Messages From Zimbabwe

When Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF lost a referendum in 2000 they elected to remain dedicated to the policies that were alienating them from their electorate rather than choosing a path designed to move them towards the centre.

As a result after each election it became more and more apparent that they were falling further and further behind, which saw them adopting the spoiling tactics which became the nightmare that is Zimbabwe today.

Over the weekend Mugabe advised deeply divided party to prepare for elections.

Analysts are suggesting that in a straight contest the chances are they may never regain absolute power again having lost their parliamentary majority last year.

Mugabe has beein in power since independence in 1980 but after his party suffered its first official defeat he forced to form a unity government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Many people believe that the party lost both the elections prior to that one but were able to conceal that from the electorate due to their control over the electoral machinery which covered up widespread rigging and intimidation.

The next election is expected in 2011 after a new constitution is drafted that is expected to guarantee a fair vote. The poll could otherwise be in 2013 if the unity government runs its full five-year term.

“Let’s begin to work for the party and to organise it strongly. Elections are not very far off,” Mugabe told ZANU-PF members at the end of a two-day congress late on Saturday.

His party resolved that its strategic aim would be “the checking, containment and ultimate defeat of the West’s neo-colonial regime change agenda by securing a decisive and uncontested victory in the next harmonised elections”.

Political analysts said that would be difficult as ZANU-PF is increasingly being weakened by in-fighting over who will succeed Mugabe when he steps down, with no candidate seeming strong enough to challenge Tsvangirai other than Mugabe.

Tsvangirai defeated the 85-year-old Mugabe in last year’s presidential vote but not by enough to avoid a second round, which the veteran leader went on to win in a one-man contest after a violent campaign that forced Tsvangirai to quit the race.

Mugabe may find it harder to secure the endorsement of his party to contest the next presidential election, when he will be nearly 90 years and in the twilight of a political career spanning more than five decades.

INTERNAL TENSIONS

Tensions were running high at the congress amid charges from members that the party leadership was imposing weak candidates into the policy-making central committee.

“ZANU-PF has shown that it is not ready for leadership renewal and that only makes it weaker and more divided,” said John Makumbe, a political commentator and Mugabe critic.

“They can forget about regaining lost ground and they will get a big hiding from the MDC at the next election.”

ZANU-PF is deeply divided into two political factions, one led by retired army general Solomon Mujuru, husband to vice president Joice Mujuru and another by defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The divisions have festered over the years but Mujuru’s camp has gained the upper hand after Joice Mujuru, 54, was retained as one of Mugabe’s two deputies and makes her front runner, for now, to take over from the ageing leader when he steps down.

The succession issue has torn ZANU-PF along ethnic lines, with the group led by Mnangagwa – long touted by local media as heir-apparent to Mugabe – accusing Mujuru’s faction of wanting to preserve the party presidency for another member of Mugabe’s Zezuru ethnic group.

“Mugabe is the cog in ZANU-PF’s wheel, albeit punctured, but ethnic fault lines are widening and his departure from the political scene will see the party totally disintegrate,” Makumbe told Reuters.

But the veteran leader, who on Friday said factional fighting was “eating up” ZANU-PF and emboldening opponents in the MDC, remains publicly resolute and has vowed to defeat what he said were machinations by the West to remove him from power.

Mugabe has faced sanctions from the European Union and United States for democratic failings and human rights abuses but he says this is only cover for punishment against his seizures of white-owned farms to resettle blacks.

“The democratic favour and spirit of candour has found full expression. We all feel renewed… and we go back much stronger, a better focused party and raring to go,” Mugabe said.

(Source)

Talks to break Zimbabwe’s protracted political deadlock appear to head for a stalemate after President Robert Mugabe vowed Saturday never to give in to demands by his coalition partners on power-sharing.

Addressing about 10,000 loyalists at the close of the national congress of his ZANU PF party on Saturday night, Mugabe said he would not make any concessions during talks with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to break a power-sharing deadlock on outstanding issues from an agreement they signed 15 months ago.

“No tactic, no pressure will make us change our position,” said a defiant Mugabe, citing a resolution by delegates to his party’s congress.

Mugabe has refused to swear in Tsvangirai’s ally Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister, saying he must first be cleared of terrorism charges.

The MDC, however, says the terrorism charges are false and politically motivated to prevent Bennett – a white farmer – from taking up his job in the new government.

The former opposition party also accuses Mugabe of breaching the power-sharing agreement by appointing his allies to head the central bank and the Attorney General’s office without consulting his coalition partners.

Mugabe said ZANU PF would only consider giving in to the MDC’s demands once Tsvangirai’s party honoured its own pledges to seek the lifting of travel bans imposed by the West on senior ZANU PF officials as well as the closure of “pirate” radio stations broadcasting from Europe and some neighbouring countries.

Mugabe and more than 200 of its supporters are barred from travelling to and owning assets in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States under targeted sanctions imposed in 2002 in retaliation to what the West said were human rights abuses by his regime.

 (Source)

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe accused some members of his own Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party of abusing their powers and called for greater unity, the state-controlled Herald reported.

There are “hooligans” in the party, the 85-year-old leader told a congress of the party in Harare yesterday, the newspaper said.

ZANU PF must unite against the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change, which Mugabe said was backed by the UK government, the Herald cited him as saying.

ZANU PF lost control of parliament’s lower House of Assembly in elections last year for the first time since independence in 1980. The party is holding its five-yearly congress in Harare this week.

(Source)

In an article published on the Zimbabwejournalists.com website on 24 December 2007, the author, Freeman Forward Chari, posed the following question:

“In a country of nearly 200 000 military people… whose public sector is run by the military, where does the common man fit in?  Is there a possibility of civil participation in the country?”

Chari breaks down the military component for 2007 as follows, but does not indicate his sources, so the accuracy of his figures cannot be confirmed:

Security Forces – total 80 000

• Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA):                    35 000 [1]
• Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ):                          5 000
• Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP):                  25 000
• Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO):        15 000

Those with a basic knowledge of military operations/training – total 110 000

• Prisons Service:                                             10 000
• War veterans:                                                 35 000 [2]
• Trained youths / youth militia:                         30 000 graduates since 2005
• Zimbabwe People’s Militia (trained in ‘80s):    20 000 vigilantes/youths
• Plus voluntary retirements from ZNA & ZRP:            15 000

Total number:  190 000

“This means we have (in 2007) at least 190 000 people in Zimbabwe who have a basic understanding of military language,” wrote Chari.

He reminded Zimbabweans that, at the level of leadership and policy formulation, there was a need to also explore the level of involvement of the military in strategic entities that deal strictly with civilians.  In December 2007, the line-up was:

• Minister of Energy and Power Development – Rtd Lieutenant General Mike Nyambuya.
• Minister of Youth Development and Employment Creation – Rtd Brigadier General Ambrose Mutinhiri.
• Ministry of Transport – Rtd Colonel Hubert Nyanhongo, Deputy Minister
• National Railways of Zimbabwe – Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba (Board chairman) and Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai (CEO).
• Grain Marketing Board – Rtd Colonel Samuel Muvuti (CEO).
• Permanent Secretary for Industry and International Trade – Rt Colonel Christian Katsande.
• Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) – Justice Chiweshe, (head) a former Advocate-General in the Zimbabwe National Army.
• Attorney General – Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, a retired Colonel.
• Sports and Recreation Commission – Brigadier General Gibson Mashingaidze and Rtd Lt Colonel Charles Nhemachena.

Chari summed up the relevance of the appointments as follows:

Zanu PF controls:

• Food (Grain Marketing Board – GMB)
• Transport
• Energy, fuel, power
• Trade and industry
• Sport
• Youth
• The Attorney General
• Elections.

Chari pointed out that Joint Operations Command (JOC) comprises the ministries of Defence, Finance, State Security, Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs.  “The military therefore controls the finances and even the foreign policy is directed by the military and not parliament,” he said.

Major Martin Saurombe (Rt), writing for the website zimsecurityforces.com in 2007, brought in an interesting perspective.  He reminded Zimbabweans that, in politicising the military, Zanu PF had started by appointing raw guerrillas to top posts in the army.

He noted that:

• General Solomon Mujuru commanded the army from 1981 to 1992 without attending a single military course.
• The late General Vitalis Zvinavashe, retired former commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, also never attended any military courses.
• Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander, General Constantine Chiwenga, Air Force Commander Perence Shiri and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri are also politicians in military uniform.

One wonders how many people are aware of this fact.

Frustration in the ranks

Despite the fact that it became very dangerous for members of the armed forces to show the slightest signs of disloyalty to Zanu PF, by mid 2007 the dissatisfaction that had been brewing began to mount and to be expressed openly.

In August, Perence Shiri and Constantine Chiwenga were shocked when they were booed by junior soldiers at the KG VI Barracks in Harare for trying to convince them that the hardships being experienced in the military were caused by sanctions imposed by Britain and the USA.

The following month, disgruntled veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war asked government to hike their monthly allowances five-fold, just two weeks after pledging undying loyalty to Mugabe and declaring him the only one fit to rule the country.

Four months later, in January 2008, former army general Vitalis Zvinavashe sent political temperatures within Zanu-PF soaring after calling on Robert Mugabe to step down.  Zvinavashe is reported to have said that, “by clinging onto power, Mugabe was betraying the essence of the liberation struggle.”

Mugabe’s hatchet men

Authoritative journalist Basildon Peta wrote in an article published in the Sunday Independent of June 29, 2008 that “the multi-billionaires who have Zimbabwe by the throat are right to dread the people’s revenge.”

He listed Mugabe’s six “hatchet-men” as Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, General Constantine Chiwenga, Augustine Chihuri, Paradzai Zimondi, Perence Shiri and Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono.  He noted that this Joint Operations Command junta controls Zimbabwe.

“When Mugabe lost control of parliament and it became clear that he was also losing the presidency to Morgan Tsvangirai after the poll on March 29, it was these six men who hurriedly assembled around their octogenarian leader,” explained Peta.

“For five weeks, the announcement of the presidential election results were stalled while they plotted…(but) none of their charges stuck.

“So they unleashed the infamous Operation Makavhoterapapi (For whom did you vote?) in preparation for the presidential runoff…”

Peta reports that it was Constantine Chiwenga, as commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Force, who spearheaded the campaign of violence that led to the deaths of 86 people, the serious injuries inflicted on thousands more and the massive displacements countrywide.

Police and army clash in Harare

By the beginning of December 2008, tensions across the country were heating up.  In Harare, police shot at rioting soldiers on the streets as unpaid uniformed personnel sided with the country’s impoverished people for the first time in protest against Zimbabwe’s collapsing economy.

“If Mr Mugabe is unable to maintain loyalty even within his own armed services, his position will come under serious threat,” commented The Telegraph (UK) on December 1.

The following day, Mugabe ordered the execution of 16 rioting soldiers in a cold blood murder carried out by members of the Presidential Guard death squads at its PG HQ Base in Dzivarasekwa, north west of the capital.  Three others were reported to have died during torture.

The fast-track military court martial was presided over by High Court Judge Major General George Chiewshe, with three other assessors, two majors and a captain.  Chiweshe, who is the current Chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, was previously Director Army Legal Services.

Soldiers tortured following theft of guns

During October 2009, at least 12 soldiers died after they were brutally tortured by military intelligence agents following the alleged disappearance of an assortment of guns and other military equipment from Pomona barracks.

By early November reports were being leaked that an additional 120 soldiers had been horrifically tortured at KG VI Barracks in Harare following the alleged theft of the guns. SW Radio Africa warned of rising tension in the Zimbabwe National Army.

A retired army colonel who fought with ZANLA forces in Mozambique, told the radio station that Robert Mugabe had lost the control and trust of the army. (ZANLA was the armed wing of ZANU PF during the liberation war of the 1970s).

Security reports from Zimbabwe indicated the situation was volatile.

Fear of reprisals, retribution and paranoia

Dr George Ayittey, a prominent Ghanaian economist, author and president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington DC, analysed the militarisation of Zanu-PF in Part 1 of “The Zimbabwe Conundrum” (September 8, 2009) as follows:

“The hierarchy of the ruling Zanu-PF has fully been “militarized” or integrated with the security apparatus. The security chiefs who are behind President Mugabe presently — Paradzai Zimondi (rtd), head of prison service, Augustine Chihuri, head of the police force, Perence Shiri — want Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also the choice of “war of liberation veterans,”[3] to succeed Mugabe.

Mnangagwa, known as the “Butcher of Matabeleland,” is known for his uncompromising stance and ruthlessness. He was the Minister of State Security who orchestrated a systematic and brutal 1981-1983 campaign (known as Gukurahundi) to suppress the Ndebele people and wipe out the main opposition, ZAPU and its leader, the late Joshua Nkomo.

It is fear of reprisals, retribution and paranoia which haunts the ruling Zanu-PF regime…. Their hands are dripping in blood and their pockets are full of booty. They are afraid that all their gory misdeeds will be exposed once they are out of power. So they must do everything they can to cling to power. They must crush the opposition and ruthlessly silence any whiff of protest. But in doing so, they dig deeper graves for themselves because these brutal tactics seldom work.

African tyrants spend an inordinate amount on an elaborate security-cum-military structure to protect themselves and suppress their people. Since they came to power through illegitimate means (a military coup or stolen election), they are suspicious of everyone and paranoid of any little event, however innocuous.

So they spend huge resources creating layers upon layers of security – just in case one level fails – and shower security agents with perks and amenities. But in the end, they are hoisted by their own petards – overthrown by their own security apparatus.

The more an African head of state spends on security, the more likely he will be overthrown by someone from his security forces…. The Zanu-PF regime, in contemplating its imminent demise, should ask itself whether more investments in lethal weaponry and brutal repression will pay off.”

In Part 2 of The Zimbabwe Conundrum (September10, 2009), Ayittey notes that, in all of Africa’s post-colonial cases where intransigent autocrats refused to yield to popular demands for freedom and took hard line positions, the threat to the despotic regime did not come from the opposition parties.  It came from:

1. Within the despot’s own security apparatus / circle of officers / family members
2. Rebel groups
3. Invasion from a neighbouring country.

Ayittey explains that the insurgency often started with a small band of determined rebels and says it was relatively cheap to start a rebellion.

According to Ayittey, Zanu-PF has two choices:  The first is to maintain its hard-line stance – which he says is invariably a dead end – and the second is to adopt a more conciliatory approach.

“Political leaders who were willing to yield to the popular will and make amends saved not only themselves but their countries as well,” writes Ayittey.

Holding Zimbabwe to ransom – a clique of 200

In view of escalating dissatisfaction within the ranks of the armed forces, Zimbabwean commentators say it is fallacious to believe that Zimbabwe is being held to ransom by security forces who remain loyal to Mugabe.

Furthermore, they point out that the improvements within the economy – which are clearly understood to be the result of Finance Minister Tendai Biti (MDC-T)’s achievements – are already impacting positively on the lives of their families and communities.

The glimmerings of optimism that followed the signing of the Global Political Agreement are now being bolstered by the decisiveness and firm approach of South African President Jacob Zuma.

President Zuma, with the support of the Southern African Development Community, is clearly committed to solving the Zimbabwean crisis and restoring peace and democracy across the Limpopo.

The question that must be asked is this:  Who exactly is holding Zimbabwe to ransom and how strong is this grouping?

Political commentators believe that it’s a cabal of about 200 people comprising senior serving army officers, the members of Joint Operations Command and a clique of Mugabe cronies who have benefited substantially over the years from his patronage.

This ties in with a report released at the SADC summit in Kinshasa during early September by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.  Comprising over 350 civil society organisations, Crisis said it had information that over 70 top military officers remained in the provinces where they were deployed after President Mugabe and Zanu-PF suffered a devastating electoral loss just after the March 29 poll last year.

Clearly they are crucial in the equation.  Crisis called on the inclusive government to immediately get the army out of the countryside and recall them to barracks.

Conclusion

In Part 2 of ‘The Conundrum on Zimbabwe”, Ayittey claims that the game is up for Zanu-PF.

“It has lost all credibility with the Zimbabwean people.  It has become an imposition – a cancer – on Zimbabwe’s body politic – a far cry from the liberation stature it once enjoyed. Fear and paranoia are driving the regime to cling to power at all cost – by force and with brutal repression,” he writes.

This changed scenario presents an opportunity for President Zuma, his South African negotiating team and the leaders of SADC, who have clearly lost patience with President Mugabe and Zanu-PF, and who want to see a speedy solution to the crisis.  The fallout on the entire region, while difficult to quantify, has been very significant.

To have found a peaceful solution to the Zimbabwean crisis in the period when Mugabe had the unequivocal support of a sizeable armed forces component would have presented a major problem.

To be faced instead with a clique of just 200 or so people who have brazenly amassed great wealth for themselves and their families while leaving the Zimbabwean people impoverished is totally different situation.

For a powerful country like South Africa, which holds all the trump cards, dealing with the dregs of a regime that has blighted the face of southern Africa suddenly becomes eminently manageable.

(Source)

The Zimbabwe Mail can reveal that a document is circulating and fliers distributed this morning amongst ZANU PF delegates to the party’s congress urging members “to reclaim their party from the presedium”.

(Readers please note, The Zimbabwe Mail has moles embedded in the centre of ZANU PF power battles and we will keep you informed of any developments as ZANU PF faces inevitable disintegration irrespective of Robert Mugabe’s message of defiance.)

The document, believed to be a summary of Jonathan Moyo’s authored plan for a ZANU PF break-away plan and its colourful fliers which have been distributed openly by a group of party rebels led by former Chairman of ZANU PF Harare province, Hubert Nyanhongo are all urging party members to “to do whatever possible to reclaim their party from unelected leaders”. They are written in English, Shona and Ndebele languages.

Last night our reporter witnessed a Nissan 4×4 pick up truck off-loading defiant banners, fliers and placards at the Kopje Plazza, the NETONE building and they where taken into the basement by people believed to be aligned to Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The reporter was told of hidden weapons and communication gadgets in the basement on that building.

Unconfirmed reports said in the last 48 hours some of the ring leaders have been seized by the intelligence forces and scores of party supporters have since fled into neighbouring South Africa as the battle reaches fever peach.

We’re also told that last night a man died in a fist-fight at the ZANU PF Harare District offices near Fourth Street bus station and scores were injured as things got out of control in a pre-congress briefing.

Sources said, South African President Jacob Zuma has kept a close touch with his Zimbabwean counter-part with reports that President Mugabe has sounded a security scare alert as the battle ground moves into the control of security forces.

President Jabob Zuma in turn has informed other SADC leaders of the challenges facing Zimbabwe and on his visit to Zambia he has briefed the Zambian President of the need to set-up his army ready to assist if there is an urgent need.

Today, Botswana President Ian Khama, a former Army commander himself, will tour army bases in the Chobe District which is situated around the Zimbabwe-Botswana border, and our source revealed that this is part of the latest SADC security alert plan as they fear Zimbabwe could degenerate into a civil conflict.

We can reveal that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao was tasked by SADC leader to meet President Mugabe early this week in order to get some feedback and the Zimbabwean President raised the security concern which has since been communicated to the region’s Defence Ministers.

A battle over who will eventually succeed 85-year-old President Robert Mugabe as party leader threatens the future of his long-ruling ZANU PF but analysts say an immediate split is unlikely at a congress this week.

By balancing competing factions and through a political patronage system, Mugabe has kept a tight grip on ZANU PF since becoming party leader in the mid 1970s and spearheaded a guerrilla war against white minority rule.

But as Mugabe heads into the twilight of a political career spanning over half a century, his lieutenants have stepped up an internal fight for prime positions to take over the party when Mugabe retires. He has not given a date.

Rival factions have been jostling for posts in ZANU PF’s “presidium” leadership before a five-yearly party congress opening in Harare on Friday, widening cracks within ranks already torn over personalities, ethnic and regional issues.

“These fights are going to go on until Mugabe goes, and when he goes ZANU PF is in danger of disintegration,” said Eldred Masunungure, a leading political analyst.

“There is no consensus candidate on who should succeed Mugabe, and Mugabe himself has apparently created that crisis to remain in power,” Masunungure told Reuters.

But whoever eventually wins the battle to succeed Mugabe – whenever his position becomes vacant – will have a huge task to reorganise a party which many critics say just managed to hang onto power last year through violence against the opposition.

TERMINAL DECLINE?

A post-election standoff with the rival Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) forced Mugabe to sign a power-sharing deal with its leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Since then the new government has struggled to rebuild the shattered economy and attract much-needed aid funds.

“All the fighting that is going on in ZANU PF is not going to help them at the next elections against the MDC,” said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of political pressure group National Constitutional Assembly.

“What is emerging is a weak and divided party, a party probably in terminal decline,” he said.

The two-day congress will endorse Mugabe as party head for five years, and confirm a new policy-making central committee.

A faction led by former army General Solomon Mujuru has gained an upper hand in the succession battle as Mujuru’s wife, Joice Mujuru, 54, has been nominated by most of ZANU PF’s provincial executives to remain as vice-president to Mugabe.

This makes Joice Mujuru, for now, the front runner to succeed Mugabe as ZANU PF leader if he steps down, ahead of rival faction leader Emmerson Mnangagwa, who local media has for long touted as a favourite to takeover from Mugabe.

The congress will also confirm John Nkomo, 75, current party chairman to become the second ZANU PF vice president, replacing veteran politician Joseph Msika who died aged 86 this year.

Zimbabwe‘s ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, 64, has been earmarked to fill Nkomo’s party chairman post.

The issue of Mugabe’s successor has divided ZANU PF along ethnic lines, with Mnangagwa’s faction charging that Mujuru’s group seeks to preserve the party presidency for another member of Mugabe’s Zezuru ethnic group. 

“The problem of tribalism or ethnic tensions has been swept under the carpet in ZANU PF for a long time, but I think this is going to be a real issue if some things appear so obvious,” said Masunungure.

Mugabe has flatly refused to discuss his retirement plans, but analysts say he is unlikely to contest the next presidential poll — expected in the next two years or in 2013 if the current unity government runs a full term.

He will be heading towards his 90th birthday by then, and may not get his party support to continue in power.

(Source)

South African mediators are meeting with negotiators for Zimbabwe‘s feuding political parties in a renewed effort to resolve the issues dividing the nation’s transitional government and hindering its recovery.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the talks will wrap up successfully before the deadline set by the Southern African Development Community, the regional intergovernmental group that brought the parties together in the Global Political agreement, or GPA,  that created the transitional government. But if President Robert Mugabe’s negotiating team continues to press issues that Prime Minister Tsvangirai and other opposition party members have no control over, reaching consensus may be impossible. And given Mugabe’s track record in dealing with his opponents that unfortunately may be the point.

The Mugabe-controlled Herald newspaper in Harare quoted one negotiator as saying the talks have foundered on 4 major points. These are naming a new attorney general and new governor of the country’s Reserve Bank; lifting international sanctions imposed on Mugabe and members of his circle; and silencing foreign media outlets broadcasting into Zimbabwe. Of these, only the ministerial posts are within the power of those at the bargaining table, and they are Mugabe’s representatives.

Lifting the sanctions is a familiar theme in the Mugabe mantra, proof if anything of their effectiveness in making him and other key members of the ZANU-PF party understand the costs of their destructive policies. The European Union, United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Switzerland, all of whom have targeted sanctions in place, have repeatedly responded that in supporting the GPA they expect actions, not promises toward real reform.

Foreign broadcasters such as the Voice of America’s Studio Seven and London-based SW Radio Africa, among others – “pirate radio stations” in the Mugabe lexicon – also are a long-running irritant for Mugabe that he has irresponsibly added to the unity talks. Foreign broadcasters are forced to operate outside of Zimbabwe because there are no free media there. Independent radio is banned in a monopoly of government-sponsored news, information and opinion provided by the ZBC.

If the Mugabe regime really wants foreign-based stations to stop broadcasting into Zimbabwe, let it release its grip on the media there, liberalize the press and broadcasting environment, and domestic radio stations will flourish.

(Source)

Aid agencies, led by the United Nations, on Monday launched an appeal for $378 million to meet Zimbabwe‘s humanitarian needs, amid signs that the crisis facing the country is easing under its unity government.

Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government, formed by President Robert Mugabe and his rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in February, has presided over improving social conditions in the country, but aid agencies say more needs to be done.

More than 70 aid organisations, including UN agencies, are requesting the money to for food security and to improve health, water and sanitation.

UN assistant secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Catherine Bragg, who presided over the launch ceremony in Harare, noted an improvement in Zimbabwe‘s social conditions under the unity government.

“Zimbabwe is experiencing a gradual shift from humanitarian crisis to recovery following political changes that positively affected socio-economic conditions,” she said.

“Despite improvements in food security, the country still faces a substantial national cereal deficit and an estimated 1.9 million will need food assistance at the peak of the hunger season, between January and March.”

Zimbabwe‘s humanitarian crisis peaked last year when a cholera outbreak, blamed on collapsing health, water and sanitations systems, killed over 4,000 people in nearly 100,000 cases. About 7 million people needed food aid in 2008.

Bragg said the easing crisis meant the 2010 aid request would be the lowest since agencies and the UN began the appeals process in 2006.

Donors managed to provide 64 percent of the 2009 appeal of $719 million.

Western donors, seen as key in Zimbabwe’s recovery efforts, have been providing mostly humanitarian aid while holding out on direct assistance to the government until it implements broad political reforms.

(Source)

After fleeing her native Zimbabwe, arriving in Toronto alone, living in a Salvation Army shelter, getting first an undergraduate degree in Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto and then a master’s degree in history and ethnic and pluralism studies and founding the Humane Migration Institute, Andriata Chironda decided it was time for a little fun.

So she entered the Miss Afri-Canada pageant. And won it.

But even with the crown and the flowers and the title, Chironda still sees the pageant, just like everything else, in terms of politics and social justice.

“Zimbabwe gets a lot of negative press,” she says, then pauses. “For very good reason. The cholera, the HIV, the politics.

“But we’re pretty nice people, except for Robert.”

That would be Robert Mugabe, president for life and the man whose despotic rule inspired her as a teenager to join the fledgling opposition movement. It was the first time since 1980 that Mugabe’s repressive regime could no longer smother dissent.

“It was unheard of. Civil society had burst and now a generation was saying no.”

A word not without risks. In 2001, at the age of 20, Chironda found herself on a plane to Toronto on orders from her mother. Canada had a reputation for being “more humanitarian than most,” she said. Zimbabwe‘s intelligence agents were believed to operate in Britain, so she would not be safe there.

Her father, who had fought against white rule when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, had died just a year earlier after many years in detention. She recalls him as a “difficult man to live with” but now, a little older, she understands better the sacrifices he made for his country.

“We didn’t have much time to mourn him as a family before things went to s—.”

Her mother wasn’t going to let anything like that happen to her eldest.

And so Chironda landed at Pearson airport with not much money and no connections, a little surprised “to see so many white people.”

Growing up in Zimbabwe, “I had never really thought of myself as a black woman. You’re not conscious of yourself as a black woman. It’s an experience you get here when you’re exposed to explicit and implicit forms of racism.”

Every single piece of her experience of the past eight years has fed into what she has carved out for herself. The loneliness of a newcomer, the experience of justifying her claim before the Immigration and Refugee Board so she could stay, the diaspora that is her family – mother and youngest sister now in Europe, two sisters in South Africa, her brother finally with her in Toronto – the realization of what other immigrants, not from Zimbabwe, have gone through to get here.

That last came with the Miss Afri-Canada pageant, in which she competed in October against 11 other young women in Toronto representing other African countries. It taught her, she says, how diverse Africa is as a continent and how “Mugabe is not the only evil on the face of the planet.”

Plus, it was “the best fun I’ve had in years. It’s not your typical pageant. It’s not a crass lining up of women.”

When she won the event, sponsored by the African Heritage Association since 1999, this self-proclaimed scrawny tomboy with a master’s degree in history “was laughing inside to myself. It all seemed quite ridiculous, surreal.”

The competitors showcase their culture. Chironda played the mbira, a thumb piano used to accompany traditional oral history melodies. Oral histories are what she wants to use the Humane Migration Institute to showcase as well, through stories, music and arts. “So much of it can be lost in translation.”

She talks eloquently of what transnationals, the people who straddle two cultures, lose and gain. She lost her family and country but gained what she calls a “more multi-dimensional” personality, able to put her activism in a world context and expand her definition of family to include the people at the Maytree Foundation, which gave her the scholarship that gave her an education.

Maytree also sponsored her internship at Amnesty International, putting more flesh on the bones of her knowledge about refugees and diasporas.

Before she goes back to academia for her doctorate, Chironda is putting that knowledge to use on a government-sponsored project through the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture, which will examine just what immigrants and refugees are and aren’t receiving to help them adjust.

Her time at Evangel Hall, the Salvation Army shelter, taught her that a credo of her student activist days – that religion was merely a means of controlling people – didn’t fit all the time.

A chance encounter near her then-home on Wellesley St., with a man on inline skates, gave her a metaphor for “becoming Canadian.

“He looked really majestic, like he was gliding. I stared at him. A friend told me I was too old for that, so I was determined to do it. God bless Canadian Tire. I got a nice pair of Rollerblades there and I taught myself.”

Then she overcame being petrified of the cold to learn how to skate.

“There is something beautiful about learning `what’s done in Rome.’ Do you know what I mean? Now I can participate. I am at ease on the streets of Toronto. I can skate faster than most Canadians.”

A tiny bit competitive, Andriata? “Oh yes,” she says with a rolling laugh. “You have to learn to define yourself.”

(Source)

ZANU-PF, with the disgusting support from prodigal son, Jonathan Moyo, is seeking for Zimbabweans to conspire against themselves.

They are even shamelessly inviting other nations to turn off the taps of freedom of expression and deny Zimbabweans the free flow of information.

With the arrival of the Internet, cellphones and other devices of communication, one would have hoped that educated people like Jonathan Moyo would appreciate the ease by which information is flowing, benefiting humankind.

But, alas, these people are working against the people; now I know why cockroaches only come out at night.

Robert Mugabe and his blind ZANU-PF followers are turning up the heat against what they call “pirate radio stations”, notably Studio 7, SWRadioAfrica and Voice of the People.

For many years, these external radio stations have been and continue to be the only source of independent and accurate news in Zimbabwe, given the government’s tight control of the media.

Now, ZANU-PF is blaming the MDC for the radio stations’ existence and is demanding that the MDC stops the external broadcasts, although they know that the MDC has no control over these broadcasts.

ZANU-PF has put forward the matter of these external broadcasts as “one of the outstanding issues affecting the Global Political Agreement (GPA)”.

“This issue should be brought to the notice of SADC because the regional organ should not allow its members to undermine the same GPA it guaranteed,” said Jonathan Moyo, who added that Botswana was ‘spiting’ both SADC and the African Union “as guarantors of the GPA”.

What drivel!

Zimbabwe’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Joey Bimha, was on Wednesday quoted as saying that a complaint was being filed over the hosting of ‘pirate’ radio stations “beaming hate messages into the country in violation of the Global Political Agreement and threatening the survival of the inclusive Government”. He added that the government had already made a formal complaint last year through the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation and “they would soon raise the matter with Gaborone”.

What is interesting is that the radio stations in question came into existence long before the GPA and how they became part of the GPA as if they are owned by ZANU-PF or the MDC is a mystery only these so-called negotiators can explain.

Just this week, Welshman Ncube, Mutambara’s Secretary General said: “I have said in the Global Political Agreement there is an agreement that we will liberalise the media so that those who are operating from outside Zimbabwe will be free to come into Zimbabwe and broadcast without let or hindrance from Zimbabwe. Indeed the relevant clause says – in anticipation of a free media environment the parties thereby agree that the external radio stations should be encouraged to return to Zimbabwe and to broadcast from Zimbabwe…”

All nonsense from Ncube as usual. ZANU-PF and the government wants the radio stations shut down now and Ncube knows it but tries to sugar coat it in an obviously pathetic attempt to come out cleaner than he is.

These are the negotiators we have; people who think they can use legal terminology to hoodwink the citizens.

Secondly, these radio stations became popular because ZANU-PF was denying the people of Zimbabwe true information, feeding them, instead, with propaganda and lies, always praising Mugabe as he set to dismantle Zimbabwe.

The situation has not changed. If anything it is worse now since the government controlled media is relentlessly being used to misinform people.

So does SADC want to stand up and condemn the media; or promote the curtailment of broadcasts?

Was ZANU-PF itself not beneficiary of cross boarder broadcasts when they were beaming their war rhetoric into Zimbabwe from Maputo?

At that time, the Rhodesian government used to jam “Voice of Zimbabwe” broadcasts from Mozambique.

Today, with the help of the Chinese, Mugabe spends time and resources snooping around people’s Internet communications, intercepting faxes and emails, along with listening to private conversations carried out by citizens through cellphones.

Now they have the gall to invite other nations to join them in denying Zimbabweans access to information.

“We made a complaint and the Organ said the issues should be addressed bilaterally through the Committee on Defence and Security and the Joint Permanent Commission,” Bimha said.

There is, of course, nothing illegal about the radio stations and it will be interesting to see what position SADC takes because we will come back to the same issue of ownership of airwaves, which respect no political or physical boundaries.

Does SADC, as a regional body, wish to control the flow of information in the region? Do they want to go on record as enemies of a free media; a media now without borders?

“The government needs to open its tight regulations for independent and free media,” Gwen Dillard, the Voice Of America’s Director of Africa Broadcasting, said. “If the (Zimbabwe) government liberalised the media space, there wouldn’t be any need for us.”

Between the government media and these external radio stations, who of the two is in the business of spreading falsehoods and broadcasting hate messages to Zimbabweans?

Look at the way reporters are being treated at the ZBC or the Herald. They are being punished for not lying enough.

While at that, instead of attempting to plug up the source of information, why doesn’t that much-abused media spend time telling the truth and proving the lies being broadcast by “pirate” radio stations?

Indeed, all it takes for these external radio stations to die a natural death is for Mugabe to let the media practice its profession in peace. Our colleagues in state-owned media houses are being used to do the very opposite of what their professional imperatives require of them.

It is shameful to think of the MDC sitting through such deliberations and not emphatically jumping to the aid and protection of a free media yet they remain on the receiving end of what ZANU-PF is doing with the media in Zimbabwe.

The MDC, itself the biggest beneficiary of these external broadcasts by Zimbabweans, appears to be contemplating using or sacrificing the media in one of their quid pro quos.

Having been shut out by the government media, these external broadcasts became important to the MDC in informing their followers in Zimbabwe.

The external radio stations should not be part of the GPA because they have filled a void deliberately created by Mugabe and his goons.

As one of such broadcasters since 2002, I am aware of the impact of our broadcasts and how much of a difference we have made in informing the people.

Zimbabwean media needs all the help it can get.

Is it not a shame that from here in Gaborone, I know more about what is happening in Zimbabwe than one who is in Zimbabwe?

The heart of the matter is that the MDC should not have accepted responsibility to discuss about the possible cessation of broadcasts by the so-called pirate radio stations or, more correctly, externally based radio stations.

ZANU-PF, for its obvious reasons, put the issue on the agenda of the outstanding issues and the MDC agreed to debate the issue as if they, or ZANU-PF for that matter, had any partial or total control over the running or ownership of these radio stations.

The MDC, once again, erred because they have created the impression that they have some sort of influence over this matter, just like they don’t have any influence over the removal of travel bans.

What do you think?
Send me your comment on tano@swradioafrica.com

The MDC is being fooled into skilful delays. They are being made to accept responsibilities that are not theirs.

ZANU-PF knows this pretty well but the MDC appears over-awed by these circumstances, maybe because the existence of these radio stations did help the MDC to get its word and programme around when they received no coverage from ZANU-PF controlled media in Zimbabwe.

I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande saying that the media must, of necessity, be left alone. If they err, they must be held accountable like any other law-breaker, otherwise ZANU-PF must stop trying to contaminate other nations by forcing them to take away basic freedoms from the region.

Media must be left alone to do its work and I expect the MDC to champion the cause of a free media. The MDC knows very well how a free media can benefit society. It benefitted from such, although the broadcasts were coming from outside our borders.

And that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today Thursday, December 3, 2009.

(Source)

It will take sometime for alleged Zimbabwean fugitive wanted in the assassination of a high ranking former South African diplomat to Zimbabwe to be extradited.

Since his arrest last February, the suspect Kevin Blaze, who is also facing three counts of obtaining by false pretences in Botswana, has moved an application after another to prolong his trial date.  

Blaze, who is currently on bail, has so far moved applications, among them one for the recusal of Thato Mujaji, the magistrate who had been hearing the case.

Mujaji is has since been transferred to Selebi-Phikwe. The case is now before regional magistrate Lorraine Makati-Lesang. The other application was for bail pending trial which was granted by the High Court. He also wanted charges to be quashed.

According to the first count, the 28-year-old Blaze, of Harare, obtained credit in the amount of P7, 500 by falsely pretending to be the lawful owner of Credit Card No.4436290000001589 on February 22, 2008 at Thapama Cresta Lodge in Francistown.

On March 4, still at Thapama, Blaze allegedly obtained credit in the amount of P5, 000 by falsely pretending to be the lawful owner of credit card No. 4367732163152454.

On the third count it is alleged that Blaze, on March 7 last year, at the same hotel, obtained credit in an amount of P5,000 by falsely pretending to be the lawful owner of credit card No. 5491130335695433.

Meanwhile, there is new information that the European banks have denied issuing Blaze with credit cards he used at Thapama Cresta Lodge.

According to a letter from First National Bank Botswana dated February 15, 2008 addressed to the manager of Thapama Cresta Lodge, the bank says it has communicated with European banks where the above listed credit cards are issued and confirmed that they did not belong to Blaze.

Last March, Interpol Harare sent an urgent correspondence to their Gaborone counterparts the subject of which was Blaze, alias Taurai Gasva. He is wanted in his native Zimbabwe to face three criminal charges.

He is accused of contravening Section 4 as read with section 3 (1) (a) of the Domestic Violence Act and contravening section 7 (1) (a) of the Children’s Protection and Adoption Act Cap 5:06 Baby Dumping. Blaze is also accused of contravening C/S 186 of the Criminal law (Codification and Reform) Act (Threats).

In South Africa, he is wanted in connection with the murder of Kingsley Sithole, a former political counsellor at the South African Embassy in Harare.

Sithole was shot dead outside his newly purchased Midrand home, near Johannesburg on June 12, 2006.

(Source)