Messages From Zimbabwe

South African President Thabo Mbeki is supportive of Simba Makoni’s bid for the presidency of Zimbabwe, and there are indications that this is the outcome of the Third Force project on which the SA leader has been working for some time.

Impeccable sources told The Zimbabwean this week that Mbeki had identified Makoni as the ideal candidate to pull Zimbabwe out of the current political and economic crisis.

He had initially hoped to strike a deal between “reformists” from ZANU PF led by Makoni and the opposition MDC factions that would see the establishment of a transitional government of national unity pending elections under a new constitution.

Sources say there was hope by Mbeki and other African and western leaders that there would be a successful rebellion in ZANU PF at the party’s special congress in December to oust Mugabe and replace him with Makoni, who had already pledged his commitment to the transitional government arrangement and said he had no problems working with the MDC.

When the plan to oust Mugabe flopped, it put the whole game plan into disarray and Mugabe became more paranoid and contemptuous of the negotiations, which eventually collapsed.

“Makoni then told Mbeki he was ready and capable of contesting the presidency,” said a source who was involved. “They agreed that Makoni didn’t have to leave ZANU PF because it needed to be reformed – it remains an obstacle to political change as long as it is still under Mugabe.”

Mbeki made a surprise statement last week that had been success in the negotiations between ZANU PF and MDC. Senior sources in the MDC say the SA leader is making concerted efforts to try and forge an alliance between Makoni and the two MDC factions to present a united front against Mugabe, and consider the government of national unity proposal.

“The plan really is that Makoni must remain ZANU PF and there is belief that he had backing of many members in the party meaning in the event of any defeat of Mugabe, there can indeed by a reformed ZANU PF to work with,” the source said.

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Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday declared that he would work with anyone who opposed the dictatorship of President Robert Mugabe while denouncing former ruling party presidential candidate Simba Makoni as tainted goods.

“Anyone who is prepared to close ranks against ZANU PF, against Robert Mugabe, we will work with them,” Tsvangirai, who heads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told a briefing with foreign correspondents in Johannesburg ahead of March elections, which he said he expected would be rigged.

Tsvangirai was responding to questions about whether he was prepared to join forces with popular former finance minister and ZANU PF member Makoni, who announced earlier this month that he would stand for president against 83-year-old Mugabe, Zimbabwe‘s president for 28 years.

Makoni’s announcement had revitalised the election, which had been billed as a walkover for Mugabe after rival factions within the MDC failed to agree to contest the presidential, parliamentary and local polls under a single banner.

The smaller of the two MDC factions led by Arthur Mutambara was reported to have thrown its support behind Makoni.

Tsvangirai stressed that Makoni, who was formally expelled from the ruling party on Wednesday, was tainted by his association with Mugabe’s rule.

“They are guilty by omission and commission,” he said of reform-minded figures within ZANU PF, pointing out that Makoni had sat on ZANU PF’s politburo while the economy went into free fall driving an estimated four million Zimbabweans into exile.

Mugabe’s disastrous policies, including his ruinous land reform programme, were blamed for hyperinflation of more than 25000%, unemployment of about 80% and widespread shortages of basic foods.

But Tsvangirai also acknowledged Makoni’s stand, which had drawn threats of violence from war veterans close to Mugabe, was “courageous” and said the MDC was prepared to hold “a principled discussion about the future of the country,” with any anti-Mugabe figures.

The opposition leader, whose beating by police during a crackdown on the MDC in March 2007 sparked international outrage, also made an impassioned plea to President Thabo Mbeki not to rubber-stamp the outcome of the March 29 polls.

Tsvangirai urged Mbeki, who was appointed by southern African countries to mediate between ZANU PF and the MDC on creating the conditions for free and fair elections, to “break with his policy of quiet support for the dictatorship in Zimbabwe“.

“If you won’t do it for us, if you won’t do it for Africa, do it for your own country and for your own legacy,” he said, adding Mbeki’s assessment that the two sides had reached “full agreement” on key matters was incorrect.

The MDC had threatened to boycott the polls unless they were held under a new draft constitution and the date postponed.

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A ZIMBABWEAN man could be jailed for up to 70 years in the United States after being convicted of tax fraud at the end of a six-day-trial in Atlanta, Georgia.

A federal jury returned guilty verdicts against Onessimus Govereh, also known as Tony, 28, on charges of willfully filing false personal income tax returns worth US$460 000 with the Internal Revenue Service.

He will be sentenced on March 28.

“As we begin a new tax filing season, tax preparers should beware that, along with our criminal investigative partners in the IRS, we will quickly and effectively prosecute those tax professionals who choose to violate the tax laws for their personal profit,” said United States Attorney David E. Nahmias

“The defendant in this case began filing fraudulent returns in early 2007. He was arrested in February, 2007, indicted in April, 2007, and has now been tried and convicted less than a year after he initiated his criminal scheme to defraud the IRS and to steal from U.S. taxpayers. His next stop will be a federal prison.”

Nahmias, who led the evidence presented at trial, said Govereh, operating under the name “Kingdom Tax Service” and with his principal place of business in Norcross, Georgia, registered with the IRS as an electronic return originator in late 2006.

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Two questions have been on everyone’s lips in Zimbabwe since Simba Makoni announced he would stand against Robert Mugabe in the presidential elections on March 29. One, could he command enough support from both the ruling Zanu PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to win? And two, if Makoni could get the support, how far would Mugabe go to try to stop him? When the news broke that Makoni was running it was “like a breath of fresh air”, as one jaded Zimbabwean said in Harare this week. Many Zimbabweans, long disillusioned by rigged elections, had intended to stay away from the polls on March 29. But now they are invigorated and are rushing off to check at the inefficient Registrar-General’s office to see if they are still on the voters’ roll.

It has been taken for granted that former army commander Solomon Mujuru was the “king maker” behind Makoni’s initiative. This had been true a year ago, but was no longer true in the same way, said Wilfred Mhanda, a former top commander from the liberation war. Mhanda is one of a handful of people associated with Makoni’s bid, along with academic Ibbo Mandaza. “Mujuru is sympathetic, but it is not a Mujuru initiative,” Mhanda said. “Nor is it a foreign initiative. For example, the South Africans are not involved in any way, and nor is the West. This is entirely Zimbabwean, and Makoni had to make up his own mind, and that only happened just after Christmas.”

Mhanda expects Mujuru’s wife, Joice, who is vice-president, to stand for re-election to parliament on behalf of Zanu PF. Her wealth has come via Zanu PF and she is not likely to turn her back on that, he said. But another strategist who did not want to be named suggested Mhanda was putting out a smokescreen to protect the Mujurus from the wrath of Mugabe. He said distancing Makoni from the Mujurus was the impression the Makoni people wanted to create. “But, believe me, Mujuru is in there, so are some from Mugabe’s closest inner circle. They believed they were staying close to Mugabe to stop the Mujurus. But now they see Makoni is the candidate, which changes everything for them. “The difficulty will be that some of the Zanu PF candidates for the parliamentary elections will have to go out and canvass for themselves, and of course for Mugabe, in public but privately they will be trying to get the message across that people should vote for Makoni, not Mugabe, on the presidential ballot paper.”

Mugabe must have been completely confident of victory until Makoni’s announcement, because he knew he would face little opposition from a divided and dispirited opposition MDC. But Makoni changes that. The 57-year-old has been a member of Zanu PF all his adult life and was a minister in the independence cabinet when he was 28. He could win enough votes from moderates, both in Zanu PF and the MDC, to beat Mugabe. “The old man wants to be in charge for the rest of his life, regardless of how much further the country falls. He does not care how much anyone suffers. That’s the reality,” said Mhanda. The clownish governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, who controls the money, the exchange rate and even how much cash people can draw from their own accounts, is an essential tool of Mugabe’s armoury. Gono wants to be his successor and so he will be in the front line of Mugabe’s plans to defeat Makoni.

Mugabe has so far also counted heavily on full support from the military, to manipulate the elections and to intimidate opposition voters (not least by threatening a coup against the MDC if it wins). But with Makoni in the field, there are going to be some officials, in the army and elsewhere, who are going to say one thing to Mugabe and do another. That must worry him. If Mugabe rigs this poll in the election control centre (which is closed to the press and observers) in Harare by manipulating the votes, as he did, for example, in the presidential poll of 2002, he will not be sure that all the people there are his supporters. Some of those ordered to rig the vote will be Makoni supporters, Mhanda said. “Mugabe can’t trust anyone now, that’s why the politburo meeting this week was cancelled.” It also became convenient for Mugabe to agree to requests from the MDC to delay nomination court from this past Friday until February 15. This gives him time to purge some of the Zanu PF parliamentary candidates he suspects of being Makoni supporters.

What about the MDC? The faction led by Arthur Mutambara, which has its core support and parliamentarians in Bulawayo and in other parts of Matabeleland, is going to do whatever it takes to get Mugabe out and Makoni in. And founding MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai’s faction, which would be able to win most seats in Harare and a few in other towns, will certainly lose support to Makoni. Tsvangirai just can’t win in the rural areas where most people live, not least because his canvassing efforts have been met with violence from the security forces. Mhanda and others believe many of Tsvangirai’s disappointed supporters will vote for Makoni because they think he has the greatest chance of achieving what the embattled MDC tried to do in the first place – get rid of Mugabe. A deal could be struck between Tsvangirai’s parliamentary candidates and Makoni, and there is still time for that, but so far there are no indications if a deal would even be considered by Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai’s faction rejected a merger with the Mutambara faction last weekend and many of his supporters were fed up with that. So Tsvangirai and his group of brave men and women who have taken Mugabe’s vicious heat since 1999 and have written their names into history books through their efforts to bring democracy to Zimbabwe, may fade out of the political scenery altogether at these elections. “This is going to be very, very complicated. Mugabe might choose the (Mwayi) Kibaki way, and just install himself. Makoni, now with an extra week before nomination court, may put forward some candidates himself for some of the 210 parliamentary seats,” Mhanda said. With a week to go before the nomination court settles the shape of the contestants, the political situation is very, very fluid, and uncertain. Level- headed Simba Makoni has a long way to go with many hard compromises to make if he is to get within striking distance of the only goal that now counts in the minds of most Zimbabweans; getting rid of Mugabe.

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Advisors to Simba Makoni, the former Zimbabwean finance minister who threw down the gauntlet to President Robert Mugabe this week by announcing his candidacy for president in March elections, have urged him to forge a strategic alliance with the opposition given signs he may not garner much open ruling party support.

Makoni said Tuesday when he announced his candidacy that senior ZANU PF figures would soon join him, but sources close to Makoni say this was a tactical error given a harsh ruling party response that could sway others from declaring open backing.

ZANU PF insiders told VOA that the Central Intelligence Organization has submitted a report to Mr. Mugabe advising him that Makoni’s bid to displace him from the highest office in the land is not likely to shake the ruling party to its foundations.

The report warned the ZANU PF leadership not to send new supporters to Makoni by mishandling its ongoing primary elections, which could alienate office seekers.

The ZANU PF elections directorate is said to have been flooded with complaints about alleged irregularities in primaries, including announcements saying that candidates were unopposed though primaries were still being organized. Sources said that the president has taken direct charge of the party response to the complaints.

A number of Mr. Mugabe’s ministers have been defeated in party primaries, possibly reflecting disenchantment at the party’s grass roots.

Political analyst Dewa Mavhinga told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that it is not surprising ZANU PF members are not prepared to join Makoni as they have traditionally stuck with President Mugabe through thick and thin.

Harare correspondent Thomas Chiripasi reports that civil society leaders opening a two-day convention dubbed the “People’s Convention” dismissed Makoni’s candidacy on Friday, issuing the warning that Zimbabweans should be on their guard against what they called a ruling party scheme to divide the opposition in March elections.

Makoni’s candidacy has drawn mixed reactions across the political spectrum.

The ruling party has reviled him as a “traitor” while one leading liberation war veteran issued a thinly veiled threat. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change faction led by MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai has called him an “opportunist,” while the rival faction headed by Arthur Mutambara has welcomed Makoni’s entry as a candidate.

There have been persistent rumours of a Makoni-Mutambara alliance in the making.

Though many have voiced reservations about Makoni’s intentions, Wakatama said the former cabinet member’s bid to become Zimbabwe’s next president has generated a lot of excitement on the ground and changed the very nature of the contest.

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Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF party is re-vetting candidates for next months’ elections to ensure that only those “totally loyal” to President Robert Mugabe will stand on the party’s ticket, secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa said on Thursday. Mutasa, a top confidante of Mugabe and is also intelligence and land reform minister, said ZANU PF would in the coming days intensify a campaign to weed out rebels linked to former finance minister Simba Makoni who this week announced he will stand against Mugabe in next month’s presidential poll. “We have rebels in the party and we will have to look at who is who,” Mutasa told Zim Online. “More importantly (we) want to ensure that whoever is representing ZANU-PF has total loyalty to President Mugabe. We are at a time when we have to redouble our vigilance. We are re-looking at who goes on our ticket.”

Makoni shook Zimbabwe’s ruling establishment to its foundations last Tuesday when he announced his mutiny against Mugabe, clearly stating he was not alone but working with many more like-minded people from the government and ZANU PF. Mugabe has not yet commented in public about Makoni’s rebellion while ZANU PF legal secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa’s comment was to only repeat a party constitutional provision that members who stand as independents are automatically expelled. Earlier this week, Mugabe postponed nomination of electoral candidates from tomorrow to February 15, a move government officials and state media claimed was because of a request by ZANU PF and the opposition MDC party for more time to select candidates. However, authoritative sources in Mugabe’s office told ZimOnline the postponement was because the veteran leader wanted time to re-organise his party in the wake of Makoni’s rebellion. Mugabe, normally a combative and cunning political fox, also on Wednesday cancelled a scheduled meeting of ZANU PF’s inner politburo cabinet, which had been expected to discuss Makoni’s rebellion. He did not give reasons.

However, Mutasa dismissed any suggestions of turmoil in ZANU PF, insisting the party that has been in power since Zimbabwe’s 1980 independence from Britain was still in control and would crush Makoni and his fellow rebels come election day on March 29. He said: “Generally as a party we are in control. The election will come and ZANU PF will win comfortably and that will be the end of Makoni and his group. This media hype will die down.” Zimbabwe is in the grip of an acute economic recession critics blame on mismanagement by Mugabe and seen in the world’s highest inflation rate of more than 26 000 percent, 80 percent unemployment and shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. Announcing his decision to challenge Mugabe, Makoni said Zimbabwe’s problems were chiefly a result of leadership failure, a thinly veiled attack on Mugabe. Mugabe, who at once boasted that no one could have run Zimbabwe’s economy better than him, denies ruining the country and has promised a landslide victory in March to once again prove he has the backing of ordinary Zimbabweans.

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Mercenary boss Simon Mann, who disappeared from a Harare security prison last week, is still in Zimbabwe and is probably being hidden by the police because he has been injured, his lawyer says. The Zimbabwe government says it deported him to Equatorial Guinea before dawn on Thursday after his appeal against extradition to face charges for an alleged coup plot was turned down by the High Court the previous day. Jonathan Samkange, lawyer for Mann since he was arrested in 2004, said yesterday he had checked out the “occurrence” book at the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison and there was no signature. “Simon Mann should have signed that book when he left. I went to Chikurubi at midday on Thursday. I was told by officials at the prison that Mann was screaming as they dragged him out, and he was crying for me, and he told them that he could not leave without me.” Samkange says he filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in Harare on Thursday morning, and then went to the prison to find that Mann had left a few minutes earlier.

On Friday, when Samkange demanded in the High Court that Mann be produced, the government released affidavits saying he had been deported from Zimbabwe just before dawn. No independent proof exists that Mann was taken by police to Manyame military air base, handed over to unnamed Equatorial Guinea officials and flown out on an “airforce” plane. State lawyers said they could not produce documents to prove Mann had been deported and sent to Equatorial Guinea, “for security reasons.” Samkange said when former special forces operative Nick du Toit was arrested in Equatorial Guinea, the day after Simon Mann and 69 South African mercenaries were picked up in Harare, he had been “displayed” on television. “If they had Simon Mann, we would have seen the TV pictures by now,” Samkange said. He said he had had a call from a journalist in Malabo who said if Mann had arrived, there would have been special security in town. “This guy told me no one believes Simon Mann is there.” Calls to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa went unanswered yesterday.

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Talks between two factions of Zimbabwe‘s main opposition to forge a coalition against President Robert Mugabe in elections next month collapsed Sunday, a faction leader said. “This thing is irretrievably broken,” Arthur Mutambara told journalists in the capital after a series of meetings between his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change and another led by former trade unionists ended in deadlock. “People of Zimbabwe, we apologise for failing to construct a united front.” Mutambara said a disagreement over seat allocations had been the dealbreaker. “From haggling over two seats last night, this morning our colleagues came back to us demanding 20 more seats in Matabeleland even where we have sitting MPs. At the same time they are not prepared to make such concessions in Harare.” Matabeleland is considered a stronghold of the Mutambara faction while the splinter let by Morgan Tsvangirai is dominant in Harare.

“In the absence of an agreement, we have no choice but to go right ahead and provide leadership in this country,” said Mutambara. “This means from this place we’re going out in the country to work out our nominations for the presidency, 210 members of parliament, senators and councillors. Morgan Tsvangirai is not our candidate for the presidency of this country.” He conceded chances of the opposition defeating Mugabe in March 29 elections were now slimmer. “Our chances of winning the election against Mugabe are reduced as compared to our chances if we were working together. We accept that a united front would make the opportunity to make every vote count against Mugabe a reality.” Once a formidable force posing the stiffest challenge to Mugabe’s more than two-decade stranglehold on power, the MDC was riven by factionalism following a row over senate elections in 2006. The factions temporarily set their differences aside and vowed to launch a united front against Mugabe last year after Tsvangirai and other party members were beaten by security forces breaking up an opposition rally.

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Another leaked memo reveals that those brave souls who oppose the Mugabe regime are targeted by those who should defend them – our police.

Anyone who thought that all the news about a new party, a new presidential challenger, and a ZANU PF split might mean a lessening of the official terror on the streets and in the homes of our country is doomed to be disappointed. If anything, things are clearly about to get worse.

I learned this when, in what is becoming an every-day occurrence, a contact within the state machine, who has become disillusioned with the Mugabe method of running a country, showed me a confidential memo. I read it with growing dread. The leaders of opposition groups in Zimbabwe must brace themselves for a difficult time ahead.

The memo comes from within the police Law and Order Section – an ironic title for a unit that excels in brutality and violence. It is numbered LM05/2008, and is an internal communication signal, written by Senior Assistant Commissioner LD Muchemwa, Officer Commanding the Bulawayo district, and addressed to Police Commissioner Augustine on January 3 this year. This is what it said:

Its basic message is that surveillance efforts are being stepped up against Bulawayo-based members of the Opposition Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) and leaders of other civic organisations.

Under the heading ‘Update On Election Preparations’ Muchemwa writes: “This province has identified the following hostile individuals and stepped up surveillance missions on them, as directed by your office… Our Law and Order and PISI (Police Internal Security Intelligence) details have been deployed to monitor and report on the activities of these. Their residential places are also subject to daily routine checks, so as to gather as much information as possible on their plans and people who pay them.”

The names on the list that follows are, of course, the usual suspects. That includes, to begin with, most members of the MDC, including three members of parliament, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, Thokozani Khupe and Felix Mafa. Also on the list are the co-leaders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, and, of course, former Archbishop Pius Ncube.

Only one name on the list is there in his individual capacity, rather than being aligned with the protest movements. He is the courageous Zenzele Ndebele, who, as I’ve previously reported, produced the stunning documentary “Gukurahundi – A Time Of Madness”, the story of Mugabe’s massacre of 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland in the Eighties. Zenzele is currently in hiding, and long may he remain in safety.

Finally, the memo reads: “This office takes security matters seriously and these (the names on the list) will be dealt with accordingly, where it is believed that they have committed a crime.”

A cold little sentence, but it carries a huge threat. I say to everyone named on this appalling list: Please – be careful out there.

(Source)

Phyllis Chipangura knew from bitter experience what to do when she heard police battering down the bedroom door at the church mission near midnight. She quickly grabbed her pillow and stuffed it up her shirt. “Even in Zimbabwe, the police hesitate before they hit pregnant women,” she said. Her ruse worked. As dozens of South African police piled into the tiny room she was sharing with about 30 other Zimbabwean refugees and eight children on Wednesday night, they went first for the men. “They beat them and hit them and pushed them half-naked out of the room. They then turned to the women. First, they harassed, stole and even propositioned them and then ordered them out too. They told the pregnant women to remain behind. I am very happy,” she beamed. Ms Chipangura, 26, fled to South Africa from Zimbabwe a month ago and has had no opportunity to obtain the official asylum papers required by an estimated three million Zimbabwean refugees now seeking sanctuary in their neighbouring country. “To get papers you have to go to Pretoria and queue for days. I can’t afford the travel and it is dangerous out there,” she said, gesturing at the street outside. Ms Chipangura was doubly lucky. She had decided to spend the night with her married sister, Saruna, in a room at the Central Methodist Mission in central Johannesburg reserved for married couples. “If I had been downstairs in the single quarters they would have rounded me up,” she said.

Police raided the church refuge shortly after 11pm in an apparent attempt to clamp down on illegal immigrants blamed for a sudden crime surge. At least 1,500 people were detained and bussed off to police stations in an action reminiscent of the apartheid era that has outraged rights activists. The police said that they were looking for drugs and for firearms used in recent armed robberies. Thousands of Zimbabweans flee to South Africa each week but the flow has hit new peaks as inflation and food shortages in Zimbabwe break new records. Bishop Paul Verryn, a well-known anti-apartheid activist, accused the police of brutality and violating the sanctity of the church, which for four years has offered sanctuary to homeless Zimbabweans. “It is despicable what has happened here. The police used tactics which were totally inappropriate,” he told The Times. Inside, in a Dickensian half-light, every single corner of every room in his mission is crammed with bodies huddled together for warmth and using each other’s limbs for pillows. At least 500 others sleep on the road outside the mission hall each night. Many do not have the correct papers to stay and are often too frightened to venture far from the hostel for fear of being harassed by police or attacked by thugs who hang around outside looking for easy targets. Bishop Verryn said that the police burst into his office, grabbed him by the belt and pulled him down the stairs to where many of the refugees were gathered. “They said they were looking for illegal immigrants, drugs and weapons. If they had asked me first, I would have co-operated with them but they did not,” he added.

The Zimbabweans said that several hundred police stormed into the hostel, knocking down doors and grabbing what they could of people’s possessions. “They were beating everyone and stealing what they could. I thought we were safe here but then I saw them manhandling the Bishop. This place is our last hope; we have nothing if we are driven from here as well,” said Nosta Neshumba, a 21-year-old woman who has lived in the refuge for just over a year. It was not clear why the police decided to raid the centre. A spokesman said only that hundreds of illegals had been detained but declined to give details or reply to allegations of police brutality. He said those without the right papers would be deported. Many of the deportees slip back over the border within hours of being repatriated. “We all know why they decided to attack. They do this to Zimbabweans from time to time. They just want to take from us and we are easy pickings,” said Justin Mabuku, 39, a Zimbabwean school teacher who managed to obtain an official residency permit.

(Source)