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Archived News
11th January 2005
New 'spy' arrest in Zimbabwe
Parliamentary speaker targeted in espionage case
Mugabe's espionage witch-hunt
Mugabe dumps his hardline disciples
Divisions in Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF widen
Zim airways 'not free'
Zanu PF reserves 36 seats to women
Joyce no cause for rejoicing
Zanu PF spy suspect badly tortured
Zimbabwe's Moyo appeals against election ban
Mnangagwa sucked into war vet's murder probe
Mugabe succession row spreads to farm ownership
Purge splits Zanu PF
Zim beef industry close to extinction
Zim grain imports rise
'Mischievous' banknote slogans anger Zimbabwe govt
War veterans' boss flees
Zanu PF elections directorate to meet
No going back on Tsholotsho
Chiefs 'empowered' to prop up Zanu PF
Murmurs of discontent
Parliamentary speaker arm-twists white farmers to throw bash for Mujuru
MDC rejects spy links
Mugabe tightens press regulations
Zanu PF factions clash at funeral
Centre to help vulnerable child deportees
Government ropes in 20 000 pro-Zanu PF militias into police force
Concern over fate of spying suspect
Maize meal runs out
A'maize'ing Rain
The last hope for a dying game
Infighting among Mugabe's party members could benefit MDC at polls
Zimbabwe's most powerful woman or a pawn?
The last hope for a dying game
'The party will not impose candidates'
Disgruntled Zanu PF supporters demand overhaul of election criteria
Mugabe throws weight behind farm invasions leader
Land reform puzzle takes new twist
Zimbabwe's media 'hangman' threatens new weekly
Bodies pile up in short-staffed Zimbabwe mortuaries
Malnutrition and related diseases expected to rise
Resettled farmers need assistance
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From Business Day (SA), 5 January 2005-01-05
New 'spy' arrest in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean authorities arrested a senior official in the national security ministry yesterday , as dramatic investigations into alleged spying activities unfold. A source said the unnamed official would be charged with failing to report information on the alleged spy network. "This official stumbled on to the spying network and did not report the matter because he underrated the implications of the discovery," said the source. Under Zimbabwean law, it is an offence not to report a breach of the Official Secrets Act. His arrest brings to six the number of people arrested for suspected spying in recent weeks. Zanu PF director for external affairs Itai Marchi, Zanu PF deputy director for security Kenny Karidza, and former Metropolitan Bank company secretary Tendai Matambanadzo are among those facing spying charges after being seized by Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation. They are accused of "trading information" about Zimbabwean government activities through a spy network that was supposed to report on squabbles in the ruling Zanu PF party. While the case is being held secretly in a Harare magistrate's court from which the public is barred, it is understood several of the accused, who initially pleaded guilty, are now demanding to change their pleas to innocent. If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison under Zimbabwe's Official Secrets Act. It has not yet emerged which foreign power the six were allegedly spying for, though they were allegedly paid in foreign currency.
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From Zim Online (SA), 5 January
Parliamentary speaker targeted in espionage case
Harare - Parliamentary speaker and presidential hopeful Emmerson Mnangagwa is the ultimate target in the ongoing espionage case against four senior Zanu PF officials as a vicious struggle over President Robert Mugabe's successor deepens. Party insiders speaking on condition they were not named told Zim Online yesterday that although Mnangagwa was yet to be formally linked to the espionage case, he was eventually going to be sucked into the matter in which his ally, Philip Chiyangwa and four others are accused of supplying intelligence information to foreign agents. "At the moment it is his lieutenants they are dealing with but the net seeks to eventually close in, on the big fish, on Mnangagwa himself," said one source. He added: "The succession row is still boiling, in fact it is now heading for a decisive moment." Government-controlled newspapers have already hinted that more senior members of Zanu PF and the government might be questioned or arrested by the police over the espionage case. But Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira, last night denied the espionage case was targeted at Mnangagwa or his supporters. "I am not aware that the police are arresting people from certain campaigns (factions). Those that have defied the laws of this country will be dealt with according to the laws of this country," Shamuyarira said.
Chiyangwa, who is related to Mugabe and is chairman for Zanu PF in Mashonaland West province, was arrested for allegedly supplying strategic information about Zimbabwe's ruling party and government to British and Israeli intelligence. Zanu PF deputy security officer Kenny Karidza, director for external affairs Itai Marchi, Zimbabwe's ambassador to Mozambique Godfrey Dzvairo and banker Tendai Matambandzo were also arrested along with Chiyangwa for the same alleged offence. Although Chiyangwa deserted Mnangagwa at the eleventh hour to back Joyce Mujuru for the vice-presidency of Zanu PF, he is a publicly known ally of the parliamentary speaker and had allegedly campaigned for him to become vice-president ahead of Mujuru. Chiyangwa's co-accused are also part of a group of senior party officials who backed Mnangagwa to take the vice-presidency, a key stepping stone to the top job. The espionage case against the four Zanu PF officials, a five-year suspension imposed by the party on six of its 10 provincial chairmen as punishment for backing Mnangagwa for the vice-presidency, were all an attempt by a rival faction led by Mujuru's husband, Solomon, to crush his wife's competitor.
The prevention of government information minister and propaganda chief Jonathan Moyo and two other senior Cabinet members, who backed Mnangagwa, from contesting the March election was also aimed at whittling down the parliamentary speaker's powerbase in the party and government, the sources said. In addition, a campaign to seize farms from Zanu PF and government officials who grabbed more than one farm during the government's land reforms appears now only targeted at officials linked to Mnangagwa apparently to demoralise the speaker's faction. But insiders said the trump card for Mujuru's group remained the espionage case with the faction's supporters in the Central Intelligence Organisation, who are handling the case, under charge to extract evidence from the suspects by "fair or foul means" that will implicate Mnangagwa. "The strategy is not necessarily to jail Mnangagwa but to thoroughly discredit him by linking him to foreign spies plotting Zanu PF's and Mugabe's downfall," a source said.
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From UPI, 4 January
Mugabe's espionage witch-hunt
By John C.K. Daly and Martin Sieff
Washington - Beleaguered Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is turning on his own inner circle. The arrest of prominent politician and businessman Philip Chiyangwa on espionage charges now looks likely to prove the excuse or catalyst for a wide-ranging purge of Mugabe's own ruling Zanu PF party and of the Zimbabwean Cabinet itself. Chiyangwa was arrested Dec. 15 and held incommunicado until he appeared in court on Christmas Eve charged with espionage under Zimbabwe's draconian Official Secrets Act. He was a figure of consequence in Zanu PF as provincial chairman of the party's Mashonaland West organization. Three other prominent officials face similar charges. They are Godfrey Dzvairo, former head of consular services at the Zimbabwean Embassy in the South African capital Pretoria, who had been named Zimbabwe's next ambassador to its friendly neighbor Mozambique; Itai Marchi, Zanu PF's director for external affairs; and Tendai Matambanadzo, the well-connected former company secretary for the Metropolitan Bank. A fourth prominent figure, Zanu PF's deputy security chief, Kenneth Karidza, is scheduled to appear in court this Friday. Dzvairo's fall was particularly abrupt. He had celebrated his promotion to ambassadorial rank only a couple of weeks before State security agents pounced on him.
Zimbabwean newspapers are calling the case the most sensational spy scandal to hit the impoverished, landlocked nation in recent years. The four men are already accused of leaking classified information to the CIA and Britain's domestic security service, MI-5, in return for generous cash payments. Another key figure in the alleged spy ring, Erasmus Moyo, a shadowy figure formerly employed in the Zimbabwean Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, is said to have disappeared in Europe after he was summoned back to the Zimbabwean capital Harare. But the purge is not expected to stop there. Zimbabwean security officials have leaked reports that at least two Cabinet ministers and other government officials and prominent figures in Zanu PF are under suspicion. Mugabe could use the well-publicized investigation and subsequent trial to try and distract his restive public from the continuing miserable state of the Zimbabwean economy. Intelligence analysts who monitor Zimbabwe also suspect the aging president will draw on the case to justify giving more wide-ranging power as to his Central Intelligence Organization and feared Ministry of State Security to clamp down further on protest and dissent nationwide. Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold new parliamentary elections in March in which Zanu PF faces a strong challenge from the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change bloc.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 5 January
Mugabe dumps his hardline disciples
By David Blair in Johannesburg
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe turned on his most zealous followers yesterday when two cabinet ministers and the official who masterminded the invasion of white-owned farms were banned from standing for parliament in forthcoming elections. The purge of the ruling Zanu PF party claimed the careers of men who have offered years of slavish service. Among those dropped from the approved list of parliamentary candidates were Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister, who waged a vendetta against independent judges and personally hounded at least six into resignation, and Jonathan Moyo, the information minister who oversaw the arrest of dozens of journalists. Joseph Chinotimba, who styled himself "commander-in-chief of white farm invasions", was also dropped. All will be unable to contest the elections scheduled for March and will be deprived of their parliamentary seats, Mr Moyo and Mr Chinamasa will lose their cabinet posts. Mr Mugabe, who turns 81 next month, appears to be securing his grip on power by keeping all of Zanu PF's factions off balance. "Turning on those who have served him has been Mugabe's style for many years," said Vincent Kahiya, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, a local weekly. "They thought they had joined the big boys and now they've been brought down to earth." Mr Chinotimba, a former security guard, led thousands of squatters on to farms, threatening landowners with death if they resisted. He was later accused of attempted murder after allegedly shooting his next-door neighbour for being an opposition supporter. Until recently, Mr Mugabe would introduce Mr Chinotimba to visiting heads of state at Harare airport. As part of his purge of independent judges Mr Chinamasa, 57, gave the former chief justice, Anthony Gubbay, 24 hours to clear his desk after the supreme court declared the seizure of white-owned farms illegal.
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From SABC News, 5 January
Divisions in Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF widen
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party was wracked by further divisions yesterday when ordinary members briefly held hostage Elliot Manyika, the national political commissar. Protestors, many of them from the party's women's league, blocked the entrance to Zanu(PF's) headquarters in downtown Harare, refusing to let Manyika leave the premises until he addressed them. Attempts by Manyika's driver to force the Mitsubishi twin-cab through the crowd failed as angry protestors swarmed the vehicle. Efforts by police to disperse the crowd failed. Eventually Manyika, a fierce Mugabe loyalist, emerged from the car. "I am not running away," he said. "I have been called to an urgent meeting by (Zanu PF national chairman) John Nkomo and I am coming back to attend to your grievances." Meanwhile, the Zanu PF protestors said they were unhappy with the imposition of candidates for soon-to-be-held party peers have in recent days banned, barred and dropped several senior members, denying them the right to hold office in the ruling party. The move, which has been described as the worst split in Zanu PF since the 1970s, has seen the party divide into several factions.
Rural divisions have also erupted in recent weeks, with police having to quell fighting between Zanu PF factions. Recent skirmishes in the eastern district of Makoni have seen Joseph Made, the minister of agriculture, being accused of fanning violence by "hiring thugs" to disrupt meetings held by his opponent in the primaries, Gibson Munyoro, an MP. The alleged violence prompted Munyoro to write to Zanu PF leaders, complaining that his meetings had been disrupted. "To my surprise, Dr Made has been hiring thugs in the form of workers from the local Grain Marketing Board depot in Makoni district to disrupt my peaceful meetings, despite warnings by the police in nearby Rusape to campaign peacefully," Munyoro wrote in a letter to John Nkomo, the Zanu PF chairperson. Made denies the allegations. The intra-party violence follows similar charges that saw gangs of warring Zanu PF thugs clash in the northern Lomagundi district last month. Supporters of Kindness Paradza, a Zanu PF lawmaker, and Leo Mugabe, Mugabe's nephew, clashed at Hombwe business centre, resulting in several arrests.
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From News24 (SA), 5 January
Zim airways 'not free'
Harare - Zimbabwe's radio and television stations, controlled by the ruling Zanu PF party, are not open to opposition parties despite recent airtime given to members of the Movement for Democratic Change and Zanu (Ndonga), the opposition says. For the first time this week, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation allowed MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube and Zanu president Wilson Kumbula airtime. Neither party has been allowed on television or radio since the violence marred 2000 parliamentary polls. Ncube said: "As long as ZBC reports in a speculative and partisan manner, they have not opened the airwaves and we are not going to participate in the election. If they invite us using the agreed structure, then we will consider it." Meanwhile, Reketayi Semwayo of Zanu said, "The move to allow us on radio was only to put pressure on us and other opposition parties to participate in the election, despite government's resistance to implement SADC guidelines. With two months to go before the polls, time is running out for the government. We want them to repeal all draconian laws like the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as well as disband the militia." Zanu, which holds a single seat in parliament, says that it "shared the same stance" as Zimbabwe's main opposition MDC party. General elections are set for some time in March this year, but the MDC, which controls almost half the elected seats in parliament, has said it may boycott the polls if Zanu PF does not comply with Southern African Development Community protocols on the holding of elections. It is also demanding that Zanu PF repeals harsh press and public order laws implemented during the last four years of political upheaval in Zimbabwe.
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From Zim Online (SA), 5 January
Zanu PF reserves 36 seats to women
Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party last night announced that 30 percent of its candidates for the 120 constituencies up for grabs in March's parliamentary election will be female. Party secretary for women's affairs Oppah Muchinguri told journalists in Harare that 36 of Zanu PF's candidates in the general election will be women, four less than the 40 slots women should get under party policy to reserve a third of all leadership positions for female members. Several senior Zanu PF politicians among them, jailed Zanu PF provincial chairman Philip Chiyangwa and Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, were barred from contesting the poll after their preferred constituencies were reserved for women. The same gender balance policy was also used by rivals to block parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa from taking over as party co-vice president saying he should pave way for a woman, Joyce Mujuru. Mujuru has since been appointed second vice-president of Zimbabwe placing her ahead of Mnangagwa and several other presidential hopefuls to succeed President Robert Mugabe as president of Zanu PF and possibly Zimbabwe. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which says it might boycott the election unless electoral laws are sufficiently democratised, has said it cannot have more women candidates as many of its female members would rather keep low profiles for fear of victimisation by suspected Zanu PF militants.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 4 January
Joyce no cause for rejoicing
Everjoice J Win
In Shona culture we believe that November is an inauspicious month. You don' t get married or brew beer for the ancestors during that month, otherwise you will be cursed. And indeed, bad things do happen in November. First Yasser Arafat died. Then Condoleezza Rice was named new United States Secretary of State. And just when we thought nothing worse could happen, Joyce Teurai Ropa Mujuru was made vice-president of Zanu PF. One can't help but be angry with little text and e-mail messages congratulating me and all Zimbabwean women for Mujuru's election as Zanu PF's new vice-president. A crucial distinction must be made: there are female persons; then there are women's women. The only thing Mujuru and Rice share with other women is biology. My sisters may chide me, but how else is one supposed to greet the elevation of a woman who publicly declared: "There is nothing like equality [between men and women]. Those who call for equality are failures in life"?
Mujuru was lauded by the patriarchal media when she made this assertion at a Salvation Army church women's meeting in 1998. She has not been known to speak out for women's rights issues in public, in Parliament (where she has sat since 1980), or in any notable forum (the short stint as minister for women's affairs notwithstanding). Women have entered the political arena in Southern Africa in increasing numbers. We have learnt that unless we are present and participate equally at decision-making tables, our needs will not be adequately met. But we have also learnt that it is not enough to simply want to be there. It is no longer sufficient just to talk about balancing the numbers. Those of us in civil society who are called upon to support women in leadership, need to know why we are supporting them. I do not want to work with radar-less women who seem to think that politics is a value-free science, or those who abuse office. What we need are women who will use their leadership positions to liberate themselves and other women. Trading on their biology alone is not good enough. I am angry with the kind of women who at every other time in their lives forget they are one of us, and remember their vaginas only when it suits them.
Women in leadership or aspiring to leadership have often argued, validly, that other women do not support them. But if these women make their views known so publicly, like Mujuru, should we celebrate them as our own? If they don't bring in a different vision or values to those that currently prevail, why should anybody be congratulating them about their election? Why should I be asked to vote for other women, when all I am getting is same old, same old? Mujuru has her own liberation war history credentials. Despite a number of newspapers' attempts to cast her as a front for her husband, the woman has been there, done that, and was overdue for higher office. She has been in Cabinet since 1980. Yet still we have to ask: Why is Mujuru being elevated at this particular moment? What is it that Robert Mugabe and his men have seen in her that they had failed to see in 24 years? What if she does succeed Mugabe and must clean up his mess? Once again we could see a woman being brought in when things are so bad that she ends up getting the blame when nothing changes for the better. This gives grist to the mill of those who say: "See we told you, what can this woman do?" The expectations of women have been raised. "This one," they think, "will finally stand up for our rights." I am certainly not holding my breath. As many would say in Shona, "Mujuru murume pachake" [Mujuru is a real man]!" She can stay one of the boys, but we need a few good women with whom we can identify and support as our own.
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From Zim Online (SA), 6 January
Zanu PF spy suspect badly tortured
Harare - Zanu PF deputy security officer Kenny Karidza, accused of espionage along with four other men cannot be brought to court, because he is unable to walk or talk properly after being severely tortured by state secret agents, sources said. Intelligence sources speaking on condition they were not named told Zim Online that Karidza's legs were badly swollen and that for the last week he has been unable to feed or talk properly after being tortured by agents of the government's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). "The man (Kenny) is in a very bad state," one CIO agent said. He added: "He has not been brought to court to allow him time to recover. The hope is that by Friday when he is supposed to come to court, he will be looking better." Karidza, Zanu PF provincial chairman for Mashonaland West Philip Chiyangwa, party director for external affairs Itai Marchi, Zimbabwe's ambassador-designate to Mozambique Godfrey Dvairo and banker Tendai Matambanadzo were arrested three weeks ago on charges that they were supplying intelligence information to foreign agents.
Chiyangwa, who suffered a mild stroke after being tortured, appeared in court last week and is due to reappear by mid month. Marchi, Dzvairo, and Matambanadzo have been at the magistrates' courts since last week pleading to be allowed to alter their initial guilty plea to not guilty. But Karidza, who is understood to be now detained at the Harare Remand Prison, has been kept out of the public eye. Prison officials refused to answer questions on Karidza's condition while his lawyers also refused to comment citing a court gag on lawyers and court officials not to disclose details related to the espionage case. Meanwhile, state prosecutors will today continue with submissions opposing an application by the other three suspects to alter their guilty plea. An official from the AG's office Morgan Nemadire said: "The state is continuing with its opposing response for the application for the change of plea." The hearing into the change of plea application, which began last week, is being held in camera with even close relatives being barred from court. If convicted of spying, the five men face jail terms of up to 20 years.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 6 January
Zimbabwe's Moyo appeals against election ban
Zimbabwe's outspoken Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo, has appealed against a Zanu PF decision to exclude him from primary elections in his home district of Tsholotsho. Moyo was told that the position will be reserved for a woman, in a move he describes as "unfair to me and to women". "If Tsholotsho had indeed been reserved for women candidates only, this should have been announced publicly and in advance to give all potential qualified women in the party an equal opportunity to participate and give men due notice that they were excluded from participation," Moyo wrote in a letter to the ruling party. The ambitious - if controversial - minister has in recent weeks seen his strength wane as President Robert Mugabe dropped him from both the ruling party's central committee and its powerful, Soviet-style politburo. Once thought to be one of the most powerful men in the ruling party, Moyo fell from grace after organising an unauthorised meeting in his home district. The meeting, which was called to back parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa's appointment as second vice-president, saw several senior Zanu PF official barred from holding office for five years after an angry Mugabe said they had broken party protocol. Instead, he appointed Joyce Mujuru to the position of vice-president, leaving Zanu PF with its worst split since the 1970s. Mugabe also said last month that no Zanu PF candidate not elected in primaries will be appointed to a Cabinet position. Should Mugabe stick to that decision, Moyo will lose his ministerial position, as well as his posts on the central committee and politburo, before the general election set for March this year.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 5 January
Mnangagwa sucked into war vet's murder probe
Police in Kwekwe have arrested seven suspects linked to the brutal murder of Livingstone Dhukwara, a well-known Zanu PF activist, whose death demonstrates the extent of infighting within the ruling party circles ahead of the March general election. Senior officials at Kwekwe Central Police Station yesterday said the suspects were picked up on Monday and taken to Harare Remand Prison for further interrogation. They are David Chisora, Solomon Shumba, Gonamomber Mabasa, Stephen Kalissa, Kenias Sibanda, Moses Murada and Emmanuel Musara. "It's true we have picked the seven suspects as part of our investigations and they are being held at Harare Remand Prison," said the police. Dhukwara, whose age could not be ascertained, was found dead on 18 November at Grasslands Farm, four days after he mysteriously disappeared from home. His body was decapitated and decomposed.
Since the 2000 general election, which saw the ouster of Zanu Politiburo member and Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa by little-known Blessing Chebundo of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Kwekwe has been the hotbed of political violence mainly between opposition and ruling party supporters. Although the police had initially attributed Dhukwara's death to suicide after they allegedly found a suicidal letter besides his body, they later launched a fresh probe after several unconfirmed versions of his death emerged. At the time of his death, Dhukwara is understood to have been embroilled in a bitter wrangle with one of the suspects over the ownership of the farm the deceased was occupying. It is alleged the suspect, a senior Kwekwe City Council official, had interests in the farm. However, a faction of the war veterans' association sympathetic to Colonel Abednigo Undenge has alleged that Dhukwara, who was a member of the latter's campaign team, could have been killed by party insiders sympathetic to the other two candidates contesting in the party's primary election.
Undenge, a member of the Zimbabwe National Army, is set to lock horns with retired army brigadier Benjamin Mabenge and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of Parliament in the party's primary elections on 15 January. The eventual winner will then contest the Kwekwe seat against opposition party candidates in the March 2005 general election. However, supporters of Mabenge and Mnangagwa denied the allegations in separate interviews yesterday. "This dirty campaigning will not take us anyway, let's just allow the police to carry out their investigations and bring the culprits to book," said a Zanu PF follower linked to Mnangagwa's camp. Efforts to get comment from both Mnangagwa and Mabenge were fruitless. Several political analysts at the Midlands State University in Gweru who spoke on condition of anonymity attributed Dhukwara's death to infighting within the ruling party. "As long as the three candidates fail to agree on who should represent the party in next year's general election, this fatal infighting will continue," said one of the analysts.
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From Zim Online (SA), 6 January
Mugabe succession row spreads to farm ownership
Harare - A government drive to repossess excess farms from top ruling Zanu PF party officials is now entangled with a vicious power struggle within the party with only officials linked to parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa's faction losing land. Latest on the list of pro-Mnangagwa Zanu PF and government officials to have land taken from them is Deputy Local Government Minister Fortune Charumbira who was this week forced to surrender three out of four farms he grabbed during the government's chaotic land redistribution programme. Armed police have since the beginning of the week camped at Sikato, Acton and Cotapax farms in Masvingo province to prevent Charumbira from entering the properties. Several more police officers have also evicted Mnangagwa's supporters from more than 13 farms across the country. Zanu PF chairman and Special Affairs Minister for Lands in President Robert Mugabe's office, who is in charge of repossessing farms from senior government and ruling party officials, John Nkomo, could not be reached for comment on the matter. Nkomo belongs to a faction led by retired army commander, Solomon Mujuru opposed to Mnangagwa.
To date only officials linked to Mnangagwa have been targeted by Nkomo's farm repossession drive, while those belonging to Mujuru have been spared. For example, Matabeleland North provincial governor, Obert Mpofu, belongs to the Mujuru camp and owns several farms. He has not only been spared but is also leading the repossession of farms from Mnangagwa's supporters in the region. Once the closest to Mugabe, Mnangagwa appears to have lost influence after losing a race to become second vice-president of Zimbabwe to Mujuru's wife, Joyce, who is now better placed to succeed Mugabe. The repossession of farms has become an extension of a wider plot by Mnangagwa's rivals to demoralise his faction and eventually dismantle it, according to Zanu PF insiders. Other Mnangagwa backers to lose land in the last three weeks include Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge, Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, deputy Speaker of Parliament Edna Madzongwe and deputy ministers, Shuvai Mahofa and Tinos Rusere.
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From The Financial Gazette, 6 January
Purge splits Zanu PF
Felix Njini
A purge waged by the ruling party against rebellious cadres might cost Zanu PF, which is facing another tricky poll against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), as it emerged that spurned party bigwigs might contest the March elections as independent candidates. While the potential for fissures within Zanu PF became more glaring after the infamous Tsholotsho meeting, which has claimed the scalps of over a dozen party hopefuls, it is the imposition of candidates this week that has driven disgruntled cadres to the edge. Sources said the decision to elbow out party heavyweights linked to the Tsholotsho debacle by reserving their constituencies for women and the nomination of other senior party members unopposed had raised the ire of party activists in the grassroots - the backbone of Zanu PF. The Young Turks, the most aggrieved section, were cut off from the inner cabal of the ruling party, which has maintained a firm grip on Zimbabwe's body politic since independence in 1980, with most of them being dropped off the nomination list for the Zanu PF primary elections. This has ignited a spark in the faction-ridden party, with insiders intimating that the rejected mafikizolos were considering standing as independent candidates.
The boiling discontent has been fuelled by the recent suspension of six provincial chairmen. The former provincial leaders, who include Energy and Power Development Minister July Moyo, have since been slapped with a five-year ban from the party. "Most of the people being sidelined because of the Tsholotsho meeting are contemplating standing as independents after the rejection of their candidatures," said a Zanu PF insider. "Some of them had put a lot of money in certain constituencies and have a strong chance of winning," the insider added. Eight Zanu PF members broke ranks with the ruling party to campaign as independent candidates in 1995, citing irregularities in the nomination procedures. The eight, who were later suspended from the party, included Margaret Dongo - Harare South; Stanley Chabvepi - Bikita; Eddie Musabayana - Mutare South; Ephraim Marwizi - Gutu; Patrick Marime - Mufakose; Great Makaya - Bikita; and Winston Munangi - Zaka East. Among those allegedly imposed against the electorate's own nominees are Prisca Mupfumira - Chinhoyi constituency; Sabina Mugabe - Zvimba South; Edna Madzongwe - Manyame, a Mr Jonasi - Kariba constituency; Sydney Sekeramayi - Mashonaland East; Cleveria Chizema - Glen Norah; Tendai Savanhu - Mbare; David Chapfika - Mutoko North; and Amos Midzi - Hatfield.
The alleged imposition has caused a furore within Zanu PF's ranks. Some women party supporters this week besieged the Zanu PF headquarters demanding an explanation from political commissar Elliot Manyika on the controversial nominations. Manyika maintained the situation was under control, saying the party's election directorate would "solve the problem". "We are waiting for the election directorate to resolve the issue but I cannot tell you how we go about our work. We are going to solve it our own way," Manyika said. Insiders intimated the disgruntlement was a sure recipe for voter apathy within Zanu PF. The situation could however provide a window of opportunity for the MDC, which has a faltering grip, especially on the rural electorate. "The people are not happy. They should have allowed people to chose their own preferred candidates, not to impose people. If we go against the will of the people we are done," said an insider. "There are people who are deluding themselves that the MDC does not exist and do not want to listen to advice but they will start listening after March 2005," the source said. The parliamentary elections have been slated for March 2005.
"It does not make sense to impose women because they are good ladies from Harare. They do not have grassroots support. Candidates must come from the people. The elections must be open so that every card-carrying member participates," the source said. In Mashonaland East, Zanu PF supporters alleged that Sekeramayi had been imposed ahead of their chosen candidate, Wilfred Marimo. Political analyst Heneri Dzinotyiwei said "manoeuvreing big chefs into positions of power could further marginalise electorate, already reeling from effects of economic mismanagement. In and outside Zanu PF, people are just frustrated and when they see unfairness in a party they support, they are likely to drag their feet," Dzinotyiwei said. "They can campaign as independent candidates but eventually they will just turn back to Zanu PF. That is the problem with this country's politics," said another political analyst.
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From Business Day (SA), 6 January
Zim beef industry close to extinction
Zimbabwe's commercial beef herd, which until three-and-a-half years ago earned more than US$2,4bn a year from exports, is on the verge of extinction as a result of the country's political turmoil, reports the Zimbabwe Independent, Harare. The national herd, bred over a period of 110 years for survival in Zimbabwe's harsh conditions, stood at 1,4-million animals in 2000, when President Robert Mugabe launched his fast track land reform programme. "By the middle of this year only 210000 beef cattle had survived," said Paul d'Hotman, Cattle Producers' Association CEO. "At the last count there were fewer than 125 000 animals, but the number will be lower by now. The entire national herd is on the road to extinction and the whole gene pool is being wiped out." The looming disappearance of one of Zimbabwe's most valuable assets is the most dramatic illustration yet of the meltdown that is occurring in a country with one of the world's highest inflation rates and the fastest-declining economy, the paper says. Apart from the land reform programme, crime such as cattle theft has also led to the decline of the herd.
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From The Financial Gazette, 6 January
Zim grain imports rise
Zhean Gwaze
The government, which last year refused international food aid, is stepping up grain imports from South Africa to avert a crisis that could be triggered by dwindling stock levels. Statistics released by the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) in its weekly maize exports report showed that Zimbabwe is importing between 5 060 tonnes and 8 000 tonnes of maize every week. Zimbabwe, according to independent food aid agencies, is faced with more than 2.4 million starving and malnourished people, a figure hotly disputed by government. The country, which is reeling from the effects of a three-year drought and a recession spanning over five years, is now among South Africa's major maize importers. Commentators this week said the imports were likely to leave a hole on the fiscus, further worsing the budget deficit, amid speculation that the treasury had not budgeted for the import bill. SAGIS said Mozambique, which is fast emerging from a decade-long civil strife, is importing up to 396 tonnes, Lesotho 1160 tonnes, Congo 216 tonnes, Botswana 598 tonnes and Namibia nine tonnes.
Samuel Muvuti, the chief executive officer of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Zimbabwe's national granary, could not be reached for comment. The GMB boss recently said the parastatal should be applauded for importing maize. "The issue of importing grain has been unnecessarily made newsworthy by some sections of the media. Actually, we should be applauded for importing maize. A lot of countries are importing maize," said Muvuti, a former soldier. A parliamentary committee on food and agriculture recently made startling revelations that the country's silos had only received 350 000 tonnes of maize from the 2003/4 farming season. This was despite assurances by Agriculture Minister Joseph Made that the country had sufficient grain to feed its 11 million-plus people. Zimbabwe consumes an average of 158 000 tonnes of maize per month. The GMB has so far imported only 224 000 tonnes.
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From SABC News, 5 January
'Mischievous' banknote slogans anger Zimbabwe govt
The Zimbabwe government today slammed what it called mischievous political slogans appearing on banknotes as campaigning heats up ahead of parliamentary polls due in March. State media have published pictures of banknotes stamped with the messages "enough" and "get up, stand up" and linked them to a pressure group which the ruling party says is aligned to the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The underground group, Zvakwana (Enough), which routinely distributes leaflets critical of the authorities, has not responded to the charges. Last year the same group was accused of putting similar messages on condom packets. David Chapfika, the deputy finance minister, said the government would "come down hard" on the culprits if caught, saying it was a criminal offence to deface the country's currency. "We are still doing our investigations but the slogans appear to be synonymous with slogans used by certain characters in the opposition," Chapfika, a member of parliament for Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, said. Paul Themba-Nyathi, the MDC spokesperson, denied the party was involved. "We as a party are totally opposed to the defacing of banknotes. What would we as a party gain by doing that." The MDC has emerged as the strongest challenge to the ruling party's grip on power, and has led criticism of Mugabe's 25-year rule which it says has left Zimbabwe in the throes of political and economic crisis.
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From Zim Online (SA), 7 January
War veterans' boss flees
Harare - The leader of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war veterans has fled the country fearing arrest for allegedly working with four senior Zanu PF officials accused in an espionage case, insiders say is an extension of a vicious power struggle within the ruling party. Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairman Jabulani Sibanda, who took charge of the group last year and was not yet on the list of Zanu PF and government officials banned from the United States (US) and European Union countries, is believed to be in the US. A senior agent of the state's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), who spoke anonymously for professional reasons, said: "We suspected he was part of the spying ring. The net is closing in on him. We believe he is in the USA." Former war veterans chairman for Bulawayo province and a close friend of Sibanda, Themba Ncube also confirmed the ZNLWVA chairman was out of the country. "I have been looking for him (without success). Initially, I thought he was out in the rural areas but I understand he is out of the country," Ncube said yesterday.
Zanu PF chairman for Mashonaland West province Philip Chiyangwa, party external affairs director Itai Marchi, deputy security officer Kenny Karidza, Zimbabwean ambassador-designate to Mozambique Godfrey Dvairo and bank executive Tendai Matambanadzo are being held by the CIO on charges that they supplied intelligence information to foreign agents. But party insiders say the espionage case is part of bitter infighting in Zanu PF over President Robert Mugabe's successor. According to sources, the ultimate target in the ongoing spy case is parliamentary speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who attempted to block plans by Mugabe to appoint Joyce Mujuru as his second vice-president, a key stepping stone to the top job. The five party officials held for espionage unsuccessfully campaigned for Mnangagwa to be appointed vice-president instead of Mujuru. Sibanda was Mnangagwa's right-handman and had managed to bring the war veterans, a key constituency in Zanu PF, behind the parliamentary speaker. He was suspended from Zanu PF for four years for attending an illegal party meeting to plan to scuttle Mujuru's appointment to the vice presidency. Mugabe had also publicly directed that Sibanda be removed from his post as ZNLWVA chairman.
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From The Herald, 7 January
Zanu PF elections directorate to meet
Herald Reporter
The Zanu PF National Elections Directorate is expected to meet soon to consider several complaints raised by various party members over the nomination of candidates to contest in the party's primary elections. The ruling party's national political commissar, Cde Elliot Manyika, who is also the chairman of the directorate, said a meeting would be convened to deliberate on the complaints, some of which resulted in a demonstration at the party's headquarters on Tuesday. The demonstrators alleged imposition of candidates and unfair disqualification of some cadres aspiring to be candidates when they submitted their curriculum vitaes (CVs) last weekend. "We have received several appeals, but we will be looking at the merits of each case and make a determination based on what we would have gathered on each respective case," said Cde Manyika in an interview. "If the need arises for us to ask for more aspiring candidates to submit their credentials in a given constituency, we will do so. But I cannot say much as of now because a lot will depend on what we would have gathered. We will complete the process very soon so as to meet the deadline of January 15 by which time primary elections should be held."
Scores of ruling party supporters - most of them women - blocked Cde Manyika 's vehicle at the party's head office, demanding him to address them on their grievances following the nomination of aspiring candidates by the party's 10 provincial co-ordinating committees last Sunday. Some complained that it was unfair for certain aspiring candidates to be told that they did not meet the criteria at the last minute having spent millions of dollars campaigning in a given constituency. Among the notable individuals who have appealed against their exclusion for consideration is the Minister of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Professor Jonathan Moyo, who was campaigning in Tsholotsho. Prof Moyo was barred because the constituency was declared reserved for women. But in his appeal, he noted that it was "very surprising and grossly unfair" that his and other male candidates' CVs were not considered "under an eleventh hour pretext" that the constituency had been set aside exclusively for women.
Cde Manyika said several appeals have been lodged and are currently with the secretariat, waiting for the directorate to convene a meeting to consider the appeals. "We will get to the bottom of every case to establish the basis of the appeal and once we are satisfied with it, corrective action will be taken. "The meeting will be convened as a matter of urgency to meet the deadline so as to give successful candidates ample time to campaign," said Cde Manyika. "In any democracy, complaints occur. So there is nothing unusual with that and we will be dealing with the appeals as expeditiously and transparently as possible." According to the criteria set by the party, only members of the provincial executives, National Consultative Assembly and Central Committee are eligible to participate in the primary elections. Outgoing Members of Parliament who do not meet the above criteria but have no disciplinary cases against them are eligible as well. A card-carrying member, who is known as a fervent and active supporter of the party and the party's aims and objectives and was prevented from holding a position in any of the structures of the party by virtue of his/her employment in the service of the State, can also be eligible after a waiver by the National Elections Directorate. The ruling party has also reserved one-third of the 120 elective constituencies in the 150-seat Parliament for women candidates who meet the outlined criteria.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 7 January
No going back on Tsholotsho
Staff Writers
Information minister Jonathan Moyo's bid to appeal against his exclusion from the Zanu PF primary elections in Tsholotsho will not succeed once the central committee adopts the decision to reserve the seat for a woman candidate, the ruling party's secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa said yesterday. Moyo has appealed to Zanu PF's National Elections Directorate against the decision to reserve Tsholotsho constituency for a woman, thereby disqualifying him. Mutasa said the ruling party had only received Moyo's faxed appeal yesterday although a story appeared in the Herald yesterday morning reporting on its contents. He said the party would provide an "appropriate response". "We have only received the appeal today (yesterday)," Mutasa said. "The central committee will deliberate on the positions taken by provinces and once adopted by the committee, nobody can appeal. Moyo has just presented his appeal to us today and it will be looked into by the elections directorate and it will come up with an appropriate response before the central committee meets."
Senior members of the Zanu PF Women's League yesterday said they would not tolerate any reversal on Tsholotsho. "As women, we will not allow rules to be bent for one man," a politburo member in the Women's League said. "This decision has to be respected and men must give women a chance." In his appeal to the chairman of the Zanu PF National Elections Directorate, Elliot Manyika, Moyo said the manner in which Tsholotsho had been set aside for women was unfair. He said he met the party's criteria to contest the primary elections as a current member of parliament, a former member of the central committee, a former deputy secretary for information in the politburo and as a current member of the party's national consultative assembly. Moyo has fallen out of favour with the party leadership since hosting the ill-fated Tsholotsho meeting, allegedly to try and block Joyce Mujuru's elevation to the post of vice-president ahead of Emmerson Mnangagwa. Five provincial chairmen who attended the meeting have since been suspended from holding any party position for five years.
Meanwhile, war veterans leader Joseph Chinotimba this week said he would disregard Zanu PF's nomination process, insisting he was still the candidate for the Glen Norah constituency. He was disqualified at the weekend. The Harare provincial coordi-nating committee barred Chinotimba from contesting primary elections scheduled for January 15, reserving the seat for former Harare commissioner Cleveria Chizema. Chinotimba ignored the disqualification and submitted his papers for vetting directly to the national elections directorate and politburo. Chinotimba confirmed to the Zimbabwe Independent that he had submitted his papers to the politburo for vetting after the provincial coordinating committee indicated that Glen Norah was reserved for a female candidate. "As far as I am concerned, I am still an aspiring candidate for Glen Norah until the politburo and the people of my constituency reject me," Chinotimba said. "People of Glen Norah should stay calm because I am still in the race to represent them. I have submitted my CV directly to the national commissariat for vetting," Chinotimba said. "All those who are claiming that they are already candidates are lying because the national commissariat and politburo are yet to confirm their candidature."
Chinotimba said there were a number of candidates who were unfairly treated and had forwarded their CVs directly to the national elections directorate. Sources in Zanu PF said Manyika had been overwhelmed with complaints from constituencies throughout the country. They said over a dozen candidates who felt robbed by both the party's new requirements and reservation of seats for women had either written or sent emissaries to make representations to the politburo and national commissariat on their behalf seeking the reversal of the nomination process. "There is serious disgruntlement among party activists following the exclusion of aspiring candidates who had spent millions of dollars in campaigning and assisting the electorate in the constituencies," sources said. They said most incumbent MPs who were imposed as candidates had failed dismally over the past five years and efforts to remove them were quashed by the stringent guidelines set by Zanu PF two weeks ago. Only members of the provincial executive, na-tional consultative assembly, central committee and "clean" sitting MPs are eligible to participate in the primary polls.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 7 January
Chiefs 'empowered' to prop up Zanu PF
By Ray Matikinye
The recent displacement of a family in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe (UMP) district in Mashonaland East from the area by Chief Tedius Matambanashe for allegedly supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will be seen as a disturbing consequence of government's decision to repose wide-ranging legal powers in the hands of traditional leaders. Reginald Marongedza's family of eight was evicted from its homestead and banished from the area because relatives had misrepresented his political affiliation to traditional leader Matambanashe. But Marongedza (29) maintained that envious relatives had fingered him to enable them to gain a piece of land he had inherited. "They have taken my land and my livestock are being kept at a friend's home. They are jealous because I occupy a very big piece of fertile land and own many beasts," he told a local daily.
In the early 80s when government established village community courts as an adjunct of the grassroots legal system, one such court in rural Mount Darwin ruled that a villager compensates his neighbour with an ox-drawn cart and eight head of cattle for letting his dogs maul the neighbour's goat. Although the community court system was disbanded due to incompatible judgements, two decades down the line government is keen to revive an amended traditional justice system. In October last year Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo announced the upgrading of chiefs' status, giving them powers to preside over cases with a monetary value of up to $100 million. "Chiefs' powers have been eroded over time and government has since agreed that these powers be restored," Chombo told a ceremony at Brunapeg, 14km from the Zimbabwe-Botswana border. "The decision to upgrade their juridical status is just one of the initiatives to empower them." Chombo said the Traditional Chiefs Act would be amended to establish chiefs' provincial and national courts of appeal to hear appeals by litigants. He declared: "Gone are the days when customary cases were taken to the criminal courts."
Social scientists are worried that the new arrangement could scuttle fair administration of justice, particularly among simple peasants whose security of tenure in communal areas is often dependent on the whims of traditional leaders. More importantly, the complex array of land tenure relations in the communal areas is underpinned by the fact that although the chiefs act like feudal lords, this class of mediators is made to believe they are owners of the land yet the state effectively has title to all land. Some chiefs have uncodified laws, quaint rules and regulations pertaining to the areas under them. For instance, a chief in the Bota area of Bikita demanded from bereaved families a hindquarter from every beast slaughtered to feed mourners. In other areas peasants are fined for burying their dead without having made prior notification of the deceased's illness to the chief. There is a host of petty dos and don'ts that affect peasants. Law experts have questioned the ability of chiefs to dispense justice, considering that they were not trained in law. "There is no way they can handle those cases because they (chiefs) are not trained in law," said constitutional law expert and lecturer Lovemore Madhuku said. "You cannot just emerge from chieftainship to practising law. It's a political strategy by Zanu PF to give chiefs powers to campaign but at the expense of justice," Madhuku said. He said the increase in jurisdiction was a mistake. MDC secretary-general and law expert Welshman Ncube said chiefs should not work parallel to formal courts. "Chiefs were appointed to deal only with customary and traditional cases," Ncube said. He said any disputes outside the customary law and proper courts should be handled within the traditional framework. "It would be fundamentally wrong for chiefs to deal with cases outside customary law."
Claude Mararike of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Zimbabwe says although there is need to improve the role and operations of chiefs, greater caution should be taken to prevent abuse of any authority granted. "Chiefs are unable to operate effectively because of the dualism of using Roman Dutch Law as the basis of our legal system and the traditional system of government which has been in place for a long time," he says. Mararike warns of latent problems. "There could be serious problems unless the traditional system of government is clearly separated from the political party system whereby chiefs are expected to act in a partisan way," he says, adding: "Chiefs would be more comfortable if they were not used as tools by political parties and politicians." Traditional chiefs in Zimbabwe have unwittingly become hatchet men for the ruling Zanu PF party, acting as coercing agents during elections. Government is keen to reward the chiefs for their role in frog-marching poverty-stricken peasants in rural areas to polling booths so as to determine their voting patterns. So far, the Traditional Chiefs Act has reposed the maintenance of law and order in traditional chiefs' hands in their areas of jurisdiction. It is in the process of being amended to allow judgements passed at the chiefs' traditional court to become incontestable in the magistrates' courts, unlike in the past. The Rural District Councils Act was amended as well to restore powers to allocate land in resettlement areas that were taken away from tradition chiefs in 1982 when rural district councils were established. Few traditional leaders have legal training to dispense modern forms of justice.
Mararike said the institution of chiefs needs to be reviewed to ensure that it moves with the times. "Young, educated and professional men should be appointed as chiefs otherwise the current crop would need support staff to dispense justice without biases among rural communities," Mararike said. Analysts say government has diminished the institution of chiefs by transforming them into political tools for the ruling party just as it would wish with all civil servants. President Robert Mugabe is willing to sacrifice Zimbabwe's economic wellbeing by pampering traditional chiefs more to retain their support than respect for their aptitude to dispense justice, they say. Expressing the chiefs' gratitude and at the same time exposing fears that the expedient largesse could cease when Mugabe goes, president of the Chiefs' Council, Chief Jonathan Mangwende, implored the ageing leader to maintain his grip on power. "We made a splendid job of campaigning for you during the presidential election and my colleagues are disturbed by rumours that you want to retire. We want you to stay," Mangwende told an annual chiefs' conference in Bulawayo last year. They have since been issued with vehicles at heavily subsidised prices that will be fuelled by money from peasants fined for numerous offences over which chiefs now enjoy jurisdiction. Most of the chiefs have also had their homesteads electrified and boreholes sunk to make them as amenable to Zanu PF's whims as possible.
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Comment from The Cape Times (SA), 7 January
Murmurs of discontent
By the Editor
As Zimbabwe's election in March approaches, so the murmurs of discontent within the ruling party are growing louder. This week Zanu PF members protested angrily outside the party's headquarters in Harare at what they regarded as the imposition of election candidates on them. This display of dissent follows the dropping of several senior party officials as candidates and the exclusion of others from the party's decision- and policy-making organs. At the heart of the dissension, it seems, is ultimately a power struggle over who will succeed Robert Mugabe as president when he retires in 2008. It is unclear what the fallout will be of the rifts emerging within Zanu PF, which has been in power since the first post-independence elections in Zimbabwe in 1980. On the one hand, the wrangling within Zanu PF may open political space for the beleaguered Movement for Democratic Change in the run-up to the election and allow them to campaign more freely. On the other hand, a fractious Zanu PF may dramatically increase the political instability in Zimbabwe - certainly not conducive to a safe election. Zimbabwe has already been buffeted by one crisis after another during the last decade or so. Today its economy is virtually paralysed. The general citizenry has inevitably been the worst affected, with several warnings of hunger, and even starvation, in certain parts of the country. The election scheduled for March offers them an opportunity to elect those they believe best able to improve their circumstances. The squabbling within Zanu PF must not be allowed to deprive them of this opportunity. The Southern African Development Community, and South Africa in particular, have an obligation to ensure that this does not happen. It is time for them to honour this obligation. They have paid lip service to their own ideals for far too long.
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From Zim Online (SA), 8 January
Parliamentary speaker arm-twists white farmers to throw bash for Mujuru
Gweru - Parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa is forcing white commercial farmers here to bankroll a party to celebrate the appointment of his rival Joyce Mujuru as Zimbabwe's second vice-president. In a move insiders say is an attempt to placate rivals in a raging power struggle within the ruling Zanu PF party, Mnangagwa wants to throw a lavish party for Mujuru, to whom he lost the critical vice-presidency, when she visits the Midlands next week. Mnangagwa - long perceived as President Robert Mugabe's heir apparent until he was dumped for Mujuru - is arm-twisting the few remaining white farmers here to "donate" a tonne of mealie-meal and potatoes, five steers and 100 chickens for slaughter at the party. Alternatively, farmers can give their donation in cash of at least Z$1 million per head. Mnangagwa could not be reached for comment. But in a letter urging farmers to donate, Midlands Commercial Farmers Union chairman Trevor Shaw reveals the involuntary nature of the gifts, ominously warning farmers to, "think hard" before refusing to contribute. "Each individual's name will be on the list of donors when we present the donations (to Zanu PF) so think hard before you do nothing," Shaw's letter reads in part. Mnangagwa appears increasingly isolated within Zanu PF with several members of a faction that backed him to take the vice-presidency, a key stepping stone to the top job, banned from the party or barred from contesting March's general election. Four other Mnangagwa supporters led by Zanu PF provincial chairman for Mashonaland West, Philip Chiyangwa, are charged with espionage for allegedly selling state secrets to foreign agents, a matter which party insiders say is an extension of infighting over Mugabe's succession with Mnangagwa himself the ultimate target in the case.
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From Zim Online (SA), 8 January
MDC rejects spy links
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party yesterday rejected claims by state newspapers that some of its leaders were being investigated for involvement in an espionage case in which four ruling Zanu PF party officials were arrested. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party secretary general Welshman Ncube told Zim Online that the party's officials had no access to government intelligence information which they could pass to foreign agents. Ncube said attempts to link the MDC with the alleged spy ring were a mere excuse to victimise it and jail its leaders ahead of March's general election. Ncube said: "We know nothing about spying. How can our members be involved in spying when they do not have access to confidential government documents? We are confident that no MDC member has access to state documents. This is a question Zanu PF must deal with and not involve the MDC." Zanu PF chairman for Mashonaland West province Philip Chiyangwa, party external affairs director Itai Marchi, party deputy security officer Kenny Karidza, Zimbabwe's ambassador-designate to Mozambique Godfrey Dzvairo and banking executive Tendai Matambanadzo are in custody on allegations that they traded intelligence information to foreign spies.
The government-controlled Herald newspaper said in yesterday's edition three prominent members of the MDC were also under investigation in connection with the espionage case. It did not name the officials. Meanwhile, Karidza, who state prosecutors had indicated would appear in court yesterday in an application to change his initial guilty plea, did not come to court. Officials from the Attorney General's office did not say why Karidza failed to come to court but indicated that he was now going to appear on January 13. Magistrate Peter Kumbawa is expected to rule on the same day on applications by Marchi, Dzvairo and Matambanadzo to be allowed to change pleas from guilty to not guilty. Sources this week told Zim Online that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was keeping Karidza away from the courts because he could hardly walk or talk because of injuries he incurred during severe torture by the organisation's agents.
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From Business Day (SA), 8 January
Mugabe tightens press regulations
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has enacted changes to media laws that will see unlicensed journalists jailed for up to two years, the government gazette announced. The amendment to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act which was passed by parliament early November, after weeks of intense debate and resistance from opposition lawmakers, is now effective, according to a notice posted by Mugabe's chief secretary. In the government gazette notice, the secretary Misheck Sibanda said the law "which has been assented to by... the president, is published." Under the new regulations journalists who work without a government licence now face a two-year jail sentence or a fine or both. A state-approved media commission has powers to accredit journalists. Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo last year defended the amendments as intended to "protect the state from attacks by enemies of the country". The new provisions tighten a law originally passed in 2002, just days after Mugabe's victory in presidential polls. Two independent newspaper groups have been shut down and scores of journalists arrested under the 2002 media law. The media law also bars foreign journalists from working permanently in the southern African country.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 8 January
Zanu PF factions clash at funeral
Hundreds of Zanu PF supporters loyal to opposing factions clashed in Glen Norah on Thursday night as the in-fighting in the ruling party over the selection of parliamentary candidates continues. Police had to intervene to calm the two factions, one loyal to war veterans leader Joseph Chinotimba and the other to former Harare commissioner Cleveria Chizema. Chizema has since been confirmed the Zanu PF candidate for Glen Norah in a controversial quota system for women adopted by Zanu PF last month ahead of Chintoimba, who has splashed millions of dollars in the constituency. Zanu PF supporters told The Daily News Online yesterday that Chizema and her faction attended a funeral in Glen Norah A on Thusrday night. While she was delivering her speech at the funeral, Chinotimba and his youths stormed the occasion and started assaulting the other faction. "There was confusion as the two factions clashed and the coffin had to be hidden in the bedroom as the two groups of youths started trading blows," a Zanu PF supporter who attended the funeral said. "Chizema's faction was chanting that the female candidate was the party's choice and that Chinotimba's group was disregarding the party's position that Glen Norah was reserved for women." Police had to be called in to calm the two factions. The new quota system has caused confusion in Zanu PF as some Young Turks who were vying to contest some constituencies now reserved for women are asking what criteria was used. On Tuesday, hordes of Zanu PF supporters besieged their party headquarters demanding an explanation on why the party had come up with some candidates who were to stand unopposed. Manyika promised to look into the issue.
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From IRIN (UN), 7 January
Centre to help vulnerable child deportees
Johannesburg - The Zimbabwe government is planning to set up a transit centre in the busy southern border town of Beitbridge to assist vulnerable youths deported as illegal aliens from South Africa. The centre, to be established with the help of Save the Children Fund (Norway), will help youths under 18 who have been expelled for crossing the border illegally, but have no money to return to their homes. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mangwana told IRIN that the idea of a transit centre followed reports that some deportees, especially girls, had been victims of abuse and sexual harassment in Beitbridge. "We decided to enlist the help of non-governmental organisations to deal with the problem of young deportees, who are usually dumped around town. There are substantiated reports of young girls going into prostitution because they cannot find money to go back to their distant homes. Some, especially boys, engage in criminal activities to find money for food and travel," said Mangwana.
The minister said Save The Children (Norway) had donated over US $11,000 to help with the development of the centre, to be located about 15 km from the border post. According to a plan unveiled by the Beitbridge District Child protection Committee last week, the centre is to provide meals and accommodation to affected children for up to three days. "We realise that most female deportees are sexually harassed in the process of deportation. To this end the centre will also try to offer counselling services to the affected before we release them. Through liaison with other district social welfare offices, those of school-going age shall be sent back to school in their own areas of origin," he said. Mangwana noted that transporting the deportees back to their homes was proving difficult, as bus operators were refusing to accept government-issued travel warrants. Zimbabwe's economic crisis has led to an exodus of young people looking for work and opportunities across the border in South Africa, and hundreds of illegal Zimbabwean migrants are caught, detained and deported from there every month. According to the South African authorities, 900 Zimbabweans are due to be expelled on 15 January - a figure inflated by the suspension of deportations over the festive season.
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From Zim Online (SA), 8 January
Government ropes in 20 000 pro-Zanu PF militias into police force
Harare - The government plans to incorporate more than 20 000 of its controversial youth militias into the police force ahead of March's parliamentary election, Zim Online has established. The recruitment of the youths, accused by churches and human rights groups of committing violence and terrorising government opponents, will double up police manpower which at the moment is about 21 000 officers. The recruitment is set to be completed by the end of next month, according to police sources. "Initially there were concerns of indiscipline among untrained reserves but the highest authorities sanctioned the move (because) we are racing against time. It takes six months to train a regular policeman and the election is just around the corner," said a senior police officer, who did not want to be named. Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, in charge of the police, defended the recruitment of the pro-ruling Zanu PF youths saying the exercise would go ahead despite objections that the youths victimised opposition supporters. Mohadi said: "All government departments have a duty to give priority to national youth service products when recruiting and the Zimbabwe Republic Police is no exception. We will not abandon this policy simply because Press people think those guys (youths militias) are violent." The youths, trained by the government under its national youth service training programme, have been accused of hunting down opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party supporters in remote rural areas, raping and torturing them as punishment for backing the opposition party. The youths have also been accused of preventing MDC supporters from receiving government-sourced food aid to punish them for not supporting Zanu PF. The government denies the charges, instead insisting that its youth training programme is meant to inculcate patriotism and discipline in Zimbabwe's younger generation.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 9 January
Concern over fate of spying suspect
By Valentine Maponga
Relatives of Kenny Karidza, the Zanu PF deputy chief for security being held on allegations of spying, say they have not been given a chance to see their family member since December when he was detained by secret security agents. A close relative told The Standard that efforts to ascertain his condition had proved fruitless. He said Karidza's wife, Rubie, who is based in the United Kingdom and their two children were grief stricken over the matter. "Rubie says the kids are always crying She doesn't even know what to do with them; they are devastated. They were supposed to come back home just before Christmas for the holiday but because of what happened they could not," said the relative. Court sources said the family had secured the services of prominent Harare lawyer, George Chikumbirike. Karidza briefly appeared before magistrate Peter Kumbawa on Friday and was remanded in custody to 14 January. State prosecutor Morgen Nemadire confirmed that Karidza has been remanded in custody but would not give any further details. "It was just an interim remand but I did not even attend. I think you know the position. I cannot give you any further details," Nemadire said. The media and the public were barred from attending the proceedings. Chikumbirike was seen around the court trying to secure the case record soon after the court proceedings. When approached Chikumbirike said he was not in a position to make any application because he had failed to secure the record of the case. "I am not yet in a position to make an application. I can not make any application before I get to know the charges being levelled against him (Karidza). I will be coming back here on Monday," Chikumbirike said. He added that he came to the court early in the morning but only to be told that the matter had already been heard. Karidza is facing charges of contravening section 4 of the Official Secrets Acts. Also charged in the case are Zanu PF Central Committee member Phillip Chiyangwa; Zimbabwe's ambassador-designate to Mozambique, Godfrey Dzvairo; Zanu PF external affairs director Itai Marchi; and Tendai Matambanadzo formerly of Metropolitan Bank.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 9 January
Maize meal runs out
By our own staff
An acute maize-meal shortage has hit Zimbabwe and people are battling to acquire the basic commodity. A snap survey of the country's major cities revealed that all supermarkets did not have maize-meal. The Standard also established that most supermarkets around Harare had gone for days without maize-meal. If at all there was any, it would be refined meal. But the marketing director of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Zvidzai Makwenda, denied that there was a shortage of maize- meal in the country. He insisted that they were regularly supplying both supermarkets and millers with maize-meal and maize. "Had I been in the office I would have given you the statistics of the maize-meal and maize we supplied to both the supermarkets and the millers. The reason why there is only refined maize-meal in the supermarkets is because the millers want to make more money from this expensive maize- meal as well as stock feeds which are made from the residue," Makwenda said. However, a significant number of supermarkets said they last received maize-meal more than three weeks ago and were uncertain of when new deliveries would be made. "We last received maize-meal about two weeks before Christmas and since then we haven't received any," said an employee at a supermarket along Cameroon Street.
At Denenga Supermarket, they last received their orders of maize-meal about three days ago. By yesterday afternoon no further deliveries had been made. "Upfu huri kunetsa baba. Kana hukauya hauite two hours husati hwapera (Maize- meal is very scarce these days. It does not last two hours)," said a worker. The situation is the same in Bulawayo, the country's second largest city. There were only limited stocks of the super-refined maize-meal in one of the major supermarkets, costing $16 790 for a 5 kg, while 10kg and 20kg cost $28 000 and $54 000 respectively. "We placed orders for maize-meal some two weeks ago and up to now we are yet to receive deliveries from both the GMB and producers from around the city," said a hypermarket branch manager, who declined identification. Kholwani Sibanda, the owner of a retail shop in Bulawayo said he was buying maize grain from the Midlands province for milling, which he, in turn, sells to the public. "Prices are going up on a weekly basis due to the acute shortage of the basic commodity but hungry people don't mind. The black market has mushroomed and it is cashing in on desperate customers," Sibanda said.
The situation is worse in Manicaland, where the distribution of the few supplies of the commodity is being carried out on "political lines", particularly in Chipinge and Mutare. Mutare has gone for nearly two weeks with erratic supplies, driving residents to seek substitutes like yams and sweet potatoes. The well-to-do are going for rice, spaghetti, potatoes and macaroni. Clara Chimuti of Dangamvura's Area 3 suburb said she had gone for a week without eating sadza. "I have not had the chance to taste sadza as if I am in a foreign land. This is disgusting, to say the least." Aaron Simukai told The Standard he was asked to produce a Zanu PF membership card before he could gain entry into state-run GMB depot in Mutare, which was manned by youth militias. He said this was after he had told them he wanted to buy the staple food. "I was turned back when I told them I did not have one." The GMB Mutare depot manager, a Mr Kadyaridzire, was not immediately available for comment, despite repeated visits to his office by The Standard. But, Prosper Mutseyami, the MDC Manicaland vice chairperson said in Chipinge MDC supporters were being denied maize meal. "Only Zanu PF supporters are getting access to Silo maize meal in Chipinge, especially in Gaza suburb.
The situation is equally bad in Masvingo. Long queues of people are common whenever maize meal is delivered to the supermarkets. During the Christmas and New Year holidays there were only two outlets with maize meal, prompting residents to form long queues near Landmark beerhall, where supplies appeared to be regular. President Robert Mugabe last year told the international community that Zimbabwe had enough food to take the nation to the next harvest season and did not need any food aid from donor agencies. Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) however said more than two million people were in need of food aid. So far, nearly 180 people in Bulawayo, mainly children under the age of five, have died of malnutrition, which is linked to food scarcity. The government last year pegged the harvest at 2.4 million tonnes of maize although the situation on the ground has proved otherwise. The country consumes more than 5 000 tonnes a day.
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From Moneyweb (SA), 7 January
A'maize'ing Rain
By Judy Green
The great summer rains experienced over the past few weeks have been good for maize growth but bad for its price. Crops planted in September to November of last year have the benefits of recent rains and will be harvested from May to July of this year. "Unfortunately some of the districts didn't receive sufficient numbers, but other districts received an abundance of rain - so much so that in some areas it was too much," Bully Botma, chairman of Grain SA told Moneyweb Power Hour, "But on average we're really happy on what happened. And for the summer crops - this is not wheat, this is maize and sunflowers and sorghum and stuff like that - we are really glad for the rains that fell." Although favourable weather supports larger yields, the bigger crop tends to drive down prices through oversupply. But then other complicating factors can also come into play with international prices, exchange rates and world demand as variable factors upsetting this correlation. White maize prices at the end of November 2004 were R 1000 a ton, but a month later after exceptional rains, sunk right down to R 715 They are back on an upward climb now due to demand from Zimbabwe. Agricultural stock, Afgri, has seen a 13.4 % increase in its share price since December's low of R6.70 to its current price of R7.60 a share.
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From The Observer (UK), 9 January
The last hope for a dying game
The England team have been and gone, but cricket in Zimbabwe, like the country itself, remains in turmoil. Tom de Castella spent three months in Robert Mugabe's fearful nation and, in this special report, he talks to the white rebels and the black administrators to discover the truth about the racial tensions destroying their sport.
The meeting that killed cricket in Zimbabwe took place on 11 March 2004. Three of the selectors were present - Max Ebrahim, Ali Shah and the former Australia batsman Geoff Marsh - as well as captain Heath Streak and Vince Hogg, managing director of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. That morning the team to play Bangladesh in a one-day international had been signed off by Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, ZCU vice chairman and father of selector Max Ebrahim, and announced to the press. There were nine white players in the team and two blacks, Tatenda Taibu and Dion Ebrahim (no relation to Ahmed and Max). The instigator of the meeting, Ozias Bvute, had not arrived. Bvute is an increasingly powerful figure: then he was ZCU director of integration and now he is about to be appointed managing director of the rebranded Zimbabwe Cricket, on a reported salary of £7,500 a month. Hogg called him up on speaker phone. 'Gentlemen, this side you have selected is unacceptable in this day and age in Zimbabwe,' Bvute told the meeting. 'You will reselect the side.' The selectors argued that the team had been chosen on merit. 'Gentlemen you will reselect that side,' Bvute persisted. He explained that he would be failing in his duty to his 'constituents' if he did not increase the number of black players in the team. His constituents soon arrived at the meeting along with Bvute himself. They turned out to be from the Mashonaland Cricket Association, the most influential cricketing province in the country. They warned that if the selectors did not choose five black players, the pitch at the Harare Sports Club would be invaded and the wicket dug up.
Max Ebrahim, in a spirit of compromise, suggested that fast bowler Andy Blignaut and batsman Mark Vermeulen, both of whom had been recently injured, should be dropped. A double match fee would be paid to Vermeulen for him to sit out the game. Streak and coach Marsh were incensed at the suggestion. Lovemore Banda, the team's media manager, then addressed the meeting. He said that black people were unhappy that the wider political changes in Zimbabwe were not reflected in team selection. 'Look at the farms. We got independence in 1980 and in 2000 people grew tired of waiting and took the land. If there is no change in cricket then people will give up waiting and take cricket as well.' At half past eight, after four-and-a-half hours, the meeting was adjourned. Justice Ebrahim arrived half an hour later to talk to Bvute and the Mashonaland delegation. They agreed to let the game against Bangladesh go ahead uninterrupted. But, in return, Justice Ebrahim assured them that more black players would be picked from now on. The following day, Streak scored 45 and took four wickets as Zimbabwe won by 14 runs. But angry that no disciplinary action was taken against Mashonaland, he wrote to Vince Hogg warning that unless there was major change he would resign the captaincy. He later phoned Hogg to say that he would retire from all cricket if his demands for a change in the selection panel and the removal of Bvute from a position of influence were not met. The ZCU accepted his resignation and appointed Taibu, then a 20-year-old, in his place. Streak and 14 other white players responded by refusing to play for Zimbabwe. It was the beginning of the end for them.
One afternoon towards the end of November I visited the Harare Sports Club where the groundsman, Robin Brown, was preparing the pitch for the first one-day international against England. 'I don't think there'll be much for the bowlers but I'd like to have seen Harmison banging it down,' he said, pointing at the white, dry wicket. Steve Harmison had refused to represent England in Zimbabwe for moral reasons. Later, back in his office, Brown and I discussed the turbulent past nine months in Zimbabwe cricket. 'I think the rebels shot themselves in the foot,' he said of the absent white players. 'They put 10 points on the table and got nine and a half of what they wanted. The only thing ZCU wouldn't do is get rid of Max Ebrahim or Ozias Bvute.' I was struck by the contrasting pulls on Brown as a white man working for an organisation that some say is prejudiced against whites. He and Vince Hogg were accused by Bvute of sabotaging the Harare wicket when the reshaped Zimbabwe side, led by Taibu, were bowled out for a record low of 35 by Sri Lanka in a one-day international on 25 April 2004. 'It didn't worry me in the least,' Brown said. 'If it came from people who knew about cricket, I'd have challenged them. We prepared the best wicket we could. It had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the way Chaminda Vaas swung the ball.' Yet when he turned to cricket development he sounded like an evangelist for the brave new world of Zimbabwe Cricket. 'It's mind-boggling. We sit there as whites in our little world and the rebels sit there and say nothing's happening to cricket in the country, but when you actually go out to the townships and have a look, the progress that's being made is amazing. I think the consensus of opinion is that if Streak doesn't want to come back it's not a problem. Bring on England, we want to see them play, we want to see how we're doing and then next year the guys will develop because there's some exciting talent.'
This is not a view you would hear in the calm of Harare's Botanical Gardens, where the remaining rebel white cricketers assembled for their last meeting following their failure to convince an International Cricket Council inquiry that ZC was guilty of racism against them. 'There's never been a strike like this in sporting history,' said their lawyer Chris Venturas, who is a close friend of all-rounder Grant Flower. 'These guys have come short, but generations after will benefit from this fight because the world of cricket is a more transparent place.' Listening to the players' grievances one wonders why, rather than racism, they did not sue ZC for incompetence. Their decision not to choose a black advocate, despite being recommended one, was foolish. Not that the judges themselves emerged with much credit: having promised the players they would be able to give their evidence in camera , they failed to enforce the ruling when Bvute and Max Ebrahim refused to leave the courtroom. The inquiry eventually collapsed without the players giving their verbal evidence. The leading rebels - Grant Flower, Stuart Carlisle, Craig Wishart, Trevor Gripper, Neil Ferreira and Streak - felt let down. 'Regardless of whether there are goals or quotas,' Carlisle told me, 'when you've got documents saying a crowd at a cricket match should be 75 per cent black by the year 2005 and there should be seven non-whites in the team, that's discrimination.'
The following morning, at the Harare Sports Club, the press were waiting for David Morgan, the England and Wales Cricket Board chairman, who was trying to save his team's tour after 13 British journalists were refused entry to Zimbabwe. The young Zimbabwe players were having catching practice, led by their West Indian coach, Phil Simmons, who replaced Geoff Marsh when his contract expired. The previous day I had spoken to Simmons about the journalists' accreditation issue. 'I agree that the media can help to spread cricket around the world,' he said, warily. 'But I can't get involved in this. This started long before I came here.' This, of course, was an oblique reference to politics, so I asked about the wider situation in Zimbabwe. He sighed and then laughed knowingly. 'I've not had any problems but things are hard for the people. I know there's a big issue about the country and so on, but there are a lot of countries where there are human rights issues.' The photographers waited idly for a bemused Morgan to emerge from a meeting. The feeling was that the tour would be cancelled. I spotted Robin Brown walking across the outfield and asked whether his wicket had been carefully prepared in vain. 'No, they're coming,' he said, smiling. 'I've just had a call. The information ministry is saying they made an administrative error.' That evening in his spacious hotel suite Morgan was full of praise for his colleagues John Carr and Mike Soper, for various ZC officials and the British Embassy staff. 'I believe my decision to instruct the team to stay in Johannesburg overnight was critical.' He evidently believed he had won a great victory. England, he said, would have lost the respect of the other cricket nations if they had not tried to reach a compromise. He used his favourite phrases - 'closure' and 'acceptable non-compliance' - before concluding that it 'does much more good for international cricket to be here than to stay away'.
If only it were that simple. In Bulawayo, the relaxed second city in the south, I met John Tlou, one of the demonstrators at Zimbabwe's match with Holland during the 2003 World Cup. They held banners proclaiming 'War for peace and justice, not land', and sang songs in their native Ndbele with the chorus 'Where is Olonga?' Henry Olonga had been dropped after he and Andy Flower wore black armbands to protest against the 'death of democracy' in Zimbabwe. 'The cameras were facing us across the pitch so the police tried to arrest us,' Tlou continued. 'We dispersed but they started to arrest us one by one.' At least 29 protesters were taken to the cells. 'We were there for four days. There were 23 of us in one small cell, the women were in a different one. I am 49 and was the oldest so they said I was the ringleader. They threatened to beat me. In the end, they beat the youngsters instead. The police wouldn't release us until the cricket was over. The court cases are still going on. It's all part of their plan to inconvenience us.' Before arriving in the country, I called Ozias Bvute from England. Bvute has risen from nowhere to become second in command to ZC chairman Peter Chingoka. I did not expect him to talk to me but he was surprisingly open. 'It's no secret that there's hostility between our two governments, but sport has nothing to do with politics,' he told me. 'Of late the discussion has been whether England should tour on moral grounds. But if you say, as some are continually claiming, that people are disadvantaged in Zimbabwe, surely you should come out and uplift the people with five days of marvellous cricket? When Live Aid went out for the people of Ethiopia, it was to help the disadvantaged.'
To be continued...
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From The Cape Times (SA), 10 January
Infighting among Mugabe's party members could benefit MDC at polls
Harare: Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has returned home from holiday to find his ruling Zanu PF party divided by damaging squabbles over candidate selection for a general parliamentary election due in March. Political analysts say the unprecedented infighting among Zanu PF members and simmering anger over the recent promotion of a high-flying politician may work in favour of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the polls. "The fears are real. A divided Zanu PF will struggle to put up a strong campaign against the MDC... and for the MDC the longer these quarrels run the better," said political analyst Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei of the University of Zimbabwe. The government-controlled Sunday Mail reported complaints came from all 10 provinces. Only three provinces had registered complaints just five days ago when a group of Zanu PF supporters demonstrated against the exclusion of some candidates and detained a senior party official in charge of selection. The private Sunday Mirror newspaper reported that Mugabe's key war veteran supporters have warned the party to handle the selection of the candidates carefully, saying the drive against so-called rebels could help the opposition.
More than a dozen top officials, including controversial Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, have been purged from Zanu PF's top bodies and from the election race after an earlier row over Mugabe's likely successor. Moyo has appealed to Zanu PF to reverse a decision which stops him from contesting the parliamentary elections. He was dropped last month from the party's top bodies over charges that he and other senior officials tried to block the rise of Joyce Mujuru as one of Zimbabwe's two vice presidents, putting her in line to succeed Mugabe. Moyo and six other senior officials, who were suspended from the party for five years, are being punished for seeking to promote Speaker of parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa as a candidate for co-vice president against Mujuru. Mugabe has not made a public comment on the squabbles since he came back from vacation. The MDC, which says Zanu PF rigged the last two polls in 2000 and 2002, has threatened to boycott the election unless reforms are put in place to ensure what it calls a level playing field. Mugabe denies manipulating previous elections. His Zanu PF party dismisses the MDC as a puppet of Western powers it says have sabotaged the economy in retaliation for Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 9 January
Zimbabwe's most powerful woman or a pawn?
Basildon Peta
When Joyce Mujuru styles herself as "a very strong, courageous and determined woman", this is no self-help Geri Halliwell talk. After all, how many would dare abandon family life and school at the age of 18 to join a ferocious liberation war and raise children in the bush while bringing down choppers and eluding enemy bullets? A story doing the rounds in Harare further defines Mujuru's extraordinary human qualities. According to the cryptic tale, when she hears that her husband, a former army commander and highly influential Zanu PF politician Solomon Mujuru, has sired children out of wedlock, she goes out of her way to locate them to establish whether their mothers have the wherewithal to look after them. If not, she takes the children into her own custody at one of the family farms in Ruwa, near Harare, without even consulting her husband. Many of the children in their household are not hers, those close to the family say.
"My war experiences changed my life," says Mujuru, who was born into a poor peasant family of 12 and left home as a teenager in 1973 - against the wishes of her parents - to join Zanu PF guerrillas fighting the Ian Smith regime from Mozambique. "I became very strong and learned to make decisions and not wait for men to decide," she adds. She is an affable character, yet ruthless when duty calls. On joining the war, Mujuru adopted the nom de guerre of "Teurai Ropa", or "Spill Blood" in English. She immediately lived up to that appellation. On February 17, 1974, a group she was assigned to during an incursion into Zimbabwe encountered the Rhodesian security forces and was brutally dispersed, leaving Mujuru to face the enemy on her own. A wounded colleague threw her gun to Mujuru and implored her to flee. But she had other ideas. She took aim at a helicopter descending to kill her. "Incredibly, I hit the machine and there was a lot of black smoke and it crashed. A big explosion followed," she was quoted as saying of the incident, in which all the white occupants of the helicopter died. The incident marked a turning point in Mujuru's guerrilla reputation once news of it spread through the camps of Zanu's armed wing, Zanla, in Mozambique. She was soon to be elevated to being one of the camp commanders. When President Robert Mugabe's campaign of confiscating white farms for redistribution to blacks began in earnest in February 2000, Mujuru ruthlessly endorsed it. She urged farm invaders to go and return with "blood-soaked T-shirts and shorts of white farmers and any of their black collaborators".
At independence in 1980, Mujuru, then semi-literate and aged 25, became the youngest cabinet minister in Mugabe's fledgling government, with the sports, youth and recreation portfolio. Now Mujuru is - officially at least - firmly in line to succeed Mugabe when he retires as expected in 2008. This comes after her historic elevation to the post of vice-president of both party and country at the Zanu PF congress last month. Yet, despite her steely nerves and heroism, Mujuru was probably surprised by her sudden rise to prominence. While the debate on Mugabe's possible successor gathered momentum in recent years, Mujuru's name never featured. In fact, if Mugabe's 53 ministers and deputies had been ranked in terms of their chances of being a Mugabe successor, Mujuru would have occupied one of the last three slots. "No one ever contemplated her as obvious presidential material," says Lovemore Madhuku, a University of Zimbabwe analyst and chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly. "A good reputation in war does not necessarily translate into good leadership. To some, her long presence in cabinet has more to do with gender balance than competence. In 1980 she became a minister knowing nothing else but how to hold a gun."
So what is behind Mujuru's spectacular rise? Many analysts, including Eldred Masunungure, a University of Zimbabwe political scientist, believe Mujuru is merely a pawn in a dangerous political game. Her influential husband, who probably gets more of Mugabe's ear than she does, has much to do with her rise. It was his determination to block Emmerson Mnangagwa, a rival and former cabinet minister and speaker of parliament, that resulted in Mujuru's elevation. But from where does Solomon Mujuru draw his power? It is universally accepted in Zanu PF that without his active support, Mugabe would have been a nobody. Mujuru and the late Josiah Tongogara led the Zanla forces while Mugabe languished in jail from 1964 for 10 years. At the time of his going to jail, Mugabe was a mere secretary for information in Zanu, which was formed in 1963 and was under the leadership of the Reverend Ndaban ingi Sithole. Mugabe seized control of Zanu in 1975 after his rival, Herbert Chitepo, who had been appointed by Sithole, to lead the party while both Mugabe and Sithole were in jail, was assassinated by a mysterious car bomb in Lusaka.
Mugabe had slipped into Mozambique after his release from jail, with the active support of Solomon Mujuru, who implored the guerrillas, most of whom had never met Mugabe, to accept him as their leader. "As a result Mugabe owes [Solomon] Mujuru an eternal favour," said one Zanu PF insider. Mujuru took over the command of the army at independence in 1980, retiring 10 years later to go into business. However, he remained an influential member of Zanu PF's politburo, where he clashed with Mnangagwa, long considered to be Mugabe's favoured heir. This happened when Mnangagwa, then a powerful cabinet minister, thwarted Mujuru's bid to buy into the multibillion-dollar Zimasco, a chrome mining and smelting concern in Zimbabwe's Midlands province, in the mid-1990s. Mujuru, who prefers to work behind the scenes and is not known to be power-hungry himself, is said to have declared that he would throw his name in the ring if Mugabe ever opened the way for Mnangagwa to rise to the top office. Such a battle for control of the party would have been too ghastly even for Mugabe to contemplate.
When Mnangagwa became tainted by allegations of corruptions, including a United Natons report that linked him to the looting of resources in Congo, a perfect opportunity was provided to Mugabe to sideline him and opt for Mujuru's camp. The cover for this manoeuvre was feminism - a requirement that one of the co-vice-presidential posts, to replace the late Simon Muzenda, be reserved for a woman. This effectively blocked Mnangagwa, as the other vice-presidential position is held by Joseph Msika and must also be reserved for someone from Matabeleland, in line with a 1987 unity accord with Joshua Nkomo's Zapu. The move to elevate Joyce Mujuru led to the infamous meeting at the rural home of Jonathan Moyo, the information minister, where an attempt was made to plot a strategy to sabotage Mujuru's rise. Mugabe got wind of the meeting, leading to the demise of several top officials who had been Mugabe's confidantes, including Moyo himself. Daniel Molokela, a prominent Zimbabwean lawyer and human rights activist, says that after the Mugabe tragedy Zimbabweans must brace themselves to face something even worse: "A Mujuru presidency in Zimbabwe in 2008."
Mujuru has not particularly distinguished herself in any of the various cabinet portifolios she has held. She should have resigned in 1998 when she was named among senior officials who looted the War Victims' Compensation Fund. Her admirers credit her for taking time to go back to secondary school in between her busy schedule after she was appointed minister in 1980. She earned six ordinary level passes in the process, a certificate below matric, and is now rumoured to be aiming for her first degree through correspondence. To those who laughed at her broken English, she had one question: "How come it is acceptable when the Chinese, Germans and all other foreigners speak in broken English? English is not my first language." Few observers see her as presidential material, and many believe that if she is elected to State House she will be a puppet of her husband and Mugabe. Yet the prospect of Joyce "Spill Blood" Mujuru becoming Africa's first woman president now seems to have become almost inevitable.
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From The Observer (UK), 9 January
The last hope for a dying game
continued from yesterday...
Waiting at the airport for England to arrive from Johannesburg, David Morgan called me over to his table. He and Mike Soper were eating cheese toasties. 'Tell me, Tom, do you think things are getting better or worse in Zimbabwe?' I told him that things were much worse. 'But,' he protested, 'the last time I was here people were queuing for many hours to buy petrol and bread. Today, there are no queues.' Later, when I mentioned Morgan's comments to David Coltart, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's shadow justice minister, he was contemptuous. 'Morgan has no idea what is going on. There used to be price controls so everyone could afford fuel and bread, but there was not enough to go around. So there were queues. Now there are no price controls and no queues. And people can't afford what's on the shelves.' The England players eventually arrived looking as if they were about to do a tour of duty in Falluja. They stared solemnly ahead as police outriders led them to their five-star hotel, Meikles, in central Harare. The next day, both the Times and Guardian made much of some graffiti on Robert Mugabe Way saying 'England Go Home, Shame on England'. But most Zimbabweans remained either unaware of or unbothered by the tour. The political nuances did not worry them. If sport is escapism, they are more interested in football, at home and abroad.
On the morning of the first game I heard a familiar voice in the breakfast room. 'I'd like a cheese omelette and a rooibos tea.' It was the BBC's Jonathan Agnew. He was tired - and late. He was angry that England were in Zimbabwe but also frustrated at how hard it was to explain to people back home the complicated situation. 'The fact that Gary in Sheffield says "pull the boys out" without knowing anything about it doesn't really help,' he said. We talked about the cricket for a bit before he said: 'But the cricket doesn't matter, does it? It's all downhill from now on.' There was a meagre crowd of about 100 at the Harare Sports Club. But it was a sunny day, the pitch looked pristine and, after all the delays, it was a relief to be watching cricket. The England fielders huddled together as the Zimbabwe openers walked out to polite applause. The series that few people, and certainly not the England players, wanted to take place had begun. Zimbabwe made a slow start and were 45 for one after 10 overs. The crowd grew and by the time Tatenda Taibu came in at 80 for four there must have been more than 3,000 in the ground, making a lot of noise. About 70 per cent were black - so that was one 'quota' fulfilled. But some of the white Zimbabweans were supporting England in protest at what they see as the politicisation of their team. The evidence of emerging black talent was there right in front of us as 19-year-old Elton Chigumbura hit a powerful half-century. In the end, Zimbabwe were all out for 194. England won comfortably, establishing a pattern for the series.
A few days later, justice Ebrahim greeted me warmly at the Harare club. Black and-white photographs stared down from the walls, showing faces of young white men. He led me to a secluded table and looked at me expectantly. 'There are two sides to every story,' he said. Ahmed Ebrahim, an ethnic Indian, is short, wiry and scrupulously polite. He was until recently a High Court judge. Dressed in a blazer and club tie, he recalled the nine years he spent in London as a young man. After the Lancaster House Agreement of 1980 that opened the way for black majority rule in Zimbabwe, the British invited talented young civil servants to London for special training. Ebrahim was one of them. 'There was nothing I liked more in those days than sitting down with a cup of coffee and reading the English papers,' he said. 'But now the English press is not what it was. When it comes to cricket they print lies.' In a high-pitched but authoritative voice, he said that, in 2000, 20 years after independence, only five of the 29 senior administrators at the ZCU were black. At independence there were as many as 200,000 whites in the country; in 2000, when the farm invasions began, there were 70,000; today, there are as few as 25,000, many of them elderly. 'I and a minority of other administrators recognised that if left unchecked it would only be a matter of time before cricket died in this country. But when a choice had to be made between a black and a white player, the white player always got the nod.'
The white players held the board to ransom, he continued. In 2000, for instance, when Zimbabwe toured the West Indies, he claims that 'the players decided they didn't want the coach Dave Houghton any longer so they forced him out'. The allegation was later backed up by Ali Shah, who was tour manager at the time. 'It was the tail wagging the dog,' he said. 'The players always had to have their way. Davie wanted to drop Alistair Campbell and pick Craig Wishart, but the royal family of Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Campbell and [Guy] Whittall wouldn't stand for that.' Houghton now coaches Derbyshire. Ebrahim is considered something of an enigma by the MDC. As a judge he was resolutely independent. He ruled against the government's land-reform programme. But, as one insider told me, as a cricket administrator he 'provides a perfect foil for the more radical elements of ZC. And when he complains that Zimbabwe had crushing defeats before - losing to England by an innings and 209 runs at Lords in 2000 and by an innings and 175 to Australia last year - he ignores the reality that all teams have bad days. Zimbabwe might not have been a strong team, even with Streak, the Flower brothers and Murray Goodwin (who quit the team in 2000, to concentrate on playing for Western Australia and Sussex). But they were tough and competitive. You could not say the same of Taibu's young side.
The England players began to relax after a few days in Harare, but the tour management never did the same. Andy Walpole, the squad's harassed media manager, protected captain Michael Vaughan from difficult questions and my request to talk to coach Duncan Fletcher, who was born in the old Rhodesia, was rejected 'due to the sensitive nature of the tour'. Fletcher is a Zimbabwean who once captained his country. What does he think about cricket in the country of his birth? What does he think about England's tour? No one knows. The day after England won the second one-day international by 161 runs, the tour moved on to Bulawayo. I arranged to meet Heath Streak on his ranch, an hour to the north. When we last met, at his flat in Birmingham (he was playing for Warwickshire), he said he missed the space of his home in Zimbabwe. Now, it was not hard to see why. On every side stretched mile upon mile of acacia trees, red earth, scrubland and endless sky. As I approached the homestead, an impala leapt gracefully in front of the car and round a bend I came upon a herd of zebra. Later, when Streak gave me a tour of the farm - which has been reduced by two thirds under the land-reform programme to 4,000 hectares - we came across wildebeest, kudu and eland. Out here cricket seems a distant game. 'People like Bvute say the door is open to come back but there's still a lot of turmoil at Zimbabwe Cricket,' Streak said. 'The behaviour of Bvute, and Max Ebrahim, goes unchecked and they haven't been made accountable for what they've done.'
Perhaps if Peter Chingoka had agreed to meet him, things would have been different. Streak said his letter to Hogg in which he first threatened to resign was born of frustration 'that I couldn't have an audience with Chingoka. I felt he should have made the time to see me. But Vince Hogg told me several times that Peter thought it wasn't necessary.' Streak, like most of the rebels, believes money is at the root of ZC's mismanagement. He points to the £50,000 honorarium paid to Chingoka in 2003 - a huge sum in Zimbabwe terms. And the ZCU's decision to send the entire board to Australia for the tour last year was a sign of how wasteful the organisation could be. 'They spend nearly $150,000 on a jolly to A |
