Messages From Zimbabwe

The Federal Opposition has called on the Government to officially recognise Morgan Tsvangirai as the President of Zimbabwe.

Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb says Robert Mugabe has been exposed as a brutal, illegitimate tyrant.

Mr Robb says all independent analysts believe Mr Tsvangirai won the necessary 50 per cent of the vote in the March election.

He says Mr Rudd should act decisively and recognise Mr Tsvangirai as the rightful president and encourage other nations to do the same.

Mr Robb says Australia is not doing enough.

“In Opposition, Mr Rudd talked about hauling Mugabe before the International Criminal Court, making Zimbabwe one of Australia’s top five policy priorities and he even warned the Chinese Government about propping up the Mugabe regime,” he said.

“So Mr Rudd could be urging all countries, including China, to recognise Mr Tsvangirai and in turn to see some real pressure on the UN to act.”

Meanwhile Mr Mugabe has arrived at an African Union (AU) summit in Egypt where his fellow African leaders are expected to urge him to reach a power-sharing agreement with the opposition.

The summit in the resort of Sharm El-Sheikh is expected to be dominated by the question of how to respond to the discredited run-off election that returned Mr Mugabe to power.

Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe says that rather than debating whether Mr Mugabe should be addressed as President, delegates will be focusing on how to help the Zimbabwean people.

“It’s not the matter of the titles of a person who determines security and is the built-in Africa. It’s the way forward,” he said.

“We are in a serious business here. The question is the people of Zimbabwe - what do we do for the suffering people of Zimbabwe?”

(Source)

Two independent legal opinions commissioned by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) support a conclusion that delay and the absence of a lawful run-off means the candidate who obtained the greatest number of votes in the election of 29 March 2008 has been duly elected as President and must be declared as such.

Read together, the opinions provided by David Unterhalter SC and Wim Trengove SC and Max du Plessis on different aspects of Zimbabwean electoral law argue that Zimbabwe’s Electoral Act provides both a majoritarian principle and a residual principle for determining the outcome of a Presidential election.

The majoritarian principle is predicated upon the requirement that a second election takes place within the 21 day period after the first election, which would have been April 2008. Only two candidates participate in this second election – those with the highest and next highest number of votes from the first round – and the candidate with the greater number of votes shall be declared the duly elected President, as set out in item 3 (1)(a) of the Second Schedule of the Electoral Act.

However item 3 of the Second Schedule also provides for a residual principle: where no second election is held or can be held with the requisite 21 day period, and there were two or more candidates for President, and no candidate received a majority of the total number of valid votes cast, item 3(1)(b) provides that the candidate with the greatest number of votes, and not the majority of the total number of votes, shall be the duly elected President.

This argument is set out in greater detail in an opinion titled: The Procedures Governing the Determination and Declaration of the President in the Event of an Unlawful Runoff. SALC has made the opinion publicly available at www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org

A second opinion commissioned by SALC addresses the issue of whether the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is authorised to extend the runoff period beyond the statutorily mandated 21 day period and consequently whether the current runoff, scheduled for 27 June 2008, is lawful.

It is argued that ZEC was not constitutionally authorised to extend the run-off: that the regulatory powers it invoked in order to extend the run-off constitute an impermissible and unconstitutional delegation on the part of Parliament, that it violates the separation of powers principle and that insufficient guidelines were given to limit such delegation.

It follows that no lawful run-off can take place if not held within the 21 day period: that ZEC’s purported extension was unconstitutional and unlawful. This opinion is also available from SALC at www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org

If there can be no lawful run-off now, then as set out in the first opinion, the residual principle applies and the Chief Elections Officer is required to declare the candidate with the greatest number of votes the duly elected President. Even assuming that the run-off could be extended beyond the 21 day period, but that the run-off could not occur because violence and intimidation made it impossible that a free and fair election could be held, then the residual principle would still apply and the candidate with the greatest number of votes must be declared duly elected President.  

SALC Director, Nicole Fritz said: “These opinions assume critical importance in light of recent developments. They provide clarity in what seems an increasingly uncertain situation. And they give the lie to any claim by Mugabe that he is the lawfully elected President.”

(Source: by email)

Nyasha was waiting last night to have his fingers checked. At stake was his house, his health and possibly even his life. Nyasha, like every other voter, had had to dip his little finger into a sponge soaked with pink indelible fluid. “Operation Red Finger” is a vital pillar in President Mugabe’s strategy to maximise turnout, to give yesterday’s one-man presidential race a semblance of respectability. So everybody went to vote, even in Epworth, a sprawling jumble of mud and brick huts that has witnessed some of the worst political violence in Zimbabwe in recent weeks. When Nyasha and his lodger Brian got to the polling station in Epworth, at 7am, there was already a very long queue. There were as many people waiting to cast their ballot yesterday at the school where the vote was held as in the relatively free first round in March, but Nyasha sensed that the atmosphere was much more subdued. A crowd of youths lurked at the gate of the school, without their Mugabe T-shirts, so as not to make the purpose of their presence too obvious. Their job was to make sure that everybody voted the right way.

“When I got to the gate, a war veteran gave me a pen and a piece of paper. He told me I had to write the serial number of the ballot paper when I am in the polling booth,” Nyasha said. “When you come out, you go to another war veteran waiting at the gate and he writes down your serial number, your name, your address and your ID number in an exercise book. They say that later they can find your ballot paper and check who you voted for. If you voted for the MDC, they will destroy your house and you have to leave Epworth. “I have a red finger,” he said. “I wanted to vote for Tsvangirai, but I voted for Mugabe, because of fear. Everyone is afraid their houses will be destroyed, so they are voting for Mugabe.” In the last two weeks, nearly 200 homes of suspected MDC supporters have been smashed by ZANU PF gangs, up to 15 of them in Nyasha’s ward.

“Now we are waiting for the end of the day,” Nyasha said on his way home. “They said they will come to everyone’s houses after voting is finished and see that everybody voted. They will look at our fingers for the red ink. If you don’t have red ink they will beat you and then destroy your house,” he said. In Epworth, the ZANU PF election campaign for the run-off featured systematic floggings, preceded by “confessions” forced out of people who voted for the MDC in the first round in March. Amazingly, there are still some people who are prepared to defy the regime. Mary, a maid in her late 50s, was going to make sure she got her red finger, but she could not bear to tick the name of the sole remaining candidate. “I am going to draw a big X all over the voting paper, to spoil my vote,” she said. “I don’t want Mugabe.”

(Source)

Paramilitary police and bands of ruling party militants patrolled Zimbabwe’s capital and marshals led voters to polling stations Friday for an internationally discredited presidential runoff held in an atmosphere of intimidation. In contrast to the excitement and hope for change that marked the first round of elections in March, a defiant President Robert Mugabe is the only candidate in this round, and the election was expected only to deepen the nation’s political crisis. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the runoff after an intense campaign of state-sponsored violence, said the results of the election would “reflect only the fear of the people of Zimbabwe.” Dozens of opposition supporters have been killed and thousands of people injured. Tsvangirai’s name remains on the ballot because electoral officials say his withdrawal Sunday came too late.

Mugabe, the country’s ruler since independence in 1980, was expected to use violence and intimidation to get people to vote for him in the hope that a massive turnout could demonstrate he still has support and to make his inevitable victory appear credible. Opposition party treasurer Roy Bennett, in exile in neighbouring South Africa, called on the world to acknowledge that Mugabe’s rule is illegitimate. “The whole election is a farce,” he told Associated Press Television News. “Nobody should endorse that election” and “all pressure that is possible… should be brought to bear” on Mugabe by African leaders. State radio acknowledged that voters were only “trickling” into stations in the countryside, attributing the low turnout to chilly weather that had temperatures below zero overnight.

About 20 paramilitary police in riot gear were stationed in a central Harare park then began patrolling the city in a truck. Militant Mugabe supporters roamed the streets, singing revolutionary songs, heckling people and asking why they were not voting. “I’ve got no option but to go and vote so that I can be safe,” explained a young woman selling tomatoes. The opposition scattered fliers overnight calling for a boycott. “Is it necessary to vote?” said Cephas Sango, a Harare resident reading a flier. He said he had heard warnings that Mugabe party militants plan to check for the ink staining voters’ fingers and those staying away face the threat of violence. The opposition has called on people voting out of fear to spoil their ballots. In the capital’s crowded Mbare suburb, lines built up at polling stations as voters arrived in groups, led by marshals who were carrying books filled with names. In one side street, names were being called and ticked off as a group of about 25 people gathered before heading to a tented polling station.

Up to 300 people waited at one station there. But elsewhere, the voters were outnumbered by an intimidating police presence. Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena told state radio that they had doubled the number of police at poll stations to “guarantee peace and security.” He said there were no reports of violence by midmorning, but that any violence would be met with “the full force of the law.” In an e-mail voting day message, Tsvangirai said he expected voters to be threatened, told to record their ballot paper numbers and to have their votes recorded by cameras. He advised them not to resist. “God knows what is in your heart. Don’t risk your lives,” he said in the message. In the middle-class Greendale suburb, Eunice Maboreke came out of a polling station and told a reporter “my vote is my secret.” Another voter, Livingstone Gwaze, said he voted for Mugabe. “Things will get better. There is darkness before light,” he said. Another man refused to give his name but held up his ink-stained finger to show he had voted.

Riot police and regular uniformed officers manned roadblocks on approaches to the South African Embassy, where at least 200 fugitives of violence in the countryside were camped with blankets and bundles of belongings in the parking lot. On the campaign trail Thursday, Mugabe said he was “open to discussion” with Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, but only after the vote. Mugabe had shown little interest in talks and his government had scoffed at Tsvangirai’s call Wednesday to work together to form a transitional authority. World leaders have dismissed the runoff. Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized meeting in Japan Friday said they would not recognize the outcome of the election. “We deplore the actions of the Zimbabwean authorities - systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation - which have made a free and fair presidential runoff election impossible,” they said in a joint statement.

Nigeria is the latest African nation to call for its postponement, even though its own presidential election in 2007 was riddled with fraud. Mugabe jumped on the contradictions on the continent, which has suffered a string of bad elections in recent years in Kenya, Ethiopia, Congo and Uganda. International intervention came only in Kenya this year, where a transitional unity government was formed after more than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence. “There are countries that have had elections in worse conditions in Africa and we have never interfered,” Mugabe told a rally Thursday. He said he would confront some leaders at an African Union summit that opens Monday in Egypt. “I would like some African leaders who are making these statements to point at me and we would see if those fingers would be cleaner than mine,” he said.

Tsvangirai was first in a field of four in the March vote, an embarrassment to Mugabe. But the official tally said he did not gain the votes necessary to avoid a runoff against Mugabe. Tsvangirai’s party and its allies also won control of parliament in March, dislodging Mugabe’s party for the first time since 1980. Mugabe was once hailed as a post-independence leader committed to development and reconciliation, but in recent years has been denounced as a dictator intent only on holding onto power. Efforts to dislodge him at the ballot box have repeatedly been stymied by fraud and intimidation. As during the first round, individual polling stations will have to post tallies, an innovation hammered out in talks between the opposition and Mugabe’s party mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki. That allowed the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network and the opposition to compile their own results, making fraud difficult.

But this time, the network said it was unable to field monitors because they had not been accredited by the government. The opposition also will not be monitoring results. The African Union, the main regional Southern African Development Community and African parliamentarians were observing the runoff, but do not have enough people to make a difference. Two Zimbabwean freelance journalists were detained by police Friday at a polling station because they could not produce proof that they were accredited with the government. Hundreds of journalists, mainly from Western media organizations, have been banned from covering Zimbabwe’s elections.

(Source)

Former South African President Nelson Mandela expressed concern yesterday over the election crisis in Zimbabwe and criticised the country’s leadership. In a speech at a dinner in London, he said there was a “tragic failure of leadership” in Zimbabwe. Pressure has mounted both inside and outside Africa to call off the vote since MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew. Robert Mugabe, 84, is now certain to be elected to extend his 28-year rule. South African spokesperson Themba Maseko said: “The facilitation talks between the various parties in Zimbabwe are looking at all aspects that will bring a possible settlement… all options are being considered which would, I suspect, include the possibility of a postponement.” He said senior negotiator Sydney Mufamadi was in Harare talking both to the government and opposition. Human rights organisations, Western powers and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change accused Mugabe of launching a campaign of murder and intimidation after he and his ZANU PF party lost the first round of elections. Tsvangirai said that while he was prepared to negotiate with Mugabe’s ZANU PF before tomorrow, his MDC would “not have anything to do” with a government that emerged from the vote.

(Source)

Despite an increasingly thunderous chorus of complaints that Zimbabwe’s presidential runoff election will be neither free nor fair, the African National Congress, South Africa’s governing party, rejected outside diplomatic intervention on Tuesday, arguing that “any attempts by outside players to impose regime change will merely deepen the crisis.” The ANC warned against international intervention a day after the United Nations Security Council took its first action on the electoral crisis in Zimbabwe, issuing a unanimous statement condemning the widespread campaign of violence in the country and calling on the government to free political prisoners and allow the opposition to hold rallies. But South Africa, the region’s powerhouse, is widely considered to play the pivotal role in bringing about change in neighboring Zimbabwe.

While the ANC came out with an unusually strong condemnation of the Zimbabwean government on Tuesday, saying it was “riding roughshod over the hard-won democratic rights” of its people, the party also insisted that outsiders had no role to play in ending its current anguish. “It has always been and continues to be the view of our movement that the challenges facing Zimbabwe can only be solved by the Zimbabweans themselves,” the statement said. “Nothing that has happened in the recent months has persuaded us to revise that view.” Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew from a runoff election with the incumbent president, Robert Mugabe, scheduled for Friday, citing the widespread violence and intimidation facing his party. “It’s ridiculous to go into an election of that kind,” he said in a radio interview on Tuesday. “It’s a one-man competition.”

On Wednesday, in an article published in The Guardian newspaper in London, Mr. Tsvangirai called for international intervention. “We do not want armed conflict,” he wrote, “but the people of Zimbabwe need the words of indignation from global leaders to be backed by the moral rectitude of military force.” Mr. Tsvangirai has been taking refuge at the Dutch Embassy in the capital, Harare, but has said he will leave within 48 hours after moves by Dutch authorities to ensure his safety. Amid the international outcry over his government’s handling of the crisis, Mr. Mugabe was reported Tuesday as hinting that he might be open to talks with the beleaguered opposition, but only after he won. He remained defiant about going ahead with the runoff, refusing to postpone it. “They can shout as loud as they like from Washington or from London or from any other quarter,” Mr. Mugabe said in televised broadcasts. “Our people, our people, only our people will decide and nobody else.”

Taken together, his remarks were the most explicit affirmation that he intended to go through with an election widely condemned as illegitimate. But the hint of readiness to talk was also the first sign that Mr. Mugabe might negotiate - as President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has been urging him to do - once he has what he can depict as a position of strength. The ANC statement, which was the first official response from South Africa since Mr. Tsvangirai’s withdrawal, was not signed by any individual in the ANC It seemed to represent a marked departure from Mr. Mbeki’s refusal to castigate Mr. Mugabe, and seemed to reflect the increasing frustration with the Zimbabwean president. At the same time, in what seemed a clear rebuke to the efforts of Western nations to take an aggressive stance against the Zimbabwean government, the ANC included a lengthy criticism of the “arbitrary, capricious power” exerted by Africa’s colonial masters and cited the subsequent struggle by African nations to gain freedoms and rights.

“No colonial power in Africa, least of all Britain in its colony of ‘Rhodesia’ ever demonstrated any respect for these principles,” the ANC said, referring to Zimbabwe before its independence. Zimbabwe, once one of Africa’s most prosperous countries, has been reeling from a widening campaign of violence and intimidation since Mr. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president for nearly 30 years, came in second in the initial round of voting on March 29. In a show of support for the opposition, the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions declared on Tuesday that it was “appalled at the levels of violence and intimidation being inflicted on the people of Zimbabwe by the illegitimate Mugabe regime. The June 27 presidential election is not an election, but a declaration of war against the people of Zimbabwe by the ruling party,” the union group said. Urging a blockade of Zimbabwe, it said: “We call on all our unions and those everywhere else in the world to make sure that they never ever serve Mugabe anywhere, including at airports, restaurants, shops, etc. “Further, we call on all workers and citizens of the world never to allow Mugabe to set foot in their countries.”

(Source)

 Click to view…

I was stunned today when I watched Morgan Tsvangirai pull out of the June 27^th election. I had not expected this but since then have had a couple of calls from Zimbabwe that made the situation a bit clearer.

You must first understand how big a decision this was for the MDC. We are a Party committed to a democratic outcome of this struggle. Elections are our game - we do not want to take to the streets or to pick up weapons to make
our point. We are democrats.

We won the March 29th election by a wide margin. 73 per cent of the population voted against Mugabe. The regime was forced to simply lie about the result to get a run off and only the protection of the SADC States prevented an outright MDC victory.

We were and are quite satisfied that in any free and fair contest the MDC would have walked away with the run off. In the event, what we have witnessed over the past two months since the run off was announced, has been a nation wide campaign of violence and intimidation, the closing down of all democratic space inside Zimbabwe, intensified restrictions on the media and the complete militarisation of the functions of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Today armed militias were allowed to attack a MDC rally in Harare even though it had been given permission by the High Court and was entirely peaceful. The MDC leadership meeting in crisis session reviewed the overall situation and finally, reluctantly, decided they had no option but to withdraw from this farcical process.

Having done so the way is now open for the new ZEC to declare Mugabe as State President and for him to resume office.

The MDC decision, although painful and difficult for everyone, is in fact a very strategic move. It gives Thabo Mbeki the floor by virtually cancelling the run off and opens the door to SADC intervention. Any government that now includes Mugabe in any capacity, will not get recognition from the international community. It will not therefore attract any international assistance and will be unable to deal with the humanitarian and economic crisis now facing Zimbabwe. Both leave no room for manoeuvre and both demand immediate action.

On the humanitarian front we need to import 150000 tonnes of basic foods every month just to feed the country. Without external help Zimbabwe faces the very real prospect of starvation on a large scale. Currently the country has no stocks at all. On the economic front with inflation raging at 2 million percent or more and run away macro economic fundamentals, a complete economic collapse is not far off and could be triggered by the magnitude of this new political crisis.

The UN is bracing itself for a new flood of refugees both political and economic into neighbouring States and in my view South Africa must prepare itself for a fresh influx at the worst time of the year. Millions of Zimbabweans are preparing to leave the country and the only option for 90 per cent of them is South Africa.

From a political standpoint the global consensus is clear. The Mugabe regime has gone too far. There is now talk, for the first time, of the possibility of charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC. The US is calling for the Security Council to meet urgently on the Zimbabwe crisis. The UN Secretary General has become more vocal and outspoken on the situation and demanded action on several fronts. In the SADC it really looks as if a new consensus is emerging on the crisis, Angola and Swaziland becoming new critics of the Mugabe regime in the past few days.

The Zimbabwe crisis team of Mafumadi and Gumbo were both in Harare over the weekend and I cannot imagine this decision by the MDC being taken without their input. It would seem to me that the stage is set for another emergency SADC summit, that at such a summit the region will at last decide what to do and that the only way forward is the formation of a transitional government that will include all Parties elected to the new Parliament and that will then take the country through a period of stabilization and recovery before holding new elections.

It is quite clear that Mugabe simply cannot play any role in such a government - he was clearly defeated in the March 29th elections and is simply no longer acceptable to anyone except the Joint Operations Command (JOC). The only person who can head up such an interim administration, unless it is on a caretaker basis and will function for only a few months until new elections are held, would be Morgan Tsvangirai. The rest would be up to negotiations sponsored by the SADC and the UN. Clearly South Africa cannot continue in its role as a mediator and must step aside for someone more distant from the region and the current regime. This would allow South Africa and the SADC States to assume the role of enforcer rather than a mediator.

One of the phone calls I had today spoke of widespread violence in Zimbabwe. People being forced to do things against their will and children not attending school for security reasons. It is quite clear that not only do we have a rogue regime in Harare, but also it is a rogue out of control. That wounded buffalo of mine is just staying in the Jesse and destroying what is left instead of coming out and facing his hunter one last time. In effect the MDC as the hunter has prudently decided to seek help rather than try to deal with the old bull on its own. It may well prove to have been the right decision.

For all our friends all over the world, do not despair, I think you can clearly see that our first shot was fatal - it is just taking a bit of time to take effect. Whatever happens now, Mugabe is no longer capable of governing Zimbabwe. He said on Friday only God can remove me from power. He must know that his challenge would have been heard where such things matter and that his plea is being attended to.

Eddie Cross

Johannesburg,

22 June 2008

(Source: via email)

Armed supporters of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF party have started beating people at a rally where opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was due to speak on Sunday, Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change said.

“The (ZANU PF youth) militia have started beating people who are at the venue and those that were on their way,” the MDC said in a statement. Tsvangirai is campaigning for the June 27 presidential run-off against President Robert Mugabe.

(Source)

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has come under pressure from his own supporters to pull out of the presidential election with Robert Mugabe.

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said there was “a huge avalanche of calls and pressure from supporters across the country, especially in the rural areas, not to accept to be participants in this charade”.

However, the party later vowed to continue, saying “withdrawing will not solve anything”.

Mr Tsvangirai sent an email statement to supporters urging them to vote on June 27 to sweep away the Mugabe regime.

The comments came amid mounting violence against the MDC ahead of the election, with the wives of leading activists murdered, the imprisonment of party members and intimidation and beating of its supporters.

At least 70 opposition activists have been killed by ZANU PF militia and security forces and thousands of others have been beaten and harassed, the MDC says.

Mr Mugabe’s regime blame the opposition for the bloodshed, and say his opponent is a stooge waiting to return Zimbabwe back to its former colonial power Britain.

Mr Mugabe vowed yesterday that he will not leave power until all land in Zimbabwe is controlled by the majority black population.

“Once I am sure this legacy [of returning land to the black population] is truly in your hands, people are empowered… then I can say: Aha, the work is done,” the Herald newspaper reported him as saying.

“I walk on this land. I farm on this land. I sleep on it… That is truly our number one legacy.”

Mr Mugabe made the comments at two rallies in the Matabeleland North province in the country’s west.

He has previously warned he was ready to fight to keep the opposition out of power, and he repeated earlier statements about veterans of the 1970s liberation war.

“The war veterans came to me and said: ‘President, we can never accept that our country, which we won through the barrel of a gun, be taken merely by an ‘x’ made by a ballpoint pen’.”

“If I take a handful of sand from the ground like this, to me that is my treasure, it’s from my land,” he said. “It’s not from Britain. It’s Zimbabwean soil.”

He added: “What kind of people would we be to say the country should return into the hands of the British? We would reduce ourselves to be the laughing stock of the whole of Africa.”

(Source)