Messages From Zimbabwe

Khami Maximum Prison boss, Chief Superintendent Judah Ndlovu has been fired from his job by the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) for insulting President Robert Mugabe’s late sister.

According ZPS disciplinary court charge sheet, on July 31 last year Ndlovu and some of his juniors were having drinks at Khami Prison Officers’ bar whilst watching Sabina Mugabe’s burial at Heroes Acre on Zimbabwe Television (ZTV) which was being beamed live. Ndlovu who was in a drunken state started shouting on top of his voice saying that “Sabina was a useless woman of loose morals who was not supposed to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.”

This did not go down well with some junior prison officers who reported the matter to ZPS Matebeleland region headquarters based at Mhlahlandlela government complex in Bulawayo the following day. Ndlovu was dragged before the ZPS disciplinary committee several times since last year in August but was denying the charges and making appeals.

However on Tuesday he received a letter from ZPS national headquarters in Harare notifying him that he had been fired and should leave the Khami Prison Complex in the next seven days.

When contacted for comment ZPS national spokesperson Priscilla Mthembo said “she needs questions in writing and will only respond to them when back in office as she was out of Harare.”

Sabina who was 10 years junior to Mugabe, served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Makonde East in 1985 and later became the legislator for Zvimba South constituency between 1990 and 2008.She was also a member of the ZANU PF women’s league serving as its national secretary for production and labour. She died at Harare’s Avenues Clinic on July 29th where she had been admitted complaining of stomach pains.

(Source)

Minister of State in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Office Jameson Timba has launched an ambitious fight for the closure of the condemned Matapi police cells.

Timba who was arrested and locked up at the Matapi police cells last month has written to Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda asking him to close the cells because they are not fit for human habitation.

The Matapi police cells where condemned in 2005 by the Supreme Court in a ruling passed by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku.

“Your worship, the above inadequacies in the holding cells are a threat to public health in the city and beyond,” said Timba in a July 22 letter to Masunda also copied to the city of Harare Town Clerk, City Health Director, co-ministers of Home Affairs, Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“I am, therefore, requesting that the city invokes the relevant by-laws and shut down this inhuman facility in the interest of public health until the relevant authorities have rectified the above inadequacies to your satisfaction.”

Timba was arrested for calling Mugabe a “liar”.

“May l also say that any policeman who has detained anyone at Matapi – before council rectifies the inadequacies noted by the Supreme Court – is in contempt of court from the date of the ruling,” Timba said.

The latest calls by Timba – one of Tsvangirai’s closest aides and advisors – come as the country has witnessed an escalation in the arrests of non-Zanu (PF) members and others fighting for more enhanced individual freedoms.

In a 2005 ruling on the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union secretary general Wellington Chibebe, Nancy Kachingwe and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights’ application for better detention conditions, Chidyausiku described the Matapi cells and those in Highlands as “degrading, inhumane and unfit for holding criminal suspects.”

The ruling also ordered the Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) to improve conditions in the country’s jails.

Zimbabwe’s correctional services are generally deplorable and in recent years a commission led by another Supreme Court judge Rita Makarau decried overcrowding, poor diet and the high prevalence of disease, and pestilence in the country’s jails.

Recently, a parliamentary committee also raised the same issues – bordering on human rights abuses – and urged authorities to act on the state of the country’s prisons.

The committee concluded that some of the country’s jails are a death sentence in themselves.

(Source)

An unknown Harare man has declared himself a presidential candidate in Zimbabwe’s next election.

Ignatius Masamba placed an advertisement in the state-owned Herald newspaper asking Zimbabweans to vote for him whenever the country’s next elections are held.

“Hello Zimbabweans. When you vote for President, do you vote for the name of the person or the name of the party?” asked Masamba in the newspaper advertisement accompanied by his picture.

“Do the correct thing. Be a step ahead voter: the wise one. Look for the qualification of the candidate. Because doctors understand diseases. Accountants understand the economy, the facts/figures and strategy. I am an accountant: our standards are integrity, transparency, expertise and avoiding the unethical. I declare that I shall be an independent Presidential Candidate in the next election, other factors remaining equal.”

The date of the country’s next elections remains unknown. A Southern African Development Community (SADC) facilitated roadmap towards elections is the determining factor as to when elections will be held. However the country’s political parties are still to agree on the necessary timelines and benchmarks for an election.

The regional SADC body directed the country’s political parties to agree to a new constitution, implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and create a conducive environment before elections can be held.

Masamba is the latest in a growing list of figures now considered as political fodder.

The publication of the advertisement comes as a surprise given that the newspaper refuses to carry  advertisements from anyone regarded as President Robert Mugabe’s opponent.

For instance in 2009 the Herald Newspaper refused to to publish a communiqué drafted by civil society organisations announcing the establishment of a Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CSMM) on the implementation of the Interparty Political Agreement (IPA) between Zanu (PF) and the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The advertising executive informed the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) that the Editor was not in office and would inform ZLHR once he has made his decision to publish the advertisment. However, when the executive called later, he informed the ZLHR that the editor wanted two paragraphs removed from the communiqué for it to be carried in The Herald.

The ZLHR then refused to advertise the amended communiqué as it omitted some vital information.

Again in 2009, the same newspaper shunned a 12-page MDC supplement.

The supplement was a congratulatory advertisment on the appointment of MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.

In 2008 an unknown Victoria Falls school teacher and businessman, Langton Towungana, the youngest ever electoral candidate in the history of the country, declared himself an independent presidential candidate. He tipped himself to win the elections and said he was prepared to work with anyone after winning as long as they are not criminals.

Towungana however got 0.6 percent of the vote at the end.

African National Party’s (ANP) Egypt Dzinemunhenzva is also among the politicians who emerge towards election time. He has perennially been contesting elections from his Murewha base where he runs his one man party.

(Source)

The MDC-T’s Standing Committee met today to review the Zimbabwe election roadmap’s timelines as agreed by the negotiators. Although there was agreement on some issues, there was clearly no agreement on fundamental issues.

It is the belief of the MDC-T that the current political arrangement must end with a free, fair and credible election. What this means is that there must be an immediate end to all state – sponsored violence. There must not be any interference by security forces with the electoral process.

Importantly, the board that must run the elections, the Zimbabwe Election Commission, must be impartial. It must be staffed by fresh staff recruited by the commission itself.

Because of the pronouncements that have previously been made by the so-called securocrats the heads of the security forces must issue a statement in which they unequivocally uphold the Constitution of the country and unconditional respect for the winner of the coming election.

The state security agents in the form of the CIO must be governed by a statute agreed to by all the parties. This statute must govern the operations of the CIO.

The MDC-T further demands that there be SADC and African monitors to this election six months before and six months after the election.

We notice with displeasure that the election roadmap does not seek to address the fundamental issues outlined above as it leaves them as grey areas. Therefore, the agreement on the roadmap is incomplete as it does not include these very important issues.

It is therefore misleading for some people to say that the roadmap has been concluded. While we appreciate the very good efforts made by our negotiators, we believe that more has to be done in order to complete the roadmap.

We notice that Zanu-PF has started denigrating the office of the chairperson of ZEC through its hired so called analysts. We view this as an attempt to undermine the independence of ZEC. While Zanu-PF criticises the chairperson, it says nothing about some members of the commission like Joyce Kazembe who are card carrying members of Zanu-PF. These are the people who must be removed from the commission because they compromise its impartiality.

 (Source)

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono yesterday said he regrets printing loads of worthless Zimbabwean dollars, a situation that led to record hyperinflationary levels in the country three years ago.

Gono made the startling remarks at the Independent Dialogue sponsored by the Zimbabwe Independent in Harare while responding to questions regarding when the country was likely to return to the Zimbabwean dollar.

He said printing money like what the US is currently doing was improper, adding the budget deficits were not healthy for an economy as they could lead to currency difficulties.

Said Gono: “If that (extensive printing of money) doesn’t weaken a currency, I don’t know what will. Extensive printing of money — get it from me, I have got experience in that so if there is something that I can teach the world as free advice to the US and those countries that are relying on the printing press is — Don’t do it!”

“So please, my brother from the US embassy, take that message to the Treasury Secretary and say some little bugger there who has a lot of experience says he loses sleep when he sees you printing, printing against a background he has attached his economic fortunes to you. Hence, we are saying you are no longer on your own to an extent that we have tied our economic fortunes to you. Please, just behave. Don’t behave in the manner in which I was behaving.

“Let me say that no self-respecting nation in the world can do without its own currency. Even those nations that have gone into common markets chose to keep their own currency. Britain is part of the European Union, but has decided to keep their pound.

“There are also times when it is necessary to step back and reconfigure yourself before you go about wanting your own currency and we are in that phase. I think the Minister of Finance has made pronouncements with regard to certain conditions that have to be met before we can talk about the return of the Zimbabwean dollar. We are not at variance with respect to that.”

Gono said there was a danger of a country attaching itself or economic fortunes to a country that could be on a downward trend.

During the time there was too much money chasing too few goods, Zimbabwe was awash with loads of worthless dollars used to purchase the US dollar on the black market.

Capacity utilisation in industry dropped to below 10 percent.

The resultant shortages gave birth to a thriving black market and speculative tendencies.

(Source)

South African President Jacob Zuma has dumped his country’s traditional “quiet diplomacy” and is instead going for full “confrontation” with President Robert Mugabe to force free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, a cabinet source has said.

Ebrahim Ebrahim, the South African Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation said Zuma, who was mandated by Sadc to mediate and ensure credible polls in Zimbabwe, was taking a hard-line stance because regional leaders could no longer stomach Harare’s status quo.

He was speaking to South African newspaper, The Sunday Independent at the weekend. The sensational claims confirm the view that Zuma, the SADC-appointed facilitator to the Zimbabwe crisis wants a quick solution to the ongoing wrangling in government.

“There has been notable difference but it is true that… even as president of ANC, President Zuma began to take a harder line on Zimbabwe and he continued as president of the country to do so.”

“South Africa has been given the responsibility of taking the situation in hand. Now it is open… I will not say condemnation but confrontation. President Zuma is prepared to have open confrontation with Mugabe,” said Ebrahim.

Ebrahim is a senior political and economic advisor to Zuma and sits on the powerful ANC National Executive Committee.

He has also chaired the parliamentary foreign Zuma threatens Mugabe affairs committee. ANC’s top brass partly decides the country’s foreign policy.

His statements to the Sunday Independent this week are significant as they highlight how South Africa and SADC have shifted policy on Zimbabwe since former mediator and Zuma’s predecessor Thabo Mbeki was booted out in 2008.

Mbeki was seen by many observers as ineffective because of his closeness to and bias towards Mugabe.

The statements also show how the SADC summit set for Angola mid-next month could be explosive as regional leaders battle Mugabe’s intransigence. Mugabe is likely to continue pushing for elections this year as demanded by his party.

Welshman Ncube, leader of the breakaway MDC formation, told a public meeting last week that SADC leaders had threatened to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe should Mugabe proceed with a unilateral call for elections this year.

South Africa has largely followed a policy of quiet diplomacy, which started during Mbeki’s tenure, on dealing with the Zimbabwean crisis. However under Zuma, the country has gradually shifted its approach with Zuma taking a measured but firm approach to the crisis.

The shift was first noticed at the Zambia SADC Troika Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation meeting in Livingstone, Zambia end of March this year.

Zuma presented a scathing report which rebuked Mugabe for refusing to implement the GPA at the meeting, a position endorsed by his regional peers.

Zuma warned that Zimbabwe risked international intervention if the political crisis in the country continued.

This stance was reinforced at the last SADC summit in Johannesburg where, according to media reports, Zuma and Mugabe openly clashed.

Ebrahim said Zuma believed Zimbabwe’s prolonged crisis was draining SADC and the only possible way of bringing it to an end was by confronting a belligerent Mugabe to force him to play by the power sharing agreement he signed with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008.

SADC was also losing patience hence the tough stance, Ebrahim said.

“The difference now is that SADC and our president are saying (to Mugabe) this status cannot continue, you have to implement your own agreement and accept free and fair elections under the new constitution,” said Ebrahim, adding that although the country’s three political parties agreed to an agreement under Mbeki, “Mugabe is saying they can have elections under the old Lancaster House constitution.”

Mugabe has threatened to call for elections regardless of whether the country’s new constitution has been completed.

A new constitution is a pre-condition for polls in Zimbabwe’s as agreed in the power sharing agreement.

Zuma has openly criticised Mugabe before.

During his tenure as ANC president in 2008 before he took over the position of the presidency of Africa’s biggest economy, he described the disputed and violent June 2008 elections as “suspicious.”

“We cannot agree with ZANU PF. We cannot agree with them on values. We fought for the right of people to vote, we fought for democracy,” Zuma said at an ANC dinner in July 2008. He rebuked Mugabe for refusing to step down after losing the March 2008 election to Tsvangirai.

In December 2007, Zuma had also criticised Mbeki for his soft approach on Zimbabwe.

“It is even more tragic that other world leaders who witness repression pretend it is not happening, or is exaggerated. When history eventually deals with the dictators, those who stood by and watched should also bear the consequences. A shameful quality of the modern world is to turn away from injustice and ignore the hardships of others,” said Zuma at the time.

ANC is historically a natural ally of ZANU PF but has recently been critical of its erstwhile ally because of the pressure from its ANC Youth League, South African Communist Party and Congress of Southern African Trade Unions allies.

It is from these organisations that Zuma derives much of his support. Zuma met UK Prime Minister David Cameroon met on Monday at his Union Building in Pretoria where the two discussed the Libyan and Zimbabwean crisis.

Zuma expressed happiness with the progress in Zimbabwe while Cameroon said he was willing to look into the issue of sanctions but would only do so if agreed reforms were implemented.

Meanwhile, ZANU PF says the 87-year-old leader will table the sanctions issue at the Angola SADC summit.

The party’s spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo said 2,2 million Zimbabweans had signed a petition to be tabled at the meeting and presented at other international forums such as the AU and UN meetings.

It could not be established how ZANU PF hopes to do it given that the issue of sanctions is already being dealt with by SADC.

(Source)

Bulawayo-based writer has announced that he is in the process of translating his earlier story on Gukurahundi massacres in Shona language to allow all Zimbabweans understand the brutality experienced in Matabeleland during that time.

Farai Mpofu, who published a story on the post-independence Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland and Midlands entitled Jacarandas Blooming, has decided to reach to a wider readership through a Shona version of the reflective piece.

Mpofu said he decided to write the story about Gukurahundi because he felt he could tell the story of Matabeleland much better.

“Most people in the country do not understand why people in Matabeleland always talk about Gukurahundi. The effects are outstanding and that is why most people from the province feel comfortable living outside the country,” said the 31-year-old writer.

In the story Mpofu uses a character called Jabu to capture the effects of Gukurahundi.

Jabu loses his mother during the disturbances where thousands of innocent civilians were massacred and decides to leave the country and go to Botswana.

While in the neighbouring country, he becomes a victim of xenophobia with the locals there accusing him coming into their country “to take their women and jobs”.

He is later brought before a traditional court and is caned before being thrown into prison. He writes a letter to his late mother “with tears” as Mpofu put it. He is later deported.

“Most victims of xenophobia in South Africa and Botswana are people that hail from Matabeleland and the Midlands,” said the high school teacher.

“They left after realising that danger was knocking at their doors.”

Nine other writers are also included in the anthology.

(Source)

Vigil supporter Josephine Chari of Southend has been detained by the UK Border Agency and told she has been booked on Kenyan Airways KQ101 to Nairobi leaving Heathrow at 20.00 on Thursday 21st July.

Her case is being addressed by the Zimbabwe Association and others. For our part, the Vigil believes that Zimbabwean failed asylum seekers should not be removed until the situation in Zimbabwe is safe for opponents of Mugabe and when they can make a living. As it is, there are constant reports of violence and human rights abuses from Zimbabwe.

Josephine has been a regular Vigil supporter. She is being deported when there is no guarantee of her safety, particularly as she is a person who has been visible as a Vigil activist. For the Vigil’s approach to this, here is part of our basic submission to the Home Office/UKBA:

In July 2010 an activist representing the Vigil and our partner organisation Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe returned home on a visit. He was identified as a Vigil supporter and arrested, beaten up and tortured. He would still be there if it hadn’t been for our efforts to get him legal help and escape from Zimbabwe.

The Vigil does not know how any other individual would be treated if returned to Zimbabwe. But this incident shows that activism in the UK and attendance at the Vigil increases the risk of being known by the forces within Zimbabwe that still perpetrate violence against Mugabe opponents. We are a high-profile protest that has been under constant surveillance by intelligence operatives of the regime.

Our supporters are those who care enough about the human rights abuses in their country to attend our protests. Many of them make a considerable effort in terms of cost and long hours travelling to come because they see the right of freedom to protest, which is denied to those back home, as important in the campaign against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Our supporters are easy to identify because we are an on-the-street protest constantly photographed by the passing public (including unidentified people who do not join the protest and who our supporters confirm as Zimbabwean). Photos taken by ourselves appear on many photo and video websites which can be accessed by the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation.

This was demonstrated when one of our reports accompanied by a photo of one of our supporters appeared in the newspaper the Zimbabwean which is circulated in Zimbabwe as well as South Africa and the UK. Within days his family home in Zimbabwe was raided by the police who spoke angrily about Zimbabweans in the UK.

More recently, the funeral of the mother of a member of the Vigil management team was disrupted by Mugabe’s ZANU PF members because of his involvement with the Vigil – check: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/the-vigil-diary/312-voice-of-british-caribbeans-ashamed-of-mugabe-zimbabwe-vigil-diary-4th-june-2011.

The UK government indicated last year that it was ending its moratorium on sending home failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers despite continuing evidence of political violence and the targeting of anti-Mugabe activists. The Vigil would be interested in hearing of anyone being sent back. As mentioned in our last diary another supporter has been given a date by which to leave.

You may want to phone Kenyan airways (0871 258 2179) to persuade them to refuse to take Josephine on the flight.

(Source)

Comment: I am not entirely convinced that publishing a photograph of the woman in question will assist her or her family upon return to Zimbabwe. Given that the article cites an example where someone’s picture was published in The Zimbabwean and the person’s family home was raided… TBM

A senior Zimbabwean police officer has been fired after he was allegedly found in possession of music produced by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Four journalists who tried to cover his eviction from a police camp where he was staying were also briefly detained on Friday but they were released without charge.

Inspector Tedius Chisango was accused of trying to incite police recruits to revolt against President Robert Mugabe.

He was allegedly caught by his superiors in May while playing the MDC song on his mobile phone in front of police recruits.

A further search at his lodgings allegedly uncovered more MDC songs.

One of the songs that were found is titled “Saddam Hussein is gone, Bob is next.”

He was brought before a disciplinary board that recommended his immediate dismissal.

Last month another police officer was jailed for 10 days after he allegedly used a toilet reserved for President Mugabe.

Police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri and other service chiefs have refused to salute Tsvangirai saying he is a puppet of the West.

(Source)