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Archived News
Sekai Holland targeted by government
6th December 2001
Mugabe seeks Mbeki summit
SA toughens stance on Zim
House enacts Zimbabwean Democracy Act
US is trying to lure Zimbabwe to democracy
Mugabe court says land grab legal, farmers abandon court appeals
Neighbors adding bite to criticism of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe accuses Mbeki of knifing it in the back
VIP treatment, while MDC suffer in prison
New challenge to Mugabe
Zimbabwe press vows to fight Mugabe
UNDP seeks to raise US$80m for food aid
Parts of Zimbabwe go without fuel
In Zimbabwe, Signs of 'Trouble Ahead'
State shifts blame again
Zimbabwe police accused of torture
Mugabe deploys troops in MDC base
Zimbabwe's churches defy Mugabe by delivering food to starving people
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From The Financial Gazette, 6 December
Mugabe seeks Mbeki summit
A shaken President Robert Mugabe is seeking an urgent meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki to try to mend the rift that has developed between them following Mbeki's scathing attack on Mugabe's policies, official sources said this week. The Mbeki summit comes hot on the heels of the Zimbabwean leader's hurried departure for Spain on Sunday to seek the support of Spanish authorities against pending European Union (EU) sanctions. Mbeki, in his first public rebuke of Mugabe, over the weekend said the Zimbabwean leader's policies had destroyed southern Africa's second largest economy and that the country's presidential election next year was unlikely to be free and fair. According to some Cabinet ministers, the idea of a fire-dousing meeting with Mbeki was being actively pursued but the dates had not been finalised by yesterday. "President Mugabe has been advised to have a meeting with President Mbeki so that the two can have a frank talk about the events in Zimbabwe and try to bridge a rift which is developing between the two countries," one Cabinet minister, who preferred not to be named, told the Financial Gazette yesterday. Other sources confirmed that Zimbabwean diplomats were in a flurry of activity this week trying to damage-control and limit the impact of Mbeki's outburst on future relations between southern Africa's two largest economies.
In his first public criticism of how Zimbabwean authorities were mishandling the deteriorating political and economic situation in the country, Mbeki warned that Mugabe should no longer expect any more protection from South Africa. Mbeki's remarks come at a time when international pressure is mounting against the Mugabe administration. The US Congress yesterday passed the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill which, among other penalties, places travel bans on Mugabe, his Cabinet and senior Zanu PF officials. The US measures, which now await President George W Bush's signature, will also freeze the assets of the Zimbabwean leader and those of his leading lieutenants. The EU is also considering slapping "smart sanctions on Zimbabwe" while a Commonwealth ministerial team meets next month to review the worsening situation in Zimbabwe. Government sources said Mugabe hurriedly boarded an Air Zimbabwe plane bound for London on Sunday and diverted it to Madrid where he is seeking audience with Spanish authorities to mediate for him against the pending EU sanctions. Spain, which has been sympathetic to the beleaguered Zimbabwean leader in the past, assumes the six-month presidency of the EU early next year. The sources said Mugabe's trip to Madrid was also meant to repair the damage between Harare and Brussels caused by his antics such as storming from a meeting between him and senior EU officials recently.
According to the sources, major differences are also emerging within Zanu PF on how to react to Mbeki's attack and the future of relations with Pretoria. They said panic had set in after the weekend attack and debate was raging within Zanu PF with the hawks advocating for a "go it alone" approach while others viewed South Africa's support as critical if Zimbabwe was to weather pending international sanctions. "Some leaders are for the hardline approach of fighting our own battle saying it is a matter of time before South Africa experiences the same type of problems, while others think the issue is too delicate and should be handled with utmost care," another Cabinet minister said. The sources said some of the ministers were concerned that an attack this week on Mbeki by the government's Herald newspaper, which described the South African leader as "a Judas Iscariot", would make their fire-fighting attempt even more difficult.
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From News24 (SA), 5 December
SA toughens stance on Zim
Johannesburg - South Africa has finally started to voice alarm and impatience over the crisis in Zimbabwe, but Pretoria lacks guaranteed leverage to ensure political and economic normalisation in its northern neighbour. President Thabo Mbeki has in the past few days openly said he fears "a civil conflict" in Zimbabwe if the country's elections next year are not free and fair and seen as legitimate. Mbeki, long the target of domestic criticism for failing to bring President Robert Mugabe to heel, has expressed deep concern about infringements on press freedom and called on countries to "act urgently" to ensure a free vote. He has denounced Harare's "wrong economic policies" of the past 20 years, while officials have privately told the local press that his "patience is wearing thin" with Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean leader, who is backed by self-styled liberation war veterans in a land reform programme marked by violence and has launched virulent attacks on his critics and the press, "should not expect protection any more", they added. Mbeki has asked the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) to convene a meeting of its task team of heads of state on Zimbabwe. This all stands in sharp contrast to his much-maligned "quiet diplomacy" towards Mugabe of the last year. That approach was marked by subtle pressure, applied during one-on-one meetings and coupled with economic co-operation, as well as "constructive engagement" between ministers and officials of the ruling parties from both countries. Mbeki in August admitted that Mugabe "hasn't listened".
Zimbabwe's state-owned daily The Herald on Monday cried "betrayal" and accused South Africa of "complicity in the plot to overthrow the ruling Zanu PF government". South Africa's press, on the other hand, has welcomed Mbeki's new tough stance but the Johannesburg-based Business Day warned that "outright hostility from SA alone will do nothing other than reinforce Mugabe's stubbornness". And therein lies Pretoria's dilemma in the face of the crisis north of the border - the gentle approach has not worked and firmness carries no guarantee of success. Zimbabwe's crisis has already damaged South Africa's economy by impacting on trade, scaring potential investors off the region and worsening the influx of immigrants.
"You have to recognise the limitations - you are dealing with a person who's fighting for his political survival so he's going to stop at nothing to ensure that political survival," commented Dr Greg Mills, the head of the South African Institute of International Affairs. Mbeki's spokesperson Bheki Khumalo drove home the message again this week that "Zimbabwe is not a tenth province of South Africa" and Pretoria lacks unlimited room to manoeuvre. "What we can only do and will do is engage with Zimbabwe in the context of the SADC Task Force, of the Commonwealth initiative, as well as government to government", he repeated. Business Day suggested that "it seems that the only thing that may move Mugabe is to see him lose the backing of even his traditional allies in the region such as Angola and Namibia". "It is in those circles that South Africa's diplomatic efforts, assisted hopefully by the likes of Botswana and Tanzania, need to be focused."
SADC's focus on Zimbabwe has increased in recent months, starting with a reproach to Mugabe during its annual summit in Blantyre last August, as well as the creation of a task force. Bids to bring the Harare government and its opponents together at one table have proved to no avail. South Africa can put pressure on Mugabe because of lifelines it gives Zimbabwe in the form of electricity, maize and credit lines to its central bank and public enterprises, but Pretoria keeps saying "sanctions are not an option". "Any tool is a double-edged sword because if we start putting the squeeze on ... things could go very, very badly wrong in Zimbabwe," acknowledges Mills, "but it's a potential tool of diplomacy that one would have to consider. But the most critical tool South Africa has is not sanctions, it is leadership and leadership within the SADC and by definition global context. Many other international actors ... the United States for example, the European Union and Britain are looking to South Africa to provide leadership on Zimbabwe."
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From The House International Relations Committee, 5 December
House enacts Zimbabwean Democracy Act
Hyde: Legislation takes aim at repressive Mugabe regime
Seeking to stem continuing economic and political deterioration in Zimbabwe, the House voted on Tuesday for legislation to promote development of democracy and a market economy in the southern African nation. "A once productive country faces starvation. The jobless and hungry masses are forbidden to plant crops and the rapid spread of AIDS brings the country closer to collapse," U.S. Rep. Henry J. Hyde, (R-IL) chairman of the House International Relations Committee, suggested Tuesday. "The regional implications of a humanitarian disaster are grave, yet the Zimbabwean government responds to the cries of its people and its political opposition with harassment, intimidation, and murder," Hyde added.
Passage of the legislation, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, is timed to coincide with presidential elections scheduled in April, 2002. The House vote was 396-11. Hyde laid blame for the deterioration of the country on the 21-year reign of President Robert Mugabe, "a liberator turned tyrant" who has served as leader since Zimbabwe's independence from colonial Britain in 1980. Per capita income, which was $920 in 1990 had fallen to below $530 by 1999. This year, the economy is expected to contract an additional 6.5 percent. Unemployment is presently running at 60 percent and an estimated 25 percent of working-age adults are infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
The violent seizure of farmland by supporters of Mugabe has also been a source of conflict in the countryside, and an obstacle to a peaceful resolution of long-simmering disputes over land reform. "President Mugabe and his cronies have grown rich in government and do not want to accept an honest political contest," Hyde said. "President Mugabe has used land reform as a political wedge issue for years, refusing credible programs that would have addressed the issue in favor of a soapbox for demagoguery," Hyde added.
The legislation establishes as U.S. policy support for democratic transition and economic recovery through debt relief and establishment of a financial center in Zimbabwe upon certification by the President of the United States that the following conditions have been fulfilled: restoration of the rule of law; support for democratic institutions; free press and independent media. The legislation: opens the way for the Administration to implement travel and economic sanctions, and a freezing of assets of individuals responsible "for the deliberate breakdown of the rule of law and politically motivated violence." ; urges restoration of the rule of law, respect for ownership and title to property; freedom of speech and association, an end to lawlessness, violence and intimidation sponsored, condoned or tolerated by the government of Zimbabwe; mandates free and fair presidential elections, and; urges the subordination of the military and police force to civilian rule.
Upon certification by the President of the United States of reforms undertaken by the Zimbabwean government, the legislation: provides $20 million for land reform measures; provides $6 million for democracy building initiatives including voter education, election monitoring, and; expresses a commitment by the U.S. to reschedule or eliminate the nation's $1 billion debt to international lending agencies including the World Bank.
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From The New York Times, 5 December
US is trying to lure Zimbabwe to democracy
Washington - Adding to growing international pressure on Zimbabwe, Congress approved incentives intended to persuade President Robert Mugabe to halt government abuses and undertake market reforms. The House offered $26 million in aid, forgiveness of some of Zimbabwe's debt and a promise to help promote trade and investment if Mr. Mugabe created conditions for fair elections next spring. The Senate approved similar language in August. Some House Republicans, eager to send a strong message to Mr. Mugabe, the socialist who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, said they had considered sanctions. But American aid has already been curtailed and lawmakers voiced concerns that punitive actions would compound the misery of ordinary Zimbabweans. "The Zimbabwean government responds to the cries of its people and its political opposition with harassment, intimidation and murder," said Representative Henry J. Hyde, the Republican chairman of the international relations committee.
The country suffers food shortages, a foreign debt of more than $890 million, an AIDS infection rate of 25 percent and the turmoil over farm seizures, which were supported by Mr. Mugabe to redistribute lands held by mostly white farmers since the colonial period. Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled today that the government had taken adequate steps to enforce the rule of law in commercial farming areas and should continue redistributing land from white farmers to blacks. The ruling was sharply criticized by the leading opposition party and by white farming groups, who say that violence is continuing on farms occupied by black squatters.
The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which passed the House in a 396 to 11 vote, also urges President Bush to deny visas and freeze the assets of those "responsible for violence and the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe." The Bush administration had worked closely with Congress in preparing the legislation. The assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Walter Kansteiner, is to visit Zimbabwe this weekend and emphasize Washington's hope to see the restoration of human rights and an end to political violence. But some administration officials said Mr. Mugabe, who is 77, seems determined to remain in power at all costs. "No one's quite sure what to do about it, how to make Mugabe listen," said one State Department official. "Everyone's frustrated. He's going to try to weather the storm and get re-elected and say, `O.K., now you're stuck with me.' "
Polls show Mr. Mugabe trailing the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. American officials say he has increasingly sought to maintain his grip by intimidating journalists, packing the Supreme Court and using veterans from the fight for independence to threaten opponents. The European Union has threatened to impose trade sanctions unless democratic rights are restored. And Zimbabwe's neighbors, increasingly worried over the prospects for violence, a refugee exodus or economic collapse, plan to dispatch their foreign ministers to the capital, Harare, next week.
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From SAPA, 5 December
Mugabe court says land grab legal, farmers abandon court appeals
Harare - Zimbabwe's Supreme Court on Tuesday declared the government's controversial land-grab to be legal, but the sole independent judge on the bench condemned the ruling and said the court should be "abolished". Farm union officials immediately advised farmers under pressure from state-backed squatters to abandon their hopes of winning protection from the courts. "There is no further avenue of appeal for the union," said Colin Cloete, president of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), 85 percent of whose 4200 members are due to have their land seized by Mugabe's regime. "Members are therefore advised that, given the stark reality on the ground and in the courts, the most fruitful short-term solutions to immediate problems are more likely to be achieved through discussion with the government officials directing the (land seizure) exercise on the ground."
Copies of a judgement issued on Tuesday said that a majority of four judges - who were recently appointed by President Robert Mugabe - had decided that the government had re-established the rule of law on the country's white-owned farms and had implemented a proper programme of land reform. Chief justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said the government's land reform programme was a matter of "social justice and not, strictly speaking, a legal issue." However, Judge Ahmed Ebrahim, the fifth member of the bench, said it was "impossible" to state that the rule of law had been restored on the country's white-owned farms, or that there was a land reform programme. "It is not the function of the courts to support the government of the day," he said in his dissenting judgment. "The court's duty is to the law and the law alone. They may never subvert the law. To act otherwise would create huge uncertainty in the law," he said. "This would truly deserve the epithet that was once attributed to the short-lived Rhodesia and Nyasaland court of appeal (1953-63), that it should be abolished under the lotteries suppression act."
The majority ruling was the first full endorsement of a government strategy which has drawn international condemnation over the wholesale deprivation of property rights, harassment and attacks against farmers. It overturns an order given last year by the previous Supreme Court bench, led by internationally-respected former chief justice Anthony Gubbay, which declared that Mugabe's "fast track land reform programme" was chaotic and illegal. Gubbay resigned under threat of violence by Mugabe's militias, and Mugabe appointed Chidyausiku in his place. Another three judges were appointed in addition to the four existing senior judges on the bench. When the land case was heard in September, Chidyausiku sidelined all but one of the senior judges - Ebrahim - and used the three new judges to hear the matter with him. They dismissed charges by the farmers' union that the government had failed to restore the rule of law on the country's stricken commercial farms where 39 farm workers and nine white farmers have been murdered since February last year when state-backed militias began their sometimes violent invasions of over 2000 white-owned farms. It also dismissed the farmers' appeal for police to be held in contempt of court for refusing to carry out previous orders to evict squatters and for failing to protect them from violence and lawlessness. The court also said that a law passed by Parliament earlier this year to stop courts from ordering the eviction of squatters from white-owned land, complied with the constitution.
However, Ebrahim said that the state lawyers were "repeating the arguments previously rejected by this court" under Gubbay. "All the points were carefully considered and that court came to the conclusion it did." "Haphazard squatting cannot form part of a lawful programme of land reform. It is not lawful for any occupier to be on the land at all, let alone cut down trees, build homes, till land, graze their cattle. It is a criminal offence. It is impossible to accept that the rule of law has been restored." The Commercial Farmers' Union, of whose members stand to be stripped of their land, said it was studying the ruling. However, advocate Adrian de Bourbon who represented the CFU said the ruling was "an expected setback" but "it's definitely the end of the road." The government announced about two weeks ago it was appealing for international aid to alleviate imminent famine. At the same time, Mugabe issued a decree that allowed the regime to order white farmers off their land in 90 days and to sidestep the involvement of the courts. Recent reports have revealed that senior government officials, including police commissioner Augustine Chihuri, have been given "special orders" from the Agriculture Ministry to allow them to take over farms.
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From The New York Times, 4 December
Neighbors adding bite to criticism of Zimbabwe
Johannesburg - Officials in southern Africa, abandoning their muted rebukes of Zimbabwe, are increasingly raising their voices to criticize the government of President Robert Mugabe as his crackdown on opposition party members, journalists and white farmers widens. In recent weeks, the presidents of South Africa and Botswana have sharply criticized the violence that has accompanied Mr. Mugabe's land resettlement program and the intimidation of his critics. Today, officials of the governing African National Congress here said the situation in Zimbabwe was continuing to deteriorate despite regional efforts to ease tensions. "Our position is that the situation is worsening," Smuts Ngonyama, the spokesman for the congress, said in an interview on state radio. In response, Zimbabwe's state- controlled newspaper lashed out at South Africa, accusing President Thabo Mbeki of betraying Zimbabwe and of joining Britain in trying to undermine Mr. Mugabe. Britain, the former colonial ruler of Zimbabwe, has been particularly critical of the violence and intimidation there. "President Mbeki's alleged utterances neatly dovetail into Britain's grand plan for a global coalition against Zimbabwe," the newspaper, The Herald, said in an editorial. "A clear pattern is now emerging of that buildup against Zimbabwe and South Africa's complicity in the plot to overthrow the ruling Zanu PF government from power," the editorial said, referring to Mr. Mugabe's party.
Bheki Khumalo, a spokesman for Mr. Mbeki, dismissed The Herald's accusations as "spurious and incorrect." "We will not respond to something written in an editorial," Mr. Khumalo said in an interview today. "This is not something the government of Zimbabwe has told us via diplomatic channels." Officials say Mr. Mbeki will continue to criticize violations of political and press freedoms and to urge Mr. Mugabe to ease tensions before Zimbabwe's presidential election, which is expected early next year. Over the last month, the situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated rapidly. More than two dozen opposition party members have been arrested. The government has proposed a new law that would clamp down on the local news media and effectively bar foreign journalists from the country. Last week Mr. Mbeki called Malawi's president, Bakili Muluzi, and asked him to convene a meeting of a regional committee to put more pressure on Zimbabwe, officials said. On Thursday, Mr. Mbeki said that free and fair elections could not be held in Zimbabwe given the current political climate. "The situation is not improving at all," he said. "Clearly in a situation in which people get disenfranchised, in which people get beaten up so that they don't take an honest decision or act according to their political convictions, obviously there can't be free elections," Mr. Mbeki said.
The tougher talk is a shift for a region that had tried to work quietly, through diplomatic channels, to persuade Mr. Mugabe to follow the rule of law. In September, however, Mr. Muluzi publicly chastised Mr. Mugabe, one of the first signs that the patience of Zimbabwe's neighbors was waning. Southern African governments still oppose imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe, an idea that is being considered by the European Union and the United States. But officials here agree that Zimbabwe's continuing troubles are tarnishing a region that is generally known for its stable governments and respect for the rule of law. The countries are already experiencing a decline in tourism and a weakening of local currencies, which many attribute to the deteriorating political climate in Zimbabwe. "The reality is that the region cannot afford to have its second-largest economy sinking because of this situation," Festus Mogae, the president of Botswana, told local reporters last month. "While we support land reform in Zimbabwe completely, we feel the implementation of the strategy is incorrect." Tony Leon, the leader of the Democratic Party here, welcomed the tougher stance by African countries, but said it had taken leaders too long to speak out. "Quiet diplomacy," Mr. Leon said, had simply left President Mugabe with the impression that he had a protector in South Africa. Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's minister of information, did not return calls for comment today. But The Herald made it clear that Mr. Mugabe's government felt betrayed by Mr. Mbeki's tougher talk. "Such betrayal is difficult to stomach," the editorial said of his remarks. "What crime has Zimbabwe committed against its rich and powerful neighbor to deserve a knife in the back?"
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From The Times (UK), 4 December
Zimbabwe accuses Mbeki of knifing it in the back
Johannesburg/Harare - Diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa hit a post-apartheid low yesterday after Harare accused President Mbeki of conspiring with Britain to overthrow President Mugabe's Government. In an unprecedented editorial in the Herald newspaper, the official mouthpiece of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party, Mr Mbeki was denounced for "betraying" Zimbabwe by saying that the situation north of the Limpopo River was deteriorating rapidly and would worsen further if presidential elections due by April were not seen to be free and fair. The newspaper accused Mr Mbeki of making statements that "neatly dovetail into Britain's grand plan for a global coalition against Zimbabwe".
In a series of statements widely regarded as marking a break with Pretoria's previously quiet diplomacy, Mr Mbeki had accused Mr Mugabe's Government of denying voters their rights and attempting to suppress the media. "In a situation in which people get disenfranchised, in which people get beaten up so that they don't act according to their political convictions, there can't be free elections," Mr Mbeki said. It was seen in South Africa as his most forthright criticism yet of Mr Mugabe's Government. Conceding that international attempts to rein in Mr Mugabe' illegal seizure of white-owned land had largely failed, Mr Mbeki said: "The situation is not improving at all. If you had elections in Zimbabwe which were not seen by the people as legitimate, then you'd end up with a situation worse than it is now."
Mr Mbeki's tougher stance followed a series of telephone conversations with Western leaders in which he was urged to step up the pressure on Mr Mugabe. The declining value of the South African rand, the loss of investor confidence in southern Africa and the steady stream of Zimbabweans seeking refuge in South Africa have added to the pressure on Mr Mbeki. The New National Party, which recently agreed a power-sharing deal with Mr Mbeki's ruling African National Congress, called on Mr Mbeki to withdraw all support from Mr Mugabe to ensure that he was not re-elected. "Mugabe has become a total liability that South Africa can no longer afford," the party said. Nelson Mandela, the former South African President, backed Mr Mbeki's change in policy. "It is quite clear now that Mugabe has not listened to (Mr Mbeki), and that is why (he) is getting tough," Mr Mandela said.
The Herald's editorial was accompanied by a lengthy front-page report with a headline that declared "Mbeki's Shock U-turn". Inside the newspaper was an analysis of the ANC's new "strange bedfellows" relationship with the NNP and a verbatim transcript of the statement to the House of Commons last week by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. "Conspiracy", read the headline. None of the rambling commentary was attributed to Zimbabwe Government officials. However, it is common knowledge that Mr Mugabe's information department routinely scripts the Herald's reportage and comment. Yesterday's blast of vitriol against South Africa could only have been done under the supervision of Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, diplomats said. "Such betrayal is difficult to stomach," it said. "What crime has Zimbabwe committed against its rich and powerful neighbour to deserve a knife in the back?"
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From ZWNEWS, 4 December
VIP treatment, while MDC suffer in prison
President Mugabe flew to Spain yesterday. Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union from Belgium, whose six-month term ends in January, and analysts say that this trip may be an attempt to try and repair the damage resulting from Mugabe's storming out of a recent meeting in Harare with top EU foreign affairs officials and politicians. Reliable reports suggest that Mugabe also managed to fit in a consultation with a top Spanish eye specialist while he was there.
No such luxury for Mugabe's political opponents. Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, who is the MDC Treasurer, and MP for the Bulawayo Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency, is now entering his third week in detention. He was one of those arrested in the swoop on dozens of MDC officials following the murder of Bulawayo war veteran Cain Nkala. Dulini-Ncube is an insulin-dependent diabetic. He has been refused adequate insulin supplies or medical attention, and has been subjected to a brutal regime of all-night interrogations since his incarceration. As a result, he now has severe problems with the sight in one eye, and failing sight in the other.
The continued detention of Dulini-Ncube, and all the others arrested in connection with Nkala's death, is now totally without justification. The only evidence which the government was able to bring against any of the accused was the confession of two MDC drivers, who were paraded on state-owned TV implicating MDC officials in Nkala's murder. The two witnesses last week retracted their confessions in court, saying they were forced to make them after torture by the police. Members of Nkala's own family have placed the blame for Nkala's death squarely on the ruling party Zanu PF, and other members of the war veteran's association.
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From BBC News, 3 December
New challenge to Mugabe
Civil rights activists in Zimbabwe have threatened to launch a campaign of civil disobedience in January unless the government implements political reforms and ensures next year's presidential election is free and fair. The chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, Lovemore Madhuku, announced the move after a meeting of the NCA, which is a coalition of local churches, unions and human rights groups, on Saturday. He said the government should expect mass protests and work boycotts if it rejected a new constitution drafted by the NCA. President Robert Mugabe has predicted he will win a convincing victory at the election, due before the end of March, while the opposition accuses him of changing electoral legislation in his favour. An estimated 2,000 people attended Saturday's meeting on the proposed new constitution, which stipulates the separation of powers between a non-executive president elected by parliament and an executive prime minister elected by popular vote. The new constitution would also abolish the death penalty for treason, though not for murder. "We think we need change of the constitutional framework before you can go into an election, and we want to make that point in January," Mr Madhuku said.
The BBC's Rageh Omar reports from the South African city of Johannesburg that the NCA meeting shows resistance to Mr Mugabe's rule is not confined to his political opponents, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "This weekend's threat of a widespread national campaign of disobedience by civic organisations has highlighted other focal points of disaffection to the current Zimbabwean government policies," he says. The Zimbabwean authorities last week briefly detained Mr Madhuku and 32 other NCA members when they tried to demonstrate against new election rules they consider undemocratic. The MDC has accused Mr Mugabe of trying to steal victory by changing the electoral laws in his favour. The opposition is outraged by a bar on postal voting for millions of Zimbabweans living abroad voting and rigid new rules demanding multiple proof of residency for urban voters. It has launched a campaign to persuade millions of its supporters living in South Africa to return home and claim their right to vote. The MDC estimates that about 3m Zimbabweans live there and most are opposition supporters. "You must fight for Zimbabwe," MDC Deputy President Gibson Sibanda told a rally in Johannesburg on Sunday. "You must go home and claim your voting rights. We want you to prepare yourselves to go back and vote."
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From The New York Times, 1 December
Zimbabwe press vows to fight Mugabe
Harare - Hundreds of ruling party militants marched through Zimbabwe's capital on Friday to support proposed legislation that would further restrict the media, stoning the offices of two independent weeklies and attacking vendors selling independent newspapers. Militants loyal to president Robert Mugabe's party chased vendors from their stalls and tore up bundles of The Independent and the Daily News. Police escorted the marchers, did not try to stop the mayhem and made no arrests. One photographer was injured. Independent journalists vowed to fight the proposed legislation, which would establish a restrictive license system for journalists and authorize fines and imprisonment for violations of government-imposed standards. Under the legislation, only Zimbabwean citizens would be able to obtain a license to work, and special permission would be required for a Zimbabwean to work for a foreign news organization, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said. "This must be fought with all the legal powers we have to prevent it seeing the light of day," said Trevor Ncube, publisher of The Zimbabwe Independent and Sunday Standard, the country's two main independent weeklies. "We must never acquiesce to this dictatorship," he said.
The proposed legislation marks the Mugabe government's latest effort to control independent and foreign media, which have covered its crackdown on the political opposition and state-sanctioned occupations of white-owned farms. Journalists have been beaten and arrested, and some foreign reporters have been deported. Last week, a presidential spokesman accused some journalists from foreign media of being terrorists after they reported on political violence by ruling party militants. That charge prompted diplomatic protests from Britain and the United States. In an interview with the state-controlled Herald newspaper, Moyo said Mugabe's Cabinet approved the legislation this week and that it would be enacted before presidential elections expected early next year. Parliament is dominated by the ruling party and is likely to pass the bill. Mugabe, 77, has ruled since independence in 1980 and is seeking a further six-year term in office. But Zimbabwe's economy has fallen apart since the farm occupations began last year and his popularity has plummeted, placing him in danger of losing the race. The details of the media bill have not been released. Moyo said the legislation would impose sentences of up to two years in prison and fines of up to US$1,800 for defying "professional and ethical standards" that will be imposed by a government media commission. He said it would make it an offence to "cause alarm and despondency" or spread information that discredits a person based on race, political conviction or a number of other categories. The commission would have the power to revoke licenses, he said.
Also Friday, The Daily News reported that two men arrested in a high-profile killing retracted statements that implicated members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, saying they signed them after being tortured by police. Khethani Sibanda and Remember Moyo, two drivers for the opposition party, had signed confessions implicating opposition party officials in the Nov. 5 death of Cain Nkala, a leader of the ruling party militants in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. The newspaper reported that the two repudiated the confessions in testimony this week, telling a judge that neither they nor any party official were involved in Nkala's killing.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 30 November
UNDP seeks to raise US$80m for food aid
Following Zimbabwe's recent international plea for humanitarian aid to ease looming food shortages, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), says it hopes to raise an estimated US$80 million from donors. UNDP resident representative, Victor Angelo, told the Zimbabwe Independent in Bulawayo last week that following Zimbabwe's recent appeal for food and non-food assistance, the UN had met with the donor community twice and was formulating a response under its humanitarian assistance programme. "The overall budget of the UN humanitarian response programme that we are currently formulating is approximately US$80 million. However, this is a very preliminary estimate," said Angelo. "We still have to look more precisely at the hardships of people in urban and peri-urban areas as well as needs related to farm workers. It is too early to say what the response will be. But the World Food Programme is in the last stages of approving a food assistance package."
A fortnight ago, Zimbabwe sent out an international SOS for nearly Z$20 billion in emergency aid to avert a national disaster resulting from a combination of food shortages, price controls and a biting foreign currency shortage. Of the amount, government needs $11 billion to avert starvation and the balance for infrastructural rehabilitation. While government has persistently denied looming food shortages, empty shop shelves tell a different story. The UNDP said it was not taking the appeal lightly and was working with other UN agencies such as the World Food Programme, the UN Children's Fund, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UN High Commission for Refugees.
The UNDP is also going to rely on its extensive network of partners in the donor community, NGOs and the private sector. "We consider it (the appeal) to be very urgent and we will try to mobilise support for it. Initial contacts make me believe that a number of donors see the humanitarian situation as a challenge that needs to be responded to," Angelo said. Recently government spokesman, Jonathan Moyo, told the official press that government would be the sole distributor of food in a bid to bar the use of food as a campaign tool, a move some NGOs said could hinder their humanitarian assistance programmes. The UNDP was however optimistic that humanitarian assistance provided by the UN system would be implemented in a transparent way with a clear selection of beneficiaries.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 30 November
Parts of Zimbabwe go without fuel
Zimbabweans faced the spectre of fuel shortages this week as erratic supplies resurfaced countrywide. The country's erratic fuel supplies triggered by acute foreign currency shortages temporarily eased for the past five months after the government signed a US$360 million fuel deal with Libya. Government insisted there was enough fuel in stock to last the festive season. But parts of the country, including Gweru, Chinhoyi, Matebeleland, KweKwe and Victoria Falls, were said to be facing shortages. The government said fuel disruptions in these areas had been caused by the NRZ strike earlier this week.
Motorists are already panicking about the possibility of fuel shortage ahead of the festive season. They said despite problems caused by the National Railways of Zimbabwe workers' strike, it was hard to understand why areas where fuel was transported by road were experiencing supply problems. Oil Industry Association of Zimbabwe vice-chairman, John Makova, yesterday said reports indicated there were logistical difficulties on the supply chain. "Logistical difficulties associated with fuel transportation mean that moving fuel from supply point to inland distribution points can take up to seven days. This period is extended if there are hold ups," said Makova, without explaining the hold up. He called on stakeholders to "work together to ensure that logistical challenges are resolved". Mines and Energy minister, Edward Chindori-Chininga told parliament on Wednesday that oil companies were deliberately refusing to collect fuel from depots. He did not shed light on why they were suddenly reluctant. Chindori-Chininga blamed oil companies for not collecting about 5,7 million litres of petrol and 8 million litres of diesel by Wednesday.
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From The Washington Post, 30 November
In Zimbabwe, Signs of 'Trouble Ahead'
Johannesburg - In October, Zimbabwe's government turned away international election monitors, accusing the European observers of favoring the opposition in presidential elections scheduled for early next year. That was followed by the arrests of two independent journalists, and last week President Robert Mugabe's information minister compared the international media to terrorists and began notifying foreign journalists that they would not be allowed to work in the country for the foreseeable future. Along the way, Mugabe's political party, which has governed the former British colony virtually since its independence 21 years ago, has introduced legislation to prevent relief agencies from sponsoring voter education programs, to establish tougher residency requirements for voters and, in a new anti-terrorism bill, to make it a crime to "undermine the authority of the president" or "engender hostility" toward him. The offenses would be punishable by death.
As Zimbabwe heads into the homestretch of an already violent campaign season, the shape of things to come is anything but promising, according to diplomats, opposition politicians and political analysts throughout southern Africa. With polls showing Mugabe running behind Morgan Tsvangirai, the candidate of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the 77-year-old president is preparing to accelerate his party's 18-month-old campaign of violence and terror to force democracy to bend to his will, observers say. By pushing laws through parliament that could discourage thousands of voters from casting ballots, by harassing and jailing opposition politicians and their supporters and by shielding Zimbabwe from the watchful eyes of foreign media and independent observers, many here say Mugabe is likely positioning his governing party, Zanu PF, to rig the toughest election of his 21-year rule. "It has got all the potential for trouble ahead," said Michael Quintana, editor of Africa Defense Journal.
After voters rejected a constitutional referendum in February 2000 to further consolidate Mugabe's autocratic powers, violent mobs led by veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war began seizing commercial farms owned by wealthy, white farmers, who account for less than 1 percent of the country's 12 million people. Nearly 40 people - mostly opposition supporters - died in the confrontations that followed, and many say they fear that the violence will only increase in the months leading up to the elections, which are scheduled for March. Survey results released this month showed Tsvangirai running ahead of Mugabe, and a Gallup poll due to be released soon shows the former trade union leader holding an advantage of 8 percentage points over the president.
After a government supporter was killed Nov. 13, mobs of war veterans accused members of Tsvangirai's party, the MDC, of orchestrating the murder in retaliation for the killing of one of their own, and rioted last week in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. Witnesses said police escorted the veterans as they marched through the streets attacking vendors selling independent newspapers that have been critical of Mugabe, overturning cars and setting them on fire. At the funeral last week of Cain Nkala, the slain Zanu PF supporter, Mugabe repeatedly referred to the MDC and sympathetic white farmers as "terrorists" and accused Britain - Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler - of supporting terrorists. That characterization, according to Western diplomats, MDC leaders and activists, lays the foundation for a government crackdown on the MDC in the name of state security. The rhetoric is similar to Mugabe's denunciation of political rivals following Zimbabwe's independence, which led to the government's violent clashes with dissidents in the Matabeleland region, where Bulawayo is located. "This is exactly the script that he used" in the 1980s, said Learnmore Jongwe, an MDC spokesman. "It is a signal to us that they are going to try everything - including assassination - to hijack the elections. We are telling our supporters to remain steadfast. They cannot kill us all."
Zimbabwe's information minister, Jonathan Moyo, did not return phone calls for comment. But he told reporters last week that reporting by British and South African journalists critical of the government role in the Bulawayo clashes was irresponsible. "It is now an open secret that these reporters are not only distorting the facts but are assisting terrorists. . . . As for the correspondents, we would like them to know that we agree with President Bush that anyone who finances, harbors or defends terrorists is himself a terrorist." Foreign news organizations have denied the accusation, but Zanu PF lawmakers used the heightened political tensions to begin "fast-track" passage of new anti-terrorism measures, providing the government with wide authority to make arrests for "insurgency, kidnapping and murder." That legislation coincides with electoral reforms that will effectively ban absentee ballots from Zimbabweans living abroad, with the exception of diplomats and soldiers. Pending rubber-stamp approval from the Zanu PF-controlled parliament, the law will also require voters to present proof of residency, a measure that could shave thousands from the voter rolls, political analysts say.
Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe's rebel forces against the Rhodesian army, is the only leader this country has known since independence. Once a tremendously popular leader whose Marxist government provided Zimbabweans with free health care and education, Mugabe abandoned socialism after the Cold War ended. Zimbabwe's adjustment to a free-market economy, however, has been hurt by widespread government corruption and mismanagement, economists and activists say. Mugabe's decision three years ago to send nearly 12,000 troops to fight an unpopular civil war in neighboring Congo has damaged the economy even more, and turned many voters against him.
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From ZWNEWS, 30 November
State shifts blame again
The government is again attempting to shift the blame for Zanu PF inspired violence onto the Movement for Democratic Change, echoing the recent events in Bulawayo, where the murder of Matabeleland war veterans leader Cain Nkala was blamed on the opposition party, and has resulted in widespread arrests of MDC officials in the province. State television on Wednesday accused MDC members staying at the home of Mrs Sekai Holland at Mtaga growth point in Mberengwa of petrol-bombing the home of one Zanu PF official, and beating up another. "Reports were made from Mberengwa West that Cde Chiwera's house was petrol bombed last night, seriously injuring his wife and child. His colleague Cde Mujeri was beaten up by suspected MDC youths believed to be staying at Sekai Holland's house at Mataga Growth Point," reported ZTV.
This latest episode in the ongoing campaign to portray the MDC as "terrorists" relates to the death shortly after 5 November of Ravengai Sikumucha, the brother of an MDC activist in the Mberengwa area. A registration drive was being conducted in the Mberengwa district by a MDC group from Gweru, with leaflets being dropped and rallies held, to persuade villagers to register as voters for the presidential election next year. A truck carrying the MDC group was followed by police near Jeka. Inspector Magumise - the member-in-charge of Mataga police station, who is also a local war veteran, and fiercely opposed to the MDC - was in the police vehicle. Sikumucha had, with others, run away as the police vehicle approached. It is alleged by an eye-witness, who is now in Harare in fear of his life, that Inspector Magumise and a CIO operative named Walter picked up Sikumucha, who was wearing similar clothes to his brother, and tortured him to death. The witness says that Sikumucha's body was left at Musume hospital after the parents of the deceased refused to accept the police story that their son had leapt from the back of the police vehicle. The Buchwa police were said to have finally taken the body to Bulawayo for an autopsy last Thursday. A funeral has not yet been held.
"The ZTV report is a lie," said Mrs Holland, who is the MDC Secretary for International Affairs. "I fear that it is made to lay the ground for a return to a violent presidential campaign by the ruling party in Mberengwa district. Recently Biggie Chitoro was released on bail and has held three rallies to date in Mberengwa West - despite this being contrary to his bail conditions that he never participate in political activities." Biggie Chitoro is a Zanu PF member from the area heavily implicated in making the Mberengwa West constituency one of the worst affected by political violence before the June 2000 parliamentary elections. The Holland's home in Mberengwa has been a target for attack for more than a year. Every attempt has been made to remove its occupants not just from Mataga Growth Point but out of Mberengwa district itself. The home is used by the MDC party to hold their weekly district meetings. It is also used by the youth and women's groups for training.
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From BBC News, 28 November
Zimbabwe police accused of torture
Bulawayo - Two opposition activists, held in connection with the murder of a leading war veteran in Zimbabwe, have said they were tortured into confessing by the police. Cain Nkala, a stalwart in the ruling Zanu PF party, was abducted from his home in the second city of Bulawayo earlier this month. His body was found a week later. The government accused the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of being behind the killing and 14 MDC suspects were detained, including an MP, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube. At Nkala's funeral, President Robert Mugabe, accused the MDC of being a "terrorist" organisation. The two suspects, Khentani Sibanda and Remember Moyo, made the disclosure during their bail application before Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Lawrence Kamocha. Mr Sibanda denied he was involved in Nkala's killing. He told the judge that the MDC leaders were also not involved in the abduction and murder of the Bulawayo war veterans leader. He said he made the confessions under torture after the police had threatened to kill his family. He told the judge: "My Lord, I have nothing to do with the murder. Even the MDC leaders were not involved. I was only forced to implicate them to save my life."
Mr Moyo described to the judge how the police in Mbembesi Camp tortured him and forced him to confess to the murder. He said his genitals were tortured by the police, who also told him to implicate the opposition party in the killing. Mr Moyo also denied receiving funds from the MDC Member of Parliament for Lobhengula constituency, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube to kill the war veterans leader. Mr Dulini is currently in police custody and was among six MDC leaders who were denied bail by the courts. Mr Moyo also denied before the court that he knew Simon Spooner, an advisor to the MDC Member of Parliament for Bulawayo North constituency, David Coltart. According to Mr Moyo, he only saw Mr Spooner at Khami Prison where they were both being held. He also denied that Mr Spooner, a former soldier who trained in Australia, was involved in Cain Nkala's murder. "All these people, my Lord, are innocent. I only implicated them because I was tortured by the police. Police officers kicked me all over the body. Two police officers held my legs apart while I was kicked in the groin until I lost consciousness," he said. Mr Moyo said when he regained consciousness he was in an empty cell. His clothes were removed and he was forced to sleep on the bare concrete floor for two days. He urinated blood because of the injuries to his groin, he told the court. The judge ordered the two suspects to be examined by a medical doctor. Among the people who packed the court were police, government agents, MDC supporters and journalists.
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From The Financial Gazette, 29 November
Mugabe deploys troops in MDC base
President Robert Mugabe this week deployed troops in the opposition's stronghold in northwestern Zimbabwe in a move analysts warned could hasten the total collapse of a nation that has in the last few years dramatically leapt from crisis to crisis. Analysts said Mugabe's decision to send armed soldiers in the predominantly opposition supporting provinces of Matabeleland just when the international community is calling on him to uphold democracy and human rights could be the last straw to break the patience of both Zimbabweans and the international community. "Mugabe is living dangerously," said University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political science professor Masipula Sithole. Sithole was referring to Mugabe's insistence that he will not heed the growing international calls for more democracy and his threats that if need be, the crisis-ridden southern African nation would go it alone without the rest of the world. Sithole said: "More powerful nations before have failed to get far along this go it alone path. How far can Zimbabwe go with an ailing economy and with the whole world united against it?"
Mugabe last week bluntly told off European Union (EU) council of ministers president Louis Michel, foreign policy chief Javier Solana and commissioner for external affairs Chris Patten that the EU had no business in Zimbabwean affairs. That was after the visiting trio had requested, during talks in Harare, guarantees that next year's presidential election will be free and fair. Michel told the Press after meeting Mugabe that the EU would not recognise the outcome of the critical presidential poll unless Mugabe and his government allowed it to be organised by an independent electoral commission and unless it was held under the spotlight of the whole world. Analysts say Mugabe fears a free presidential ballot could easily be won by the popular opposition MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The MDC weathered political violence in which more than 32 people, most of them its supporters, died to almost defeat Mugabe's ruling party by grabbing 57 seats against Zanu PF's 62. Another smaller opposition party won the remaining seat. Similar threats by the US government not to recognise the presidential ballot unless it was truly democratic have also been laughed off by Mugabe even as Washington is currently preparing legislation to impose sanctions on him and his top lieutenants for failing to uphold democracy and human rights.
To cap a grand plot under which Mugabe has tightened election rules and other laws in his favour and clamped down on the media, the 77-year-old president earlier this week ordered heavily armed troops into some parts of Matabeleland. A government spokesman told state television the army was in Matabeleland to quell terrorism following the recent killings of two Zanu PF supporters in the region. The deployment of the soldiers has revived bitter memories of a bloody army crackdown in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the early 1980s that left more than 20 000 civilian supporters of the late nationalist Joshua Nkomo dead. UZ Institute of Development Studies associate professor Brian Raftopoulos said the deployment of the army was a ploy to destabilise the MDC ahead of the presidential poll and to create conditions that made it impossible for the opposition party to campaign. Raftopoulos said Mugabe was going to continue defying international calls for a free and fair presidential poll and that he will go ahead and stage the ballot under conditions well below acceptable standards of democracy in the hope that other southern African leaders will back him anyhow. He added: "Mugabe knows that there are many among his southern African colleagues equally less committed to democracy and that they will simply endorse the election even if it was not free and fair." With the blessings of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Mugabe could try to re-engage the international community by offering some compromises even on the contentious land issue in order to get back international support, Raftopoulos said. "It is a gamble that might not pay. But it could also be a successful gamble given the fact that the international community itself can be very flexible at times," Raftopoulos noted.
But Sithole was adamant that even this strategy would not pay off for Mugabe because the international community was not going to relent on its demands that he upholds democracy and the rule of law. According to Sithole, even if SADC leaders were to endorse an undemocratic presidential election, such recognition would not be beyond SADC borders. "There is a higher price to pay for staging a kangaroo election and Mugabe and his government may not survive that price," Sithole observed. The international community, which until now has only threatened to impose targeted sanctions against Mugabe and top officials of his government, could react to any attempts to steal the ballot with more severe and comprehensive sanctions, Sithole said. UZ business studies professor Tony Hawkins said Zimbabwe's tottering economy would not be able to withstand sanctions for long. But much more worrying, said Sithole, was that if Mugabe used the army to suppress growing but peaceful opposition to his rule, that could eventually lead to an underground and violent resistance by the people. "If you discourage democratic politics by denying the people a peaceful means to change the situation, what recourse have they but to turn violent?" he asked.
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From The Independent (UK), 29 November
Zimbabwe's churches defy Mugabe by delivering food to starving people
Bulawayo/Harare - Faced with increasing reports of deaths from malnutrition in Zimbabwe, churches are openly defying an edict from President Robert Mugabe that only ruling-party officials may distribute food aid. The churches' defiance comes as an independent newspaper, the Financial Gazette, reveals today that the 77-year-old leader has ordered bomb-proof underground bunkers to be dug around his home and offices, as well as the delivery of 86 army trucks believed to come from Austria - although there is an EU embargo on defence equipment to Zimbabwe. The underground chambers, to be built of reinforced concrete, are being planned to allow Mr Mugabe to prepare for unrest or civil war, in the event of his losing next year's elections, according to the paper.
In Bulawayo and rural districts in the south of the country, Mr Mugabe's campaign to stay in power has already translated into hunger among thousands of people, according to the prominent Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube. He said: "The hunger is caused by the government's hypocrisy. It wants to distribute food assistance itself, so as to buy votes. It does not care how many people die as long as it can stay in power." The looming crisis comes after Mr Mugabe earlier this month banned hundreds of the country's commercial farmers from working their land and told their properties had, in effect, been nationalised. The regional World Food Programme director, Judith Lewis, said: "What we are seeing is a developing complex emergency."
In Masase, a village of some 2,000 people in the Midlands, it is the Lutherans who are defying the ruling Zanu PF), and covertly supplying food. It is to people like Reverend Anders Berglund, from the Swedish Church, that Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, refers when he claims foreigners "might try to smuggle election monitors into Zimbabwe using the guise of food aid". Rev Anders said: "Children are fainting in class and the school day has had to be shortened because kids do not have the energy to concentrate." Masase is a well-kept village which voted for Zanu PF in the parliamentary elections. Despite living in a "privileged" place, the women struggle to feed their families. Dozens of them congregate every day at the Vashandiri milling co-operative, set up by the church. Here, for a small fee, they mill maize corn and turn a profit from selling the flour, which is the staple food in these parts. But they are unable to grow their own maize due to poor weather conditions. For two years, the south and east of the country, which are drought and flood-prone, have been subject to devastating weather.
Michael Ncube, co-ordinator of the Catholic Development Commission in Bulawayo, said: "Matabeleland is mainly a cattle and ranching area. Crops do not do well here at the best of times. Two years of bad weather is too much for people to bear. Now their seeds are depleted. So as well as supplying food aid to children, breast-feeding mothers and the elderly, we are buying maize and sorghum seeds in town and transporting them to rural areas were we sell them for less than we paid." Food experts explain that Zimbabwe - usually a "food-surplus country" - is in normal circumstances capable of assisting its southern and eastern provinces when disaster strikes. But the political turmoil in fertile Mashonaland, in the north, was so intense ahead of last year's parliamentary elections that stocks were never built up.
To the archbishop, a long-time critic of Mr Mugabe, Matabeleland's crisis has a more sinister explanation. "We have always been neglected because we have a history of not supporting Zanu PF," he said. The Most Reverend Ncube, who received so many death threats ahead of last year's elections that the Vatican demanded that Mr Mugabe guarantee his safety, said 80 per cent of people in Matabeleland live below the poverty level. He said: "As far as I am concerned Mr Mugabe can take a flying jump into the Zambezi River. Last year, Matabeleland voted against the government. Now they are not distributing food here ... So we are having to circumvent rules to help people keep body and soul together. We did not tolerate racism when there was white rule here, and we will not tolerate this."
Lovemore Madhuku, the 34-year-old law professor who was arrested while trying to organise a demonstration on Tuesday in Harare, was set yesterday to spend a second night in police custody. Pro-democracy campaigners said he had still not been charged or allowed to see a lawyer.
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