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Archived News
16th April 2002
Zimbabwe needs R1.43bn this year to feed the starving
Pupils driven from food queues
Disgruntled villagers dump murdered MDC agent's body
Murambinda villagers flee homes for fear of attacks by war veterans
Canada excludes Zimbabwe from trade talks
NZ to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe next week
Mugabe's party gives in over talks
Mugabe's legitimacy tops agenda in crisis talks
Mudede tape proves Mugabe lost election
Disputed poll goes to court
MDC skeletons report shocks Nkayi
US travel ban unfair, says businessman
Zimbabwe opposition to challenge poll win in court
Mudede circus continues
Chefs dodge sanctions net
No end to the land-grab in Harare
Zanu PF hijacks food aid distribution from WFP
Zimbabwe election challenged in court
Police evict farm 'settlers' for Zim elite
Libya threatens to cut fuel supplies over debt
Tobacco to be sold in forex
UK-bound Zimbabweans conned
With love from Uncle Sam
Chidyausiku blacklisted
Zanu PF officials' wives worry over sanctions
Children denied food in Mugabe election reprisal
Ncube accuses Moyo of lying on talks agenda
Kunonga travel ban hailed by Anglicans
Torture of MDC supporters continues unabated
‘Mugabe stole your vote’
What has Tony Blair to do with it?
Zanu PF has no rural support
Zimbabwe editor arrested for poll-rigging claim
Editor arrested in Zimbabwe over vote rigging story
EU steps up Zimbabwe action
New Zealand bans Mugabe
MDC set deadline for talks with Mugabe
Just a thought...
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From Bloomberg, 10 April
Zimbabwe needs R1.43bn this year to feed the starving
Harare - Zimbabwe needed a staggering Z$16.5 billion (about R1.43 billion) this year alone to feed 7.8 million starving people, bankers have said. This comes amid Zimbabwe's worst foreign currency crisis and reports that the government has decided to introduce an ambitious new economic programme focusing on increased agricultural production. Under the proposed economic recovery programme, the government says about 100 000ha of land will be put under irrigation for maize production. This land is expected to yield about 400 000 tons of maize, which will be harvested in August this year to meet the maize deficit caused by the drought. The programme boasts it will create over 1 million jobs.
However, bankers said all these statistics were very "optimistic but highly unreliable" because the country was facing a very serious drought. Besides, they said, Zimbabwe's huge domestic debt of more than Z$227 billion and foreign debt of US$700 million made it extremely difficult for the government to pay for various schemes, including food imports. In its monthly economic pointer released last week, Stanbic Zimbabwe said radical policy changes were needed to arrest the economic meltdown, and prospects of recovery over the remainder of 2002 remained bleak, aggravated by a plethora of challenges. It said: "It is inescapable that Zimbabwe will, over the next 12 months, face an acute cereal deficit, closure of which requires at least US$300 million." The bank said other factors that needed tight monitoring and solutions included the foreign exchange shortage, burgeoning inflation and the country risk factor, as well as the "curse of past fiscal slippages".
In his ambitious land scheme, Joseph Made, the minister of lands, agriculture and rural resettlement, said the government had revised upwards the programme and agrarian reform budget from US$1.9 billion to US$3 billion, with the bulk of the money expected to go towards infrastructure and farmer credit support over a five-year period. Last week, however, the minister of finance and economic development, Simba Makoni, said the government would be able to deal with the food crisis only if a supplementary budget was passed by the parliament because the coffers had run dry. The government later said it was finalising a Z$95 billion programme for maize imports, food aid, child feeding schemes and winter crop inputs to "fight the drought".
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From News24 (SA), 9 April
Pupils driven from food queues
Johannesburg - Allegations of food aid being politicised have resurfaced in Zimbabwe with a report that opposition supporters' children are being driven away from school supplementary feeding schemes in rural areas. Shari Eppel of rights group Amani Trust said that in the course of helping torture victims, she had been told that children of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters were being denied access to school food queues in Mberengwa East, in the far south of the country. In her office on Friday was Sam Mlilo, district chairperson of Mburengwa East, who told IRIN he had seen children driven out of the queue for the supplementary meal at the Chamakudo Primary School, near Mataga, because of their parents' political beliefs. "Children with parents sympathetic to the MDC are denied access to food. In each village there are some MDC supporters and the villagers know MDC supporters by name and drive their children away," Mlilo claimed. He said people had tried in vain to complain. He added that Zanu-PF structures were being used to distribute food and that traditional leaders were also distributing food along party lines.
Aid groups contacted by IRIN, however, said they were not aware of children being denied access to the school feeding schemes. Dennis O'Brien, country director of Care International, said field staff at school feeding points regularly checked the schemes registers, which was an opportunity for people to raise concerns. "We would immediately raise it with authorities and work to resolve it," he said. Bhekimpilo Khanye, World Vision operations manager for the southern region, said his organisation hadn't started supplementary feeding yet, but was preparing to do so. "People on the ground will have to get an understanding of the political nature of food distribution," he said, adding that so far there had been "nothing to scare us off". Edward Watkiss of Christian Aid said many complaints stemmed from agencies not being able to "blanket feed" all schools in an area. "If a school three kilometres away is not fed, there are grumbles of political favours either towards government or the opposition. We find that when we get down to district level, people are down to earth, they are not political like at provincial level," he said.
Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) Director Munyaradzi Bidi said he had not heard of children being victimised in this way, but said that during the March elections many schools closed down, denying children access to the nutritional supplements they would have received there. Further afield in Gokwe, Bidi said, Zanu PF youths were trying to control oil and maize prices in shops and the prices the items were sold at could vary according to political affiliation. Eppel said a report on the victimisation of the children would be compiled with information from various regions, and would be presented to the donor agencies. The latest allegations come after last week's release by the International Crisis Group (ICG) of a report saying maize imports were directed to areas of greatest support for the ruling party, Zanu PF. At the time Edward Mamutse, a government spokesperson in Zimbabwe's Department of Information and Publicity said: "There's nothing of the sort." Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's ailing economy received a boost on Monday with the announcement of an agreement to export beef to Libya, with whom the country has close links and a fuel supply agreement. Also on Monday, post-election talks facilitated by South Africa and Nigeria between the MDC and Zanu PF finally started. The MDC, which narrowly lost the presidential elections, is demanding a fresh poll, calling Mugabe's government a junta.
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From The Daily News, 9 April
Disgruntled villagers dump murdered MDC agent's body
Hundreds of disgruntled villagers on Saturday dumped the body of Petros Jeka, an MDC polling agent and treasurer for Masvingo North constituency, at Winter Chirove's homestead, accusing him of Jeka's murder. Chirove, who was not at home, is the Zanu PF district youth chairperson for the area. Villagers, including Jeka's relatives, camped at Chirove's homestead for the whole day and have vowed to remain there until the body is buried. A relative of the deceased, who refused to be named, said: "We are just complying with what the deceased told us before he died. He said we should dump his body at Chirove's home and we are doing just that." Chirove could not be reached for comment as he was reported to have gone to Harare. Police in Masvingo were trying to mediate, but the angry villagers remained defiant. They accused the police of failing to arrest Jeka's murderers.
Jeka died after being stabbed several times in the back by suspected Zanu PF supporters at Bondolfi Mission business centre, after an argument. He died on 4 April at Masvingo General Hospital after being admitted for a day. By Sunday no one had been arrested in connection with the murder. "We are human beings and the time shall come when we cannot just sit by while our members are being butchered," said Shaky Matake, the MDC provincial vice-chairman. Police in Masvingo on Sunday said they were trying to encourage the feuding families reach a compromise. This is the second time in less than two months that a corpse has been dumped at a Zanu PF activist's home. Last month the body of war veteran, Amos Maseva, was dumped at deputy minister Shuvai Mahofa's homestead following a land dispute at Lothian Farm. The body was buried three weeks later following an agreement brokered by Vice-President Muzenda.
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From The Daily News, 9 April
Murambinda villagers flee homes for fear of attacks by war veterans
Bulawayo - Some villagers in Murambinda district of Manicaland are fleeing their homes at night for fear of being attacked by war veterans in the area. Others have deserted their homes and are staying in Mutare or relocating to other cities. A villager, who declined to be named, said life had not returned to normal ever since the presidential election. She said the situation was particularly bad for those who were known to be MDC supporters. The MDC presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai garnered massive votes in Mutare Urban ahead of the Zanu PF candidate, President Mugabe. Villagers in areas such as Chabata, Mutiusinazita, Muzvikomba, Chimbudzi and Chimombe, said they were being terrorised by war veterans and uniformed soldiers. The fleeing villager, who was in Bulawayo on her way to join her husband in Botswana, said they were told that the number of people in Murambinda district should equal the number of Zanu PF votes during last month’s presidential election. "They said if the figures did not match, there would be bloodshed. When we were voting, the soldiers were milling around at the polling stations and this further intimidated villagers," she said. She showed The Daily News Zanu PF cards which they were forced to buy at $82 each. They are valid until 2006. After the election Zanu PF supporters descended on the villagers because the numbers did not tally.
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From The Star (SA), 8 April
Canada excludes Zimbabwe from trade talks
After deliberately excluding Zimbabwe from a meeting of Southern African leaders, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has held up the possibility of greater access for African goods and services to developed countries. Chretien said in Pretoria on Sunday that industrialised countries would have to open their markets even more for African goods and services. "We are busy preparing an action plan that we would introduce at the G8 summit." President Thabo Mbeki warned that African countries that did not willingly join the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) would be forced to abide by its decisions. Chretien, whose country currently heads the G8 group of industrialised countries and will host a G8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in June, said he was impressed with Mbeki's undertaking that all countries would have to be involved in the plan. He said it was in the continent's interests if it wanted investment. "If you don't want to play the game, it's a carrot-and-stick situation. We hope there would be a lot more carrots," Chretien said. He added that conflict resolution was one of the key conditions that Africa would have to address for investment to take place. "It is investment that will solve problems in Africa, and if there is more growth, everyone will benefit because we will sell more to Africa and they will sell more to us." Mbeki said the introduction of Nepad was on track. "When we get to Canada we will indeed be in position to take some concrete and specific decisions."
Nepad will be one of the main agenda points at the G8 summit, and Chretien promised that other issues would not overshadow it, as was the case at previous meetings. "We would not put aside the Africa file because there is a problem in the Middle East," he said. After his meeting with Mbeki, Chretien was quizzed about his position on Aids, as this was seen as a major stumbling block to trade between South Africa and Canada. "We cannot put in a condition that while you have a high level of Aids, we cannot help you. Part of the solution is in creating the economic climate to deal with this problem," he said. Diplomatic sources said the exclusion of Zimbabwe was evidence that Chretien was applying the good-governance commitments that African countries would have to make to participate in Nepad. Mbeki said rules regarding the peer review committee, an apolitical watchdog to ensure good governance on the continent, would be defined at a Nepad implementation committee meeting in June. In theory, failure to adhere to principles of democratic, economic and politically sound governance would see countries suffer economic exclusion from the fruits of Nepad. Chretien is visiting South Africa as part of a tour to hear the views of Africans before the draft Nepad action plan is submitted at Kananaskis.
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From The New Zealand Herald, 9 April
NZ to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe next week
London - New Zealand will impose sanctions on Zimbabwe next week in response to last month's controversial election, Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Miss Clark, in London to attend the funeral of the Queen Mother tonight (NZT), held a meeting with Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon when she arrived in London on Monday. Zimbabwe was suspended for one year from the 54-nation Commonwealth late last month after Commonwealth election observers roundly criticised the presidential election, won by incumbent Robert Mugabe. A Commonwealth troika of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had agreed with the observers' report that included details of violence and intimidation by the supporters of Mugabe's Zanu PF party and restrictions on observers. Miss Clark had advised Mr McKinnon that "you can expect New Zealand to act broadly in line with the European Union and the US". Sanctions include banning Mr Mugabe and his close associates from travelling or visiting New Zealand, and using the Customs and Excise Act to prohibit any arms shipments between Zimbabwe and New Zealand. "If there is the slightest evidence that there are financial assets in New Zealand, then we will act to freeze them," Miss Clark added. She said she had discussed in length the sanctions with Foreign Minister Phil Goff and "the paperwork has been done". She expected the sanctions to be in place by next week.
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From The Times (UK), 11 April
Mugabe's party gives in over talks
Harare - Talks between President Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party and the pro-democracy Opposition made unexpected progress yesterday when Zanu PF accepted an agenda that appears to have been set almost entirely by the Opposition. Demands for fresh elections, a new democratic Constitution, an end to political violence and "confidence-building measures", including a halt to revenge attacks on opposition supporters since last month’s elections, have been set down for discussion when substantive talks begin. All were issues insisted on by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Zanu PF had indicated previously that it would not even discuss the possibility of re-running last month’s presidential elections, after which President Mugabe was declared the winner. Forty-eight people, mostly opposition supporters, were killed during the campaign. The two parties are due to meet again on May 13 for five days of intensive discussions, said Kgalema Motlanthe, the secretary-general of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, who is mediating the talks with Adebayo Adedeji, a Nigerian diplomat. A third and final round of talks will follow later. The Government’s adherence to the Abuja agreement, the Commonwealth document drafted in September last year that commits the Government to the rule of law, freedom of expression and an end to state-driven lawlessness on white-owned land, is also to be discussed. "It looks like Zanu PF is on the defensive," a Western diplomat said. "I would have expected them to have shown much more resistance to an agenda like this." However, Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister and the head of the Zanu PF delegation, said that the two sides had "very divergent views".
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From SABC News, 10 April
Mugabe's legitimacy tops agenda in crisis talks
Zimbabwe's ruling and opposition parties have agreed an agenda for talks aimed at resolving the country's political crisis, with President Robert Mugabe's legitimacy at the top of the list. The talks will begin May 13 after the two sides prepare their arguments for "substantive discussions of the agenda items," said a statement released after four hours of negotiations. The agenda will cover "conditions for normal political activity" and include debate on the legitimacy of elections last month that returned Mugabe to power but have been rejected by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), charging massive vote-rigging. Topics also include confidence building measures, politically motivated violence and the southern African country's constitution and laws.
Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF has insisted that it will not even consider fresh elections as demanded by the MDC. However, Welshman Ncube, the head of the MDC delegation to the talks said the agenda had been adopted by consensus. "It wasn't difficult," he told reporters after the negotiations. "That is a consensus agenda representing what all the parties want to be on the agenda." While the agenda allows for discussion of the March 9-11 election, the ruling party delegation stressed that the two sides remained poles apart. "We still have divergent views on all issues. ...Those differences remain on all those issues that were articulated on Monday and I do not see whether we will make progress when we meet on the 13th (of May)," said the Zanu PF team leader, Patrick Chinamasa, who is also the country's Justice Minister. "We are saying the MDC must accept the legitimacy of the election, they must accept the legitimacy of the government. we are the government, we are the ruling party, and ... that position is non-negotiable, non reversible," Chinamasa told reporters at the end of the talks.
The MDC, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai was defeated by Mugabe in the March polls, has refused to recognize the result of the vote and called for fresh elections under international supervision. Ncube insists that the question of the legitimacy of Mugabe as head of state following the election remained an issue "and in our view that legitimacy flows from a free and fair election." Meanwhile Chinamasa, asked to comment on MDC complaints about retribution attacks against its members in the aftermath of the election, denied the accusations. "It's not true, and if in fact they (MDC) have actually said that, they are doing it to scupper the negotiations," he said. The talks are being mediated by two facilitators - Nigerian diplomat Adebayo Adedeji and Kgalema Motlanthe, a South African ruling party politician - appointed by presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who contributed to a March 19 decision by the Commonwealth to suspend Zimbabwe for one year. The talks next month are expected to last six days. A final phase of talks will be agreed at the end of that round.
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From The Daily News, 10 April
Mudede tape proves Mugabe lost election
The total number of votes announced by the Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede, in a live broadcast as having been polled by all five contesting presidential candidates is 700 000 votes less than the figure subsequently published in other media. In his announcement, which was broadcast live on radio and television, Mudede stated that a total of 2 298 758 votes had been received by all candidates. Mudede stated at the end of a live broadcast that had taken all night and most of the morning of Wednesday, 13 March: "The results at national level are as follows: Kumbula, Tarugarira Wilson, Zanu - 31 368; Maya, Shake, NAGG - 11 906; Mugabe, Robert Gabriel, Zanu PF -1 685 212; Siwela, Independent - 11 871; Tsvangirai, Morgan, MDC - 1 258 401 votes. "Total votes cast 200 - oh, sorry - 2 298 758. This is minus the spoilt papers. Plus spoilt papers they go up to the figure I mentioned which is around 3 million." "I, Tobaiwa Mudede, Registrar-General of the Elections, having ascertained the results of the 2002 presidential poll in the 120 constituencies, do hereby declare Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zanu PF party, who has received the majority of the total number of valid votes cast, the winner of the presidential election for the office of President of the Republic of Zimbabwe."
So ended the announcement by Mudede of the presidential election held on Saturday and Sunday, 9 and 10 March, and extended to Monday, 11 March 2002 in Harare and Chitungwiza. But the actual total of Mudede's breakdown is 2 998 758 valid ballots, 700 000 votes in excess of the total figure which he announced to a stunned nation. The Daily News obtained a copy of a video recording of the tape which was broadcast live by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), which no one seems to have had sufficient presence of mind to cross-check until this newspaper was alerted by a member of the public on Monday. Perusal of the contents of the tape reveals that the statement made by the Registrar-General that the total number of votes cast, including spoilt papers, was "around 3 million" is totally false. If we add the 115 277 spoilt votes as published in The Herald of 14 March 2002 to the total number of valid votes cast as announced by Mudede, the total number of votes cast in the presidential election would be 2 414 035, a figure very far away from Mudede's "around 3 million" total.
Mudede was not available yesterday to explain why he, as Registrar-General, would speak casually of "around 3 million" votes when all the relevant figures were right in front of him. Mudede would have been asked to explain why he did not speak in very specific terms in announcing the figures that were part of the result of such an important and controversial presidential election. But by announcing that "if the total number of spoilt papers was added to the 2 298 758 valid votes cast the total number of votes casts would be around 3 million" the Registrar-General suggested that more than 700 000 ballot papers had been spoilt. "ZBC should re-broadcast the tape in which Mudede announced the results, so that the public can see for themselves how gullible they were in accepting at face value the false statement by Mudede," the resident of Chitungwiza who alerted The Daily News to the discrepancy suggested on Monday.
"Assuming Tsvangirai would not benefit from Mudede's charitable miscalculations, if one were to subtract his total of 1 258 401 votes, as attributed to him by the Registrar-General from the total vote cast of 2 298 758, as announced by Mudede, that would leave Mugabe and the three lesser candidates with a total of 1 040 357 votes. Subtracting the total votes cast for Maya, Kumbula and Siwela from this figure would leave Mugabe with 985 212. If the 700 000 excess votes referred to earlier were added to 985 212, the total would be 1 685 212, the total figure said to have been won by the President in the election. That would leave Mudede with no spoilt ballots. This would explain why the Registrar-General cannot announce that figure." The Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network yesterday said according to its own calculations, a total of 95 670 ballot papers had been spoilt in the election.
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From The Financial Gazette, 11 April
Disputed poll goes to court
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will tomorrow file an application in the High Court challenging the results of last month’s widely condemned presidential election, an official said yesterday, as talks on the future of Zimbabwe between the ruling Zanu PF and the MDC adjourned until next month. A senior official of the labour-backed opposition party said the MDC had "overwhelming evidence" showing that Zimbabwe’s March 9-11 presidential vote was rigged to ensure a victory for Zanu PF’s leader Robert Mugabe. The official said the party had used evidence from many voters to compile a dossier chronicling the alleged rigging, which would be presented to the High Court as part of its application. The MDC has already circulated a detailed report on the alleged theft of the ballot, which has been slammed as a fraud by MDC head Morgan Tsvangirai, as well as by Zimbabwean election observers and the international community.
The MDC official, who preferred not to be named, told the Financial Gazette: "We have got irrefutable and overwhelming evidence proving that the election was rigged. We are going to exhaust all options at our disposal, including the legal channel, to challenge the presidential election, which was stolen openly. But in the final analysis, we will use the political solution to solve this political problem." He spoke as discussions between his party and Zanu PF were adjourned yesterday to next month after South African and Nigerian envoys mediating in the talks balked at calling for a re-run of last month’s presidential election as demanded by the MDC. Sources close to the slow-moving summit said the facilitators of the talks were not willing to spell out their position, preferring instead to ensure that the two parties agree an agenda for discussions between their senior officials. "We are headed nowhere, it’s a time-consuming process and much ado about nothing," one official attending the meeting said.
The sources said pressure mounted in the past week on South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo to ensure that a fresh poll is held in Zimbabwe to facilitate the country’s economic and political recovery. They said parallel marathon meetings were held in South Africa this week at which the issue of Mugabe’s disputed re-election took centre stage. The meetings took place on the sidelines of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which ends in South Africa at the weekend and is attempting to bring peace to the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo. During the sideline talks, it was communicated to Mbeki that means and ways had to be found to ensure that the "issue of the disputed poll is resolved first and foremost", one source revealed. Another option was to ensure Mugabe was "gracefully retired" within the next 12 months, they said.
Mbeki and Obasanjo, who are pushing for a government of national unity in Zimbabwe, are expected to use the break in the talks between the country’s main political parties, which both reject a unity government, to privately re-engage Mugabe and Tsvangirai in a bid to hammer out a political compromise. Zanu PF and the MDC did manage to adopt an agenda during this week’s discussions, which will set the course when the talks resume on May 13. They also set the rules of procedure for the talks. Top of the agenda is the issue of legitimacy of the presidential ballot and of Mugabe’s government. Other items on the agenda are the sovereignty of Zimbabwe, multi-partyism, confidence-building measures, continuing politically motivated violence and the constitution and laws of Zimbabwe. Also on the agenda are economic development, a recovery plan, the mobilisation of resources and consensus on land reform based on the Abuja agreement negotiated by Nigeria last year. Summit insiders said Zanu PF appeared determined to stretch the talks as long as possible so that it would appear to the international community that the party was engaging the opposition in dialogue. The sources said by prolonging the talks, this would ensure that Zimbabwe’s crisis did not undermine the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) meeting set for June in Canada. Western backers of NEPAD, a brainchild of Mbeki and Obasanjo, say funding for the project will be tied to good governance and democracy in southern Africa and have already warned that Africa’s stance on Mugabe’s flawed poll win will be crucial to the meeting’s outcome.
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From The Financial Gazette, 11 April
MDC skeletons report shocks Nkayi
Bulawayo - Human rights groups in Matabeleland yesterday made a beeline to Lenkubini Village in Nkayi to ascertain reports of an alleged gory find of three skeletons of villagers suspected to be opposition activists who went missing in the run-up to the presidential election last month. Although police could not immediately confirm the discovery, it is understood to have been unearthed by villagers at the weekend. Officials from human rights groups said they were closely following the incident. Sakhile Nkomo, a director of Christian Women for Love and Care based in Bulawayo, said her organisation had dispatched a team to the district to verify the reports brought to her attention by villagers. The villagers are understood to have drained water from a dip tank at the weekend in the area, resulting in the discovery of the skeletal remains.
"We have sent people out there to check on the authenticity of the whole discovery. We heard from villagers but so as not to misinform the public I have personally sent some people to have a look around," Nkomo said. "Police have not been that helpful with information, hence the need for us to send a team. We might be in a position to know the full details when our team returns to Bulawayo later this week," said Nkomo, whose organisation is credited with spearheading the discovery of the charred remains in a shallow grave of James Sibanda, a headman from Mathendele village in Nkayi, a few weeks ago. Thamsanqa Mlilo, an official of the human rights group ZimRights, said her agency was investigating the case and its officials were already on the ground. "It’s too early to disclose anything now because we do not have the facts at hand. We are looking into the issue."
According to villagers, Nkayi has been a no-go area for the main opposition MDC since the ruling Zanu PF lost heavily in the June 2000 parliamentary polls. In the run-up to this year’s presidential vote, an unknown number of villagers suspected to be MDC supporters were allegedly thrown into dip tanks there. Abednigo Bhebhe, the MDC legislator for Nkayi, said yesterday that villagers from his constituency informed him of the findings but he was yet to talk to the police or to visit the area. "The constituency is abuzz with accounts of the discovery. My own people are doing their investigations. I will not be surprised if more of our supporters are unearthed elsewhere in Nkayi," he said. Thirty-two people, most of them members of Zanu PF’s militia which wreaked terror in Nkayi earlier this year, have so far been arrested in connection with the murder of headman Sibanda. Among those held is Rainfall Simanga, a member of the rebels who terrorised villagers in Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s.
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From Business Day (SA), 11 April
US travel ban unfair, says businessman
Harare - A prominent Zimbabwean businessman, who found himself on the receiving end of US "targeted sanctions" because of close ties to President Robert Mugabe, took out a full-page advertisement in the state-owned media yesterday in protest against the US move. Mutumwa Mawere, who owns mining, manufacturing and banking concerns, took a swipe at US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner for including him on the list of the Zimbabwean elite slapped with a travel ban by the US government. The list includes Mugabe, cabinet ministers, senior government and ruling Zanu PF officials, businessmen linked to Mugabe and his allies and Zanu PF's property aristocracy. "The crime which I stand accused of is political and yet I hold no political office," Mawere said in the advertisement. "In as much as a tycoon means black, any successful black businessman must necessarily be a beneficiary of a patronage system. This classification has an important bearing in the mindset of the Americans who have chosen Zimbabwe as a threat for American interests," the advert read.
Mawere's message, headed "In the public interest", followed a letter received from Kansteiner on March 18 informing him he was banned from entering the US. He blamed his local detractors and the media for the restriction. "The targeting of individuals can only emanate from domestic players who wish to achieve political objectives through the assistance of foreign governments," he said. The flamboyant business magnate attacked Kansteiner for mistaking him for an MP. "How could a man of Mr Kansteiner's standing make such a blunder? (His) blunder is deliberate and designed to publicly harass and humiliate me and my business colleagues who have been elevated to political businessmen." Mawere, who has worked in the US and has offices in SA, defended his business empire. "It is common knowledge I rose to prominence in the media through the acquisition of a British company with interests in Shabanie and Mashaba Mines (which produce asbestos) in 1996. Because the acquisition was led by an unknown businessman in a country that was not used to blacks doing big things other than in politics, I stand accused of corruption."
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From The Guardian (UK), 12 April
Zimbabwe opposition to challenge poll win in court
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition will argue in court today that Robert Mugabe won the presidential election last month by massive fraud and violence. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, said: "Our lawyers have uncovered mountains of hardcore and powerful evidence of electoral fraud, which if presented to an independent and impartial court would undoubtedly result in Robert Mugabe's electoral victory being set aside." He gave no details of the evidence, but he said the case might not get a fair hearing because the independence of the judicial system had been compromised by Mr Mugabe's packing the courts with compliant judges. The challenge is being brought under the Electoral Act, which requires such cases to be begun within 30 days of the ballot results. Mr Tsvangirai and his party are proceeding with the case despite talks between the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF party to try to resolve the political crisis.
International observers, including the Commonwealth, condemned the March 9-11 election, citing widespread state-sponsored political violence and fraud. The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe for a year and the US and EU have refused to accept Mr Mugabe as the legitimate president. For its part, the government has formally charged Mr Tsvangirai with plotting to assassinate Mr Mugabe. The opposition leader denies the charges and is out on bail. The MDC case will centre on evidence that Zanu PF inflated the voter turnout in rural areas, stuffed ballot boxes and locked out voters in the opposition's urban strongholds. Last month the opposition said it had found widespread disparities in the official voting figures, which showed that Mr Mugabe won the election by 56% to Mr Tsvangirai's 42%. The state election supervisory commission's voting tables differed widely from the results announced by the registrar general, Tobaiwa Mudede, opposition officials said in a report that included purported copies of the voting tables. The tallies showed unusually high voter turnouts in ruling party strongholds and a decline in urban opposition strongholds since the parliamentary elections in 2000.
Mr Tsvangirai denied yesterday that the court challenge was "sour grapes" on his part. "I don't confer legitimacy on the government. It is for the people of Zimbabwe, and they are the ones that have been short-changed," he said. The MDC alleges that ruling party militants used violence to chase away opposition polling agents and either stuffed the ballot boxes during their absence or understated the MDC votes during the counting. Mr Tsvangirai said the court action would be withdrawn if Zanu PF acted in good faith in talks due to resume on May 13. The talks, mediated by Nigeria and South Africa, opened this week with the MDC calling for an immediate end to the continued state violence, in which more than a dozen opposition supporters have died since the election. "While we appreciate that there are talks taking place, we only had 30 days to file this election petition," Mr Tsvangirai said. "We could not forfeit the remedy given to the MDC by law."
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From The Daily News, 11 April
Mudede circus continues
Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General, yesterday announced new presidential election results by reducing the total number of votes cast in favour of President Mugabe by a total of 4 000 votes in what he said was the final report of the election. Addressing a Press conference in Harare yesterday, Mudede announced that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s figure had increased simultaneously by 4 002 votes. The new figures were announced exactly a month after the election. In the fresh results announced yesterday, Mugabe’s latest total now stands at 1 681 212, down from the 1 685 212 announced in March, while the total number of votes cast for Tsvangirai increased yesterday from 1 258 401 to 1 262 403 votes. In a separate development yesterday, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) issued a statement in which they gave a breakdown of the election results. The ZBC figures were at variance with Mudede’s latest figures but consistent with those published by The Daily News yesterday and announced by Mudede on 13 March 2002.
When Mudede announced the election results on the ZBC on 13 March 2002, his figures as captured on a video tape in the possession of The Daily News were as follows: Tarugarira Wilson Kumbula of Zanu 31 368; Shake Maya of NAGG 11 906; Robert Gabriel Mugabe (Zanu PF) 1 685 212; Paul Siwela, an Independent 11 871, with Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC polling 1 258 401 votes. The total number of votes cast, as announced by Mudede live on radio and television, was 2 298 758. This figure was, however, inaccurate. Yesterday Mudede announced the following figures: Zanu PF 1 681 212, MDC 1 262 403, Zanu 31 368, Paul Siwela 11 871 and NAGG 11 906. Mudede said that a total of only 48 131 ballot papers had been spoilt against a total of 2 998 760 valid votes cast. He said the total number of votes cast was now 3 046 891.
Throughout the Press conference, Mudede concentrated on attacking The Daily News instead of explaining the confusion which he has caused over the election results. In the end he evicted the newspaper’s chief reporter, Pedzisai Ruhanya, from the Press conference after the journalist pressed him to clarify the contradictions in his figures. "Get out!" Mudede shouted while thumping the table with his clenched fist. He drew his chair back and marched towards Ruhanya while ordering his subordinates to "call the boys". Two security men entered and escorted Ruhanya from the room. Unknown to Mudede, two other journalists from The Daily News remained behind. Mudede then said: "I am not going to discuss the ZBC tape. The figures were coming from the counting centres and they were subject to correction in the event that the centres discover some mistakes. When you run an election you only come with a correct figure after the verification process in a final report. In other countries it spills into four days. If what we put here is wrong it is subject to corrections. But the problem is that The Daily News is always lying and we know the reason."
He also disputed the figure of 115 277 which appeared in The Herald of 14 March as the total of spoilt papers. "Go and ask The Herald where they got the figures," Mudede said. Even journalists from the State media pointed out to Mudede that he had to clarify the discrepancies if he wanted them to write a credible story, because his figures did not make any sense to them. This was raised after he asked the reporters what action he should take against The Daily News. "Legal action," suggested ZBC diplomatic correspondent, Judith Makwanya, enthusiastically.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 12 April
Chefs dodge sanctions net
Holes are becoming evident in the United States' sanctions net as a government minister visited the US last month while children of politicians studying there will not be deported as there is no set policy on how to deal with them, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week. Environment and Tourism minister Francis Nhema was in the US last month to attend the Safari Club International (SCI) meeting in Las Vegas despite the travel ban on ministers imposed by George W Bush's government. Nhema only returned to Zimbabwe last week. But businesswoman Jocelyn Chiwenga, who is the wife of army general Constantine Chiwenga, was denied permission to attend the same SCI meeting. While President Bush signed the proclamation imposing the travel ban in February the State Department did not begin implementing it until after the election. Nhema said yesterday he was not on the original list but now is.
Explaining the confusion, a US embassy spokesperson said it was illegal under the US Protection of Privacy Act to divulge information regarding persons specified for sanctions. "All the lists which have been circulating in the media are highly speculative because it is illegal under the Protection of Privacy Act to divulge information regarding visa applications and other issues of confidentiality," the spokesperson said. US sources said there was debate in the administration over the handling of the issue of chefs' children who are studying in schools and universities in the US. Hawks in the administration want a total travel ban on the officials and their children while others advocate less stringent measures when dealing with the children. There is debate on whether the travel restrictions should affect adult progeny as well as minors, and whether those already there should be targeted. "There is no settled policy yet," an official told the Independent.
Reports that Mashonaland West governor Patrick Chanetsa travelled to the US last week could not be confirmed. His office would only say he was in South America. The European Union has also imposed a travel ban on Zimbabwean officials but last week Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa was in Geneva, Switzerland, on official business. Switzerland is not a member of the EU but it has independently imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. A Swiss Foreign Affairs ministry spokesperson, Daniela Stoffel, this week confirmed issuing a visa to Chinamasa. "We issued a visa to your minister Patrick Chinamasa because he was due to appear before the United Nations Human Rights Commission," said Stoffel. She said there was a proviso in the sanctions declaration which allowed the targeted individuals to travel to Switzerland on humanitarian grounds.
Meanwhile, the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth has removed the country from important events on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) calendar prejudicing local MPs and parliamentary staff of important training on parliamentary procedures and activities. The CPA is influential in the training of newly-elected MPs in procedures of the House, parliamentary accountability and the role of the opposition in a democracy. Zimbabwean MPs are also accorded the same status as local MPs of the country they are visiting. This preferential status has been removed by the suspension. Parliamentary staff such as the Speaker, the Clerk and librarians will not be invited to seminars, training workshops or conferences organised by the CPA. The suspension of Zimbabwe from the club resulted in the cancellation of a CPA regional meeting scheduled to be held in Harare on March 25. Zimbabwe will also not be invited to the CPA Fifth Southern Africa Regional Parliamentary Workshop scheduled for Botswana from May 6 to 11.
Minister of State in Vice-President Joseph Msika's Office Olivia Muchena is a regional representative of the Africa region of the CPA while Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma is the regional secretary. Muchena will not attend the CPA executive committee meeting to be held in Kiribati in the Pacific. The Independent learnt this week that Zimbabwe would also not be invited to attend the regional annual CPA conference to be hosted by Uganda in August. Britain still wants Zimbabwe to attend the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday he had not received any "representations to me on behalf of ordinary Zimbabweans or the opposition saying the sports people who want to take part in the Commonwealth Games are Mugabe stooges", adding the situation would change if he received any such representations.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 12 April
No end to the land-grab in Harare
Ruling Zanu PF MP and Zimbabwe's former ambassador to Yugoslavia Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri has forcibly taken control of a tobacco farm in Marondera, near Harare. Devastated farm owner Guy Cartwright (68) - who was not home when Mutinhiri, accompanied by war veterans, occupied his property - served a restraining order on the former army official on Tuesday. Cartwright, speaking to the Mail & Guardian from his hiding place in Harare this week, said he had been assured by the local land committee that deals with restitution issues that Mutinhiri had been warned about invading his property on Friday. The land committee officials apparently also told Cartwright that should Mutinhiri, MP for Marondera West, go ahead with the occupation he would have to vacate his parliamentary seat. Mutinhiri won the Marondera seat in a controversial by-election in November 2000, amid accusations that he had bought votes and intimidated the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters. After his victory, in an interview with a local newspaper, Mutinhiri defended the forcible occupation of land, calling it a "revolution, given that those without land are prepared to fight for it, while a minority group with it are resisting to part with it". Cartwright, who inherited his farm known as Waltondale from his father who bought it in 1934, said his property had not been designated for redistribution. The farm, which produces tobacco and maize and has 700 head of cattle, is estimated to be worth Zim$400-million, including its tobacco crop. "All of which the brigadier has announced now belongs to him," said a despondent Cartwright, who is a Zimbabwean citizen.
Cartwright said he had built homes with water and electricity for his workers, constructed a farming school attended by 400 children on his property and donated millions of dollars worth of medical equipment to the local hospital over the years. It was taken away in a flash when he went out for a drive with his wife last Saturday night. While there were several reports last weekend concerning the forcible occupation of farms where the farmers had ties to the MDC, Cartwright had not been involved in politics. However, Mutinhiri has allegedly accused Cartwright's late father of being involved with the former minority-run regime. Another farmer, Alistair Coulson, based in Esigodini near Bulawayo, told the M & G last month that he feared becoming the war veterans' target as he had actively campaigned for the MDC in the presidential elections. "People like me have become exposed and are now vulnerable," a disillusioned Coulson remarked after the outcome of the presidential poll. This week Coulson and his family were forced to leave the farm that had been their home for the past 11 years. The Coulsons had been under siege since last week. During the course of the week, after he has persuaded his family to leave, Coulson stayed on in his home to protect his workers. In a show of solidarity with Coulson farmers in neighbouring areas also under siege remained behind. The M & G was unable to contact Coulson this week. However, Marc Crawford, president of the Matabeleland branch of the Commercial Farmers' Union, said that on Tuesday negotiations with the war veterans had failed. At the time of going to press, Coulson was preparing to move out of his home. Crawford said farmers and farm workers who had assisted the MDC during last month's presidential polls are increasingly becoming targets of the war veterans. Since the elections, Crawford said 10 cases of forcible occupation had been reported to him.
One of the world's most successful black rhino breeding farms was occupied by war veterans last weekend in Turk Mine, located in the Bubi district of Matabeleland, and farm owner Richard Pascal was arrested for attempted murder. Pascal's 22 000ha farm is home to 33 black rhino and has a breeding rate of 12 to 14% a year - the highest for the highly endangered black rhino. War veterans began occupying portions of Pascal's farm in February 2000. Last month they demanded that Pascal vacate the property and the rhino were confined to a smaller area. Since March 25 the rhino have been denied water as Pascal no longer has access to the water pump. Owing to the stressed conditions one of the rhino died two weeks ago. On Monday, after being released on bail, Pascal realised he was homeless. While he was in the lock-up, war veterans took over his entire farm. Pascal describes the occupation as a betrayal of assurances given by the Zimbabwean Environment Ministry that farms devoted to breeding wildlife will not be taken over for redistribution.
Pascal's ordeal began on Friday night, April 5, when war veterans broke into his home, ordering the farmer and his friends to leave. With the help of some members of the police, Pascal managed to send the war veterans away. But they returned the next morning. When Pascal went down to address them, he was attacked by youths armed with spears, axes and catapults. Pascal's friends rushed to his rescue and fired shots into the air. By then the war veterans were firing stones from catapults. Pascal returned to his home to collect his gun and then fired more shots into the air to disperse the crowd. The war veterans claimed that a bullet wounded one of their members and Pascal was arrested on murder charges. Pascal believes the war veterans had the backing of certain policemen who were interested in rhino horns. When the rhino died two weeks ago, Pascal brought the National Parks officials in to collect the horn. He said the war veteran squatters got agitated that they had not been consulted as they had wanted the trophy fee for the animals. Pascal bought his farm 15 years ago. Ten black rhino were brought into the farm as part of a government-backed initiative to save the endangered species. Since then South Africans, Americans and the British have pumped money into the farm as part of a two-pronged approach - saving the wildlife and community development. "I have already committed 4 000ha of my property for resettlement. I am a Zimbabwean citizen. I was quite prepared to spend the rest of my life here," Pascal said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 12 April
Zanu PF hijacks food aid distribution from WFP
The ruling Zanu PF party has hijacked the World Food Programme's food aid distribution process in the rural areas by exploiting loopholes in the system. Those in need of food assistance are required to register with their ward councillors, village development committees, traditional leaders, headmasters and agriculture extension workers. Most of these officials are Zanu PF supporters and those who have tried to be impartial in the execution of their duties have faced the wrath of war veterans and Zanu PF militias who are leading a nation-wide purge of MDC members. The WFP, which is heading the food distribution programme through its implementing partners, Christian Care, Orap and World Vision, does not have the capacity to handle the screening of those in need of food assistance. In Umzingwane district last week war veterans threatened to derail the WFP distribution exercise after they demanded that they should take charge. Norbert Dube, the director of Orap, confirmed to the Independent that some groups wanted to hijack the programme in Umzingwane district for political reasons. "We had problems with some people who wanted to meddle in the distribution exercise for political reasons but we made it clear to them that the food we are issuing is apolitical," said Dube. WFP officials in Umzingwane caused an impasse after they refused to hand over the exercise to war veterans who wanted to move the distribution venue to their stronghold in the Nswazi area. Over 600 000 people in south-eastern and south-western Zimbabwe are in dire need of food assistance in the worst drought facing the country since 1992.
Movement for Democratic Change agriculture spokesman Renson Gasela said he had raised the issue with the WFP. "I have had meetings with officials from WFP who gave me assurances that the food distribution programme will not be politicised," said Gasela. But there are problems, he said. "When the organisations go to distribute food, everything will appear normal and orderly but on the ground our supporters are starving," said Gasela. Reports from Mberengwa East and West indicate that war veterans are driving away opposition supporters from school supplementary feeding schemes and from buying maize from the government-controlled Grain Marketing Board (GMB). The MDC district chairman for Mberengwa East, Sam Mlilo, who is seeking refuge at a safe house in Harare, said war veterans with the aid of youth militias were preventing opposition supporters from participating in food schemes funded by donors or buying maize grain from the GMB. "Zanu PF structures are being used for any food programmes and MDC supporters are taken off food queues. If they manage to buy without being noticed the food is grabbed from them," said Mlilo.
Mlilo said even the traditional line of distributing food was also being politicised as maize meal was only distributed at Zanu PF militia bases and at chiefs' homes. Mlilo said the maize grain was sold at youth terror bases like Chamakudo primary school, Mataga growth point, Mbuya Nehanda military camp and Ngungubane military camp. Amani Trust chairperson for the southern region, Sheri Eppel, said her organisation has received reports from Mberengwa that children of opposition party supporters were being denied access to food being distributed under the donor-funded supplementary feeding scheme. In the affected areas MDC supporters are not even allowed to buy maize from the GMB. Those who somehow manage to buy the maize have to bribe the war veterans who have taken control of the distribution exercise. Mlilo said he had seen children being driven out of the supplementary meal lines at Chamakudo Primary School, near Mataga, because of their parents' political beliefs. The WFP had not responded to written questions by yesterday.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 13 April
Zimbabwe election challenged in court
Harare - Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change lodged a 135-page affidavit in the Harare High Court yesterday, demanding annulment of President Mugabe's election. After chaotic and violent polling on March 9 and 10, Mr Mugabe was declared the winner over Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC candidate, by more than 400,000 votes. Mr Mugabe has used his victory to step up attacks against the mainly white commercial farming sector. Mr Tsvangirai refused to recognise the result, saying it was "illegitimate", and demanded a new poll under international supervision. David Coltart, the MDC justice spokesman, said yesterday the affidavit contained 38 "profound cases of election fraud. In a normal court any one of them would be sufficient to throw the election out the window". He said it could be several months before the challenge is heard.
Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party has refused a re-run of the election, saying it was free and fair. In the June 2000 parliamentary elections the MDC challenged the results in 30 constituencies and out of 20 cases heard so far, has won five, which Zanu PF has appealed to the Supreme Court. Zanu PF has packed judicial benches with judges loyal to the party. The Commonwealth election observers, South Africa and Nigeria, have initiated dialogue between the MDC and Zanu PF to explore ways of healing the rift between the two parties. Ahead of the talks, Mr Mugabe's officials and his militant supporters, including the self-styled veterans of the independence war, have further raised the stakes against the commercial farming sector. More than 60 white farmers and about 5,000 worker families were evicted from their homes this week by Mugabe's supporters who said all farms now belonged to them.
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From The Saturday Star (SA), 13 April
Police evict farm 'settlers' for Zim elite
Harare - Just a month after Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe returned to power, members of his Zanu PF party elite have begun evicting self-styled war veterans and peasant settlers off commercial farms to make way for themselves. In the Marondera district 70km east of Harare, armed riot police this week evicted about 80 settlers from a prime forestry estate, allegedly in preparation for its takeover by Sydney Sekeramayi, Zimbabwe's defence minister. The settlers and war veterans on Maganga Estate say they have been on the farm since March 2000. One of the evicted settlers said that armed riot cops had swooped on the farm and ordered them off. "The police said the same government that had let us settle on the farm was the same government that was now evicting us." The farm's owners, Zimbabwean pulp and paper giant Hunyani, were not prepared to comment. Commercial Farmers Union regional executive Steve Pratt, said he had heard of other instances where war veterans and peasant farmers had been evicted to make way for the so-called A2 resettlement scheme land occupiers. A2 settlers are small-scale commercial farmers. "I suppose these people have a lot more clout than the peasants they evict from the ground," said Pratt. Marondera district administrator Eric Samunda said Sekeramayi had every right to be allocated land. "There's no discrimination just because he's a minister," he said.
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From The Daily News, 12 April
Libya threatens to cut fuel supplies over debt
President Mugabe is back in Harare after a four-day working visit to Libya. Sources say he was scouting around for assistance to ease Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis following a threat by President Muammar Gaddafi to cut the fuel life-line over non-payment of bills by the Harare government. Diplomatic sources told The Daily News that Libya and most of the companies supplying Zimbabwe with fuel had threatened to discontinue supplies. The arrangement between Libya and Zimbabwe was only a stop-gap measure but, the sources said, Gaddafi, one of Mugabe’s closest allies, had threatened to cut fuel supplies to Harare following the government’s failure to pay. "Mugabe had first indicated that he wanted to pay through a barter deal in exchange for beef since the country faces a serious foreign currency problem," one well-placed source said. "The Libyans turned this proposal down, saying they would only accept Zimbabwean beef if the European Union resumed beef imports from the country."
Mugabe departed for Tripoli as talks between Zanu PF and the MDC kicked off on Monday. Mugabe has been increasingly isolated by the world in the wake of his controversial victory in last month’s presidential election amid reports that Zimbabwe is virtually mortgaged to Libya in exchange for oil and money. The Libyans are said to have been allocated farms by the government. No official comment could be obtained from the Libyan ambassador, Mahmoud Azabi, who was said by his office to be out of the country. Reports in the State-controlled Herald yesterday said Libya was now providing 70 percent of Zimbabwe fuel imports. A 12-month US$330 million (Z$18,15 billion) oil deal signed by Mugabe and Gaddafi last year for Libya to supply Zimbabwe with oil expires in two months’ time and Mugabe was reportedly anxious to secure an extension to avert another crisis in the tense period after the presidential poll.
"The bottom line is that Libya has been unable to get the products promised by Mugabe when the deal was sealed," another source said. "That is why Mugabe had to go and plead with Gaddafi." The deal, under which Gaddafi supplied oil in exchange for land, agricultural produce and stakes in key enterprises in the tourism sector, helped Mugabe reduce the magnitude of the crippling fuel crisis which started in October 1999. With the exception of Gaddafi, the rest of the world’s suppliers had stopped oil supplies to Zimbabwe due to non-payment. Gaddafi, who has emerged as Mugabe’s key foreign ally, described Mugabe’s disputed win in the presidential election as a "victory for Africa" at a dinner organised for Mugabe during the trip. Mugabe is increasingly being isolated on the international scene over his controversial re-election and repressive rule. The Minister of Mines and Energy, Edward Chindori-Chininga, last month went on a whirlwind tour of the world as he tried to secure more fuel for the country to no avail.
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From News24 (SA), 12 April
Tobacco to be sold in forex
Harare - Zimbabwe's central bank has ordered that all tobacco sold from next month be transacted in foreign currency from outside the country, in a bid to boost the nearly empty foreign exchange reserves. "Settlement for tobacco purchases on the auction floors in 2002 will be effected in foreign currency ... for exchange control purposes," the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) stated on Friday. "In effect, therefore, the entire green leaf tobacco will be wholly financed from offshore sources," the bank said. Tobacco is the country's top foreign exchange earner. The bank has introduced the new rules in an effort to control foreign exchange leakage and help build on the country's reserves as 80% of the foreign currency amount realised from the sales will be sold to it, while 20% is set aside for growers' input. The move will also ensure that merchants do not participate in the parallel forex market.
Zimbabwe's foreign exchange reserves are almost empty, yet the country has to import petroleum liquids for fuel, as well as electricity and maize to avert hunger in the country. It has reached a deal with Libya to buy fuel using the local currency. Due to the long-running foreign currency exchange shortages in Zimbabwe, the tobacco industry has experienced severe price distortions in recent years. Some merchants were capitalising on the forex shortages, changing their money on the parallel market where one US dollar fetches around 320 of the local units while the official exchange rate is 55 units to one greenback. To cushion themselves from the effects of the foreign currency problems, tobacco growers are calling for a devaluation of the local currency to 195 units to the US dollar. This year's tobacco selling season opens on May 14. During his inauguration speech, President Robert Mugabe acknowledged a "foreign currency crunch", but promised to take steps to boost exports, woo investment and revive tourism. Exports, the main source of foreign exchange along with tourism - also hard hit - have fallen off more than 30%, according to the central bank. Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis since the nation won independence from Britain in 1980. In addition to forex shortages, inflation is running at nearly 120%, unemployment at around 60%, and three in every four people are living in poverty.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 12 April
UK-bound Zimbabweans conned
Controversial Zanu PF publicist Temba Mliswa is running a recruitment agency in London which has seen Zimbabweans anxious to enter the United Kingdom turned around at Gatwick by British immigration officials and sent home. Mliswa's company, Education UK Ltd, whose British office is given as Wembly Point, 15th Floor, Harrow Road, Middlesex, promises applicants placement in the UK on payment of £100 (or $400 000 if paid in Zimbabwe) as a registration fee. The company specialises in the recruitment of students, teachers and nurses and claims to have offices in Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Russia and East Africa. The company has so far failed to refund nine people who were deported in February alone. Mliswa is the company's director for Southern Africa. One of the deportees said Mliswa, a former national soccer team fitness trainer, had taken them for a ride. "His company assured us that everything would be okay as they had assisted many Zimbabweans who had gone abroad," said one woman who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I cannot disclose my name because I might be victimised by Mliswa who is well-connected to the ruling party. Besides I might not even be able to recover the $400 000 I paid," she said.
"In order for us to help you," says the company's prospectus, "you must first register with us. The cost of registration is £100 for five years if you are applying for the UK and £520 if you are applying for the United States." Education UK Ltd claims to assist applicants gain admission to education programmes overseas. "This means that after registering, we can help you to gain admission not just for one course, but also for many different courses," the prospectus says. Contacted for comment, Mliswa said: "Look, I am not an immigration officer. I only assist people to have their papers in order. If they fail to answer questions at the airport that is not my problem. I cannot assist them with my brains. Those people should have paid me £100 before leaving but they did not," said Mliswa.
Another deportee said Mliswa was not being honest. "Mliswa had given us a letter which we were supposed to show immigration officers at Gatwick. But once we mentioned his name, we were immediately deported. They said he had sent many people to the UK claiming they would only stay for two weeks and they had just vanished," the deportee said. An official from the British High Commission said they had no arrangement with Mliswa's company. "I have never heard of this company and we have no dealings with Education UK Ltd," she said. Mliswa also claimed that people were being deported because of the Aids scourge. "Let us not blame (Robert) Mugabe for these deportations. Many Zimbabweans who go there are straining the British health system as they will be infected by the deadly Aids virus," he said.
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Comment from The Financial Gazette, 11 April
With love from Uncle Sam
Over the past week, there has been pandemonium within the business community after names of Zimbabwean tycoons who have been banned from entering the United States began to leak out. The list has been the talk of town and debate has been raging on in political and business circles on who is on the list and who is not. A witch-hunt has even started on why the names of some business leaders perceived to be close to the governing Zanu PF party were left out from the list. Many top local business chiefs are frantically making inquiries to the US embassy every day to check their status and how best they can evade the net, which is likely to be expanded. Never have I seen the Who is Who of Zimbabwe's business community so concerned about a decision made so far away in Washington. As I write, several business leaders are in the process of being served with letters from "Uncle Sam" to confirm their status of being banned from entering the United States either for business or for pleasure.
In coming up with the criteria and decision of drawing up the list that slaps President Robert Mugabe, his inner circle and business leaders close to Zanu PF with the travel restrictions, the United States clearly states: "These actions have forced the United States to impose targeted travel restrictions on senior members of the government of Robert Mugabe, certain persons with business dealings with Zimbabwe government officials, and others who formulate, implement or benefit from policies that undermine or injure Zimbabwe's democratic institutions or impede the functioning of multiparty democracy. The restrictions seek only to limit the ability of a few people from inflicting further damage on Zimbabwe." I do not want to be drawn into debating individuals affected by this measure or those who may not be affected and whether or not they are supposed to be on the list. The bottom line is that a very small clique within the business community with strong leanings with the current leadership has been the single biggest beneficiary of this regime. No doubt about that.
In fact, some of their business empires have been built purely on Zanu PF patronage under which these business persons have received preferential treatment in shady deals and operations because of their links with Mugabe's regime. Some, in most instances, are even conduits which have been used to loot state resources and to siphon money out of state coffers. Lucrative multi-million-dollar government tenders which in the past have been given to Zanu PF cronies are well known and no longer an issue to debate. Some of these businessmen and their empires are known to even get a sympathetic ear from the taxman largely because of their strong relationship with the status quo. These are business empires that have been built or set up to serve the needs of the ruling elite and not of ordinary poverty-stricken Zimbabweans.
Without Zanu PF and if they were operating under a fair, honest and professional environment, most of the affected business leaders and their empires would not survive even a day. These institutions' sole purpose has been the funding and fuelling of Zanu PF's political activities while others have been used as fronts by corrupt politicians in setting up business empires for themselves. We have seen on numerous occasions some of the business leaders, including their companies, falling over each other to donate to the coffers of Zanu PF. This clique also has the most vocal and elite supporters of Mugabe. It is composed of people who have made a significant input in undermining democracy in this country by funding and sustaining Zanu PF's violent political activities of oppression for their own selfish interests.
The Zanu PF "supply line" has to be cut and its main players put under check if its excesses have to be contained. The same clique of business leaders is the one that does not want to hear talk of Mugabe's retirement or him being voted out because they know they cannot survive under a new administration that would not tolerate shady deals. Most of the business leaders targeted by the Americans do not see any life beyond Mugabe and Zanu PF because their empires and operations have no professional foundation. But this is the clique that wants to lecture us about black empowerment and indigenisation when, in actual fact, it is the empowerment of a few and a free rein to loot and plunder for those close enough to the powers-that-be. Time is up for those who want to be double-faced and are involved or used in funding this tyranny. Time has come to punish all those who support tyranny and those who fund it. This is the way it should be.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 14 April
Chidyausiku blacklisted
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, who is widely believed to be sympathetic towards Zanu PF, has become the latest high profile official to be included on Washington's list of persons barred from the United States, The Standard has learnt. The news of Chidyausiku's inclusion came as the US widened the list of affected individuals which now also includes Elliot Manyika, the minister of youth, gender and employment creation. His exclusion from the initial list had surprised many as Manyika leads the notorious youth militia blamed for gross human rights abuses during the run up to last month's presidential election controversially won by President Mugabe.
But it is Chidyausiku's inclusion on the list of specified persons that is bound to send alarm bells to anyone connected to the ruling party which has been condemned internationally for crimes against humanity. The chief justice becomes the first member of the judiciary to be targeted for personal sanctions by the US and this stigma comes barely a year after his controversial promotion to head of the judiciary. The chief justice could, however, not be reached for comment. When The Standard telephoned his home yesterday, a woman who identified herself as his wife said she would call back if Chidyausiku had any comment to make on the travel ban. "He is away, but you can leave your telephone number and I will phone you back," said the woman.
Chidyausiku's catalogue of controversy dates back to 2000 when he was appointed head of the highly partisan Constitutional Commission which did an extensive outreach programme and then unsuccessfully tried to push through a draft constitution which did not reflect the views of the majority. During the commission's tenure, Chidyausiku, who was then judge president, was involved in an embarrassing wrangle with fellow commissioner, Gloria Mukombachoto. After initially authorising a hefty payment for her services, he then rescinded his decision claiming that he had authorised the payment in "a moment of weakness". As judge president, Chidyausiku had a skirmish with the Supreme Court in 2001 when he tried to reverse the court's ruling over a land issue involving Samson Mhuriro.
Since his appointment as chief justice, Chidyausiku has made a number of controversial judgments in favour of Zanu PF, including one which allowed President Mugabe to override an earlier Supreme Court ruling on the Harare and Chitungwiza municipal and mayoral polls. The court had ruled that the polls be held in early February, but Mugabe declared that the polls be run concurrently with the presidential election, a decree Chidyausiku allowed to stand. On the eve of the presidential election, he also inexplicably postponed indefinitely an urgent application by the MDC which sought to stop the use of the controversial supplementary voters roll in the elections. The voters roll, which is alleged to have been secretly compiled to accommodate Zanu PF supporters, comprised about 400 000 names, a figure similar to President Mugabe's winning margin in the presidential poll.
The imposition of personal sanctions on Zimbabwean officials was made possible by the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act 2001 signed into law last December by President George W Bush, in response to evidence of human rights violations perpetrated on opposition supporters by Zanu PF thugs with the assistance of members of the security forces and police. The Standard understands that Washington is in the process of informing affected individuals through a letter from the State Department. The letter is signed by the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Walter Kansteiner. Apart from the US, other countries to react to the Mugabe regime's violation of human rights include the 14-member European Union and Switzerland, which have all taken similar action. The Commonwealth has reacted by suspending Zimbabwe from its council meetings for a year.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 14 April
Zanu PF officials' wives worry over sanctions
While Zanu PF officials who have been included on the list of persons banned from travelling to the United States and western Europe have dismissed the personal sanctions as irrelevant, some of their spouses are crying foul, saying the move will adversely affect them and their families. The targeted sanctions affect Zanu PF officials, their spouses and children, and this is what has irked women who were interviewed by The Standard. The women said the move was particularly unfair as it would affect their children who are studying overseas. Most government ministers and senior Zanu PF officials have kids studying overseas. Last week Ijeoma Dabengwa, the daughter of Zanu PF politburo member, Dumiso Dabengwa, was refused re-entry into the US as she was returning there for a masters degree in business studies.
Tsitsi Sekeramai, the wife of the defence minister, Sydney Sekeramai, told The Standard she was worried about her children who were going to be affected by the travel ban. "It is only the children who will be sacrificed in the process. There is no justification to the whole issue. However, it is the powers that be who determine everything and we cannot do anything about it," said Mrs Sekeramai. She was quick to add that the travel ban would not affect her personally as she normally travelled within southern Africa only. "I have never travelled abroad, hence these sanctions will not affect me in any way. If you check my passport you will discover that I have travelled regionally," she said.
Sharlotte Msipa, wife of the Midlands governor and resident minister, Cephas Msipa, said while she did not know if her family had been put on the sanctions list, she nevertheless thought the move was unjustified. "It's the order of the day and we can't do anything about it. I do not know whether the children will be affected as well," she said. Chipo Makoni, the wife of finance and economic development minister, Dr Simba Makoni, was quick to dismiss the sanctions as she rarely travelled. "It really does not affect me because I rarely travel to those parts of the world. I have not put myself to look at it or get involved in it," she said. The US slapped travel bans on Mugabe and officials from his party and their associates for their role in perpetrating crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe. Similar action has also been taken by the European Union and Switzerland.
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From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 14 April
Children denied food in Mugabe election reprisal
Johannesburg - The children of destitute opposition supporters in Zimbabwe are being refused food aid in the latest round of reprisals after Robert Mugabe's disputed election victory last month. Pro-government thugs are driving children from feeding centres in drought-hit areas because their parents are suspected of supporting the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Shari Eppel, the director of the Amani Trust, a civil-rights group, said: "International food donors are setting up feeding centres aimed at destitute families but once the donors have moved on, the bullies move in and decide who gets fed and who doesn't." Bennie Tumbare-Mutasa, an MDC MP in the mainly government-supporting Mberengwa East province, said many constituents have told him they were being denied maize. "They say the maize is being sold at war veterans' bases, and they're being told to ask their friends in Britain for food." Children of MDC supporters are also being denied medical treatment at clinics in areas controlled by the ruling Zanu PF party, according to civil rights groups, while "enemy" pupils are being banned from school. The Amani Trust is treating a three-month-old boy who was beaten because his mother was an MDC supporter. The baby was denied treatment at a local clinic. "This is part of a pattern," said Ms Eppel.
More than 600,000 people in southern Zimbabwe are suffering from the country's worst drought since 1992. The maize crop has been devastated by lack of rain and the effects of illegal land invasions. Shops have not stocked basic commodities, such as maize meal, cooking oil and sugar, for months. The only food supplies available in rural areas are deliveries from the government's Grain Marketing Board and are often hijacked by Mugabe supporters. Those suspected of supporting the MDC are banned from buying supplies, said Wellington Murisa, the MDC administrator for Chitungwiza province. "They are even barring whole villages from buying maize. Even those homes with only one distant relative who supported the MDC are being denied food," he said. The distribution programme run by the World Food Programme (WFP) is also vulnerable. Renson Gasela, the MDC's agriculture spokesman, said: "WFP officials assured me that the programme will not be politicised. But when the organisations go to distribute food, everything will appear normal, but on the ground, our supporters are starving."
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From The Daily News, 13 April
Ncube accuses Moyo of lying on talks agenda
The ruling Zanu PF reportedly only agreed to have the legitimacy of the presidential election on the agenda of the inter-party talks with the MDC after the opposition party threatened to pull out of the exercise. Professor Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general and leader of the party's delegation in the inter-party talks with Zanu PF, yesterday said Zanu PF was pressured by the Nigerian and South African facilitators to have the legitimacy of the presidential election and President Mugabe's government included on the agenda after the MDC threatened to withdraw from the talks. Ncube said: "The South African representative and his Nigerian counterpart, Kgalema Motlanthe, and Professor Adebayo Adedeji, respectively, came to my office to persuade me to leave this vital issue out of the agenda, but I completely refused. There is no way we could recognise a government which assumed office by uprooting our supporters' houses, murdering, raping and torturing law-abiding citizens. Let there be no illusion from anyone that the MDC wants to join the Zanu PF government. Our supporters do no want to hear this rubbish."
Ncube said he had decided to speak out after what he described as "the unprofessional and unethical behaviour" by Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity in the President's Office. He accused Moyo of using the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and other State media "which he controls", to deliberately misinform the public about the talks. Ncube was responding to allegations by Moyo on ZBC on Thursday night that the MDC had only contributed one item on the agenda for the talks which resume on 13 May. Ncube said: "I would not have talked to you in this manner because some of us are professional people. The rules of the talks state that what happens in the talks shall be confidential. Because we have integrity, we decided not to speak to the media, but we cannot allow Moyo to continuously lie and mislead the nation about these talks."
Ncube said contrary to Moyo's claims, the MDC contributed four items on the agenda including the most crucial one, which deals with the legitimacy of the election result and the government. He said it was evident that Moyo was lying when he said the MDC only brought up the issue of confidence-building. "Is Moyo telling me that he put the issue of legitimacy of the election result and the government on the agenda? If that is what he wants the nation to believe, has his party abandoned its misplaced position that President Mugabe's victory is non-negotiable?" Ncube asked. He said the MDC never raised the issue of changing the composition of the Zanu PF delegation. The MDC, however, pointed out to the facilitators that the ruling party's team was "a delegation meant to fail the talks because Moyo was not a serious person because he always wants to play to the gallery".
Ncube said: "If the people of Zimbabwe elected Zanu PF into power without undue influence we will congratulate it, but we will never accept a government elected through violence and murder." Ncube said the MDC was aware that the talks would not yield anything because Zanu PF had stolen the election and was not going to surrender its "stolen victory". He said his party went into the talks because some respected African leaders sincerely believed that a solution to the crisis of governance in the country could be found. Ncube said it would have been undiplomatic for the MDC to have spurned the African leaders.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 14 April
Kunonga travel ban hailed by Anglicans
Church leaders and parishioners of the Anglican church have come out in full support of the travel ban imposed by the United States on Harare's Anglican bishop, Nolbert Kunonga. The church leaders said by his partisan stance, Kunonga had stepped away from his role as a church leader. A fellow bishop within the Anglican church urged Kunonga to leave office if he was unable to stop diverting biblical sermons into political ones. "Of late he (Kunonga) hasn't been preaching, but urging people to grab land and I do not sympathise with him," said the bishop. The former vicar-general of the diocese, Reverend Tim Neill, told The Standard on Friday that he applauded the decision by the US government as it could serve to rein in Kunonga. "This should keep him quiet. Kunonga is a disgrace to the church. He should be brought to a tribunal as he has broken the cannon laws through his wedlock with the ruling party. It is an offence under the laws to become associated with a party which kills innocent people. The laws of the church should take due course," Neill said.
Father Petros Nyatsanza, who once served in the diocese but left in protest, also applauded the ban. "The mistake he (Kunonga) made was so simple, it could have been avoided. He became vocal when he could have kept quiet. He showed his foolishness by endorsing the illegitimate polls which means he won't stop his political marriage with the ruling party," Nyatsanza told The Standard. A priest within the Anglican church who declined to be named said: "The action by the American government was the right one. This man went overboard by being patriotic to the ruling party. He could have stayed out of trouble if he had been impartial. Instead of building bridges for peace, he was destroying them."
A parishioner with the church, Henry Chuchu, said the specification could stop any possible attempts by Kunonga to conduct Zanu PF business abroad. "He was going against the teachings of the church and if he had not been specified, he might have been used by his party to do business on their behalf under the cover of church business," said Chuchu from Chitungwiza's St Monica parish. Godfrey Kakono, a parishioner with St Joseph's Church in Dzivarasekwa, had this to say on the issue: "He was fanning violence as if it was not affecting his church. The best thing for him to do is to resign from the church and become part and parcel of the party he loves," said Kakono. Father Kenneth Makamure of the Zimbabwe Catholics Bishop Conference said Kunonga deserved the travel ban because of his partisan stance. "His comments in support of Mugabe are not what we expect to hear from a man of cloth but from politicians. He betrayed his church by pursuing Zanu PF politics ahead of church business," said Makamure. The United States and the European Union recently slapped a travel ban on President Mugabe, his cabinet ministers and service chiefs and their immediate family members. The list, which is constantly being reviewed now includes Zanu PF sympathisers like Kunonga.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 14 April
Torture of MDC supporters continues unabated
Incidents of torture continue to hound opposition supporters with 205 cases recorded within a week. In its latest report covering the period 25-31 March 2002, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said it was worrying that incidents of torture which started in early 2000 continued unabated, even after the country's controversial presidential election. The 205 cases recorded in the six days under review brought the total number of such cases this year to 1 085. Said the coalition of human rights watchdogs: "It is thoroughly regrettable that the abuses and political violence which started as far back as just before the constitutional referendum in February 2000 are still continuing. This is despite the politicking call by the president for all to work together.
"The cumulative total cases of torture are alarming. There is evidence that after the elections Zanu PF supporters started a campaign of violence against supporters of the opposition with impunity. Notably in rural areas and commercial farms, this is accompanied by destruction of property and cases of theft, so as to force the owners of the land to flee." The report said torture bases used in the run up to the 9-11 March presidential election were still operational, with no sign of them being dismantled. "It will be revealed that in most rural areas, a lot of supporters of the opposition are still being forcibly displaced. During such incidents the abuse and violation of human rights is being carried out with unspeakable magnitude. It is really unfortunate that ordinary people are the ones who are suffering, yet those who have sought political offices are unaffected. Despite most of the cases being reported to the law enforcement agencies, very few have resulted in proper investigations and prosecutions as the war veterans are behaving like a law unto themselves," said the coalition of NGOS.
Two politically-motivated murders also occurred during the period under review, bringing the total cases to 51. Inaction and lack of professionalism on the part of the law enforcement agents was also noted in the six days, with cases of unlawful arrest and unlawful detention numbering 38 and 27 respectively. This occurred as Zanu PF sought to quell any dissenting voices in the aftermath of the controversial presidential election which has been condemned as illegitimate and flawed by local and international observers. The total number of people unlawfully detained between 1 January and 31 March 2002 now stands at a staggering 107, while 137 people have been unlawfully arrested.
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From News24 (SA), 14 April
‘Mugabe stole your vote’
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged thousands of supporters on Sunday to remain patient as he bids to force a re-run of last month's controversial presidential poll. "Mugabe stole your vote and you people did not get the government you wanted because of that," the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told a rally attended by more than 12 000 people in the densely populated Highfields suburb of Harare. "So we must have a grand strategy of action which will ensure that this illegitimate government of Mugabe will not survive," Tsvangirai said. "We as MDC should be ready to govern because victory is certain for us. When the time for action comes we shall tell you people of Zimbabwe how to act and you should be disciplined when the time comes," he said. The MDC on Friday petitioned the High Court for nullification of the March 9-11 vote, in which Mugabe - who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 - was declared the winner by a wide margin over Tsvangirai. The former labour leader rejected the result, charging massive vote-rigging, and has refused to recognise the Mugabe government. The MDC is also engaged in talks with the ruling Zanu-PF which are set to resume on May 13 at which the opposition will also press for a re-run of the election. Early indications were that Zanu-PF would not consider a re-run.
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Standard, 14 April
What has Tony Blair to do with it?
By Chenjerai Hove
Often, when Africans do not want to solve their problems, they look for someone whom they can blame for those problems. I am tired of hearing the former colonial powers being blamed for everything our governments have done badly. I actually think it is old-fashioned nonsense to think the former colonisers are about to invade us again in huge planes. It's high time we had a good inward look at ourselves and admitted honestly to what we have done wrong to ourselves. As far as I am concerned, Tony Blair did not order all those killings in Zaka, Gutu, Bikita, Gokwe and other such places. It was an African problem caused by African brutality, and Tony Blair had nothing to do with it. Tony Blair did not order Africans to strip people naked in front of school children, to rape women and to close down schools. It is a case of uncontrolled African brutality caused by our leaders' lack of vision for the country. Now the country has no food-that has nothing to do with Tony Blair but has everything to do with the minister of agriculture. He lied to the nation after flying over the land, inspecting maize leaves from the air, and concluding that the amount of leaves he saw equalled the amount of food we have in our country. The British have nothing to do with that. Once in a while, we have to be honest with ourselves and point out our own political mistakes.
When elections happen in Britain, or any other European country, not even a chicken is killed for political reasons. But when the same kind of elections happen in Zimbabwe, many bizarre things happen to innocent people - killings, rape, torture, intimidation and sexual abuse of innocent women. That has nothing to do with Tony Blair and his government. It has everything to do with uncontrolled African brutality and lack of commitment to the electorate or the dignity of our people. When, for example, did Tony Blair instruct anyone to close schools and abuse teachers? Our government must accept responsibility for the many abuses of the past two years. And it was not Tony Blair who sent our army to the DRC to fight a war which we cannot even afford. By the way, the new laws which have been put in place are an insult to the citizens of our country. And it was not Tony Blair who sent anyone to write bad laws against the people of our country.
The people of Zimbabwe deserve much more than the lies which we are subjected to everyday. They need a leadership with a long-term vision for our destiny, not this incessant blaming of the British for all our problems. The current government has so abused our constitution that it is beyond recognition. How, for example, can a whole government decide to make so many laws against the freedoms of the people? As far as I understand, the purpose of government is to empower the people, not to take away power from them. If the people are all of a sudden told that they can not criticise their own president, who then should they blame for the problems of the country? And all this has nothing to do with Tony Blair and his government. It has all to do with the lack of conscience of our current leadership.
All we need is a leadership with a vision for our country, not an obsession with power simply for the sake of power. By the way, we all have a history to account to in the not-so-distant future. Any leader who abuses the people must know that the future is not very far away and the books of our past are being written now. If we mess up our own future and the future of our children, Tony Blair will not appear in the history books as part of our problem - it is our current political leadership which will appear in our history of missed opportunities.
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Comment from The Daily News, 13 April
Zanu PF has no rural support
Our beleaguered and belligerent President is at it again. He recently castigated people who live in the cities of Harare and Bulawayo for not supporting him in last month’s presidential elections. He stopped short of calling them totemless as he once did to the people of Mbare. He, however, accused them of being so intoxicated with sugar that they had lost their minds. One wonders if at State House they have porridge and drink their tea and coffee without "intoxicating" sugar.
Zanu PF prides itself on having the undivided support of people in the rural areas. If this is so why did they ban civic groups and churches from conducting voter education there? Why did they set up roadblocks by youth brigades to stop people from towns visiting their rural relatives? Why did they ban the informative Daily News from these areas? Despite denials by two-faced Zanu PF ministers, all Zimbabweans know that the rural areas suffered the brunt of Zanu PF’s brutal violence prior to the presidential election. I could not even go to my village to bury my favourite uncle, Elijah Nyandoro, because I had received information that Zanu PF "boys" would be waiting for me there. Zanu PF’s much-vaunted rural support is a figment of their own imagination. If it was real the party would not have declared rural areas "no-go" areas for the opposition MDC. There would also have been no need for the well-documented violent intimidation which took place. In some places MDC polling agents were harassed, tortured and killed so that they would not be at their posts to monitor the polling process. This left Zanu PF free to stuff ballot boxes with phantom votes. I am inclined to believe that the rural support we hear so much about only exists in the Zanu PF leadership’s minds.
Even in those areas where the support was real, hunger, violence and lies have turned the people against Zanu PF. The people, though unsophisticated, have seen the light. I was intrigued to read that villagers in the remote Gwangwara village in rural Rushinga lashed out at Grace Mugabe, accusing her of thinking about them only when elections were around the corner. One villager is reported to have publicly said: "Mugabe thinks we are fools but some of us are not. We have suffered for a long time and now we know that we are being abused. We have had to think again." She is reported to have said the issues of starvation, unfulfilled promises and poverty had contributed to the growing dislike for Zanu PF countrywide. Her sentiments are today being echoed in almost every village and growth point in Zimbabwe. Zanu PF has virtually no support in the rural areas.
The people of Zimbabwe are facing mass starvation. If the President really loved the people he would do everything in his power to alleviate their suffering, even if it means a rerun of the election. He could ask that, since the country is broke, the European Union or the United Nations fund the exercise. He has nothing to fear but the reality of losing, of course. The fact that Zanu PF lost the election only to steal the vote through chicanery is common knowledge, even among the rural people. No amount of retributive violence can remove that truth from the people’s minds. They know that the regime now calling itself the government does not have the mandate of the people. They are impostors. Our real government should be an MDC government.
Even Zanu PF knows that. This is why they are eager to make some kind of accommodation with MDC. If they won why are they talking to the MDC about the legitimacy of the presidential election? In all the history of parliamentary democracy who has even heard of a president who, after winning a free and fair election, and being duly sworn in as president, goes on to invite the leader of the losing party to form a government of "national unity" with him? After the brutal way they treated white Zimbabwean farmers and sinking so low as to take away Sir Garfield Todd’s citizenship from him, it is quite clear that Zanu PF is not capable of such magnanimity. In their hearts they are aware that they are an illegitimate government and that the people and the international community knows that. Hence their frantic efforts to get the "tea boy" to legitimise their theft. He won’t, for if he does, he will, in the eyes of the people, also become a thief. The story of Zapu and the Zanu PF killer whale is still fresh in his mind. Once it swallows him it will not spew him out, as in the case of Jonah.
President Mugabe relied heavily on his friends to back his theft of power. It seems he over-estimated the strength of their feelings of "African solidarity". When Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo were faced with certain realities, they decided to turn towards what was in their national strategic interests, rather than back a spurious Mugabe victory in Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s claim that he is in the forefront of fighting imperialism is believed by nobody except an eccentric like Muammar Gaddafi, whose country does not practice democracy. He seems to be the only friend that Mugabe has left. He has his own agenda, of course. He would like to replace the British as our coloniser. Even Ghana, the breeding ground of Pan-Africanism has washed her hands. The Ghanaian observer team said the election was not free and fair and the results were, therefore, unacceptable. This must have been a tough decision for Ghanaians to make. After all Robert Mugabe was their son-in-law.
Zimbabwe and Ghana enjoyed a special friendship because of that relationship. Many Zimbabweans feel that the tragedy which has befallen us would not have taken place had Mai Sally Mugabe been alive. She would have prevailed upon her husband to do the right thing. She loved her husband and the people of Zimbabwe. We were all proud to call her mother. She would never have called fellow Zimbabweans who thought differently from her husband, cats and dogs. Mai Sally did not marry her husband for wealth and position. He was a struggling schoolteacher while she came from a highly placed family in Ghana. She struggled with us and was loved by all. May her soul rest in peace, despite the suffering her beloved people are going through at the hands of her husband and his new wife. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
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From The Independent (UK), 16 April
Zimbabwe editor arrested for poll-rigging claim
Geoffrey Nyarota, the editor of Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, was arrested and charged yesterday with "fabricating" a story that the government had rigged President Robert Mugabe's victory in the disputed presidential election last month. The Daily News published an article last week accusing the registrar general, Tobaiwa Mudede, of manipulating the results of the presidential election in favour of Mr Mugabe. Mr Mudede denied the charges, although last week he did issue amended final results that reduced Mr Mugabe's majority by 4,000 votes. This was not enough to change the result. Mr Nyarota's lawyer, Lawrence Chibwe, said the editor had been arrested, charged and released three hours later. Police had not indicated when he would be brought to court. Mr Nyarota was arrested under draconian new legislation that prescribes fines or jail sentences of up to two years for journalists who "fabricate" or "manufacture" news or "abuse journalistic privilege". The law, brought in by Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, bans foreign journalists from working in Zimbabwe, except with permission to cover specific events for short periods. The law also envisages the establishment of a commission that will allow Zimbabwean journalists to practise only if they have been granted a renewable licence. Mr Moyo wrote to Mr Nyarota two weeks ago, asking him to correct another "false" story reporting that a forum of parliamentarians from the European Union and developing countries had called for the presidential election to be re-run. Mr Nyarota refused. The forum later confirmed that the report was correct.
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From Associated Press, 15 April
Editor arrested in Zimbabwe over vote rigging story
Harare - The chief editor of Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper was arrested Monday on charges he published false information on vote rigging in last month's presidential election. Geoff Nyarota, 51, editor of The Daily News, was detained by police over an April 10 report in the paper that said election authorities admitted President Robert Mugabe lost the March 9-11 vote until 700,000 votes were mysteriously added to his tally. Under new media laws, Nyarota was charged with abusing "journalistic privilege" and publishing false information, said his lawyer, Lawrence Chibwe. Nyarota was freed after questioning and will be summoned to appear in court later, he said. The offence, under the Access to Information Act signed by Mugabe a few days after the election, carries a maximum penalty of up to two years in jail. Dumisani Muleya, a reporter with the weekly Zimbabwe Independent, was also arrested Monday over a report published Friday that said Mugabe's brother-in-law was leading a group of black militants trying to seize control of a profitable white-owned food processing company in Harare. He was being questioned by police late Monday.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday said his Movement for Democratic Change party had compiled irrefutable evidence of massive vote rigging in the election. The party filed a High Court petition Friday demanding the poll results be nullified. Several independent observer groups have said the elections were deeply flawed. The United States condemned the vote and the Commonwealth of Britain and its former colonies suspended Zimbabwe for a year, citing political violence, repressive laws and unfair voting conditions that swayed the poll in Mugabe's favor. The Daily News said on April 10 it had tapes of state Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede declaring 2.2 million valid votes cast, then increasing the figure to the officially declared tally of 2.9 million valid votes. Mugabe was declared the winner with 56 percent of ballots to Tsvangirai's 42 percent.
Mugabe, 78, led the nation to independence from Britain in 1980 and faced little dissent until recent years, when the nation's economy collapsed and political violence erupted. Last month Mugabe's government threatened to prosecute Nyarota over an item in his paper about a call by the African, Caribbean and Pacific-European Union Joint Assembly calling for new elections in Zimbabwe. The government accused the paper of being an opposition mouthpiece. Nyarota has been arrested at least five times during a crackdown against the media, civic groups and independent-minded judges in the past two years. Though dozens of independent journalists have been arrested, assaulted or threatened by ruling party militants, the Daily News has been particularly hard hit. A stun grenade damaged its lobby ahead of parliamentary elections Mugabe's party narrowly won in June 2000. In December 2000, explosives wrecked its presses, a day after the government called the newspaper an enemy of the state.
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From The Advertiser (Australia), 16 April
EU steps up Zimbabwe action
Luxembourg - EU foreign ministers have beefed up their sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his government to include a ban on bilateral ministerial contacts "until further notice". In a statement, they expressed "deep concern at reports of continuing politically motivated violence against opposition supporters" by Mugabe's governing Zanu PF party. Meeting as the EU Council of Ministers, they also condemned "the wide-scale abuse of human rights still taking place, especially in the rural areas, with the assent or the complicity of the Zimbabwe authorities". "The council decided to impose a moratorium on bilateral ministerial level contacts with Zimbabwe until further notice, except for the conduct of political dialogue intended to promote democracy, human rights, the rule of law in Zimbabwe, regional security and for addressing humanitarian needs."
The 15-nation European Union had, at Britain's urging, already imposed personal sanctions against Mugabe and 19 close associates, including an asset freeze and a travel ban, prior to Zimbabwe's general elections in March. It also yanked its election observers out of the country, after determining that Mugabe's administration would not allow them to fan out across the country and go about their work thoroughly. In their conclusions today, the EU foreign ministers said they were deferring consideration of "additional targeted measures" against Mugabe's government until a meeting next month. They also said they were awaiting "with interest" a report on a visit to southern Africa by an EU delegation, and for "signs of a clear commitment" from Harare to end political violence and strive for national reconciliation. "The council welcomed the initiative of South Africa and Nigeria to facilitate inter-party dialogue in Zimbabwe," their statement said. "The EU strongly supports all efforts which will lead to a fully representative future government in Zimbabwe."
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From BBC News, 15 April
New Zealand bans Mugabe
New Zealand has placed a travel ban on senior members of the Zimbabwe Government, in response to last month's widely-condemned presidential election. The ban applies to President Robert Mugabe, who won the election, and 19 cabinet ministers, defence chiefs and other associates. The Commonwealth has suspended Zimbabwe for a year, after its observers said the election was marred by violence against opposition supporters. The European Union, Canada and the United States have already imposed travel bans on senior Zimbabwean officials. In announcing New Zealand's own ban, Foreign Affairs Minist |
