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Archived News
14th May 2002
CIO boss linked to man behind beheading claim
Court rejects journalists' requests
Two more MDC supporters killed by suspected Zanu PF activists
D&M collects $400K from Zimbabwe
Court deals blow to Mugabe's citizenship law
By Michael Hartnack
Mugabe faces travel curbs in US
Political violence rages on
Zimbabwe media law challenged
Landmark citizenship judgement
Menashe cons Chiluba
US confines Mugabe to UN premises
Mugabe militias 'forcing teachers from their jobs'
Headmaster is arrested for Mugabe comments
Chinhoyi businessman brutally assaulted by suspected Zanu PF youths
Mugabe tightens grip on land
Nabanyama: war vets face murder charges
Cambridge bows to Mugabe and withdraws examinations
Zimbabwe talks postponed
‘Silent diplomacy failed in Zimbabwe’
Zim-born citizens inalienable
Mugabe turns on white allies
I'm no Zanu PF crony
MDC Leader Sues Australia's SBS
Zimbabwe talks face collapse
Statement by Professor Welshman Ncube,
Fifth Zim journalist arrested in 2 weeks
My night in Mugabe's stinking jail
Mbeki, Obasanjo must come up with new peace plan
Poaching crisis in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe ruling party to resume talks with opposition
SA and Zimbabwe may clash over unity talks
Zanu PF to sue local and foreign media
Govt threatens to clamp down on NGOs
Mugabe reneges on deal with white 'pals'
Exams Cambridge response
DRC accuses Rwanda of troop build-up
Zanu PF pulls plug on reconciliation with the opposition
Opposition told of 'murder plot'
Deadly anti-riot gear arrives
Chihuri in France despite sanctions
UN wants troops on DRC border
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From The Daily News, 7 May
CIO boss linked to man behind beheading claim
The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) Chitungwiza branch may have engaged George Nyadzayo, alias Enos Tadyanemhandu, to approach the MDC, with his fabricated story of a beheaded wife to establish if the party was still financially sound. The CIO has denied any connection with Nyadzayo, the still missing former boyfriend of the dead woman. But investigations into the death of Blandina Ntoko Musopero, whose very existence the police denied when the story of her death first broke, have linked the boyfriend to the CIO. Nyadzayo is now alleged to have been assigned by the CIO officer-in-charge at Makoni post in Chitungwiza, named only as Sigauke. A source, who asked not to be named, said yesterday: "Sigauke created the story because he wanted to find out if the MDC still had money after the opposition party was rumoured to be broke following the presidential election. Sigauke wanted to establish if the MDC was still able to pay its displaced people, as well as what its financial position was after its High Court application challenging the outcome of the presidential election."
The source alleged that when Sigauke heard that Blandina had died, he instructed Nyadzayo, her boyfriend, to ask the MDC to give him money for funeral assistance. Nyadzayo, masquerading as Tadyanemhandu, claimed his wife, Blandina, was beheaded by alleged Zanu PF youths in Magunje. The story has been proved to be a complete invention. The MDC paid him $19 800. The source said: "The CIO mission was accomplished because when the MDC paid Nyadzayo, the CIO got to know that the party was still financially sound. But it was not part of the CIO’s plan to send Nyadzayo to The Daily News. In fact, the CIO officers in Chitungwiza were completely surprised when the story appeared in the paper." The paper obtained Nyadzayo’s story after he approached the MDC for help. When the MDC realised later that it had been swindled by Nyadzayo and decided to press charges against him, the police would not arrest him.
When the reporter called the CIO offices in Chitungwiza yesterday for a comment from Sigauke, a receptionist initially denied such a person worked there. But when the reporter insisted Sigauke was the head of the CIO office there, he was called to the telephone. Sigauke denied the allegations, saying: "Where is Tadyanemhandu now? Did he approach you? I did not assign anything to such a person. I do not even know such a person." While Sigauke denied knowledge of Nyadzayo, investigations have revealed that Sigauke owns a shop called China G. Malati Investments, at Zhakata shops in Seke communal lands. Sigauke’s shop is about 400 metres away from the late Blandina Ntoko Musopero’s residence. Neighbours said yesterday Sigauke used to give Nyadzayo piecework at his shop.
A worker at the shop yesterday confirmed it was indeed owned by Sigauke, saying: "Sigauke is away at the moment, but on Sunday he said he would come to the shop early today." Blandina was Nyadzayo’s girlfriend. She died of natural causes on 14 April 2002. On Sunday, Blandina’s relatives, including her son, Ngoni Ntoko,19, and daughter, Sharon, 25, said her correct name was not Blandina Tadyanemhandu, as she was only a girlfriend to the man calling himself Tadyanemhandu. The family denied that Blandina was killed by Zanu PF supporters as alleged by Nyadzayo while masquerading as Tadyanemhandu. She had been operated on before her death. Ngoni said they are four siblings in the family. The other two are Betty,14, and Brighton,11. He said Nyadzayo was his mother’s boyfriend from 1997 after Blandina divorced his father, Magombo Ntoko, who died in 1999.
Since their parents’ divorce, they have been staying with their maternal uncle, Mhondiwa Musopero, in Zhakata village. Sharon, now married, also confirmed Ngoni’s story. On Sunday Ngoni took reporters to his mother’s grave outside the homestead. The epitaph states that indeed it is Blandina who is buried in the grave. Bennie Tumbare-Mutasa, the MP for Seke, was conned by Nyadzayo into parting with some money. Nyadzayo claimed that he needed the cash to look after his family after his home was allegedly burnt down by Zanu PF supporters in March. The MDC MP and the police in Dema discovered that they had been lied to. During that incident the purported Tadyanemhandu gave George Nyadzayo as his name. Nyadzayo’s false story has led to the arrest of two Daily News reporters, Collin Chiwanza and Lloyd Mudiwa, and the British Guardian’s Andrew Meldrum.
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From News24 (SA), 7 May
Court rejects journalists' requests
Harare A Zimbabwean court denied a request on Tuesday by two journalists to drop charges filed against them under harsh new media laws on grounds that the laws violate constitutional rights to free expression. But lawyers said they would take their case to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country. Rejecting their request, Harare Magistrate Lilian Kudya ordered Andrew Meldrum, a US citizen who is the Zimbabwe correspondent of the British newspaper The Guardian, and Lloyd Mudiwa, a reporter with Zimbabwe's only independent daily, to reappear for the beginning of their trial on May 22. Kudya ruled there was a case to be pursued under the new media laws. Kudya, however, dropped charges against Collin Chiwanza, another reporter from The Daily News, who had also been charged with "abuse of journalistic privilege by publishing falsehoods," a crime punishable by up to two years in jail under media laws in effect since March. Critics say the media laws are aimed at stifling free speech and dissent against the government. Chiwanza testified on Tuesday he was assigned to assist Mudiwa but had not written any part of a report in the Daily News about the killing last month - allegedly by ruling party supporters - of a woman near the town of Karoi, 200km northwest of Harare. Police said the killing never happened, and the Daily News retracted the story. The Guardian was among international media organizations which referred to the report. The Daily News later said it may have been deliberately misled in a "sting" to discredit it. Though its reporters and Meldrum were arrested and detained, the original informant had not been questioned by police.
On Monday, police arrested and charged a Daily News columnist, bringing to eight the number of journalists arrested under the new laws. Pius Wakatama, who writes a weekly political column, was also accused of publishing false information in two of his Saturday columns. In one he referred to the alleged Karoi killing and in another he was critical of the tacit government support of land seizures by ruling party militants that had displaced black farmworkers and forced white land owners to flee, including the family of a veteran white supporter of the country's liberation movement from white minority rule. Wakatama is expected to be summoned to court soon. The media laws were passed shortly before the re-election of longtime President Robert Mugabe. Human rights groups and opposition activists said the laws are intended to muzzle the media as part of wider effort to suppress dissent in Zimbabwe. Four other journalists, including a correspondent of the British Daily Telegraph, have been arrested since the media laws went into effect. They have been released, but may be summoned to court in the future. The judiciary has been under growing pressure by the government to issue rulings in its favour and government officials and since political unrest began in Zimbabwe two years ago, there have been several resignations by independent-minded members of the judiciary.
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From ZWNEWS, 8 May
Two more MDC supporters killed by suspected Zanu PF activists
Two MDC supporters, one of them a polling agent in the March 9 and 10 presidential election, have been killed by suspected Zanu PF militia. Jenus Ngamira, an MDC activist in Bindura, was allegedly murdered by Zanu PF militia led by Munyaradzi Timoti in Chipadze Township of Bindura in the early hours of last Sunday, while his brother Christopher Ngamira was seriously injured and is recovering in hospital following an attack by the same group. After the incident, Timoti rushed to his home to put on his Zanu PF militia uniform before surrendering himself to Bindura Police Station. Ngamira was buried in Bindura yesterday. In Gokwe, the remains of Tiperson Madhobha, an MDC polling agent in the March 9 and 10 presidential elections who was abducted by Zanu PF militia on 10 April, were found in a river last week. A police officer who identified himself as Sergeant Chikuni confirmed that the remains of Madhobha had been found and that arrangements for a postmortem were underway.
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From O’Dwyers’ PR Daily (US), 3 May
D&M collects $400K from Zimbabwe
Dickens & Madson Canada, the firm that spread news of an alleged assassination plot against Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, has a contract worth $225,000 from his government. The firm has received $400K from Zimbabwe due to heavy travel-related expenses, says its president Ari Ben Menashe. The parties have not as yet issued formal amendments to the contract. Menashe claimed that Morgan Tsvangirai, who lost to Mugabe in the presidential race earlier this year, was behind the plot. Menashe distributed a grainy video said to be of Tsvangirai discussing the plan to off Mugabe just prior to the election. Tsvangirai denied being part of any plot, and dismissed the video as part of a smear campaign. D&M's contract includes a provision that allows a $20,000 bonus, if by yearend: "Zimbabwe is generally perceived internationally as being a peace loving and progressive member of the international community. The pariah state label currently attached to Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Government should have disappeared and one measure of success would be that Zimbabwe would have become eligible and acceded to the United States African Growth and Opportunity Act by the end of the contract for the bonus to be payable." The BBC has called Menashe a controversial figure linked in the 1980s to the Iran-Contra arms scandal.
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From The Star (SA), 7 May
Court deals blow to Mugabe's citizenship law
Harare - Zimbabwe's government conceded on Tuesday in a high court that it cannot strip rights activist Judith Todd of her Zimbabwean citizenship, even if she could qualify for a passport from another country. "I concede the heads of argument presented by the applicant, so I have no further submissions to make," Nelson Mutsonziwa from the attorney-general's office told the court. Zimbabwe's government had refused to renew Todd's passport, saying that she was a citizen of New Zealand because her parents were born there. Government argued that a 1943 New Zealand law gave citizenship to anyone whose parents were born in that country. Todd's lawyer, Bryant Elliot, said Zimbabwean law required an expert from New Zealand be present in court, if that nation's laws were to be considered. He also argued that Zimbabwean law automatically gives citizenship to anyone born here. Judge Sandra Mungwira is expected to hand down her judgment on Wednesday.
Both Todd's parents were born in New Zealand, but she was born in Zimbabwe, when it was the British colony of Rhodesia. Her father, Garfield Todd, is a former prime minister of Rhodesia. She has never sought a New Zealand passport. Judith Todd is an activist who supported Zimbabwe's liberation struggle but who now opposes President Robert Mugabe, accusing his government of widespread human rights abuses. Todd's case could have wide-ranging implications for all Zimbabweans of foreign descent. In March last year a law was passed that required anyone wishing to retain Zimbabwean citizenship to renounce any right to foreign citizenship - even if they had never held a foreign passport. A high court judge had ruled in February that people cannot give up a right, but only a citizenship they actually hold. The law targeted the estimated 30 000 white Zimbabweans who were entitled to a foreign passport and tens of thousands of blacks whose parents or grandparents had immigrated from neighbouring nations. Government critics had feared the law would bar people with foreign-sounding surnames as well as the small white minority from voting because they had not renounced their entitlement to foreign citizenship. The legislation was viewed as part of a wide-ranging strategy to ensure Mugabe's re-election in the elections.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 8 May
By Michael Hartnack
One law for state toadies, another for critics, and none for the hungry
It would show a failure of compassion more than of news judgment if I did not preface whatever I write from Zimbabwe about press freedom with a reminder that last night children in our rural areas cried themselves to sleep with hunger. Many of them were from families not even allowed to queue to buy mealie meal because the adult members were suspected of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Although the International Committee to Protect Journalists rates Zimbabwe among the 10 most dangerous countries in which to be one, whatever our troubles as we celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May 3 pale compared with this raw fact of human suffering. We in the media are only deserving of our readers' concern as long as we are trying to get these facts across. When the day comes that these columns deliberately confine themselves to jolly chats about the Zimbabwe cricket team, or the westward spread of terrestrial bulbuls' habitat, something will have gone horribly wrong.
Worse than readers not being told what is happening would be not being told that they are not being told. Two years ago I had, with great regret, to resign as correspondent for a South African newspaper that I had served under its different names for 16 years. My initial 1999-2000 reports of farm invasions, of queues for petrol and diesel, and the crisis in the tourist industry, were dismissed as "scare stories" by recently-appointed middle-level staff who exercised nightly control over what was being published. They had developed an "in" with the Zimbabwean establishment through a South African-based businessman who is now on the USA's banned list for visas, because the State Department view him as a front man for President Robert Mugabe. Through him, staff developed the practice of telephoning the private numbers of Zimbabwean government figures, reading over what they had received from me and asking for advice. The persons they telephoned would never have taken calls from me formally requesting comment. Old friends on the newspaper sympathised with my repeated protests, but were frightened to intervene.
From the point of view of the reader, this form of censorship (for such it was) was far more pernicious than that we experienced at the Rhodesia Herald when I worked there for two years after Ian Smith's 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The newspaper was a subsidiary of South Africa's Argus Group until passing into state control after 1980 independence. Under Rhodesia's Emergency Powers, every article and photograph had to be passed by a censor. However, when an article or part of an article was banned, a blank space was left to show readers the censor had been at work. For example, on September 20, 1966, any news of a visit by the British Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley was banned. The following day, most of the front page was white space.
We handful of correspondents for foreign media here have been warned by our sources that the government "plans to pick us off, one by one" which explains the arrest last week of Andrew Meldrum, a United States citizen who is correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian. He and two reporters from the local Daily News were held overnight in police cells and advised they would be prosecuted under the newly-passed Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act for "abuse of journalistic privilege by publishing a false report". The facts are that both the Movement for Democratic Change and the independently-owned Daily News reported the alleged beheading of a 53-year-old woman, Blandina Tadyanemhandu, by militia. Police had ample time to respond to requests for comment, but instead issued a statement solely to the state-run Herald that they had evidence no such murder took place.
The following day, curiously, state broadcasting announced it had "discovered" that the source of the allegations, a 63-year-old man calling himself Enos Tadyanemhandu, was an imposter with a lengthy criminal record. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, another government mouthpiece, was able to detail an amazing history of wrongdoing going back more than 20 years, and exact amounts the man had extracted from the MDC to assist his supposed funeral expenses for his wife. "Tadyanemhandu" is Shona for those who "eat with the enemy". There is thus prima facie evidence the MDC, and the journalists, were led into a well-prepared trap. New legislation provides a two-year jail term for publishing a false report, or five years for arousing hostility to the government. At the weekend, police told the Herald's sister newspaper, The Sunday Mail, they plan to discredit many of the reports of atrocities over the past two years which include the murder of more than 200 opposition supporters and 10 white farmers. Either they never took place, or were mere "drunken brawls over women", claimed a spokesman. The perniciousness of the current offensive against independent journalists here highlights the selective requirements for truth: the most monstrous lies are encouraged on one side, while on the other errors due to deliberate fraud and refusal of co-operation by the authorities can be made to constitute a criminal offence.
Any person opposing the government is immediately branded an ex-Selous Scout or a traitor, depending on their race, and they have no hope of legal redress. Moyo told Parliament I served in the Rhodesian Army "Psychological Action" unit, and have been covertly continuing its tactics in the guise of a foreign correspondent since 1980. I never served in the army, having the misfortune to be conscripted into the air force - as a reserve dog handler. A group of 100 lawyers on Sunday published a counter-attack on government attempts to vilify those defending free speech. "Those who assert this right are invariably threatened with the prospect of legislation, or worse," said the lawyers, recalling former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay's forced early retirement, in the face of death threats. Mendacious slurs against Gubbay and other white judges, and the president of the Law Society, Sternford Moyo, came as the new Supreme Court under former government minister Godfrey Chidyausiku showed "significant departure from the culture of upholding the Bill of Rights", the lawyers said.
In Zimbabwe there seems to be one law for the state and its toadies, another for its critics in the media, and none for the hungry child.
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From The Financial Gazette, 9 May
Mugabe faces travel curbs in US
The movement of President Robert Mugabe, who left Harare earlier this week to attend a United Nations (UN) conference in New York, will be restricted in distance to the confines of the UN, American government sources said this week. The restrictions on Mugabe’s travel in the United States are in line with sanctions slapped on him and members of his inner circle by the US government under the Zimbabwe Democracy Act. US administration sources said the movement of Mugabe, in the US to attend a UN Children’s Conference, would be curtailed to the geographical limitations of the UN headquarters. "His movement is restricted under geographical limitation of the United Nations headquarters and he enjoys freedom within that limitation," an authoritative source said. Another said: "If for example he wants to go to San Francisco, even for shopping or sightseeing, that visa will not allow him that latitude."
It could not be ascertained yesterday whether Mugabe intended to meet any US government official while at the UN. Bruce Wharton, the US embassy spokesman in Harare, declined any comment. "I am not at liberty to discuss specific visa cases," he said. The sources said the terms and conditions of Mugabe’s visit to the UN headquarters were similar to those imposed on Cuban leader Fidel Castro, under US sanctions for decades over his policies on the Caribbean island nation. Mugabe’s visit to the US is his first one there since January 2000. It is also his first since the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Bill was signed into law by the Bush administration earlier this year. Sources said Mugabe is likely to use the opportunity of the UN conference to brief UN secretary-general Kofi Annan on Zimbabwe’s political and economic situation in the aftermath of the President’s disputed re-election in March.
The international community, minus a few African states, has refused to recognise Mugabe’s win, which has been branded by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as daylight robbery. The MDC is challenging the poll result in court. As a consequence of the disputed ballot, Zimbabwe has been suspended from the 54-nation Commonwealth while the 15-nation European Union, the US, New Zealand and Switzerland have slapped travel sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle. The blacklist has included top bankers, civil servants and army generals who are accused of benefiting from Mugabe’s policies. Washington says it is in consultation with western Europe and other countries to impose further measures against the targeted individuals. The EU has also cut contact with the Zimbabwe government at ministerial level, frozen the overseas assets of the targeted officials and, like the US, banned the sale of arms to Harare. The sources said they believed Mugabe would use his trip to lobby individual nations against imposing sanctions on his administration at a time when Zimbabwe’s economy is reeling from its worst ever crisis, shown out by crippling food and foreign currency shortages, runaway joblessness and inflation (stagflation) and mass poverty.
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From News24 (SA), 8 May
Political violence rages on
Harare - Zimbabwean human rights groups said on Wednesday that political violence has continued unabated since the March 9-11 presidential elections, in what they called "a sustained attack" on opposition supporters. The latest report from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum documented one killing, 16 cases of torture and two kidnappings in the last two weeks of April alone. Since the beginning of the year, the rights groups have documented 55 killings, 29 disappearances, 961 cases of torture, and 216 kidnappings, plus hundreds more instances of threats, property damage and other intimidation. "With no impending elections, no tangible explanation seems clear for the politically motivated violence that is still persisting in Zimbabwe," the report said. "The post-election period has witnessed a sustained attack on known or suspected supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) by state agents and supporters of the ruling party, Zanu PF," it added.
"To an even greater extent the attack on commercial farmers and their workers has intensified with incidents of violence and evictions on the increase countrywide," it said. "The situation created for farm workers by these evictions is bleak. Most have worked at their respective farms all their lives and have no alternative rural homes to go to. They are essentially internal refugees with no access to any essential resources, that is, food, water and shelter," it said. The Human Rights Forum includes nine non-governmental organisations, including Amnesty International, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and Transparency International. Police were not available to comment on the figures, but have told state media that only 16 people died in the run-up to presidential elections on March 9-11.
But the MDC continues to report killings of its supporters, even though police officials in Harare said they have no information on the attacks. The party in a statement accused Zanu PF militia of killing Jenus Ngamira, an MDC activist in the northern town of Bindura, early Sunday. Meanwhile, in the central town of Gokwe, the MDC said the remains of Tiperson Madhobha were found in a river bed last week. Madhobha, who was an MDC polling agent during the presidential election, was abducted by Zanu PF militia on April 10, the party said. Talks between the MDC and President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF are due to resume on Monday, in hopes of finding a solution to the political crisis. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected Mugabe's win in the presidential election, citing widespread violence and voter fraud an assessment shared by independent Zimbabwean observers and most western nations. The election led the European Union and the United States to impose sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle, while the Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe from its meetings.
For most Zimbabweans, the political crisis has been eclipsed by a severe food shortage. Mugabe last week declared a state of disaster in parts of the country where an estimated 7.8 million people - most of them children - are in dire need of food aid. Zimbabwe's 12 million people consume between 1.8 and 2 million tons of maize per year, but this year the country expects to harvest between 450 000 and 750 000 tons of maize, according to a regional food security agency, the Southern African Development Community Regional Early Warning Unity (SADC-REWU). The UN's World Food Program (WFP) and other aid agencies have already begun distributing food in the hardest-hit regions. WFP has blamed Zimbabwe's food woes on "the impact of the land reform and economic hardship, combined with failed rains in key production areas".
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From BBC News, 8 May
Zimbabwe media law challenged
Foreign correspondents in Zimbabwe have launched a challenge in the Supreme Court against a controversial media law which they say is unconstitutional. The journalists argue that the legislation, which was introduced in March, violates freedom of expression. A total of eight journalists have so far been charged under the law, which the government insists is necessary to tackle a collapse in journalistic standards. One of those behind the challenge has been charged under the media law, and could face a penalty of up to two years in jail. He is Andrew Meldrum, a US citizen writing for Britain's Guardian newspaper. The other two, Peta Thornycroft and Jan Raath, are also correspondents for British papers - the Daily Telegraph and The Times respectively.
The BBC's Grant Ferrett, a former Harare correspondent, says the ruling Zanu PF party has made plain its hostility to much of the local and foreign media in recent months. Government supporters have attacked journalists working for the privately-owned media and ministers have denounced some foreign correspondents as terrorists. Last week Mr Meldrum and two reporters working for Zimbabwe's Daily News, Lloyd Mudiwa and Collin Chiwanza, were briefly detained in connection with an unsubstantiated story about an alleged political murder. The Daily News, which originally ran the story, later withdrew it and apologised to Zanu PF. Mr Meldrum and Mr Mudiwa have been charged with publishing a falsehood. They are due to appear in court again later this month. Mr Chiwanza has been cleared. The editor of the Daily News - Zimbabwe's only privately-owned daily newspaper - Geoff Nyarota has been arrested several times since the paper was launched in 1999.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy bill was the subject of intense international criticism in the run-up to Zimbabwe's presidential election in March. Among the new restrictions it imposes are a licensing system for journalists and a ban on non-resident foreign correspondents being based in the country. The government delayed implementing the legislation until after the poll, which saw President Robert Mugabe gaining another term in office in the face of opposition allegations of vote-rigging. The Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, denies that the new law amounts to a crackdown on the media, instead describing it as a crackdown on crime.
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From ZWNEWS, 9 May
Landmark citizenship judgement
Veteran human rights activist Judy Todd, 57, has won a major test case in the Zimbabwe High Court blocking attempts by Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede to strip her of Zimbabwean nationality because he said she had not renounced a possible claim to New Zealand citizenship. Her father, 1953-58 Prime Minister Sir Garfield Todd, 92, came to former Southern Rhodesia more than 60 years ago and was recently struck off the voters' roll by Mudede because he was born in Invercargill, South Island. The judgment could have major implications for thousands of other Zimbabweans facing citizenship problems as a result of recent legislation, including many in rural areas of Malawian or Mozambican descent. Parliament last year empowered Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo to revoke the citizenship of any Zimbabwean who had not by January 6, 2002, renounced dual nationality in terms of the laws of the foreign country to whose citizenship they might be entitled. "I am delighted not only for myself but for all those hundreds of thousands of farm workers," Todd said.
The landmark judgment applies, for the time being, only to Zimbabwean citizens born in the country. Costs of her case were sponsored by Zimbabwe's Legal Resources Foundation and five other human rights groups. However, legal sources here warned that President Robert Mugabe's government may simply once more ignore the courts, either by introducing fresh legislation or invoking the Presidential Temporary Powers Act. But, the sources said, Zimbabweans who spent up to ZWD13 000 renouncing potential claims to, for example, British, South African or Zambian citizenship by birth or descent have obtained proof of renunciation that may still be vital to retaining their Zimbabwean passports and votes. Justice Sandra Mungwira said she would sign orders on Wednesday requiring Mudede to issue Todd with a new Zimbabwean passport within 14 days of making application, and to continue to recognise her in all other respects as a citizen of Zimbabwe.
Arguing the case on Tuesday, Todd’s lawyer, Bryant Elliot, said Mudede had simply made up requirements that attempted to force Zimbabweans who had never claimed a second citizenship to obtain proof from the foreign country involved that they had renounced it. Mudede contested Todd’s challenge, but the Home Affairs Minister who is responsible for moves to deprive Zimbabweans of citizenship, made no response, and consequently the state case collapsed. Zimbabwe-born Todd’s lawyer argued that last year’s legislation did not apply to her as she had never attempted to acquire a foreign citizenship. He added that the Registrar General was not entitled to deprive Zimbabwe-born nationals of citizenship because he suspected they might have some claim through their parents to dual nationality - even though they had never asserted the claim. He said the renunciation form that Mudede had printed, without legal authority, forced a Zimbabwean suspected of having a claim to a foreign citizenship to assert that he or she did in practice hold the foreign citizenship.
Todd had been unable to sign such a declaration renouncing a New Zealand citizenship she had never possessed. Todd did not know whether New Zealand would refuse her citizenship if she applied. However, said legal sources, if she had applied even as a mere exploratory exercise - this would be taken in terms of the Zimbabwe legislation as automatic renunciation of her Zimbabwean citizenship. During the March presidential elections, thousands of white Zimbabweans were turned away from polling booths because officials found their names on a "Removed Citizens List" of those suspected of being eligible for a foreign citizenship. Mudede had refused to give copies of the list to opposition parties or human rights groups so those named could challenge their disenfranchisement.
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From The Financial Gazette, 9 May
Menashe cons Chiluba
International wheeler-dealer Ari Ben-Menashe, paid millions by the Zimbabwe government to spruce up its tattered image, conned the administration of former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba of more than US$6 million (about $330 million at the official exchange rate) three years ago, it was established this week. The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), in a determination just made public, has ordered Ben-Menashe and his Carlington Sales Company to pay back US$6 108 822 plus interest for failing to supply impoverished Zambia with 50 000 tonnes of maize it paid for in 1998. The judgment was made by arbitrator Axel H Baum after leading South African bank Nedcor Bank Limited, acting on behalf of the Zambian government, appealed to the international court because Ben-Menashe had refused to pay back the money after failing to deliver the maize. But the money trail might prove elusive and just as hazy as the underworld of international wheeling and dealing, as Nedcor has found out. Willem Kruger, the bank’s head for legal affairs, told the Financial Gazette that Carlington has "liquidated itself" to avoid repaying the money it conned out of the Zambian authorities. "We are unable to effect our rights in terms of the arbitration because Carlington has liquidated itself," Kruger said by telephone from Johannesburg yesterday.
According to court documents, Zambia’s Food Reserve Agency was introduced to Ben-Menashe in 1997. The agency then entered into an agreement with the former spy in Israel’s Mossad agency to buy 50 000 tonnes of maize from Carlington, one of the businessman’s firms. Ben-Menashe, at the centre of a court case in Zimbabwe after allegedly trapping opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai into a plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, was initially paid US$2.4 million by the Zambian government in 1997 as a deposit for the maize. He was further paid other amounts to total US$7 746 108 by April 1999 after a new contract was negotiated and the US$2.4 million was carried over into the new 1998 corn contract. But the controversial businessman began to prevaricate when asked to supply the maize saying part of the payment for the maize deal was for the "lobbying" work he did on behalf of Chiluba and the Zambian government and that the US$2.4 million was never meant to be carried forward into the 1998 corn account. He alleged that some of the money meant for him for both the maize deal and the lobby work had disappeared because of rampant corruption involving senior Zambian government officials under Chiluba, including the president’s close advisers. Ben-Menashe said he was forced to bribe many influential Zambians and claimed that a former leading opposition politician, Paul Tembo, was brutally murdered in Lusaka around that time because he was going to testify on his behalf.
Baum, the sole arbitrator, dismissed Ben-Menashe’s defence and ruled that the former spy’s offer to provide evidence of rampant corruption in Chiluba’ s government was "clouded with references to the need for prior approval from some nebulous authorities" and was only meant to delay judgment. The maize deal has attracted immense media scrutiny in Zambia and internationally because it allegedly involves former senior members of the Chiluba cabinet such as finance minister Edith Nawakwi, now in opposition, and Chiluba’s special adviser Donald Chanda. The LCIA, whose investigations give a glimpse into the murky underworld of so-called international lobbyists such as Ben-Menashe, was instituted after the former Israeli spy tried to wriggle out of his obligations to deliver the maize by inferring that the money for the deal was diverted to "special projects" demanded by Chiluba. In the complex arrangement, Ben-Menashe - a self-proclaimed admirer of Mugabe was also paid various sums by the Zambian government for "international lobbying" while at the same time collecting millions in hard currency to supply maize to the drought-stricken country.
Ben-Menashe’s Canadian-based Dickens and Madson public relations company has since been employed by the Zimbabwean government and the ruling Zanu PF party to lobby internationally to improve Zimbabwe’s battered image. Dickens and Madson, which is supposed to have secretly recorded senior Zimbabwean opposition leaders plotting to kill Mugabe last year, is involved in the treason court case against Tsvangirai where its video tapes form the key evidence that might be presented by the prosecution. The Canada-based businessman, who has been in and out of Harare since the video tapes were broadcast leading to the charge against Tsvangirai and two senior members of his party, says he has now distanced himself from the case because he is preoccupied with lobbying for Zimbabwe. The LCIA has ordered Ben-Menashe to pay Nedcor US$4 988 508 for breach of contract and interest of US$1 120 313. The businessman will also pay the costs of the arbitration court amounting to 255 213 British pounds. Kruger said Nedcor was participating in Carlington’s liquidation process to try to recover some of its money and did not rule out pursuing Ben-Menashe himself. "We are certainly investigating whatever we can do . . . we are looking for alternative means to recover the money," Kruger said.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 9 May
US confines Mugabe to UN premises
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who is in New York to attend a UN conference on children, will be restricted to the premises of the world body because of sanctions imposed on him and his top officials over human rights abuses. Diplomatic sources said Mugabe had been informed by the United States government that his movements would be restricted to the confines of the United Nations. And Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was "shocked" that Mugabe was attending the UN conference on children at all. "We are left wondering what message Mr Mugabe can possibly have for children worldwide, when his illegitimate government in Zimbabwe is a living example of how not to treat children," Tsvangirai said. "It is Mugabe's disastrous policies that have displaced over 300 000 farm workers and their children." Tsvangirai said "camps set up by Mugabe's party to torture opponents are full of youngsters below the age of 20, who are being trained to brutalise their fellow Zimbabweans". Young people trained at the infamous Border Gezi National Youth Service Training Centre teamed up with militant war veterans to spearhead Mugabe's violent campaign for re-election in March. Tsvangirai said there was also no medication in government hospitals for children who were "the victims of Mugabe's violence".
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From The Independent (UK), 10 May
Mugabe militias 'forcing teachers from their jobs'
Tens of thousands of Zimbabwean schoolteachers have been kidnapped and tortured, or driven from their homes in political violence in the past year by the ruling Zanu PF party, according to a leading teachers' union. More than 20,000 teachers had been kidnapped and tortured, and at least 14,000 rural schoolteachers, accused of being opposition supporters, had been displaced and were unable to attend the start of the new school term last week, according to a report by the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ). It also said 190 female teachers had been raped. The PTUZ said many teachers were being forced to pay "protection fees", and had recorded at least 107,503 instances in the past year in which teachers had been forced to pay money to youth militias and war veterans in exchange for their freedom. Takavafira Zhou, the president of the PTUZ, said most of the displaced teachers had refused to go back to their schools and wanted to move to schools in urban areas. Some wanted to go abroad, while others had left the profession. "What we don't understand is why all this violence against teachers is continuing long after the presidential election is finished," he said. "It seems the government does not realise that without teachers, there is no future for this country."
In one instance two weeks ago, 47 teachers at schools in Makoni North constituency, 100 miles east of Harare, were "fired" by militant war veterans, who accused them of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), according to a report in the independent Daily News. Mr Zhou said government supporters wrongly accused teachers of being anti-Zanu PF. "Teachers find themselves having to articulate and explain issues to the illiterate rural communities they operate in. By so doing they are wrongly accused of being political commissars of the opposition," he said. A coalition of human rights groups, the Human Rights NGO Forum, said this week that political violence had continued unabated since the presidential election in March. It had documented one death, 16 cases of torture and two kidnappings during the last two weeks of April alone.
The attacks on white farmers has also continued. Patrick Hyde and his wife, Sue, were assaulted while their home was looted by a group of 30 war veterans in the presence of police officers on Tuesday, the Commercial Farmers Union said. The couple have since been evicted from their farm in Mvurwi, 40 miles north-west of Harare. Zimbabwe's parliament passed a law this week giving the government immediate control of white-owned farms targeted for confiscation. Parliament was recalled on Tuesday to pass the Land Acquisition Amendment Act, which takes away the right of a farmer to contest the acquisition of their land in the courts. The Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said the law was meant to advance Zimbabwe's "land revolution".
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From The Times (UK), 10 May
Headmaster is arrested for Mugabe comments
Harare - The headmaster of one of Zimbabwe’s leading private schools has been arrested and charged with promoting "public disorder" by telling parents that President Mugabe’s re-election was invalid. Brendan Tiernan, headmaster of St George’s College in Harare, was taken from the school by police on Tuesday as the new term began. He was released and arrested again the next day. Wayne Bvudzijena, a police spokesman, said that Mr Tiernan had been charged under the Public Order and Security Act with "making a materially false statement likely to promote public disorder". Mr Tiernan, whose school is attended by 800 boys, is the latest victim of Mr Mugabe’s security legislation, which was used to stop the opposition from campaigning in the elections. In an Easter letter to parents, many of them Cabinet ministers and senior members of the ruling Zanu PF party, Mr Tiernan said: "No one but an ignorant and naive caveman could claim ... that he believed that the recent electoral process was free and fair." Parts of his letter were published in the state press, which denounced Mr Tiernan as a racist. St George’s, founded by the Jesuit Order in 1896 and the oldest school in Zimbabwe, has had predominantly black pupils for decades. Father David Harold-Barry, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe Jesuit Province, said: "I don’t know why he cannot express his views in an internal private letter. It was not a public statement."
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From The Daily News, 10 May
Chinhoyi businessman brutally assaulted by suspected Zanu PF youths
Leo Chegura, 30, a Chinhoyi businessman was on Monday severely assaulted by suspected Zanu PF supporters at his home because he supports the MDC. Chegura was the MDC co-ordinator for Hurungwe West constituency during the 2000 parliamentary election. He was replaced by Gift Sabadza for the 9-11 March presidential election after his term expired. He said the latest attack was the third since the June 2000 parliamentary election. He has made reports to the police on all occasions but no action has been taken to date, he said. According to Chegura, 14 suspected Zanu PF supporters armed with iron bars attacked him at his home. He said they first assaulted Melody Butawo, his wife’s younger sister. When they came, he locked himself inside his house. Chegura said the youths broke one of the windows and used an iron bar to force the door open and assaulted him. He said when he collapsed, the youths allegedly took $5 000 from him and pulled him out of the house. He claimed his six-year-old daughter, Sharon Rose Chegura, reported the matter at Chemagamba Police Station. He was taken to Chinhoyi provincial hospital.
When he visited The Daily News office, Chegura had a swollen left eye, bruised lower lip and swollen head. Dr Nyazika, who examined him and wrote his affidavit to the police said Chegura had a swollen face and lower lip and was unable to fully open his mouth. The injuries he sustained were inflicted with a blunt instrument. Nyazika said severe force was used, but there would be no permanent disability. Chegura said on 7 March, two days before the presidential election, suspected Zanu PF supporters led by Josphat Chikweshe, the Zanu PF chairman for the Top Six in Chinhoyi, Saidi Elias, employed by the Chinhoyi Municipality, Biceps Ndlovu, Hlupeko Mavata and Esau Mukwanzi, destroyed his property worth $34 000. He was also assaulted on 4 February by the same group but the police allegedly refused to deal with the suspects despite reporting the case, CR number 41/02/02, at Chinhoyi Police Station.
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From BBC News, 9 May
Mugabe tightens grip on land
Zimbabwe's parliament has passed changes to the law on acquiring land giving the state almost immediate control of white-owned farms targeted for seizure. President Robert Mugabe's government, which says it is seeking to correct imbalances in land ownership created by British colonialism, has listed thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to poor black farmers. Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party used its comfortable parliamentary majority to fast-track through the changes he had made last November by decree. Following his controversial victory in March elections, Mr Mugabe vowed to press on with his programme of land redistribution. Parliament was recalled for an emergency session to ratify the amendments which would have become invalid this month without parliamentary approval.
Mr Mugabe, who is accused by the opposition and many Western countries of using fraud and violence to win the poll, says he wants to finish his programme of land redistribution by August. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the changes to the law were designed to help advance Zimbabwe's "land revolution". He said objections by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were meant to serve the white minority at the expense of the black majority. "There must be no doubt about our commitment to the land redistribution programme, and there must be no doubt at all that the train is moving and those who do not get into the train will be left behind," said Mr Chinamasa. The MDC accuses the government of using land as an electoral bribe, while the "fast track" programme is wrecking the economy. "This is a seriously bungled programme," said MDC MP David Coltart.
The changes to the Land Acquisition Act give the state full rights over land designated for seizure. Any farmer or anyone else found guilty of interfering with the resettlement exercise faces a fine or jail for up to two years. Parliament also passed a clause saying new settlers had no automatic right to white farmers' movable equipment, such as tractors and harvesters, but could buy it with the agreement of the owners. Mr Mugabe used his sweeping powers to allow the government to authorise land occupation once the initial "acquisition notice" to farmers had been served. Affected farmers have three months to vacate their farm houses. The act said those who refused would be evicted by court order.
Many of the country's white-owned farms have been invaded in the past two years by veterans of the 1970s war of liberation, backing Mr Mugabe's programme. Several white farmers and their black workers have been killed during these violent take-overs. Zimbabwe is facing a food crisis caused by the invasions and drought. Its once prosperous economy is in tatters and people have begun to die from starvation. More than 5,000 farms out of an estimated 8,000 white-owned properties have been targeted for seizure by the state.
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From The Daily News, 9 May
Nabanyama: war vets face murder charges
Bulawayo - Nine war veterans accused of the abduction of an MDC polling agent, Patrick Nabanyama, in June 2000 will now face murder charges when their case is heard, after the opening of the High Court in Bulawayo on 26 May. According to documents at the High Court, the nine will face murder instead of the kidnapping charges preferred against them earlier. They are Jackson Ncube, Ephraim Moyo, Frackson Ndlovu, Aleck Moyo, Stanley Ncube, Ngoni Dube, Julius Sibanda, Howard Ncube and Simon Rwazi. Nabanyama, the polling agent in Bulawayo South for opposition MDC's David Coltart in the run-up to the parliamentary election in 2000, was abducted from his house in Nketa suburb on 19 June in broad daylight and in full view of his wife and children. Coltart went on to win the seat resoundingly. On 21 December 2000, two of the 10 men suspected of the abduction walked free after they were acquitted of kidnapping another person, Welcome Makama. The prosecutor withdrew the second charges against them in line with a Presidential clemency order. In January last year, the docket relating to the Nabanyama case disappeared after it had been sent to the Attorney General's Office in June 2000 for a decision on whether or not to prosecute. Lawyers said without the docket the case would be "a non-event". The docket was eventually found and the nine have been remanded on more than five occasions. The then Bulawayo provincial chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association, the late Cain Nkala, who was buried at the National Heroes' Acre in Harare, was one of the suspects. Nkala was abducted and killed in November last year. The police immediately arrested nine people Sony Masera, Army Zulu, Simon Spooner, Remember Moyo, Khethani Sibanda, Sazini Mpofu, Gilbert Mpofu and two MDC MPs, Moses Mzila of Bulilimamangwe and Fletcher Dulini of Lobengula-Magwegwe.
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From ZWNEWS, 10 May
Cambridge bows to Mugabe and withdraws examinations
In a stunning example of sanctions hitting those they are supposed to help, Britain’s Cambridge examining board has belatedly decided to bow to a 2-year-old decree by President Robert Mugabe’s regime and bar pupils in Zimbabwe from taking the internationally recognised examinations. The turnabout by Cambridge International Examinations means that some 9,000 pupils of all races at Zimbabwe’s independent schools are faced with having to find money and resources to write their November examinations in neighbouring African countries, or hastily convert to a local examination of dubious value. The Cambridge board, which has set examinations for schoolchildren in Zimbabwe for generations, made no immediate comment on why it is heeding the ban just two months after Mugabe held on to power in a violent election widely regarded as rigged. All but a handful of African countries refuse to recognise the election, and Mugabe is banned from the United States and many European countries, including Britain. Asked to comment yesterday, a spokesman at the Cambridge board told ZWNEWS that Chief Executive Pen Murray would make a statement "in due course, but we can’t say exactly when.’’ No reply had been received by today.
Despite the decree about foreign examinations in 2000, most independent schools in Zimbabwe continued to offer Cambridge examinations. The schools argued that it was their constitutional right to offer the examinations they considered best for their students. Pupils wrote the Cambridge IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education), AS and A level examinations last year. This year’s students are in the last phase of the two-year syllabus for examinations due to be written in November. Schools received the decision in a letter dated April 29 saying the Cambridge examining board "has reluctantly decided not to offer examinations in Zimbabwe with effect from the November 2002 session." "This decision was not an easy one but it is the result of the latest instruction from the Ministry of Education Sport and Culture to the Private Schools informing them that they may not enter for foreign examinations."
Most high-ups in the ruling Zanu PF party, including Mugabe, send their children to private schools and many have already had their children safely graduate with Cambridge school-leaving examinations and move on to foreign universities. The examination ban was imposed by Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere - who has a child at university in Canada as part of what the Mugabe regime says is a drive to eradicate all "colonial’’ and "Western’’ influence. The decision by the Cambridge board is likely to prompt a fresh exodus of black and the few remaining white professionals in the country. For pupils due to write examinations in November, the immediate impact is a logistical nightmare. The exams cover an eight-week period and the Zimbabwe pupils would have to find money and accommodation to write their exams in Cambridge-approved centres in South Africa, Bostwana, Zambia, Malawi or Kenya, or come to Britain. "We are feeling shattered and betrayed that it should be Cambridge, a British institution, that has pulled the plug on us,’’ said one teacher, who asked not to be identified. "And Mugabe will have achieved his Marxist ideal to eliminate the middle classes and educated." An A-level student, also too nervous to be identified said, "We are to be denied this internationally recognised and valuable school-leaving qualification and by the very world that claims to have our interests at heart."
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From BBC News, 10 May
Zimbabwe talks postponed
Talks in Zimbabwe between the government and the opposition to resolve differences over the presidential election appear to have collapsed. The semi-official Herald newspaper reported that the talks, scheduled for Monday, have been shelved pending the outcome of an opposition legal challenge to President Robert Mugabe's election victory. The talks, brokered by South Africa and Nigeria, were due to start up again after they were adjourned a month ago. But the BBC's Lewis Machipisa in Harare says there is little chance of them being resurrected. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change alleges that the polls were rigged and has demanded a re-run of the voting. Many Western observers agree that there was a "climate of fear" during the poll, with opposition activists being attacked by government supporters. The government says the reports of violence were exaggerated, fuelled by an international campaign against it.
MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube said the postponement was indicative of Zanu PF's "arrogance and determination to suppress our freedoms" according to the French news agency, AFP. "Zanu PF is not ready for talks," he told the agency. "They're gravely mistaken if they think MDC needs the talks. Zanu PF needs the talks." He said the MDC would now resort to various forms of resistance. "We'll use all means necessary to have our freedoms restored," he said. Mr Ncube said the MDC leadership was under pressure from members not to continue talking with Zanu PF. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is leading the Zanu PF delegation to the talks, has written to the Nigerian and South African mediators in the dialogue "asking for the talks to be deferred because of a number of new development, said the Herald.
"My delegation believes that the adjournment of the dialogue should be extended until the finalisation of the matter now before the court," he said. The Herald also cited the "planting of false stories in the media" as one of the reasons for the postponement. This was an apparent reference to a report made by the MDC and later retracted of the decapitation of an opposition activist by Zanu PF supporters. Four journalists have been arrested in connection with the story, which was carried by the private media last month.
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From The Saturday Star (SA), 11 May
‘Silent diplomacy failed in Zimbabwe’
The government has, for the first time, admitted that its "silent diplomacy" approach to the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe was a failure. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, addressing a Diakonia Council of Churches breakfast in Durban on Friday, spoke frankly about strong behind-the-scenes attempts to prevail on the Zimbabwean government to stop violence and looting. "We failed. The government of Zimbabwe would not listen to us. We asked them to do something to stop the looting of farms and not to follow the route of lawlessness, but we failed," he said. Lekota disclosed that in spite of undertakings made during several talks between South Africa and Zimbabwe at the height of the crisis, chaos was allowed to reign and the crisis to spiral out of control.
Lekota added that Zimbabwe-style land grabs and lawlessness would not be allowed in this country. "I can assure you that what is happening in Zimbabwe will never happen in this country. We will make sure that it does not happen." "We could have invaded Zimbabwe as some people suggested - but what would that have achieved? Apart from the fact that Zimbabwe is a sovereign country, you must remember what happened to us (at the Commonwealth meeting) in Australia (in 1998)," said Lekota. During the Commonwealth meeting, former president Nelson Mandela condemned what was to be the execution of Ogoni activist and internationally celebrated author Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria by the military government of Sani Abacha. "We suddenly found that we were the only ones who condemned the planned hanging. As a result, we learnt a valuable lesson that, especially in Africa, you cannot act alone because you will find yourself isolated and in a position similar to that of the apartheid government."
"We have now persuaded the government of Zimbabwe to adopt the approach that we did in this country, and have asked them to talk to the opposition. We have also suggested the formation of a government of national unity like we did (following the 1994 elections)," said Lekota. Soon after Lekota's disclosures, ongoing peace talks between the ruling Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change all but collapsed after Zanu PF, unhappy with the MDC's claims that the presidential election had been rigged, terminated the talks. SA and Nigeria are still trying to broker peace between them.
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From News24 (SA), 10 May
Zim-born citizens inalienable
Harare - A High Court judge ruled on Friday that the government cannot strip citizenship from people born in Zimbabwe, and ordered the state to renew the passport of rights activist Judith Todd. "According to the papers before me, I find that Judith Todd is a citizen of Zimbabwe. I order the registrar general to renew the applicant's passport within 14 days" of her asking for a new one, Justice Sandra Mungwira said. The judge castigated registrar general Tobaiwa Mudede as having "arrogantly and unashamedly" carried out duties that belong to the police and attorney-general. "The attitude of the registrar-general is that he has taken it upon himself to grant citizenship under the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act, which is the attorney-general's and police's job," Mungwira said. Under the citizenship act, a person born in Zimbabwe becomes a citizen by birth and "that right cannot be renounced", Mungwira said.
In March 2001, government passed a law that required anyone wishing to retain Zimbabwean citizenship to renounce any right to foreign citizenship - even if they had never held a foreign passport. The law mainly targeted an estimated 30 000 white Zimbabweans who were entitled to a foreign passport, and also tens of thousands of black workers whose parents or grandparents had immigrated from neighbouring nations. Government critics had feared the law would bar people with foreign-sounding surnames, as well as the small white minority from voting because they had not renounced their entitlement to foreign citizenship. The legislation was viewed as part of a wide-ranging strategy to ensure President Robert Mugabe's re-election in March. Todd is a rights activist who supported Zimbabwe's liberation struggle but who now opposes Mugabe, accusing his government of widespread human rights abuses. Both Todd's parents were born in New Zealand, but she was born in Zimbabwe, when it was still the British colony of Rhodesia. Her father, Garfield Todd, is a former prime minister of Rhodesia. She has never sought a New Zealand passport.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 May
Mugabe turns on white allies
President Robert Mugabe has turned on his white supporters and approved the listing of their farms for acquisition as he enters the final phase of his contentious land reform exercise. The Zimbabwe Independent this week learnt that long-time Mugabe ally John Bredenkamp's 1 300-hectare, $1,75 billion Thetford estate in the Mazowe valley 35km north of Harare has been listed for compulsory acquisition. Farms owned by commercial farmers who last year thought they had brokered deals to save their properties from acquisition have also been listed. Bredenkamp (62), the country's richest businessman with a fortune of 720 million pounds, is said to have close links with President Mugabe and Zanu PF. He last year employed his political clout to convince politicians to accept the farmers' offer of an organised resettlement programme as an alternative to the fast-track scheme.
Bredenkamp and former Commercial Farmers Union president Nick Swanepoel last year emerged as central brokers in finding middle ground between the farmers and the government, by putting together the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative. Swanepoel's Avalon Farm in Mashonaland West has now been listed for compulsory acquisition. Pegging was underway at the farm this week. Bredenkamp reportedly financed the drive by Swanepoel to persuade the farmers' union to accept the loss of nearly half its members' land. Swanepoel, for his part, laboured to convince white farmers to drop all legal cases objecting to Mugabe's fast track land seizures. A spokesman for Bredenkamp yesterday confirmed that Thetford had been listed. "The farm is currently listed," he said. "There have been a couple of times when there have been misunderstandings with invaders but there is no-one on the farm at the moment," he said.
Bredenkamp bought the farm from the Gulliver family in 1999 after obtaining a certificate of no interest from the government. In September 2000 the farm received a Section 5 order which was withdrawn in October of that year after representations from Bredenkamp that the farm did not qualify for resettlement because it was highly industrialised and had large investments on it. On March 22 the farm was again listed and since then war veterans have been disrupting operations at the farm, sponsoring industrial action last month. Out of the 1 300 hectares, 40 hectares are arable and the rest is used as a game park. Bredenkamp is understood to be leasing a farm next to Thetford, growing flowers. The farm, which employs 500 people, also boasts a little suburb for the workers with tarred roads and running water. There is a large volume dam and state-of-the-art drip irrigation facilities together with glass houses. The key landmark on the property is Bredenkamp's splendid residence, Thetford House, once a hotel with an ante-bellum portico, which enjoys a commanding view over the Mazowe Valley. Bredenkamp is listed 33rd in the London Sunday Times' "Rich List" of Britain and Ireland's top 1 000 monied people.
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Letter to The Spectator (UK), 10 May
I'm no Zanu PF crony
From Mr John A. Bredenkamp
Sir: I am writing to express my concern about your recent article ('The cowardly whites who help Mugabe', 13 April) that includes a number of statements and allegations in relation to me which are manifestly false. Your article appears to suggest that I am a silent - and cowardly white collaborator who has somehow been responsible in part for keeping President Robert Mugabe in power. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a Zimbabwean businessman and serious investor in a number of countries throughout the world. I have created employment for hundreds of people in Zimbabwe and continue to invest in the country at this difficult time. As an investor I have had a long business relationship with many institutions within Zimbabwe and consequently know a large number of politicians. This does not make me 'a Zanu PF crony', as you choose to label me.
I do not and never have provided funds to Zanu PF. Furthermore, I have been critical of a number of government policies and initiatives, and have advocated and continue to advocate change. I have gone on the record on this issue. You peddle the perception that I am close to President Robert Mugabe; the reality is totally different. I have not met him or spoken to him for almost 18 years. I am apolitical and believe that the white people in Zimbabwe, who represent less than 1 per cent of the population, should remain apolitical. This does not mean that I sit on the sidelines. Far from it. I have been actively promoting dialogue between the Commercial Farmers' Union and the government to try to resolve the land issue in Zimbabwe. A blueprint for the resolution of the problem was, in fact, accepted, based on the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative (ZJRI), which I started. I remain committed and continue to give whatever input I can to try to resolve the land issue.
The Bayleys' story is a tragic one. The irony is that during the week in which your article was published the Bayleys spent a number of days in our offices in Harare seeking my help and assistance, which I was only too happy to give. In a report of 21 April, Tommy Bayley wrote, 'We have not given up on the farm and livelihood and are very appreciative of the assistance given to us by family, friends, neighbours, the CFU and Jenni Williams, charity organisations, our lawyers and the executives of Breco/Scottlee who have spent many hours and cellphone calls, at all times of the day and night, working on resolving our problems.' Breco and Scottlee are my companies. I continue to help the Bayleys in any way I can and, although not resolved, progress with the authorities is being made. There are over 185 other farmers and their families who have sought our assistance in approaching the authorities. You must understand that I deplore the violence and intimidation occurring on the farms, which I find totally reprehensible.
You should know that my farm, which was bought long before the current troubles, was listed, then de-listed and is now re-listed. As I write, it remains listed for compulsory acquisition. I have had war veterans threatening to take over the farm and, like the Bayleys, the situation remains unresolved. In these current circumstances I have absolutely no interest in buying further farmland in Zimbabwe. Your article is mischievous and it is plainly wrong to suggest otherwise. It is correct that a company within the group of which I am chairman is involved in a joint venture to mine cobalt and copper in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is a transparent arrangement, which has been legally validated by the Mining Convention to which the DRC government is a party and is supported by presidential decree. These documents are public documents. United Nations Panel representatives have visited our mining operations. We have had no negative feedback from them. It is incorrect to say that the Zimbabwean government is a party to any of these agreements. It is not and never has been. Furthermore, the continuation of the project in no way depends upon Zimbabwe continuing to have troops or any other presence in the DRC. The mining operation has no connection with Zanu PF. It is a private venture.
I wish to stress that I fully support press freedom and the right to publish articles involving sensitive or difficult issues. All I ask is that you do your homework and present a balanced view based on the facts.
John A. Bredenkamp Chairman, Breco and Masters Group of Companies, Hurst, Berkshire
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 May
MDC Leader Sues Australia's SBS
Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai is suing the Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and Ari Ben-Menashe for alleging that he was guilty of conspiring to murder President Robert Mugabe. Tendai Biti, the MDC MP for Harare East and spokesman for International Affairs, said the party was targeting Ben-Menashe in his personal capacity. "We are going to sue Ben-Menashe in his individual capacity and his company Dickens & Madson," said Biti. "We are suing Ben-Menashe for breach of contract, confidentiality and fiduciary relationship for negotiating with us in bad faith." "They had a contract with us while at the same time they were dealing with Zanu PF,"said Biti. "The (SBS) programme is a total falsehood. SBS was duped by Mugabe's stooges into publishing material that no respectable journalist anywhere in the world would touch," he said.
The suit claiming unspecified damages will be heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. SBS is being sued for flighting the documentary on its Dateline programme in February. In his court papers the MDC leader took exception to the following words used during the programme: "Tonight we present evidence that the opposition leader has had no intention of letting the electoral process take its course. While parading his supposed democratic credentials, Mr Tsvangirai has, in fact, been plotting to kill President Mugabe." Tsvangirai avers that this statement was defamatory and damaging because it implied that he was guilty of conspiracy to murder Mugabe.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 12 May
Zimbabwe talks face collapse
Reconciliation talks between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change scheduled for tomorrow face collapse after a dispute erupted over the postponement of the negotiations. Zanu PF announced on Thursday that it wanted the talks deferred until President Robert Mugabe's disputed re-election has been settled by the courts. Patrick Chinamasa, the head of the ruling party delegation, said they were no longer able to continue with the talks because of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's legal challenge to Mugabe's controversial re-election. Nigeria and South Africa, the facilitators of the talks, had been informed, he said. But the MDC's Welshman Ncube said if Zanu PF did not report for the talks tomorrow the opposition would withdraw from the process. "Zanu PF cannot unilaterally postpone the negotiations without consulting us."
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Statement by Professor Welshman Ncube,
The leader of the MDC delegation to the Inter-party dialogue
May 10, 2002
The MDC interprets the Zanu PF action as a clear and complete Zanu PF pull out from the talks. The MDC will meet shortly to work out an appropriate position and response to this latest development. For the record, we dismiss as hypocritical nonsense the four reasons tendered by Zanu PF for their pull out from the talks, which pull out is surely an insult to Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki to whom the Zanu PF leadership gave its word that they would engage in the dialogue.
Allegation that MDC lawsuit impeded the talks
Zanu PF’s allegation that the talks have been impeded by the MDC action of going to court over the stolen election is hypocritical in two respects. Firstly, Zanu PF’s propaganda chief, Jonathan Moyo had the following to say in the Herald’s lead story of 8th of April:
"…we are ready to dialogue with them (MDC) or anyone else. But if they have a problem with the election, they know what to do. They should go to the courts…"
This is precisely what we have done and we do not know what Zanu PF’s complaint now is.
Secondly, the leader of the Zanu PF delegation to the inter-party talks, Patrick Chinamasa said in his opening remarks that Zanu PF treats "the result of the Presidential election as non-reversible and non-negotiable". If MDC has gone to court over an issue that to Zanu PF is neither negotiable nor reversible through the talks, in what sense then does the MDC action affect the talks?
Allegation of inflammatory newspaper advertisements
The newspaper advertisement we placed in the press was not inflammatory at all as alleged by Zanu PF. The advertisement merely restated MDC’s position as presented at the opening of the talks and as published in full by Zanu PF ’s own propaganda broadsheet, the Herald on April 9. Zanu PF does not explain precisely what it is that was inflammatory about the MDC advertisement.
It is in fact Zanu PF that is guilty of violating article 4.2 of the rules of procedure governing inter-party dialogue, which enjoins participants to respect the confidentiality of the deliberations. It is a matter of public knowledge that on 10 April 2002, Zanu PF propaganda chief, Jonathan Moyo appeared on the 8 o’clock television news bulletin, and in clear violation of the rules of confidentiality, not only divulged confidential information, but also got carried away and started peddling falsehoods to the effect that Zanu PF had proposed all but one of the items on the agenda of the talks.
Allegation that the MDC is using the British Government in the dialogue
This is errant nonsense and we have no time for Zanu PF’s usual nonsense of its imaginary MDC/UK relationship. We are not responsible for what the British Ambassador says. Just as much as we do not consult the British on our decisions and actions, they also do not consult us on their actions, decisions and statements. Nothing more need be said of this attempt to clutch at straws.
Allegation of planting false stories in the media alleging Zanu PF violence
This allegation is without substance. Zanu PF should not seek to over-exploit the Tadyanemhandu saga as a way of covering up the party’s violent character and its continued incitement of violence and terror against the people of Zimbabwe lawfully opposed to it.
Here are the statistics. Since January 2002, Zanu PF has slaughtered 47 MDC supporters and members of the public perceived as such by Zanu PF. Out of the 47 people that have died at the hands of Zanu PF since January 2002, 15 have been slain in post election retributive violence by Zanu PF militias. Since the run up to the presidential election we have recorded the displacement of over 71 000 MDC supporters. The most affected province has been Mashonaland West which has recorded 26 000 displacements, followed by Masvingo with 22 000. All the displaced people are now internal refugees in the land of their birth. Some of the displaced people have had their homes destroyed completely. Zanu PF militias have destroyed 160 homes since the staging of the presidential election in March this year.
Mashonaland Central, with 119 destroyed homes, leads in retributive violence that takes the form of arson. MDC members of parliament have also not been spared this madness. Since the advent of Zanu PF terror, 27 MDC members of parliament, about 48% of the total MDC population in parliament, have either been kidnapped, assaulted, tortured, routinely arrested as way of harassment, or have had their homes or those of their immediate families destroyed.
Violence is therefore on the increase and Zanu PF should not seek to hide behind the Tadyanemhandu episode when evidence at hand show that their militia, who are still being kept in terror bases all over the country, have gone berserk against the people.
Professor Welshman Ncube, MDC Secretary General
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From Business Day (SA), 12 May
Fifth Zim journalist arrested in 2 weeks
Police in Zimbabwe have arrested another reporter over allegations of spreading falsehoods, the fifth to be picked up in less than two weeks, local newspapers reported. Brian Mangwende of the independent Daily News was briefly detained on Friday in the eastern city of Mutare in connection with a story on teachers allegedly being forced to pay protection fees to war veterans, the Herald said. The state-controlled newspaper said that according to Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena the story was "false and mischievous." Last week, two Daily News reporters and an American reporter for Britain's Guardian newspaper were detained over a false story, first published in the Daily News, in which it was alleged that a woman had been beheaded by Zanu PF supporters. A columnist for the Daily News was also picked up earlier this week in connection with the same story. Under recently-introduced media laws, the spreading of falsehoods is punishable by up to two years' imprisonment. The Daily News said that police had not charged Mangwende. Several international media organisations this week also carried stories on the alleged harassment of thousands of teachers by pro-government war veterans in the run-up to a bitterly-contested presidential election in March. The story was based on figures provided by a teachers' union in Zimbabwe.
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From The Observer (UK), 12 May
My night in Mugabe's stinking jail
Andrew Meldrum, The Observer's correspondent in Harare, tells of his fear and revulsion after he was arrested for being a journalist
My stomach lurched as the jail guard ordered: 'Take off your shoes and socks, your belt and watch. Take off your shirt or your jersey because you are only allowed one top item of clothing in the cells.' Soon the bars clanked behind me and I numbly entered the chilly jail cells of Harare Central, Zimbabwe, barefoot and shirtless, but with my sweater. Harare Central's cells are small, with three concrete bunks on one side. A few guys sat as far as possible from the stinking hole in the floor that was our toilet. It was unimaginably smelly, cramped and miserable. 'Psssst! Come over here,' said a lively young man. It was Collin Chiwanza, a Daily News reporter who had been jailed the day before. I was delighted to see him and fellow journalist Lloyd Mudiwa. They showed me the ropes and shared the food supporters had brought. 'We've got a blanket which can keep us all warm,' Collin said. I looked at the dirty rag and smelt urine. Lloyd said it had bugs and showed little bites on his body. I vowed never to use that blanket, but before long I had my freezing feet stuck into it. By that night I had snuggled under it.
We huddled together and talked about our arrests, what would happen to us, journalism in Zimbabwe and, as the hours drew on, everything under the sun. Outgoing and chatty, Collin told us how he worked as a teacher then began writing articles for newspapers. He described his wife and baby daughter. Lloyd and I also told stories and we made silly jokes. Our camaraderie helped to pass the time and lifted our spirits. Night was the most difficult time. It was cold and I couldn't sleep. I went to the 'toilet' and cringed as my feet felt the sticky floor. The walls, the dark and the stench made me claustrophobic. I wanted to shout: 'Let me out!' But I pulled myself together, realising I could drive myself crazy but it wouldn't help matters. I just had to endure it. I clambered back under the blanket with Collin and Lloyd and tried to sleep. In the morning the guards told us to come with them. We excitedly pulled on our socks and shoes and put on our watches and all our clothes. We became giddy at the thought of climbing the stairs and seeing blue sky through a window. But our happiness was dashed when we arrived at the magistrates' court and were taken to basement cells. We each had to wear a single handcuff, and, with nearly 30 other prisoners, were ordered on to a narrow, steep staircase. The doors, behind us and at the bottom of the stairs, were locked. We waited for two hours to appear in court. One prisoner relieved himself at the top of the stairs. I concentrated on the little sliver of window and could hear a bird chirping.
Lloyd began acting as a jailhouse lawyer, advising inmates on what they should do. Many had been arrested for stealing food, some were charged with swindling money in a real estate scam. Several guys were in for burglaries. I asked a burly fellow what he was in for and he said the police were waiting for the post-mortem. I gulped. Big graffiti scrawled on the walls asked: 'Where is our CONSTITUTION?' Eventually we appeared in court. The charges against Collin were dropped as he had not written a word of the story in question. Lloyd and I were released without bail pending trial. Eight journalists have been charged with criminal offences since the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act became law in March. 'This is police doing their work in the usual manner -cracking down on criminals, not on journalists,' said Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, commenting on our arrests on state television. 'Whether they call themselves journalists, whether they are editors, reporters, Americans or anyone else, they will be held accountable. That is what the rule of law means. We have to crack down on lawlessness.'
Since my release I have revelled in my new-found freedom. I have had several hot baths. I love looking up at the sky and walking outside. But long after the smell and dirt of jail have faded, I still have a sense of unease. Zimbabwe no longer seems like a land of liberation to me. It feels like a jail.
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From The Financial Mail (SA), 5 May
Mbeki, Obasanjo must come up with new peace plan
Zanu-MDC talks stall; most commercial farmers forced out
Harare - It is back to the drawing board in their efforts to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis for Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo. Their plan for a government of national unity between President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change was never a starter, and has been repeatedly and publicly rejected by the opposition. Indeed, there is growing evidence of grassroots discontent within the MDC with the fact that their party is even talking to government. So much so that at the weekend the MDC published full-page advertisements saying a government of national unity was "out of the question". The only solution to the present crisis, it says, is "a return to legitimacy through a fresh, free and fair presidential poll". It demands an immediate end to violence by Zanu PF militia and supporters, the disarming of the war veterans, an end to government's policy of denying food supplies to MDC supporters, and fundamental economic policy changes to tackle the fast-worsening economic crisis.
This brought an angry response from Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who described Tsvangirai as "a hooligan" and accused him of violating the rules of the talks by publishing advertisements in "British-sponsored newspapers" (Zimbabwe's top-selling newspaper, the Daily News). The interparty dialogue could collapse unless the MDC stopped "peddling their criminal falsehoods", Moyo said. Government's position is clear but uncompromising. It is willing to take in enough MDC members to some kind of unity administration to enable it to secure international respectability, while also able to amend the constitution. This is necessary so that Mugabe (78) would be able to appoint a successor as President rather than going through the tiresome process of holding elections.
But the MDC, aware that voters support its demands for a rerun of the poll, is holding fast. After two meetings last month, the talks between the parties, which were going nowhere, were adjourned until May 13. During the adjournment the MDC stance has hardened, leaving Mbeki and Obasanjo to conjure up another compromise formula ahead of next month's G8 meeting in Canada, at which the two Presidents will be pushing hard for financial backing for their New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). No-one expects the G8 to refuse to back Nepad just because of Mugabe, but his capacity to sour the atmosphere at the meeting should not be underestimated. Indeed, in the past fortnight, two of his allies - Tanzania's President Benjamin Mkapa and Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa - have publicly sided with Mugabe in attacking "Western" ideas for the economic and governance reforms that are the keystone of Nepad.
While the talks stall, the speed of deterioration in the economy and on white-owned farms is accelerating. By April 17, 5 069 commercial farms out of a total of 6 000 (84%) had been listed for compulsory acquisition. Acquisition orders now cover 10,2m ha out of a total commercial farming area of 11m ha. Hundreds of farmers have been forced off their land, and new Draconian rules announced by Agriculture Minister Joe Made have plunged the farming community into despair. Made accused farmers of "resisting" land reform and delaying the process by taking eviction orders to the administrative court, which they are legally entitled to do. He accused farmers of "vandalising irrigation infrastructure" and "other acts of sabotage including spraying sugarcane plantations with harmful chemicals and infecting cattle with diseases". Farmers are being prevented from removing moveable assets (tractors, vehicles, equipment) from their farms, though legislation explicitly permits this.
There are numerous reports of senior military personnel, public officials and politicians taking over white-owned farms. One report claims that two senior members of government have taken over a farm belonging to the State-owned Cold Storage Commission. Commercial Farming Union vice-president Doug Taylor-Fremme warned that if, as seems possible, 90% of commercial producers are forced out of business this year, the cost to the Zimbabwe economy will be about US1,3bn or 14% of GDP. Commercial farmers employ around 350 000 people with an annual wage bill of about US450m. The knock-on effects will be huge. Some economists now predict that GDP will fall more than 12% in 2002. Some fear the worst will only come next year when, as one farmer puts it, "the tobacco crop will be less than 50m kg (165m kg in 2002) and the country will have to import 500 000 t of wheat".
It will be impossible for Mbeki to put any sort of gloss on this situation when he meets the G8 leaders next month. He must either admit he has failed or unveil plan B, assuming he has one.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 12 May
Poaching crisis in Zimbabwe
Bulawayo - Hungry supporters of President Robert Mugabe have resorted to poaching animals in national parks and wildlife conservancies where they have resettled themselves. As Zimbabwe's food situation deteriorates because of drought and chaotic land reform, game ranchers warned that more than Z$40 billion (about R 2.2 billion at official rates) in hunting revenue will be lost because of the chaos in the national parks and game reserves. High-ranking government officials and army and police personnel have been implicated in the poaching. A Conservation Taskforce spokesman said there had been an alarming increase in poaching in the main national parks of Hwange and Kariba. This week animal rights activists started a lobby to isolate the government in the forthcoming Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) meeting in November. The activists say their campaign is as a result of cruel methods, such as wire snares and spears, that are being used to kill animals such as the endangered black rhino and elephant.
Ranchers said thousands of wild animals were slaughtered for meat during the independence celebrations last month. Wally Herbst, chairman of the Wildlife Producers' Association in Nyamandlovu, said there was a dramatic increase in poaching where vehicles were used. He said animals like sable were being killed for meat when they could fetch up to US$ 3 000 (about Z$ 540 000) in the market. Game ranchers in the region said up to 70% of their animals had been killed. Bubiyana conservancy in Matabeleland South has lost close to 30 black rhinos - some of which were killed for meat and others for their horns. Wildlife farmers warned that if the situation continued, species such as the painted dog and the Tsessebe, imported from Namibia, would be extinct by the end of the year.
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From VOA News, 13 May
Zimbabwe ruling party to resume talks with opposition
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party has canceled negotiations with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), mediated by Nigeria and South Africa. But the MDC has been told by South African and Nigerian diplomats that the dialogue will resume Monday, as planned. Zanu-PF said last week it was postponing talks with the MDC until the outcome of the opposition's challenge to the High Court, alleging widescale vote-rigging in the presidential elections. Based on previous cases, legal observers say, the court challenge to President Robert Mugabe's disputed election win could take at least two years to be concluded. Zanu PF's leadership met with the high commissioners of South Africa and Nigeria for three hours late Friday, and the talks are now on again, according to well-placed political sources. However, the government-controlled Sunday Mail said the two mediators, Nigerian diplomat Adebayo Adedji and South Africa's top executive from the ruling African National Congress, Kgalema Motlanthe, will be in Harare on schedule. It said that although there would be no negotiations, the two men would, as African brothers, be welcome in Zimbabwe. Political observers believe that Zanu PF hoped it could cancel the talks, and this would be accepted by Africa. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, who have shielded Mr. Mugabe from further international isolation, are reliably understood to have refused to accept Zanu PF's reasons for canceling the talks. Next month, both presidents will attend a G-8 summit in Canada, where they are looking for support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development, NEPAD. A solution, or at least progress toward solving bankrupt Zimbabwe's political crisis, is seen as a crucial first test for NEPAD.
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From Business Day (SA), 13 May
SA and Zimbabwe may clash over unity talks
Pretoria and Harare seemed to be on a collision course last night after the Zimbabwean government unilaterally postponed unity talks between the ruling Zanu PF party and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The talks, brokered by SA and Nigeria to douse rising political tension in the country following President Robert Mugabe's contested victory in the recent presidential election, were scheduled to resume today after a three week break. While African National Congress (ANC) general secretary, Kgalema Motlanthe who is acting as President Thabo Mbeki's emissary insisted last night that the talks would continue as scheduled, Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said there would not be any talks. Moyo said that while the Nigerian and SA facilitators were welcome in the country "any time", their presence in Zimbabwe did not mean that the talks would resume.
He justified Harare's decision to postpone the talks on the grounds that there was a pending court case that the MDC had brought before the courts that sought to nullify the result of the March presidential election. "Zanu PF and the MDC are busy talking through arguments in the court," Moyo said, launching a broadside at the UK and the MDC for the opposition party's insistence that it would go to the venue of the talks today as previously agreed. "When we adjourned, it was agreed that before the talks resume we should find a venue out of Harare, and we wonder where the MDC delegation will go. It sounds as if they will go to the British high commission. It's a blessing in disguise that the matter will first be resolved in the courts because, frankly speaking as Zanu PF, it is traumatic to talk to people who do not accept the will of the majority of Zimbabweans who democratically and constitutionally elected their president," he said.
However, Motlanthe insisted last night that he would fly to Zimbabwe today to mediate in the talks. When asked about Moyo's utterances, he said: "There is no substance to that." Motlanthe said if there were any changes at all, the developments would have been communicated to him and President Olusegun Obasanjo's emissary, Prof Adebayo Adedeji. "As far as we are concerned, everything is still on course for (today)," he said. Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has praised SA Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota for admitting that government's policy of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe had failed. "This is long overdue, and we cannot continue with the folly of that failed policy any longer. But it is not enough simply to admit failure. SA needs a new plan to assist the people of Zimbabwe to resolve the crisis largely created by one man, Robert Mugabe," said DA leader Tony Leon.
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From The Star (SA), 12 May
Zanu PF to sue local and foreign media
Harare - The ruling party in Zimbabwe will sue media organisations, including those outside the country, and the main opposition party for reporting a false story, the state-run Sunday Mail reported. The story concerned a false claim by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) two weeks ago that a woman was beheaded by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's party. The story was reported by the country's only private daily paper, the Daily News, and received extensive international coverage. Already four journalists - three from the Daily News and the Zimbabwe correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper, Andrew Meldrum - have been arrested over the story. The Sunday Mail quoted Professor Jonathan Moyo, the deputy secretary for information in the ruling Zanu PF, who told the paper his party was "sick and tired" of being demonised. He said the party would also sue the MDC, as the source of the story. Moyo, who is also the country's minister of information, said his party would no longer tolerate "lies" told about Zanu PF. "We are sick and tired that the MDC, some journalists, The Daily News and certain media houses in the white Commonwealth, South Africa, America, Kenya and Nigeria had made it their daily business to demonise our party and we are not going to take it anymore." Under tough new media laws in Zimbabwe, journalists who report falsehoods can face up to two years in prison.
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From News24 (SA), 12 May
Govt threatens to clamp down on NGOs
Harare - The Zimbabwean government has warned it will crack down on non-governmental organisations, churches and opposition officials involved in "subversive" activities, the Sunday News reported. Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo told the state-run newspaper that the government was aware of "churches, NGOs and human rights groups that are actively involved in undermining the nation's internal security". Foreigners "masterminding such acts" will be deported, Nkomo told the paper, which is based in the second city of Bulawayo. Several rights groups in Zimbabwe have angered the government with allegations of abuses in the run-up to bitterly-fought presidential polls in March. Some church leaders have also criticised the government. Also in the Sunday News, Nkomo warned that opposition members "who make statements agitating for war" would be arrested, in an apparent reference to recent statements by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has refused to accept President Robert Mugabe's re-election, last weekend told a rally in Masvingo city that his party would organise a national strike if Mugabe did not agree to a re-run.
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 12 May
Mugabe reneges on deal with white 'pals'
President Robert Mugabe has turned against his white friends who had opted to co-operate with him in the hope that they would escape violent farm seizures under his controversial land resettlement programme. Mugabe's white allies, led by John Bredenkamp, Zimbabwe's richest businessman with a fortune of £720 million (about R11,5 billion), sponsored talks last year on a plan for white farmers to surrender voluntarily one million hectares of land for resettlement in exchange for an orderly and non-violent resettlement process. The white farmers would also drop all court cases against the compulsory seizures of their land. Earlier this year the United Nations suggested that Mugabe's failure to keep to the bargain severely diminished the chances of successful resettlement.
Now the deal, referred to as the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative (ZJRI), seems to be dead after Mugabe ordered the listing and seizure of Bredenkamp's 1 300ha Thetford Estate in the Mazowe Valley, 35km north of Harare, according to a report in the Zimbabwe Independent, the country's premier business weekly. The Independent Foreign Service has also established that Mugabe has ordered the designation of Avalon Farm in Mashonaland West, owned by Nick Swanepoel, the former Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) president. Bredenkamp and Swanepoel broke ranks with other whites who wanted to adopt a tough line against Mugabe and challenge his policies in the courts. They opted to co-operate with Mugabe and used their political clout to convince politicians to accept the farmers' offer of an organised resettlement programme in place of the chaotic fast-track scheme.
Bredenkamp, who helped Zimbabwe's last white ruler Ian Smith to bust sanctions imposed at the height of Zimbabwe's liberation war in the 1970s, is also listed as the 33rd richest person in Britain on the Sunday Times list. Bredenkamp publicly supported Mugabe during the June 2000 parliamentary election and his controversial March presidential election this year. Bredenkamp, 64, is understood to have poured campaign money into the ruling Zanu PF's coffers on several occasions. But this seems not to have done enough to appease Mugabe. Sources in the ministry of agriculture said they had not received an instruction to delist Bredenkamp and Swanepoel's farms, meaning that they would proceed to subdivide them into plots for redistribution to blacks as Mugabe's land resettlement programme enters its final phase. In fact, sources said, the latest relisting of Bredenkamp's farm was done after it had been initially delisted last year. The Independent said pegging was already under way at the farm this week.
A spokesperson for Bredenkamp also confirmed to the Independent that the farm had been listed for compulsory seizure. He said it had also been at one stage invaded by war veterans, who had since left the property. Jerry Grant, the CFU deputy director, said this week that the government had not taken up any of the 700 farms it was offered by white farmers under the ZJRI. Mac Crawford, another CFU official, said the ZJRI initiative would not work as long as the government failed to adhere to laid-down procedures in the resettlement process. "There is massive eviction of farmers, theft of equipment and workers' compounds are being trashed," Crawford said. "What is happening is basic theft and a breakdown in law and order. What we want is sustainable agriculture, but what is happening now is the demise of commercial agriculture." Crawford said the success of ZJRI hinged on farmers staying in business to raise the funds required to fulfil some of the promises they had made under the deal, such as helping resettled farmers with tillage and free inputs. This was impossible in the current circumstances.
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From ZWNEWS, 13 May
Exams Cambridge response
Britain’s Cambridge examining board says that it will only reverse a decision to stop pupils in Zimbabwe writing its internationally recognised examinations if it gets permission from President Robert Mugabe’s regime. In a statement issued to ZWNEWS, Cambridge International Examinations ignored written questions about why it has decided now to heed a ban on foreign examinations that was announced by the Zimbabwe government two years ago. The ban is part of what Mugabe and his lieutenants describe as an "anti-colonial" and "anti-Western" crusade. No one from Cambridge examinations was prepared to be interviewed, and asked for questions in writing. "If the position of the (Zimbabwe) Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture should change then Cambridge International Examinations would be very happy to reverse their decision," the statement said. "We understand that individual parents have approached the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture to try to find a solution and we await the outcome with interest.’’ The statement added that the board has withdrawn its examinations "with much regret."
Despite the ban, Cambridge continued to supply independent schools in Zimbabwe with examinations. Pupils wrote the Cambridge IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education), AS and A level examinations last year. This year’s students are in the last phase of the two-year syllabus for examinations due to be written in November. Cambridge examinations bowed to the Zimbabwe decree two months after Mugabe held on to power in a violent election widely regarded as rigged. Britain and the United States are among hundreds of countries which rejected the poll result. The move means a nightmare situation for independent schools and some 9,000 pupils of all races. Pupils are faced with having to find money and resources to write their November examinations in neighbouring African countries, or hastily convert to a local examination of dubious value. For the schools, battling to maintain standards in difficult and worsening conditions, the Cambridge decision is a body blow. It is also likely to accelerate the exodus of black and white professionals from Zimbabwe.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 13 May
DRC accuses Rwanda of troop build-up
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Saturday accused Rwanda of reinforcing its troops in rebel-held territory in the east of the country. "In the territories controlled by RCD/Goma (Rwandan-backed rebels), the Rwandan authorities continue to reinforce their troops, thereby clearly showing their intention to pursue hostilities," the government said in a communique. The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), based in eastern Goma, controls the eastern third of the former Zaire and was not party to a peace deal reached last month in Sun City, South Africa. The deal between Kinshasa and a rival rebel group backed by Uganda, the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), was reached on the sidelines of marathon peace talks among rebel, political and civil groups in the DRC.
The government statement, released after a cabinet meeting, said that Kinshasa would continue to work towards national peace and reconciliation, saying the army would "assure the defence of the nation". The communique renewed the government's appeal to the RCD and other groups that were not party to the Sun City accord to "show a nationalist impulse and join the signatories of this accord." RCD/Goma and political allies left out of the accord held informal talks on Thursday and Friday with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Cape Town at which they called for further talks towards a new deal to end the four-year war in the DRC. South Africa's ambassador to Kinshasa, Sisa Ngombabe, said Mbeki was willing to host a new round of talks and the RCD said it was optimistic this could happen soon, though both the MLC and Kinshasa boycotted the Cape Town meeting.
Meanwhile in Kinshasa, a working group designated at the Sun City talks began drafting a constitution for the transition period. The Sun City deal will see President Joseph Kabila remain head of state and MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba installed as prime minister, a new post. The RCD rejected lesser posts in the new government, raising fears that the war in the DRC, in which Angolan and Zimbabwean troops are fighting on the government side, would flare up again. RCD secretary general Azarias Ruberwa warned: "That (Sun City) deal does not resolve the Congolese crisis. It does not end the war, it does not ensure the withdrawal of foreign troops and it divides the Congo instead of reunifying the country." The MLC and Kinshasa are planning to install their new government in June, and observers say it is highly unlikely that Bemba will give up the promised post of prime minister and will ask for guarantees before further talks.
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From Business Day (SA), 14 May
Zanu PF pulls plug on reconciliation with the opposition
Reconciliation talks between Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) collapsed yesterday, plunging the country back into further political uncertainty. MDC head of delegation to the talks Welshman Ncube confirmed the negotiations for a political settlement had broken down irretrievably. "As far as we are concerned the talks are dead and buried," he said. "As far as the MDC is concerned, Zanu PF has pulled out of the talks and has repudiated its promise to presidents Thabo Mbeki and Olusegan Obasanjo by closing all doors on a negotiated solution to the political crisis government legitimacy facing Zimbabwe," he said. "President Robert Mugabe is illegitimate, and there is only one way to restore legitimacy, through an election rerun," Ncube said. Mugabe has ruled out a rerun. The MDC last week threatened to stage sustained mass action and protests against him.
SA and Nigerian facilitators Kgalema Motlanthe and Adebayo Adedeji evidently spent the whole day locked in meetings with Zanu PF officials in a bid to save the talks, but without success. Officials sources said Motlanthe and Adedeji met Zanu PF secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is Mugabe's closest lieutenant, but in the end nothing materialised. "They were really frustrated, and they are feeling betrayed by Zanu PF," a source said. "They have miserably failed to guide the talks, and will go back home with red faces." Zanu PF delegation leader Patrick Chinamasa insisted yesterday that the talks could not resume largely because of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's court challenge of Mugabe's re-election. "We communicated with (the facilitators). We cannot proceed when one of the key issues on the agenda is before the courts," he said. "The MDC decided to go to the courts instead of giving dialogue a chance."
Chinamasa wrote last week to the facilitators, and unilaterally announced the talks were suspended until the outcome of the court case. Zanu PF |
