Messages From Zimbabwe

ZANU PF thugs representing former information minister Nathan Shamuyarira have terrorised four Spanish journalists visiting a white-owned farm under siege.

And police raided Zimbabwe‘s weekly newspaper, The Independent, on Saturday as a conference was under way to discuss a new way for Zimbabwe‘s media.

Jose Antonio Guardiola and three colleagues from TVE visited Ben Freeth’s beleaguered farm at the weekend.

The journalists were freed after Spanish diplomats protested to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Chief Inspector Manyika, of Chegutu police station, went to rescue the journalists from Freeth’s farm, which has been overrun by Shamuyarira’s men.

“I can’t comment,” said Manyika.

He has refused to arrest any of those on Freeth’s farm despite numerous court orders ruling that Freeth be allowed to stay and work the land undisturbed.

Dumisani Muleya, assistant editor of The Independent, said police from Harare Central’s notorious Law and Order Department visited the newspaper’s offices on Saturday looking for editor Vincent Kahiya and news editor Constantine Chimakure.

The Independent ran a report recently quoting from a state indictment against 18 human rights and Movement for Democratic Change activists who were abducted and charged with plotting to oust President Robert Mugabe.

Dumisani said: “This is reprehensible, outrageous, and signifies the continued repression of the media, when police want to arrest journalists over documents in the public domain.

“It is also ironic that this should take place during a media conference.”

MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa condemned the “intimidation” of media in Zimbabwe.

“We need a free media to bolster efforts to steer Zimbabwe towards democracy. This doesn’t help… We want a vibrant, responsible media.”

(Source)

Zimbabwe Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai will address parliament this week on the first 100 days of the inclusive government, a senior party official said.

“Prime Minister Tsvangirai will address parliament on the challenges and progress that the inclusive government has made since its formation in February,” a senior party official said.

Tsvangirai meets Mugabe on Monday in an effort to resolve outstanding issues which are yet to be resolved by the inclusive government, the party official added.

Of late Tsvangirai said he ‘believed the inclusive government is on the right track’ and has urged the international community to stop their obsession with Mugabe to focus on helping to rebuild Zimbabwe‘s shattered economy.

Tsvangirai’s address will be his second to parliament after his maiden speech in February when he called for ‘unity of purpose for the betterment of Zimbabwe.’

The Tsvangirai led Movement for Democratic Change in a statement last week gave the inclusive government a deadline of up to Monday to solve all the outstanding issues, failure which the party would refer the matter to its national governing council.

Among the outstanding issues which are yet to be resolved by the unity government include the appointment of the permanent secretaries, ambassadors, the Attorney General, the appointment of the Reserve bank governor and the freeing of political prisoners.

Zimbabwe witnessed fresh farm seizures in March and Tsvangirai last week promised to set up set a land commission to deal with the land issue ‘once and for all.’

(Source)

Wikipedia describes a “politician” (from Greek “polis”) as an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of politics or a person who influences the way a society is governed. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d’état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest, right of inheritance (see also: divine right) or other means. Politics are not limited to governance through public office. Political offices may also be held in corporations, and other entities that are governed by self-defined political processes.

There will be various other interpretations of the term – and it is as often misused as the position.

It should be remembered, that in democracies (which Robert Mugabe attempts to sell Zimbabwe as) that the political representatives are freely and fairly elected by the proletariat (a very basic misnomer meaning the public at large – all registered voters, of course!) and are hence elevated to public office by that choice.

If you were to trawl through vast numbers of reports on elections in Zimbabwe, going back as far as independence in April 1980, you will, no doubt, find numerous reports of vote fixing, rigging and other means used to influence the outcome.

The people so elected as supposed to be civil servants (so why we insist on putting them on pedestals, I shall never understand) – and therein lies the clue… “Civil” and “servant”…

These are servants of the people – not the other way around!

When the latest election panned out in Zimbabwe, we found that ZANU PF (Mugabe’s party) had lost the parliamentary majority to the 10-year-old MDC party. The Presidency was taken by Mugabe – only after a bloody campaign was launched against the MDC, resulting in the deaths of at least 130 people and the subsequent withdrawal from the second round of the election by Morgan Tsvangirai – and he now uses the position to make unilateral decisions that fly in the face of the ‘power-sharing’ agreement signed in September of last year.

Today I read that the leader of the smaller faction of the MDC, the parachuted in Arthur Mutambara, has suggested that the ‘unity’ government might not be interim government we were led to believe.

Part of an article in The Zimbabwe Times read “What we all know is that elections will be held after a new constitution has been crafted,” said Mutambara.

It is, however, clear that no one knows of the date or is certain when the polls will actually be conducted since sitting MPs might feel that the polls should be held after five years.

“We all know that previous illegitimate elections have been at the centre of controversy in the country, which means the inclusive government has to make sure that the next elections are held in a free and fair atmosphere.”

There has been debate on when the elections will be conducted. According to the Global Political Agreement (GPA), the inclusive government has to conclude the constitutional reform process within 24 months of its inauguration, to pave way for free and fair elections.”

My query is very simple – and yet begs an answer…

Why should we, as law-abiding Zimbabweans vote for political representation in one timetable, only to discover that these representatives can rework and re-engineer that timetable, thereby negating the understood timeframe held in mind when the vote was balloted?

By allowing the representatives this power, are we not enabling them to be self-serving as opposed to being civil servants?

(Please note that I have never voted in Zimbabwe – primarily because of my ZRP training in which it was imbued upon me to be apolitical…)

Robb WJ Ellis