cent within the next six weeks.

In downtown Harare Gardens a humming generator keeps the spotlight running inside the tiny Theatre In The Park - built like a traditional thatched hut, wooden benches circling a dirt floor stage where an actor in army fatigues is battering a dummy so hard the stuffing is oozing out on the floor. The soldier’s instructions come from a loud voice on his mobile phone; the louder the voice gets, the more the audience fidgets.”

So even attending a political satire is deemed illegal or against the law. Even if the subject matter is true to real life…

“Political satire is illegal in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and this is powerful stuff. The Good President tells the story of a ‘gogo’ - grandmother - who comes to the city for medical treatment and tries to raise the bus fare to return to her village to vote back the ruling President in the coming elections. This is the same President who murdered both her sons in the gukurahundi - the opposition purges by Mugabe in 1983 which left thousands dead. It’s a deeply taboo subject.

‘The actors are brave to say this dialogue, but anyone who comes here has courage,’ says writer Cont Mhlanga. ‘Last night, when we opened, the audience was swollen by secret police, about 10 or 12 that we could tell. I wrote this script in two days after the opposition were beaten on 11 March. It’s about the cause of our problems not being political, economical or external, but cultural.’

Mhlanga was arrested last year for ‘mobilising illegal protests against the government through theatre’. Now he waits for them to come back, to close his play down or worse.”

Elsewhere in the article, much to my amusement, I see that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been dubbed “Bob’s Take Away”! I love it!”They are scared: Mugabe is deeply paranoid and well known for keeping fat files on friends as well as enemies. ZANU have made their wealth, their land, their houses and their children’s foreign university fees all from him. But they are not stupid; he is an old man. We are close to breaking point, but we are not there yet. There is potential for serious civil unrest, but people are frightened. But the more hunger they feel, the less afraid they will be,” the opposition source said. Showing documents to back up his claims, the adviser to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he believed the end of 27 years of oppressive rule was in sight, before next March’s elections. “We cannot ask people to demonstrate any more, to get beaten. But we need children back in school. The investment in education that took place in the first 10 years after independence can mitigate the present. But I can’t see us lasting another five years - something has to give now.”

The world has gone crazy - especially when you read: “Last Monday a black man was beaten up by two police officers after hugging a white Zimbabwean, an old school friend, in a Harare street.” Colour doesn’t enter into it - or it shouldn’t at the very least.

But ZANU PF will use whatever it can to deflect attention on themselves.

I did notice this comment in the article as well. “You know The Last King of Scotland? Last night I watched it for the third time. It is so familiar, it is the same as here - only Mugabe is cleverer than Amin, but the brutality is the same. This old man’s terrible destruction of this country will end too - and soon. We will need help from you, from the West, but you must back us, not try to overrun us. We have the people and the ability to sort this out. Then Zimbabwe can celebrate independence.”

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“A militant women’s pro-democracy group said Sunday that police ill-treated and detained 18 of its members for several hours without their clothes after they protested against power outages.

Meanwhile, police blamed government opponents for an eleventh gasoline bombing. The attack occurred early Saturday in Harare’s Glen Norah township at a row of houses occupied by police families, the state Sunday Mail reported.

Property was damaged, but there were no injuries, police spokesman Andrew Phiri told the newspaper, a government mouthpiece.

“Such bombings show that thugs and people bent on causing mayhem in the country are at work. We will not let people engage in acts of terrorism,” the paper quoted him saying.

The government has clamped down on critics, including opposition Movement for Democratic Change leaders who were arrested and badly beaten last month for trying to attend an unauthorized meeting.”

Why is it that WOZA is targeted like this - they are pro-democracy - they are not political. And if they are pro-democracy and the police arrest them, does that mean that the police, representatives of the State, are anti-democracy?

Of course they are!

The security forces, including the youth militia, the war veterans and any other militant group affiliated with ZANU PF are happy enough to carry out the blood work of the ruling party, knowing full well that they are protected from prosecution by the ruling party who have basically legalised torture and violence - if it is against the MDC and their associates - which now would appear to include WOZA…

“Eighteen women were stripped and held in Bulawayo police station cells. They spent “the whole day in a state of undress,” in violation of the nation’s customary moral values, the group said Sunday.

“When two members of a support team attempted to bring food, they too were arrested,” it said. The group were mostly mothers, who in the past have also clanged empty pots and pans on the streets to protest food shortages.

One supporter, Clarah Makoni, was subjected to what officers termed punishment that included threats of torture and being shown purported torture cells, the group said. The 18-year-old single mother was beaten across the kidneys by police who later drove her into the bush, a common scare tactic, according to women’s group leader Jenni Williams.

She was forced to crawl under an electric fence and run through scrubland to the nearest road, her clothes torn and covered in dirt and vomit. She was picked up by a passing motorist and treated for shock and vomiting spasms, said Williams.

Williams said the group demonstrated with placards Thursday outside facilities of the state power company. Zimbabweans suffer daily power outages in the nation’s worst economic crisis since independence.

Police in Bulawayo were not immediately available for comment.”

How convenient! And by the time they do cook up some rubbish to say, the event would have been superseded by more human rights abuses.

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I have every intention of recording a podcast today and releasing it today. I will let you know when I am done.

Take care.

‘debvhu

Howzit

First off, let me apologise. Everyone must have thought that I was being a bit greedy setting the price of my book at £16.99 - and for some reason, although it states ‘plus postage’ I had it in my brain that it was £16.99 delivered…

So I clocked the mistake - thanks Jan! - and have adjusted the price accordingly.

The book is £12.99 + a postage fee which would be dependent on where you are in the world in relation to the nearest Lulu office, affiliate or associate.

I am just glad that no one has made a purchase as yet as I would really feel that I had let the side down…

Sorted now…

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Simon Mann has just about finished his sentence in Zimbabwe. But the sentence has wrought untold health problems to him. And there is a chance that he will be taken to Equatorial Guinea to face further charges.

But now Mann says that his confession was coerced from him, that it was taken under duress.

“Simon Mann, the alleged mastermind of a foiled coup in Equatorial Guinea, told a court yesterday that Zimbabwean security agents coerced him into confessing that he was the plot’s ringleader.

“The statement was dictated to me and I wrote what I was told,” the Briton, who is serving a jail term in Harare, said at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison during a hearing into his extradition to Equatorial Guinea.

“I was taken to the airport by unknown men and they showed me the plane, threatening to extradite me to Equatorial Guinea if I did not sign the statement.”

Concerns were raised in the extradition hearing that Mann would face the death penalty if he is moved to Guinea to face trial. The Equatorial Guinea prosecutor has pledged that he would not be looking for the death penalty.

Now last week it was highlighted in this column as being of very poor health. A second jail sentence in another Africa country would surely kill him.

“They were said to have been stopping off to pick up weapons en route to Malabo to join an advance team led by South African Nick du Toit, who was himself arrested and then sentenced to 34 years in prison in Malabo.

Mann said he and his co-accused were in transit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) when they were arrested in Harare.

He said they needed the weapons for a security contract they had won in northern DRC which he said was then occupied by armed former rebels.”

Former British Premier Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark became embroiled in the case and he himself was fined and given a suspended sentence for bankrolling the attempted coup…

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“One of the three spies pardoned last year after languishing in jail for 18 years for terrorist activities in support of the apartheid regime has broken his silence and confirmed that the SA government sponsored a Super-ZAPU dissident group that sparked Gukurahundi.

The dissident activity gave President Robert Mugabe’s government the perfect excuse to send soldiers from the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade to crush the ‘uprising’ in Matabeleland.

In an exclusive interview with The Zimbabwean, double agent Conjwayo said the blame for the massacres should not lie squarely on the Zimbabwe government but also on South Africa.”

Of course the Gukurahundi is of great interest to me as I was based in Matabeleland at the time and saw some pretty horrendous things.

I find it strange that this man, for all the problems he has had and the long term sentence he endured, should say that Mugabe’s government is not as guilty as originally thought.

“The Zimbabwe government was blamed for atrocities they did not commit,” Conjwayo said. “In fact Super ZAPU elements did more murders than the Fifth Brigade and South Africa should also be blamed,” he said.

“South Africa recruited, trained and funded Super ZAPU elements to carry out murders while camouflaged as members of the Fifth Brigade,” claimed Conjwayo.”

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Abductions, kidnappings, arrests, torture and blocking people from contact with their lawyers are just some of the more common activities visited upon the Zimbabwean activists by Mugabe’s security forces.

“A desperate Zimbabwe government is now employing Gestapo-style tactics to silence critics with night raids on homes of opposition activists, journalists and government foes by men in cars with fake number plates, while abduction, torture and even murder have become the hallmark of the Mugabe regime.

Recent mysterious bombings of police stations, which security agencies blame on the MDC, have left a trail which human rights bodies and security and political analysts this week said heavily implicated the government’s spy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), the youth militia and military intelligence.”

Mugabe has made the decision that his people are to visit whatever pain and suffering they can upon opposition activists and supporters.

“They cannot investigate the cases because all what is happening is State terrorism; it’s sponsored by the State,” said MDC (Tsvangirai) secretary general Tendai Biti.”

This article also mentions one of the more serious incidents - when a number of MDC supporters were spirited away from their hospital beds to prison…

“In one incident, eight victims of police assault were forcibly removed from a private health facility without the consent of doctors there. All eight had been denied medical care in custody. Such behaviour by security forces continues to intimidate health workers who treat victims of organized violence and torture.”

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Mugabe and his loyal lieutenants sink to an all new low as the report indicates that “a Matabeleland North Senior Assistant Police Commissioner, who is listed on the European Union travel sanctions list, is leading moves to take-over the cottage of an ailing 81-year-old woman.

CAJ News Agency reports that Edmore Veterai has ordered the owners of Portwe Estates in Bubi District to get their ailing mother, Ellen Maud Dolphin, out of her cottage or face eviction.

Maud Dolphin is mother to Margaret Joubert, the wife of Dave Joubert who runs Portwe Estates, which includes a safari concern.

Veterai allegedly led heavily-armed police details in a recent invasion of the property in an attempt to instill fear and force Dolphin from her house. The police, contrary to reports, have not kicked out the Jouberts, neither are they disturbing operations at the farm.”

Have these people got no decency? An 81 year old woman - and they are prepared to physically throw her off her son’s farm - because this big shot copper wants the cottage.

81 years of age. What is this all about? Threatening to chuck her out because they can?

This is sick. It is time for some international organisation to intervene. The time has come for the world to stop doing nothing, but to stand up and be counted - and to stand up against this government that are not going to go quietly, but are prepared to make life for all Zimbabweans as hellish as possible.

“They want to remove my mother from her cottage for the Senior Assistant Commissioner to move in.”

“They have said that its either I co-operate with them or they will also move into my house and forcibly evict us from the farm. All the instructions are coming from Veterai and they are being relayed through by Desmond Dube, the officer commanding district (DISPOL),” Mrs Joubert said.”

In another display of Mugabe manners, the officer concerned said: “What has got that to with you,” he said, before cutting off his mobile phone.

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“Zimbabwe police officers are no longer having off days during weekends amid reports that they got surprise salary adjustments this month to mollify them in the face of rising political tensions and violent incidences in the country.

The salary adjustments for the security forces are efforts to calm discontent among junior officers who have not been spared from the harsh effects of Zimbabwe’s unprecedented economic meltdown.

Police officers are now working seven days a week with ‘no off’ and ‘half days’ on Sundays and Saturdays respectively as usual during normal circumstances amid revelations that new leave applications are also being denied.”

So Mugabe is attempting to buy their loyalty by issuing salary increases. What many of these officers don’t realise is that they need salary increases almost monthly to stay ahead of inflation, and there is just no way that Mugabe will continually have new bearer cheques minted to keep his armed forces sweet.His resources dictate that there is just no way that he can keep up.

“Police sources say this is part of moves to step up efforts to have the police on standby against rising violent disturbances. This comes against reports that the police are now authorized to use live ammunition in response to violence.

According to reports, this followed concerns in the government that police have been over-stretched by recent disturbances and are ill-prepared to deal with violent opposition protests.“

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“President Robert Mugabe’s plan to extend his rule next year under the guise of harmonising elections suffered another setback last week when Cabinet failed to agree on the key electoral reforms, which would allow him to remain in power.“Yet on Friday there was a story that said Mugabe had promised to stand down after next year’s elections - and he would be instrumental in the naming and crowning of his successor.

So which story is right?

Like most things Mugabe-esque, the truth is hidden under layer upon layer of misinformation, disinformation, lies and subterfuge.

“But ruling party sources yesterday told The Standard warring factions keen on pushing their candidates to succeed Mugabe had not given up the fight after the veteran leader was controversially given the endorsement to stand in next year’s election.“

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I find it absolutely unacceptable that Mugabe’s ‘merry men’ feel nothing when they turn on their own - and invariably, when this happens, it is because the person that they are turning on has done their job - properly.

“Outspoken prosecutor Levison Chikafu, still languishing in police cells after being arrested on Thursday in Mutare, says he now fears for his life.

Chikafu was arrested and released on Thursday but re-arrested on the same day on the same allegations of fraud and irregularly granting bail on suspects.”

As you all know, I was a prosecutor and whilst my activities were not monitored - probably because I was doing a good good at the time - I soon fell victim to the racist attitudes then in the ZRP and the petty mindedness of the senior offices.

Now they are doing the same to Chikafu - some things just don’t change.

“These people want to demonise me, saying I am a criminal, then isolate me. I now fear for my life.”

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Take care

‘debvhu

Howzit

I’m not sure what the day holds in store for me - and I will be going up to see B at lunchtime…

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The first article I report on came to me in the form of an email from Harare. Apparently, if you try to access the SW Radio Africa site from within the SABC offices, this is the screen that will greet you:

Now why on earth does the broadcaster deny access to the SWRA site? Surely much of their stories are closer to the ground than those by the SABC?

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A second story came in via email and all I am going to do is list some figures from it:

“I set out in the following table the growth in sales in a local supermarket over 12 months in the past year.

April 781%
May 1139%
June 992%
July 1050%
August 1283%
September 1026%
October 2285%
November 1875%
December 1895%
January 3425%
February 3298%
March 5202%”

How scary is this. The one question I cannot answer is to whether these prices are month-on-month or an overall based on a figure established when the table began.

The point here is that no one - no matter how rich you are can sustain this sort of spiralling costs…

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“The Save Zimbabwe Campaign says it is planning to hold more prayer rallies in cities across the country and in foreign cities that host a sizeable population of Zimbabwean exiles.

Save Zimbabwe is a coalition of churches, civic groups and opposition political parties campaigning for a peaceful and democratic resolution of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis.”

I wonder which cities in the UK they will visit? There are quite a few Zimbabwean families in Derby - but most will not class themselves as exiles as opposed to people that left because of the problems.

The other thing that I note is that this coalition continually states that their goal is resolution of the crisis using peaceful and democratic means. Mugabe and his government and his security forces will not agree.Violence and arrests has followed the campaign at almost every turn.

And when it is all over and the activists are lying in hospital beds , or prison cells, the government then tells the world that the coalition started it, that they deserved it and the security forces will do it again.

“Our aim is to pray together with Zimbabweans in the Diaspora and will be launching prayer meeting in Britain, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Botswana in the coming two months,” said Reverend Ray Motsi of the Christian Alliance that is among the organisers of prayer meetings.

“We are praying for (the resolution of) Zimbabwe’s problems which are economic and political. We will not keep quiet because we will not be doing our duty in the face of the hardships ans suffering faced by the people of Zimbabwe,” he added.”

And feeling rise high within the diaspora, because apart from leaving their country to escape the hardships of life under Mugabe’s rule, they will not be able to vote in the forthcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Another civic duty stripped from the people by ZANU PF…

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This is the last time that I will look at stories like this. The stripping of honorary degrees from Mugabe means nothing. He himself has stated that he has a degree ‘in violence’…

I cannot see how taking away an honour which was given to him when the free world were trying to befriend Mugabe in the early days of his reign is going to make one bit of difference to the people on the ground…

“A senior British Labout Party official has urged Scotland’s Edinburgh University to strip President Robert Mugabe of an honorary degree that was awarded to the Zimbabwean leader in the early eighties.”

So strip the degree for him and get on with something that actually assists the people on the ground.

I guarantee that Mugabe couldn’t care less if every honour ever given him by the Western world were taken away.

Really. He doesn’t care…

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“Police, desperate to make terrorism charges against a group of jailed opposition activists stick, have made a potentially damaging claim in court that a South African government security agency trained Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) campaigners, including a legislator, in acts of insurgency and terror.

Thirteen opposition members, including MDC Glen View Member of Parliament (MP) Paul Madzore and his brother Solomon, are being charged under the Criminal law (Codification and Reform) Act for “training as insurgents, bandits, saboteurs or terrorists.”

The investigating officer (IO) in the case, Wellington Ngena, has laid charges in which he claims that the group received military training in South Africa.

He alleged: “Between December 2006 and March 2007 in Pretoria and Orange Free State in South Africa, they attended or underwent a course of training on how to draw up detailed plans for dummy runs and decoys, creation of dilemmas for the Zimbabwe government and how to use them, thus receiving military training.”

Training? In South Africa? Where do they get these ideas?

Mugabe is convinced that the Western world is attempting to sponsor regime change. And last week told he told us how he had thwarted the efforts of the UK to unseat him.

Now we have got this in court where the State case alleges terror training in South Africa.

Why would the opposition go to such extremes to remove Mugabe? It’s only a matter of time before he shuffles off his mortal coil and the gathering of support for the MDC by the Zimbabwean people is going to prove too much for the ballot rigging, intimidatory activities of the weakening ZANU PF ruling party.

“The information that I have is very sensitive and disclosing it at this stage will seriously prejudice investigations. Disclosure of such sensitive information may result in some suspects tampering with the chain of evidence and some going into hiding,” reads part of the investigating officer’s affidavit.

The affidavit further states that he had applied for and had been granted a ministerial order not to divulge certain information in court.”

What is it with the State mechanisms that everything they say and allege is fanciful and very convoluted.

I don’t believe this. Not for one second…

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I remain unconvinced that the travel sanctions imposed upon the Mugabe regime are working in any way which will assist the people in Zimbabwe.

If anything, the people have to put up with the reaction of the listed people who then apply untold and unwarranted pressure on them in response to not being able to travel.

But in the end, many of the listed people travel to wherever they want, whenever the want.

“The European Union (EU) has added five recently appointed deputy ministers to its list of senior ZANU PF and government officials banned from Europe.

The decision by the 17-nation bloc comes less than a month after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) asked the West to remove targeted sanctions against President Robert Mugabe’s government.

The latest additions to the sanctions list are Lazarus Dokora, the deputy minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Aguy Georgias, the deputy Minister of Economic Development, Titus Maluleke, the deputy Minister of Education and Sports, Tracey Mutinhiri, the deputy Minister for Indigenisation and Empowerment and Walter Mzembi, the deputy Minister for Water Resources and Infrastructural Development.”

As I say, I remain unconvinced.

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“A new hit list of 300 opposition leaders and activists has been drawn up by President Mugabe’s strongmen. The 300 are marked down for arrest, beatings and torture, with the top ten targeted for assassination.

The list, which I have seen, comes with a memo suggesting the killings should take place either during street protests or fake robberies and road accidents.”

About a week ago I published an alleged ‘hit’ list - and this is obviously a second such list, but sounds more advanced insofar as there are 300 names on the list.

I state again that in any security organisation, when dealing with aspects of their operations of this nature, I somehow doubt that the list would be put into writing.

The evidence would be too damning.

I cannot help but believe that this is ‘disinformation’ and is intended by one side or the other to discredit the other.

“It is topped by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), although interestingly an earlier version did not include him. Also in the top ten are MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube, trade union leader Wellington Chibhebhe, and Tsvangirai’s deputy Thokozani Khuphe.

The list was compiled on April 5 in Harare by the Joint Operations Command - a committee of senior commanders of the police, the armed forces and the Central Intelligence Organisation, Mugabe’s secret police.

The memo states: “The top 10 are very dangerous individuals who should be attacked by unknown assailants in public places or their homes. They can also be shot by riot police during public upheavals that they always want to create.”

-o00o-

Voice of America states: “Another showdown was looming between the Zimbabwean opposition and authorities as the Movement for Democratic Change faction headed by Morgan Tsvangirai called rallies in several provincial cities and police attempted to impose strict conditions.

The Tsvangirai faction called weekend rallies in Masvingo, Mutare, Rusape, Zvishavane and Gweru. But police said they would not be allowed to sing political songs, use loudspeakers, bullhorns or whistles, and would be held responsible for any violence that occurred during or after the meetings, opposition officials said.”

And ‘any’ violence is normally started by the ZANU PF stooges - whether they are in uniform or not.

How can a political rally be held without the use of a PA system, microphones and the like? When Mugabe sprouted forth on Wednesday at Rufaro Stadium, did he not have a microphone?

But then ZANU PF will claim that Wednesday was not a political rally…

-o00o-

“An illegal diamond miner in eastern Zimbabwe bled to death after being shot by police in a raid on a hideout in the country’s rich Marange diamond fields, said reports on Friday.

The panner was shot dead after attacking two police officers using an iron bar and a knife, Obert Benge, the officer commanding Manicaland province told the state-controlled Manica Post.

“We are no longer on the defensive, but on the offensive,” Benge told the paper.”

Another death - another man dead at the hands of police. The report would indicate that the man attacked officers, but was lethal force really required?

-o00o-

Take care

‘debvhu

Howzit

If truth be told, I feel like death warmed up this morning… My cold/flu will not shift and I am struggling… And anyone out there wanna come do some ironing - it’s not easy trying to iron with one hand!

Enough already!

{UPDATE: 1120hrs - B just telephoned. All things being equal, she should be home on Monday. I certainly hope so!}

Foreign currency mid-rates updated.

-o00o-

I found this video interview on Channel 4 news, via the SW Radio Africa site. It is an eye opener… Click on “Watch this report” on their news site.

-o00o-

“South African intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrills visited Harare on Wednesday for talks with his Zimbabwean counterpart Didymus Mutasa, ZimOnline has learnt.

Sources said Kasrills’ visit was part of an initiative by South African President Thabo Mbeki to broker talks between the Zimbabwean government and opposition groups and find a democratic solution to the country’s deepening economic and political crisis. But ZimOnline has been unable to independently verify this.”

This is the first move that we have seen since Mbeki was appointed as a mediator to the Zimbabwean problem. No more “quiet diplomacy” - no more saying nothing.

But I feel that Mbeki’s work is cut out for him, with Mugabe making statements like he did at the independence ‘celebrations’ on Wednesday, when he stated that he will never hand power to Tsvangirai or the MDC.

Once again, we read of the Zimbabwean ministers showing their hatred and disdain for the independent press with Mutasa saying: “I can’t talk, I am in a meeting,” he said, before switching off his phone.”

One would think that the meeting wouldn’t last forever and the Zimbabwean government could clear a lot of queries by making an official statement - but they choose not to.

“On Thursday, South African government spokesman, Thembo Maseka called on the government, opposition and the people of Zimbabwe to take advantage of the “goodwill” shown by SADC leaders and move speedily towards finding a lasting solution to their country’s political crisis.

“The critical and urgent challenge facing all Zimbabweans is to take the necessary steps to create an environment that would be conducive for free and fair elections in 2008,” Maseka told journalists after a regular Cabinet meeting.”

The MDC has said that they welcome the South African mediation, but ZANU PF remain unmoved and silent.

“Meanwhile, Moletsi Mbeki, brother of the South African President, has called on Pretoria to take on a robust approach in its efforts to broker a solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis.

“I think the South African government needs to show a lot more energy in dissuading Zimbabwe’s ruling party ZANU PF from brutalising the opposition party,” he said.”

I’ll bet that he will be told to wind his neck in…

-o00o-

“The United States (US) has promised to support Zimbabwean opposition groups, days after Harare cancelled licences for non-governmental organisation (NGOs) accusing them of working with Washingtom and its allies to topple President Robert Mugabe’s government.

In a statement issued on Wednesday on the eve of celebration to mark Zimbabwe’s 27 years of independence, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said Washington would continue backing opposition and civic groups pushing for democratic and economic reform in Zimbabwe.”

The problem here being that this will do little more than to fuel Mugabe’s anger and he will order more violence and repression of the opposition in particular and the Zimbabwean people in general.

I am not saying that US should not back the opposition, but perhaps it could be done at a lower profile - one that will not precipitate more oppression.

“Zimbabweans understand that a return to freedom and prosperity requires a new direction. We support their efforts to achieve a new and true independence, free from tyranny and poverty.”

-o00o-

As an ex-prosecutor in Zimbabwe, I have often wondered how long it would be before the ZANU PF powers started to pick on the people that do their jobs…

“Zimbabwe police on Thursday detained top prosecutor Levison Chikafu for six hours, but his lawyer said the police were victimising him after he prosecuted a senior government official and tried to have a senior intelligence officer arrested for murder.”

In Zimbabwe, we have seen a woman arrested for calling Mugabe “Hitler” - even though he calls himself “Hitler tenfold” - and now a prosecutor is arrested for attempting to do his job!

“His lawyer, Chris Ndlovu, said the crimes said to have been committed when Chikafu was an area prosecutor for the eastern Manicaland province were not only unfounded, but “meant to embarrass and victimise my client.”

Sadly politics delves deep in Zimbabwe, and my tenure as prosecutor in Gwanda in the mid-1980’s was brought to an abrupt end by the activities of the Fifth Brigade.

20+ years later it is still a practise of the Mugabe government who will stop at nothing to hang on to power, and strip the country of the people that actually do their jobs - and do them well!

“First they removed him from Mutare, where he had become a household name for prosecuting corrupt senior government officials. Why would a prosecutor need military training? They want to fix him.”

-o00o-

“Hundreds of members from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) gathered at the Beitbridge border post on Thursday to demonstrate in solidarity with the workers in Zimbabwe. COSATU acting spokesperson Patrick Craven said this was the continuation of a campaign which was launched on April 3rd and 4th this year, during the mass action stay-away organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). He said hundreds of Zimbabweans living in South Africa had also turned out for the event and he hoped it would encourage many more to take part.“

I love this idea! A protest/demonstration that is on the international border. Not the best advert for Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, but a brilliant idea.

-o00o-

And so, as the election date begins to draw nearer, we see the political interference begin with voter rolls and constituency boundaries - all being rigged to favour the ruling party.

“Electoral reforms announced in the state media on Thursday have been strongly criticised due to government’s failure to consult other stakeholders and for tilting the playing field to favour the ruling party.

The state’s Herald newspaper reported that the government has almost completed the alteration of boundaries for Harare Metropolitan Province, in preparation for the joint elections due in 2008. The Minister of Local government Ignatius Chombo said the new boundaries would be gazetted soon and a similar exercise would be undertaken in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province and other cities and rural areas. The changes seek to increase the size of the electoral constituencies in Harare and Bulawayo, to include rural areas nearby.”

These boundaries are to be reworked so as to give the ZANU PF party the maximum advantage, given that many of the people who lived in MDC strongholds have been moved out forcibly as a direct result of Operation Murambatsvina.

All of Mugabe’s plans are coming home to roost - or so he thinks…

“What government has done here goes contrary to what was agreed to in Dar-es-Salaam at the SADC summit. The idea was for President Mbeki to level the playing field before conducting elections. And if already one party is setting the agenda and altering the odds then this raises suspicion.

If we look at the March 31st 2005 parliamentary elections, ZANU PF won only one seat in Harare and that was Harare South which was a newly created constituency which predominantly consisted of rural areas, especially commercial farms that had been resettled.”

-o00o-

“At least 83 activists were arrested in Bulawayo on Thursday when the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise and Men of Zimbabwe Arise held sit-ins in eight local offices of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority. At the time of broadcast WOZA leaders Jennie Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu were in a car chase with law and order police who wanted to arrest them.

Speaking on the phone Mahlangu said they were trying to deliver food to some of the activists who are detained at Harare Central Police Station when the police cornered them. She said: “They (police) said we should follow them into the Central. They are now chasing us because we drove away from them and we are on the run. As I speak now you can hear the car. They are behind us.”

As if it was from a scene from a movie, Williams could be heard screaming and shouting at someone in the background while Mahlangu hurriedly explained: “She is driving and I am talking to you although I am supposed to be the navigator! I am supposed to see what is happening behind that’s why I was trying not to talk to you but you insisted. So we might be arrested while talking to you.”

She added: “We don’t know where we are headed but we are getting the hell out of here. We are trying to lose these guys.”

And these are WOZA activists - not MDC activists or people intent on political reform. These are brave women who only want the government to recognise the needs and wants of Zimbabwean women and to give them the rights accorded women elsewhere in the world.

WOZA have consistently rallied and demonstrated for woman in Zimbabwe to be afforded the rights as family leaders.

How can this translate to car chases?

“The WOZA activists had successfully delivered their protest messages to officials at the ZESA offices asking for a better service delivery. They had held simultaneous sit-ins in ZESA offices in Pumula, Mpopoma, Entumbane, Old Lobengula, Magwegwe, Nkulumane, Nketa 6 and Luveve.”

Forgive the pun - but more power to them…

-o00o-

Just how much of this story is true I don’t know. Is it wishful thinking, or ZANU PF duplicity?

“President Mugabe has managed to defuse the tension over succession in his party be promising to step down after next year’s combined presidential and parliamentary elections.

Party sources this week said Mugabe, fearing a major revolt by the two factions in his ruling ZANU PF party, which are both opposed to his continued stay in power, offered to leave office early but not before he contests the presidential poll next year.

This could explain a forthcoming constitutional amendment (No 18) enabling parliament to act as an electoral college in the event of the death or incapacity of an incumbent. It would thereby spare ZANU PF a presidential poll and allow Mugabe to preside over the installation of a successor of his own choice. The projected increase in the number of MPs and senators is designed to facilitate this process, observers said this week.”

In the event that Mugabe wins an election next year - and let’s be honest, it is going to be a close run thing, will he in actual fact, voluntarily stand down? And is it constitutionally correct for him to nominate his own successor?

Surely, if he is to stand down, that new Presidential elections should be held. People vote for the man, not for the position. What is Mugabe wanted an absolute monster to take his place? Would the voting public not have any say as to whether their man is the preferred candidate?

“It basically enables Mugabe to anoint his successor. He actually wants to go, but only in a manner of his choosing.”

-o00o-

“Our senior reporter Shakeman Mugari on Tuesday this week ‘door-stepped’ State Security minister Didymus Mutasa at his Chaminuka Building offices to ask him about the abduction and beating up of civilians by the police and suspected intelligence operatives. This was their conversation:“

And there follows a conversation during which you will wonder at the logic used by ZANU PF - but it will explain an awful lot and shows the absolute contempt in which ZANU PF holds the people of Zimbabwe.

“Mugari: The leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, and his party members were thoroughly beaten for trying to attend a prayer meeting under the “Save Zimbabwe Campaign.” Was that an act of provocation too?

Mutasa: Yes, what Zimbabwe were they trying to save? We are the ones who renamed this country Zimbabwe. We fought for (the liberation of) this country and I don’t believe we need anyone to save it from anything. It has already been saved.”

Now you can agree with this comment if inflation of 1700% plus in acceptable - if unemployment of 80% is acceptable - if politically motivated beatings of opposition activists and their leaders is acceptable…

Zimbabwe needs to be saved - from the people who currently rule it!

-o00o-

I’m sorry - you will probably get sick of this, but “Without Honour” is now available as a “Print On Demand” item through Lulu. The book costs £16.99 plus postage.

The book is also available as a pdf download at £6. Click on the graphic above to visit the vendor’s page.

-o00o-

Take care.

‘debvhu

Howzit

I don’t normally do two postings a day, but this is special. Earlier this week I received the first printed proof of my book “Without Honour“.

Apart from a few very simple corrections I was very pleased with the result, and so as of last night the book is available via Lulu in two formats.

You could download it as a pdf for £6.00 - or you could order the printed copy (as seen in the photo of me below) for £16.99 plus postage.

What I like about Lulu is that their computer system will order the book printed at the nearest POD centre to the customer’s delivery address, so the postage costs are actually not as much as you may think.

The book is 248 pages long, has over 77 000 words and about 3 dozen photographs and illustrations.

You can access the relevant Lulu project site via the small button below, and I will be putting a similar button in the right hand side bar as well.

Go on - spoil yourself! (Note that any money I make out of the sale of this book will go towards a holiday for my wife B who has tolerated me for so long - and is instrumental in my recovery from the accident I had almost 7 years ago…)

Read what people who have read the book have had to say here…

Take care

‘debvhu

Howzit

Well, they said at the hospital that they would consider discharging B today, but given that they have ordered a scan this morning, I can’t see it happening.

And with me going out and coming in every day I have somehow managed to pick up the ‘flu as well. What an unhappy little household!I have an appointment later this morning on the other side of town, so will possibly come back to this later on…

-o00o-

Am I meant to act surprised at this story? Seeing as they very nearly killed him not so long ago, I will not feign any surprise at all!

“Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai tops a fresh hit list of 300 opposition and civic activists drawn up by state security commanders for arrest and torture in a drive to weaken the opposition ahead of next year’s election.

The list, whose disclosure comes as President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday vowed to intensify a brutal crackdown against the opposition, was drawn up by the Joint Operations Command (JOC) at a meeting on the 5th of April in Harare.”

If you are not a member of ZANU PF and you were to plan and organise an operation like this against the ruling party, no doubt you would be arrested, tortured, charged and convicted - and the charge would probably be treason or terrorism… But if the state plans this sort of thing, it is acceptable. I say acceptable - and in that I mean to them and they do not attribute any blame or culpability with that.

In other words, do as I say, not as I do…

“The list, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline, says police sent to break up opposition rallies and protests should aim to shoot the 10 leading figures on the hit list. But it does not say specifically whether the police should shoot to kill or merely to inflict injury.”

I think it is a safe assumption that the order will be to shoot to kill. I say this because not so long ago it was stated by Didymus Mutasa, Mugabe’s Minister of Threats, that the police and army would shoot to kill any protesters.

“Those in the top 10 of the hit list in their order include Tsvangirai, spokesman of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party Nelson Chamisa, Bulawayo-based Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary general Wellington Cibhebhe and Tsvangirai’s deputy Thokozani Khupe.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Raymand Majongwe, women activists Grace Kwinjeh and Jenni Williams and St Mary’s legislator Job Sikhala are also in the top 10.”

Do you notice one name that is conspicuous in it’s absence?

Have another look… I will give you a clue:

“Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena dismissed the existence of a hit list, saying the law enforcement agency only arrested people suspected of committing crime and who would have to be be taken to court.

He said: “We do not work on hit lists, we are not a mafia gang that eliminates people. We only arrest criminals that we later send on to the courts where they are tried according to the legal statutes of this country.”

Amazing how they run and hide behind the law when it suits them, but will openly ignore the law when they want to. High Court orders are ignored, human rights are abused, people are abducted - even from their hospital beds - and others are tortured, beaten and harrassed as ZANU PF orders.

-o00o-

“President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday repeated threats against the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, adding that the opposition party was fomenting violence to unseat him from power.

In an address to mark Zimbabwe’s 27th anniversary of independence at Rufaro Stadium in Harare, a fired up Mugabe told about 30000 cheering supporters that he will never cede power to the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.”

Is this a suggestion that ZANU PF will never admit defeat through the ballot box, or is it an admission that the ballot box is already rigged?

“As government, our message remains clear that we will never hesitate to deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy,” Mugabe told the crowd.”

But if you were to look at the cases of violence that have taken place, just in the last two months, you will see that the violence starts in the ruling party, is preached by the ruling party big-wigs and practised in the streets by the police, youth militia, war veterans and any other people that ZANU PF can muster.

And here’s the biggest lie of all…

“I won fairly and the MDC should accept it. SADC (Southern African Development Community) endorsed the elections. Who is Blair (British Premier Tony) and Bush (US President George W) to decide who rules Zimbabwe?” said Mugabe.”

The point being that Mugabe’s Supreme Court ruled years ago that Tsvangirai had won the election and that Mugabe was in power illegally, but then stopped short of ordering Mugabe out of office, saying instead that he had already started the term and should be allowed to finish it!

Mugabe asks how can Blair of Bush decide who rules Zimbabwe? How can Mugabe decide who rules Zimbabwe? The ballot boxes are rigged, the voter roll has been tampered with and many people are excluded from voting, while thousands of dead and non-existent people vote - for ZANU PF.

Mugabe insists on choosing who rules Zimbabwe, and he says to the rest of the world: “I chose me!”

“At a time when they should be coming up with ideas that can develop the nation, they are busy concentrating on saying Mugabe must go. Ndino nambuya vangu Nehanda (I swear with my ancestral spirits) that will never happen. I will not allow Tsvangirai and his bosses, to taste this seat. Never, ever,” said Mugabe.”

-o00o-

Further reports on Mugabe’s rantings yesterday.

“Addressing a rally to mark Zimbabwe’s 27th independence anniversary, Mugabe said he would never cede power to opposition figures he has branded stooges of Western powers bent on undermining his black nationalist government.

“As government, our message remains clear that we will never hesitate to deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy,” he told some 30,000 cheering supporters at a Harare stadium.

A mounting economic and political crisis left many Zimbabweans in no mood for celebration on Wednesday, with many saying the country was in its worst shape ever.

But Mugabe – who denies he is holding on to power through violence and vote rigging – said people had reason celebrate “successive victories over British-sponsored negative forces, however organised.”

Zimbabwe had resisted attempts to reverse the government’s nationalist land and black empowerment policies through the opposition’s British-sponsored “regime change agenda”, he said.”

Mugabe has it in his head that he is a big fish in a small ocean, and that the likes of Blair and Bush are intent of facilitating regime change in Zimbabwe and re-colonising the country… or some such rubbish like that.

I hate to inform him, but Zimbabwe is VERY low down on the order of things. Very low down indeed. So low that it doesn’t even come up for air.

Nobody in the free world is remotely interested. The country has been ruined by Mugabe and his government. Who would want it now anyway?

“Mugabe said he had no problem with a “legal, home-grown, peaceful and constructive political opposition,” but said chief opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai – who says he was cheated of victory in presidential polls in 2002 – was a “pathetic puppet” of Britain and the United States.

“I swear by our forefathers, I will never concede power to such people,” he said.”

-o00o-

You might recall the asylum seeker here in Derby who has been told that he must return to Zimbabwe that I wrote about a week or so ago…

“An asylum seeker who fears he will be murdered if he has to return to is native Zimbabwe has met Derby South MP and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.

The Evening Telegraph has previously reported how Khumbula Dube’s application for asylum was refused by the Home Office.

But he fears he will be attacked if sent home because of his outspoken views against the regime of the country’s president, Robert Mugabe.”

When these cases are considered, do they just look at the evidence supplied by the applicant, or do they also look at the political climate in Zimbabwe?

I am only interested as these cases, when we hear of them, seem to be handled very badly - and many good people or returned to the country they fled - assumably to spend years either in prison or on the run.

-o00o-

“Zimbabwe is likely to go to the polls much earlier than March next year amid reports the ruling ZANU (PF) party is considering bringing the election calendar forward because of the fast deteriorating economic situation which is likely to militate against President Robert Mugabe’s re-election.Mugabe’s term expires on March 31 and constitutionally he is supposed to hold an election within 90 days prior to that date.”

I don’t think that the actual date of the elections is altogether too important - as long as the registration of the candidates is done correctly and in good time I don’t see a problem. Of course, Mugabe’s little helpers will endeavour to thrown obstacle after obstacle in front of any opposition, be it MDC or independents.

The MDC has to keep their ears to the ground to ensure that any flanking move by the ruling party is known about early and countered as soon as possible…

“Mugabe is now almost certain he will be opposed by Morgan Tsvangirai, the charismatic veteran trade unionist at the helm of the bigger wing of the MDC.”

-o00o-

“The ZANU (PF) government will soon embark on an exercise of dishing out land to peasants in impoverished communal areas as part of an election campaign, this paper has established. The party leadership recently discussed its campaign plans for next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections and came up with the land strategy to lure the electorate. Sources within the ruling party revealed to The Zimbabwean this week that minister responsible for land reform, Didymus Mutasa, would soon announce a new wave of resettlement.”

For 7 years the ZANU PF government has been taking farms away from the commercial farming sector and have been giving the prime, choice lands to their members and allies.

Now that there is an election on the horizon, they suddenly decide that the time is right to give land to the ‘peasants’ - and the land that they give is useless, and there are so many threats attached to the ‘gift’ that no self-respecting farmer would want it!

“Government has recently revived land seizures from the few remaining white farmers and the sources said that trend was expected to continue in order to make farms available for the campaigning exercise. “The land reform programme is ongoing and what is wrong with government giving land to peasants, that is the essence of the programme?” Mutasa said.”

Yep - it’s all in the timing…

And what thought has been given to those no without shelter because of Operation Murambatsvina? Oh. sorry - that’s right - they are deemed to be sympathetic to the MDC - that way they can be ignored and not be on the agenda for rehousing, land distribution…

-o00o-

 Take care

 ’debvhu

Howzit

27 years ago today Zimbabweans were a happy people. The Rhodesian bush war was over and free and fair elections had taken place. Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF had won it in some fancy style, and the country of Zimbabwe was born.

With fanfare and ceremony at Rufaro Stadium in then Salisbury (now Harare), Prince Charles lowered the Union Jack and the new Zimbabwean flag was raised.

Hopes of a nation hung on that flag.

Today, 27 years later, like that flag, the hopes of the nation hang in tatters.

Robert Mugabe still rules - but he’s now the President having promoted himself from Prime Minister as soon as he could.

The country is a one-party state - if not legally, then by default.

Mugabe rules Zimbabwe with an iron fist and wants the world to know it. He cares not that his policies are ruinous, his law vindictive and his solutions destructive.

He has power and is determined to keep it at any cost. He has ripped up any agreements he may have with the UK or the USA, including the Lancaster House Agreement, the very document that facilitated his rise to power, and takes every opportunity to vilify and humiliate the Western world.

He has looked to the East and has found that he cannot pay the costs, and his country is unsuited to the kind of industry it requires.

He stood back when in 2000 the country said no in a referendum for a new constitution, and allowed the youth militia, the so-called war veterans to begin invading farms belonging to commercial farmers across the country.

7 years later the agricultural sector is in ruins, with only a handful of commercial farmers still on their land - and they are being picked off one by one.

Violence is the language of the ruling party ZANU PF. Farmers and their workers have been murdered - with no one being brought to book for the deaths.

Two years ago Mugabe decided that he needed to break up perceived strongholds of the opposition MDC - and he unleashed Operation Murambatsvina on the people.

An estimated 700000 people were affected directly by the rout. House after house of ‘illegal dwellers’ were bulldozed, the occupants being moved into rural areas or being ‘resettled’ in camps dotted around Harare.

The majority of those people remain there today - with little or no protection from the elements.

80% of the workforce are unemployed. Companies are closing down each day.

Last year the Mugabe government decided to drop three zeroes off the currency and re-issue new banknotes - if you can call promissory notes banknotes. Less than a year later the three zeroes are back.

The economy is in uncontrollable freefall.

ZANU PF is broke. But has begun to fund itself from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe coffers.

Mugabe buys fighter jets, new limousines and motorbikes for his cavalcade, vehicles for his ministers, police and army chiefs, but the roads they travel on are falling to pieces.

Whoa!

It would be so easy to carry on with this - I could list Mugabe’s ruling party’s failings all day.

But this is not about Mugabe or ZANU PF.

Independence is meant to be a celebration for the people - not just the chosen few.

The people in Zimbabwe have nothing to celebrate. Today is just another day in a long line of days where they struggle to feed themselves, educate their children, secure employment or receive medical services.

Yet Mugabe will spend today watching military parades and sporting fixtures which he hopes will show the world that his country is happy.

Far from it…

-o00o-

Foreign currency mid-rates updated…

-o00o-

“Zimbabweans mark 27 years of Independence from Britain but for the majority, there is little to celebrate with inflations nearly 2000 percent, unemployment at above 80 percent, while poverty is at its worst that at any other time since Britain relinquished power to Prime Minister (now President) Mugabe on April 18, 1980.“

I remember that day well - and although we didn’t know it at the time - all our dreams and aspirations were doomed.

“Zimbabweans should feel and experience that they are truly independent and free every day of their lives. That unfortunately is not the case. The reality is that there is no freedom in Zimbabwe, people are beaten, abducted, killed, raped and intimidated by the police and ruling party thugs for the simple reason that they hold a different political view.”

A free, democratic, independent Zimbabwe?

-o00o-

“On the eve of Zimbabwe’s 27th Independence Day celebrations, the two leaders of the country’s divided opposition united in acknowledging there was nothing to celebrate. Newsreel on Tuesday spoke to both Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara to get their thoughts on the celebrations. Tsvangirai said although it was an emotional day to reflect on past sacrifices the day itself had lost the nostalgia previously attached to it, mainly because the country had gone back on advances made after independence. He accused the ruling ZANU PF party of ‘Zanuising’ the event and deliberately excluding everyone else. He said contrary to Mugabe’s claims it was actually the ruling party that has betrayed the ideals of the liberation struggle, not the opposition.“

I would agree. The huge advances made in the early 1980’s as Zimbabwe grew into a prosperous nation, have been largely reversed in the last 20 years - to the point the country is a mere shadow of it’s former self.

There are Zimbabweans scattered all over the world. Does that in itself not speak chapters about the disastrous rule of Robert Mugabe?

And when will it end?

“In his Independence Day message Mutambara said Zimbabweans did not owe Mugabe anything; “Mugabe was basically a spineless coward in the war, he never fired a single shot and was a lucky coward of the liberation war.”

-o00o-

One of the attractions to joining a police force or an army is the fact that uniforms and equipment are supplied so one does not have to deplete earnings to clothe oneself…

“The cash-strapped Zimbabwean government has ordered police recruits around the country to bring their own training gear and clothing as it can no longer afford to provide the materials for the trainee officers.”

These recruits are meant to provide their own “takkies”, sheets and cleaning equipment.

I would think that it is safe to say that the number of recruits will reduce markedly…

“I went through all the interviews and medical examinations but I was surprised when the personnel officer gave me this long list of things that I was supposed to bring ahead of training.“

How the standards have fallen in Zimbabwe!

“Contacted for comment last night, police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzjena, said: “I am not aware of such a development. Recruits are supposed to be given uniforms and equipment for training and that has not been changed.”

Typical Zimbabwean government administration - one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.

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Mugabe suffers from delusions of grandeur. He really thinks that there are people in the world that will settle for nothing else than his head on a platter - and he thinks that the MDC is sponsored by some foreign power hell-bent on seeing Mugabe off…

“Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday he had beaten off an attempt by “evildoers” to unseat him and urged people to be patient as his government battled an economic crisis he blames on the West.

Speaking at a children’s party on the eve of Zimbabwe’s 27th independence anniversary, he said his government had managed to “override the little storm” he said had been mounted by the opposition and his critics in the West, led by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “The man (Blair) is about to retire and wanted a final push,” Mugabe said. “We resisted the maneuvers that he and his government, and evildoers who act as their representatives here, were trying to do in what was regarded as the final push to get Zimbabwe to collapse.”

What Mugabe means is that HE is about to be retired - all it going to take is the final push. And Zimbabwe doesn’t need a final push to collapse - Mugabe achieved that without any help at all…

Mugabe has it in his brain that the English want to recolonise Zimbabwe. Now just why would they want to do that? Mugabe has ruined the country - the infrastructure has been destroyed and the social strata has been demolished. It’s going to take a lot more work than he realises to put the country back on it’s feet.

“This is no time for any loyal citizen to think of a strike for wages,” Mugabe said. “We call for patience… to resist the call for regime change, to resist the drive by Britain to make us a colony again.”

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“The ZANU (PF) led regime has set it’s rigging machinery in motion by announcing that it will deny close to 5 million Zimbabweans living in exile the right to vote in next year’ presidential and parliamentary elections.

Zimbabwe Election Commission spokesman Utloile Silaigwana told the state controlled Herald that only those on official government duty outside the country would be eligible to vote in the elections. He said those living in exile will not vote because the country’s electoral laws have not changed. The statement from the ZEC comes only two days after the top executive of the MDC in the UK met to discuss ways of ensuring that every Zimbabwean, home or abroad, has the right to vote in next year’s elections.”

In all the years I was in Zimbabwe I never voted anyway - but that was my own choice. To deny that democratic right to anyone is incorrect - even if they are out of the country - by choice.

Mugabe is attempting this, and will succeed, as he is all too aware that the vast majority of Zimbabweans living outside the country are in those far away places as they have left Zimbabwe to get away from his dictatorship.

“Denying a vote to Zimbabweans in the diaspora is not only denying them from exercising their civic duties, but also constitutes a human right violation.”

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Take care.

‘debvhu

Howzit

It’s 8 o’clock on Monday evening, and it may be late but at least I have done it. ZNU Podcast 064 has been released. You can listen to it here or using the multiplayer in the right hand sidebar - or you can download it here.

You will note that the above was posted as an EDIT last night in yesterday’s posting as well…

Just so you don’t miss it…

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I note that this blog has now had more than 50 thousand hits. My thanks to you all for the support…

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As I said in my podcast, there is just a slim chance that B may be allowed home on Thursday. They are doing a scan of her lungs today to see how their efforts against the infection have fared - the doctor was very positive yesterday. All we gotta do now, is get B off the cigarettes!

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“Politically motivated human rights abuses against President Robert Mugabe’s opponents will escalate as the country gears towards elections next year, rights activists and analysts said, noting a growing trend of brutal attacks on opposition members by state agents.“

I suppose the first evidence to look at is the utterance of Mugabe himself. He happily told the world that his forces had ‘bashed’ the opposition and also has stated that the MDC will never rule Zimbabwe while he is alive.

Then we heard Elliot Manyika say that the youth militia are gearing up towards a campaign of violence against the MDC in the run up to the election. His words not mine.

That and the story that the torture camps throughout the country are being pulled out of moth balls.

Yes - the MDC is going to have a rough time - but I can’t help thinking that if things don’t change they will remain the same. What I mean the ZANU PF rule in Zimbabwe will not peter out and die of its own accord - something, a catalyst, is required to precipitate the essential change.

And that catalyst is the Zimbabwean people.

“We are not of the view that human rights abuses will end. Actually they will increase as we go to the elections,” Mabwe Chimbwa, a ZLHR lawyer said yesterday.

“There is a coincidence in that as we are going towards elections next year, the violence is also growing and in this case it is targeted against opposition officials if you can call them that,” Chimbwa said.”

Mugabe has the habit of taking out his temper on the opposition and any other organisation or establishment that stands up for itself, and the results are assaults, torture and arrests.

“Mugabe’s tactic has been to resort to violence when he feels threatened and this has been perfected over a long time,” John Makumbe, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

“So as we approach 2008 I am certain there will be more victims of political violence ans subsequently this will worsen this government’s already notorious human rights record,” Mukumbe, a known Mugabe critic, said.”

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I laughed out loud when I saw this story - the only virus that directly effects inflation is ZANU PF…

“Zimbabwe’s Central Statistical Office (ZSO) on Monday said it was unable to release key inflation data for the month of March after a virus infected its computers.

The CSO, which earlier this year pledged to release inflation figures by the 10th of each month, failed to do so last week without spelling out the reasons for the delay in the crucial economic data, which economists project will shoot beyond 2000 percent and set a new world record.”

Mugabe is setting a whole bunch of new records - and none them are anything to be proud of.

I maintain that if - and when - the figures for the month are released, the figure will be nearer 2500 %…

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“Zimbabwe’s government, which has indefinitely postponed the latest set of inflation figures, appears increasingly panicked over its losing battle against the country’s “economic HIV,” analysts said.Central Statistical Office acting director Moffat Nyoni told AFP on Monday he was still hoping to announce the figures for March by the end of the week after ironing out a “few technical glitches”.

But a finance ministry staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the CSO was under instructions to “withhold the figures until further notice”.

After the inflation announcement was postponed twice last week, also for “technical” reasons, most observers believe the real explanation is a sense of panic over the surge beyond the 2000 percent mark, defying previous forecasts.“As I have said, inflation is now out of any control… Nothing anyone can do can halt the progress.

Shut up shop, switch off the lights and go home… if you have a home to go to that is…

“It’s like the HIV and Aids problems and you need to publicise the true figures and adopt measures to deal with the problem rather than sweep things under the carpet and continue under the impression that all is well.”

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Mugabe is at such an advanced stage in his paranoid megalomania that he jumps at shadows, cringes at clouds and closes down anything which he perceives as a threat - which is most things.

“Zimbabwean authorities have cancelled licences for NGOs in a crackdown on groups accused of planning to oust veteran President Robert Mugabe, state television said on Monday.

“Government has annulled registration certificates of all NGOs in order to sift out those seeking to force regime change in Zimbabwe,” the state broadcaster Zimbabwe Television said.

“As pro-opposition and Western organisations masquerading as relief agencies continue to mushroom, the government has annulled the registration certificates of all NGOs in order to screen out agents of imperialism from genuine organisations working to uplift the well-being of the poor.”

He doesn’t care that the revocation of these licences will have an adverse effect on the Zimbabwean economy - already in free fall - but Mugabe has put his own political survival ahead of all of this.

This man cares for no one but himself!

“The opposition has of late been aligning itself with anti-government religious groups under the umbrella of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign,” the report said. “Rallies held under this banner have seen supposedly prayer meetings turning into violent illegal gatherings.”

I didn’t see Saturday’s prayer meeting turning into violence - and that was because the police kept their distance…

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“Outspoken Zimbabwean Roman Catholic archbishop Pius Ncube said in an interview published on Tuesday that he understood that he may lose his life over his continued critical stance against President Robert Mugabe’s regime.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph while on a visit to London, Ncube also criticised the leaders of Zimbabwe’s neighbours for not doing more to avert the ongoing crisis there.

“The church has a prophetic role to speak the truth when no one else dares to,” the archbishop of Bulawayo told the paper.

“I accept that it may mean that I lose my life.”

This is one brave man - who is all too aware of the punishments that Mugabe’s government hands out to anyone who dare