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Archived News
22nd February 2005
Mugabe deals new blow to attempts to ensure fair poll
Zimbabwe moves please S Africa official
Bush's democratic bandwagon hits a roadblock in Harare
False sovereignty
SA 'scraps' Zim poll monitors
Sweep on crucial MDC meeting
Zim tightening its grip on foreign journos
Zimbabwe's election machinery in disarray
Zanu PF out wooing women
IMF gives Zimbabwe one last chance
'Don't chase Zim invite'
Confusion over SADC team's Harare visit
Zim cops beat up protesters
Mugabe throws poll into turmoil
Ghost voters unearthed
Dlamini-Zuma has nailed her colours to Zanu PF ship
Zimbabwe journalists flee threats
As Mugabe's net closed in, I was forced to flee the country I love
Jailed MP barred from poll
Chiyangwa free at last.as Kuruneri, Bennett stay in
DA delegation denied entry into Zimbabwe
Zanu PF issues 'traitors' list
Mugabe asks for election whitewash
Mugabe picks poll monitors
Mugabe sacks information minister after defection
Tibetan beauty banned from pageant in Zim
Hounded out by Mugabe's thugs
Too late for a free election in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe opposition launches election race
Democracy at risk in Zimbabwe poll, SACP warns allies
Minister seeks regional endorsement of poll
Veteran journalist flees to avoid arrest
Government coughs up Z$24m to tortured journalists
Mugabe may succeed in pulling the wool over selected election observers' eyes
SADC still awaiting invite from Zimbabwe
Top Zim general gets 21-gun salute
3 journalists flee Zimbabwe, fearing arrest after threats
Many more Moyos out there
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From Business Day (SA), 16 February
Mugabe deals new blow to attempts to ensure fair poll
Dumisani Muleya and Rob Rose
In a new setback to SA's efforts to ensure fair elections in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe looks set to shut out a top-level Southern African Development Community (SADC) pre-election assessment mission. Sources in Harare said yesterday Mugabe had already told the SADC team that it would be welcome only as part of the regional bloc's poll observer team. The original idea was for the team to visit Zimbabwe ahead of the elections to assess whether electoral guidelines adopted by SADC recently have been implemented. SA's government was looking to the existence of the SADC mission to silence criticism that it is doing nothing to encourage Mugabe to allow a free and fair election, and that Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF is being allowed to run riot over civil freedoms ahead of the poll. Ironically news of Mugabe's move came as Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a media briefing in Parliament yesterday she was concerned at delays by Mugabe's government in issuing invitations to the team. The invitation had been expected last week, Dlamini-Zuma said, "but we are still hoping it will materialise".
She claimed, however, that Zimbabwe was taking steps to ensure free and fair elections, and there were signs that campaigning had been less violent than in previous years. Dlamini-Zuma also gave a thinly veiled warning to the ruling African National Congress's (ANC's) alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, over its threatened blockade of Zimbabwe's borders. She said that government would deal with a blockade "according to the laws of this country". "I don't know if there is a country which says that anyone can go and blockade borders," she said. Her spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa was more blunt, saying that any protest "that disrupted economic activity would be a matter for the relevant authorities". Yesterday Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said the federation was still "thrashing out these issues" at its three-day central executive committee meeting, which ends today and it would outline its plans on Zimbabwe tomorrow.
The proposed blockade arose when a Cosatu delegation led by its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was deported from Zimbabwe last month, reigniting tensions in the alliance over Zimbabwe's stance on free and fair elections. Police director Sally de Beer said Cosatu's planned blockade had been discussed at the "higher levels" of the force, and "we will ensure peace and stability at the borders". "We are not going to get dragged into a political debate . but we are prepared for any eventuality," she said, while refusing to disclose details of these preparations. Political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said that any blockade of Zimbabwe's borders "would put the South African government in an invidious position". "Putting pressure on Mugabe's government through a blockade is likely to breach some provisions of the law, so it depends how government and the security forces handle a delicate situation," he said.
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From Associated Press, 15 February
Zimbabwe moves please S Africa official
Cape Town - South Africa's foreign minister said Tuesday she is satisfied that Zimbabwe is taking steps to ensure free and fair parliamentary elections - even as the country's opposition leaders protest sweeping security measures, arrests and intimidation. South Africa is one of Zimbabwe's main allies and wields considerable diplomatic leverage over its northern neighbor. The remarks by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma came as South African President Thabo Mbeki's government has drawn local and international criticism for failing to take a strong stand against political and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, preferring a policy of ``quiet diplomacy.'' But there are signs of strain in the relationship. Last week, a Zimbabwe court convicted three people of selling state secrets to South Africa. Zimbabwe has also twice barred the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions, allied to Mbeki's African National Congress party, from sending fact-finding missions to the country ahead of the vote.
Dlamini-Zuma sidestepped a question Tuesday on whether South African authorities would allow Cosatu members to blockade the border with Zimbabwe in a planned protest of President Robert Mugabe's increasingly autocratic rule. But she implied the government would take a dim view of the situation. "We will abide by the laws of our country," she told a news conference. "I don't know if there is a country which says that anyone can go and blockade borders." Dlamini-Zuma welcomed signs that campaigning has been less violent than in previous years but voiced concern at delays by Mugabe's government in issuing invitations to its southern African neighbors to observe the March 31 elections. The 14-nation Southern African Development Community had been expecting an invitation last week, she said. "But we are still hoping it will materialize," she added. Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is participating in next month's poll under protest. It says repressive security and media laws, opposition arrests and intimidation give Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party an unfair advantage. The United States, Britain and some other Western governments have voiced similar concerns.
"So far, the steps that have been taken are according to the SADC guidelines," countered Dlamini-Zuma, referring to the Southern African Development Community. The election guidelines, adopted in August, include provisions for full political participation, freedom of association, political tolerance and access to state media. "I was quite heartened to hear the leader of the opposition saying that the violence has declined, and that the police are taking a no-tolerance approach to violence, and that the president of Zimbabwe has also publicly called for a violence-free campaign from supporters," Dlamini-Zuma said. "That to me was the major problem in the last election." Independent observers said the 2000 legislative poll, in which the opposition won 57 of Parliament's 120 elected seats, was marred by vote rigging and violence blamed on ruling party militants. Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, narrowly won re-election in an equally flawed 2002 vote.
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From The Guardian (UK), 16 February
Bush's democratic bandwagon hits a roadblock in Harare
Simon Tisdall
Groundbreaking elections in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Palestine and Iraq, extolled in President Bush's "dawn of freedom" inaugural address, have encouraged western hopes that democratic values are gaining universal acceptance. But this winning streak, if that is what it is, will come to a shuddering halt next month in Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party look poised to steal parliamentary elections on March 31 in the same violently fraudulent way that, say Zimbabwe's opposition and international observers, they stole past polls in 2000 and 2002. "All the indications so far are that the elections will be stolen," Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, said yesterday. "I hope this time we will respond with more than rhetoric."
Mr Mugabe launched a three-pronged strategy on Friday in a speech to handpicked party candidates. As in the past, he ridiculed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, as colonialism's toadies. He accused the MDC of taking instructions from Britain and the US. Banners in the Harare convention hall where he spoke declared it was "Time to bury Blair and his puppets". Mr Mugabe, 81 this month, was particularly rude about Condoleezza Rice, the African-American new US secretary of state, calling her a "girl" who should know that "the white man is not a friend". Ms Rice described his regime last month as one of six international "outposts of tyranny". The second prong of Mr Mugabe's campaign strategy is repression on a scale surpassing previous polls. New regulations have banned unlicensed meetings of more than 10 people, further restricted independent election monitoring and human rights groups, banned MDC newspaper advertising, tightened press curbs, and given Mr Mugabe control of the electoral commission. Voting rolls are reportedly out of date and at least 3 million Zimbabweans who have left the country for political or economic reasons cannot vote. Intimidation and violence by youth militias is continuing unchecked. Meanwhile, Mr Tsvangirai faces a second, specious treason charge in May.
Especially troubling for Mr Mugabe's neighbours is his failure to adopt electoral standards agreed last August with his peers in the 13-country Southern African Development Community. This has embarrassed South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, who has maintained that "quiet diplomacy" by African countries is the best route to reform. The Commonwealth wields even less influence than before, following Mr Mugabe's decision to quit the organisation in 2003. Mr Mugabe's other tactic concerns food. Agricultural output has collapsed in the five years since the seizure of white-owned farms began, although the official reason is drought. According to a US-funded report last month, almost half Zimbabwe's 12.5 million-strong population now faces imminent food shortages, the biggest emergency in Africa after Ethiopia. Having claimed last May that Zimbabwe could feed itself and told UN and other donors to take their food aid elsewhere, Harare admitted last week that 1.5 million were in immediate need. But rather than ask for resumed outside aid, officials said staple corn meal rations and cash would be distributed to needy households. Limits have been imposed on individuals' purchase and transportation of corn meal, reinforcing the state monopoly.
The MDC and church critics say food handouts are being used as an electoral weapon, as in previous polls. Mr Ancram said food was a "political lever" and accused the British and regional governments of betraying Zimbabweans, black and white, through inaction. "Quiet diplomacy has become a synonym for doing nothing. Our government is somehow embarrassed by Zimbabwe. But there's nothing colonialist about fighting oppression. When Gordon Brown went to Africa, his map had a big hole which is Zimbabwe," Mr Ancram said. "Condoleezza Rice's comments about outposts of tyranny may mean the US is going to internationalise it. But I want Britain to take the lead. It would be a disgrace to leave it to the US. The government has effectively walked by on the other side."
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 16 February
False sovereignty
There are only six weeks left before the crisis in Zimbabwe lurches to new depths, and once again the regional and the wider world finds themselves locked in dispute over whether Zanu PF has won a legitimate election. Few doubt that Zanu PF will win this election. Zanu PF says it will win because it has won the support of the people. Most other groups believe that Zanu PF will win because the party and the government have done everything to ensure that it will win. SADC and the rest of Africa are saying very little, presumably because it is rude to comment on a process before it is over. The catch phrase for the forthcoming election is rapidly becoming "damned if you do, and damned if you don't", and this is not merely applicable to the MDC. SADC - and any other group that wishes to observe this election - are in much the same dilemma as the MDC. Witness the difficulty that SADC is having in securing an invitation to visit Zimbabwe. So far neither the members of the Defence and Security Organ, nor a SADC legal team, have managed to get an invitation. And the Zimbabwe government expels all unwanted guests, as Cosatu have found to their cost. Their dilemma is simply this: if they criticize in advance they will not get invited, having declared, by so criticizing, their affiliation with the running dogs of Blairite imperialism. If they wait for an invitation, they will end up having to judge the election on what they are allowed to see. Despite the findings of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the vast outpourings of Zimbabwean and other bodies on rights violations, they will find it hard to conclude that that part of the electoral process which is revealed to them is not free and fair. They will have to report on what they actually observe, and, since SADC and the AU have had little to say about the background to these elections, they will not be able to use any background knowledge in reaching a judgement.
Thus, SADC and the AU find themselves in a dilemma wholly of their own making. They have denied bad governance, gross human rights violations, and electoral irregularities in the past, and hence will be unable to find these in the present. Once again Mugabe has manoeuvred Africa into a battleground of his own choosing, but one in which SADC and the AU has been complicit in allowing to develop. This dilemma hinges on Africa's acceptance of a trivial definition of sovereignty, and is built into the Constitutive Act of the AU. War, coups, and genocide are now recognized as the basis for disregarding sovereignty, and allowing intervention in the affairs of another state. Not, however, the usurping of power through irregular elections. So SADC and the AU can have nothing to say about Zimbabwe heading for another stolen election, apart from pious exhortations to follow the new standards and guidelines of the various African regional and continental bodies. As various spokespersons for the Zimbabwe government have pointed out, these do not have any legal force, and, hence, Zimbabwean sovereignty rules supreme. In Zimbabwe, as in many African countries, the question of sovereignty centres on the validity of elections: where the power of sovereignty lies in demonstrating that the government has the support of the people through acceptance of the voting process. This consensus is established in two ways. Firstly, it is shown by the clear demonstration that the game was played in a fair manner, with no undue preference for any participant. Secondly, it is shown by the engagement of the citizenry, and by the demonstration that the party that wins has popular endorsement. Here, the greater the involvement of citizens and the larger the turnout, the more confidence we can have in the moral mandate of the winning party to govern. The ANC governs with such a moral mandate through an accepted electoral process and a huge majority of the vote.
Here is the dilemma for Zimbabwean political parties, Zanu PF excepted. It is stated quite clearly in the MDC's statement in which they indicated their intention to participate. They note that the rules of the game are still not fair:
More than ever the electoral playing field remains uneven and unequal. Rule of law concerns have not been addressed. The media remains muzzled. Free assembly is proscribed by the Public Order Security Act. The recently appointed Electoral Commission is yet to prove its independence. The shambolic voters' roll continues to be the principal vehicle for electoral fraud. The Constituency boundaries have been subjectively gerrymandered whilst militias and militia bases continue to multiply. International observers continue to be unwelcome.
They also note that the involvement of the citizenry is also less than desirable:
The Council expressed concern over the violation of the one-man, one-vote principle, through the continued disenfranchisement of Zimbabweans because of their ancestry, place of residence and a deeply flawed voter registration and management regime.
Hence, the MDC concludes that "a free and fair election is not possible in Zimbabwe under the present conditions", but they will nonetheless have to contest: damned if they do, and damned if they don't!
However, unlike the AU and SADC, the MDC have made it plain that a position on a flawed outcome can be determined in advance of polling. As they stated: We participate under protest. We participate without prejudice.
This could not be better put. The end of participating is not to validate an unfair outcome, but to show that the outcome is unfair. Such a conclusion is not possible without participating. Only participation can show the extent to which the rules of the game are fair. The MDC went further, however, and stated clearly that it will not be bound by an unfair result: they will participate without prejudice. Against the background of recent elections, such a blanket statement is only sensible. In 2000 and 2002, the MDC accepted the prejudice and went to the courts - all to no avail. Not one single election petition was resolved in a manner that redeemed the prejudice suffered by the MDC in those elections. So the MDC must clearly hold out other options if prejudice is once again the outcome, but what could this be?
Actually, there can only be one sensible option this time around, and that is to refuse to validate the election by taking up places in the parliament. If you reject the process and the outcome, then you cannot then participate in the charade that follows. The flawed elections in 2000 and 2002 were given partial validation by the continued participation of the MDC in the phoney governance that followed. Although they attempted to mitigate against validation through the numerous election petitions, the MDC presence in parliament gave strength to the veneer of false sovereignty used by Zanu PF to block all attempts to resolve the crisis. Quiet diplomacy never had a chance while Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF could claim legitimacy through the active participation of an opposition party in parliament. It is really very simple: insist on seeing the conditions on the ground now, indicate clearly whether these are satisfactory or not, and indicate that there will be costs for an invalid result. The way is then open for a proper resolution to the Zimbabwe crisis. If all accept the election, then well and good. If none accept the election, then it is off to the negotiating table, to a transitional authority, a new constitution, and finally valid elections. This is what Zimbabweans actually want and what common sense dictates. The March election represents either an opportunity or a cost. After all, this election is not about how wonderful are the SADC Principles and Guidelines, or a test of the AU's new-found maturity. They are a test of whether Zimbabwe has consensus about its governance and its moral right to join the community of nations.
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From News24 (SA), 16 February
SA 'scraps' Zim poll monitors
Waldimar Pelser
Johannesburg - South Africa feels that an official fact-finding mission by a team of legal experts to Zimbabwe before the parliamentary election there is "unnecessary" and should be scrapped. The Southern African Development Community's secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana, received a letter on Tuesday from the department of foreign affairs, which apparently stated that "the issue of the legal experts' visit should not be followed up". The team would have been made up of South African, Lesotho and Namibian legal experts. They were to have been sent to Zimbabwe by the SADC's directorate of politics, defence and security. Earlier in the week, SADC deputy executive secretary Albert Muchanga said the legal team was to have investigated Zimbabwe's compliance with the SADC's regulations on democratic elections - accepted in August in Mauritius. "Zimbabwe invited the SADC to deploy legal experts to see how they (Zimbabwe) have incorporated the (SADC) regulations. This process will not help only the SADC, but also other interested parties with their perception and formulation of their decision concerning the election." The (South African) director-general of foreign affairs, Ayanda Ntasaluba, said recently the team was preparing for a visit. Kgomotso Moroka, an advocate, was to have led the South African delegation. The government was initially holding back its views on whether a fair and just election was possible until after the visit. But, on Tuesday it said the circumstances were in place for a free election. The legal team was to have left on March 16. However, Zimbabwe has not issued an invitation.
SADC spokesperson Esther Kanaimba said from Gaborone that they had received the South African notification from Dr Jessie Duarte's office. She is the director for multilateral affairs in the department of foreign affairs. Kanaimba said she couldn't comment on the contents of the letter. However, it is believed the letter states that the issue was discussed "at the highest level" in South Africa and that it was felt "it is unnecessary to follow it up", reports Beeld. Kanaimba said the SADC secretariat "has no power" to send in a legal team to Zimbabwe and were now waiting for orders from South Africa - which chairs the directorate of politics, defence and security, reports Mandy Rossouw. "We throw the ball in their (South Africa's) court and they throw it back. We can't do anything without their go-ahead," said Kanaimba. Duarte, meanwhile, referred all questions to departmental spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa. According to Mamoepa, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa had asked the SADC to organise a legal team. "This is what they had to do. We have nothing further to do with it," he said. Mamoepa also added that correspondence between the SADC and the government was confidential and he refused to comment on the letter.
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From The Star (SA), 17 February
Sweep on crucial MDC meeting
By Basildon Peta
Zimbabwean police have raided and broken up a training meeting of the opposition party ahead of next month's election. The meeting of the Movement for Democratic Change's 120 parliamentary candidates was disrupted by police yesterday. The MDC's elections director, prominent businessman Ian Makone, was arrested during the raid and was held at Harare Central police station until his release last night. Party spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said no charge had been laid against Makone at the time of going to press. A police spokesperson confirmed Makoni's arrest but refused to comment further. Nyathi said the police had disrupted the meeting because it had been convened at the plush Harare Sheraton Hotel without permission. Under Zimbabwe's draconian Public Order and Security Act (Posa), political meetings of five people or more require police permission. Dozens of MDC meetings have been disrupted over the past month since campaigning for the poll gathered momentum. However, the law is never used against Zanu PF meetings, which are routinely held without police permission.
Nyathi said the meeting, which started at 10.30am yesterday, was attended by all 120 of the party's candidates for the election. He said it was a strategic-planning and training session ahead of the nomination court tomorrow, and the launch of the MDC campaign in Masvingo on Sunday. "Three plainclothes police arrived and demanded to sit through the meeting. They then told the gathering that the meeting was illegal under the Posa ... and that all those present should leave immediately or face arrest," said Nyathi. "The MDC notes with concern the continued disruption of its campaign programme and the continued harassment of its candidates and leaders. The disruption of MDC meetings is a clear violation of SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) guidelines on the conduct of free and fair elections," he said. MDC advertisements and editorials continued to be rejected by the public media in clear violation of the same SADC principles, Nyathi added. "Today's events make a mockery of statements claiming that Zimbabwe is on course to hold free and fair elections," Nyathi said in reference to statements by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's this week. "Such statements only serve to encourage a further breach of SADC principles." Dlamini-Zuma had said the South African government was pleased with a recent statement by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai that cases of violence ahead of the March 31 election were on the decline.
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From Sapa, 16 February
Zim tightening its grip on foreign journos
Harare - Zimbabwean security police on Tuesday raided the offices of four Harare-based foreign journalists for the second day in a row, and carried out an lengthy search for evidence of what they said were "illegal activities". The eight police officers and two government officials examined documents belonging to Jan Raath, who writes for the Times of London and Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Angus Shaw of Associated Press, Brian Latham of Bloomberg economic news and freelance photographer Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, said Beatrice Mtetwa, their lawyer. They produced no legal warrant authorising the search, and said they did not need one where an offence was suspected, she said. After more than two hours they left and posted a guard on the door of the office in central Harare to stop anyone from "interfering with the office, they said. On Monday, security officials questioned Raath, Shaw, Latham and Mukwazhi on allegations of spying, working illegally as journalists and of using unauthorised communications equipment.Under draconian new media laws, journalists are liable to sentence of up to two years in jail for working without a licence from the state-appointed Media Commission. On Monday night police came to raid Latham's Harare home, but he was not there. Observers said the raid was an indication of a government crackdown on the small remnant of foreign correspondents all Zimbabwean citizens left in Harare ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 31. Last week police were searching for freelance television journalist Cornelius Nduna who they claimed was in possession of "sensitive videotapes" and resuscitated three-year-old charges of "publishing falsehoods" against veteran local columnist Pius Wakatama.
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From The Cape Argus (SA), 17 February
Zimbabwe's election machinery in disarray
Zimbabwe's election machinery is in turmoil, and apparently incapable of providing even the barest logistics for parliamentary elections in six weeks. Meanwhile the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is under intense surveillance, with daily arrests of officials and candidates, and it believes there is a deliberate attempt to prevent some candidates from standing. Yesterday, MDC election manager Ian Makone was arrested by police at a candidate training workshop in a Harare hotel that was declared illegal and ordered to disperse. Makone was released later. Candidates for 120 constituencies must confirm participation in the election at nomination courts tomorrow, but there are no officials available to process their applications. The MDC says it has been trying to find "someone, anyone" to check candidate's details ahead of nomination courts in 10 provinces. "We have written to the Zimbabwe Election Commission repeatedly, but they ignore us," said Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the MDC. And the voter's roll of 5.6 million is probably inflated by up to a million duplications, according to a recent population survey by the University of Zimbabwe's department of statistics.
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From IRIN (UN), 16 February
Zanu PF out wooing women
Harare - A decision by Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party to field 30 female candidates in the March 2005 parliamentary elections has had mixed reactions. Zanu PF's female members have been asking for the quota since 1999, but complying with the request six weeks before the elections on 31 March would suggest that the party is using it to attract votes - now that the rhetoric on land reform has all but worn out. Despite the participation of 16 MDC female candidates, the party is unlikely to match Zanu PF's 30 percent of female representatives. Women will oppose each other in at least five constituencies, and both parties are fielding women in traditionally 'no-win areas': Zanu PF in 10 urban constituencies, and the urban-based MDC in nine rural constituencies. In the 2000 elections, 55 women stood - over 40 from the Zanu PF and 12 from the MDC - but only a total of 16 made it into parliament, three of them nominated by President Robert Mugabe.
The largest number of women representatives has been 22 in the 1995-2000 parliament, but since women constitute 51 percent of the population, "it is good strategy to woo them with the quota," Professor Eliphus Mukonoweshuro, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, told IRIN. The 30 percent quota promised to women has not been fully implemented - the ruling party would need to field 40 female candidates for the 120 contested seats. Thirty-six seats were designated for women in the Zanu PF primaries: some were elected unopposed, while others replaced male candidates sidelined for allegedly attempting to derail Joyce Mujuru's elevation to the vice-presidency; other seats, initially designated for women, were instead declared open, and many women lost to male candidates. Demonstrations against the alleged impositions followed, and thirty women's seats emerged from the exercise.
Deputy Speaker of parliament and Zanu PF member Edna Madzongwe said the 30 seats would not be permanently reserved for women, but that each "primary election would have its own designated ones [seats] - what is permanent is the 30 percent requirement". Dr Lovemore Madhuku, law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, a coalition of civic organisations, claimed that Zanu PF "had no gender policy", save the belief that women were "gullible and easily manipulated". According to Mukonoweshuro, if Zanu PF genuinely wanted more women in parliament it would ensure a bottom-up approach in implementing their gender policy. "If you start from the level of parliament and there are no organic roots extending downwards, it will collapse," he told IRIN. Nomutandazo Jones, acting director of the Zimbabwean Women Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN), commented, "We need to start from the grassroots and include chiefs, who are the custodians at that level - we can't talk of parliament when the grassroots are afraid to stand up."
The Zanu PF candidate for the Gutu North constituency in Masvingo province and an MP since 1985, Shuvai Mahofa, said she would lobby for "a law for 50 percent female representation, starting with urban and rural councils, and finally parliament", instead of each party doing as it felt. She also intended seeking a 30 percent chairmanship of portfolio committees, with similar reforms in government. Neither party has made any significant attempts to increase the effectiveness of their female representation. Tsitsi Matekaire of the Women in Parliament Support Unit (WIPSU) said, "Last year we went through some Hansards [records of parliamentary proceedings], to find out what women were saying, how often they were speaking and when, so we could help where there was a need - we found some were not participating." WIPSU is trying to capacitate women in terms of research material and confidence building to help them push the female agenda more effectively. But the women's success also depends on their respective parties' agendas. "Zanu PF women had been pushing for a quota system since 1999 - suddenly, they have it, but the Domestic Violence Bill is still pending four years later," Matekaire told IRIN.
ZWRCN holds regular economic literacy programmes with female MPs on the budget and its impact on women, but little of this effort has been reflected in parliamentary debates or in the portfolio committees, where the women oversee the functions and finances of ministries and help implement recommendations from civil society. In four years of engagement with the women, Jones said, there had been only one real success: calling for an audit of the AIDS levy. Mukonoweshuro said women pushed into parliament by party machinery were unlikely to perform in their individual capacities. "If you can't read and understand a draft legislative bill, you don't belong in parliament. You should remain at the grassroots, and ensure that a suitable candidate can take up your struggle," he told IRIN. "To be able to call in the head of mines, in the context of a portfolio committee, you need to understand how the industry functions. If you are a maker of clay pots, how do you grasp the highly empirical knowledge required in parliament?" He said political parties should seek professional women as candidates, and be willing not to view such women as a threat. Looking for suitable candidates should also be ongoing. "We need to build capacity from one election to another, so that there are always well-groomed women to take up the challenges." Zanu PF MP Mahofa, who is also deputy minister in the gender ministry, said since independence in 1980, women had helped to pass worthwhile laws, such as the Age of Majority Act and the legislation allowing customary law wives to inherit property. The women's caucus, a product of the last parliament, consisting of Zanu PF and MDC female parliamentarians, had lobbied for the Sexual Offences Act with its stiff penalties for rape. For the first time, in any parliament, a woman had headed a portfolio committee - the powerful public accounts group, which oversees matters of government finance and helps to identify problems in parastatals.
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From AFP, 17 February
IMF gives Zimbabwe one last chance
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday gave Zimbabwe one last chance to meet its obligations before being expelled from the international lending organisation. The IMF's executive board decided to postpone for six months a proposal to expel Zimbabwe, which has fallen behind in payments on more than $300-million in debt since 2001, because the country had made some progress toward meeting its obligations and stabilising its economy. "The board's decision provides the country with an opportunity to significantly strengthen its cooperation with the IMF, with the aim of addressing its economic decline and resolving its overdue financial obligations, prior to the executive board's next consideration of the managing director's complaint," the IMF said in a statement. The IMF closed its offices in Zimbabwe late last year amid worsening relations with the government of President Robert Mugabe, which blames US, British and EU sanctions for its economic plight.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 17 February
'Don't chase Zim invite'
Mail & Guardian Reporter
Revelations that South Africa attempted to stop a Southern African Development Community (SADC) judicial delegation, declaring the mission "unnecessary", have resulted in confusion about the country's approach to the upcoming election in Zimbabwe. The legal team was meant to precede and inform a broader SADC observer mission. On Sunday President Thabo Mbeki told the SABC that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe had assured him the team would be welcome. "I've discussed the matter with President Mugabe, I am quite sure that the SADC delegation can go to Zimbabwe," he said. "I think that we should send in a SADC delegation as quickly as is possible - not to go there and observe, but to be able to intervene to help to create the situation for free and fair elections." But Beeld on Thursday revealed that a Foreign Affairs director, Jessie Duarte, had written to the SADC secretariat to stop the lawyers' mission, which was supposed to visit Zimbabwe to inspect access to the body's electoral protocols. The letter asked that "the issue of the legal experts' visit should not be followed up" and stated that the matter had been discussed "at the highest level" in South Africa.
The protocols agreed to by all member states last August were held up as a benchmark to ensure free and fair elections across the region, but especially in Zimbabwe. The delegation was meant to ensure that Zimbabwe was keeping to its pledge that there would be independent electoral institutions, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom of the media in the run-up to the March 31 poll. In January the African National Congress criticised the absence of freedom of assembly when it complained publicly that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was not able to hold meetings. Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe's statement was read as a U-turn in South Africa's policy of quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe, but Duarte's letter to the SADC secretariat has sown confusion. This week Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said she was cautiously optimistic about changes in Zimbabwe. Her optimism was fuelled by the fact that the Zimbabwean government had passed a set of laws to set up independent electoral institutions; and that MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai had said that political violence was abating.
But, on Wednesday, police arrested MDC elections director Ian Makone and ordered the party's 120 constituency candidates, who had gathered for a briefing, to disband or face arrest. The attempt to forestall the legal mission may be an effort to ensure that Zimbabwe allows in the official SADC election observer mission to oversee the poll. While SADC protocols recommend that this observer mission is accredited 90 days prior to the election, Zimbabwe has not, as yet, invited the mission. "If we are not invited we will be very concerned," said Dlamini-Zuma this week. "We were hoping the invitation would materialise by the end of last week. We have not been told we couldn't come." South Africa will not send a separate team to observe the election but will form part of the larger regional observer team, providing it is invited. Zimbabwe also cancelled a scheduled visit in January by Mbeki, Lesotho Prime Minister Phakalitha Mosisili and former Namibian president Sam Nujoma, ostensibly because Mugabe was preparing for the elections.
Meanwhile, Wisani wa ka Ngobeni reports that South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) may have been quietly assisting the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to probe human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The Mail & Guardian has ascertained key aspects of the ICC's probe from documents and sources. The NPA's 2003/04 annual report said that: "Requests have been received from the chief prosecutor [of the ICC] to look into possible human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe". The report says that former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC chief prosecutor met in January 2004 to discuss the probe. It also says Moreno-Ocampo met members of the NPA priority crimes litigation unit, set up by the government two years ago, to ensure compliance with the Rome Statute established by the ICC. As a signatory to the Rome Statute, South Africa is obliged to cooperate with the ICC, which was set up in 1998, to prosecute people accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity (such as torture and rape) that were committed after July 2002. The ICC this week said it has "no jurisdiction in Zimbabwe", which has not ratified the Rome Statute.
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From Business Day (SA), 18 February
Confusion over SADC team's Harare visit
The proposed visit by a Southern African Development Community (SADC) team to Zimbabwe to assess whether free and fair elections are possible has been thrown into new turmoil. Yesterday SA denied ordering SADC to cancel the team's visit, in spite of reports saying SA had told the body's secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana, the team's visit was "no longer necessary". The growing controversy over the SADC initiative coincided with an announcement by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) that its proposed blockade of the Beitbridge border post would go ahead, despite warnings that it would be illegal. The foreign affairs department said yesterday Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had indeed written to the secretariat, but in her capacity as chairwoman of the SADC's directorate of politics, defence and security. Foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the minister's letter was a request for the secretariat to organise the SADC team's visit. Dlamini-Zuma told Parliament this week she was confident Zimbabwe would soon issue an invitation to SADC.
Yesterday a senior African diplomat said it had to be asked why SA could not, as current chair of the key SADC organ on politics, defence and security, insist that Zimbabwe accept the delegation to assess whether its laws and practices were in line with the SADC's guidelines on free and fair elections. Dlamini-Zuma insists the delegation has to be invited by Zimbabwe. Although President Thabo Mbeki was reported as saying at the weekend Harare had agreed to the visit, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has reportedly already told SADC that the team will not be welcome. With just over a month to go before the parliamentary poll, there is little time for SADC to enforce its principles on democratic elections, which were passed at its summit last August in Mauritius. Diplomats say the visit of the legal team would be followed by that of ministers and then possibly heads of state. There is mounting speculation that Pretoria may be acceding to Harare's foot dragging on the issue out of fear for the safety of a South African spy arrested in Zimbabwe last month, who has reportedly been tortured in prison.
Cosatu's confirmation that it would blockade Beitbridge and its accusing the region of failing to stand up to Mugabe came after a meeting of Cosatu's executive in Johannesburg. The decision follows Dlamini-Zuma's warning that government will enforce the law in dealing with a blockade. However, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said: "Maybe she (Dlamini-Zuma) has forgotten the time, not so long ago, when she was involved in similar pickets and blockades against the apartheid government." While Zimbabwe could not be equated with the apartheid regime, South Af rican workers were not suffering from amnesia as Dlamini-Zuma seemed to be. This morning, against the protests of the African National Congress and government, the Democratic Alliance is sending a delegation to Zimbabwe to assess the environment.
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From News24 (SA), 17 February
Zim cops beat up protesters
Harare - Zimbabwe police wearing riot-control gear on Thursday beat up protesters, arresting 14 of them, during a march in downtown Harare to demand free and fair elections, the organisers said. Police charged on the 200 protesters as they approached a city park, distributing flyers and carrying placards during the march organised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of church and rights group. "I can confirm that 14 of our members have been arrested. Seven others were taken to a city clinic after they were beaten up by the police," said Jessie Majome, NCA spokesperson. "The police said it was an illegal march in terms of the Public Order and Security Act. We have always argued that this law is meant to infringe on our right to freedom of assembly." Voters in Zimbabwe go to the polls on March 31 to elect representatives to 120 contested seats in parliament in elections that the opposition claims are skewed in favour of President Robert Mugabe's governing Zanu PF party. The elections will be closely watched to gauge Mugabe's commitment to adhere to principles on holding free and fair elections that were adopted by a southern African regional grouping last year. Zimbabwe's main opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change has decided to field candidates in the elections even though its leaders have said that the vote will not be free and fair.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 18 February
Mugabe throws poll into turmoil
Harare - First, find 10 voters whose names appear on a non-existent electoral roll. Then hand twice your monthly salary to an official whose identity remains a mystery. Those are the first hurdles that Zimbabwe's opposition candidates must complete by today if they wish to contest next month's parliamentary election. President Robert Mugabe's regime has thrown the electoral machinery into turmoil, which critics say is a deliberate attempt to prevent the opposition Movement for Democratic Change from fielding candidates in all 120 constituencies. The last presidential election in 2002 was denounced by Commonwealth observers as a violation of every democratic standard. For this election, every MDC candidate must first be nominated by 10 registered voters. Despite years of intimidation, finding the names is not difficult. Checking that they appear on the electoral roll is the hard part. The latest register is virtually impossible to obtain and can be issued by only one government office in the capital, Harare. All candidates must apply for it in person and are often fobbed off with old copies. Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, an opposition MP, spent eight days trying to obtain a copy. "I went from office to office and kept being sent somewhere else," she said. "I tried to buy copies for other MPs but was told they have to come in person, even if they live very far away." The list costs £100, equivalent to an MP's monthly salary. All candidates must then present their credentials to the electoral officer responsible for their constituency. But these officials have not been named, let alone publicly appointed. Even if the unknown officials can be found, a prospective candidate must hand over a fee of £200. As a result, the MDC acknowledges that it may be unable to put up candidates in every seat and that some MPs from Mugabe's Zanu PF party could win unopposed. "These are deliberate obstacles," a spokesman said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 18 February
Ghost voters unearthed
Conrad Dube/Loughty Dube
The voters' roll has glaring errors that are likely to disenfranchise thousands of voters, especially in urban constituencies, in the March 31 parliamentary election. A voters' roll audit conducted this week unearthed hundreds of ghost voters, with some entered more than once. There are also incomplete addresses and dubious entries. This came out as the High Court in Bulawayo yesterday barred police from interfering with the voters' roll inspection being conducted by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) countrywide. The MDC filed the application after police arrested seven of its activists who were conducting a voters' roll audit in the city. High Court Judge Maphios Cheda granted the opposition an interim relief to conduct its voter verification exercise without interference. The MDC's application, filed through the party's lawyers Coghlan Welsh and Guest, attacked the police for overzealousness. "The conduct of the first respondent and the police in general is reprehensible and retrogressive, especially against the backdrop of positive efforts being made by government in correcting the bad image that has been painted on the conduct of elections in this country," read the application. "It is this kind of overzealous turpitude which is completely incongruent to the general trend of not only levelling the political playing field but also clearing the democratic complexion of our country in order to portray a legacy of political tolerance and maturity."
The opposition says it has identified anomalies on the Harare Central and Mbare voters' rolls. There are also alleged discrepancies on the Harare North roll. The MDC is carrying out audits in all urban areas. Anomalies include the appearance of names of people in constituencies in which they don't reside. For instance, one Spiwe Muchazviona of 54-4th Street, Newlines, Mbare and Batisai James of 31 Ardbennie Road, Mbare appear in the Harare Central voters' roll. Also in the Harare Central roll is one Museve Silas of 7 Dumbe Road, Mufakose. It also has a significant number of Sunningdale 2 addresses. Double entries are prevalent on the roll. For instance, one Dires Ngwendeka, identity number 63-492865H-63, whose address has been given as 6 Five Avenue, Earls Court, Harare also appears as having another identity number 63-492863M-63 and residing at the same address.
Independent candidate for Harare Central and former member of parliament for Harare South, Margaret Dongo, claims the discrepancies are a deliberate tool to be used by Zanu PF to rig the March election. Dongo in 1995 won the Harare South seat in a re-run against Vivian Mwashita of Zanu PF after the court confirmed the elections had been rigged. "This is a tool Zanu PF has always used to rig elections and if the opposition is not critical of this process, we are likely to see a two-thirds majority for Zanu PF. "If the Zanu PF government was serious about conducting democratic elections it should have rectified these problems after they were uncovered in the 1995 election. This shows that Zimbabwe does not have the capacity to produce a perfect voters' roll." Responding to written questions on behalf of the Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede, a CA Goredema said capturing of data was still in progress. He said multiple entries would be picked up during the computerisation of the data. "However, we do thank you for your notifying us that we can deal with this matter with ease," he said. "Although such entries may appear on the roll due to error by data capturers, the person votes once. The person cannot vote more than once. If he/she does so, it will be a statutory offence tantamount to prosecution."
Dongo has also been barred from distributing campaign material at Zimbabwe Republic Police's Tomlinson depot. In a written letter to Dongo, police superintendent A Mpofu, said: "Be advised that your application (to distribute campaign materials in ZRP Tomlison Camp) dated February 5 has not been approved. Such activities are not allowed in camp and may you please appreciate our position." Dongo has however written to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, arguing that the police decision is in contravention of the Electoral Act. MDC Harare North MP, Trudy Stevenson, has discovered 82 incorrect entries at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering - part of Block 60409 - and 52 at Pomona Stone Quarries. She said: "We are informed the people were all moved off by the employer early last year. In Hatcliffe Extension there are 1 773 incorrect entries, including insufficient addresses - even if they are known. "There is a big variation! Zanu PF is constantly trying to 'control' the two Hatcliffe areas and I think that is where we will have problems on polling day," Stevenson said. She said intimidation of voters has also started. "Voters are being told they will lose their houses in Harare North Co-operatives and Hatcliffe Extension if they don't vote Zanu PF. We are reporting all that to the ZEC," she said.
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Comment from Business Report (SA), 18 February
Dlamini-Zuma has nailed her colours to Zanu PF ship
By Terry Bell
"It's amazing how short are the memories of some former exiles," a middle-aged trade unionist mused this week when he heard Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign minister, warn against a trade union blockade of Zimbabwe. She maintained such an action would be illegal; that "nowhere in the world" was it permissible to impose such sanctions. But as a number of generally older unionists are fully aware, Dlamini-Zuma was in exile in England at the time the Liverpool dockers refused to unload South African merchandise. This was a classic blockade and it was hailed by an ANC of which Dlamini-Zuma was very much a part. The blockades mounted by longshoremen in the US, and waterside workers in New Zealand and Australia, were also hailed. Then, of course, there were the many retail boycotts, epitomised by the famous strike at Dunnes store in Dublin by 11 shop assistants. During many of those exile years, a formal blockade was also mounted against the Rhodesian colony that, under its colonial pigmentocracy, had unilaterally declared independence. In that case, it was the British government that called for and authorised the sanctions. The Rhodesia Front regime of Ian Smith was only able to survive because South Africa and Portugal, which controlled Mozambique until 1974, did not observe the blockade. They decided, in their racist and anti-democratic interests, to support the Front. Companies such as Lonrho, which owned the oil pipeline that runs from the Mozambique coast to Zimbabwe, also broke the blockade. When they did so, it was on the basis that profit was the ultimate principle. But Lonrho was in contravention of international law in doing so. Obviously, governments have the right to impose whatever laws they wish within their national boundaries. This is covered by the concept of sovereignty. But the laws and how they are applied have to be seen and judged in a political context.
There are, today, various standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which states are held accountable. Zimbabwe is in clear breach of a number of these standards, including the recent ones set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Sanctions may therefore be legitimately called for and applied. So for Dlamini-Zuma to imply that there is some kind of international statute prohibiting blockades as part of union solidarity is nonsense. However, she was perfectly within her rights to warn Cosatu that "the full weight of the law" could be brought to bear if the union federation dared to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe. Laws covering obstruction, breach of the peace or even riotous behaviour can all be trundled out for such occasions. The decision to apply them is political. By warning that laws would be used, Dlamini-Zuma firmly nailed her colours to the mast of the Zanu PF ship of state and its wily and controversial skipper, President Robert Mugabe. Her statement this week that there would be free and fair elections in Zimbabwe in accordance with the protocols laid down by SADC reinforced this. One of the rules the SADC heads of state drew up is that observers from the region should be permitted to investigate the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe, 90 days before any election. It is now only 39 days before the scheduled poll and the SADC is still waiting to be invited. All of these points have been made by various unionists over the past week. But there are also a great many who express confusion or who feel that Cosatu should pay more attention to the situation on the home front rather than "interfere" in Zimbabwe. "That is a misunderstanding of what trade unionism is all about," says Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. "Never forget, Cosatu's motto is 'An injury to one is an injury to all'."
In the early struggle days of Cosatu, it was unions around the world that provided solidarity. They often formed the core of various anti-apartheid movements. Ironically, in the case of Zimbabwe, the triumphant liberation movement faction, Zanu, was hostile to the ANC, which had a long-standing alliance with the Zapu movement led by Joshua Nkomo. But from the time of the formation of Cosatu in 1985, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), formed in 1981, and the local federation maintained close contact. One reason the ZCTU has been restrained in its criticism of President Thabo Mbeki's controversial "quiet diplomacy approach" to Zimbabwe has been respect for Cosatu as part of the governing and ANC-led alliance. This has now changed. "Given what has been said and done over recent months, many of us here now feel your government is guilty of gross hypocrisy," says Bright Chibvuri, editor of the ZCTU newspaper, The Worker.
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From The Guardian (UK), 19 February
Zimbabwe journalists flee threats
Andrew Meldrum in Cape Town
Three prominent Zimbabwean journalists who wrote for the international press have left the country after several days of police questioning and threats of prosecution. Angus Shaw, correspondent for Associated Press, Jan Raath, of the Times, and Brian Latham, who wrote news reports for the Bloomberg agency, were interrogated, had their offices searched and were told they would be charged with various offences that carry jail terms. Their lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, described the police action as harassment, adding: "It is clear the police were just searching for something to charge them with." Now that they have left for South Africa, only one correspondent for a British newspaper remains in Zimbabwe: Peta Thornycroft, who writes for the Daily Telegraph. The news agencies Reuters and Agence France-Presse still maintain offices in the country. President Robert Mugabe's government has expelled all other foreign journalists and closed three newspapers. More than 70 Zimbabwean journalists have been arrested and charged with crimes.
The action against the journalists comes only six weeks before the March 31 parliamentary poll. The government has faced growing accusations that the election cannot be credible because of its repression of the media and the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Security laws prohibit public meetings of more than three people without police approval. This week, police broke up a meeting of the MDC's 120 parliamentary candidates and arrested the party's elections director. The government has also been criticised by legal experts for instructing the army to administer the elections. Civic organisations say that of the 5.6 million registered voters, more than two million are suspect - citing high numbers of deceased and multiple listings on the electoral roll. South African government officials said this week that they thought free and fair elections in Zimbabwe were still possible. However, a leading South African lawyer, George Bizos, and other election experts said they believed that the current conditions there made genuinely democratic polling impossible.
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From The Times (UK), 19 February
As Mugabe's net closed in, I was forced to flee the country I love
By Jan Raath
With sadness in his heart, a journalist reflects on the increasing intimidation that finally drove him out of Zimbabwe
At 11.30 am on Wednesday I completed my flight from Zimbabwe. After 30 years in Harare, and a final, frantic overnight drive to the border, I had left the sad, wrecked country that I love, and I don't know if I will return. For years President Mugabe's regime had been making it increasingly difficult to work in Zimbabwe as a journalist, and of the foreign press corps I was one of the last survivors. But this week it become obvious that with an election looming, and Mr Mugabe wishing to steal it with a minimum of prying by the outside world, my time was up as well. The intimidation had begun at 2.30am on Monday with loud banging on the locked gate to my home. Two men tried to force it open. I kept my light off and waited until the car finally drove off. Later that morning two young plainclothes policemen appeared at the run-down office I shared with Angus Shaw, of the Associated Press, and Brian Latham, of Bloomberg - what we called "the Old Gentleman's News Co-operative" in No 20 Birdcage Walk.
They said that they were investigating a tip-off that there were spies inside. Beatrice Mtetwa, my indomitable lawyer, laughed when she heard this, and told the young policeman: "My friend, if you are looking for spies, you should go to Zanu PF headquarters." He guffawed, gave her a high-five and left. An hour later, three more detectives arrived in a large white Toyota with no numberplates. They were not friendly. They refused to identify themselves and tried to chase Beatrice away. They said that we were working illegally as journalists - an offence that carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison. We had applied for accreditation, but the state Media Commission had sat on our applications for the past three years. On Tuesday the authorities stepped up the pressure. A gang of ten policemen arrived for an intensive search while none of us was there. A young computer hacker was digging into Angus's hard drive when Beatrice arrived. She asked whether they had a warrant, and was told to go to hell. When the telephone rang the hacker answered: "This is the new receptionist." Later, believing that she had found details of foreign currency transfers ordered by Angus, she shouted: "Now we've got him!"
For three days they poked around our office and tried out four possible offences. It was obvious that they were looking for anything they could stick on us. On the third visit, they were led by the head of the CID's "Law and Order" section, suggesting that the orders to raid us must have come from the very top. The consecutive raids had made me begin to turn over the vague emergency plans we had all discussed as the repression increased over the past five years. Then a colleague who talks to tame operatives in the Central Intelligence Organisation, Mr Mugabe's secret police, asked me to meet her urgently. In my car, she said she had been told that they were "gunning for you". She went on: "This time they are going to be rough. You must get out now." She was crying. Shortly after Beatrice telephoned to say she had information that they wanted to lock all three of us up. The warnings induced the sensation of having a large, cold knife pushed down the middle of my stomach that I get when seriously afraid.
Since Monday I had not slept at home, and was talking in code over the telephone. I was alarmed by the sight of strange cars passing slowly outside. At times like these, making a distinction between paranoia and reality is hard. I made up my mind. I had to leave. Officials at the South African Embassy promptly processed a visa for my Zimbabwean passport. I parked my car at a friend's home, and borrowed his to slip home. In 15 minutes I had packed clothing for a week, toiletries, personal documents, my laptop, shortwave radio, binoculars, camera, penknife - most of which would be pounced on by zealous policemen as a standard espionage outfit - and Z$1.5 million. A few years ago that would have bought several houses. Now it is worth about £130. I revealed my plans only to my closest friends, and then only face-to-face, and set off through the night for the 342-mile (550km) drive to the border, exhausted and in a state of acute anxiety.
At the Plumtree border post into Botswana, I held my breath as the Zimbabwean immigration officer rifled through the pages of my passport, stamped it forcefully and smiled back at my frozen grin. He sent me to a door marked CID to present my police vehicle-clearance certificate. The officer asked where my name came from, and I said that my Dutch ancestors had settled at the Cape 300 years ago. "You are an African," he said pleasantly. Mr Mugabe had for the past five years been telling me and all other whites to "go back to Britain". I drove slowly away towards Botswana, and at the first opportunity telephoned my girlfriend, Sarah, in Cape Town. She burst into tears of relief, but my own relief was tempered by immense sadness at what had become of my country. When Mr Mugabe was first elected in 1980, he was unlike any African leader. He spoke with a plummy accent and won my heart with his policy of reconciliation between whites and blacks, and between the two sides of the seven- year guerrilla war against the minority rule of Ian Smith's colonial regime.
But gradually, as in George Orwell's Animal Farm, the new regime grew more repressive and authoritarian than the one it replaced. In 2000, Mr Mugabe was challenged for the first time, and very nearly beaten. Since then his Government has become blatantly tyrannical, determined to stamp out any opposition, and a byword for misrule. Most white farms have been seized in the name of land redistribution, and left to rot. Millions of black Zimbabweans now live in hunger and abject poverty, with the country's dwindling food supplies used as a political tool to reward supporters. Unbridled inflation has left the currency worthless. The independent media has been silenced. Those who can have abandoned the country in droves. There has been no joy in recording Zimbabwe's steady descent into a subsistence economy.
Changing view of a state in crisis
The economy remains the most sophisticated in black Africa, and the Government, headed by President Mugabe, represents a leading political and military force in one of the world's most complex regions, holding the key to a wide range of vital issues . . . the predictions that "the wheels will fall off" five years after independence have been more than disproved - Friday, September 2, 1988
The party political side of Mr Mugabe is the enigma in his character, and in direct contradiction to the erudite, articulate diplomat, negotiator and efficient technocrat who has adhered meticulously to the restraints imposed by the Lancaster House Constitution, retained the vigour of black Africa's most sophisticated economy, and acceded readily to appeals from the genuinely aggrieved if they are unrelated to party politics. - Thursday, March 29, 1990
The bullet-proof black Mercedes-Benz comes to a halt and from behind the limousine's black curtains emerges President Mugabe, acknowledging the adulation . . . A plainclothes policeman notices me counting the number of vehicles in the motorcade, and demands to know why. "So you want to report negatively on Zimbabwe," he says. The contents of my wallet are minutely scrutinised, and the group of men in sunglasses swelling around me writes down details of my press card and my blood donor's card. An hour later they let me go. - Monday, March 11, 1996
Coins have become a nuisance. The only useful unit of currency is the Z$500 note, which is called the Ferrari because it is red and goes fast. Ask after the health of any Zimbabwean below the rank of executive and invariably the reply will be: "Hungry." - Thursday, September 5, 2002
My maid, Nyarai, failed to turn up for work yesterday. There was no public transport and private minibuses have doubled their charges since a 283 per cent increase in petrol prices a month ago. She was unable to call because the telephone boxes no longer work . . . Zimbabwe is a country rich in resources and with great potential . . . but it has now reached the point of collapse. - Friday, May 16, 2003
"Anybody who can get a job overseas has left," said John Mufakare, the director of the Employers' Confederation of Zimbabwe. "The spark that distinguished Zimbabwe from the rest of Africa has gone." - Monday, August 16, 2004
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From Zim Online (SA), 19 February
Jailed MP barred from poll
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party will on Monday file an urgent court application seeking to overturn a nomination court decision to bar jailed member, Roy Bennett, from contesting next month's election. MDC secretary general Welshmen Ncube said nomination court officials rejected Bennett's nomination papers to stand for the opposition party in Chimanimani constituency arguing he could not be allowed to do so while he is still in jail. Bennett is the sitting Member of Parliament for Chimanimani. He was jailed by Parliament for 15 months after he violently pushed Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during debate in the House last May. The law only disallows Zimbabweans convicted of a criminal offence by a criminal court and not Parliament from standing in parliamentary or presidential elections. Ncube said: "They argued that he could not contest in the election because he is in jail. We asked them to produce the law which states that, but obviously they could not. We have asked our legal department to file an urgent court application on Monday to have this decision overturned." The opposition party has meanwhile forwarded Bennett's wife Heather as stand-in candidate until the courts rule whether her husband should be allowed to contest. Another MDC candidate Zacharia Rioga was also barred from standing in Masvingo South constituency because his father was originally from Malawi making the aspiring opposition candidate a Malawian by descent. The opposition party quickly fielded a reserve candidate in place of Rioga.
Meanwhile, government information minister and propaganda chief, Jonathan Moyo, led at least six rebel candidates from both the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF party who defied orders from their parties to contest the March 31 poll as independents. Moyo, whose position in the government looks more tenuous than ever before, submitted his name as an independent candidate in his Tsholotsho rural home constituency, a move that under Zanu PF's rules renders him automatically expelled from the party. It could not be immediately established whether President Robert Mugabe, who has repeatedly ignored calls by other senior Zanu PF leaders, to fire Moyo will continue to retain him at the information ministry after his rebellion against the ruling party. Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira would only say that Moyo' s issue was most likely to be discussed at next Wednesday's meeting of the party's inner politburo cabinet. Two other Zanu PF members were by last night known to have rebelled against the party to stand as independents. In Mberengwa East constituency Godwin Shiri, who lost the Zanu PF party ticket to State Enterprises Minister Rugare Gumbo registered to contest the election as an independent, while in Chiredzi North another Zanu PF official, Ottilia Maluleke is contesting on an independent ticket.
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From The Daily Mirror, 19 February
Chiyangwa free at last.as Kuruneri, Bennett stay in
Simba Rushwaya
Businessman and politician Phillip Chiyangwa is now a free man. High Court judge Justice Hungwe yesterday gave back freedom to the Zanu PF Mashonaland West chairman who has been languishing in remand prison since December last year on allegations of snapping the Official Secrets Act. Handing down judgment in which he blasted magistrate Peter Kumbawa who incarcerated Chiyangwa, judge Hungwe said: "The way the magistrate handled the matter was untorward and injudicious. The language he used was overzealous.."It has become a trend that a suspect is virtually tried, charged and sentenced by the press. The magistrate carried the media's view into the court.. the applicant is entitled to his immediate release." The judge said that the State's case was porous as it lacked incriminating evidence. Hungwe - sitting in a motion court - described Kumbawa as overzealous. Soon after the judgment, Chiyagwa's family who had thronged the High Court to hear the verdict of their beloved jumped with joy, hugging and kissing each other. Chiyangwa's brother, James, said justice has prevailed maintaining his brother was innocent. James said to his brother's wife: "Your prayers have been answered" as she wept with joy, while his sons jumped up and down.
Chiyangwa went missing on December 15 2004, soon after presenting a Parliamentary portfolio committee review report on the 2005 budget. Since then his whereabouts were shrouded in mystery until he appeared in court on 29 January facing charges espionage charges he vehemently denied. On his initial remand appearance, Chiyangwa, through his lawyer Canaan Dube of Dube Manikai and Hwacha legal practitioners, complained that he was abducted by unidentified men, blindfolded and detained in solitary confinement with no toilet facilities. He said he was grilled for hours, intimidated and moved from place to place where it stunk of urine. While in custody, Chiyangwa suffered a mild stroke, he claimed was a result of ill-treatment by his captors. Meanwhile, Justice Hungwe dismissed a bail application by incarcerated Finance Minister and Mazowe West legislator Chris Kuruneri saying he could not be trusted because he held dual citizenship-Canadian and Zimbabwean. Kuruneri's lawyer was granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. On the same day, Hungwe dismissed with costs a bail application by MDC legislator Roy Bennett who is in a rural prison in Mutoko after Parliament found him guilty of flooring Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
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From SABC News, 18 February
DA delegation denied entry into Zimbabwe
A Democratic Alliance (DA) delegation has been denied access to Zimbabwe at Harare International Airport. The three person delegation jetted off on a fact finding mission from Johannesburg International this morning. The delegation was led by Joe Seremane, the chairperson of the party, and was planning to stay in the country for three days in order to investigate conditions in the run-up to elections. Meanwhile Tony Leon, the leader of the DA, says it comes as no surprise that they were turned away. Leon says the Zimbabwean government's action is further evidence that there are no grounds for free and fair elections in that country. This is the second South Africa delegation to be turned away at Harare International Airport. A Congress of South African Trade Unions delegation was also turned away earlier this month. They had hoped to meet with fellow trade unionists from the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, but, after being rebuffed on a similar visit last year, they had not even attempted to meet government officials.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 18 February
Zanu PF issues 'traitors' list
Godfrey Marawanyika
The ruling Zanu PF has compiled a list of politicians and journalists perceived as traitors and sell-outs being influenced by Western countries to peddle anti-Zimbabwe propaganda. The list comprises politicians, journalists, civil rights activists, the clergy and deceased persons drawn from three phases - the First and Second Chimurenga and the post-Independence era. In a booklet titled Traitors Do Much Damage to National Goals, Zanu PF said the worst type of traitor was the one who operates from within the party. It does not have a date of publication or what prompted its release just before the crucial March 31 election. The booklet was produced by Zanu PF's Department of Information and Publicity. The party describes the first phase of traitors as those who helped the enemy at the expense of others, saying the problems for Africa started when England under its monarchy "decided to offload the trash of its overgrown population on a docile Africa around the 17th Century". "In fact, the epicentre of hell is in Britain and the Queen or King in power at that moment, is the devil himself or herself," Zanu PF said.
Zanu PF said traitors of the First Chimurenga phase "came from all walks of life - professors, clergymen, business people, chiefs, headmen, teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers; in fact men and women whose educational persuasion made them think that anything British, European, American and so on, made them better humans than their fellow men". It said the Second Chimurenga had its own phase of traitors who include Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole of Zanu Ndonga, Morris Nyati who betrayed the liberation war. The list of "traitors" who are part of the post-Independence phase is made up of President Robert Mugabe's critic Archbishop Pius Ncube and journalist-cum-entrepreneur Trevor Ncube, Basildon Peta and Geoffrey Nyarota. Trevor Ncube is the publisher of the Zimbabwe Independent, The Standard and the Mail & Guardian in South Africa. Politicians on the list are drawn from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and include Job Sikhala, Sekai Holland, Morgan Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube, Gibson Sibanda, Fidelis Mhashu, Paul Themba Nyathi, and Fletcher Dulini Ncube. The late activist Lupi Mushayakarara is also mentioned as a traitor of the post-Independence phase. National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman Lovemore Madhuku, academic John Makumbe, Dzinashe Machingura, a war veteran, Gugulethu Moyo, former legal advisor to the ANZ, Everjoice Win, a civic activist and Bulawayo mayor Japhet Ndabeni Ncube complete the list.
Zanu PF said there were numerous traitors who could not be contained in the book. "This has become the new breed of traitors to have teamed up with enemies of Zimbabwe's survival as they continue to churn out falsehood after falsehood in their bid to see the return of our beautiful country to the hands of our former colonial masters," the party said. "They have gone to create a media whose hatred of Zimbabwe's revolution surpasses the smell from a thousand dead donkies (sic). They tell the world that anyone who has died in Zimbabwean hospitals, road accidents, from criminal activities, HIV and Aids and naturally, are as a result of Zanu PF's persecution of opposition members." It said the "Ncube clan name" has been greatly tarnished of late by sell-outs such as Pius Ncube, Welshman Ncube, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube and Fletcher Dhlamini (sic) Ncube "who all seem to have decided to turn the Ncube name into an acronym for turncoats against the Zimbabwean revolution". "The clan should look at themselves more closely from within and help rid their clan of a pattern that seems to be manifesting itself very negatively," it said.
Steve Chidawanyika, Zanu PF's director of Information and Publicity, defended the book saying it has been in demand, especially in South Africa. "The book is a prophecy of what was going to happen. A lot of people in South Africa are really impressed with that book. The book tries kuudza vana veZimbabwe kuti kutengesa nyika nenyaya yegreenback hazvibatsiri. Kutengesa nyika kunoita Africa irasike. Sanctions which other people were advocating hurt the unborn African child," he said. Trevor Ncube, in a statement yesterday, shot back sharply at the Zanu PF booklet. "Zanu PF sees traitors everywhere," said Ncube. "But it is the authors of this scurrilous document who have betrayed the liberation struggle by imposing their brutal dictatorship on Zimbabwe." He added: "All the names held up for abuse have made a significant contribution to Zimbabwe's struggle for democracy. Nobody will be fooled by the bankrupt language of this latest attack. The media we have created has exposed the charlatans who have colonised this country so effectively since 2000. That's why they are so bitter. This document has 'losers' written all over it." Madhuku of the NCA described the identification of individuals as traitors as madness. "That's madness. They want to monopolise and categorise patriots. Anyone who fights against dictatorship and brutality is a traitor. But it is a complement to be viewed like that by Zanu PF," he said. MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube dismissed the traitors' list as the work of old men who are clueless on how to run an economy. "It is a privilege to be called a traitor by a party that has failed the people of Zimbabwe," he said. He said it was unfortunate that Zanu PF was maligning those who fight for the rights of the people as traitors. "Zanu PF is running a criminal state and it has a government run by thugs," Ncube said.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 20 February
Mugabe asks for election whitewash
As repression deepens, Zimbabwe puts pressure on neighbours to give official approval for a poll already mired in controversy
Andrew Donaldson in London, Charmeela Bhagowat and Sunday Times Foreign Desk
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is lobbying neighbours to declare that he is complying with the region's rules governing elections - despite refusing to allow them to send a legal delegation to inspect electoral reforms. Mugabe sent his Anti-Corruption Minister Didymus Mutasa to seek outgoing Namibian President Sam Nujoma's backing this week, while he dispatched Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo to meet Botswana's President Festus Mogae last week. Diplomats in Harare said Mugabe wanted Southern African Development Community leaders to whitewash the result of the election likely to be won by his party. His move comes as the country's controversial Information Minister and chief spin doctor, Jonathan Moyo, announced he would stand as an independent candidate in next month's general elections - and repression in the country deepened.
This week alone:
Mugabe refused to allow a SADC delegation of lawyers to assess electoral reforms;
Zimbabwean police arrested opposition Movement for Democratic elections director Ian Makone for convening an allegedly illegal meeting, and 14 members of the National Constitutional Assembly, an MDC ally, for staging a protest for a free and fair election;
The European Union renewed its selective sanctions against the country's ruling elite;
The respected International Crisis Group said that the election would not be completely free and fair; and
A Democratic Alliance mission was turned back at Harare Airport
The South African government - considered Zimbabwe's most powerful neighbour - has been largely silent on the latest events, with Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma saying on Tuesday that she was satisfied that Zimbabwe was doing enough to ensure free and fair elections. Notwithstanding Harare's grandstanding, the South African government said yesterday it had asked SADC to prepare to send observers - which would include the legal team - in anticipation of an invitation from Mugabe. But no invitation had been forthcoming by Friday night, according to a SADC official.
Moyo's decision to stand as an independent adds an interesting twist to what is already a controversial poll. Moyo - principal architect of the draconian media legislation that has all but strangled Zimbabwe's once-thriving independent press - made the decision after falling out of favour with the party's leadership. He will run in the Tsholotsho constituency held by the MDC. Handing in his registration papers 15 minutes before electoral nominations closed at Bulawayo's city hall on Friday, Moyo did not say whether he had resigned from Zanu PF. But under the party's constitution he will face dismissal for running as an independent candidate, the BBC reported. On Friday, the European Union renewed its selective sanctions against the country's ruling elite. The EU's decision came just hours before a DA fact-finding team was added to a growing list of missions refused entry into the country by Harare to monitor conditions there. An EU spokesman told the Sunday Times that the renewal of the sanctions was largely a procedural matter but added that the matter could be reviewed after polling on March 31. Sanctions include a ban on selected Zanu PF members from travelling to the EU, a freeze on any financial assets they may hold in the EU, and an arms embargo.
Earlier in the week, the International Monetary Fund postponed a decision to expel Zimbabwe as a member - but not before it labelled as "insufficient" Harare's attempts to halt the country's economic decline. The IMF board began a process to expel Zimbabwe last year after it fell back on debt repayments, as its economy struggled with its worst crisis since independence in 1980. Peter Kagwanja, director of the International Crisis Group's Southern Africa office, said that their recent mission to Zimbabwe found that while Zanu PF had gone some way to try to level the playing field, the elections would not be free and fair. "The repressive governance system that emerged from 2002 has remained intact and poses the greatest threat to a free and fair election in March 2005," he said. Mugabe's cousin and ruling Zanu PF MP Phillip Chiyangwa, who was facing charges of espionage, was released from jail on Friday. Chiyangwa was freed on a judge' s orders after more than two months in police custody for allegedly spying on Mugabe's government for South Africa. Although it was not clear if the charges would be withdrawn, Chiyangwa has escaped long incarceration, at least for now.
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From News24 (SA), 19 February
Mugabe picks poll monitors
Harare - Russia is the only European country among 32 nations invited by President Robert Mugabe to observe next month's crunch parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe, state radio reported on Saturday, quoting Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge. The minister unveiled the much-awaited list of foreign observers at a news conference in the southern town of Masvingo, according to the radio report. "Mudenge made it clear that European Union countries such as Britain and her allies were not invited since they are hostile to Zimbabwe and have already made their own pre-judgement of the elections," it said. The EU slapped "smart sanctions" on Mugabe and his inner circle shortly after the 2002 presidential polls which international observers said were tainted with fraud and voter intimidation. It was not immediately known when the invitations were sent out but South Africa on Tuesday voiced concern over the delay in inviting observers from the region. According to democratic electoral guidelines pencilled last year by all members of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC), invitations should be extended 90 days before elections. Of the 32 invited countries, 23 are from Africa, five from Asia, three from the Americas and Russia. The African Union (AU), the SADC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations are among the regional and international organisations to which invitations have been extended. South Africa's African National Congress (ANC), Tanzania's Chama Chama Pinduzi and Mozambique's Frelimo are some of the liberation movements coming to witness the closely watched polls. Foreign diplomats based in Harare wishing to observe the polls will "be accredited upon request" by the foreign ministry.
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From SABC News, 19 February
Mugabe sacks information minister after defection
Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe president, sacked Jonathan Moyo, the controversial information minister, today after he defected from the ruling Zanu PF party to run as an independent in next month's parliamentary elections. George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesperson, said Moyo - who has spearheaded Mugabe's propaganda campaign over five years of mounting political and economic crisis - had been stripped of party membership, legislative seat and cabinet post. "By his actions, he ceases to be a member of parliament and a minister in government," Charamba said in a statement. Moyo registered yesterday as an independent candidate for the March 31 parliamentary elections after being sidelined in a power struggle over who would be named as Mugabe's likely successor when he retires in 2008. Moyo was not immediately available for comment. Moyo is regarded by many as the architect of tough media laws enacted three years ago requiring news organisations and journalists to register with a state media commission and barring foreigners from working permanently in the country as correspondents. Moyo, who had held one of 20 parliamentary seats reserved for Mugabe appointeees under Zimbabwe's electoral laws, now plans to run as an independent candidate in his rural home constituency of Tsholotsho in southwestern Zimbabwe.
Moyo's departure from Zanu PF marked one of the first high-level defections following an unprecedented succession struggle which political analysts said may boost the fortunes of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the March 31 polls. The dispute centred on the nomination of a woman government minister, Joyce Mujuru, as the second vice-president of Zanu PF and of Zimbabwe - a move which blocked the rise of Emmerson Mnangagwa, the speaker of parliament, regarded for years as the most likely candidate for the post. Moyo was accused of holding a meeting to back Mnangagwa, who eventually lost the race for the job widely seen as a stepping stone to the presidency. Mugabe, who turns 81 on Monday and has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has said next month's vote will result in a huge victory for Zanu PF amid opposition charges that the country's electoral landscape has already been engineered to keep the ruling party in power.
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From AFP, 19 February
Tibetan beauty banned from pageant in Zim
Dharamsala, India - Miss Tibet Tashi Yangchen has been expelled from the Miss Tourism World beauty pageant in Zimbabwe due to pressure from China, an official said on Saturday. Yangchen, who arrived in Harare on February 13 was told by the organisers that the Chinese embassy there had objected to her taking part in the February 26 event, according to Ngawang Samdup, spokesperson of the Miss Tibet pageant. "It is unfortunate that politics dictates events of young women and their aspirations," Samdup said. According to the Tibetan official, Taiwan is represented in the pageant as Chinese Taipei while Hong Kong is named as a representative of China. Miss Tourism World has been running for 20 years with 72 countries taking party in the 2005 event. China occupied Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and now lives in exile in the northern hill resort of Dharamsala.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 20 February
Hounded out by Mugabe's thugs
Journalist Brian Latham tells how he was forced to leave his family and homeland last week as Zimbabwe's dictator tightens the screw
Last Monday, Valentine's Day, started like any other with a scan through the Zimbabwean newspapers. I was first into the Harare office I shared with two other freelance journalists and a photographer. The calm of the morning was shattered just before 10am. With three business stories to write for Bloomberg news and in a hurry to get my stories onto the wire, I hadn't noticed the office messenger open the door. A voice behind me told me to stop writing. I turned round to find three men in plain clothes had entered the office. The leader told me he was "from the police" and wanted to question me and my colleagues, Angus Shaw and Jan Raath. "Call them and tell them to come to the office," the man ordered. "We have had a tip-off that you are running a spy ring." They spent an hour sifting through private papers, listening to our phone calls and inspecting photographs. Only the insistence of our lawyer that no law had been broken persuaded them to leave. That was the first and easier of two raids that day. We were warned, as they left, that we could expect a visit from Zimbabwe's notorious and feared "law and order" branch, which operates out of Harare central police station, usually with scant respect for law or order.
Half an hour later they arrived, ordering us to stop work. This time we were accused of being "illegal journalists" (reporters in Zimbabwe can only work with the permission of the government's media commission). Protest from Beatrice Mtetwa, our lawyer, and ourselves was fruitless. The same accusation was made, menacingly, time and time again. When asked to prove their allegations, one of the policemen smiled and said: "First we get suspects, then we get facts, not the other way around." A plainclothes policewoman, all 6ft 4in of her, inspected our computer equipment. She wanted to know whether we had broadband satellite connections, presumably to back the spying allegation. But all of us worked on dial-up internet, using Zimbabwe's rickety phone system to get our stories out, often with a frustrating lack of success. Policemen from the law and order branch told us they knew our home addresses and the registration numbers of our vehicles. Their visit left our office, known by Zimbabwean journalists as the Old Gentlemen's News Co-operative, in a state of shock and bewilderment.
We had been tipped off that the police were in a vindictive mood and determined to close us down before the parliamentary election next month. Already mired in controversy and allegations of violence and vote rigging, the elections are set to pit President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. I had hoped to see the election through. Instead, I climbed on to my motorcycle and, at high speed, went to get my passport, which had been hidden in a friend's house for months because of the ever-present threat of closure, torture and harassment. Another friend took me across the border into neighbouring South Africa, from where I could find a flight to London. It wasn't a difficult decision to make. After more than a decade of reporting from Zimbabwe we were all more than aware of how often wrongful, illegal arrests are made, how frequently confessions are extracted under torture, how corrupt court officials think little of keeping people in disease and lice-ridden cells for months on end.
So I fled, but it was only after crossing into South Africa that what I had lost seeped into my consciousness. I had left my children behind, two of them in school and now without a father or anyone to pay their fees. I had lost my home and possessions because I crossed into South Africa in just the clothes I was wearing. And I'd lost the country I was born in. My colleagues, Angus and Jan, also fled. We are free but sadly bereft. None of us knows when we will see our families again, lie in our own beds or have dinner with friends. All the charges are spurious. We have been accused of spying for foreign powers and of publishing information "likely to be detrimental to the state". But all we have ever done is let the world know what was happening in Zimbabwe, and it has cost us everything. Driving south to South Africa down the wooded escarpment into Zimbabwe's broiling lowveld, we passed the devastation left by Mugabe's so-called land reform, home to thousands of unemployed people waiting for better times. Almost my entire life has been spent in Zimbabwe. Once, I used to return light-hearted after working in other African countries. It was like Switzerland; everything worked and everywhere was clean. That has all changed. Litter festoons the cracked, broken streets and little works. Worst of all, the people are beaten and bloodied. I had reported from anywhere in the world in order to earn a living but, like most people, I liked working in my own country, among my own people - people who laughed at the same things I did and shook their heads in horror at the things that horrified me. I'll miss them.
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Comment from The Sunday Independent (SA), 20 February
Too late for a free election in Zimbabwe
But SADC could still salvage something by looking through the smoke and mirrors and having it postponed
By Claude Kapemba
It will not be possible to hold fair and credible elections in the current constitutional and legal framework in Zimbabwe. The best thing the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) advance team of legal experts which is - or was? - supposed to go to Zimbabwe to assess the electoral system could do would be to recommend that the Zimbabwean government postpone the elections. This would allow the necessary reforms that have just been introduced to be institutionalised, and the verification of the voters roll by political parties and voters to take place. The high court in Malawi requested the Malawi Electoral Commission to postpone last year's presidential election to allow for the verification of the voters roll. It did so, and there is no reason why the same cannot be done in Zimbabwe.
There are inconsistencies, gaps and potential conflicts within the current legislative framework that need to be clarified before Zimbabwe can hold credible elections. The laws and institutions do not accurately reflect the political reality of the country. The ruling Zanu PF party continues to have a monopoly on decisions about electoral matters. Recent reforms, including the creation of an Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), electoral court and other electoral procedures, will make very little difference. While the government has created what it calls an independent electoral commission to supervise and organise elections, previous structures - the Electoral Supervisory Commission, the registrar-general, the Election Directorate and the Delimitation Commission - remain in place and are fully functional. The continued existence of this quartet structure, side by side with the new IEC, will cause confusion and tension and make it hard for anyone to observe what is actually happening in the management of elections. Zimbabwe has also kept intact legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which are inimical to freedom of expression and the press respectively.
What effect could a SADC delegation of lawyers from South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia - countries that form a troika in the regional organ on politics, defence and security - have on the electoral process in Zimbabwe? The brief of such a team would be to investigate how Zimbabwe is complying with SADC principles and guidelines and report to SADC heads of state. But does the Zimbabwean government take these guidelines seriously? Patrick Chinamasa, the minister of justice, seems to regard them as a political instrument that countries must follow to upgrade their electoral systems, rather than as a legal instrument. Indeed they are not legally binding and offer no legal recourse to SADC if a member does not observe them. What, then, could SADC do if Zimbabwe did not comply with its guidelines and principles? What Chinamasa might have missed is that the principles have opened space for political recourse if SADC deems it worthwhile to intervene in a member state that does not comply with them. This is why, I think, it would not be too late for the SADC advance team to go to Zimbabwe, even at this late stage. The political options available to SADC to sanction a country that does not comply could include expulsion from SADC, and if the infractions are deemed serious enough it could even contemplate imposing economic sanctions on a member state. Chinamasa also, in an effort to diminish the importance of these principles and guidelines, said they were simply a road map to guide the democratic process in the various SADC countries, and could not be applied uniformly across the board because countries were at different levels of democratic development.
This might suggest that the problem with elections in Zimbabwe is the same sort of structural weaknesses that the Democratic Republic of Congo or Angola face. But in fact in Zimbabwe the problem is very different. There is simply a deliberate attempt not to do the right thing. For example, Zimbabwe had a unique chance to introduce changes to the constitution and the Electoral Act after the 2002 elections. It is not clear why these reforms had to wait until SADC came up with guidelines.In fact, the SADC guidelines are not the first. The African Union has guidelines that member states are supposed to follow and apply and which are similar to SADC's. Further, electoral reforms in Zimbabwe have been called for since 2000 and recommendations - including the ones proposed in the SADC guidelines - had already been articulated by the opposition and civil society, regional and local. Zanu PF knew it had no option but to introduce changes to the administration of elections, and there was no need to wait until just two months before the elections to do so. The Zimbabwean government deliberately delayed electoral reforms in a calculated move to ensure there would not be enough time for the opposition to scrutinise the electoral process. The government seems to be applying the same tactic in dealing with SADC. Consensus on the rules of the electoral game is crucial for creating the basic atmosphere for a fair election. A dialogue on these rules between the main political parties, Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change, held early enough to make a difference, would have gone a long way towards establishing confidence in the system and reducing tension between the parties and among their supporters.
Claude Kapemba is research manager of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and writes in his personal capacity
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From AFP, 21 February
Zimbabwe opposition launches election race
Zimbabwe's main opposition has launched its election campaign, promising to build "a new Zimbabwe" and urging supporters to end the "battering" from President Robert Mugabe's rule. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which made an 11th-hour decision to contest the parliamentary elections on March 31, drew thousands of supporters at a rally held in Masvingo, some 300 kilometres south of Harare. "We are determined to see a new beginning and a new Zimbabwe," MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai told the crowd gathered at a stadium not far from the 13th-century Great Zimbabwe ruins from which the southern African country took its name at independence. "The time has come for us to declare that we cannot take any more battering," he said. Launched in February 1999, the MDC is fielding candidates for all 120 seats up for grabs in the parliamentary elections, which will be closely watched to gauge Zimbabwe's commitment to holding free and fair elections. "We enter the race from a position of strength," Mr Tsvangirai said. "We are confident of victory, we shall win the popular vote as we did in 2000 and 2002."
The MDC won almost half of the 120 contested seats in parliament in the 2000 elections, mounting the biggest challenge to date to Mr Mugabe's stranglehold on power through his ruling Zanu PF party. Mr Mugabe, who turns 81 on Monday, last week told a ZANU-PF rally that he was seeking a crushing two-thirds majority win in the elections. The MDC currently holds 52 of the 120 contested seats. Mr Tsvangirai said the ruling party had ruined the country during its 25 years in power since independence. "Honestly, Zanu PF cannot come to you today seeking another mandate - it's an act of madness," the MDC leader said. "Our families are desperate for food and jobs, with a worthless currency, a huge budget deficit, a shocking external debt, a runaway unemployment rate and a devastating HIV pandemic," he said. Campaigning under the slogan "A new Zimbabwe, a new beginning," Mr Tsvangirai outlined a list of pledges, including a repeal of repressive security and media laws and reviving agricultural production hard hit by the 2000 land reform program in which thousands of white farms have been seized. Although Zimbabwean authorities have promised equal access to the media, the MDC campaign launch was not broadcast live on television, contrary to the coverage given to the Zanu PF campaign kick-off nine days ago. However, State radio did report on the MDC rally in its news bulletin.
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From Business Day (SA), 21 February
Democracy at risk in Zimbabwe poll, SACP warns allies
International Affairs Editor
In a stark warning ahead of Zimbabwe's elections next month, the South African Communist Party (SACP) says democracy in the region will be at risk if leaders of neighbouring states "dilly-dally" on the issue of a free and fair poll. Referring to a proposed Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer mission, the SACP said "a bland and less-than-honest assessment" of the elections by SADC would "send a message to our own mass base (and the global community) that our commitment to democratic principles is 'negotiable' ". In a statement issued yesterday after a weekend meeting of its central committee, the party said mild criticism or approval of the poll would "encourage Zanu PF to think that it can steal future elections". This would also "make a nonsense of the seriousness with which SADC takes its own guidelines and principles". Although the party stopped short of enthusiastic support for the plan by its ally the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to blockade the Beitbridge border post, its statement will keep pressure on its African National Congress (ANC) allies to use their influence on President Robert Mugabe.
The SACP statement also coincided with confirmation that a planned SADC task team made up of legal experts would not visit the country ahead of the poll to assess whether SADC guidelines for the election were being followed. SADC 's secretariat said on Friday that after consultations between SA, as the chair of SADC's organ on politics, defence and security, and Zimbabwe "it was agreed that there was no need for a team of legal experts to visit the country at this stage". The SACP said it was an "obvious fact that, in the short space of time that remains, there will not be effective compliance with SADC principles and guidelines". SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said there should be no "dilly-dallying" by governments on the matter of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. In 2002 SADC gave approval to the Zimbabwean poll despite evidence of widespread intimidation and unfair practices in its run-up, which were noted by other delegations including that of SADC parliamentarians.
Nzimande said that "in principle we will support solidarity action" by Cosatu, but it would have to discuss the details of the planned blockade. While the party, which has about 30000 paid-up members, is much smaller than either the ANC or Cosatu, it is sometimes influential in pushing issues within the alliance. The SACP said it rejected the idea of sanctions on Zimbabwe "for the moment" as this would be a high-risk strategy that could play into the hands of "retrograde" elements in Zimbabwe. Nzimande said the focus of SADC policy should be to look beyond the elections and ensure the parties talk to each other. The central committee pointed out that the newly appointed Zimbabwean Independent Electoral Commission was not in place, the voters' roll was finalised before the new body was set up and harassment of the opposition continues. The committee also pointed out that the SADC delegation, which should be in the country 90 days ahead of the poll, had not yet been invited.
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From Zim Online (SA), 21 February
Minister seeks regional endorsement of poll
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo is touring key African capitals to seek endorsement of the country's election next month and also to canvass support for former finance minister, Simba Makoni's, bid for the African Development Bank (ADB) presidency. Nkomo, who is the chairman of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party, has so far been to Namibia and Botswana on a mission that will take him to all Southern African Development Community countries. In Windhoek, Nkomo met senior government officials while in Gaborone, he held talks with President Festus Mogae both to explain progress on implementing SADC guidelines for democratic elections as well as soliciting support for Makoni's candidature for the ADB top job. Nkomo could not be reached on his mobile phone at the weekend while an official at his office said she was not clear when he will be returning from his tour. Makoni told ZimOnline that Nkomo's lobby tour was one of several initiatives by Harare to garner support for him for the ADB post that becomes vacant in May. "I can confirm that this is one of the strategies which we are using to lobby. A number of people have gone out into the continent lobbying for my support," said Makoni. SADC states have put forward Makoni, a former chief executive of the regional body's Gaborone-based secretariat, as their nominee for the ADB job. Widely respected in Zimbabwe both in the political and corporate spheres, Makoni resigned from President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet in 2002 after differing with the Zimbabwean leader on the direction of the economy. Analysts say his chances of clinching the bank job could however be undermined by controversy associated with Mugabe's government which is sponsoring him.
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From The Sunday Argus (SA), 20 February
Veteran journalist flees to avoid arrest
By Basildon Peta
When they first came for him, they accused him of being a spy. They ransacked his office and files but found no evidence to substantiate the allegation. When they came for the second time, they accused him of working as a journalist illegally as he had no government accreditation. Again, the allegation could not stick. Under Zimbabwe's draconian media law, a journalist who has submitted an application for a government licence - as he had - can practise until told to stop. But when he heard they were coming for the third time to raise another spurious charge - that of "illegally externalising money" by failing to declare his forex earnings as a freelance journalist to President Robert Mugabe's central bank - he knew it was time to go. Brian Latham knew that even though it was false, the third charge would probably deliver him for a year into Zimbabwe's notoriously filthy jails without trial while the police "investigated" the charge. So he immediately jumped on his motorbike and sped 200 kilometres away to a house where he had hidden his passport. And then he kept going to the Beit Bridge border post and managed to take advantage of the chaos there to sneak into South Africa en route to England.
Veteran journalist Latham is the founder editor of Zimbabwe's first ever independent daily newspaper (the now defunct Daily Gazette) a former correspondent of Independent Newspapers and - until this week - also of several international media organisations, including Bloomberg. He is the latest of many journalists to flee his homeland. Although he could afford a sigh of relief at evading Mugabe's police as we sat talking about his ordeal in Johannesburg' |
