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Archived News
29th March 2005
One-party town joins clamour for change as Mugabe opponent rides into fray
Mugabe trawls for votes in MDC's heartland
Zimbabwe demands proof of police poll violence
A campaign tailor-made for the ruling party
Tribal rivalry may split Zanu PF
Opposition MDC cries foul as soldiers vote
Voters still being registered
SA radios banned from Zim
A not-so-subtle rigging job
Tourists flee park elephants slaughter
Electoral bodies under fire
Opposition supporters denied food in Insiza
MDC MP released from custody
Mugabe vows to 'demolish' spin doctor turned rival
My salary has been sun-baked like the land
Harare election blog III: Music in the air
Musicians paying a heavy price for singing the praises of Mugabe and Zanu PF
Vote for us or starve, Mugabe's party tells villagers
A hungry future for poor voters who oppose Mugabe
Amid famine, Zimbabwe voters fed anti-Blair vitriol
State media hangman gets rewarded
Quiet chant of 'hungry, hungry' rouses a nation to oust Mugabe
How will Zanu PF cheat? It's all in the voters' roll, stupid
Mugabe using traditional leaders, says MDC
Zimbabwe court bars jailed MP from running in poll
Mugabe minister says 'vote for me or lose your job'
Zimbabwe archbishop calls on nation to rise against Mugabe
This time Mugabe is going for sure. The world is watching us
Mugabe will get re-elected thanks to the reanimated zombies who'll vote for Zanu PF
Jailed former minister could lose penthouse
Mock elections
'Uprising' call puts Zimbabwe on edge
Ghost voters, rigged ballots and food bribes - the Mugabe route to power
Polling officers chased away
SACC general secretary denied entry into Zimbabwe
Police seek interdict to prevent Cosatu demonstrations
Out of sight, Mugabe thugs revert to their old election tactics
The 'Roy gevaar' stalks Zimbabwe
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From The Times (UK), 23 March
One-party town joins clamour for change as Mugabe opponent rides into fray
From Xan Rice in Bindura
The banner strung from a fence at the entrance to the town read: "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again." A minibus taxi flashed past with an election poster in the rear window declaring: "We are proud to be Zimbabweans on our land - Vote Zanu PF." Bindura, a small town set among lush green hills 50 miles north of the capital, Harare, is one of the strongholds of President Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. Many people here are wearing party colours. ne man sports a short-sleeved shirt with Mugabe's face on the front and the slogan "liberation hero". But yesterday, for one day at least, Bindura ceased to be a one-party town. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change had come to address an election rally. A steady stream of supporters walked towards a vacant plot next to Tracy and Tsungie's Salon and Tinasha's Barber Shop on the edge of town, where the event was to be held. "To wear an MDC shirt in this area," Lloyd Gwagwa, a party district official, said shaking his head in disbelief as he drove past. "It's a miracle." During the 2000 parliamentary elections and the presidential election two years later, MDC officials say, it would have been unthinkable for anyone to declare support openly for an opposition party. Zanu PF thugs would have set upon them without a moment's thought. But as next Thursday's parliamentary election approaches, Mr Mugabe has been trying to convince the world that the elections will be free and fair. His henchmen have been told: "No violence". Despite claims that the intimidation has merely taken on a more subtle form, Mr Tsvangirai is desperately trying to take advantage, campaigning up to three times a day, often deep in Zanu PF territory. As they waited for their leader to arrive, a group of his supporters danced in a tight circle around two drums, singing "Mugabe is hanging on by a thread". An official caused a near-stampede by handing out MDC headbands. A team of orange-bibbed monitors from the Electoral Supervisory Commission took notes. A few bored- looking policemen kept their distance.
The mood was upbeat and the MDC supporters showed few signs that they were scared to be seen at the rally. But many were. Chris Mudarikwa, 30 and unemployed, said: "We were told that if we came, we would be 'sorted out' after the election. I came here very carefully, but many people were too fearful to come." Tapera Macheka, 34, the MDC's provincial chairman for Mashonaland Central, said that intimidation of voters was still widespread, but had gone "underground". "It's now a door-to-door level of violence," he said. He was happy that the rally was going ahead, but said that Mr Mugabe's gamble to allow other parties more freedom might have come too late for the MDC. "The time to loosen the bolts of oppression is too short to make any real difference," Mr Macheka said. "He did this to short-circuit us." But Mr Tsvangirai, who worked at the Trojan nickel mine in Bindura for ten years from the mid-1970s, is maintaining that his party stands a real chance of winning the election. When he emerged from a silver four-wheel-drive vehicle shortly before midday, the 1,000 or so people who had gathered for the rally ran towards him crying Chinja, Chinja (change, change). They waved their hands in the air, mimicking the open-palmed salute that has become the MDC's hallmark, before breaking into song. "How can we help Tsvangirai?" they sang. "Can we put him on our backs?" Mr Tsvangirai, wearing a wide-brimmed leather hat with crocodile teeth around the rim, was led towards a lounge-suite hastily arranged under a tree. As a few local speakers addressed the crowd, he rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch. But when his term came to grab the loud-hailer, he perked up. "Zanu is still using violence and intimidation, but we are going to surprise them by getting a majority in parliament," he shouted to roars of approval. "Mugabe can then go to his own area and rest." Mr Tsvangirai promised to disband the President's youth militia, deliver a new constitution, and end the land seizures that have seen more than 4,000 white-owned farms occupied. "When in power we will want to know who put the people on the farms that were seized," he said. "If they took it themselves, then they will have to go."
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From Business Day (SA), 23 March
Mugabe trawls for votes in MDC's heartland
Harare Correspondent
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe made a determined push for votes inside the main opposition's stronghold of Matabeleland yesterday ahead of next week's general election. After taking a day's break to attend new Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba's inauguration on Monday, Mugabe renewed his campaign trail with trips into the heartland of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). This came ahead of his much- anticipated visit to Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North, where he will canvass for votes in the territory of his former information minister Jonathan Moyo. Mugabe's former spindoctor has issued a manifesto calling for constitutional reform to limit the president's term of office and restoration of democracy. The clash between Mugabe and Moyo in the area, where an alleged palace coup that effectively led to Moyo's dismissal was hatched last November, will probably be the major highlight of the campaign. Mugabe held rallies for the "Anti-Blair" election at Tshaswingo in rural Beit Bridge near the border with SA and the town of Gwanda.
Addressing thousands of people at Pelandaba Stadium in Gwanda, Mugabe stepped up his attacks against British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush, saying they were "liars". Claiming his government was tolerant because it did not "cut off" former Rhodesian premier Ian Smith's head, Mugabe said Blair and Bush were "lying" about human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. "We are not liars like the Blairs and Bushes," he said. "Those are liars. They lied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in order to find a pretext to invade that country. Lies indeed." Mugabe attacked SA's Oppenheimer family for "trying to cling to vast tracts of land" when peasants wanted to share with them. He will donate 800 computers to schools during his campaign. While Mugabe ventured into the opposition-controlled areas, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was also penetrating deep into the Zanu PF areas in central Mashonaland. Tsvangirai held his rallies at Bindura, Mazowe and Guruve. Tsvangirai urged people to vote out Zanu PF for misrule and "have a new beginning". He said his party was ready with a package of measures to reconstruct Zimbabwe's "ruined economy"and get back the country into a healthy state again.
Zimbabwe turned down a request from the South African Council of Churches (SACC) to observe next week's parliamentary election, the group's secretary-general confirmed yesterday. SACC secretary-general Rev Molefe Tsele, who visited the country over the weekend, said yesterday the body had been refused permission to observe the election. Official sources in Harare said the SACC's request to observe the poll was turned down because of the group's remarks on Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.
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From Reuters, 22 March
Zimbabwe demands proof of police poll violence
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabwe police on Tuesday asked a leading activist to prove allegations that security forces are involved in pre-election violence, saying the charges were aimed at smearing the government before the March 31 vote. President Robert Mugabe's government has been fighting international isolation for 5 years amid charges it rigged the last major parliamentary vote and Mugabe's re-election in 2002, which were both marred by violence against the opposition. The run-up to next week's parliamentary polls has been largely peaceful - a point Mugabe's government hopes will help persuade the world and Zimbabwe's own electorate that the vote will be free and fair. Zimbabwe police commissioner Augustine Chihuri on Tuesday demanded evidence within two days to back charges by political activist Lovemore Madhuku, whose National Constitutional Assembly group released a report last week implicating the police, the secret Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and the army in pre-election abuses. Madhuku was summoned by the police on Sunday over the report, which also charges that Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party is using food as a political tool by demanding party cards from hungry voters before the election. "So far, despite two meetings and phone calls, he has failed to furnish us with this information (evidence) ... But yet he has told the media that he has confirmed every paragraph and full stop in the report," Chihuri told a news conference.
The police commissioner said Madhuku - who was unavailable for immediate comment on Tuesday - could face legal proceedings if he failed to provide evidence to the police. "We will have no alternative but to allow the law to take its course," he said, but refused to elaborate. Madhuku's report detailed what it called "widespread" political violence in which the Zimbabwe Republic Police and Zanu PF supporters were cited as offenders, including murder, abductions, unlawful arrest and detentions, sexual assault and torture. Overseas rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also documented what they say is official intimidation of opposition supporters ahead of the vote, although reports of outright violence are rare. Chihuri said Madhuku's report was "false" and designed to tarnish Zimbabwe's image, saying: "We know that the report was intended for the European Union and for the British so that they can denounce the elections here. We believe the report seeks to satisfy the NCA's handlers and financiers," he said of the NCA which Mugabe says is funded by his Western opponents.
Mugabe's Zanu PF party faces the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in parliamentary polls on March 31. Zanu PF is, however, widely expected to win the election in the country despite a deep economic crisis which has seen widespread food shortages in recent years. The NCA said it obtained its information from community monitors in eight of the country's 10 provinces and that they backed the allegations of food supply manipulation. The NCA is a loose coalition of churches, student and labour unions, business and rights groups that has lobbied for a new constitution to replace one it says entrenches Mugabe's power. The NCA denies charges that it is anti-government.
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From IPS, 22 March
A campaign tailor-made for the ruling party
Moyiga Nduru
Johannesburg - A routine visit to a relative living in a rural area is, in most parts of Africa, a private family matter. Not so in Zimbabwe, says Tiseke Kasambala, a researcher with Human Rights Watch. According to the New-York based non-governmental organisation, rural areas become off limits to urban visitors during election campaigns, city dwellers being collectively viewed as opposition sympathisers. A parliamentary poll is scheduled to take place in Zimbabwe on Mar. 31. The ruling Zanu PF draws most of its support from rural areas. As a result, says Human Rights Watch (HRW), Zanu PF members and their allies do not hesitate to take action if they believe this support is being challenged. "There is a woman whose uncle visited her from the city. After her uncle had left, Zanu PF activists went and interrogated her about the...reasons for the visit. And she was made to go to the chief's house for further interrogation," Kasambala told journalists Monday. "Many rural Zimbabweans are scared and don't want to go through such an ordeal," she added.
Kasambala was speaking at the Johannesburg release of a new paper by HRW entitled 'Not a Level Playing Field: Zimbabwe's 2005 Parliamentary Elections'. Kasambala and several HRW colleagues spent over three weeks in Zimbabwe in December 2004 and February 2005, during which they interviewed 135 representatives of the ruling party, opposition and civil society. Their findings, recorded in the paper, were that opposition supporters and other Zimbabweans had been intimidated by Zanu PF and government officials in the run up to parliamentary elections. This continued a pattern of repression that had characterized the past five years in Zimbabwe. The 2000 parliamentary poll and the 2002 presidential election were preceded by widespread violence, most of it directed against the opposition. While many observers agree the level of intimidation ahead of the Mar. 31 vote is lower, they believe this may reflect assurance of victory on the part of Zanu PF, which now faces an opposition hamstrung by years of repression.
HRW condemns the Harare government's use of restrictive laws such as the Public Order and Security Act, which undermines the opposition's ability to campaign - and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This law has been used to muzzle the independent press. "In short...the playing field for the 2005 election has not been level," says the HRW paper. The group has also expressed concern about voter registration and education, and the arrangements for election monitoring, noting that "Major problems...that marred previous elections have not been remedied." These include the fact that too few inspection centres were available where the voters' roll could be scrutinized. This difficulty notwithstanding, a Harare-based organisation called the FreeZim Support Group has done an analysis of the roll which indicates that more than two million of its 5.6 million names are suspect. In addition, Zimbabwe's substantial expatriate community will not be allowed to cast ballots.
In as much as attention has focused on the Zimbabwean government's actions ahead of Mar. 31, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has also found itself coming under pressure in connection with the poll. Last year, SADC - of which Zimbabwe is a member - drew up a set of electoral guidelines to ensure that polling in the region would be free and fair. Southern African countries are now obliged to ensure political tolerance ahead of elections, provide all parties with access to state media - and set up impartial electoral institutions, amongst other measures. The Mugabe administration claims it is adhering to the SADC protocol. But, HRW begs to differ. "(With) only days remaining before voters go to the polls," says HRW, "it is clear that the government has not adequately met the benchmarks set by the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections." SADC observers are expected to comment on Zimbabwe's election environment within the next 10 days. In light of this, HRW has called on the 13-member organisation to look beyond the relative calm that prevails in Zimbabwe at present when giving its verdict on polling preparations.
"They must also take into account the effects of the past five years of violence, recent reports of intimidation, continuing electoral irregularities and the use of restrictive legislation," says HRW. Michael Clough, HRW advocacy director for Africa, believes that political repression in Zimbabwe is proving an acid test for SADC. "I think the credibility of SADC is on the line. And, I think South Africa's commitment to spread democracy in the region is on the line," he told journalists in Johannesburg last week. HRW has also urged SADC states to ensure that campaigning in the final days before the parliamentary poll is allowed to proceed unhindered. Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who has been head of state since his country received independence from Britain in 1980, frequently accuses the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of being a front for Western interests. (The MDC is Zimbabwe's main opposition group.) However, the president's critics claim he has eroded the gains of his initial years in office with economic mismanagement and increasingly authoritarian rule.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read the HRW report referred to above, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment, approximately six times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS. Two other reports have been released recently. One, by REDRESS, puts the upcoming elections into a longer perspective. The other, by the Solidarity Peace Trust, discusses the role of the judiciary in denying the will of the electorate. The REDRESS and SPT reports will also be sent as Word attachments, and are the same size as the HRW report. Please specify which report(s) you are requesting when replying.
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From IWPR, 22 March
Tribal rivalry may split Zanu PF
continued from yesterday...
Ruling party could in time rupture because of Mugabe's insistence on promoting the Zezuru clan over the larger Karanga
By Benedict Unendoro in Harare
The Zezuru hegemony has crept up and become a fact of life in Zimbabwean politics, although for many years there was intense debate as to the authenticity of Mugabe's origins. What is more certain is that in1963, when Zanu was formed, Mugabe was appointed to the powerful position of secretary general after being nominated by the late Nolan Makombe, a leading Karanga who had convinced his co-tribesmen in the movement that Mugabe was a fellow Karanga of the influential Mugabe dynasty of chiefs from the area of the Great Zimbabwe ruins near Masvingo. Mugabe cleverly encouraged this belief until he was well entrenched in power. Although at its inception Zanu was led by Sithole, a Ndau from Manicaland from the far east of Zimbabwe, the party was dominated by the Karangas. Its powerful individuals included Leopold Takawira, Nelson and Michael Mawema, Simon Muzenda and Eddison Zvobgo - all Karangas. The tribal composition replicated itself in the armed wing of Zanu with the Karangas, led by Josiah Tongogara, forming the backbone of the liberation struggle. Other prominent Karangas were Emmerson Mnangagwa, current speaker of parliament but now out of favour with Mugabe; retired Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai; and retired Army Commander Vitalis Zvinavashe.
Nathan Shamuyarira's rise to power illustrates how Mugabe has achieved this Zezuru hegemony. In 1972, Chitepo beat Shamuyarira to the influential post of chairman on the exiled Zanu War Council in Zambia. Angered, Shamuyarira resigned from Zanu and took the most prominent Zezuru leaders out of the movement to form the short-lived Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe, Frolizi. When in 1974 Mugabe was smuggled out of what was then Rhodesia into Mozambique by a Manyika chief, Rekayi Tangwena, to join the chimurenga, he was not easily accepted by the Karanga and Manyika guerrilla leadership. But when he eventually ascended to power, the first thing he did was to neutralise the Karanga element by imprisoning many of them - most notably Rugare Gumbo who was the original mastermind of the guerrilla war. Gumbo and several fellow Karanga leaders were kept in underground pit dungeons until independence in 1980. As soon as he was entrenched in power in Mozambique, Mugabe invited his friend and fellow clansman Shamuyarira to join the struggle. This move was hugely resisted but Shamuyarira remained in Mozambiq ue as Mugabe's guest until independence in 1980, after which he became successively minister of information, foreign minister and now minister of defence. He remains Mugabe's most trusted lieutenant.
To quell any Karanga suspicions of his tribal manoeuvres, Mugabe kept the respected Simon Muzenda, a Karanga, as his sole vice president until the latter's death in 2003. Other Karangas, such as the late firebrand lawyer Eddison Zvobgo, long seen as a future leader of the country, were systematically downgraded to provincial leaders. Josiah Tongogara, the military commander of Zanu in exile, was a Karanga who died in Mozambique on the eve of independence in an as yet unexplained car accident. Sheba Gava, a Karanga, was the most powerful woman guerrilla during the Seventies war but when she died in the following decade she was not granted national heroine status although Mugabe's first wife, Sally, a Ghanaian, was given that accolade when she died. Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, a Zezuru nephew of Mugabe, allegedly harassed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, out of power. Then, last December, at Zanu PF's electoral congress, Mugabe arm-twisted his party into voting Joyce Mujuru to the powerful new position of second vice president, securing complete Zezuru hegemony, with a Zezuru president and two Zezuru deputies.
But a backlash has begun, with unpredictable consequences. Zanu PF almost ruptured completely in the prelude to the electoral congress when seven provinces out of ten resisted Mujuru's appointment to the vice presidency, calling for the Karanga Mnangagwa to get the post. In the subsequent political bloodbath, Mugabe sacked his powerful information minister Jonathan Moyo - an Ndebele - who is now standing for parliament as an independent. Mugabe suspended six provincial chairmen from active politics for a period of six years. All were from non-Zezuru provinces - Manicaland, Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland North, Central and South. This is likely to have far-reaching consequences for Zanu PF and the country. The revolt by Moyo - until recently Zanu PF's propaganda supremo and a Mugabe ultra-loyalist - has shown others in the ruling party it is possible to rebel against Mugabe's political whims and perhaps get away with it. Although Zanu PF is almost certain to win the March 31 election, there is a lot of alliance building going on under the surface and in secret meeting places. Karangas are saying quite openly they have had enough of being trampled upon and talk of making plans to unseat those who they believe are being used to weaken their power base. By the time of the 2008 presidential election, it is more than likely that the current divisions will manifest themselves in an explosion that could blow Zanu PF into smithereens. Veteran Zimbabwe journalist and independent newspaper owner Trevor Ncube, chairman of IWPR Africa, foresees a possible intriguing new alliance between the Karangas and Ndebeles, together comprising half of the population. Ncube believes some disillusioned Zanu PF Karangas are already campaigning covertly for the opposition MDC. "Whatever the outcome of this realignment of forces, Zanu PF will have to adapt and change if it is to remain relevant after the March 31 election," said Ncube. "That is the grim reality it faces."
Benedict Unendoro is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in Zimbabwe
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From The Financial Gazette, 24 March
Opposition MDC cries foul as soldiers vote
Felix Njini
The crucial March 31 general election has plunged into fresh controversy that could undermine its credibility as it emerged this week that uniformed forces, seen as sympathetic to the ruling Zanu PF, have already cast their ballots. Although the Electoral Act allows members of the disciplined forces and electoral officers to vote ahead of time due to their likely absence from their constituencies on election day, opposition groups are unsettled by what they consider a surreptitious exercise that could affect their chances in the election. Revelations that the uniformed forces had cast their votes ahead of the month-end elections have created a political storm among opposition parties, particularly the main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which yesterday said it was oblivious of the fact that members of the uniformed forces had already voted.
As provided by the governing Act under Section 75(1c), those voting by post only do so in the presence of a "competent witness". "No other person except the competent witness shall be present and the voter shall not allow the competent witness to see how he or she has voted," reads part of the Act. However, the constituency election officers are obliged to seal and open the postal ballot boxes in the presence of candidates or their designated agents. Zimbabwe's uniformed forces comprise the Zimbabwe National Army, the Zimbabwe Prison Services and the Zimbabwe Republic Police, bodies which also constitute the bulk of the civil service. Justice George Chiweshe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), confirmed yesterday that the ballots were sealed on March 18, exactly 13 days before the crunch polls that would be fiercely fought between Zanu PF and the MDC. "The postal ballot has already been concluded and the votes are being sent to their various constituencies and this is being done in the presence of representatives from all parties," said the ZEC boss without disclosing the number of people who voted. Justice Chiweshe said the printing of the postal ballots was done well before the printing of the rest of the ballot papers, which was scheduled to end yesterday.
MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi yesterday claimed the five-year-old opposition party had not been invited to monitor the postal ballot voting procedures. He said: "We were told that they are voting by postal ballot but there are certain procedures which they have to follow. Each ballot paper has to be accompanied by an application from each individual voter. How did they conduct the vote when the ballots had not even been printed? There is a high possibility that the secrecy of the vote has been compromised and we are closely following that. If there are any anomalies, then we want that vote discounted. The electoral process should be done in a transparent manner. It is a naked lie that we are involved in the processing of the postal ballot," the MDC national spokesman charged. During the disputed 2002 presidential elections won by President Robert Mugabe, complaints were raised that the postal ballot had been conducted in the presence of senior officers. It was alleged uniformed officers were ordered to vote at their stations under the supervision of their seniors, charges which have since been denied by the government.
Analysts were concerned yesterday that the postal vote had been concluded ahead of the training of presiding officers slated for March 26. Training for polling officers would be done a day after, while electoral officers would go through the process on March 28. The opposition has also raised an outcry over the neutrality of the uniformed forces, whose senior officials have openly stated they would never "recognise an MDC-led government". Vava Chipfunde, the national director of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network told The Financial Gazette yesterday that it was in the interest of contesting parties to know the number of people who voted in the exercise and in which constituencies. "This is very important for integrity and confidence. If the whole system is open, then there is no room for suspicion," said Chipfunde. Otto Saki, a human rights lawyer, said voting by the uniformed forces is supposed to be conducted in the presence of election observers, monitors, civic organisations and contesting political parties. In theory ballots are supposed to be sent to their constituencies but it is difficult to ascertain whether the ballots would be allocated to the respective constituencies if the situation is not closely monitored by observers and all interested parties, Saki said. "The problem is that since the 2000 general elections and the 2002 presidential elections, voting by uniformed forces has always been done clandestinely - there has never been an attempt to make it known which is why there is always a lingering suspicion," Saki said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 24 March
Voters still being registered
Conrad Dube
The Registrar-General's office is still registering voters more than a month after the closure of the current registration exercise, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal. The registration exercise is in full swing in some areas, especially in Norton where people are being bussed in from informal settlements such as Tongogara, just outside Harare along the Bulawayo Road. Contacted for comment yesterday, Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede said voter registration was a continuous exercise. He said the people being registered would not vote next week since registration closed on February 4. "Those who registered after that date will not be entitled to vote as their names will not appear on the voters roll for the March 31 parliamentary general election," he said. There are claims that Zanu PF supporters are being given confirmation letters by either party candidate Patrick Zhuwawo or by Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo which they take to the Chegutu district office, or sub-office in Norton, for registration. Neither Zhuwawo nor Chombo could be reached for comment. A copy of a Certificate of Registration as a voter in the possession of the Zimbabwe Independent shows that a person (name provided) registered on March 17 has a certificate written "Closing date was 4/2/05". Harare Central independent candidate Margaret Dongo claims the people being registered will be included on the supplementary voters roll which is yet to be made public. Dongo alleges the Registrar-General deliberately delayed issuing the supplementary roll to accommodate these new voters. "The idea of delaying the supplementary roll is to accommodate these new entrants. They will use the supplementary voters roll for rigging. It's disappointing," said Dongo.
Dongo in 1995 won the Harare South seat as an independent candidate in a re-run against Vivian Mwashita of Zanu PF after a court ruled the first poll had been rigged. Dongo argues that if only one polling agent per candidate is allowed in the polling station, it will be difficult for opposition candidates' agents to oversee the process, in particular when each voter has been registered. "There will be three lines at the polling station, A-L, M and N-Z, and this will make it difficult for one polling agent to monitor all the developments in the polling station," Dongo said. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change and independent candidates have complained about the state of the voters' roll. MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart in an interview said any person registering after the closure of the registration exercise is in breach of the Electoral Act. "There will be all sorts of tricks in this election if the past election is anything to go by," he said. "These problems will always be there so long as there is no independent electoral body running the elections." A voters' roll audit conducted last month unearthed hundreds of ghost voters, with some entered more than once. There are also incomplete addresses and dubious entries.
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From News24 (SA), 23 March
SA radios banned from Zim
Johannesburg - The barring of some South African media from covering the Zimbabwe general elections is a blow to democracy, the National Press Club said on Wednesday. "Freedom of expression and freedom of the media are the cornerstones of democracy - tampering with these is a blow to democracy," said press club chair Ben Rootman in a statement. He was responding to the Zimbabwe authorities' refusal to grant accreditation to Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk to cover the March 31 elections. "Barring Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk from reporting on the general elections in Zimbabwe next week does not auger well for the right to receive information through recognised communications media," Rootman said. Authorities gave no reason for the refusal. Rootman said the press club had also received no response from Zimbabwe's High Commissioner in South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, despite numerous requests for him to brief them on the forthcoming elections. "However, serving a free media corps, the club's door remains open and we will entertain such a briefing at very short notice," he said.
Last month three journalists - Jan Raath and Brian Latham, who both work for a number of British and South African news organisations, and Angus Shaw of the Associated Press - left Zimbabwe after their offices were raided and they were interrogated by police about allegations that they broke the country's media and security laws. Following their departure, only a handful of foreign correspondents remain in Zimbabwe, including the tiny Reuters and AFP bureaux. Earlier this month the government-controlled Media and Information Commission cancelled the licence of the Weekly Times newspaper. This was the fourth independent newspaper to be closed in Zimbabwe since 2002. The Daily News, the Daily News on Sunday, and the Tribune had all been closed. In January, President Robert Mugabe signed a law requiring journalists to be accredited by the government.
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Comment from The Star (SA), 23 March
A not-so-subtle rigging job
Mugabe may, however, find that his schemes are not destined to work out
By Allister Sparks
With Zimbabwe's election only a week away, the Mugabe government's strategy has become clear, writes Allister Sparks. It is to allow freer electioneering than previously so as to give the few friendly observer teams that have been allowed in a basis for pronouncing it legitimate - but at the same time to rig the result in less visible ways to ensure a Zanu PF victory. There is still widespread intimidation of opposition candidates and voters; there is no equal access to the state-owned media which even refuse to accept opposition advertisements for meetings; the main opposition newspaper, the Daily News, remains closed even though an appeal court judge has ruled that its licence application should have been granted a year ago; Independent radio stations are being jammed and foreign observers and correspondents have been barred from the country on a highly selective basis - all of which violate SADC guidelines for free and fair elections. But most election watchers, including the opposition Movement for Democratic Change itself, acknowledge that the MDC has been able to campaign more freely than at either the last parliamentary election in 2000 or the 2004 presidential election. The MDC is drawing thousands to its rallies, even in Zanu PF strongholds. Candidates report a surge of support that exceeds anything they have experienced before. By contrast, some Zanu PF rallies have been cancelled because of poor turnout. Yet everyone expects Zanu PF to win.
The devil, as the old saying goes, is in the details. In this case the details of a skewed constitutional provision, a profoundly flawed voters' roll, the manipulation of food distribution in starving rural areas, and how the count will be handled on election night. Under the outdated Lancaster House constitution, voters will elect only 120 of the 150 parliamentary seats. The president will appoint the other 30. That means the MDC must win 76 of the 120 elected seats, or a 63% landslide, to get a majority of one. Conversely, Mugabe needs only 46 seats to win and 70 for a two-thirds majority. Worse still, the voters' roll is hopelessly out of date. A sample study by an independent group recently indicated that of Zimbabwe's 5,6-million registered voters 800 000 are dead, 300 000 are listed more than once and more than 900 000 do not live at their recorded addresses. It takes little imagination to realise how easy it will be for a ruling party, whose police and troops will be the only electoral officers, to arrange for party loyalists to vote in the names of those dead and missing voters - and for 300 000 of them to do so more than once.
The paucity of election observers means this kind of malpractice will go largely unchecked. So will the count, which will take place through the night in 6 000 polling stations, many in poorly lit rooms in remote rural areas. And even if the MDC lodges complaints, these can be delayed indefinitely. The MDC has still had no response to 26 challenges lodged after the 2000 election. Finally, there is the matter of buying votes with food. People are starving in large parts of rural Zimbabwe, and MDC officials report that they are required to present Zanu PF membership cards to get food. It is a clever plan and will doubtless succeed in giving Mugabe the victory he so desperately wants, perhaps even the two-thirds majority he needs to amend the constitution to safeguard himself against any attempt to drag him before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity should he lose his presidential immunity one day. Mugabe's plan, some Zimbabwean analysts believe, is to amend the constitution to enable him to declare himself a constitutional president and appoint a faithful underling as prime minister to run the country day-to-day. The hope is that this will be seen as his de facto retirement, opening the way for an international community desperate for an end to the Zimbabwe impasse to return and help the country back on its economic feet.
It is a hope I suspect President Mbeki shares, the ultimate objective of his long strategy of "quiet diplomacy". But it could backfire. Machiavellian schemes have a way of going awry. Its weakness is that it overlooks the single most significant factor in Zimbabwe, which is mounting factional conflict within the ruling party over the unresolved succession issue. Whatever the outcome on March 31, Zimbabwe is likely to be more politically unstable after the election than at any other time since Mugabe came to power 25 years ago. The centrepiece of the looming conflict lies in a bitter personal rivalry between Solomon Majuru, who commanded Mugabe's guerrilla army and later the Zimbabwe Defence Force, and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of Parliament and once Mugabe's favoured son whom many (Mbeki included) thought would be his anointed successor. Majuru, now retired but still with enormous influence over the armed forces, appears to have used that influence to force Mugabe's hand into blocking Mnangagwa. Mugabe got the party's politburo to name Majuru's wife, Joyce Majuru, rather than Mnangagwa, to fill a key vice-presidential vacancy at the party's national congress in December.
When Mugabe's most capable propagandist and dirty-tricks specialist, Jonathan Moyo, tried to outmanoeuvre the president by organising a secret meeting of regional Zanu PF leaders in support of a Mnangagwa candidacy for the key vice-presidential post, which if successful would have made him the clear heir apparent, Mugabe found out about it and fired Moyo. Moyo is now running as an independent candidate in his Matabeleland constituency, and is talking of forming what he calls a south-south alliance between his Ndebele people and Mnangagwa's Karangas, who together constitute 41% of the Zimbabwe population. The Karanga people, the largest of the Shona sub-groups who jointly dominate Zimbabwe politics, are collectively disgruntled. They have been sidelined in favour of Mugabe's - and Majuru's - smaller Zezuru clan in the allocation of key jobs. The president, the two-vice-presidents, the minister of defence, chief of the defence force, chief of the army, chief of the air force, the commissioner of police, the chief justice and the judge-president are all Zezurus.
Six provincial chairmen who attended the meeting with Moyo have also been suspended and struck from the list of candidates for the election. They represent 60% of Zanu PF's provincial leadership and form a formidable constituency of disgruntled figures with grassroots support whom Moyo will doubtless try to mobilise behind Mnangagwa and his putative south-south alliance. Finally, the notorious War Veterans Association, once the blunt instrument of Mugabe's politics of intimidation who played a key role in the previous two elections, are also disenchanted. Mugabe recently fired their elected chairman, Jabulani Sibanda, after he complained that commercial farms seized from whites were being given to Mugabe's cronies rather than to war veterans as promised. They are nowhere to be seen in this campaign. All this spells trouble for the ageing Mugabe and his geriatric and fractured party which is devoid of intellectual capital and with no line of succession in preparation for the old man's inevitable departure. The post-election phase is where the real drama lies.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 23 March
Tourists flee park elephants slaughter
'Famine relief' may conceal poaching ring backed by the Mugabe regime, reports Christopher Munnion
Horrified tourists have fled from Zimbabwe's largest game reserve after witnessing the "wholesale slaughter" of animals, part of what conservation groups fear is an officially sanctioned poaching ring. Operation Nyama, or "Operation Meat", is ostensibly a campaign to feed starving villagers in northern Matabeleland. But independent observers say it is a cover for corruption and ivory smuggling approved by President Robert Mugabe's regime. "If the aim was to feed the people, it is strange that most of the elephant bulls that are being shot have 60lb to 70lb tusks and are in their prime," said Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwean Conservation Task Force. "Older bulls with broken tusks are not being targeted." Operation Nyama, carried out in Hwange national park, was supposed to end in December, he said. "But three weeks ago we received a report from a group of disgusted American tourists. They saw a national parks truck which had broken down inside Hwange and was fully loaded with dead impala and buffalo. An attempt had been made to conceal the dead animals with branches and leaves but the Americans could easily see what was in the truck."
Two Australian tourists also cut short their visit to Hwange park after hearing automatic gunfire day and night. The couple also passed an official truck loaded with the carcasses of dead wild animals. "They were terrified and said it was like being in a war zone," said a conservationist who met the couple as they fled to South Africa. "They said that, if they had wanted to see dead animals, they could have visited their local abattoir. "It has now reached the point where the wildlife is probably safer outside the national park areas because the people who have been entrusted with safeguarding this precious commodity are the very people who are destroying it," Mr Rodrigues said. The reports of the bloodbath in Hwange coincided with news of an illegal shipment of African elephant body parts recently seized by Dutch customs officials at Amsterdam airport. The cargo included 22 feet, eight tusks, eight ears, three tails, a skull and an entire hide. The shipment, which did not have the proper licences, originated in Zimbabwe and was bound for Germany.
A former senior wildlife officer forced to flee Zimbabwe when he threatened to expose poaching rings organised by park wardens said he was not surprised by the reports from Hwange. "It follows a pattern that has been established throughout Zimbabwe in national parks, hunting concession areas and private wildlife reserves," he said. "All the indications are that the country's game is being plundered and exploited with the connivance and encouragement of senior officials at a regional level and probably at a central government level as well. Trying to prove it is a different matter as all these officials are senior members of the ruling Zanu PF party and all those who know something are too frightened to talk about it." According to Mr Rodrigues, a camp manager in Hwange threatened to remove his diesel engines from the park because there was little point in spending millions of dollars on fuel to pump water to attract game just so it could be shot for meat. One of the wardens at Main Camp had been arrested for stealing 18 diesel pumps, most of them donated by conservation organisations, and selling them to the "new farmers" now hunting in areas adjoining the park. "The Zimbabwean government spends millions of dollars promoting tourism while the national parks staff seem to be making a good job of destroying it," Mr Rodrigues said.
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From News24 (SA), 24 March
Electoral bodies under fire
Harare - With parliamentary elections a week away, Zimbabwe's electoral authorities have come under fire for practices that the opposition and an observer group claim could be used to rig the ballot. They cited as reasons for concern unmonitored voting by soldiers, the influence of traditional chiefs on voting and the fact that voters still were being registered, although voter registration officially ended on February 4. "There will be all sorts of tricks in this election if the past election is anything to go by," said David Coltart, legal director of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The 2002 presidential election was dismissed by independent observers, including the Commonwealth, as the result of violent intimidation and fraud. Officials of the MDC have confirmed that fewer incidents of violence have been reported in the run-up to this election, but critics fear Mugabe will cheat in other ways. Electoral authorities are appointed by Mugabe, and soldiers are among staff running polling stations. Soldiers, police and prison officers are allowed to cast postal votes ahead of elections when they are based outside their constituencies. Judge George Chiweshe, chairman of the state-run Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, was quoted in the weekly independent Financial Gazette as saying that the "the postal ballots have already been concluded". According to Zimbabwean law, the uniformed services need only to be monitored by "a competent witness". There is no provision for independent observers or election agents to observe. "There is a high possibility the secrecy of the vote has been compromised and we are closely following that," said MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi. "If there are any anomalies, we want that vote discounted."
In the first public indication of criticism by official observers, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, head of an observer delegation from the Southern African Development Community, said she was "not satisfied with the explanation of the authorities about constant complaints that Zanu PF had ensured that traditional chiefs would control voting queues at polling stations to ensure people voted for Zanu PF". Also on Thursday, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a private voluntary organisation, published a list of 25 polling stations which it said were situated at the homes of chiefs and in military bases. Accusations of illegal voter registration emerged, as the privately-owned Zimbabwe Independent said that the process was "in full swing in several centres around Harare". Registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede said registration was "continuous and that those being registered now would not be allowed to vote next week.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 24 March
Opposition supporters denied food in Insiza
Iinsiza - Villagers in this rural constituency have denounced the government and the ruling Zanu PF for denying them food in order to force them to vote for the ruling party in next Thursday's parliamentary election. The reports come in the wake of President Robert Mugabe's assurances to Zimbabweans that no-one would starve. Government had all along claimed it had registered a bumper harvest last year but now admits that there is a serious food shortage. According to villagers interviewed during a visit by the Daily News Online to the constituency this week, Zanu PF district structures operating under the party's candidate for the area, Andrew Langa, have given them two choices for their survival. They must either vote for Zanu PF and get food relief or support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and go without aid. Asked for a comment, Langa shouted at this reporter saying: "What has that got to do with news? If there is no food that's our problem and not yours. Leave us alone!" He then switched off his cellphone.
Most of the villagers spoken to said they would rather die of hunger than back Zanu PF, a party they have never supported in their lives. Assa Sibanda (83) of Dzhulube Village in Insiza told The Daily News Online that her life was now in danger after Zanu PF officials in the constituency made it a condition that villagers would only buy maize meal brought by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) if they supported Zanu PF. "I challenged our village head to explain to me if it was government policy to sideline people who supported other parties besides Zanu PF," she said. "It was unfortunate for me because the same village head, Thomas Mpofu, is the Zanu PF district chairman for Insiza whose committee is making the rules for grain selling." Mpofu, who is also Sibanda's son-in-law after he married her eldest daughter, could not be reached for comment. This reporter visited his homestead and only found his children who said he was out campaigning. A 50 kg bag of GMB maize grain was being sold for $37 000. Villagers usually pay the money in advance to the village head, who in turn controls the selling when the maize grain is finally delivered. Known and suspected MDC supporters who join in the queues to receive their grain have been turned away after the Zanu PF officials accused them of not supporting the ruling party.
Jeslia Sibanda (69), a disabled villager from Simwango area, castigated the government for shutting out ORAP, a non-governmental organisation helping to feed rural communities. She said ORAP used to give elderly villagers free food but the organisation was stopped from doing so after the government accused the NGO community of undermining its authority and working together with the MDC to effect regime change. Other villagers said they have never supported Zanu PF in their entire life as they supported PF Zapu, then led by the late national hero Joshua Nkomo, during the liberation struggle. "After the emergence of the MDC, it was the only option because we have not benefited from any government programmes here," Sibanda said. "What has become clear is that the government has deliberately starved Zimbabweans in order to gain votes." Million Ndlovu (63) of Masiyepambili Ward in the constituency said Langa's brother Vakatsha had been instrumental in the discrimination of MDC supporters in the selling of GMB maize. Ndlovu said last Saturday, at a business centre in Simwango village, Zanu PF officials with among them Langa's brother, refunded several villagers accused of being MDC supporters their $37 000 paid for the purchase of the grain.
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From SABC News, 24 March
MDC MP released from custody
By Antoinette Lazarus
The MP from Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who was arrested while putting up party posters in Harare today, has been released from custody. Gertrude Stevenson and five MDC youths were arrested during peak hour traffic this morning in the upmarket suburb of Borrowdale while putting up election posters. They've paid an admission of guilt fine of 25 000 Zim dollars each - R250. Wayne Bvudzijena, Zimbabwe's national police spokesperson, says Stevenson and the youths were obstructing the free flow of traffic. He said: "It's an offence to obstruct the smooth of traffic for whatever reasons. The arrest has been recorded as a traffic offence but it is also politically motivated because it is related to electioneering." Bvudzijna has stressed that police will arrest any other persons who commit the same offence. Zimbabweans go to the polls on March 31 to elect parliamentarians in the election for the 120 contested seats in the 150-member parliament. Just under 5.8 million Zimbabweans are eligible to vote this year.
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From The Guardian (SA), 25 March
Mugabe vows to 'demolish' spin doctor turned rival
Former information minister accused of coup plot
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
Robert Mugabe has accused his former information minister of plotting a military coup against him. The Zimbabwean president vowed to "demolish" Jonathan Moyo while campaigning for his Zanu PF party ahead of next week's parliamentary elections. "He did a lot of terrible things," Mr Mugabe told 3,000 supporters at a rally in Mr Moyo's hometown of Tsholotsho, the state newspaper, the Herald, reported yesterday. Earlier this month Mr Moyo drew a larger and more enthusiastic crowd in support of his candidacy in the March 31 poll. The former information minister was sacked from the ruling party for spearheading an internal challenge to the president last December. Mr Mugabe said he and his vice-president, Joyce Mujuru, had met Mr Moyo last month. The president told the rally: "We asked him why he went to meet [army commander General Philip] Sibanda, whether he wanted to stage a coup in his favour, and tears started flowing down his cheeks." Mr Mugabe continued: "The whole machinery of the party will fall on you and you will get demolished. You can never win against Zanu PF."
As information minister, Mr Moyo was one of Mr Mugabe's most powerful deputies, acting as his spin doctor, particularly in the war of words with Britain. He drew up harsh media laws used to close four newspapers and charge nearly 100 local and foreign journalists. Now Mr Moyo is defying his former boss, the most visible sign of the bitter rivalries within Zanu PF, where ethnic divisions have come to the fore in the succession struggle. The 81-year-old president's claims of a coup plot mark a new low for Mr Moyo, who was unavailable for comment yesterday. Mr Mugabe has often accused rivals of treason, most recently the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsholotsho is in the opposition heartland of Matabeleland, an area hostile to Mr Mugabe since his bloody crackdown of a local rebellion in the 1980s. Some 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland were killed by Mr Mugabe's North Korean-trained troops, according to human rights reports.
The president has been struggling to raise support at rallies across the country. Last week he admitted to a gathering of visibly hungry villagers that the country was experiencing food shortages. He promised that his government would provide food and would not let them down. The crowd appeared unmoved. He also conceded that only 44% of the land seized from white farmers was being cultivated - one of the main reasons that Zimbabwe, once known as "the breadbasket of southern Africa", has faced severe food shortages for the past three years. Ordinarily food shortages, in-fighting and lacklustre turnouts for rallies would indicate a tough electoral battle for the incumbent party. But Mr Mugabe's party is expected to take a two-thirds majority, thanks to a grossly inflated voters roll and partisan administration of polling and vote-counting, according to rights groups.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 25 March
My salary has been sun-baked like the land
Godwin Gandu
I am a very bitter man. I need peace but can't seem to find it. I fought hard during the colonial era against Ian Smith because I wanted to live a comfortable life. We won the struggle, but now, two decades later, my choices are limited. I was born 66 years ago and have lived in Harare's Glen View township area in 8th Crescent all my life. I wake up five days a week around 3.30am to start work at 4am. It has to be early because I work at a bakery and have deliveries to make. It's a 12-hour shift but my salary is nothing to write home about. I can't buy anything with my monthly salary of Z$1,2-million (about R1 000). Groceries cost me an average of Z$800 000 a month (about R800), rates Z$60 000 (about R60), electricity Z$50 000 (about R50) and my phone bill normally comes up Z$250 000 (about R250). Then there are clothes and food for my children and school fees every school term - how am expected to survive in this world? My salary, like the land during the drought, has been sun-baked by inflation. Every day, the food is the same. I have breakfast - a slice of bread and black tea. Milk and eggs are a luxury here. Lunch is far from exquisite; a Coke at work is all I can afford - that is, of course, if I have a bit of cash to spare that day. A plate of sadza costs Z$15 000 (about R15) but it is a little beyond my means and my stomach goes without.
The only decent meal I have is when I get back home after work, but often we sleep on empty stomachs (usually during the middle of the month) when our groceries run out. But I am not alone in my suffering, not that it is any consolation. Many of my friends and relatives living here in Glen View have carbon copy lives. My two unemployed children, aged 24 and 28, live with me. They can't start life on their own without jobs and share the little food I bring home with the rest of the family. With all this poverty I understand why scores of school drop-outs in our townships leave for England, United States and South Africa. There is nothing for young people here anymore. Yet despite my meagre income I like my job and I have been working for Qtees Bakery for the past 11 years. I am one of the few who can boast about having a house of his own but, after all these years, I am still not able to save even a penny of what I make. I could have retired years back but it's a pity that all my life there wasn't a single company providing pensions for its employees. If I can't work who will sustain my wife, nine children and their kids?
One of my greatest fears is getting sick. My grandchildren are not on medical aid. Even if they were, there aren't any drugs in hospitals. The conditions under which patients live are unbearable. Even if doctors refer you to pharmacies, drugs are expensive. I doubt if ever I will be able to live a normal and comfortable life ever again. Problems mount every day. All my children married and two died leaving behind children I now have to take care of. Two are unemployed. Five of my grandchildren are going to primary school. It's as if I have started marriage and life all over again. I have to take care of my grandchildren until they finish school. I have never had a holiday all my life. It's been work, work and work, but I have nothing to boast of, except this house of mine. My wife, Molly, is a cross-border trader. Every month she goes to Botswana or South Africa. Without her helping hand, I wouldn't have been able to survive. Basic food commodities are very expensive. My wife brings cooking oil, sugar and other commodities for sale. That's how my grandchildren have been able to survive. During the struggle in the 1960s, I was a Zanu PF political commissar. I was detained several times by the Smith regime after participating in political demonstrations in Harare's townships. There was so much euphoria after independence on April 18 1980. It meant Zimbabweans could now live in peace after a protracted bloody liberation war struggle. Now, you cannot understand what I am going through unless you live in my shoes.
Story narrated to Godwin Gandu
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From BBC News, 22 March
Harare election blog III: Music in the air
In the run-up to Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections on 31 March, 22-year-old receptionist Lucy Gomo (not her real name) is keeping a diary about life in Harare.
Tuesday 22 March
I've got a cold - like everybody else. The overcast weather seems to have brought along flu with it. But it hasn't dampened people's spirits too much as there is a hint now of election excitement. I've seen a lot more people wearing T-shirts supporting both the ruling party and opposition; while radio stations keep playing a song in support of the ruling Zanu PF. Before the weekend everyone in Harare was talking about a free music concert to take place on Saturday afternoon - it sounded as if it was going to be big with loads of local artists billed. I was meant to be going, but one of my friends got too drunk and we didn't bother in the end. So I was surprised to hear afterwards that it had all been a trap, as it turned out to be a Zanu PF campaign rally. Loads of those who did go said they'd been misled and one of my colleagues was saying it had nothing to do with music. Otherwise, life in Harare goes on as usual. I find it tiring fitting in work with night school. I spent time on Sunday trying to find new accommodation and went to have a look at a small cottage, but it was too expensive. Some monthly cottage rents are as high as $2.5m Zimbabwean dollars (US$415). My limit is Z$600,000 (US$100) but it's proving tough to find something - and I've been searching since January.
Last night the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had an interview on state-run television at 9 o'clock. I missed it as I was out at college - and it wasn't advertised. My friend, who was watching TV at the time, rang to tell me it was on. I haven't spoken to her since, so I don't know what it was like and nobody at work today seems to have watched it either. The ruling party, meanwhile, calls its campaign an "Anti-Blair" campaign - in reference to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Most days when I read the state-run Herald newspapers it lists on its inside pages what anti-Blair means: "getting back your land; an end to racist factory closures; an end to politically motivated price increases; an end to sanctions; no safe havens for corrupt bankers; no disruption of fuel supplies; no to political interference; an end to Blair's MDC; keeping our Zimbabwe". While I was reading the paper this morning, I was looking at a photograph of a new national dress that's been launched. It's a long robe with horizontal stripes - I think in the colour of the national flag, although this was a black and white picture. Anyway, we were having a giggle about it, when a customer came in, leaned over to look at the article and said: "Are we going to be able to eat that?"
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From The Cape Times (SA), 24 March
Musicians paying a heavy price for singing the praises of Mugabe and Zanu PF
By Basildon Peta
Johannesburg: Some of Zimbabwe's most prominent musicians are paying a heavy price for supporting President Robert Mugabe's drive to attract disenchanted voters ahead of parliamentary elections on March 31. In a desperate bid to woo the youth vote, Mugabe has tried to exploit the popularity of certain musicians by recruiting them to either play at Zanu-PF events or produce propaganda songs in his praise. For those artists who refuse, a regular berth on the state-sponsored radio station is unlikely. But the cost of creative collaboration with Zanu PF is proving even more damaging. Disgruntled Zimbabweans are boycotting afro-beat artists, who are household names, for producing pro-Zanu PF songs. The musicians, who rely heavily on local record sales and sell-out tours, have suffered a crippling fall in income as a result. Andy Brown, one of Zimbabwe's most successful musicians, is the biggest casualty so far. The dreadlocked Brown was recruited by Mugabe's former spin doctor, Jonathan Moyo, to produce propaganda songs supporting the president's controversial seizures of white land. Siyalima (We are farming) was duly produced, but as the elections approach, Brown's stock has never been lower among young record-buying Zimbabweans. The singer has been shunned by his fans and his career has gone into freefall. Siyalima is regularly aired by the state broadcaster, which enjoys a monopoly over the airwaves. But even Zanu PF supporters seem to have shunned the records in the shops where only a few hundred copies have been sold. Yet at his peak in the late 1990s, Brown was the best selling artist in Zimbabwe.
Last Chiyangwa, also known as Tambaoga, has encountered a similar reaction following the release of a song attacking Tony Blair. The lyrics, "the Blair I know is a Blair toilet" were penned in praise of Mugabe's regular tirades against Blair. It failed to sell and Chiyangwa's career now languishes in the doldrums. Oliver Mtukudzi, another formerly popular singer, has been even more savagely ostracised after agreeing to play at a Zanu PF bash in Harare last week and allowing one of his most popular songs Totutuma (We are boiling) to be used in a Zanu PF election advertisement. Mtukudzi's manager described the move as "business suicide". Expatriate Zimbabweans in South Africa and Botswana are also pledging to boycott any future Mtukudzi concerts, occasions which have traditionally been sell-outs. According to Mtukudzi, the portrayal of him as a Mugabe supporter is unfair. "I am not partisan despite what people might think," he said. "My music is there to unite. People have to be united and be happy." For the gospel artist, Elias Musakwa, who has produced an entire album praise worshipping the Mugabe regime, sales have also been catastrophic. Given the atmosphere, it may not be long before some of Zimbabwe's most famous musical names seek to relaunch their careers by emulating the example of Thomas Mapfumo, whose songs became famous during the country's liberation struggle. After openly criticising the Mugabe regime, Mapfumo's songs were never played on the radio again.
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From The Guardian (UK), 26 March
Vote for us or starve, Mugabe's party tells villagers
In the first in a series of reports from Zimbabwe before Thursday's general election Jeevan Vasagar visits Matabeleland and uncovers how far the ruling party, Zanu PF, is prepared to go to win.
Bulawayo - With an embarrassed smile Million Ndlovu admits that he has begun eating okra. Zimbabwean men say it is a "weak" vegetable, because of the slimy liquid it exudes when cooked, and think that by eating it they, too, will become weak. But now men like Mr Ndlovu have no choice. He eats okra and picks weeds from the fields to boil into a sauce, and drinks tea to fill his stomach when there is nothing solid to eat. The rains have not fallen and his village's maize crops have shrivelled in the fields. But that is not why he is hungry. As Thursday's parliamentary election approaches, the government has taken sole control of food distribution in rural areas. These elections, observers say, will bring less of the outright brutality that scarred previous polls. Instead, according to accounts given to the Guardian, the government party, Zanu PF, is offering villagers a simple choice - vote for us or starve.
In Mr Ndlovu's village, east of Bulawayo, people pooled money to buy maize flour from the state-owned grain marketing board. Last Saturday the food arrived. Mr Ndlovu, 62, said: "Sitting on top of the heap of maize [sacks] was the district chairman of Zanu PF. He said that maize would be distributed to supporters of Zanu PF only - not to supporters of the MDC [the opposition Movement for Democratic Change]." Each villager who reached the head of the queue was given a 50kg (110lb) sack of maize, said Mr Ndlovu. But anyone believed to support the opposition was ordered to leave. "It was announced that MDC supporters should go out of the queue so as not to be embarrassed," he said. "But I stayed in the queue because I was hungry." Instead of a sack of maize Mr Ndlovu, an MDC voter, was given back the 37,000 Zimbabwean dollars [now equivalent to only £3.25] he had put down as an advance payment three months ago. Now he survives on one proper meal a day. "In the mornings we take tea. In the afternoons, when the children come home from school, we take tea. In the evenings we have some sadza [maize porridge]. We have it with okra. Men used not to eat this okra, because it was said that it makes them weak. We eat a plant called uludi, which we pick in the fields. It grows in ruined buildings."
Mr Ndlovu is a "rainmaker", a community elder who performs the ceremonies meant to bring rain. "We ask for rain for the whole country," he said. "But the maize that comes from this rain is being divided on party lines." Mr Ndlovu's ceremonies have not been successful of late. Rain should be falling now, but Zimbabwe's skies are clear blue with puffs of white cloud rather than black with full-bellied stormclouds. In Matabeleland, the province around Bulawayo, the rivers are dry beds of yellow dust and stone. The maize planted last autumn is brown and wilted. Aid agencies say about four million people - a third of the population - will need food aid this year because of the drought. The poor harvest may be nature's fault, but it is being turned to political advantage. Last year President Robert Mugabe boasted of a bumper harvest and stopped aid agencies distributing food to rural areas. In an interview with Sky News, he said: "We are not hungry. Why foist this food on us? We don't want to be choked." The move gave Zanu PF complete control of food supplies in the countryside, through the grain marketing board. Shari Eppel, who belongs to a human rights group in Bulawayo called the Solidarity Peace Trust, said: "What we have heard is that the grain marketing board only sells food at Zanu PF rallies. People who go to buy food are turned away and told, 'You are MDC - you were seen at an MDC rally last week.'"
Mr Mugabe admitted for the first time last week that the country was seriously short of food. "The main problem we are facing is one of drought and the shortage of food," he told a Zanu PF rally. "We are going to work out a hunger alleviation programme ... I promise you that no one will starve." On Thursday state television service reported that the government was importing enough grain from South Africa to feed the country for 18 months - the latest evidence of the collapse of agriculture in Zimbabwe. Mr Mugabe's critics say the grain shortages highlight the country's economic crisis. Policies such as the seizure of white-owned land - much of which is now idle - have proved disastrous. According to the Commercial Farmers' Union, Zimbabwe grew only 850,000 tonnes of maize last year: not enough to feed its own people. In 1999, before the land seizures began, it grew 1.5m tonnes. "The whole 'food-as-a-weapon' thing is backfiring," Ms Eppel said. "Things are even getting to the point of the government not being able to feed its own supporters. Even Mugabe himself is finally admitting that we're short of food and saying [to his supporters], 'Don't worry - we won't let you starve.'"
Opposition to Zanu PF is deeply entrenched in Matabeleland. The province was the target of a brutal campaign of massacres and beatings between 1982 and 1984 aimed at wiping out support for a rival party, Zapu. Families that once supported Zapu have now transferred their allegiance to the MDC. Even faced with starvation, many villagers are refusing to back the government party. "We have never knelt to Zanu here," said a villager, Jesilea Sibanda, 69. "I for one have never done so. I would rather die." Another woman from the village, Asa Sibanda, 82, told the Guardian that she had been offered food in return for switching to Zanu PF. As she spoke her neighbour raised her hand with her palm open, to make the sign of the MDC. Then she clenched it into a fist, mimicking the salute of President Mugabe. "They said there is no way they are going to give me food that belongs to Zanu PF unless I repent by coming to join Zanu PF and denouncing the MDC," she said. "I was told that I should denounce the party with the symbol of the open hand and join the party with the symbol of the fist."
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 26 March
A hungry future for poor voters who oppose Mugabe
By Neil Tweedie in Binga
The great man-made lake of Kariba lies only a few miles from Sekelela Kubeya's village in the district of Binga, northern Zimbabwe. But it might as well be on the far side of the Moon. There are no irrigation channels to feed the fields and the clouds drifting across the brilliant blue African sky promise, but never deliver, the rain needed for her husband's crops. Nothing now can save the wizened excuses for millet and maize which were meant to have fed Sekelela's family of six in the coming year. So, like thousands of Zimbabweans stricken by drought, she has to rely on the largesse of her president, Robert Mugabe, who has promised emergency supplies of grain in exchange for money. The problem is that she and the rest of the villagers support the Movement for Democratic Change, which is seeking to unseat the liberator-turned-dictator's Zanu PF Party in parliamentary elections on Thursday. The consequence is simple: emergency grain is there if you support Zanu PF. For those of suspect loyalty (Binga is a MDC stronghold), there is hunger.
Last week Sekelela, not her real name, went with 24 other villagers to a grain distribution centre. They took six million Zimbabwean dollars (about £300) earned by the women over the previous month from sales of curios to affluent whites. Villages requiring hand-outs must submit lists of residents compiled by their headmen to be delivered first to the district administrator and then to the police. Finally, the list is handed to the Grain Marketing Board, a supposedly neutral government agency. But when the headman of Sekelela's village reached the front of the long queue at the GMB office in Binga, he was turned away. "They gave him the money back and told him to try again after the election," Sekelela said. There was no need to ask why. Unlike Zanu PF supporters, backers of the MDC did not qualify for aid. Now the people of the village, a collection of mud huts surrounded by parched red soil, scrub and dead crops, must rely on food from relatives, or drought-resistant pumpkin and berries.
Mr Mugabe has used the food weapon in previous elections, in addition to a portfolio of devices designed to ensure the desired outcome: violence, intimidation, vote-rigging and gerrymandering. This year the violence is gone, at least for now. "Comrade Bob" is boxed in. He is 81 and facing growing dissent within his party. The so-called war veterans, many of them thugs who played no part in the war against Ian Smith's Rhodesia, are no longer doing his dirty work: killing, mutilating and bullying the hapless rural poor while seizing white farms. Increasingly, the president must rely upon the generals, who bide their time. The international community is paying close attention, too. Last year Mugabe joined the leaders of other southern African states in signing a protocol guaranteeing minimum standards of conduct during elections. If he transgresses there is now something to fling back at him. True to a party used to uncontested power, Zanu PF has not bothered to devise a manifesto. Mugabe has sought to blame Britain, the former colonial power, for Zimbabwe's corrupt, failing economy. Inflation is a crippling 600 per cent and rising, rivalled only by Aids in its voracious growth, but the government-controlled newspapers prefer to carry Zanu PF advertisements describing 2005 as the "Anti-Blair Campaign". All Zimbabwe's ills, they state, are the product of white, western and, most of all, British racism.
Shari Eppel has witnessed the food weapon before. She is one of the dwindling number of Zimbabwean whites. Under Smith there were upwards of 350,000, but now there are barely a tenth of that number. Miss Eppel is an activist who campaigns against torture and, inevitably, has felt the displeasure of the state security system. "Zanu PF won't let the poor starve to death," she said. "They want people hungry and afraid but not dead because that would be bad publicity. The violence has been put away for the time being but people have been told to watch out. The important time is not the run-up to the vote but the aftermath when scores might be settled." Despite Zanu PF's tactics, she a ray of hope. "Mugabe has always harked back to two themes when under pressure: land and violence. Now the white farms have almost gone and he can no longer use them as a cause, while violence will only serve to isolate him." Mugabe's subtler approach is evident to the visitor. Police manning roadblocks are polite and non-threatening and MDC election observers have been issued with their passes. There are 150 seats in the assembly and 30 are in the gift of the president. So Mugabe needs 46 victories to secure victory, while the MDC requires 76. Sekelela lives a long way from Harare, the centre of power. She thinks this: "Mugabe was a good man who fought for his people but now he is old and his mind has failed him. He should go now."
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From The LA Times, 26 March
Amid famine, Zimbabwe voters fed anti-Blair vitriol
Britain is the issue in state media as legislative elections near, but food shortage stirs anger
By Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writer
Bulawayo - Grain stores are empty in many parts of this country, the maize crop has largely failed and there has been panic buying in markets. Yet Zimbabwe's food crisis barely rates a mention in the state media election coverage here. Instead, a campaign tightly controlled by the ruling Zanu PF has focused on the issue of leadership. Not that of longtime President Robert Mugabe, but of the prime minister of a country thousands of miles away: Britain's Tony Blair. "Bury Blair, vote Zanu PF," run the ruling party's newspaper advertisements, promising "an end to racist factory closures, an end to racist withholding of commodities," along with a litany of other domestic problems blamed on the British leader. Mugabe is furious with Britain, the country's former colonial power, especially since Blair said he would like to see a change of regime in Zimbabwe. Opposition leaders and rights activists charge that the government has nonetheless underpinned its anti-Blair parliamentary election campaign with threats that play on fears sparked by the food crisis. They allege that the government has threatened to bypass areas that fail to support Zanu PF when it distributes food after Thursday's voting.
"Every time you turn on the television, you hear about how bad Tony Blair is. People are taking it as a joke. There's no strong anti-British sentiment," said a supervisor at a factory in this southwestern city. He agreed to a surreptitious interview conducted in a car outside his workplace but, fearing repercussions, gave his name only as Jack. But he said there was plenty of anxiety about food. His elderly mother in rural central Zimbabwe and his three children at school in Bulawayo had all been warned, he said, that supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change could miss out on rations. It is difficult to predict whether the food shortages will translate into popular anger against the government in the vote or fear of being denied food will boost the ruling party's support. Either way, analysts expect Zanu PF to win the elections. Although the killings and violence of past elections under Mugabe have waned, a recent Human Rights Watch report warned that a continuing climate of intimidation in Zimbabwe meant that a fair election was impossible, and other reports have suggested that 40% of names on voter rolls are suspect.
In a country where opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai faces treason charges for organizing anti-government rallies, the Human Rights Watch report cited "serious irregularities" in the electoral process, repressive laws on public security, biased electoral institutions supervising the poll and closures of independent newspapers. "As a result, the elections are highly unlikely to reflect the free expression of the people," the report found. Human Rights Watch researcher Tiseke Kasambala said the threats to deprive people of food aid after the election were being made at ruling party rallies, particularly in rural areas. An audit of the voter roll by pro-democracy group FreeZim Support Group found that more than 2 million of the 5.6 million names on the rolls were suspect, with up to 800,000 dead people registered and 300,000 duplicate names. Mugabe, the former liberation struggle leader who has ruled Zimbabwe through 25 years of independence, has in recent years overseen a catastrophic decline in farm production and economic collapse. Opposition newspaper advertisements focus on the crash and runaway inflation, contrasting the power of 1,500 Zimbabwean dollars to purchase a car 25 years ago with its ability to buy a bus ticket in 2002 and a single nail today.
Mugabe eschewed humanitarian food aid last year as his government predicted a bumper grain crop of 2.4 million tons. "We are not hungry. Why foist this food on us? We don't want to be choked. We have enough," Mugabe said in an interview with British Sky News television. The South African-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network recently warned that 5.8 million people were at risk in Zimbabwe's current food emergency. It reported that most rural households had run out of food in mid-2004, and soaring food prices and falling incomes had since worsened the crisis. Many rural people rely on sons and daughters living in the cities or abroad to send money or food. In recent weeks, the government has dropped its predictions of an excellent crop and conceded the need for emergency food for 1.5 million people. "The situation right now for my family is very bad. There's no food," said a 28-year-old security guard in Bulawayo, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals. His 42-year-old sister recently called from rural Masvingo province, normally a government stronghold, to tell him she had run out of food.
He said his parents had always supported Zanu PF, but now there was anger in Masvingo, with people blaming Mugabe because of his rejection of international aid. "People are not happy, because CARE International used to give them porridge, beans and [maize] almost every month," he said. "Some of the people are saying this government is not good because almost everybody managed to hear what the president said. I'm sure people will go and vote for the other party. There's a big change in the rural community." Despite the decline in violence, David Coltart, a member of parliament for the MDC, argued that threats to deny food were more frightening than physical threats. "The threat of food is insidious, but it's far more powerful than murdering people. It affects everyone." But he argued it was possible that anger about food could backfire on Zanu PF. "That's the big unanswered question of the election. They clearly are not delivering sufficient food to people yet. We're getting information countrywide that people are out of foo d and angry because they know Mugabe is responsible. There's a problem for the government if they can't deliver food before the election." One employee at a small Bulawayo factory said that although he was no longer afraid to wear a shirt supporting the MDC, he felt sure the vote would be rigged. "Now people feel that even if they vote, it's not going to make any difference because they're just rigging," he said. "People are saying, 'Let's just wait till the old man dies to see if things get any better.'"
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From Zim Online (SA), 26 March
State media hangman gets rewarded
Harare - The government has spent more than Z$1 billion on a luxury vehicle for the chairman of its Media and Information Commission (MIC), Tafataona Mahoso. Mahoso, who has shut down four newspapers and ordered the arrest of hundreds of journalists perceived as too critical of the government, took delivery of a sport utility Mitsubishi Pajero vehicle imported from South Africa at a cost of about 430 000 South African rands. One rand is trading at between Z$2 400 and $2 600 on the unofficial parallel market where private businesses and government departments source most of their hard cash. Using the parallel market rates the cost of Mahoso's vehicle would be about Z$1 billion, which is enough to feed about 1000 poor families in Zimbabwe for a month. Officials at the MIC said Mahoso was now demanding that then car be fitted with bullet proof windows as a security precaution. "He (Mahoso) sees himself as a target for assassination. He is paranoid about his security," said one official, who did not want to be named for fear of victmisation. He complained that a Nissan truck allocated to him earlier was not secure enough since his job entailed making a lot of influential enemies within and outside Zimbabwe," the official added. Mahoso refused to discuss the matter when reached for comment yesterday. "Now you are on to my car. What next. Rubbish," Mahoso said before switching off the phone.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 27 March
Quiet chant of 'hungry, hungry' rouses a nation to oust Mugabe
Christina Lamb in Harare
It started with a whisper, a mother besotted with grief at losing her son, people said afterwards. As she muttered the single word "hungry", the crowd around her shifted uneasily and looked scared. Nobody wanted a night in a Zimbabwean jail. On a platform in front of them, their great leader Robert Mugabe was denouncing Tony Blair for "spending sleepless nights plotting how he can remove the Zimbabwe government" and telling them to "bury Blair, vote Zanu PF". But then another woman, shaded from the sun by a large coloured umbrella, repeated the word: "Hungry." The people of Gwanda had been gathered to hear the president tell them why his party, which has been in power throughout Zimbabwe's 25 years of independence, should be voted in for another term. Instead, they thought about the fact that the Lutheran priests who used to bring them food had been driven out by the government and a low chant of "hungry, hungry, hungry" reverberated through the crowd. Agitated secret service men from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) started to take names. The 81-year-old president, perspiring behind his large, plastic-rimmed glasses, was hustled away. But the damage was done.
The story of the Gwanda rally may prove apocryphal but by the end of last week it was being recounted in villages and bars across the country. From Matabeleland to Manicaland, the refrain of "hungry" seemed to be on everyone's lips. Along rutted tracks winding between failed maize crops, one person after another held up open-fingered palms and said "chinja" or change, the slogan of the opposition. "This is the beginning of the end," said Solomon Saungweme, standing in the ruins of his home in the Manicaland village of Ngirazi. The house was burnt down last week by youths from Zanu PF, which he once supported. Afterwards they raped his 18-year-old daughter-in-law. "We don't care any more about Mugabe's threats. It's better to die now than to starve to death," he said. While Mugabe's friends Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya and Namibia's Sam Nujoma have all left office, Africa's last remaining independence leader has used every trick in the brutality book to stay in power.
Many of those who dared to oppose Mugabe have been tortured and killed, and their womenfolk raped; the free press has been bombed and closed down; almost all the white commercial farmers have been kicked off their farms, destroying the country's agriculture and leaving the nation hungry; and food aid has been reserved for followers of the ruling party. Supporters of Mugabe have been rewarded with jobs and farms, making all sectors of society complicit. The recipients of farms include 15 high court judges, senior military and police officers and the Anglican bishop of Harare. But with the country in its third year of a drought, Mugabe may have gone too far. Last year he halted foreign food aid, announcing that the country had a bumper harvest and was "choking" on food. Yet diplomats estimate the harvest of maize, Zimbabwe's staple, at 300,000 tons, one-sixth of what it needs. The opposition claims the government has been handing out D-grade maize usually used for animal feed. Foodnet, an international organisation that monitors hunger, estimates that more than 5m people, almost half the population, are on the verge of starvation. Another 3m - many of them professional people - have already voted with their feet and gone abroad. The country has been left perilously short of doctors and nurses. As those who remain go to the polls in parliamentary elections this Thursday, people are daring to believe that Mugabe's sins may finally be returning to haunt him.
The first sign I found that things may be changing came when I arrived in Bulawayo eight days ago working undercover - as British reporters have been forced to do for several years since Mugabe stopped letting most of us in. Over tea and toast, David Coltart, the legal affairs spokesman of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), talked excitedly of a "new mood sweeping through the country". "Everywhere we go, people are coming to us saying, 'We're right behind you'," said Coltart. "It's the first time we have that combination of a stolen election and hungry, angry people who blame Mugabe for their plight." The mood was very different at the office of the city's Roman Catholic archbishop, Pius Ncube, one of the few people to attack Mugabe openly. His telephone has been blocked so that he cannot dial out and CIO spies sit on the wall outside."There is no way Mugabe is going to lose these elections," he said. "They are going to rig them and they will get away with it. This is not Kiev." The archbishop pointed at posters of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela above his desk and bemoaned the lack of leadership in Zimbabwe. "Ninety-five per cent of people are fed up with Mugabe but they don't know what to do. They have no real leader to motivate them and are frightened that Mugabe will turn the army on them. I feel powerless. We are no longer even allowed to feed people, we cannot hold a prayer meeting for more than four without police permission and my own priests are being bribed [with] computers and farms."
That evening I met a terrified woman in an empty car park under the cover of darkness. Her name was Maggie and she sobbed as she recounted how a soldier had come to the house where she sells firewood to support her family and warned her that she was now a "Zanu PF target" for supporting the MDC. "How will my four children survive when they come and kill me?" she wailed. Frightened as she was, Maggie nevertheless insisted that she would vote MDC; and as I travelled across Zimbabwe last week from west to east, I found that people who were terrified to be seen with a foreign journalist on my last visit in November were now openly criticising the government. The capital, Harare, has long been an MDC stronghold. But in a country where e-mails are monitored, it was still a surprise to find students downloading Mugabe jokes from a computer and stamping 20,000-dollar notes - each worth less than Ï1 - with "Enough!" to protest against inflation running at 400%. The real shock came in the Zanu PF heartland of Mashonaland West. In the farming district of Norton, southwest of Harare, we stopped at the burnt-out shell of a farm that had belonged to Terry Ford, a white farmer murdered three years ago and found with his small terrier whimpering beside his battered body. "What was the point?" asked Joe Whaley, the neighbour who found him and whose own farm was seized by one of Mugabe's nephews. "They killed Terry and are not even doing anything with the farm." A little further on were the ruins of Peter MacSporran's tobacco farm. The house has been stripped of windows, doors, bricks, sockets, lavatories, tiles - anything that could be sold. As we wandered around nervously, expecting Zanu PF militia to appear, a group of young men in dirty T-shirts emerged and held out their palms, saying: "Chinja." "The government dumped us here," said one of them, who can be identified only as Mylove. "I was working as a gardener in Harare but they promised us land so we came here. They gave us no help and we are hungry, we have no food or future, we are just living in the bush like monkeys, eating fruit and whatever we can find."
During the last parliamentary elections in 2000 and the presidential poll in 2002, such a conversation would have been unthinkable. Scattered throughout rural areas were camps of "Green Bombers", Mugabe's youth militia, who rounded up, beat and tortured local people. Some 300 MDC workers were killed in those campaigns. This time Mugabe has called off the thugs, apparently intent on regaining some international stature before he retires. Zimbabwean television has even been reporting on MDC rallies. The opposition is baffled. One explanation is that Mugabe believes people are so cowed that he need do no more. Solidarity Peace Trust, a religious group that monitors human rights, reported a few months ago that about 300,000 Zimbabweans - one in 40 - had been beaten, tortured or denied food since 2000. There is another possible reason, however: disarray in the ruling party. Mugabe's announcement last year that he would retire after his term ends in 2008 provoked a succession battle that has split the party along tribal fault lines. All the key posts - including that of his new vice-president, Joyce Mujuru, the wife of a powerful former army chief - are held by members of Mugabe's Zezuru clan, while the Karanga clan has been sidelined. Six provincial party bosses, all from non-Zezuru provinces, were suspended for refusing to endorse Mujuru. Some of the disaffected are now standing as independents, including Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe's former spin doctor, who has admitted the last elections were rigged.
One might wonder why a dictator in a country where it is illegal to raise an arm as his motorcade goes by bothers with elections. But in the same strange way that he denounces Britain yet opens parliament in an old Bentley and allowed his young wife Grace to become one of Harrods' biggest customers until European Union travel restrictions were imposed, Mugabe craves legitimacy. "He's the outcast in the playground and he hates it," said one diplomat, who pointed out that Mugabe's friends outside Africa are Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Malaysia and China, none of which is a place where he wants to see out his days. Yet when he signed a protocol drawn up by the Southern African Development Community last autumn committing himself to free and fair elections, even his own supporters did not expect him to fulfil the pledge. "It's eerie," said Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC's candidate for Makoni East, with whom I spent a day on the campaign trail. The Zanu PF-held constituency in Manicaland saw some of the worst violence in the last elections and was a no-go area for white journalists. As we bumped around the dirt roads in my car - Muchauraya has only a bicycle - he showed me a house where he was abducted, beaten and left for dead; another where an MDC worker was killed; and a lake where his election organiser was thrown to crocodiles.
The intimidation has not ceased. Lydia, a 13-year-old girl we met, was beaten by Zanu PF after she went to an MDC rally last weekend. But violence is not the main challenge for candidates such as Muchauraya this time. First there is food, given out to those with Zanu PF membership cards in the local town of Mutare. Muchauraya has to give four days' notice to the police for approval to hold a meeting, then often arrives to find Zanu PF holding a rally nearby at which food is handed out. The biggest challenge, however, is in persuading villagers it is safe to vote MDC. Mugabe cunningly agreed to translucent ballot boxes - demanded by the opposition as a safeguard against vote-rigging - then warned villagers he would be able to see how they voted. Muchauraya uses a bottle to show villagers that if a ballot paper is folded three times before being placed inside, nobody can see what it says. When we stopped at Kawedza village, a group of women gathered, patting their stomachs. "We have never been so hungry," said Everjoyce, holding out a small yellow guava. "We're living on fruit that the baboons eat." It is this desperation that is giving people the defiance to speak out. Further along the road we gave a lift to a woman with two young children suffering from malaria. They had walked nine miles to a clinic, only to be given paracetamol as this was all that was available.
In Mutare I watched queues of people outside banks that had no money, and spoke to the manager of a wood factory who told me that almost every day in the line for jobs they find a dead body. Life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen to 33. But while Zimbabweans may be crying out for change, nobody believes Mugabe has any intention of losing; there is just too much at stake. Work is progressing on the $5m blue-tiled pagoda-style palace to which he plans to retire in the exclusive Harare suburb of Borrowdale Brook. A two-thirds majority for the opposition could see him removed from the presidency and facing trial for abuses such as the 1980s massacres in Matabeleland in which about 20,000 were killed by his notorious Fifth Brigade. "Everything is in place for these elections to be rigged," said Coltart. The 8,300 polling stations will be manned by military and police officers. Investigations into the electoral roll have turned up a number of non-existent and dead voters, all of whom are expected to vote Zanu PF. Even if the MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, were to win a majority of the 120 seats contested, Mugabe appoints a further 30. Traditional chiefs who receive government allowances are expected to tell villagers how to vote and observers from Europe and America have been denied entry. Handily for Mugabe, his ally President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa has already declared the elections to be "free and fair".
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 27 March
How will Zanu PF cheat? It's all in the voters' roll, stupid
So how is Zanu PF going to cheat? That is the question on many lips ahead of Thursday's national poll. If Zanu PF wins as most predict, no one, including observers (of whom there will only be enough to cover two thirds of the polling stations), the few accredited foreign diplomats or, most importantly, the people, will ever know if the ruling party beat the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) fairly and squarely. "It's all in the voters' roll, stupid!" said an MDC candidate cheerfully when asked the "how-will-they-cheat" question in Bulawayo this week. As of last week, the roll had 5,7 million registered voters, according to the Zimbabwe Election Commission, which said it closed registration for Thursday's election on February 4. (The commission is the legal mouthpiece for several other authorities that are really running the poll.) It has grown by more than 100 000 in the past three weeks. The Zimbabwe government has persistently refused the MDC access to two CD-roms that hold all the information on the voters' roll. To audit the voters' roll for duplications of unique identity numbers, therefore, the MDC has to lug several kilograms of faint print-outs to check the veracity of the information. Its private-sector data consultants say they have the software in place to check for duplications to audit the roll electronically within 48 hours of receiving the CDs.
The MDC says the accurate figure for the voters' roll should be 3,2 million based on the census of 2002 and extrapolating statistics collected door to door of people not known at addresses given on the roll in a mix of a dozen rural and urban constituencies ahead of Thursday's poll. In a densely populated block in a constituency in Harare the MDC says it found that 64 percent of registered voters were not known at their given addresses after a laborious house-by-house audit. The University of Zimbabwe's statistics department generously estimated that the voters' roll could be as high as 4,6 million, if 80 percent of youngsters had registered as soon as they had turned 18. The university statistics did not estimate the huge numbers who have left Zimbabwe since the study was done nearly four years ago, nor the rising toll of HIV/Aids and the decreasing life expectancy, now down to about 35, according to the World Health Organisation.
On Thursday people will vote at more than 8 000 polling stations, with three queues at each station and only one polling agent to monitor all the processes, such as checking ID numbers, on one day. The polling agent is not permitted to use a cellphone or any other means of communication to report any hitches during voting, or to let anyone know the results immediately after counting ends at the polling station. That information will be telephoned through by the government's presiding officers to the 2005 command centre in Harare, staffed by the same people as in 2002, but now called the National Logistics Committee. And, in case that information worries conscientious observers, there is more. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said last week that voter registration was continuing. It said those who registered after February 4 would not be allowed to vote on Thursday. But it also said that anyone whose name did not appear on the roll, but had a receipt from registration officials showing that they should be a voter, could bring their receipt along on Thursday, and they would be allowed to cast their ballot. The voters' roll, therefore, has a wide variety of rigging options in each and every constituency, but particularly in rural areas, and only analysis of the electronic version of the voters' roll would allow Zimbabweans and the world to know whether voting and counting on March 31 was accurate. Jonathan Moyo, who is standing as an independent candidate, said this week that having only one polling agent for three polling queues invited rigging. Moyo is also unhappy about the voters' roll, although he saw no problems in 2002 when he was information minister.
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From Sapa, 26 March
Mugabe using traditional leaders, says MDC
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition on Saturday accused President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF of enlisting traditional leaders in a campaign of intimidation ahead of next week's elections in the southern African country. "Chiefs, kraal heads and other traditional leaders continue to be used by Zanu PF in its desire to steal the March 2005 election," said Paul Themba Nyathi, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which is battling Zanu PF for parliament seats in the polls on Thursday. The MDC named chiefs in the northern town of Hurungwe who they said had tried to block an opposition rally, threatened to evict residents who vote for the opposition and also deny them agricultural aid. It also said that Vice President Joyce Mujuru had announced at public rallies that chiefs and other traditional leaders "should shepherd their subjects to polling stations on voting day" to ensure that they cast their ballots.Mugabe's government has in recent years sought to shore up traditional leaders, providing them with amenities such as vehicles, water and electricity in their rural communities. Zimbabweans are going to the polls on Thursday to elect 120 representatives to parliament with an additional 30 seats to be appointed by Mugabe directly. Of those 30, ten are traditional leaders. The elections are closely watched to measure Mugabe's commitment to a hold free and fair vote following the 2000 and 2002 polls that were tainted by violence and allegations of vote-rigging. Mugabe is hoping to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament for his Zanu PF, in power in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
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From Reuters, 27 March
Zimbabwe court bars jailed MP from running in poll
Harare - A jailed white opposition MP will not be allowed to run in parliamentary polls, Zimbabwe's new electoral court said on Saturday, reversing an earlier ruling that had angered President Robert Mugabe. One of the Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) best-known candidates, Roy Bennett is serving a 12-month jail term for assaulting a government minister during a debate last year. The court said it had made the decision in consultation with Bennett and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Bennett's lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa told Reuters. She said his wife Heather would now run in his place. The court had originally ruled that Bennett could stand for re-election despite his imprisonment. It delayed the countrywide March 31 vote to April 30 in his constituency to give him time to campaign. But the ruling annoyed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and Mugabe, who said the country would not be "held ransom by a man who is in prison". He told supporters of his ruling Zanu PF to proceed with campaigning in the constituency. Mtetwa said Bennett had reached an agreement with the commission to have the Chimanimani election held on March 31 after the government appealed against the earlier ruling. "We took a practical decision after coming to the conclusion that our chances of winning the case in the Supreme Court were very small," Mtetwa said. The Electoral Court was set up under reforms by Mugabe's government ahead of next week's elections. Critics say the reforms are little more than window-dressing to mask an electoral landscape still tilted in Zanu PF's favour. Bennett had his coffee farm confiscated under the government's controversial land reform programme designed to give white-owned farms to landless blacks. His wife Heather said she agreed with her husband's decision, adding that holding the vote in Chimanimain after March 31 would increase the chances of it being rigged by Zanu PF. "It was in the interest of the people of Chimanimani to hold the election now so that Zanu PF will not be able to concentrate its resources like its militia in one constituency," she said.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 28 March
Mugabe minister says 'vote for me or lose your job'
Harare - One of the most feared men in President Robert Mugabe's regime was accused yesterday of telling thousands of black labourers to vote for him in Zimbabwe's general election or be sacked. Sydney Sekeramayi, the defence minister, threatened to deprive the workers of their jobs and livelihoods while addressing a rally in his constituency, according to five people who were present. Mr Sekeramayi is defending a wafer-thin majority of 38 in the parliamentary polls due on Thursday. He spoke at a rally for the ruling Zanu PF party at Rakodzi farm in his constituency of Marondera East. The farm, owned by a company called Mitchell and Mitchell, is by far the largest employer in Mr Sekeramayi's seat, where the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is mounting a strong challenge. It supplies vegetables to British supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, and its 7,000 workers comprise almost 20 per cent of all registered voters in Marondera East.
According to a sworn statement signed by a 23-year-old woman who was present, Mr Sekeramayi threatened to seize Mitchell and Mitchell when he addressed the company's workers at the rally. "Sydney Sekeramayi says if you don't vote for Zanu PF the company will be taken away," said the woman. Another woman, 36, said: "He told the people who were in the meeting that if you vote, you must vote Zanu PF. If you do not vote Zanu PF, I will close this company because you are an MDC member. I was worried about those words." Sworn statements signed by three more workers, all of them present at the rally, carry the same account of Mr Sekeramayi's speech. But Mr Sekeramayi, 61, angrily denied issuing any threats. "It's a blatant lie. I want that company to succeed so that people keep their jobs, not lose them," he said. His denial comes among growing reports of Zanu PF officials controlling the electoral roll and polling stations, and of threats to deny food to villagers who vote for the MDC. The campaign has seen less violence and thuggery than any in the past 10 years. The greatest threat to its credibility comes from the chaotic state of the voters' roll.
The authorities say that 5.7 million names appear on the list, but Zimbabwe's population is only 12 million, most of whom are under the voting age of 18. The University of Zimbabwe's statistics department says that the voters' roll should have 4.6 million names at most. Other estimates suggest that 3.2 million names would be closer to the mark. Every independent study has shown that the electoral roll is padded out with voters who have died or emigrated. This inflated total, say critics, gives Zanu PF the leeway for outright ballot rigging on polling day. Mr Sekeramayi, who has served in Mr Mugabe's cabinet for 25 years, once led the feared Central Intelligence Organisation and held the portfolio of state security minister. He played a prominent role in the brutal crackdown on dissidents among the minority Ndebele tribe in Matabeleland which claimed some 8,000 lives in the 1980s. The MDC found it almost impossible to campaign in his constituency during the previous election in 2000 but still came within a whisker of defeating him.
When votes are cast on Thursday, the workforce of Mitchell and Mitchell could decide whether Mr Sekeramayi keeps his seat in parliament. The MDC is deeply concerned by an announcement that a polling station will be sited on the company's farm. The only people who will vote here will be the farm's workforce, who Mr Sekeramayi is alleged to have threatened. They will be unable to vote at any other polling station because Mitchell and Mitchell has offered them a bonus of £5 each to work as usual on election day. The MDC is asking the courts to relocate the polling station and will use the five sworn statements for this challenge. Iain Kay, Mr Sekeramayi's challenger from the MDC, said: "The workers say that they can't afford not to work on election day because of the bonus, but if they cast their ballot at the polling station on the farm, Zanu PF will know who among them voted for the MDC." Adrian Zeederberg, managing director of Mitchell and Mitchell, said he would be "relieved" if the polling station was not placed on the farm. He said that it might have been a "mistake" to link the bonus payment with the workers' presence on election day and the company would consider "de-linking" it.
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From The Independent (UK), 28 March
Zimbabwe archbishop calls on nation to rise against Mugabe
By Christelle Terreblanche in Bulawayo
A senior Zimbabwean clergyman has issued an unprecedented plea for a peaceful Ukraine-style "popular mass uprising" to remove President Robert Mugabe after elections this week. The highly respected Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, the Most Rev Pius Ncube, said that the parliamentary elections on Thursday were certain to |
