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General: 07714736382
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ZPF to launch Civil Dialogue
JOHANESBURG The Zimbabwe Pastors Forum (ZPF) has announced plans to launch Civic Dialogue Africa in Johannesburg next week.
This is a grouping of all African nations based in South Africa whose main aims are to promote dialogue and find possible ways of ending xenophobia between foreigners and the host community of South African.
Plans include a new radio station, a College of African Languages and a Media Centre.
Speaking at the Advisory Council Board (ACB) executive meeting on Saturday, ZPF president, Steven Chiadzwa, said the group would engage the SA government and
other authority structures in policy formulation on issues that impact on people’s lives.
"We need to bring together the immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees and the South Africans to establish the critical space for communication and interaction," he said.
An advisory council has been established, including the Hillbrow Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Malumanye, Editor of CAJ News Savious-Parker Kwinika, Zimbabwe Tortured Victims Political (ZTVP) Sox Chikohwero, Hope Centre Director Pastor Robert Murenje, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South Africa Jubilee, Wits University and SA Home Affairs department. Meanwhile, more than 200 asylum seekers and refugees in Diepsvloot recently received food, blankets and clothes from the ZPF last weekend. Hope Centre Coordinator, Pastor Richard Guvakuva, Pastor Guvakuva handed over 10 bags of blankets, dozens of pairs of shoes, clothes and food.
"We feel there is a need to help the people of God not only spiritually but physically. It’s not good enough to just preach to the hungry but we have an obligation to feed them when they are hungry and thirsty. We care for the poor and those in
difficult situations like the ones we are assisting today," said Pastor Guvakuva. CAJ News
SA police suspended for bribery
JOHANNESBURG - Two police officers at Hillbrow have been arrested and suspended for demanding bribes from Zimbabwean teachers. Inspector Malumanye, the Hillbrow Police’s Press and Public Relations made the announcement at the Africa Civic Dialogue meeting in Braamfontein."Two police officers were arrested and suspended without salary for demanding bribes from the Zimbabwean teachers," said Insp Malumanye. Own correspondent
ARVs only for the rich
JOHANNESBURG Before going for HIV tests in 1998, Albert Ngwenya (38) had lost his baby girl, but had no clue what may have caused the death of his beloved child.
"I then went for HIV testing at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo where I realised I was living with the HIV/AIDS infection. At first I did not know what to do and ignored everything that the doctors and nurses advised me to do. I could not believe the results and did not talk to anyone about my HIV status including my wife," said Ngwenya.
Ngwenya is married to Sikangeziwe Nyathi (34) and the couple have two children, Ricardo (16) and Raybin (13).
Narrating his story to CAJ News, Ngwenya, who worked as a security guard at a security company in Bulawayo said decided to go for some second HIV tests a few months later.
"Once again, I repeated my HIV tests in 2000 to establish as to whether I was really HIV positive or not. Again, I went to Mpilo Hospital where I tested positive for the second time. It is then that I became open to my wife Sikangeziwe about my HIV status," says Ngwenya, who is now living in Johannesburg, South Africa.
"On 28th December 2005, I left for SA in a haulage truck. I had no money and begged the haulage truck drivers to just assist me," said Ngwenya. When he arrived in SA, he took refugee at Refugee Reception Centre in Marabastad where he would pick up some food leftovers for survival.
"Since I became HIV positive, I am teaching some youths and other elderly people about HIV/AIDS. Some are suspicious about their previous actions. If I had resources, I could go around schools in Johannesburg and Gauteng province teaching about HIV/AIDS," said Ngwenya.
While he remains in SA with no end in sight to his problems, back home his family and many other people in the same predicament are having difficulties in securing ARVs. At Z$8 million a month, the drugs are the preserve of the rich only. - CAJ News
SA govt plans media censorship
JOHANNESBURG - Reporters Without Borders has joined the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), the Media Institute of Southern Africa-South Africa (MISA-SA) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) in urging parliament to reject a bill proposed by the government that would open the way to censorship.
The Film and Publications Amendment Bill 2006 is currently being debated by the parliamentary subcommittee for Home Affairs before being submitted to the full parliament.
"In an increasingly free and open media environment, protection of the youngest and most sensitive viewers and readers is vital, but the South African government - whose relations with the media have declined sharply in the space of few years - should not take advantage of a sense of concern to try to restrict press freedom," Reporters Without Borders said.
"We therefore call on the parliamentary committee to reject this draft of the bill and we urge the government to organise proper consultation with the journalistic community and civil society with the aim of forging agreement on a legitimate version," the organisation added.
A spokesman said FXI was concerned about the current situation, in which the government was adopting an increasingly conservative attitude towards social problems and displaying growing hostility towards the news media. "The gains the South African media made with the end of apartheid in 1994 are starting to be eroded," he said. Own correspondent
SA police thugs attack Zims: Valuables stolen, several injured
JOHANNESBURG The South African Police Service (SAPS) on Thursday stormed the Methodist House in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, in a late night raid that left many people either injured or without their valuable belongings.
The Methodist House is home to South African NGOs Coalition (SANGOCO) offices, Home of Saints Offices and is also a home to asylum seekers from around Africa.
An estimated 30 plain-clothes police officers driving unmarked vehicles with no number plates raided the refugees who were fast asleep. Among their victims was the editor of the Centre for African Journalists (CAJ News), Savious-Parker Kwinika who lost three cameras and R400 cash.
The police kicked open his door, turned his bed upside down and eventually broke his bed. They also soaked the blankets in cold water and destroyed several kitchens utensils.
Kwinika, who is also a Journalism and Media Studies student at Wits University was faster asleep in his apartment when the police smashed his door.
The sad development prompted the Independent Complaints Directorate of South Africa (ICD) to quickly move in and launched investigations against charges levelled against the SAPS during the night. An official from ICD advised the victims of the police brutality to open cases against the law enforcement agency.
The ICD is an independent department that was established in April 1997 to investigate complaints, criminality and misconduct against members of the South African Police Service, and the Municipal Police Service (MPS).
The ICD investigates the involvement of SAPS members in criminal activities such as assault, theft, corruption, robbery, rape among other criminal offences.
It was not only Kwinika who was left aggrieved. Police assaulted several other people sleeping on the ground floor and left them injured.
"I was awoken by the loud noise of the door when the police forcibly kicked it open. They were pointing guns to my head. They forced me out of the house. People at the house were not armed but were fast asleep. The manner in which they approached us was so unprofessional; it seemed like an act of thuggery. Instead of searching for whatever they were looking for, they ended up stealing from us," said Kwinika.
Another person, who was severely assaulted with a gun was Jabulani Kona (43). He was beaten with the butt of the gun whilst asleep. There was blood all over the floor.
"I was asleep and suddenly I was hit on the side of the head with a metal object. The left side of my head was sustained a deep gush. I was forced outside the building where several dozens of people were being taken finger prints though not a single person was arrested. I then asked them to take me to the hospital but they refused until I went to the Methodist Central to inform Bishop Paul Verryn," said Kona.
Kona was then taken by an Ambulance to Hillbrow Clinic early Friday morning at around 0200hrs. He was treated and discharged.
Bishop Verryn had not issued a statement by the time of going to press. He was busy raising complaints with senior police officer to immediately look into the conduct of their juniors at Braamfontein. - CAJ News
Sunday, August 27, 2006
The Zimbabwean News (2)
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
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Mutambara goes home
MUTARE - Arthur Mutambara, leader of the pro-Senate faction of the MDC, held a thunderous home-coming rally, punctuated by song, dance and ululation from a crowd that included traditional leaders from the Mutambara clan at the weekend, according to the party’s spokesman.
The rally, held at Nedziwa Business Centre, was attended by the party’s entire senior leadership.
"The Mutambara clan, represented by eight traditional leaders, set the tone for the colourful occasion by performing traditional rituals as they sought to give their son, guidance, moral and spiritual send-off into the world of politics as the MDC leader and the possible messiah who will redeem the people of Zimbabwe out of the socio-political quagmire from which it has been plunged by the Mugabe government," said the spokesman.
Mutambara told the gathering his party would not take away land from the people but would institute a land audit to determine whether the land that was allocated was being productively used to benefit the entire nation.
He also spoke about the split in the MDC, which he said was a necessary evil that had exposed the party’s weaknesses, and said the MDC was ready to fight and defeat Zanu (PF) and create a new democratic government to free the people of Zimbabwe from Mugabe’s tyrannical rule. Staff reporter
Editorial: We salute WOZA and MOZA
This week those incredibly brave women of WOZA were arrested yet again together with their babies and some male supporters. They have been arrested every time they have taken to the streets to prod our consciences about the various issues that bedevil our society.
WOZA has demonstrated on issues that need to be debated and addressed issues such as the astronomical rise in school fees, a new constitution for Zimbabwe, housing, peace, the economy. In fact - all the bread and butter issues that effect ordinary people. And every time the government has mercilessly manhandled them into jail.
Young and old, the women together in many cases with suckling babies and toddlers have been beaten, thrown into prison, denied sanitation, food and water, medical treatment and access to their lawyers.
But they keep coming back for more. They never give up. They even offer themselves for arrest in solidarity with other members, knowing full well the inhuman conditions under which they will be held in filthy, lice-infested, stinking cells, sleeping on concrete floors with no blankets, hungry and thirsty.
We salute these women and are delighted that the men of Zimbabwe, not to be outdone, have at last risen to take their place beside them. For too long, men have taken a back seat while the brunt of Mugabe’s wrath has fallen upon these women.
Thus we salute, too, the formation of MOZA. May their courage match that of WOZA and may they persevere until victory is ours.
Word for Today
Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. - Habakkuk 3;17
Deep water
An editorial in the Tablet, an international Catholic weekly published in the UK, comments on the absence of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland this year during the annual marching season (July); ‘gradually the old hatreds seem to be diminishing.’ The divisions in the province go very deep but it seems slow but huge progress is being made in healing the rifts of centuries.
And in South Africa people are reflecting on the amazing events that transformed their country from a rigidly divided society into one where freedom and democracy are enshrined in a new order. These are truly extraordinary achievements and in the gloom surrounding Lebanon it is good to know that people can come together and recognize their common humanity.
But they have had to go deep to reach this point of reconciliation. At one point in his mission Jesus tells his followers, ‘put out into deep water’ (Luke 5: 4). It may be a good fishing tactic but it also has symbolic meaning. Sometimes a person has to reach deep within to find the courage to reconcile. There is a passage in Antjie Krog’s book on the South African Truth Commission hearings, Country of My Skull, where an elite Afrikaner policeman, Col. Roelf Venter, one of the notorious Vlaklplaas Five, reaches into these depths:
‘Then I was not sorry because I thought it was right. Now I know that it was wrong and I regret my deeds.’ This sounds very ordinary, but according to psychiatrists Venter has made a very difficult and crucial leap with this statement allowing for a space where change is possible: then it was right now it is wrong. What makes this a psychological breakthrough is that it is almost impossible to acknowledge that the central truth around which your life has been built is a lie. At the risk of the disintegration of your self-image, you would rather keep on denying any wrongdoing.
What makes this account so moving is that Krog, obviously a deeply sensitive and courageous Afrikaner herself, realizes that she has ‘more in common with the Vlakplaas Five’ than with those who tried to excuse themselves saying, ‘we never knew …’
Bitter conflicts show starkly the divisions in humanity and there are countless other lesser ones that are not so clear. There is a danger of glossing over these and leaving their resolution to others. ‘It is not my business.’ Yet it has been said many times, by many prophets and in many different ways: where some are in thrall all are in thrall. This comes home to us in Zimbabwe today. We are a divided society and we need to go deep to discover what is common to us all. Now we prefer old prejudices that shield us from looking into ourselves. But one day it will all be clear. Why not today?
A night with Harare’s working sisters
BY ALEXIO RASHIRAI
It is Friday, 9 pm and Abigail is standing on the side of the road wearing a skin tight skirt, cunningly designed to expose the maximum amount of thigh. A Toyota land cruiser screeches to a halt beside her and a man snaps off the ignition. As the car shivers into silence, the haggling begins. Twenty minutes later Abigail is back with z$2 million in her pocket. The ladies call it road patrol, they hoodwink the police by pretending to be hitchhiking and motorists stop to pick them up.
After dealing with her customer, Abigail looks at her watch it’s time to go to a nightclub. We enter the dimly lit bar and sit in the corner where we are later joined by her friends.
John, Abigail’s second customer of the night arrives. He is scanning the crowd looking for her. He comes to our table and Abigail quickly gives an introduction. She has already warned me: "He does not want me to talk to men."
John, clearly one of Zimbabwe’s nouveaux rich, pulls out a wad of Zimbabwe dollars and orders beers. "What car do you have today?" asks Abigail as John takes her out to conclude their business. Moments later Abigail is back with $5 million in her purse. "John says he is going to a funeral outside Harare, you never know maybe he has gone to another girlfriend," she complains.
Abigail and her friends share flats in the capital and take turns to bring their clients home. Their job has its risks. "Some clients refuse to use condoms and I charge extra money," says Abigail. "That is danger allowance," Anna chips in. But Florence disagrees: "Anyone who refuses a condom I will just say bye because dying of AIDS is painful."
Some clients try to cheat them. "What they do is give you the money here in the bar and take you to their homes. After sleeping with you they demand their money back. If I am going to a client’s home I will leave the money he has given me to a friend," says Anna the veteran leader of the group.
Debra admits: "I will never go to a client’s home again. One day I went with a certain man to one of Harare’s posh suburbs and he paid me good money. Then around 3 a.m. he told me to go. I said: ‘how can I go at this hour?’ and the man said his wife could come home at any time."
Abigail recalls an incident with a jealous wife. "One Saturday my other boyfriend decided to take me for a braai. The car had a puncture so the boyfriend removed the wheel to have it mended. His wife, I don’t know where she came from parked her car beside his and asked me what I was doing in her husband’s car. She grabbed my collar and I removed my stiletto heels and bashed her head. When the husband came she was bleeding," she adds: "He calmed her down but I was with him again the next day."
Debra takes a mirror from her handbag and begins to reapply her make-up. She tells me that it is in the late hours that the "big fish" with money come in. Anna boasts that she is in love with a top government official. "That guy pays, every time he comes from his overseas trips I am given foreign currency. Last month he gave me US$100, but he is very jealous. He does not want me to enter bars and says I should stay at home. I am not used to that," she says.
Debra is not in this business out of choice. She used to work in a supermarket but could not earn enough to support herself. Economic hardship forced her into a life of prostitution, now on a good week, especially at the end of the month she can earn an average of $40 million. "I was decently married," she says. "My husband was retrenched and he went to South Africa to look for a job and it’s now five years. He does not write letters or send money. I am looking after my three children. It’s difficult to stay with children when you are doing this business. So my children are in my rural home with my mother. Every month I go back to give the children groceries. I never wanted to be in this business." - All names have been changed to protect identities.
If we have meaning, we have life
BY DEBBIE JEANS
Having just returned from the fourth talk in London, together with Dr Ingrid Landman, it was time for soul-searching on where we have come and where we stand right now with regard to living in Zimbabwe. The 15-hour flight (we went via Lusaka to get fuel!) gave me time to analyse my thoughts and feelings - to bring them out into the open, to say what I honestly believe about our situation, our decision to stay and even to dare to think out loud about dreams for the future.
Ask us to talk on health, fitness or medical issues ... off we go with confidence in our subject, delivering with conviction, scientific hard facts and figures. Now having been asked to talk to Zimbabweans living outside, on issues of the heart (me) and head (Ingrid) and suddenly we are faced with our core values, stripped of the guises of daily commitments, families to keep us busy or work and social callings which are all too easy to hide behind.
There is the reality in economic terms - horrific. The AIDS stats, the orphans, the tragedy of millions who struggle daily to do what needs to be done to feed the children. Then the brain drain, the broken hearts who are forced to leave the land of their birth, the broken spirits who still live here and strive against overwhelming odds to just "be". And, of course, the irritating and infuriating power cuts, water cuts .... passport queues and the unbelievable demands of simply trying to run a business or keep a job.
Yet, time and again, throughout history it is at moments such as these that we, as human beings, are at our best. Dr Victor Frankel, survivor of four concentration camps, a psychiatrist and neurologist, had the opportunity to study his own obscene situation from within and without. His conclusion was that when we are stripped of all the material, physical and social comforts in life, we are left with the big question: "Who am I, what am I and why am I?"
Ultimately, it comes down to this: if a person has meaning, s/he has hope and s/he has life. When we have to struggle towards a freely chosen goal, we are driven to verbalizing the word "love". In other words, we have to act, to put our own needs aside to ensure the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual growth of another human being, a neighbour, a child, a relative, a friend, a countryman worse off than ourselves. The simple law of nature dictates that this is the only way we can self actualise and become who and what we were meant to be!
In today's first world or in what many of us would describe as the "perfect world" the situation is so imperfect that as much as 60% of clinical depression can be traced to an intrinsic lack of meaning in life! Frankel calls it the "existential vacuum." We may try to disguise this emptiness in the depths of our soul by applying social "band-aids" to our lives in the form of an excess of activities which give us an instant gratification or "high". Material comforts, money, pleasure seeking, shopping, gambling, and any excessive behaviour which keeps us from stopping for a quiet minute to look "inside and deep down."
We try to keep busy, but at the end of the day, and certainly at the end of our lives, we are hit by the tidal wave of that spiritual vacuum. In this chapter of Zimbabwe’s history, this is what I believe we have learned. Our children have seen how we struggle, how we come together to help each other in order to give them a fighting chance. By constantly taking the pain from the past and learning from it, we are passing on the lessons to the next generation. That they may take the baton and move Zim to a higher, healthier and happier place in the future.
Twenty six years have seen two generations of Zimbabweans. Regardless of ourselves and our persuasions, the universal laws and principles apply. Principles of life do not take sides, cannot be "used" and cannot be changed. When we live in accordance with them, we are at peace with ourselves and on purpose with our path. When we live against them, sooner or later we die - morally, ethically, spiritually, emotionally. We become consumed by the disparity and the dark side takes over. We eventually self-destruct.
Never doubt the principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, human dignity, service or contribution and spiritual growth. So make the difference. Stick your neck out, bend down to lift a fallen kindred soul, carry the ones who are too weary to continue. We hold the future in our hands, our hearts and our ability to respond to every moment in a way that builds, upholds, uplifts and supports what is right, good and God's way; no matter the personal pain or discomfort.
Brain drain gathers pace: Employers can do little to keep skilled personnel when salaries constantly lag behind astronomic inflation rate.
HARARE - Amid Zimbabwe's deepening economic and political crisis, the country's skills base is shrinking fast in the face of an exodus that is wrecking its chances of future economic recovery.
The mass departure, mostly to the West and to South Africa and Botswana, has rendered ineffective efforts by both the government and the private sector to prop up the sick economy. Both have sunk billions of Zimbabwe dollars into new skills training - but most who complete the courses quickly depart for a better life elsewhere.
"Some 70 to 90 per cent of Zimbabwean university graduates are working outside the country," said Community Development and Women Affairs Minister Eunice Chitambira at a recent conference on labour migration. She said the heaviest losses were among teachers, doctors, nurses and pharmacists. Most health professionals head for the United Kingdom.
According to the Southern African Migration Project, funded by Canadian and British government aid, more than 50 per cent of skilled Zimbabweans surveyed said they intend emigrating either indefinitely or permanently.
More than four million Zimbabweans, just under a third of the population, have fled into exile since the country was plunged into deep economic and political crisis from 2000 onwards. Some 80 per cent of those who've remained are unemployed.
Figures obtained from the government's Central Statistical Office, CSO, suggest that among the general exodus, some 2600 highly skilled people left Zimbabwe between January and June this year. But employers and business analysts dispute the official figures, saying they are not a true reflection of the real situation. They note that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have streamed out of the country unofficially, especially into southern Africa, while others have left on the pretext of going on holiday, never to return.
According to the CSO, 540,000 locals officially travelled abroad last year compared to 375,000 in 2004, and analysts say a sizeable number of these people never returned.
John Mufukare, the executive director of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe, said the country's economic and political crisis was the major force fuelling the brain drain. Employers could do little to keep skilled personnel when salaries constantly lagged behind Zimbabwe's astronomic inflation rate, which surged to a record 1195 per cent in May and is predicted by the World Bank to hit the 2500 per cent mark next year.
"The figures of departing Zimbabweans, particularly the unofficial figures which are the real ones, are a barometer of the performance of the economy," said Mufukare.
While the public health sector has been the hardest hit by the brain drain, private businesses have also been badly affected. "Zimbabwe's human capital is simply draining away," said one economist.
An official at international courier service Federal Express, which handles visa applications of all prospective travellers to Britain, said the company had been inundated by thousands of applications. It is believed that more than 3000 Zimbabweans who entered Britain last year alone did not return to Zimbabwe, with most of them claiming to be attending schools in the UK.
Rugare, not his real name, a 26-year-old nurse working in London, said he uses an informal network of friends to send money home, "I rely on them because I do not have proper documentation." He says he sends the equivalent of a minimum of US$142 each month.
Rugare says he obtains three times the official rate on the black market, and there is no doubt that these remittances make the difference between extreme hunger and having food on the table for relatives still in Zimbabwe.
Officially, Zimbabwe is in dire need of any source of foreign exchange since the withdrawal of financial support by the International Monetary Fund. Desperate to tap funds held by some four or five million of its citizens in the diaspora, the Central Bank two years ago launched the Homelink money transfer system, offering favourable interest rates to exiles to remit money home through official channels.
But interest in the scheme has been lukewarm because the "preferential" rate remains far below what can be obtained on the black market, which has almost become the official dealing medium. When Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank governor, visited South Africa to explain to Zimbabwean exiles the Homelink system he was shouted down at meeting after meeting. One exile, Joshua Rusere, said, "To add salt to injury, Mugabe sends his messenger to ask me to send my money to bankroll his regime when its policies drove me into exile."
There has been a mass exodus of white Zimbabweans, who once numbered nearly 300,000. According to the last census in 2002, there were just 46,743 remaining whites: 10,000 of these were aged 65 or more, and fewer than 9000 were under 15. - IWPR
Zim’s first all-women band
HARARE - Amakohsikazi is Zimbabwe’s first all-women band, put together by the Amakhosi Township Square Cultural Centre (TSCC) under the Women In Arts Project. Besides instrument playing, singing and dancing, the Women In Arts Project combines sound engineering, stage designing and more technical aspects of music. It is a calculated attempt by women to walk into the male-dominated technical fields of arts.
Most arts organizations and musicians don’t give women a chance, believing women are only good as dancing flowers. Amakhosikazi has already released an album, Ukuthandana, and another one is coming. They have toured nationally and are waiting for their break internationally.
Initially the plan was to group together experienced musicians but no one responded to the advert. Amakhosi therefore had to start from scratch teaching the women to play all the instruments.
"Women have been sidelined for a long time making it difficult for them to come out fully and participate in music," said one of the tutors.
Since then, the group has grown in strength and is now celebrated in local music circles. In an age that specializes in digital music, they are one of the few leaders in terms of live music. They recently took part in the launch of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF), backed South African mega star Yvonne Chaka Chaka at the Sports Diner in Harare.
The challenges they have faced include family problems, as they have to raise their families. They also have financial problems and need instruments to practice at home as individuals. Own correspondent
Words tool for liberation
JOHANNESBURG - With words ablaze and dropped jaws the grassroots poetry caravan hit Johannesburg last month. The Heart of Africa and Free Your Mind Publishing, with support from the University of Maryland, conducted a week-long poetry tour of Johannesburg, Soweto, Vaal Triangle and many other townships.
The tour featured two of the USA’s leading spoken word artists, Omi Kongo and Umeleni, top South African poets and Zimbabwe’s own Comrade Fatso. Workshops were lead by the artists, who have all faced obstacles and injustices as youth in the US and Africa.
In addition to teaching the prepared curriculum the touring poets shared their own experiences as testament to the fact that the performance arts can serve as a life preserver in even the bleakest of times. The word will be used as a tool for liberation
Comrade Fatso (Samm Farai Monro) is one of Zimbabwe’s most popular poets, combining poetry with the struggle for freedom. The grassroots poetry caravan included workshops for disadvantaged school children, community performances and outrageous poetry concerts.
The Streets
Walkin’ the streets everyday
No job, no pay
From City to Msasa
Zvikanzi ‘Hapana basa’
How would you feel
If you got a raw deal
No school, no university
No job, no opportunity
Let them come down here
See what it’s like year after year
They put on their cocoa butter
While we spread out in the gutter
Ivovo vane dzimba
Isusu tine Chapomba
Ivovo vanoenda ku Stars
Isusu tinoatengesa
We try to hustle
They call us criminal
We sell drugs
They call us thugs
Asi we struggling to get by
While they sit high in the sky
These Borrowdale crooks, High class tsotsis
Give us dirty looks but they real thieves
They live in comfort ‘cause of our sweat
They live in credit ‘cause of our debt
They drive pajeros and live in luxury
Thanks to the povo thanks to the misery
Asi inzwa ka shamwari
They are few, we are many
Vari madhara, Tiri ma youth
‘Cause the rot can never stop the truth!
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Mutambara goes home
MUTARE - Arthur Mutambara, leader of the pro-Senate faction of the MDC, held a thunderous home-coming rally, punctuated by song, dance and ululation from a crowd that included traditional leaders from the Mutambara clan at the weekend, according to the party’s spokesman.
The rally, held at Nedziwa Business Centre, was attended by the party’s entire senior leadership.
"The Mutambara clan, represented by eight traditional leaders, set the tone for the colourful occasion by performing traditional rituals as they sought to give their son, guidance, moral and spiritual send-off into the world of politics as the MDC leader and the possible messiah who will redeem the people of Zimbabwe out of the socio-political quagmire from which it has been plunged by the Mugabe government," said the spokesman.
Mutambara told the gathering his party would not take away land from the people but would institute a land audit to determine whether the land that was allocated was being productively used to benefit the entire nation.
He also spoke about the split in the MDC, which he said was a necessary evil that had exposed the party’s weaknesses, and said the MDC was ready to fight and defeat Zanu (PF) and create a new democratic government to free the people of Zimbabwe from Mugabe’s tyrannical rule. Staff reporter
Editorial: We salute WOZA and MOZA
This week those incredibly brave women of WOZA were arrested yet again together with their babies and some male supporters. They have been arrested every time they have taken to the streets to prod our consciences about the various issues that bedevil our society.
WOZA has demonstrated on issues that need to be debated and addressed issues such as the astronomical rise in school fees, a new constitution for Zimbabwe, housing, peace, the economy. In fact - all the bread and butter issues that effect ordinary people. And every time the government has mercilessly manhandled them into jail.
Young and old, the women together in many cases with suckling babies and toddlers have been beaten, thrown into prison, denied sanitation, food and water, medical treatment and access to their lawyers.
But they keep coming back for more. They never give up. They even offer themselves for arrest in solidarity with other members, knowing full well the inhuman conditions under which they will be held in filthy, lice-infested, stinking cells, sleeping on concrete floors with no blankets, hungry and thirsty.
We salute these women and are delighted that the men of Zimbabwe, not to be outdone, have at last risen to take their place beside them. For too long, men have taken a back seat while the brunt of Mugabe’s wrath has fallen upon these women.
Thus we salute, too, the formation of MOZA. May their courage match that of WOZA and may they persevere until victory is ours.
Word for Today
Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. - Habakkuk 3;17
Deep water
An editorial in the Tablet, an international Catholic weekly published in the UK, comments on the absence of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland this year during the annual marching season (July); ‘gradually the old hatreds seem to be diminishing.’ The divisions in the province go very deep but it seems slow but huge progress is being made in healing the rifts of centuries.
And in South Africa people are reflecting on the amazing events that transformed their country from a rigidly divided society into one where freedom and democracy are enshrined in a new order. These are truly extraordinary achievements and in the gloom surrounding Lebanon it is good to know that people can come together and recognize their common humanity.
But they have had to go deep to reach this point of reconciliation. At one point in his mission Jesus tells his followers, ‘put out into deep water’ (Luke 5: 4). It may be a good fishing tactic but it also has symbolic meaning. Sometimes a person has to reach deep within to find the courage to reconcile. There is a passage in Antjie Krog’s book on the South African Truth Commission hearings, Country of My Skull, where an elite Afrikaner policeman, Col. Roelf Venter, one of the notorious Vlaklplaas Five, reaches into these depths:
‘Then I was not sorry because I thought it was right. Now I know that it was wrong and I regret my deeds.’ This sounds very ordinary, but according to psychiatrists Venter has made a very difficult and crucial leap with this statement allowing for a space where change is possible: then it was right now it is wrong. What makes this a psychological breakthrough is that it is almost impossible to acknowledge that the central truth around which your life has been built is a lie. At the risk of the disintegration of your self-image, you would rather keep on denying any wrongdoing.
What makes this account so moving is that Krog, obviously a deeply sensitive and courageous Afrikaner herself, realizes that she has ‘more in common with the Vlakplaas Five’ than with those who tried to excuse themselves saying, ‘we never knew …’
Bitter conflicts show starkly the divisions in humanity and there are countless other lesser ones that are not so clear. There is a danger of glossing over these and leaving their resolution to others. ‘It is not my business.’ Yet it has been said many times, by many prophets and in many different ways: where some are in thrall all are in thrall. This comes home to us in Zimbabwe today. We are a divided society and we need to go deep to discover what is common to us all. Now we prefer old prejudices that shield us from looking into ourselves. But one day it will all be clear. Why not today?
A night with Harare’s working sisters
BY ALEXIO RASHIRAI
It is Friday, 9 pm and Abigail is standing on the side of the road wearing a skin tight skirt, cunningly designed to expose the maximum amount of thigh. A Toyota land cruiser screeches to a halt beside her and a man snaps off the ignition. As the car shivers into silence, the haggling begins. Twenty minutes later Abigail is back with z$2 million in her pocket. The ladies call it road patrol, they hoodwink the police by pretending to be hitchhiking and motorists stop to pick them up.
After dealing with her customer, Abigail looks at her watch it’s time to go to a nightclub. We enter the dimly lit bar and sit in the corner where we are later joined by her friends.
John, Abigail’s second customer of the night arrives. He is scanning the crowd looking for her. He comes to our table and Abigail quickly gives an introduction. She has already warned me: "He does not want me to talk to men."
John, clearly one of Zimbabwe’s nouveaux rich, pulls out a wad of Zimbabwe dollars and orders beers. "What car do you have today?" asks Abigail as John takes her out to conclude their business. Moments later Abigail is back with $5 million in her purse. "John says he is going to a funeral outside Harare, you never know maybe he has gone to another girlfriend," she complains.
Abigail and her friends share flats in the capital and take turns to bring their clients home. Their job has its risks. "Some clients refuse to use condoms and I charge extra money," says Abigail. "That is danger allowance," Anna chips in. But Florence disagrees: "Anyone who refuses a condom I will just say bye because dying of AIDS is painful."
Some clients try to cheat them. "What they do is give you the money here in the bar and take you to their homes. After sleeping with you they demand their money back. If I am going to a client’s home I will leave the money he has given me to a friend," says Anna the veteran leader of the group.
Debra admits: "I will never go to a client’s home again. One day I went with a certain man to one of Harare’s posh suburbs and he paid me good money. Then around 3 a.m. he told me to go. I said: ‘how can I go at this hour?’ and the man said his wife could come home at any time."
Abigail recalls an incident with a jealous wife. "One Saturday my other boyfriend decided to take me for a braai. The car had a puncture so the boyfriend removed the wheel to have it mended. His wife, I don’t know where she came from parked her car beside his and asked me what I was doing in her husband’s car. She grabbed my collar and I removed my stiletto heels and bashed her head. When the husband came she was bleeding," she adds: "He calmed her down but I was with him again the next day."
Debra takes a mirror from her handbag and begins to reapply her make-up. She tells me that it is in the late hours that the "big fish" with money come in. Anna boasts that she is in love with a top government official. "That guy pays, every time he comes from his overseas trips I am given foreign currency. Last month he gave me US$100, but he is very jealous. He does not want me to enter bars and says I should stay at home. I am not used to that," she says.
Debra is not in this business out of choice. She used to work in a supermarket but could not earn enough to support herself. Economic hardship forced her into a life of prostitution, now on a good week, especially at the end of the month she can earn an average of $40 million. "I was decently married," she says. "My husband was retrenched and he went to South Africa to look for a job and it’s now five years. He does not write letters or send money. I am looking after my three children. It’s difficult to stay with children when you are doing this business. So my children are in my rural home with my mother. Every month I go back to give the children groceries. I never wanted to be in this business." - All names have been changed to protect identities.
If we have meaning, we have life
BY DEBBIE JEANS
Having just returned from the fourth talk in London, together with Dr Ingrid Landman, it was time for soul-searching on where we have come and where we stand right now with regard to living in Zimbabwe. The 15-hour flight (we went via Lusaka to get fuel!) gave me time to analyse my thoughts and feelings - to bring them out into the open, to say what I honestly believe about our situation, our decision to stay and even to dare to think out loud about dreams for the future.
Ask us to talk on health, fitness or medical issues ... off we go with confidence in our subject, delivering with conviction, scientific hard facts and figures. Now having been asked to talk to Zimbabweans living outside, on issues of the heart (me) and head (Ingrid) and suddenly we are faced with our core values, stripped of the guises of daily commitments, families to keep us busy or work and social callings which are all too easy to hide behind.
There is the reality in economic terms - horrific. The AIDS stats, the orphans, the tragedy of millions who struggle daily to do what needs to be done to feed the children. Then the brain drain, the broken hearts who are forced to leave the land of their birth, the broken spirits who still live here and strive against overwhelming odds to just "be". And, of course, the irritating and infuriating power cuts, water cuts .... passport queues and the unbelievable demands of simply trying to run a business or keep a job.
Yet, time and again, throughout history it is at moments such as these that we, as human beings, are at our best. Dr Victor Frankel, survivor of four concentration camps, a psychiatrist and neurologist, had the opportunity to study his own obscene situation from within and without. His conclusion was that when we are stripped of all the material, physical and social comforts in life, we are left with the big question: "Who am I, what am I and why am I?"
Ultimately, it comes down to this: if a person has meaning, s/he has hope and s/he has life. When we have to struggle towards a freely chosen goal, we are driven to verbalizing the word "love". In other words, we have to act, to put our own needs aside to ensure the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual growth of another human being, a neighbour, a child, a relative, a friend, a countryman worse off than ourselves. The simple law of nature dictates that this is the only way we can self actualise and become who and what we were meant to be!
In today's first world or in what many of us would describe as the "perfect world" the situation is so imperfect that as much as 60% of clinical depression can be traced to an intrinsic lack of meaning in life! Frankel calls it the "existential vacuum." We may try to disguise this emptiness in the depths of our soul by applying social "band-aids" to our lives in the form of an excess of activities which give us an instant gratification or "high". Material comforts, money, pleasure seeking, shopping, gambling, and any excessive behaviour which keeps us from stopping for a quiet minute to look "inside and deep down."
We try to keep busy, but at the end of the day, and certainly at the end of our lives, we are hit by the tidal wave of that spiritual vacuum. In this chapter of Zimbabwe’s history, this is what I believe we have learned. Our children have seen how we struggle, how we come together to help each other in order to give them a fighting chance. By constantly taking the pain from the past and learning from it, we are passing on the lessons to the next generation. That they may take the baton and move Zim to a higher, healthier and happier place in the future.
Twenty six years have seen two generations of Zimbabweans. Regardless of ourselves and our persuasions, the universal laws and principles apply. Principles of life do not take sides, cannot be "used" and cannot be changed. When we live in accordance with them, we are at peace with ourselves and on purpose with our path. When we live against them, sooner or later we die - morally, ethically, spiritually, emotionally. We become consumed by the disparity and the dark side takes over. We eventually self-destruct.
Never doubt the principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, human dignity, service or contribution and spiritual growth. So make the difference. Stick your neck out, bend down to lift a fallen kindred soul, carry the ones who are too weary to continue. We hold the future in our hands, our hearts and our ability to respond to every moment in a way that builds, upholds, uplifts and supports what is right, good and God's way; no matter the personal pain or discomfort.
Brain drain gathers pace: Employers can do little to keep skilled personnel when salaries constantly lag behind astronomic inflation rate.
HARARE - Amid Zimbabwe's deepening economic and political crisis, the country's skills base is shrinking fast in the face of an exodus that is wrecking its chances of future economic recovery.
The mass departure, mostly to the West and to South Africa and Botswana, has rendered ineffective efforts by both the government and the private sector to prop up the sick economy. Both have sunk billions of Zimbabwe dollars into new skills training - but most who complete the courses quickly depart for a better life elsewhere.
"Some 70 to 90 per cent of Zimbabwean university graduates are working outside the country," said Community Development and Women Affairs Minister Eunice Chitambira at a recent conference on labour migration. She said the heaviest losses were among teachers, doctors, nurses and pharmacists. Most health professionals head for the United Kingdom.
According to the Southern African Migration Project, funded by Canadian and British government aid, more than 50 per cent of skilled Zimbabweans surveyed said they intend emigrating either indefinitely or permanently.
More than four million Zimbabweans, just under a third of the population, have fled into exile since the country was plunged into deep economic and political crisis from 2000 onwards. Some 80 per cent of those who've remained are unemployed.
Figures obtained from the government's Central Statistical Office, CSO, suggest that among the general exodus, some 2600 highly skilled people left Zimbabwe between January and June this year. But employers and business analysts dispute the official figures, saying they are not a true reflection of the real situation. They note that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have streamed out of the country unofficially, especially into southern Africa, while others have left on the pretext of going on holiday, never to return.
According to the CSO, 540,000 locals officially travelled abroad last year compared to 375,000 in 2004, and analysts say a sizeable number of these people never returned.
John Mufukare, the executive director of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe, said the country's economic and political crisis was the major force fuelling the brain drain. Employers could do little to keep skilled personnel when salaries constantly lagged behind Zimbabwe's astronomic inflation rate, which surged to a record 1195 per cent in May and is predicted by the World Bank to hit the 2500 per cent mark next year.
"The figures of departing Zimbabweans, particularly the unofficial figures which are the real ones, are a barometer of the performance of the economy," said Mufukare.
While the public health sector has been the hardest hit by the brain drain, private businesses have also been badly affected. "Zimbabwe's human capital is simply draining away," said one economist.
An official at international courier service Federal Express, which handles visa applications of all prospective travellers to Britain, said the company had been inundated by thousands of applications. It is believed that more than 3000 Zimbabweans who entered Britain last year alone did not return to Zimbabwe, with most of them claiming to be attending schools in the UK.
Rugare, not his real name, a 26-year-old nurse working in London, said he uses an informal network of friends to send money home, "I rely on them because I do not have proper documentation." He says he sends the equivalent of a minimum of US$142 each month.
Rugare says he obtains three times the official rate on the black market, and there is no doubt that these remittances make the difference between extreme hunger and having food on the table for relatives still in Zimbabwe.
Officially, Zimbabwe is in dire need of any source of foreign exchange since the withdrawal of financial support by the International Monetary Fund. Desperate to tap funds held by some four or five million of its citizens in the diaspora, the Central Bank two years ago launched the Homelink money transfer system, offering favourable interest rates to exiles to remit money home through official channels.
But interest in the scheme has been lukewarm because the "preferential" rate remains far below what can be obtained on the black market, which has almost become the official dealing medium. When Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank governor, visited South Africa to explain to Zimbabwean exiles the Homelink system he was shouted down at meeting after meeting. One exile, Joshua Rusere, said, "To add salt to injury, Mugabe sends his messenger to ask me to send my money to bankroll his regime when its policies drove me into exile."
There has been a mass exodus of white Zimbabweans, who once numbered nearly 300,000. According to the last census in 2002, there were just 46,743 remaining whites: 10,000 of these were aged 65 or more, and fewer than 9000 were under 15. - IWPR
Zim’s first all-women band
HARARE - Amakohsikazi is Zimbabwe’s first all-women band, put together by the Amakhosi Township Square Cultural Centre (TSCC) under the Women In Arts Project. Besides instrument playing, singing and dancing, the Women In Arts Project combines sound engineering, stage designing and more technical aspects of music. It is a calculated attempt by women to walk into the male-dominated technical fields of arts.
Most arts organizations and musicians don’t give women a chance, believing women are only good as dancing flowers. Amakhosikazi has already released an album, Ukuthandana, and another one is coming. They have toured nationally and are waiting for their break internationally.
Initially the plan was to group together experienced musicians but no one responded to the advert. Amakhosi therefore had to start from scratch teaching the women to play all the instruments.
"Women have been sidelined for a long time making it difficult for them to come out fully and participate in music," said one of the tutors.
Since then, the group has grown in strength and is now celebrated in local music circles. In an age that specializes in digital music, they are one of the few leaders in terms of live music. They recently took part in the launch of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival (ZIFF), backed South African mega star Yvonne Chaka Chaka at the Sports Diner in Harare.
The challenges they have faced include family problems, as they have to raise their families. They also have financial problems and need instruments to practice at home as individuals. Own correspondent
Words tool for liberation
JOHANNESBURG - With words ablaze and dropped jaws the grassroots poetry caravan hit Johannesburg last month. The Heart of Africa and Free Your Mind Publishing, with support from the University of Maryland, conducted a week-long poetry tour of Johannesburg, Soweto, Vaal Triangle and many other townships.
The tour featured two of the USA’s leading spoken word artists, Omi Kongo and Umeleni, top South African poets and Zimbabwe’s own Comrade Fatso. Workshops were lead by the artists, who have all faced obstacles and injustices as youth in the US and Africa.
In addition to teaching the prepared curriculum the touring poets shared their own experiences as testament to the fact that the performance arts can serve as a life preserver in even the bleakest of times. The word will be used as a tool for liberation
Comrade Fatso (Samm Farai Monro) is one of Zimbabwe’s most popular poets, combining poetry with the struggle for freedom. The grassroots poetry caravan included workshops for disadvantaged school children, community performances and outrageous poetry concerts.
The Streets
Walkin’ the streets everyday
No job, no pay
From City to Msasa
Zvikanzi ‘Hapana basa’
How would you feel
If you got a raw deal
No school, no university
No job, no opportunity
Let them come down here
See what it’s like year after year
They put on their cocoa butter
While we spread out in the gutter
Ivovo vane dzimba
Isusu tine Chapomba
Ivovo vanoenda ku Stars
Isusu tinoatengesa
We try to hustle
They call us criminal
We sell drugs
They call us thugs
Asi we struggling to get by
While they sit high in the sky
These Borrowdale crooks, High class tsotsis
Give us dirty looks but they real thieves
They live in comfort ‘cause of our sweat
They live in credit ‘cause of our debt
They drive pajeros and live in luxury
Thanks to the povo thanks to the misery
Asi inzwa ka shamwari
They are few, we are many
Vari madhara, Tiri ma youth
‘Cause the rot can never stop the truth!
The Zimbabwean News
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Prepare to be arrested - Tsvangirai
BY GIFT PHIRI
MATOBO - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday urged rural Zimbabweans in a dirt-poor settlement in Matobo to heed calls to join the planned biggest anti-government protests since independence to end President Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian grip on power and address the country’s deep political, economic and social crises.
The MDC leader said the opposition party was ready to roll out mass protests and that the leadership had “adequately consulted the length and breadth of the country.”
The leadership of the opposition party was expected to meet “soon” to review progress on the planned mass action and decide on the next phase of the protests.
Tsvangirai told his supporters in Matobo that he could not disclose the party’s finer plans for the mass protest, saying “appropriate structures are going to inform you on the nature and form of the Save Our Country Campaign.”
He said “everything is now ready” adding “communication mechanisms are being finalized.”
Party insiders said the MDC was working on “comprehensive measures” to confront Zanu (PF). They, however, did not indicate what measures the opposition party was planning to take.
But Tsvangirai said his party was not going to be “stampeded into action” by President Mugabe and his government “who want a hasty programme so that they could butcher innocent citizens for daring to express themselves.”
Tsvangirai said a critical mass of people was needed to dismantle the Mugabe’s dictatorship.
“We want to embark on democracy marches in every town and every workplace,”
he said. “We must be prepared to be arrested. We must be prepared to make a mark to
ensure that we will never again be oppressed.”
Mugabe warned during a Defence Forces commemoration speech last week against attempts to overthrow him through mass protests saying security agents would deal with “mischief-makers” and that soldiers will be given instructions to turn their guns on protesters.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces has issued a statement threatening to attack
the MDC, and war veterans have said they will pulverise the opposition protests.
Political analysts said the outcome of the protests will either leave Zimbabwe close to change or as a reinforced bastion of tyranny.
Mutasa threatens prosecutor
HARARE – The Zanu (PF) hierarchy’s stranglehold of terror on Zimbabwe’s judiciary was highlight once again last week when Manicaland’s Area Prosecutor, Levison Chikafu, alleged he had been threatened by party heavies.
Zanu’s near-total destruction of the rule of law in Zimbabwe has, for almost a decade, put party officials and their sidekicks above the law. In the past, judges were mostly on the receiving end of the party thugs’ terror tactics. Several fled the country, others were arrested and forced to quit.
This month, not a single magistrate could be found in Manicaland brave enough to hear the corruption trial of justice minister Patrick Chinamasa. And now even the prosecutor has refused to present his final arguments in the case, because state security minister Didymus Mutasa has sued him for libel.
Informed observers say the Z$100 million lawsuit has no chance of succeeding as Mutasa is attempting to sue Chikafu for statements made in a court of law, which is subject to privilege (and therefore exempt from libel). However Mutasa is pressing ahead, in what observers say is intimidation.
Chinamasa is accused of trying to intimidate or coerce witnesses from giving evidence in a separate trial of public violence charges against Mutasa’s supporters dating back to 2002.
Mutasa’s lawyer Gerald Mlothswa has apparently given Chikafu an August 18 deadline to retract the alleged defamatory statements or face the lawsuit. The prosecutor was quoted by the media as saying Mutasa was a powerful person whose wings must be clipped. “The fact that he has not been brought to trial does not mean that he is not coming,” he is alleged to have said.
Constitutional law expert Dr Lovemore Madhuku told Newsreel that the timing of Mutasa’s lawsuit was clearly designed to put pressure on the prosecutor before Chinamasa’s trial ended. He slammed the suit as an abuse of the courts saying even the lawyers involved knew it had little chance of success. – Own correspondent/Lance Guma, SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe Vigil Diary 19th August 2006
LONDON - Another big turnout to draw attention to the worsening situation in Zimbabwe. 88 people signed the register and no doubt there were some people who did not sign in. This made it one of the biggest Vigils in our four years exceeded only by those where demonstrations were held to mark special occasions. Our records show that on the same Saturday two years ago we had 43 people - so something is happening. When we joined hands in a circle to sing the national anthem at the end we took up the whole piazza outside the Embassy. Passers-by were magnetised. Some of them even joined the circle while others snapped away with their cameras.
We managed to avert a threatened downpour at the start by rushing to put up our tarpaulin when a few drops fell….. to be followed by a balmy afternoon. We were pleased to have many first-timers - some of them asylum seekers dispersed around the country and keen to be active but they are hampered by a lack of money to travel to London and no information about local organised groups. We try to put them in touch with others where they live hopefully if they meet other activists in their area they could start similar vigils as the one in Bristol. They can certainly rely on our help.
Wellington from Free-Zim Youth in Brighton told the Vigil of their new initiative to set up a meeting with the South African Embassy to discuss South Africa’s attitude to Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean refugees. They are waiting for agreement on a date at the end of September. They plan to have a demonstration outside the South African embassy ahead of the meeting, which we will certainly support.
We have evidence that the Zimbabwean is read avidly at the Embassy - a staff member we happen to know came by and asked for four copies.
For your information, local authorities in the UK are now updating their electoral registers. Believe it or not Zimbabweans are allowed to vote as members of the Commonwealth, even though Zimbabwe withdrew several years ago. (The British Government has yet to change the relevant legislation.) Wherever you are living you should consider being put on the register so that you can vote in both parliamentary and local elections. This will give you an opportunity to put pressure on your MP and Councillors. (Surprisingly we are in a more privileged position than residents from other EU countries, who cannot vote in parliamentary elections here.)
For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
REMINDER: Monday 28th August no Zimbabwe Forum because it is a public holiday.
Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association
LONDON - Confusion about the issue of removals is swirling round the Zimbabwean community. Rumours of huge numbers of asylum seekers being removed before Christmas seem to have as much substance as the claims of a bumper harvest in Zimbabwe this year. Practically speaking and from past experience even when removals are in full force it is unlikely that more than ten Zimbabweans will be removed per week.
To put things in perspective the ZA has heard of one more Zimbabwean being detained recently. The person held a Malawian passport and was out of detention within three days because incorrect procedures had been followed concerning the removal (to Malawi). The total number of Zimbabweans in detention known to us at this time is less than ten.
As stressed Zimbabweans consider their next moves, we urge you not to be panicked into parting with large sums of money for legal help. All lawyers and registered legal representatives are required to tell you of the existence of legal aid and who is entitled to it. Paying someone is no guarantee that your case can be won. If you cannot get a lawyer with a legal aid franchise to take on your case, it may be best to consider paying for one hour as a private client with one of the top immigration firms in London. The cost would be approx £60 and for this you would get an accurate and reliable assessment of what is possible regarding your case. If your case has merit and you are eligible for legal aid, it may then be possible to be taken on by them as a legal aid client. If you have the funds to sign up with a private firm please check that the firm has a good reputation.
Be warned that some Zimbabweans who have been caught working on fraudulent documents have been given prison sentences of up to six months. At the end of their sentences they have been served with Deportation Orders. It is possible to appeal against these orders, but if you are removed under a Deportation Order you are prohibited from returning to the UK.
The Travel Fund for the Open Forum III which ZA is administering is only open to people travelling from within the UK.
To conclude, the ZA would like to express its sadness at the sudden death of Donald who gave us so much support and assistance over the years in a quiet and understated way. We greatly appreciated his help.
We can be contacted at the office on 020 7549 0355 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, messages may be left on the answer machine at other times, or by fax 020 7549 0356 or email: zimbabweassociation@yahoo.co.uk.
ADVICE LINE: Wednesday 2 5 pm
Asylum queries: 13 September
Support queries: 30 August, 27 September
Mkapa to negotiate exit plan?
BY GIFT PHIRI
HARARE - Former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa is to visit President Robert Mugabe in the next few weeks to work out an exit plan for the ageing leader.
Mugabe hinted soon after landing from Maseru from the SADC summit on Saturday that he was considering stepping down because the land issue had been dealt with. He said there was nothing wrong with people openly debating succession, 19 months prior to the end of his current term.
The Zimbabwean has learnt that an agreement was reached to reschedule a meeting between Mkapa and Mugabe to discuss the matter. The new date has not yet been set.
High-ranking officials said Mkapa wanted to "keep the momentum going" following Mugabe’s "very positive signals last week."
Among other issues, the leaders are to work out a "safe exit plan" and immunity from prosecution for alleged human rights abuses committed during Mugabe's 26-year rule.
Mugabe is said to be particularly worried about the Matabeleland massacres during the 1980s.
The President is said to have made his first direct indication that he wants to retire at the SADC summit last week.
He was quoted in the official press in Lesotho saying: "We are getting to a stage where we shall say fine, we settled this matter (land reform) and people can retire."
Zanu (PF) sources say Mugabe is anxious about the repercussions of his departure.
"He wants to leave but his personal security fears, the fate of his family and property, his party's simmering succession problem . . . are his main obstacles," a senior party source said.
Local human rights groups have also been fuelling his apprehension by calling for his prosecution. And main opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says Mugabe’s personal security, after he relinquishes power, can only be guaranteed in the context of a negotiated settlement of the Zimbabwe crisis.
Meanwhile, Mugabe has denounced "clandestine groupings" manoeuvring to take over. He said he was aware that his lieutenants were looking beyond him and plotting for a final assault on power. Retired army general Solomon Mujuru and party heavyweight Emmerson Mnangagwa are seen as the key individuals heading the rival factions.
BULAWAYO - Thousands of villagers on Monday stormed commercial banks and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) offices to exchange old currency for new money ahead of deadline by end of business.
The RBZ gave Zimbabweans up to August 21 to hand in old bearer cheques in exchange for new ones as part of sweeping currency reforms that also included a 60 percent devaluation of the local dollar. The new bearer cheques have less zeroes after the central bank slashed three zeroes from every banknote as part of the currency reforms.
"The RBZ mobile team operating from Gokwe was overwhelmed by the number of people exchanging the old currency and I had no option except to travel to Bulawayo to change the money," said a woman who only identified herself as Mai Chipo, explaining why she had travelled hundreds of kilometres from Gokwe to exchange her money in Bulawayo.
Other villagers said they had had to travel to Bulawayo because the RBZ's mobile teams operating in their areas were refusing to change amounts in excess of $10 million in old currency.
Sources in the towns of Gwanda, Hwange, Plumtree, Beitbridge and Lupane - all dotted across the vast Matabeleland region in the south-west of the country - told ZimOnline that hundreds of people last night slept in queues at banks and at temporary offices set up by the RBZ there as desperation crept in as the deadline to hand in old currency drew closer.
In Bulawayo, the RBZ office was open to members of the public on Saturday and Sunday but still did not manage to clear the long queues and hundreds of villagers slept in the queue outside the central bank's office hoping to be the first to be attended to when the bank opened for business on Monday.
"I own 10 public commuter omnibuses and over the weekend we were still accepting the old currency from customers and I came here early to exchange my weekend earnings for the new currency, the queues are very long but I have no option except to be patient," said Joseph Khumalo, who was at the RBZ office laden with canvass bags full of old money.
The same rush-hour panicking was visible in Zimbabwe's capital Harare where by mid-morning banks were full to the brim with depositors hurrying to literally dump their old cash in exchange for new money.
Some retail shops and public commuter operators in the capital city were reportedly refusing to accept old money, which however is still valid until midnight today.
A newspaper vendor who refused to accept old currency from a ZimOnline reporter said: "Why should I accept this old money when even the big supermarkets are refusing to accept it?" RBZ governor Gideon Gono has warned businesses and all financial
institutions to take old currency right up to the deadline but it appears the situation on ground is far different from what the central bank chief may be expecting to see. - ZimOnline
Fear the legacy of Murambatsvina
HARARE - Communities in Zimbabwe need to overcome their "accumulated fear of the government" if a way forward is to be found one year after Operation Murambatsvina according to a report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. The NGO sent a group of four delegates from different social movements in South Africa to Zimbabwe, to examine the situation one year after an estimated 700 000 people were made homeless by Operation Murambatsvina.
The delegates, Philani Zungu, Nopasika Mboto, Ellen Chauke and Siphiwe Segodi, met with various community groups all over the country during their 10-day visit. They felt that the most formidable challenge faced by Zimbabweans in the wake of Murambatsvina was to overcome the political divisions in the country. They said many people needed to accept the fact that the Operation affected everyone, regardless of their political affiliation. They urged an increase in unity among different communities in Zimbabwe and said that those outside the country needed to "build solidarity with ordinary Zimbabweans and embark on campaigns that will bring meaningful and lasting political and socio-economic change to Zimbabwe".
The report also highlighted the fact that, despite government reports, there was some resistance to Murambatsvina and people were still being driven away from the cleared areas. It stated that "Operation Garikari has only benefited those with political connections" and "individuals who were meant to benefit…have long been forgotten". Furthermore, the number of units built under Garikari only constitutes a mere 5% of the buildings destroyed during Murambatsvina.
As a result of this report, Zimbabwean Civil Society organisations in South Africa have drawn up a petition to be presented to the United Nations (UN). It urges the UN Secretary General to "inform the world of the unfolding genocide in Zimbabwe as a result of Operation Murambatsvina" and "exert pressure on the government of Zimbabwe to mediate with its own people rather some imagined forces outside Zimbabwe." Own correspondent
Engines and pump for Hwange
HWANGE - Hwange National Park has received two "very generous" donations of goods from Duncan Paul of Dunadventures and Rob Melville and Syd Kelly of Valverite in South Africa. The donations included two brand new engines and a monopump which will go a long way towards helping with the efficient running of the park.
Collecting the goods however, was not without its problems. "I am very reluctant to confess that I made two trips to South Africa to collect these spare parts because the first time I went, the parts were wrong and had to be returned," said Johnny Rodrigues, the Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. "This was easier said than done because it involved obtaining permission from the Reserve Bank and Zimra to export the goods back to South Africa," he said.
With the drop in tourism and the economy spiralling out of control, Hwange National Park has become increasingly dependent on donations from various individuals and companies to keep it running.
Rodrigues said he now had enough spare parts to get all of the pump engines up and running in Hwange. "The only cloud on the horizon is the shortage of fuel. We will have to ensure a steady flow of fuel to the park and we are trying to raise funds for this," he said. - KJW
State media’s Mission Impossible making Operation Sunrise look good
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
HARARE The state-run media tackled its latest mission impossible portraying the chopping of three zeroes off the currency as some kind of recipe for economic revival with a mixture of the ludicrous and censorship.
The degrading body searches at roadblocks for currency were naturally not regarded by the regime’s media as being an abuse of human rights and probably unconstitutional, but as all part of a successful cleanup of unidentified economic saboteurs.
Coverage by the private media, including the private electronic media, was in stark contrast with the usual exception of the Mirror group whose reporting of the economic chaos resembled that of the state-run media.
The private media "continued to question the usefulness of the government’s ad hoc economic measures which they projected as doomed unless the authorities resolved fundamental economic influences that had caused the economy to slide in the first place," the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said in its report covering August 7 13.
The Financial Gazette reported a planned challenge by civic organisations to the legality of the emergency powers used to search in at least one case to strip search people.
Studio 7 and the Zimbabwe Independent reported confusion and alarm over the phasing out of the old currency, particularly in rural areas where people cannot easily get to banks to change their money. Both also reported that state security agents had been placed on high alert for feat of riots as the deadline for exchanging the old currency approached.
"The government media censored these matters," noted MMPZ.
The private media also did not, like the state mouthpieces, view a marginal fall in inflation as a cause for celebration. Zimdaily accused Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono of trying to persuade the nation that Zimbabwe’s world-record inflation would drop to double digits by 2008 without mentioning that all the factors behind hyperinflation remain. This included, Zimdaily noted, the massive supplementary budget to be financed largely by printing more money, leading to even higher inflation.
The state media seized on the inflation drop and the money changeover, the so-called Operation Sunrise, with some pretty ridiculous stories, and carried no informed analysis. ZTV, Spot FM and Radio Zimbabwe in excitable stories, reported members of the public and analysts sensing "a sign of better things to come". ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe in Shona bulletins on August 10 also wrong translated the term inflation to mean firming of the Zimbabwe dollar.
ZBH epitomized the lopsided coverage that left its audiences aware of the things not even the state media can hide, such as shortages and the surging cost of living, and unaware of the causes or of the fact that zero-chopping on its own is the economic equivalent of a highway to nowhere.
For example, while the broadcaster projected members of the public as being delighted with Operation Sunrise and the searches, the people actually quoted gave the opposite view.
Different faces different times
HARARE - At an inter-church meeting an enthusiastic Christian reported how overwhelmed she was when she witnessed at the recent National Day of Prayer the head of state dedicating the country once more to God.
"We want to remind those that might turn on the state that we have armed men and women who carry guns and are allowed to pull the trigger on them," he said in a speech on Armed Forces Day last week. He said it in Shona. It was not part of his prepared speech. But he said it. How do you reconcile prayer with hate speech?
If he wants to go the way of dialogue he must stop using threatening language. If he continues to rely on guns there is no point in talking. He must make a decision: he cannot have it both ways.Both the president and his partners in dialogue need to be quite clear about this.
Furthermore: people critical of the present government are not enemies of the state. They are merely exercising their rights, indeed doing their duty as citizens. Even beginners in civic education know: governments change, the state remains. Soldiers serve the state, not the government of the day.
Elementary, isn’t it? Except in our beloved country. Commentary, In Touch Jesuit Communications
Zimbabwe will never be a colony again
BY MAGAISA IBENZI
WARD 12, PARIRENYATWA HOSPITAL, HARARE - I can’t for the life of me understand why Mugabe insists on having Benjamin Mkapa as his mediator with Britain.
I mean, if it was left to me I would use all the diplomatic channels that exist for example Zimbabwe has an ambassador in London who I am sure is in regular contact with the foreign Office and other members of the British government, while Britain has a very able and highly respected ambassador here in Harare.
Their jobs as ambassadors are to relay messages to their governments from their hosts. If our ambassador to London can’t be trusted to handle such a simple thing as passing messages to Tony Blair, then I think it is a waste of foreign currency to pay him and his staff to sit in London, twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do except read The Zimbabwean and watch the Zimbabwe Vigil supporters dancing outside their offices every Saturday afternoon.
In any case, the British have already said on several occasions that they don’t need a mediator (munyayi). What can Mkapa bring to the table where everybody else has failed? What magic wand does he possess that is going to make a difference this time? Mugabe himself has refused to talk to the MDC. He continues to denounce Tony Blair at every opportunity and yet says he wants to build bridges with Britain.
In fact, I hope he’s not intending to invite the British to come and re-colonise us. Why should they be involved in negotiating these things on our behalf. We are a sovereign state aren’t we? We need to solve our problems internally and then ask the international community to come and help us achieve our goals.
He has refused previous mediation efforts by even his own best man Joachim Chissano and UN secretary general Kofi Annan. And Thabo Mbeki has thrown in the towel after five years of fruitless attempts at quiet diplomacy, which did not help anybody not even Mugabe.
He repeatedly rejects the resolutions of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights always on a technicality, never on the substance.
Surely he must realise that there is something seriously wrong now that even his fellow despots in the African club of dictators are distancing themselves from him as evidenced at the recent SADC summit in Maseru. By all reports he cut a lonely figure there and left early in a rage. The UN, of course, understands that he is a basket case but doesn’t seem to be able to do anything about it.
Backed into a corner, Mugabe has done what he does best he has resorted to insulting his fellow African leaders, calling them cowards for not standing up to the West. He always plays the anti-imperialist card and let’s face it, so far, it has never let him down. Even Tony Blair has been cowed into ineffective silence and activity by Mugabe’s vociferous anti-imperialist rhetoric. I know that those close to Mugabe are terrified to tell him any home truths to his face because they are terrified of his response.
But I, Magaisa, am not terrified. I will openly tell Mugabe: what is needed in our country is the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, a new constitution leading to fresh elections, respect for human rights and the abolition of POSA and AIPPA. That’s it. Then we are on the road to recovery. I don’t see what Mkapa or Blair or anybody else can add to this. It’s so simple. Mugabe must talk to Zimbabweans not to the British.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
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P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Prepare to be arrested - Tsvangirai
BY GIFT PHIRI
MATOBO - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday urged rural Zimbabweans in a dirt-poor settlement in Matobo to heed calls to join the planned biggest anti-government protests since independence to end President Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian grip on power and address the country’s deep political, economic and social crises.
The MDC leader said the opposition party was ready to roll out mass protests and that the leadership had “adequately consulted the length and breadth of the country.”
The leadership of the opposition party was expected to meet “soon” to review progress on the planned mass action and decide on the next phase of the protests.
Tsvangirai told his supporters in Matobo that he could not disclose the party’s finer plans for the mass protest, saying “appropriate structures are going to inform you on the nature and form of the Save Our Country Campaign.”
He said “everything is now ready” adding “communication mechanisms are being finalized.”
Party insiders said the MDC was working on “comprehensive measures” to confront Zanu (PF). They, however, did not indicate what measures the opposition party was planning to take.
But Tsvangirai said his party was not going to be “stampeded into action” by President Mugabe and his government “who want a hasty programme so that they could butcher innocent citizens for daring to express themselves.”
Tsvangirai said a critical mass of people was needed to dismantle the Mugabe’s dictatorship.
“We want to embark on democracy marches in every town and every workplace,”
he said. “We must be prepared to be arrested. We must be prepared to make a mark to
ensure that we will never again be oppressed.”
Mugabe warned during a Defence Forces commemoration speech last week against attempts to overthrow him through mass protests saying security agents would deal with “mischief-makers” and that soldiers will be given instructions to turn their guns on protesters.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces has issued a statement threatening to attack
the MDC, and war veterans have said they will pulverise the opposition protests.
Political analysts said the outcome of the protests will either leave Zimbabwe close to change or as a reinforced bastion of tyranny.
Mutasa threatens prosecutor
HARARE – The Zanu (PF) hierarchy’s stranglehold of terror on Zimbabwe’s judiciary was highlight once again last week when Manicaland’s Area Prosecutor, Levison Chikafu, alleged he had been threatened by party heavies.
Zanu’s near-total destruction of the rule of law in Zimbabwe has, for almost a decade, put party officials and their sidekicks above the law. In the past, judges were mostly on the receiving end of the party thugs’ terror tactics. Several fled the country, others were arrested and forced to quit.
This month, not a single magistrate could be found in Manicaland brave enough to hear the corruption trial of justice minister Patrick Chinamasa. And now even the prosecutor has refused to present his final arguments in the case, because state security minister Didymus Mutasa has sued him for libel.
Informed observers say the Z$100 million lawsuit has no chance of succeeding as Mutasa is attempting to sue Chikafu for statements made in a court of law, which is subject to privilege (and therefore exempt from libel). However Mutasa is pressing ahead, in what observers say is intimidation.
Chinamasa is accused of trying to intimidate or coerce witnesses from giving evidence in a separate trial of public violence charges against Mutasa’s supporters dating back to 2002.
Mutasa’s lawyer Gerald Mlothswa has apparently given Chikafu an August 18 deadline to retract the alleged defamatory statements or face the lawsuit. The prosecutor was quoted by the media as saying Mutasa was a powerful person whose wings must be clipped. “The fact that he has not been brought to trial does not mean that he is not coming,” he is alleged to have said.
Constitutional law expert Dr Lovemore Madhuku told Newsreel that the timing of Mutasa’s lawsuit was clearly designed to put pressure on the prosecutor before Chinamasa’s trial ended. He slammed the suit as an abuse of the courts saying even the lawyers involved knew it had little chance of success. – Own correspondent/Lance Guma, SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe Vigil Diary 19th August 2006
LONDON - Another big turnout to draw attention to the worsening situation in Zimbabwe. 88 people signed the register and no doubt there were some people who did not sign in. This made it one of the biggest Vigils in our four years exceeded only by those where demonstrations were held to mark special occasions. Our records show that on the same Saturday two years ago we had 43 people - so something is happening. When we joined hands in a circle to sing the national anthem at the end we took up the whole piazza outside the Embassy. Passers-by were magnetised. Some of them even joined the circle while others snapped away with their cameras.
We managed to avert a threatened downpour at the start by rushing to put up our tarpaulin when a few drops fell….. to be followed by a balmy afternoon. We were pleased to have many first-timers - some of them asylum seekers dispersed around the country and keen to be active but they are hampered by a lack of money to travel to London and no information about local organised groups. We try to put them in touch with others where they live hopefully if they meet other activists in their area they could start similar vigils as the one in Bristol. They can certainly rely on our help.
Wellington from Free-Zim Youth in Brighton told the Vigil of their new initiative to set up a meeting with the South African Embassy to discuss South Africa’s attitude to Zimbabwe and Zimbabwean refugees. They are waiting for agreement on a date at the end of September. They plan to have a demonstration outside the South African embassy ahead of the meeting, which we will certainly support.
We have evidence that the Zimbabwean is read avidly at the Embassy - a staff member we happen to know came by and asked for four copies.
For your information, local authorities in the UK are now updating their electoral registers. Believe it or not Zimbabweans are allowed to vote as members of the Commonwealth, even though Zimbabwe withdrew several years ago. (The British Government has yet to change the relevant legislation.) Wherever you are living you should consider being put on the register so that you can vote in both parliamentary and local elections. This will give you an opportunity to put pressure on your MP and Councillors. (Surprisingly we are in a more privileged position than residents from other EU countries, who cannot vote in parliamentary elections here.)
For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw.
REMINDER: Monday 28th August no Zimbabwe Forum because it is a public holiday.
Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association
LONDON - Confusion about the issue of removals is swirling round the Zimbabwean community. Rumours of huge numbers of asylum seekers being removed before Christmas seem to have as much substance as the claims of a bumper harvest in Zimbabwe this year. Practically speaking and from past experience even when removals are in full force it is unlikely that more than ten Zimbabweans will be removed per week.
To put things in perspective the ZA has heard of one more Zimbabwean being detained recently. The person held a Malawian passport and was out of detention within three days because incorrect procedures had been followed concerning the removal (to Malawi). The total number of Zimbabweans in detention known to us at this time is less than ten.
As stressed Zimbabweans consider their next moves, we urge you not to be panicked into parting with large sums of money for legal help. All lawyers and registered legal representatives are required to tell you of the existence of legal aid and who is entitled to it. Paying someone is no guarantee that your case can be won. If you cannot get a lawyer with a legal aid franchise to take on your case, it may be best to consider paying for one hour as a private client with one of the top immigration firms in London. The cost would be approx £60 and for this you would get an accurate and reliable assessment of what is possible regarding your case. If your case has merit and you are eligible for legal aid, it may then be possible to be taken on by them as a legal aid client. If you have the funds to sign up with a private firm please check that the firm has a good reputation.
Be warned that some Zimbabweans who have been caught working on fraudulent documents have been given prison sentences of up to six months. At the end of their sentences they have been served with Deportation Orders. It is possible to appeal against these orders, but if you are removed under a Deportation Order you are prohibited from returning to the UK.
The Travel Fund for the Open Forum III which ZA is administering is only open to people travelling from within the UK.
To conclude, the ZA would like to express its sadness at the sudden death of Donald who gave us so much support and assistance over the years in a quiet and understated way. We greatly appreciated his help.
We can be contacted at the office on 020 7549 0355 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, messages may be left on the answer machine at other times, or by fax 020 7549 0356 or email: zimbabweassociation@yahoo.co.uk.
ADVICE LINE: Wednesday 2 5 pm
Asylum queries: 13 September
Support queries: 30 August, 27 September
Mkapa to negotiate exit plan?
BY GIFT PHIRI
HARARE - Former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa is to visit President Robert Mugabe in the next few weeks to work out an exit plan for the ageing leader.
Mugabe hinted soon after landing from Maseru from the SADC summit on Saturday that he was considering stepping down because the land issue had been dealt with. He said there was nothing wrong with people openly debating succession, 19 months prior to the end of his current term.
The Zimbabwean has learnt that an agreement was reached to reschedule a meeting between Mkapa and Mugabe to discuss the matter. The new date has not yet been set.
High-ranking officials said Mkapa wanted to "keep the momentum going" following Mugabe’s "very positive signals last week."
Among other issues, the leaders are to work out a "safe exit plan" and immunity from prosecution for alleged human rights abuses committed during Mugabe's 26-year rule.
Mugabe is said to be particularly worried about the Matabeleland massacres during the 1980s.
The President is said to have made his first direct indication that he wants to retire at the SADC summit last week.
He was quoted in the official press in Lesotho saying: "We are getting to a stage where we shall say fine, we settled this matter (land reform) and people can retire."
Zanu (PF) sources say Mugabe is anxious about the repercussions of his departure.
"He wants to leave but his personal security fears, the fate of his family and property, his party's simmering succession problem . . . are his main obstacles," a senior party source said.
Local human rights groups have also been fuelling his apprehension by calling for his prosecution. And main opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says Mugabe’s personal security, after he relinquishes power, can only be guaranteed in the context of a negotiated settlement of the Zimbabwe crisis.
Meanwhile, Mugabe has denounced "clandestine groupings" manoeuvring to take over. He said he was aware that his lieutenants were looking beyond him and plotting for a final assault on power. Retired army general Solomon Mujuru and party heavyweight Emmerson Mnangagwa are seen as the key individuals heading the rival factions.
BULAWAYO - Thousands of villagers on Monday stormed commercial banks and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) offices to exchange old currency for new money ahead of deadline by end of business.
The RBZ gave Zimbabweans up to August 21 to hand in old bearer cheques in exchange for new ones as part of sweeping currency reforms that also included a 60 percent devaluation of the local dollar. The new bearer cheques have less zeroes after the central bank slashed three zeroes from every banknote as part of the currency reforms.
"The RBZ mobile team operating from Gokwe was overwhelmed by the number of people exchanging the old currency and I had no option except to travel to Bulawayo to change the money," said a woman who only identified herself as Mai Chipo, explaining why she had travelled hundreds of kilometres from Gokwe to exchange her money in Bulawayo.
Other villagers said they had had to travel to Bulawayo because the RBZ's mobile teams operating in their areas were refusing to change amounts in excess of $10 million in old currency.
Sources in the towns of Gwanda, Hwange, Plumtree, Beitbridge and Lupane - all dotted across the vast Matabeleland region in the south-west of the country - told ZimOnline that hundreds of people last night slept in queues at banks and at temporary offices set up by the RBZ there as desperation crept in as the deadline to hand in old currency drew closer.
In Bulawayo, the RBZ office was open to members of the public on Saturday and Sunday but still did not manage to clear the long queues and hundreds of villagers slept in the queue outside the central bank's office hoping to be the first to be attended to when the bank opened for business on Monday.
"I own 10 public commuter omnibuses and over the weekend we were still accepting the old currency from customers and I came here early to exchange my weekend earnings for the new currency, the queues are very long but I have no option except to be patient," said Joseph Khumalo, who was at the RBZ office laden with canvass bags full of old money.
The same rush-hour panicking was visible in Zimbabwe's capital Harare where by mid-morning banks were full to the brim with depositors hurrying to literally dump their old cash in exchange for new money.
Some retail shops and public commuter operators in the capital city were reportedly refusing to accept old money, which however is still valid until midnight today.
A newspaper vendor who refused to accept old currency from a ZimOnline reporter said: "Why should I accept this old money when even the big supermarkets are refusing to accept it?" RBZ governor Gideon Gono has warned businesses and all financial
institutions to take old currency right up to the deadline but it appears the situation on ground is far different from what the central bank chief may be expecting to see. - ZimOnline
Fear the legacy of Murambatsvina
HARARE - Communities in Zimbabwe need to overcome their "accumulated fear of the government" if a way forward is to be found one year after Operation Murambatsvina according to a report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. The NGO sent a group of four delegates from different social movements in South Africa to Zimbabwe, to examine the situation one year after an estimated 700 000 people were made homeless by Operation Murambatsvina.
The delegates, Philani Zungu, Nopasika Mboto, Ellen Chauke and Siphiwe Segodi, met with various community groups all over the country during their 10-day visit. They felt that the most formidable challenge faced by Zimbabweans in the wake of Murambatsvina was to overcome the political divisions in the country. They said many people needed to accept the fact that the Operation affected everyone, regardless of their political affiliation. They urged an increase in unity among different communities in Zimbabwe and said that those outside the country needed to "build solidarity with ordinary Zimbabweans and embark on campaigns that will bring meaningful and lasting political and socio-economic change to Zimbabwe".
The report also highlighted the fact that, despite government reports, there was some resistance to Murambatsvina and people were still being driven away from the cleared areas. It stated that "Operation Garikari has only benefited those with political connections" and "individuals who were meant to benefit…have long been forgotten". Furthermore, the number of units built under Garikari only constitutes a mere 5% of the buildings destroyed during Murambatsvina.
As a result of this report, Zimbabwean Civil Society organisations in South Africa have drawn up a petition to be presented to the United Nations (UN). It urges the UN Secretary General to "inform the world of the unfolding genocide in Zimbabwe as a result of Operation Murambatsvina" and "exert pressure on the government of Zimbabwe to mediate with its own people rather some imagined forces outside Zimbabwe." Own correspondent
Engines and pump for Hwange
HWANGE - Hwange National Park has received two "very generous" donations of goods from Duncan Paul of Dunadventures and Rob Melville and Syd Kelly of Valverite in South Africa. The donations included two brand new engines and a monopump which will go a long way towards helping with the efficient running of the park.
Collecting the goods however, was not without its problems. "I am very reluctant to confess that I made two trips to South Africa to collect these spare parts because the first time I went, the parts were wrong and had to be returned," said Johnny Rodrigues, the Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. "This was easier said than done because it involved obtaining permission from the Reserve Bank and Zimra to export the goods back to South Africa," he said.
With the drop in tourism and the economy spiralling out of control, Hwange National Park has become increasingly dependent on donations from various individuals and companies to keep it running.
Rodrigues said he now had enough spare parts to get all of the pump engines up and running in Hwange. "The only cloud on the horizon is the shortage of fuel. We will have to ensure a steady flow of fuel to the park and we are trying to raise funds for this," he said. - KJW
State media’s Mission Impossible making Operation Sunrise look good
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
HARARE The state-run media tackled its latest mission impossible portraying the chopping of three zeroes off the currency as some kind of recipe for economic revival with a mixture of the ludicrous and censorship.
The degrading body searches at roadblocks for currency were naturally not regarded by the regime’s media as being an abuse of human rights and probably unconstitutional, but as all part of a successful cleanup of unidentified economic saboteurs.
Coverage by the private media, including the private electronic media, was in stark contrast with the usual exception of the Mirror group whose reporting of the economic chaos resembled that of the state-run media.
The private media "continued to question the usefulness of the government’s ad hoc economic measures which they projected as doomed unless the authorities resolved fundamental economic influences that had caused the economy to slide in the first place," the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said in its report covering August 7 13.
The Financial Gazette reported a planned challenge by civic organisations to the legality of the emergency powers used to search in at least one case to strip search people.
Studio 7 and the Zimbabwe Independent reported confusion and alarm over the phasing out of the old currency, particularly in rural areas where people cannot easily get to banks to change their money. Both also reported that state security agents had been placed on high alert for feat of riots as the deadline for exchanging the old currency approached.
"The government media censored these matters," noted MMPZ.
The private media also did not, like the state mouthpieces, view a marginal fall in inflation as a cause for celebration. Zimdaily accused Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono of trying to persuade the nation that Zimbabwe’s world-record inflation would drop to double digits by 2008 without mentioning that all the factors behind hyperinflation remain. This included, Zimdaily noted, the massive supplementary budget to be financed largely by printing more money, leading to even higher inflation.
The state media seized on the inflation drop and the money changeover, the so-called Operation Sunrise, with some pretty ridiculous stories, and carried no informed analysis. ZTV, Spot FM and Radio Zimbabwe in excitable stories, reported members of the public and analysts sensing "a sign of better things to come". ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe in Shona bulletins on August 10 also wrong translated the term inflation to mean firming of the Zimbabwe dollar.
ZBH epitomized the lopsided coverage that left its audiences aware of the things not even the state media can hide, such as shortages and the surging cost of living, and unaware of the causes or of the fact that zero-chopping on its own is the economic equivalent of a highway to nowhere.
For example, while the broadcaster projected members of the public as being delighted with Operation Sunrise and the searches, the people actually quoted gave the opposite view.
Different faces different times
HARARE - At an inter-church meeting an enthusiastic Christian reported how overwhelmed she was when she witnessed at the recent National Day of Prayer the head of state dedicating the country once more to God.
"We want to remind those that might turn on the state that we have armed men and women who carry guns and are allowed to pull the trigger on them," he said in a speech on Armed Forces Day last week. He said it in Shona. It was not part of his prepared speech. But he said it. How do you reconcile prayer with hate speech?
If he wants to go the way of dialogue he must stop using threatening language. If he continues to rely on guns there is no point in talking. He must make a decision: he cannot have it both ways.Both the president and his partners in dialogue need to be quite clear about this.
Furthermore: people critical of the present government are not enemies of the state. They are merely exercising their rights, indeed doing their duty as citizens. Even beginners in civic education know: governments change, the state remains. Soldiers serve the state, not the government of the day.
Elementary, isn’t it? Except in our beloved country. Commentary, In Touch Jesuit Communications
Zimbabwe will never be a colony again
BY MAGAISA IBENZI
WARD 12, PARIRENYATWA HOSPITAL, HARARE - I can’t for the life of me understand why Mugabe insists on having Benjamin Mkapa as his mediator with Britain.
I mean, if it was left to me I would use all the diplomatic channels that exist for example Zimbabwe has an ambassador in London who I am sure is in regular contact with the foreign Office and other members of the British government, while Britain has a very able and highly respected ambassador here in Harare.
Their jobs as ambassadors are to relay messages to their governments from their hosts. If our ambassador to London can’t be trusted to handle such a simple thing as passing messages to Tony Blair, then I think it is a waste of foreign currency to pay him and his staff to sit in London, twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do except read The Zimbabwean and watch the Zimbabwe Vigil supporters dancing outside their offices every Saturday afternoon.
In any case, the British have already said on several occasions that they don’t need a mediator (munyayi). What can Mkapa bring to the table where everybody else has failed? What magic wand does he possess that is going to make a difference this time? Mugabe himself has refused to talk to the MDC. He continues to denounce Tony Blair at every opportunity and yet says he wants to build bridges with Britain.
In fact, I hope he’s not intending to invite the British to come and re-colonise us. Why should they be involved in negotiating these things on our behalf. We are a sovereign state aren’t we? We need to solve our problems internally and then ask the international community to come and help us achieve our goals.
He has refused previous mediation efforts by even his own best man Joachim Chissano and UN secretary general Kofi Annan. And Thabo Mbeki has thrown in the towel after five years of fruitless attempts at quiet diplomacy, which did not help anybody not even Mugabe.
He repeatedly rejects the resolutions of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights always on a technicality, never on the substance.
Surely he must realise that there is something seriously wrong now that even his fellow despots in the African club of dictators are distancing themselves from him as evidenced at the recent SADC summit in Maseru. By all reports he cut a lonely figure there and left early in a rage. The UN, of course, understands that he is a basket case but doesn’t seem to be able to do anything about it.
Backed into a corner, Mugabe has done what he does best he has resorted to insulting his fellow African leaders, calling them cowards for not standing up to the West. He always plays the anti-imperialist card and let’s face it, so far, it has never let him down. Even Tony Blair has been cowed into ineffective silence and activity by Mugabe’s vociferous anti-imperialist rhetoric. I know that those close to Mugabe are terrified to tell him any home truths to his face because they are terrified of his response.
But I, Magaisa, am not terrified. I will openly tell Mugabe: what is needed in our country is the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, a new constitution leading to fresh elections, respect for human rights and the abolition of POSA and AIPPA. That’s it. Then we are on the road to recovery. I don’t see what Mkapa or Blair or anybody else can add to this. It’s so simple. Mugabe must talk to Zimbabweans not to the British.
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