Our President's Christmas and New Year Message!

 

MORGAN Tsvangirai . . . decision to extend Mugabe's tenure will be resisted HARARE - As we draw a close to what has been for many a very miserable year it gives me great pleasure to predict a glimmer of hope in an otherwise even more?murky prediction for 2007.  I am aware that the year 2006, like the previous seven years, was particularly difficult. But you remained resolute in the struggle to express yourselves out of the national crisis.  We endured long queues for basic commodities; suffered the indignity of shortages of transport, electricity and fuel; sacrificed our entire savings to enable children to attend schools and witnessed the loss of a loved one through HIV/Aids.    We all know that since independence in 1980, and in particular the last seven years, we have been subjected to the most trying circumstances. Many are without food.  We can’t afford to send our children to schools. Hospitals have been turned into avenues of death. An HIV/Aids pandemic is causing havoc, making Zimbabwe a nation with the highest number of orphans in the world.      The challenge facing us today is to devise an effective mechanism to save Zimbabwe from further haemorrhage. Wherever we are, let us commit ourselves in earnest to saving our nation.  What can we do individually and collectively to advance the struggle for change, for a new beginning, and for a new Zimbabwe?    As we approach 2007, let us look back and use our experiences to help the people to help themselves and to determine their own destiny, against the numerous odds imposed by Robert Mugabe and the Zanu PF dictatorship.      Safeguarding our freedom depends on what we are prepared to do, at home and in the Diaspora.   It is quite obvious that we are in for a rough ride into 2007, especially when faced with the consequences of a Zanu PF defend-power project, imposed onto the people after the February 2000 referendum and the June 2000 parliamentary election.      The brutal assault onto the people; declaration of war against the people; the flagrant display of dishonesty, the skewed policies and the propaganda we have been subjected to over the last seven years have hit us hard.         Only the dishonest and those politically connected to Zanu PF are surviving the onslaught.?Southern Africa faces a major challenge in 2010. We are hosting the World Cup.    International attention shall thus be focused on all of us as a region as we receive visitors, international business and attend to the needs of millions of soccer followers.    We cannot afford to be enmeshed in the political emotions associated with elections at a time when the entire focus of humanity shall be on the SADC region through sport.   Fellow Zimbabweans, it is clear that Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zanu PF elite have elevated themselves to the position of super-patriots and decided to extend their rule against the national sentiment    Mugabe and Zanu PF rig elections; usurp state institutions for political expediency; beat up Zimbabweans who disagree with the style of governance and destroy a country full of promise.   The decision to extend Mugabe’s term of office, already contested after the 2002 Presidential election, is major slap in the face for all Zimbabweans.    We are in a serious dilemma as we have experienced and continue to live with an unprecedented economic meltdown and political uncertainty, all authored by Mugabe and his cronies.   We desire a normal society where decisions that affect the entire nation cannot be a preserve of a political party.      All Zimbabweans must discuss and agree on the efficacy of any proposal whose political implications affect the nation at large. Zanu PF has no right to impose its will on all of us.   You are aware that I challenged Mugabe’s legitimacy in 2002 following your mandate. Despite his refusal to open up institutions of state to resolve pertinent concerns arising from the challenge, I wish to thank Zimbabweans for remaining steadfast and committed to the resolution of the national crisis.      What Mugabe and ZANU PF have now done is the final straw that breaks the camel’s back. We cannot continue to watch Mugabe and his cronies play dangerous games with our lives.  The decision to extend Mugabe’s already controversial tenure shall be resisted. Together with our civil society partners and all democratic forces, we pledge to provide the necessary leadership to deal with this tyranny.    We are not going to let this affront on the people’s destiny go unchallenged. We shall consult you and follow your guidance in this crucial matter.     As we enter in one of our bleakest festive seasons and into the New Year, may I assure you of my unwavering commitment to continue the fight for a lasting resolution of the national crisis.  What came out of the Zanu PF conference is a major blow to Zimbabwe’s quest for a new beginning and to an end to uncertainty around Zimbabwe’s future.     Morgan Tsvangirai, PRESIDENT

 

Mugabe term extension madness: Tekere

National Report
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2163   
       
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Reporter

FIREBRAND ZANU PF founder member and veteran nationalist Edgar Tekere has described as “madness” ZANU PF’s decision to extend President Robert Mugabe’s term to 2010.

Tekere, nicknamed “Twoboy,” said ZANU PF’s resolution at its conference in Goromonzi last weekend to combine the 2008 presidential and the 2010 parliamentary elections was a clear indication of President Mugabe’s insatiable appetite for power.
“Ndokupenga ikoko. Matricks okuda kufira pachigaro. (That’s madness. It’s a trick to stay in power for life.) He has already overstayed and the party and the country has suffered,” said Tekere in a telephone interview from his Mutare home.
Tekere was readmitted into ZANU PF at last weekend’s conference, but was barred from occupying any position in the party for five years.
Tekere, who became the first person within the ZANU PF leadership to publicly oppose President Mugabe’s one party state plan in the late 1980s, said he felt let down by his liberation war colleague. He claims to have struggled in his bid to woo President Mugabe into ZANU PF in the formative years of the party.
In an outburst likely to be seen as a case of sour grapes after being banned from elective office in ZANU PF for the next five years, Tekere said: “I sweated to form that party (ZANU PF) and to persuade him (Mugabe) to join it (ZANU PF) from Nkomo (Joshua).”
The former ZANU PF big-shot also scoffed at claims that the ZANU PF presidency had set strict conditions for him to meet before he could assume any office in the party.
“That party is more of my party than it is for Mugabe. Vamwe vacho ndiwana mafikizolo handimbozivi kuti vakabva nokupi (some of these people are Johnny-come-latelys, I don’t know where they came from),” Tekere said.
Pressed to explain his quest to rejoin ZANU PF considering that the party has not made any reforms since he quit it in 1988 to form his own party, the former Mutare Urban legislator said he will bare his soul on January 11 at the Harare launch of his memoirs, which he has titled A Lifetime of Struggle.
“I would prefer you talk to me on the 11th of January. But you can predict what I am going to say,” Tekere said.
But the political maverick’s dig at President Mugabe will baffle the ruling party’s senior leadership, especially supporters in Manicaland who laboured to back Tekere’s desperate bid to be re-admitted into the ruling party.
Tekere was sacked from ZANU PF in October 1988 because of his strong opposition to President Mugabe’s attempts to establish a one-party state. He formed the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), which made an impressive attempt to dislodge ZANU PF during the 1990 general elections.
       

Welcome to the Internet, President Mugabe
By Geoff Nyarota
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=208
Three unrelated events over the past two weeks have underscored the disdain and cavalier approach of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite towards press freedom issues.

In a truly democratic environment freedom of the press entails the guarantee by a government to news-gathering organizations of free access to information and the freedom to publish such information without let or hindrance. The same freedom is also extended to members of the public to access that disseminated information. With such access to information from various sources the public is better equipped to make decisions on matters that affect their lives.

For any situation approximating the above to be achieved in Zimbabwe the media landscape requires a complete overhaul, especially in the government’s media empire which has long ceased to inform in the public interest. The cause of the poor performance and the attendant decline in public appeal are no mystery to those charged with running government’s newspapers and electronic media. But many of them are appointed, not on the basis of their recognized talent or experience, but on their assumed propensity and obsession with presenting to the world a positive image of government at all costs

Leo Mugabe, the honourable Member of Parliament for Makonde, is an extraordinary business entrepreneur. He tries to make a success of the most unlikely ventures, including where he has no known skills. His term of office as ZIFA chairman was controversy-ridden. He is the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications. Above all he is a devoted nephew of President Robert. His mother, Sabina, the President’s only sister, is also a Member of Parliament, while his brother Patrick Zhuwawo, serves in the capacity of Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Development

In his capacity as chairman of the parliamentary committee Leo Mugabe had occasion recently to present before the august House his committee’s report on the 2007 budget allocations to the Ministry of Information and Publicity.

There has been much turbulence in this ministry during the course of 2006. No sooner had the ministry lost its minister, Tichaona Jokonya, in rather tragically peculiar circumstances, than the deputy minister Bright Matonga was embroiled in serious allegations of grand-scale sleaze when he was chief executive of the Zimbabwe Omnibus Company, Zupco. The case which has already claimed the scalp of the bus company’s former chairman, Charles Nherera, appears set to bag another scalp that of controversial Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo.

Notwithstanding his current ignominious circumstances, Chombo was appointed to the Zanu-PF politburo over the weekend. President Mugabe has an uncanny predilection with appointment to the upper echelons of the government machinery officials who sooner or later tarnish the image of our country through their involvement in allegations of corruption.

To ensure that such acts of corruption are kept under wraps, government has gone out of its way to render Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Ltd, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and New Ziana through gross interference in their editorial operations. Government media outlets have become discredited, unpopular and, therefore, totally unprofitable. Successive ministers of information have, each in their own unique style, attempted to turn these once profitable organisations, which government owns and controls, into commercially viable operations. Successive CEOs at ZBC, in particular, have discovered to their chagrin that one cannot turn around the fortunes of a media organisation, unless there is minimum government interference.

Leo Mugabe told Parliament that New Ziana, Transmedia Corporation (whatever that is) and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation should join hands to start a "visual raw footage distribution service" to international broadcasters. This initiative would maximise their revenue earnings, he said.

I suppose Mugabe realizes that the said visual raw footage must be of a quality that is appealing to the said international broadcasters. Considering that the appalling output of ZTV has driven thousands of foreign currency-strapped Zimbabweans to import expensive satellite dishes, the issue of content rather than any proposed merger, becomes the major challenge faced by those trying to turn around the fortunes of the state broadcaster.

Mugabe told the House that such merger would enhance Ziana’s news-selling status, while earning foreign currency for its own recapitalization.

Obviously driven by what I can only perceive as a burning desire to countermand Leo Mugabe’s apparent concern for success in the operations of state-run media, the acting Minister of Information, Paul Mangwana, addressed a meeting of his own a few days after Mugabe tabled his proposal. Mangwana summoned state media editors to his office. He instructed them to ensure positive reporting on the major political issue of the day, Zanu-PF’s controversial and acrimonious project to dovetail the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2010, as well as on the just passed Zanu-PF congress.

Those who attended Mangwana’s meeting, along with permanent secretary, George Charamba, say Mangwana expressed grievous concern that the said harmonisation of presidential and parliamentary elections was not receiving positive coverage in the state media.

The Herald, which is arguably the most sycophantic of the state-owned newspapers, and its editor Pikirayi Deketeke, equally arguably the most loyal and "patriotic" of the editors, are said to have been singled out for heavy censure. They had become overly-critical of the government and engaged in what the minister described as unnecessary controversies.

By way of example the acting minister is said to have suggested that the harmonization story could definitely benefit from flavouring with ingredients such as examples from Zambia and other African countries which hold presidential, parliamentary, mayoral and council elections concurrently.

In simple terms, what Mangwana was telling the assembled editors is that the dirty linen of government or Zanu-PF should never be laundered in public. Like his predecessors, he obviously does not subscribe to any theory of transparency or accountability in governance. But it is such issues as the acting minister’s high-handed approach to press freedom issues and the content of discredited media outlets, and not necessarily packaging and marketing strategies, as proposed by Leo Mugabe, that should be the focus of any ministry official with a genuine interest in the welfare and viability of the state’s media empire.

Given the lackadaisical state of Zimbabwe’s media affairs, any heavy criticism of editors or their papers has a bearing on the performance of the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, who has an inordinate amount of influence over who is appointed to edit a newspaper. Therefore, stung by Mangwana’s denigration, Charamba is reported to have rushed to the rescue of The Herald and Deketeke.

He apparently pointed out to Mangwana that too much state interference had led many Zimbabweans to seek alternative sources of information, "particularly hostile online newspapers". So Charamba knows the truth after all.

The government has effectively transformed Zimpapers, ZBC and New Ziana into a well-oiled machinery for the dissemination of its own and Zanu-PF’s propaganda. Government controlled newspapers as well as radio and television are skillfully employed to attack perceived opponents of government, the so-called enemies of the state, both domestic and foreign. Government’s foes are rarely featured in the state-controlled media, except in a negative manner.

What Mangwana clearly has in mind is a return to the situation aptly captured back in 2002 by the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (ZMMP). The ZMMP declared that ZBC was guilty of bias and distortion "like never before" in the run-up to the presidential polls.

A ZMMP report pointed out that between December 1, 2001 and March 7, 2002, in the run-up to the presidential election, ZTV carried a total of 402 election campaign stories in news bulletins monitored by the organisation.

Of these, an astounding 339 (84 percent) had favoured Mugabe, the ruling Zanu-PF candidate. Only 38 stories (or a paltry nine percent) had covered the activities of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but "virtually all of them" were used to discredit the party and its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai.

What Charamba would do well to explain is why Zimbabweans in large numbers are attracted to what he calls hostile online newspapers. He could launch this exercise by asking President Mugabe why he seems to have now joined the migration of readers away from the state-owned media to the allegedly hostile online and regular independent newspapers published in Harare.

Mugabe revealed to bemused members of his central committee last Thursday what, to all intents and purposes, had been a closely guarded secret about his preferred and regular sources of news and information about Zimbabwe. He did this while lambasting Zanu-PF officials for feeding online and other publications with information.

"There is information, sorry, misinformation….daily on the Internet, or in The Financial Gazette and The Independent and so on," he said. "We try to put it in a way that disguises it a bit, but it’s obvious that it’s a colleague of ours who has written it or sent the information to the Independent or the Standard."

I had no idea that the quest for the truth and a realistic appraisal of Zimbabwe’s current situation has now driven Mugabe to frequent the Internet. I felt a sense of conquest, as managing editor of The Zimbabwe Times.com, at this realization. The editors of New Zimbabwe.com, Zimonline.com, Zimdaily.com, The Zimbabwean.com, Zimobserver.com, Zimbabwejournalists.com, Changezimbabwe.com, Zimnews.com and other Zimbabwe-linked online services, too numerous to list but all spawned by Zimbabwe’s harsh media environment, must have felt the same.

The government has effectively driven scores of journalists, both Zimbabwean and foreign out of the country. Government spin doctors have tried in vain over the past few years to convince citizens that independent and foreign journalists are motivated by a malicious and unpatriotic craving to paint a negative picture of or to discredit our still beautiful but once prosperous country.

The foreign journalists have since returned to their own countries - the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and various other countries that had correspondents based in Harare. Likewise, many Zimbabwean journalists were forced to leave the country of their birth. They found refuge in South Africa, the UK, the United States and Canada.

One would expect that, with the departure of these two groups of objectionable or veritable enemies of the state, there would be celebration in official circles and that Zanu-PF would live happily ever after. But, as events over the past two weeks have illustrated, this was clearly not the case.

First, Mugabe grants an exclusive interview to a Canadian television station. While the "patriotic" reporters at ZBC look on in mortification as their beloved President shares with the Canadians his innermost thoughts about his retirement. The Canadians then make a copy of their exclusive interview with the President of Zimbabwe available to the local hacks.

"You are not good enough to interview me," seems to be Mugabe’s underlying message.
As if that were not perplexing enough, it also transpires that Mugabe has virtually followed the now exiled Zimbabwean journalists all the way to the Internet where they have set up online publications.

One would expect the President to be content with reading The Herald and watching ZTV, like other patriotic Zimbabweans. But apparently he surfs the net in search of online newspapers.

Then he flips through the pages of The Financial Gazette, The Zimbabwe Independent and The Zimbabwe Standard.
Curiously, he does not mention The Daily Mirror or The Sunday Mirror.
It is not the attractive packaging or effective distribution stratagems proposed by Leo Mugabe that will achieve self-sustainability in the government’s media empire. It is the accuracy of fact, the news value and the credibility of content that draws the likes of President Mugabe to the Internet, where news articles are crafted away from the self-serving fulminations of Mangwana.

Welcome to the internet, President Mugabe!             

From now on the new postings will be on the following websites:

 

www.dearmrtonyblair.blogspot.com ,

 

www.dearmrrobertmugabe.blogspot.com,

 

www.dearmrthabombeki.blogspot.com,

 

www.radicalzim.blogspot.com,

 

www.zimprayer.blogspot.com and

 

www.zimgossiper.blogspot.com .

 

NB: THE FULL PICTURE OF "THE DREAM TEAM",(THE SWRADIOAFRICA STAFF) IS AT

 

www.dearmrtonyblair.blogspot.com.

 

The Rev Mufaro Stig Hove...The Radical Soldier.

 

Cell: 0791463039 RSA mufarostig@yahoo.co.uk .

 

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ZIMBABWEAN PETITIONS U. S. PRESIDENT!

Here is the petition link
 
http://www.gopetition.com/online/10585.html

Here is the story that started it.
 
http://www.zimdaily.com/news/126/ARTICLE/1160/2006-12-11.html
 
Since then, I have spoken to two Congressmen who are willing to help us. But that is as far as my little mind has gone. I could use help.

 
Tambu Kahari.

<tapilicious@yahoo.com>

Zanu PF's worst Christmas present ever

By Daniel Fortune Molokele

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/fortune83.15633.html

AS THE dust begins to settle in the aftermath of yet another annual Zanu-PF conference, it is trite to note that the most poignant outcome of the event is the fact that it was a huge non-event for the Zimbabwean majorities.

Indeed, the conference was at the very least a missed opportunity for the party to come up with a strong consensus in terms of the way forward on the political and socio-economic crisis affecting the country.

Instead, as the weekend event unraveled, it became increasingly clear that the party gathering had no serious intent at all to address the real issues affecting the nation. It is therefore most unfortunate that the party chose to invest their meager intellectual and strategic planning resources on a rigorous exercise of self-preservation. What is even more tragic is the fact that contrary to some media reports, there was not even a direct focus at all on the so-called ‘succession’ debate.

If anything, the issue was effectively eliminated from the agenda as soon as Mugabe announced nonchalantly in his speech that there was still no job vacancy at the country’s highest office. His speech had the net effect of setting the tone for the actual intended major outcome of the conference, that is, the endorsement of Mugabe’s selfish plans to extend his tenure in office.

The glass ceiling of the so-called debate was effectively reached when the party’s Chairperson, John Nkomo announced at the end of the weekend non-event that the conference had resolved that there should be no debate at all on succession because there are still no vacancies at the top. The mere fact that his remarks were greeted with wild applause by the thousands of the cheering delegates also underlined the party’s determination to invest its energies in this lucid exercise in self-preservation.

It is clear from the facts that emerged during the run-up to the conference that most provinces had already decided that the purpose of the 2006 conference was to legitimize the long rumoured plans to defer the presidential elections to 2010. The weekend event was thus to all purposes and intents a rubberstamping process for Mugabe’s insatiable thirst for political power.

In the final analysis, it was thus not such a big surprise that the most crucial resolution of the 2006 conference was the approval of a motion to move the presidential polls from 2008 to 2010 so that they could be ‘harmonised’ and held at the same time with the Parliamentary elections.

The postponement of the presidential elections aside, the other defining moment of the conference was what Mugabe said in his closing remarks. The leader of the party expressed his pride at the full support he had received from his cohorts. He is reported to have said thus, “I go out of here proud that I have the people behind me. I am what I am because of you”.

Surely it is clear that Mugabe has long lost touch with the masses of the country! One does not need to be rocket scientist or robotics professor to clearly note that the long suffering people have been pummeled into reluctant submission by Mugabe and his party. It is sad that the party is no longer able to differentiate the aspect of fear and popularity in terms of the opinions of the country’s majorities. The truth is that even scientific research from such surveys as the African Barometer report have already confirmed what was always an assumed reality. The fact is that Zimbabweans are a nation that lives in perpetual fear of State terror.

Whichever way one looks at it, the point of the matter is that Mugabe and his Zanu-PF have already overstayed their welcome in power. It is common cause that the people of Zimbabwe have for long tried to boot them out of power. The fact that they still remain in office has nothing to do with their popularity. No, not at all! In fact it has everything to do with their suppressive political trickery and chicanery. Everyone now knows that dissent is a byword and taboo in the Zimbabwean political landscape. Diversity and pluralism have long been banished out of the country and monopolism now reigns supreme across the land. No one has the right to freely express a different opinion from Mugabe from Zambezi to Limpopo!

What is even more sad for me is that Mugabe and his party also chose to ignore the fact that a sizable number of the Zimbabwean people have already decided to voice their disapproval of their political leadership by leaving the country altogether. The facts and stats are there for all to see! It is now estimated that at least three million Zimbabweans now live outside the country.

In fact a simple glance across the country would have easily revealed the long queues spiraling out of the South African boarders. Thousands of Zimbabweans are on their way home at this moment and time in what may be the biggest annual human trans-migration in the African continent. The process of the many Zimbabweans returning home for Christmas is only comparable to the world famous game migrations of the Serengeti in East Africa!

As the conference was busy adopting its resolutions, the rest of the country’s majorities were busy bracing themselves for yet another Christmas separated from their loved ones. It is often said that Christmas is a time for the families to gather together and enjoy the final moments of the year that was. But no so in Zimbabwe! The fact that at least one third of the country’s population is now living in the Diaspora simply means that many families will once again be forced to have yet another Christmas without their beloved ones.

But as if struggling to have the basic food commodities on the Christmas menu was not enough for the Zimbabwean population, the resolutions of the weekend conference must surely have added salt to injury! Indeed the last thing any average Zimbabwean would have wanted to listen to as the Christmas hit song was “Handiende’ from Bob and his Wailers! The sad music emanating from the Zanu-PF conference is surely the worst Christmas gift ever to come from Mugabe since 1980.

Daniel Molokele is a Zimbabwean Human Rights Lawyer who is based in Johannesburg. He can be contacted at

zimvirtualnation@yahoo.com

 

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WHY THE MDC SPLIT?

http://www.zimdaily.com/news/127/ARTICLE/1173/2006-12-18.html

Why the MDC Split - The Truth


Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:09:00


Silence Chihuri


At a time when the situation in Zimbabwe becomes really chronic with democratic and civic forces fighting the cause getting more and more overstretched, most Zimbabweans are desperately yearning for redemption. The only force that stood a real chance of delivering us from the jaws of a ravenous dictatorship was the MDC Party in its original unified format. Yet the party is now severely incapacitated by a split that was both inevitable yet unavoidable. In his new ‘Candid Politics’ column Silence Chihuri, former Treasurer of the unified MDC UK will be revisiting the issue of the MDC split in three series, i.e. why the MDC split, why the party should re-unite or die, and the challenges that await any such reunification.



Why the MDC Split?


There have been various theories that have been put forward as to the causes of the MDC split.


Among others, the theories range from conflicting views and approaches among the party leadership, the issue of the so-called ‘loose coalition’ that made up the party i.e. labour movements, civic society etc and a loose pool of disgruntled masses who hoped on to the MDC bandwagon in droves.


All this was against the backdrop of no clearly defined and binding ideology. Then the issue of tribe that has for the first time been ratcheted to unprecedented heights such that the future of national politics could be quite difficult to determine.


I would refer to the MDC in the past tense because the MDC I am talking about is the one that was split into the two factions that are trying with great difficulty to get back together.


I was very proud to be part of that original MDC and I contributed as much as any other people who were as committed as I was to a party that would not necessarily serve individuals, but the nation state.


I know that there are people out there who would still want to claim that either this or that faction is the real MDC, but I personally think that the real MDC vanished into the deep crater that was created by the split of the party.


What are left are individuals either side of the MDC divide some of whom are still as honourable and committed as they were before the party split. There is no party left unless it is restored.


If there is a party that can split with the majority of the leadership going to one side, and the majority of the members going to the other side, and people still thinking that either of the two pieces is the legitimate MDC, then that would only demonstrate a chronic lack of appreciation of a very serious problem.


Where then would the need to re-unite the party come from, if there were no split in the first place? At times it is important to remove fantasy from reality and that is what has to be realised as far as the issue of the MDC split is concerned, because this is why the matter has been going on and on and will ramble on while the country burns.


One of the main reasons why the MDC split was because the top leadership could not agree on a common approach to a number of issues to take the party forward. If the party is to be re-united to day there is need to avoid glossing over those significant differences but to effectively address and bridge them because those differences created mistrust that still exists among the founding leaders.



For example, the top leadership did not agree whether or not to remove Mugabe by force in the form of intensified mass civil disobedience, especially when the 2002 Presidential election was evidently stolen.


The other hawkish leaders then saw people like Welshman Ncube and David Coltart as the dovetailed academics that were sitting in the way of radicalising the party.


Of course, this has turned out not to be true because even now with the doves out of the way what has flourished is rhetorical radicalism.


There was also the issue of control of the party and this was from where the intra-party feuding actually started.


There were individuals who were resource gatekeepers and got super-rich overnight and they sought to use that access to resources as a means of swaying support of the vulnerable party faithful.


Money was dangled and flashed while the party structures especially in the rural areas suffered with people walking distances on foot to conduct party business.


During party occasions and functions the way members were catered for was usually biased according to whom they were inclined. This created discontent (a hungry man is an angry man), among the generality of members who suffered as a consequence and resentment grew towards those officials clearly marking fault lines that were exploited during the split.


There were then those with the power even to do without the resources and still surround themselves with ‘officials’ in a system of patronage akin to that in Zanu PF, and this stemmed mainly from the issue of the selective allocation of resources.


The system of patronage (including the so-called Kitchen Cabinet), was on the basis of the MDC successfully assuming power and then those strategically cherry-picked and planted into key positions would be used to turn the tables onto those who were using party resources as tools.


However, although there was a common sense of grievance among the deprived of the party, the system of cronyism also equally created resentment as elected officials were sidelined ahead of non-elected people and every principled party member was against this.


It should be noted also, that the penchant for control spilled beyond the national party boundaries into neighbouring countries and abroad where, key positions and authority would be parcelled out only to those ‘loyal’ to the powers that. The Diaspora link proved crucial especially due to the flow of scant resources and control was (still is), viewed as vital and the ‘rewarding’ of loyal and blind followers is still the norm


Then there was the issue of the party constitution that was seriously violated and this was the last straw because there were those who were hiding behind the veneer of the constitution to frustrate their colleagues by conducting themselves in supposedly constitutional ways while underneath it was a deliberate ploy to get ensconced.


This is why the constitution was then deliberately overlooked at a crucial moment (during the Senate Debacle) and with dire consequences to democracy and party unity of course. Either way, those in the leadership abused the constitution and no one person should singled out for retribution.


Some people would say that the MDC was too loose a coalition to remain intact having been founded from such a diverse background and therefore, the splitting of the party was only a matter of time.


It is understandable that when people are of different convictions and aspirations, they tend to find it more difficult to work together especially if there is no single factor that can bind them together.


To effectively re-unite the MDC, the issue of an ideology has to be re-visited and this has to be critically thought out because the MDC brand needs to be known for what exactly it stands for, and what it would seek to achieve for Zimbabweans.


The other and main reason for the split was that Tsvangirai could not ‘control’ Welshman Ncube who clearly emerged as some kind of a Super Secretary-General, and neither could he ‘fire’ him for obvious reasons.


When the 'opportunity' to split the party arose Tsvangirai jumped for it especially when it was crystal clear that Welshman was going to be on the other side of the divide. If Welshman were to happen to be on Tsvangirai's side after the split then Tsvangirai would not have helped the split.


When Tsavngirai bellowed that “ If the party has to split so be it” he actually meant that if Welshman Ncube has to go so be it.


The same goes for Welshman Ncube and those two would never want to be back beside each other and to now expect the same people who wanted apart to reunify the MDC in the context of working together once again, is neither serious nor logical It should be emphasised to them (two) and other like minded people however, that re-unifying the MDC does not necessarily imply reuniting Tsvangirai and Ncube but the two sides generally so as to restore the single MDC that existed before the split.


There was also, the issue of trading dirty insults that followed the split of the party and this further damaged the party fabric.


There was a lot of inflammatory terminology that was thrown around and this has to be healed with equal vigour if any form of trust has to be re-instilled among the party leadership.


It should be noted also, that the re-unification of the MDC should not necessarily mean that each person would re-assume his or her original position in the party because that would not be practical or logically possible.


Re-unification should mean that the two sides come together with the senior people in both sides agreeing to throw their weight behind the people who would be either confirmed in certain positions, or re-selected to assume other position.


The senior peoples, both former and existing position holders, would then rally the support of the rest of the members behind the agreed leadership. Now without mutual trust and due respect among the top brass of the party, it will be difficult to rally the regions behind a united front.


The insults then roped in the issue of tribalism, as everything to do with split was then perceived as tribal. However if properly and critically examined, there was no tribalism but it was personality clashes. No body has the key to Matebeleland or Mashonaland.


The key lies in the policies of a party rather any individuals being viewed as the movers or pushers or tribes behind political parties. Even as it lies in comatose Zanu PF still enjoys some sort of support in Matebeleland because there are people there who still believe in what Zanu PF stands for.


It is up to the MDC to come up with policies that would maintain their support in Matebeleland rather than choosing individuals who would supposedly garner them support. It is policies stupid!


The MDC was formed out of necessity to replace a failing government and a spiteful party that is Zanu PF. The MDC was supposed to deliver on this and the fact that so far it has not done so and even looks further from doing so, shows that there was something wrong in the inception of the party, the operation of the party, as well as the environment in which the party operates.


I have not dwelled on the environment however, because this is a matter for adaptation that should be done by anyone in such a situation. Zanu PF has been evil in terms of suppression, repression and brutality but they are no worse than Smith and the Rhodesians in their tactics.


What is actually different is that while Zanu PF and PF Zapu, two different parties both with fully-fledged military wings, were colluding and combining their forces and efforts to fight Smith, the MDC leadership has in fact, had the luxury to sit on their laurels and go on to split the single party thereby terribly compromising its capacity to fight an increasingly determined and devilish regime.


While Smith followed liberation forces beyond the borders of our country bombing them en mass in refugee and training camps, the MDC has enjoyed largely unperturbed following in neighbouring countries and abroad but what they have done with that support is to exploit it rather than nature and utilise it to maximum effect.


Zimbabweans in the Diaspora feel disenchanted by the MDC because they see it as an ‘MDC thing’ and not their thing. One cannot imagine all those business people, sportsmen and journalists who have fled persecution from Zanu PF through trumped charges for supposedly supporting the ‘enemy’ only to vanish into thin air choosing not to be openly involved with the MDC because they have a feel of what goes on in the party.


It is up to the leadership to look back and reflect on the past misses and near achievements. There are times when Zanu PF has been let off, not because the MDC were in collusion with them, but because the MDC had no strategy to counter them.


Now the issue of Mugabe extending his term of office to 2010 is real and will be pushed through as along as the MDC has no clear and effective strategy to stop that.


There is no need to make any more noise about doing this or that, but simply to get down to business and come up with all the necessary ways of pulling the stops on Zanu PF and a good starting point is for the MDC to re-unite in the real sense of the.


Next week the column will be examining why the MDC should unite.

URGENT CALL FOR DIALOGUE!

 Ex www.newzimbabwe.com (FORUMS!)
http://newzim.proboards86.com/index.cgi?board=general
We dont have to agree or come from same political pursuasion!!,...but our fundamental mutual interest can only be solved through dialogue!!! please the petition and put the national agenda on the world stage. Dialogue is the right way to go whether you belong to mdc , zpf, and all the pretenders who run their parties like privated limited companies and form them only when fired by zpf!! meaning they realy zpf in disgruntled politicians skin!!

The west and its intelligencia are advocating for talks with Syria and Iran and have normalised and indeed expanded relations with Libya and enjoy cordial ones with rich Russia who like Zimbabwe have phenomenal natural resources!

IT IS IN OUR FUNDAMENTAL MUTUAL INTEREST FOR DIALOGUE NOT BLACKMAIL SANCTIONS TO TRIUMPH, THE TRIUMPH OF DIPLOMACY LEAVES EVERYBODY HAPPY AND HUMAN!!!

SIGN HERE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.petitiononline.com/ZIMBOS/petition.html

Posted by Rev M S Hove…The Radical Soldier.
Cell: 0791463039 RSA.

MUGABE MUST GO NOW!

Press release

Zimbabwe is faced with yet another crisis.

 

 This time, we cannot let it go unchallenged.

 

 MUGABE IS SEEKING POWER TO THE YEAR 2010 AND BEYOND! 

 

We must all know that by now, he intends to stay in power till he sees the grave. Zimbabwe cannot afford this luxury, not for another Day !!

 

Mugabe must go now!

 

What boggles the mind is the support he is getting from the provinces. Obviously those ZANU-PF stooge delegetes voted to have their graves dug deeper. Are they blind, are they stupid, are they so brainwashed not to see the writing on the wall that Mugabe has destroyed their own livelihoods and reduced them to the poorest peasants of the region. Perhaps they are scared of the ever building wrath of the grass roots of Zimbabwe. They know that they have destroyed everything decent in Zimbabwe. Their fear is so great that they have nowhere to turn.

 

We, the people of Zimbabwe, are sick and tired of ZANU-PF. They have completely lost direction .We are tired of a government that has nothing in mind except to remain in power forever regardless of the cost and demise of Zimbabwe. An extension of Mugabe's rule is basically an extension of more poverty and more suffering of the Zimbabweans.

In the first place there was no reason to seperate Parliamentary electons from the Presidential elections.Suddenly, the elctions are to be combined. they are full of lies and excuses.

 

ZANU-PF has played tricks on the people of Zimbabwe for a very long time. Now therefore we urge all Zimbabweans to resist the extension of our suffering at the hands of this barbaric leader. We urge the army, members of the CIOs and the police to rally behind the majority of Zimbabweans and resist this ill-timed extention for Mugabe to rule Zimbabwe forever

We are also requesting the leadership of our neighbouring countries and the rest of SADC, to condemn this terroristic move by Mugabe. SADC countries are definitely affected, directly or indirectly, by the Zimbabwean crisis. Mugabe cannot be allowed to terrorise the whole region. Mugabe is a threat to peace in Southern Africa and SADC must realise that soon the people of Zimbabwe will say "enough is enough". Mugabe's decision to extend his tyranny is just the litmus to ignite the fires of freedom and defiance. That fire, once lit, will be unstoppable as it spreads across the savannahs of central and southern africa. Zimbabwe's neighbours will not be left unscathed.

 

 

It is high time we accept to the international community that we have failed to remove the tyrant using democratic means. We now need to adopt better methods to counter his barbaric methods to ramain in power. A barbarian is wild and you may never make any meaningful negotiations with one. There is no way Mugabe will accept any peaceful negotiations as any would pose a threat to his grip on power. Those in the diaspora must also get fully involved in resisting the extension of Mugabe's rule to 2010. That will be Thirty years in power.

 

However, he seems afraid of his neighbouring states. His speech at the conference clearly showed that he is afraid of his so called friends. He seems not sure whom to trust anymore. We need to pressurise SADC to act on such a move and this is where those in the dispora come into action.

 

 

People of Zimbabwe must brace for great resistance to further suffering. Mugabe must go now and it must be now.

 

Jay Jay Sibanda

 

cza_secretariat@yahoo.com  

 

CONCERNED ZIMBABWEANS ABROAD ( 076 976 0952 ) Johannesburg

 

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Zimbabwe's prospects for change!

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?id=2890

 

Bro Wilf Mbanga!

 

The recent elections in Zimbabwe provided Robert Mugabe with a golden opportunity to return the country to normality, to democracy and international recognition and assistance.

 

 

Tragically, that chance was squandered and now there is very little hope for the short or even medium term.

 

 

Why did he do it? Why did he blow this last chance to redeem himself, to put an end to isolation and ostracism from all but a few countries.  Even his African colleagues, while defending him in international fora for the sake of African solidarity – hold him at arm's length.   They really regard him as an embarrassment.  No longer does he receive regular invitations to state visits as he used to. 

 

 

The Nigerians, who defended him to the hilt in the Commonwealth and his nearest neighbours Mozambique and Zambia, not to mention South Africa, willingly gave a home to the dispossessed yet highly skilled white farmers who fled the Zanu (PF) mobs with little more than the clothes they stood up in.

 

 

His country is in an absolute mess. That much must surely be apparent even to him. There is no rule of law, no freedom of association or of the press. The police and army are politicized, the judiciary compromised, national institutions militarized.  Zimbabwe is virtually a police state. The election was run by the military.  The CIO is now in charge of food distribution.  The economy has contracted by 30% in the last two years, with inflation at 130%.

 

 

About three in five Zimbabweans are going to bed hungry tonight and one in four is HIV positive.  One in four is living in exile. In a population of 12 million that doesn't leave many who are not affected  by the tragedy that is Zimbabwe today.

 

 

As I speak tonight there is no fuel, no employment, no foreign currency, no security of tenure for property, no energy, and business confidence is at its lowest since independence. Health is in intensive care.  Coca Cola is unavailable for the first time in decades, because of a shortage of sugar in a country that used to export the commodity.

 

This is the lot of the average Zimbabwean. But the Zanu (PF) officials and their hangers on are cushioned from these hardships by an intricate and well-developed system of patronage.   They have been given jobs, farms, government contracts, licenses for hunting and photographic safaris – the list goes on and on.

 

One of the things Mugabe has successfully done is to compromise people, thus ensuring himself of their undying loyalty.  This is true of the entire upper echelons of Zimbabwean society now – cabinet ministers, senior government officials, army and police officers, heads of parastatals and indigenous businessmen. A lot of them are in receipt of stolen property, or have contravened exchange control regulations.

 

 

For as long as they toe the line, these offences are overlooked.  But let them dare to break ranks and the axe falls. Perfect examples of this is James Makamba – a businessman who dared to look at Grace Mugabe the wrong way, and former finance minister Chris Kuruneri who is still rotting in jail a year after being arrested.  He started questioning things and was in favour of valuing the Zimbabwe dollar. Not a good idea.

 

All those in power today know that their avarice has ruined the once-prosperous nation and they will never be chosen by the people to rule over them if free and fair elections are held.

 

A return to democracy effectively means loss of power, influence and control – and if they lose control most of them will surely end up in prison.  Mugabe himself could be brought to stand trial for genocide in Matabeleland.  Most of them would be prosecuted under a new government for their wholesale looting of state coffers and assets.

 

So any talk of a return to democracy for Zimbabwe would mean guaranteeing immunity from prosecution to today's ruling oligarchy – or thievocracy!

 

It would mean convincing them that they will be allowed to keep their ill-gotten gains, as well as a guarantee of their personal safety.  Because of course, not only have they been responsible for the material suffering of Zimbabweans, but – far more significantly than that - they have also directly or indirectly sanctioned the pre, post and mid-election violence that has taken place increasingly over the years and left many bereaved, maimed, raped or disabled.

 

Obviously this is an almost impossible task.  But is there any other way?

 

 

The Mugabe way is to up the stakes. He knows that he will one day have to compromise and so he is stacking whatever he can in his favour to give him a larger pile of bargaining chips. By this I mean statute books full of draconian legislation, stockpiles of armaments – so that if he makes a small concession it will be perceived by a world weary of his inhuman cruelty as significant in the light of his diabolic excesses. 

 

The opposition MDC is now planning mass action.  We know Mugabe will send his bully boys to crush this with brute force.  It will be interesting to see, first of all the response of the people to the call for mass action – knowing that they will be mercilessly beaten, arrested and even killed.  It will also be very interesting to see the level of violence unleashed on the protestors.  Will the army go in and mow them down? Or will the police simply thrash them, arrest a few ringleaders and let the rest go?

 

One symptom of Mugabe's insanity is that he has become unpredictable. He is truly a loose cannon at this stage. The other debatable point is how far he is actually in control of the army and the police.  This year has seen unprecedented levels of militarisation at every level – from cabinet to permanent secretaries, governors, members of parliament, several parastatals etc.  Does Mugabe have a firm hold on all these generals??  Nobody knows for certain.

 

 

Because of the fear of losing power, fear of being tried for genocide and massive corruption – it is unlikely that Mugabe will even consider a return to democracy. It looks as though we will have to wait until he is out of the picture. It is simply not an option for him at the moment.  The increasing militarisation that I have mentioned compounds the problem.  Armies give or obey orders – they don't ask people what they would like.

 

So what I'm saying is that the status quo is likely to remain with all the attendant problems and consequences.

 

 

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CIO warns of civil war!

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?linkcategoryid=27&linkid=35&id=2859
HARARE - Middle and junior-ranking officers of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) have recommended that President Robert Mugabe abandon the idea of postponing presidential elections from 2008 to 2010 saying these plans risk igniting civil war.

The details emerged as the feuding opposition MDC factions vowed to close ranks and fight Mugabe as a united front in a double effort to force him to abandon the “politically contentious plan.”

Intelligence officials interviewed this week said the CIO’s top directors who report directly to the President were buffering this message from reaching “Number 1”.

The CIO officers said several of their colleagues working on the “PP (presidential poll) assignment” had emphasised the need to rejuvenate the ruling party but still maintain the presidential election timetable, which must be held by March 2008.

“We are dyed-in-the-wool intelligence operatives and our mandate is to interact with the lowest members of society and provide feedback as frankly and accurately as possible to our principals,” said one junior officer. “Several of our officers have officially confirmed that there is anger out there over these plans to postpone the elections given the deepening hardships. Generally there is a strong feeling from voters that they will not support Zanu (PF) unless Mugabe retires. The President is however being badly advised by those who report to him directly,” he said, adding that this was the general sentiment among middle and junior ranking CIO officers, who constitute the majority of the 3,000-strong spy agency.

The officials said the “foot soldiers” - or junior and middle rank CIO officers deployed to mingle and interact with the ordinary people - had in the past few months conducted an “intelligence ballot” which supported the theory that “there is an urgent need to reconstitute Zanu (PF) through a new leadership” to enhance its electoral fortunes. They said most of the feedback suggested “Mugabe should be persuaded to go into dignified retirement.”

THE STORY OF THE MDC...1999 to 2006!!

Comprehensive statement issued by the MDC and important for your Historical Records
Sent to the Rev Mufaro Stig Hove (The Radical Soldier) by Bro William Bango (whom I hold in the highest esteem).
M.S.Hove. Cell: 0791463039 RSA. mufarostig@yahoo.co.uk
****************************************************************************

The Developing Crisis.
We are a product of unique historical circumstances. Our shared history of injustice and suffering impelled and determined our birth as a force for democracy in Zimbabwe, and our perceived common destiny continues to bind us as we struggle for a deliberately defined and better future.

Throughout the 1990’s the current regime simply abdicated the sacred responsibility to govern. It subverted the popular mandate bestowed by the people and became a regime of cronies superintending the welfare and economic well being of a few at the expense of the majority of Zimbabweans.

The political and economic fortunes of the country were rapidly sliding into political decay and economic collapse. Democracy was being slowly strangled and ultimately gave way to a vicious primitive dictatorship. People’s voices were virtually excluded from the management of public affairs, their own affairs, and a supposedly benevolent dictatorship was substituted for democratic consultation and democratic processes.

The collapsing economy spewed hundreds of thousands of workers into chronic unemployment and poverty in the urban areas, while in the rural areas millions were driven out of the mainstream economy, with their labour yielding only subsistence existence. Levels of poverty never before experienced in this country were fast becoming a permanent condition of existence. Mortality rates plummeted as the health sector collapsed and hospitals became totally dysfunctional; school dropout rates reached alarming levels as people concentrated on the crisis of daily sustenance and public funding dwindled and general infrastructure collapsed leaving vast swaths of the country virtually inaccessible.

For the people, poverty seemed to defeat all possibilities of relief and redress. Hope was replaced by general gloom and despondency. Then, as now, the only exit route, literally was to wait for eventual certain death from hunger, disease or political violence. The entire population was in a trap.

All these woes were not natural catastrophes. They were a deliberately crafted strategy of rulership by the regime. Poverty was deliberately invented and maintained. The central strategic objective of the regime was to create poverty as an instrument to make the people depended on handouts, thereby render them unquestioningly available to the rapacious caprices of unbridled dictatorial rule. As a captured weapon in the hands of the dictatorship, poverty became a tool to ruthlessly enforce political docility.

The People’s Response-- The National Working People’s Convention (NWPC).
In the context of this fast developing national crisis, the broad democratic forces in Zimbabwe—labour, women and youth organizations, civic groups, informal sector workers, students, peasants, the churches etc.,---were impelled by the common dire circumstances to come together under the auspices of The National Working People’s Convention (NWPC), review the situation and chart a path towards a common liveable future. The NWPC’s diagnosis of the crisis yielded a compelling path forward.

The NWPC accurately characterized the manifestations in the socio-economic field, the subversion of the separation of powers, the destruction of democracy and the democratic process, the serial violation of human rights, the general refusal to be accountable and to consult the people on all issues that affected them and a repressive constitution that fails to recognize and guarantee popular sovereignty.

These were correctly identified by the NPWC as simply symptoms of the general malaise. The root cause being a systematic failure of governance. Therefore, only a political solution could lay the basis for resolving the problems confronting the country. The NWPC Agenda for Action was anchored on two fundamental principles: (1) The critical need for a just people’s constitution and (2) crafting of policies that met the basic needs of the people. These fundamental principles, in themselves charted and impelled a path towards a sustainable political and economic dispensation for Zimbabwe .

All the democratic forces that assembled under the banner of the NWPC were under no illusion that about the practical import about the adopted resolutions and policies in general and the Agenda for Action in particular. They were both to be, and could only be implemented by a government that issued from a strong, democratic, popularly driven and organized movement of the people. There could be neither substitutes for nor short cuts to the vehicle that was to deliver social liberation. The people had to deliver their own method for liberation and there was a palpable hostility to any strategy that turned the people’s resolve and movement into handmaidens that sought to reform and sanitize the current dictatorship or be party to any brokered deals designed to achieve the same diabolical result and neutralize the undiluted thrust of the people’s organised interests.

The perceived movement, which was expected to eventually issue a redeeming popular government, was to be a broad people’s movement, strongly wedded to recognising and protecting the independent roles and mandates of the various organisations of the working people. Clearly, this was a firm instruction and unequivocal mandate to for the movement to immediately maintain the operational unity created by the NWPC and launch and sustain the democratic struggle as a broad united front until democracy is achieved.

As we gather here today, some among have got tired and went astray. They have defied the operational parameters defined and mandated by the NWPC. Today they are openly and shamelessly sending signals and overtures to the tyrannical regime for an empty compromise whose sole purpose is the achievement of individual political power that is bereft of people’s interests. Such is the nature of the tragic betrayal that has befallen the democratic forces in Zimbabwe over the past few months.

But the mainstream democratic movement has remained resolute. The MDC has remained loyal and maintained an unwavering commitment to the values and operational strategies charted by the NWPC. As we move on from this historic National Congress let us be more united and craft and implement policies that ensures that our inevitable liberation will be the product of and owned by all the broad democratic forces in Zimbabwe . The road has been long, perilous and difficult, but we shall prevail.

MDC Inaugural Congress.
The NWPC developed a National Agenda and identified how to carry it forward. That delivery vehicle became the MDC. Consequently, the MDC inaugural congress in February 2000, as with its formation in September 1999, was guided by the spirit, values, policies, resolutions and strategies of the NWPC. The party has remained faithful to the peoples’ ideals as expressed in the Agenda for Action by the NPWC. The Inaugural Congress set the stage to launch our blueprint to capture the various interests of the people into a broad programme of action to be implemented by an MDC government.

Over the past six years, we have formulated policies for our Political, Economic and Social Agenda that capture and express the political economic and social interests of the majority of Zimbabweans and we continue to celebrate our unity in diversity as a democratic movement with rich shared values and hopes.

All our policies and activities have consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to replacing the status quo with a popular, legitimate government driven by the people’s democratic force and anchored in a popular constitution. We continue to resist and neutralize all diabolical attempts to trap the movement in a groove of compromise with the dictatorship.

Through these relentless efforts, the MDC has now developed to become a central force on the Zimbabwean political terrain. Our performance in all local and national elections has demonstrated nationally, regionally continentally and indeed internationally that we are now the only dominant democratic political party in Zimbabwe today. We have scored major victories over the past six years and Congress has every reason to proudly recount and openly celebrate them. They are no mean achievements in the midst of tyranny.

THE OPERATIONAL POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT.
The valiant political victories that the movement scored were not won on a peaceful democratic political marketplace. Instead, they were snatched from the jaws of tyranny. We accepted, paid and continue to pay a heavy prize for using democratic methods against a political opponent who is totally contemptuous of, and violent to democracy, democratic processes and methods. For that we have no regrets.

Over the past six years, the party has been subjected to such a violent traumatic experience that today we can proudly claim that few political opposition political parties in modern times have survived the same levels repression as those consistently targeted, with the full might, of the state against the MDC. We have passed the test. Now we must prepare to govern with the resilience, fortitude and determination as have seen us survive the darkest and most dangerous times in the post independence history of this country.

The February 2000 Constitutional Referendum and The June 2000 Parliamentary Elections.
From the time of the formation of the party we were engaged in two battles: one organisational; the other defensive. Between the formation of the party in September 1999 and the Inaugural Congress in February 2000 the party concentrated on the establishment of an effective organizational structure on the ground. Wards, branches, district and provincial structures had to be established and stabilised and the party message had to percolate to the remotest villages.

Tragically, this intended programme of intensive mass mobilization had to be combined with a strategy to defend the nascent party structures and supporters against a ferocious onslaught from the ruling party backed by all state organs at its disposal. It was a clash of two political cultures. We sought to introduce a culture of peace, tolerance and democracy where dictatorship once reigned supreme.

With the party still in its infancy, we found ourselves going into a mobilization battle against the regime sponsored Constitution which was intended to render the dictatorship the natural political order in Zimbabwe . While the process of party building was in progress, we had to simultaneously rally the people of Zimbabwe to reject that gigantic confidence trick that the regime sought to bring under the guise of a “new” Constitution. Immediately after the Constitutional Referendum the party had to embark on the June 2000 parliamentary election campaign.

We operated daily under the sound of hostile gunfire with both the party structures and supporters targeted for destruction, the intention being to kill once and for all the idea of democracy, democratic processes and governance in Zimbabwe . Was remained of democratic culture had to be buried.

State-sponsored violence, the magnitude of which has no parallels in the post independence history of this country was unleashed and enveloped the country, creating such conditions of insecurity that for many of the party supporters, life expectancy began to measured in seconds rather than years.

The entire population was brutalized. Murder, rape, kidnappings and general violence became instruments of governance by the regime. Private property was routinely destroyed and there was a general breakdown of law and order. Law enforcement became heavily politicised along partisan lines and a supposedly protective state became a predatory one. The state became a captured instrument in the hands of the dictatorship. Every state organ and agent was turned into combatants against the MDC. Youth militias and rogue elements of the so-called war veterans marauded the country the country as virtual freebooters with specific instructions to destroy the MDC. It was virtually a war against the people. We had no state or legal protection and we had to craft our own survival methods and strategies. We prevailed.

The referendum campaign laid the context in which the violent political practices and pernicious, malicious and repressive legislation, which define the dictatorship today, were established and refined with each subsequent political campaign.

This hostile and dangerous political environment did not deter the MDC from its central objective of mobilizing the people to reject a proposed constitution that sought to entrench dictatorship and enslave them in perpetuity. The party successfully combined the tasks of party building, mass mobilisation and resistance, to defeat for the first time, and cut back the tentacles of tyranny. The people rejected the regime’s draft constitution.

It was a glorious victory for the brutalised people of Zimbabwe ; but much more significantly, it was a victory for democracy. It laid the foundation upon which future generations will continue to build an enduring democratic culture in our country. For the first time since independence, the people of Zimbabwe realised that with political power in their hands they can defeat injustice and lay a foundation for a future of their choice.

The referendum result was critical because it demonstrated to the entire world that the people of Zimbabwe were solidly behind the MDC and that the regime’s claim to be a people’s government was totally false. The crisis of governance in Zimbabwe became a matter of international public opinion because there was now a clear demonstration that the regime had lost the confidence of the people.

For the party as a whole, the message and lesson learnt is loud and clear: The people of Zimbabwe demand to craft their own constitution. Congress must therefore reaffirm its commitment to realising this objective through the methods demanded by the people.

Emboldened by the result of the February Constitutional Referendum the party prepared for the June 2000 parliamentary elections with courage and determination. Our comprehensive Election Manifesto captured and expressed the broad interests of the people of Zimbabwe for long time neglected by the regime. The Agenda for Action of the NWPC constituted the launching pad of our message. We effectively transmitted a message of hope, relief and national revival to the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe .

We promised a peaceful democratic culture under a people’s constitution; effective and impartial law enforcement; judiciary independence; land reform; general economic recovery, job creation, poverty eradication and freedom from hunger. All these were promises broken by the regime over a period of 20 years of violent misrule.

With a systematic record of failure, neglect and arrogance the regime had no tangible issue to project, no credibility to deliver believable promises. They had neither fresh policy nor old programmes to repackage and sell to the people. The regime stared at certain electoral defeat and the only electoral policy and strategy available was that of violence, which was officially unleashed without let or hindrance.

The violence that was unleashed during the February Constitutional Referendum was intensified and given a new impetus. The regime abandoned any semblance of democracy and legality. State-sponsored violence became the mode of day-to-day governance. Murder, torture, rape and all kinds of human rights violations against MDC members and supporters became regular electoral campaign events, with the perpetrators enjoying open state support and protection.

Groups of war veterans and ruling party youth militias with open state material and political support roamed the length and breath of the country murdering and terrorising innocent people at will. There was a total breakdown of law and order induced and orchestrated by the state and the civil administration of the country had virtually collapsed and replaced by a power structure resembling martial law. The election was conducted in political conditions that resembled a war zone.

Under the guise of the so-called “land reform,” widespread violence sealed off the rural areas from MDC campaigns, and crimes that can only rival fascism and Nazism in scale and wickedness were unleashed against the people. A well planned, systematically implemented and effectively managed infrastructure of violence left virtually no room for free political campaigning.

Our parliamentary candidates and party election workers could not campaign freely and were prime targets of the regime’s violence. Some had to abandon their homes and constituencies, while others operated virtually underground. Hundreds of thousands of our party supporters were physically prevented from casting their votes. At many polling centres, the electoral system had been manipulated to “net-in” only those believed to be ruling party supporters.

Electoral violence was complemented by authoritarian electoral management machinery and administrative dictatorial powers both of which ensured that the election was stolen before even the first vote was cast. There was extensive use of the dictatorial presidential powers in support of regime appointed agencies such as the Election Directorate to achieve the desired fraudulent outcome.

Changes to the electoral laws to bend the process in the regime’s favour were made only a few days before the poll. Handpicked civil servants in the Election Directorate supported by shadowy security agents ran the poll in place of an Independent Electoral Commission. Poll observation was routinely obstructed by the regime with some election observers denied accreditation. Overall, this combination of violence, presidential dictatorial powers and a ferocious bureaucratic stranglehold on the electoral process was meant to totally obliterate the electoral chances of the MDC.

However, in spite of the hostile and dangerous political environment in which we mounted our electoral campaign, the MDC’s poignant message could not be stopped. Through our newly created party structures we were able to disseminate our message to the remotest villages in the country and devise effective strategies to protect members and supporters from the worst excesses the regime’s violence.

The atrocities perpetrated by the regime began to attract widespread international attention and condemnation. Consequently we galvanised the region, the continent, the commonwealth and the entire international community to our democratic cause.

From June 2000 until today, the tyrannical regime has remained on the radar of international attention. Democratic forces through the world have rallied behind us to ensure that the regime justly gets the pariah status that it has brought upon itself. Our internal responses to violence and external outreach programme have been quite effective. Zimbabweans and majority opinion and organisations in the international community rejected both the electoral process and outcome.

However, the election results demonstrated the determination of Zimbabweans to reclaim their freedom. Voter determination and turnout were so strong that the regime’s violence and rigging mechanism could not alter the result in the 57 constituencies that we won; while in 39 other constituencies, evidence of electoral fraud was so overwhelming that the regime had to manipulate the judiciary system to ensure that MDC election petitions received inordinate delays.

By 2005, not a single election petition had received a fair hearing and concluded at the courts and they had to fall by the way side because of fresh parliamentary elections that were due. If the 2000 parliamentary election had been conducted the most basic or rudimentary conditions of freeness and fairness, the MDC would have easily netted in between 90 and 100 seats. We would have started the process to usher in an MDC administration.

The June 2000 parliamentary election was therefore a major victory for the people and the party. In addition to the regime’s defeat at the referendum the parliamentary elections three months later demonstrated once again that the regime had lost the legitimacy to govern and remained in power through the use of force.

The crisis that started with the referendum was exacerbated by the fraudulent elections. >From that time until today the regime has sacrificed every facet of national life and the general welfare of the people of Zimbabwe on the altar of sheer political survival. Dictatorial rule became increasingly totalitarian as the regime sought to control every aspect of society.

During the period between the June 2000 and the March 2002 presidential election the regime waged war against the MDC and all democratic forces in Zimbabwe . Our definition as a civilian law-abiding political party was removed and we were publicly pronounced as enemies of state and therefore targets of the most vicious administrative action. Illegal action on ordinary party supporters by the police, army and security agents occurred with frightening regularity with absolutely no means of legal redress.

MDC leaders and political activists were routinely arrested and brutalized on trumped up charges and political violence continued throughout the country. Human rights violations became a critical instrument of control and governance for the regime. Labour and civic organizations continued to be targets of violent state action and illegal arrests and detentions. Independent media journalist were constantly harassed and arrested and newspapers banned. Church leaders were demonised for speaking out against the regime’s record of violence and torture and women’s organisation were singled out for the most degrading and inhuman treatment. The whole society was held to dictatorial ransom. The objective was to cow down the entire population into submission.

These actions of physical violence and intimidation were complemented by draconian legislation designed to buttress an infrastructure of dictatorship otherwise maintained by brute force. Using its fraudulent majority in the parliament, the regime bulldozed all voices of reason, passed the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to prescribe and nearly proscribe political activity, close down democratic political discourse, and shrink democratic space. POSA’s sister legislation, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) targeted and muzzled the press to immunize the regime’s corruption and brutalities from public scrutiny. These pernicious pieces of legislation were complemented by the ever-present severe and unwritten methods of tyrannical rule and law enforcement.

The tyrannical political terrain that was created made it virtually impossible for the MDC to function normally as a political party engaged in democratic political activity. It was an attempt to deliberately nudge the MDC into violent precipitous action and thereby provide an excuse for the regime to accuse the party of insurrection, use all the might at its disposal and crush and ban the movement.

We refused to fall into this diabolical trap. In spite of the daily acts of provocation that we endured, we remained committed to peaceful democratic methods of resistance. We launched various acts of peaceful defiance and civil disobedience to confront the regime constantly. The party remained strong and the various democratic mass actions that we engaged in demonstrated to the regime that the people’s quest for their freedom remained undefeated.

The March 2002 Presidential Election.
The state-sponsored violence that was unleashed during the June 2000 parliamentary elections was sustained and intensified during the intervening period leading to the presidential election. The entire state machinery operated virtually like a gigantic violent organ of the ruling party targeting the MDC.

Violence against us became a system of government administration and a command structure stretching from the remotest village up to the ruling party headquarters in Harare ensured the installation and maintanance of an extremely efficient infrastructure of violence, which touched every region, and aspect of national life.

The Defence Act, Police Act and the relevant sections of the Constitution were operationally suspended for the purpose of fighting the MDC. The overall army commander openly called for an insurrection should a legitimately elected MDC government come to power and all the other service chiefs openly associated themselves with that statement. The police and the secret service actively participated in campaigning for the ruling party and some committed openly criminal acts with impunity, and units of the army made frequent forays into the high-density suburbs to brutalise innocent civilians. Law enforcement virtually collapsed and any criminal act against the MDC and in support of the ruling party was officially sanctioned.

A number of our supporters were killed for holding their particular political opinions and the systematic violation of human rights reached a new crescendo. Leaders and party supporters were frequently harassed, arrested and detained under trumped up charges and well laid out ambush plans for the assassination of some members of the leadership miraculously failed. What was supposed to be a democratic inter-party political contest assumed the ominous proportions of the state against an unarmed political party. The volatility of the political situation nationally could only be described as one of low intensity conflict.

This violent situation was complemented by the existence of the newly promulgated draconian anti-democratic laws designed to snuff out all those democratic practices and processes that could not be destroyed by violence alone. POSA criminalized legitimate political debate and the freedom of association and assembly while AIPPA crippled the freedom to disseminate democratic ideas through the press. The movement virtually became a besieged party operating under a barrage of physical and paralegal attacks from the state and the ruling party.

At the height of the electoral campaign three MDC leaders including the party president were hauled before the courts on trumped up charges of treason. This was a deliberate, cynical and vicious attempt to decapitate the party and cause chaos, confusion and hopelessness among the membership. The trial dragged on for over a year and the charges were thrown out of court. Resources, which had been reserved for several party programmes had to be deployed for the defence of the leadership. However, in spite of this attempt to strangle the party, both the leadership and the generality of the members struggled on with the campaign heroically.

The electoral playing field was extremely uneven, tilting in favour of the ruling party. The voters’ roll was chaotic, with many ghost voters while hundreds of thousands of both old and new voters having been left out of the roll. This shambolic nature of the voters was exacerbated by the arbitrary amendment of the citizenship laws, which deprived hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans of their citizenship and the right to vote.

There was no independent electoral body. The Election Directorate and the Registrar-General’s department stuffed by the regime’s nominees and ruling party loyalists, functioned virtually as a rigging mechanism for the government. Military personnel performed key duties in the electoral process and the entire election administration system became militarised and presided over by a civil-military junta. The critical part of the democratic process could neither be expected to be superintended by, nor democracy to issue from such a highly compromised system.

In spite of all the bureaucratic impediments and incessant state-organised violence, Zimbabweans were determined to rid themselves of this tyranny. They turned out in their thousands to cast their vote and the reaction of the state turned the voting process into chaos. In the rural areas some polling stations were closed well ahead of time, while in the urban areas police had to violently intervene using helicopters, teargas and truncheons to stop people from casting their vote.

The result clearly demonstrated the much-anticipated MDC victory. The regime took time to announce the election figures and when they did they issued contradictory figures, which clearly demonstrated serious problems in manipulating an MDC victory into a defeat. Once again, through violence and the abuse of the state apparatus, we were cheated of our victory. Zimbabweans and the bulk of the international community are aware of this victory and the illegitimacy of the present regime.

We took the only route that seemed available to us at the time and petitioned the High Court. The long-drawn out legal battle is still in process and we do not expect any justice from the manipulated judiciary system. However we approached the court because we believed that it would provide us with a platform and opportunity to reveal to Zimbabweans and the international community how the presidential election was stolen.

The Internationalisation of the Zimbabwe Crisis.
Since the February 2000 Constitutional Referendum the focus of the international region and the international community had been trained on the evolving violent political situation in Zimbabwe. Many countries and organisations had been expressing grave concern at the violence deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe. The African Union, Commonwealth, the European Union and the United States of America all made serious attempts to persuade the regime from waging war against defenceless people.

Other organisations such as the International Bar Association and the World Council of Churches added their voices to no avail. The response of the regime was to pour vitriol on any voices of reason, claiming that it had the right of might to treat Zimbabweans any way that pleased it. It banned a selected group of countries, foreign non-governmental organisations and perceived to be critical from entering Zimbabwe and observing the election. The election was to be conducted away from the scrutiny of the international community.

The Commonwealth Conference that took place in Australia shortly before the presidential election failed to persuade the regime to put in place measures to enable the holding of free and fair elections, but ended up setting a troika composed of Nigeria, Australia and South Africa to try to broker a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis. A series of diplomatic engagements by the troika yielded virtually nothing, as the regime spurned any and all political formulae meant to dismantle the dictatorship in order to resolve the crisis of governance.

The persuasive efforts of the European Union and the USA could not derail the regime’s efforts to maintain illegitimate political power at any cost. It was the regime’s hostility towards all these international overtures that brought about targeted sanctions by the USA, EU Australia and New Zealand against the regime and its key supporters. The intransigence of the regime created for it conditions. We as a movement had absolutely no hand in that development. We did not and do not control political processes and foreign policy in those countries. The actions of the regime internationalised the crisis because the international community no longer regards human rights violations as a domestic matter, contrary to the regime’s despicable claims.

The Commonwealth troika took the initiative soon after the elections to diffuse the potentially explosive political situation that gripped the nation after the stolen election and called for dialogue between the MDC and ZANU PF. The mandate of the troika was to promote reconciliation between the two political parties in order to create a political environment conducive to addressing the issues of food shortages, economic recovery, restoration of political stability, the rule of law and the conduct of future elections. South Africa and Nigeria were to foster this engagement. The dialogue started in April 2000.

We were committed as a party to exploring all avenues towards resolving the crisis of governance in the country peacefully and we agreed to engage the regime in dialogue in good faith. We chose a team to carry the party’s political position to the talks within the confines of a strict mandate. Our position was that the goal of national dialogue must be based on an unconditional return to legitimacy through a presidential poll that was free and fair under peaceful political conditions. The negotiating team was tasked to demand that before serious dialogue could start the regime had to implement fourteen (14) confidence-building measures that restored a situation of tranquillity conducive to fruitful talks. These included:

1. An immediate stop to the violence that engulfed the nation.
2. An end to all political persecutions and political prosecutions.
3. The immediate disbanding of all ZANU PF militias and immediate cessation of further training.
4. The disarming of all war veterans and guarantees that they will not be rearmed and that they will not be rearmed and that they will not engage in political activities as an armed group operating virtually above the law, but only as ordinary Zimbabwe citizens.

5. An undertaking not to grant amnesty for the perpetrators of murder, rape, torture political violence and other serious crimes.

6. Am immediate stop to on-going human rights violations of all kinds.
7. An end to selective and biased law enforcement. Police should be non-partisan in the execution of their duties.
8. An end to the use of the Central Intelligence Organisation for partisan political activities.
9. A stop to the use of the Zimbabwe Defence Force (ZDF) in civilian policing duties or political activities of any kind.

10. Respect and impartial enforcement of the rule of law.
11. Repeal of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

12. An end to the use of the national broadcaster (ZBC) as a partisan media instrument.
13. A commitment to stop the legislative use of Presidential powers in these areas, undermining the authority of parliament.

14. A commitment to humanitarian ethics of food and relief distribution on grounds of need, without partisan or adverse distinction of ant kind.

It is important that the party is fully aware of the accurate mandate given to the negotiating team. Our position was that before any meaningful talks could be entered into, all these 14 confidence-building measures were to be implemented by the regime in order to create a peaceful political environment conducive to dialogue.

The inter-party dialogue was convened in early April 2002. The opening session was devoted to the reading of opening statements and expressions of political positions, the exchange of position papers and it was agreed to resume a few days later in April 2000 for deliberations on substantive issues. It was anticipated by the facilitators that the talks should be concluded by early May 2002. At the next meeting held on April 10 2002, the inter-party team agreed on the rules of procedure during the deliberations and the agenda for discussions.

The agenda closely mirrored the concerns raised by the MDC in our confidence-building position paper and agreed that there was an urgent need to create conditions for normal political activity. The critical issues agreed to were as follows:

A. Creating conditions for normal political activity.
1. Legitimacy of elections and government.
2. Sovereignty of Zimbabwe.
3. Multipartism in Zimbabwe.
4. Confidence building measures in Zimbabwe.
5. Politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe
6. Constitution and laws of Zimbabwe.
B. Economic development/ recovery plan and mobilisation of resources.
1. Consensus on land reform----Abuja process.
C. Way forward.
1. Adoption of Programme of work.
Both the MDC and ZANU PF had agreed to the above agenda. Our negotiating team went fully prepared to engage in serious discussions. ZANU PF however realised that they had been put in a corner from where there was little hope of escape except to take part in the dialogue seriously and they started looking for flimsy excuses to break away from the talks. Their first salvo was to ask for in an inordinately long and unreasonable adjournment to 13 May 2002 ostensibly because the ministers in their team claimed prior government commitments. Their other reason was that they needed time to prepare for substantive discussions on the agenda items.

ZANU PF maintained a precondition for serious talks to begin. They insisted that the MDC should not take the matter of the rigged election and therefore the illegitimacy of the regime to court. We rejected this condition but indicated that we would consider abandoning the legal route if in our opinion the talks progressed satisfactorily and fruitfully.

There was a court deadline for the submission of our election petition and we continued with our preparations to submit the required court papers. The court deadline for the submission of our election petition fell within the period before the resumption of the talks and our legal team filed the papers on the due date. ZANU PF used the submission of our court papers as an excuse to break the talks and walk away. They argued that the court processes should be exhausted first before dialogue, if need be, could resume. Four years later, the courts have not even begun to hear the main case in our election petition.

It is clear that the regime had no intention from the very beginning to engage in serious political dialogue to resolve the political crisis in the country. They came to the talks under serious internal and external pressure. Internally the rigged election had created high levels of political tension which could have exploded at any time; and externally many countries were piling pressure on the regime to engage the MDC and chart a way forward in resolving the crisis. The regime agreed to the talks to give the appearance talking as a strategy to diffuse both internal and external pressures.

As indicated above, our main election petition has been pending for over four years now and there are no indications that the hearing will take place any time soon. We won the right to examine all election materials pertaining to the presidential poll but the Registrar General engaged in delaying tactics to frustrate us in this exercise and when the materials were finally provided, our examination team realised that the seals on a number of ballot boxes had been tampered with. The election materials could not be of much use to our case. There does not seem to have been any readily available remedy. ZANU PF refused to negotiate, while the state placed bureaucratic obstacles and the courts have since engaged in delaying tactics to hear the case.

Quiet Diplomacy.
The troika’s efforts to broker dialogue between the MDC and ZANU PF were scuttled by the open intransigence of the regime but the dispute remained internationalised. The regime became extremely isolated. Nigeria and South Africa intermittently tried to come up with fresh moves, all systematically spurned by the regime. Ultimately, South Africa decided to go it alone and launched its so-called quiet diplomacy, which turned out to be a ploy to gradually reduce international pressure on the regime and assist it to regain recognition and legitimacy by the back door.

Any action on several international fora by any country or countries; group or groups or progressive individuals to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis immediately receives stiff opposition from South Africa. Efforts by the international community to create effective mechanisms to bring the regime to account for its record of misrule have been systematically blunted by South Africa. It has successfully fought more battles on the international fora to protect the regime than the regime itself could have achieved. In our genuine pursuit to leave no stone unturned in the quest for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, we have met with the South Africans on numerous occasions encountered but achieved no positive outcome. We acme to the conclusion that South Africa was only interested in buying time for the regime and regarded the MDC as the junior partner in the political equation which must do ZANU PF’s bidding. We reject that without any equivocation or apology.

South Africa has arrogated to itself the right to veto any initiatives on Zimbabwe, which are likely to produce a resolution to the crisis that is inimical to the dictatorial interests of the regime. It has become part of the problem rather than engage in honest brokerage to produce a resolution of the crisis that furthers the interests of the region as a whole.

While we are not sealing off contacts with the South African government, we are now extremely sceptical about their sincerity as honest brokers in the crisis. It is up to the South African government to redeem their bona fides as fair players and honest brokers in the Zimbabwe crisis of governance.

Mobilising the People----The June 2003 Mass Action.
After the collapse of the inter-party dialogue we followed the only logical course available to the party. We went back to the people to explain, to strengthen our party organs and structures and generally mobilise them to engage in peaceful mass action to confront a tyrannical and arrogant regime. State sponsored violence did not stop; instead it was intensified as a measure to keep a restless population subdued. Arbitrary arrests, harassment of civilians by soldiers, impartial law enforcement and human rights violations all continued unabated. The population became besieged by a regime bend on extracting legitimacy from the people violently.

This situation of low intensity conflict was exacerbated by the collapse of the economy. In the urban areas, thousands of workers lost their jobs as companies closed. Food shortages became acute as the effect the chaotic “land reform” programme began to take its toll. Chronic neglect in the rural areas and the politicisation of food aid saw millions starving. The effects of HIV/Aids ran riot, as the bankrupt regime failed to provide for both medical and welfare relief. The population was being assaulted from all angles. The people were constantly beleaguered.

It was in this context, where all democratic avenues were closed and no hope for socio-economic relief that we sought to mobilise the people and demonstrate to the regime that the people are not prepared to endure arbitrary rule indefinitely.

The June 2003 peaceful mass action indicated clearly that the MDC was the legitimate authority in the country with the undoubted popular allegiance of the majority of Zimbabwe. Our goal was never to seek a violent confrontation with the regime as claimed by our detractors; instead, we intended to lay bare to the region and the international community that the regime remained in power only through the use force. It was therefore an illegitimate regime. For five solid days the forces of democracy under the leadership of the MDC, brought the country to a standstill and the regime could only react to our initiatives. We resisted all provocation, which the regime intended to use as an excuse for a formal declaration of a state of emergency in order to destroy the party, and our structures remain intact and resilient. We called off the protest when we were satisfied that our objective had been achieved.

The response of the regime was predictable. All the security forces were placed on red alert against a defenceless people embarking on no-violent mass action. A lot of brutalities were committed against unarmed people during the period of the mass action itself. Hundreds of people were arrested, detained and tortured for no preferred or proven charges and released without trial. After the mass action people going about their business peacefully in their neighbourhoods were routinely brutalised by uniformed forces without any recourse to the protection of the law. The regime continued to trample on people’s political and civil liberties with impunity.

The Struggle for the Restoration of Genuine Democratic Elections in Zimbabwe----RESTORE!
In spite of the brutalities associated with the suppression of our mass action, we did not succumb to tyranny. Instead the democratic resistance gained momentum throughout 2003 and 2004. Our democratic resistance was organised around five key democratic demands, which constituted the minimum standards for the restoration of genuine democratic elections in Zimbabwe. We applied constant pressure for the regime to:

1. Restore the rule of law.
2. Restore basic freedoms and rights.
3. Establish an Independent Election Commission.
4. Restore public confidence in the electoral process
5. Restore the Secrecy of the ballot
We believed that these principles, based on the SADC Parliamentary Forum Election Norms and Standards, and are common in most SADC countries, were and are a prerequisite to the exercise of our fundamental human rights and we demanded that the regime legislated them into place before the 2005 parliamentary elections. These demands were not new, instead they run through the entire MDC political programme since the formation of the party.

We mobilised a sustained campaign of domestic and international agitation that was quite effective. Our demands were captured by the SADC region and transformed into a programme of action. SADC formerly adopted the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections in 2004. The party took a principled position that no democratic value could be added to the nation if we took part in future elections under conditions that were tailor-made to rig the poll in ZANU PF’s favour before even the first vote was cast. That step was intended to ensure that the fake legitimacy, which the regime derived from staging a semblance of competitive electoral politics, would be removed.

The regime could no longer violently ignore our demands since the whole regions’ attention was then focussed on the electoral conditions in Zimbabwe ahead of the March 2005 parliamentary elections. For the first time since the June 2000 parliamentary elections, it had to concede at least to some of the demands, which it believed did not seriously undermine its tyrannical rule.

In response to local and regional political pressure, the regime used the parliamentary process to introduce superficial electoral innovations. A so-called independent electoral commission, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the use of translucent ballot boxes were legislated into force. In addition, the electoral laws were tightened to make extremely difficult to approach the courts seeking a nullification of the election results on the basis of ZANU PF violence, intimidation, denial of food and other human rights violations.

We remain opposed to the manner in which ZEC was introduced, its composition and its preponderant political leanings. It is clearly not an independent body. Our proposal was that the two parties should discuss the composition of an independent electoral commission and then pass on the agreed position to parliament to effect the relevant legislation. That way the neutrality and political independence of the electoral body could be guaranteed and become generally acceptable to all Zimbabweans.

Instead, ZANU PF bulldozed the process and used the parliamentary route so that its fraudulent majority could ensure that both the format and composition of ZEC would safeguard the political interests of the ruling party. The chairman of ZEC and the majority of the commissioners are known ZANU PF activists and can in no way be regarded as independent. In addition, ZEC was not a constitutional body, but remained subservient to the Electorate Directorate and the Electoral Supervisory Commission, all of which functioned openly as ZANU PF organs. It arrived on the political scene as a highly compromised and partisan body and no free and fair elections could be expected from its activities.

The simple introduction of translucent ballot boxes without addressing the critical issues of the political environment in which the electoral contest took place did not improve strengthens the democratic process. Translucent ballot boxes on their own did not stop vote rigging, intimidation and all other irregularities. Overall, the electoral “reforms” were simply cosmetic and designed to ward off regional pressure for an even electoral playing field. These reforms were subverted and ultimately did not significantly change the rules of the electoral game, increase room for political fair play or enhance the democratic process.

We remained resolute that no useful purpose could be served by participating in elections under those conditions. However, the leadership listened to wise counsel from the membership, from our supporters, the region, the continent and the international community. The gist of the advice was to take part in the poll, demonstrate the glaring democratic electoral reform deficit, re-establish and re-affirm the yardstick against which the dictatorship could continue to be evaluated. The arrogant insincerity of the regime had to be exposed.

The March 2005 Parliamentary Election.
We decided to take part in the March 2005 parliamentary elections under protest because it was clear to the party that the electoral playing field was tilted heavily in favour of the ruling party. POSA made the campaign conditions extremely difficult. Through POSA, ZANU PF regulated all our campaign activities through the requirement that the police sanction all political meetings---from rallies to confidential political strategy meetings. Using the police and the security agents, the regime was able to eavesdrop on all our sensitive preparatory political meetings, and this cannot be acceptable in a normal functioning democracy.

The voters’ registration process was haphazard and the voter’s register itself was still grossly inaccurate and thousands of potential voters were still not in the voters register and the newly created ZEC had not started to function. It had neither personnel nor resources. Although the campaign itself witnessed a noticeable reduction in instances of physical violence, the infrastructure of subterranean intimidation and other forms of human rights violations remained quite effective.

In the rural areas, the entire state administrative machinery was transformed from normal functions to serve as a vast ZANU PF intimidation structure. ZANU PF district councillors and chiefs openly intimidated villagers to vote for the ruling party and threatened dire consequences should the opposition win at identified polling stations. In some areas villages suspected of opposition sympathies denied food relief while in other areas the distribution of food relief was withheld pending the outcome of the election and they were threatened with food denial should the MDC win at polling stations in their locality.

Access to food became a critical inimidatory factor in the rural areas. In addition the electoral law ensured that candidates were absolved and immunised from irregularities arising from the activities of their supporters. This meant that unless all the incidences of violence and food denial could be proved to have been perpetrated by the particular ruling party candidate in a given constituency, the opposition party had no form of legal redress.

Party loyalists manned the election process. Known ZANU PF supporters and activists were engaged as returning officers and served in other critical capacities while security agents played a key role in the whole process. This process of swamping the entire election administration machinery with ZANU PF operatives created the context in which vote rigging, including simple ballot stuffing was executed. The counting of the votes was chaotic with contradictory figures being released for some constituencies, while in others the number of votes cast were suspiciously high for a normal election; and the party was not represented at the national vote coordination centre.

There is absolutely no doubt that the vote was rigged given the circumstances in which it was conducted and the heavily biased election administration machinery that conducted the poll. We came back with a reduced representation of 41 seats but in our calculation the party actually won in about 94 constituencies. Consequently the party gathered evidence in about 16 constituencies where rigging was so extensive that an impartial judiciary would have considered them open and shut cases and found for the opposition.

However even the legal route was closed to us. The Electoral Court that the regime set up patently unconstitutional. All our efforts to have the situation rectified were resisted and we felt that we could not subject ourselves to the jurisdiction of an unconstitutional court, which meant that the cases fell by the wayside.

The regime continued with its onslaught on the people. Over the past six years, the regime has been creating poverty rather than wealth and jobs as a means to control and subjugate the people. Now it has come up with a new and more devastating strategy: To eliminate the poor who are the products of its own handiwork. This has been the sole objective of the so-called “Operation Murambatsvina.” Millions of people have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed and lived in the open through the bitter cold months of 2005. What kind of a housing programme is it that starts by destroying people’s homes and rendering them homeless? Operation Murambatsvina was nothing but an open war against the people. It was a matter of the ruling party using the state apparatus to launch a pre-emptive strike and throw into disarray the victims of its on policies before they could organise and seek a democratic answer to their predicament.

We have the support of the democratic international community and we have the answer. That answer is democratic resistance. Let us mobilise all sections of the nation and launch the final bid for our freedom.

The 12 October 2005 Crisis.
We participated in the March 2005 parliamentary election reluctantly because we knew that the electoral terrain would never produce a free and fair expression of the people’s political choice. The electoral process and the result vindicated us. To us the only viable route forward was one of peaceful democratic resistance to compel the regime to yield to the people’s demands for democratic reforms to enable the holding of free and fair elections.

Today, the peaceful democratic resistance route offers itself as the only available route to compel the regime to put in place democratic reforms to usher free and fair elections. Continued participation in fake electoral contests would only serve to strengthen the regime’s propaganda that such elections signified the presence of a vibrant democracy in the country and therefore the regime was legitimate and democratic.

To fortify this false perception, soon after the March 2005 parliamentary election the regime initiated moves to yet again amend the constitution to introduce a senate. In the regime’s propaganda, senate was supposed to signify the “broadening” and “deepening” of democracy through an expansion of parliamentary representation. This was simply a ruse or a cheap trick and the reality was different.

Senate is purely a ZANU PF project, which adds absolutely no value to the resolution of the current crisis of governance facing the nation. It is part and parcel of ZANU PF’s succession plan. The idea was to create a political home or parking slot for the ZANU PF dead wood that can never succeed in an electoral context. In that way, having joined the gravy train, feelings of alienation, exclusion and bitterness would be removed from that group and render them willing to accept whatever succession plans are on offer.

The question that confronted the party was whether or not to participate in the senate elections and strengthen, bring to fruition the ZANU PF project? We had consistently opposed constitutional amendments as false start in, in favour of a people driven constitutional process, as the fundamental step in resolving the crisis of governance in the country.

In addition we had demonstrated in June 2000, March 2002, March 2005 and during countless parliamentary elections that free and fair elections are impossible until an electoral framework fashioned along the lines of our RESTORE document are in place. The question was what value would participation in the senate elections add to people’s struggle for democracy, good governance, the rule of law, economic recovery etc.?

To us the answer was quite clear and eloquent. Absolutely no value at all. Instead participation would have aborted or set back the democratic struggle by many years.

We objected to our being made handmaidens to plans whose aim was to create a dictatorial structure that enabled tyrannical rule to be inherited. Our position on the crisis of governance in this country is quite clear. We are convinced that it is only through a comprehensive and people driven constitution that democracy and good governance in Zimbabwe can ultimately be guaranteed.

Piecemeal or patchwork constitutional, as has been the experience with the current regime over the past 26 years only resulted in the entrenchment of dictatorship and the immense suffering of the people. This has been a fundamental principle that guided the deliberations of the NWPC and constituted the launching pad of the party. It was and still remains the major reason for the formation of the MDC. To breach that principle would mean that party loses its reason to exist.

We could not simultaneously be fighting dictatorship on one hand and strengthening it on the other. The MDC shall never be used as an instrument for the continued subjugation of the people of Zimbabwe.

It was precisely on the basis of fundamental differences on this sacred principle that the October 2005 split in the party occurred. There were those among us who got tired of the struggle opted for a political course that sought to compromise with the regime in order to create a political context and environment for second “Unity Accord” or better still an “Internal Settlement” This was simply a splinter group. Those of us in the mainstream MDC refused to betray the fundamental values and principles of the people and the party and we remain firm and resolute, committed to bringing about democracy and good governance to the country and put an end to the suffering of the people.

Some in the splinter group mounted what turned out to be a fake parliamentary opposition to the constitutional amendment designed to bring about the senate. The more honest among them including some key individuals among the party leadership in parliament were even absent when the crucial vote was taken. This was a clear indication of support for the senate project.

Those who opted to collaborate with the regime have distorted issues to come up with outrageous justifications for their action. No purpose can ever be served by narrating their position. They have made reference to democracy when in fact by their very actions they sought to link hands with the regime to destroy the democratic struggle and chances of bringing abort democratic governance in this country.

The MDC is a party that was formed on the basis of a shared history of suffering at the hands of the regime. It is a diverse party irrevocably bound by a civic equality as members of the movement. It is the only political party that lays a verified claim to having a nationwide rather that a regional or ethnic appeal. Let us keep it that way. Let us continue to celebrate and jealously guard the richness of our diversity and never allow the forces of tyranny to divide us.

Let us remain focussed on the struggle because there are more ominous developments ahead. We know that the regime is finalising a parliamentary bill to abandon the presidential elections scheduled for 2008, in favour of yet another constitutional amendment to enabled Mugabe’s handpicked successor to inherit the dictatorship until 2010. This is part and parcel of a strategy that started with the senate project supported by our erstwhile colleagues who went astray.

As a party let us brace ourselves to resist this sinister agenda with all our numbers and democratic might. We must now stop the dictatorship from continuing to play havoc with the lives and welfare of Zimbabweans. The agenda for action now must be to force the regime to yield to the people’s demand for free and fair electoral conditions ahead of the presidential elections of 2008.

The road has been long and hard. We have been through times so hard and traumatic those who continuously deride us cannot even begin to imagine them. Let us not be swayed or deviate. Together, let us walk the last mile to our freedom.

18 March 2006
Harare, Zimbabwe.

"Mugabe mudenga!....Roverai pasi!......Hezvoko!......"

Mr Handsome...handsome that's all! (More handsome than Jonathan!)

 

 

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http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/inflation121.15608.html
By Tendai Biti
Last updated: 12/12/2006 17:33:35
IN THE corridors of the Zanu PF government, hardly a day passes without unprecedented episodes that are both tragic and comic.

The on going spat between Finance minister Hebert Murerwa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono is one such episode reflecting the concoction of both the tragic and the laughable in the Zanu PF corridors o power.

Several months ago, we made the point that this government is full of cartoon characters and we were not far from the truth.

At the centre of the fall-out between Gono and Murerwa is the $400 billio printed and spent by the RBZ governor in an unprecedented spree of quasi-fiscal expenditure. The net effect of the quasi-fiscal adventurism was to increase money supply by 1000 percent.

According to Murerwa, this growth in money supply (M3) was at the core of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation. Put crudely, in as far as Murerwa is concerned, Gono is the architect of the country's defined number one enemy: inflation.

In his defence, Gono has produced correspondence that shows that the quasi-fiscal expenditure was at the express request and approval by Murerwa.

In addition, he has justified quasi-fiscal adventurism on the basis of "urgency" and "emergency situations." The MDC believes that whatever correspondence and whatever requests by Murerwa, Gono had no right to succumb to the seduction of fiscal insanity.

For starters, in terms of section 6 of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Act, Gono's brief is a monetary one, no more no less. More important is the unconstitutional nature of Gono's activities. In terms of the Zimbabwe Constitution, section 102 (3), all government expenditure should come from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and it should be approved by Parliament.

Gono's adventures were not. Thus in a way, Gono stole from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and he owes the nation an apology for the theft and for breaching the provisions of the Constitution.

His plea of "urgency" is also a misplaced one. Even assuming that urgent payments were to be made, the Minister of Finance has the powers and the right of bringing an urgent supplementary budget before Parliament for it approval. This has happened before. In 2002, when Simba Makoni was Finance minister and Charles Kuwaza the Permanent Secretary, an urgent supplementary budget was brought before the House, which adjourned in the early hours of the following morning.

Moreover, in terms of section 26 of the of the Audit and Exchequer Act, the President has the powers to authorize the withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for unforeseen and emergency payments. This defeats Gono's argument of a crisis situation because the funds could still have been availed legally. Quite clearly, Gono should plead no contest by keeping his mouth shut.

However, to blame Gono alone for the structural crisis the country finds itself in is being puerile and dishonest. Gono may have made the situation worse, but he did not author the Zimbabwean crisis.

The author of the crisis is Mr Robert Mugabe and his cronies and acolytes at Munhumutapa Building. They have presided over a country which is in its ninth straight year of economic recession, a country with a record inflation rate which realistically stands at over 3000 percent, a country with an unemployment rate of over 80 percent, a country with no foreign currency for critical imports and where vital sectors such as health and education have basically collapsed.

The buck stops with Mugabe, the real Johnny Bravo of this cartoon thriller that this regime has become
Tendai Biti, MP is the Secretary-General of the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai

Mugabe Loses Touch with Reality

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=acr&s=f&o=326120&apc_state=henpacr
Mugabe sweeps through Harare in a gas-guzzling limousine and has his own ambulance, while ordinary people are ferried to hospital in pushcarts and wheelbarrows.

By Promise Gondo in Harare (AR No. 87, 13-Dec-06)
“Eish! Here come Bob and the Wailers,” laugh Harare wits as President Robert Mugabe's massive motorcade approaches.

It is a play on Jamaican reggae group Bob Marley and the Wailers, much admired by Zimbabweans, and the ironic nickname, Uncle Bob, they give to the octogenarian head of state.

You can hear Bob and the Wailers approaching from three kilometres away.

First there is the screeching of the sirens of police outriders on high-powered motorcycles. They drive at break-neck speed ordering everyone to move out of the way - quickly! "The driver of every vehicle on the road on which a state motorcade is travelling shall halt his vehicle," state the regulations.

Then the first fleet of cars follows - more than a dozen of them, lights flashing - driving ahead of Mugabe's official armoured limousine, a seven-tonne Mercedes-Benz S600L Pullman, the wags call the “Mugabemobile”.

Mugabe's S600L, as powerful as a Ferrari, was custom-built in Germany at a cost of 550,000 US dollars. Its armour is able to withstand AK-47 bullets, rocket-grenades and landmines. Because it eats up about a litre of fuel per km, it has to be followed on anything but short journeys by a tanker-full of gasoline. The S600L was ordered before the European Union instituted sanctions prohibiting this sort of trade with Mugabe and his cabinet.

Behind the Mugabemobile and the tanker come another dozen vehicles, including an ambulance resembling the "Popemobile" Pope John Paul II brought to Zimbabwe on his visit in the 1980s. Then there are trucks and sports utility vehicles packed with soldiers and bristling with guns.

Top-of-the range Mercedes Benzes, numbering up to fifteen, carry the elite Presidential Guard and plainclothes agents of the much-feared Central Intelligence Organisation. Depending on the occasion, there can be anywhere between 25 and fifty vehicles in the motorcade as Uncle Bob moves around town.

Anyone seeing this display of unfettered authoritarian power for the first time must feel a sense of awe and shock - much as a child is amazed at seeing its first fireworks display on a dark night. The procession leaves State House and sweeps at high speed along to the ruling ZANU PF party headquarters, the airport, or Mugabe's new multi-million dollar palace, a controversial folly financed by the Chinese and Malaysians.

Police motorcycle outriders beat up old people who are not nippy enough to get out of the way of the Mugabe parade. And the sheer noise and extravagance of it leaves ordinary Zimbabweans with a feeling of disgust. In a country with a severe fuel crisis spanning almost a decade, the amount of petrol and diesel used by the presidential motorcade in a single trip is obscene.

Most Zimbabweans do not remember when they last bought fuel from the pump. The fuel they get is mostly purchased from tins and plastic containers on the black market.

The ambulance is a reminder not only of Mugabe's mortality but also of how this former liberator has completely lost touch with reality.

He and his family have an ambulance to themselves. This in a city of nearly three million, where there’s a maximum four working ambulances are available at any one time. Too make matters worse, they charge hefty fees - around a sixth of the average monthly salary. Consequently, many people are taken to hospital in crude pushcarts or wheelbarrows

Mugabe is 83 next February - the life expectancy of Zimbabwean women has dropped to 34, the lowest in the world. In 1975, five years before independence, they could have expected to live to 56, and in the late eighties women's life expectancy had reached 63. For men current life expectancy, according to the World Health Organisation, is 37.

Between three and four thousand people die from AIDS-related illnesses every week. There are not enough anti-retroviral drugs to go round. The majority of people suffering from full-blown AIDS have drifted back to rural areas where the cost of
living is lower but from where they cannot afford monthly trips to the cities to replenish
supplies of life-prolonging drugs.

Nor is there enough food, thanks to the destruction of commercial agriculture, as a consequence of the chaotic spur-of-the-moment land reform programme launched by Mugabe in 2000. Families are increasingly faced with the choice between using all their meagre resources to care for one ill member while the rest starve, or feed the rest and let the sick person die slowly.

The sad thing at funerals these days is not the passing away of a relative but the tragedy of the numberless other relatives who are terminally ill and who have come to witness the burial as if to assure the dead person that they will be together again soon enough. "Azorora", which means the dead person has rested, is now a common saying.

Doctors in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, went on strike in November to protest against deteriorating health services characterised by widespread shortages of drugs, food and equipment, including ambulance provision. "It has become very difficult to work with basically nothing to use in all departments; it is disappointing to watch patients deteriorating in a hospital, as no help can be given to them," said doctors at the city's two main hospitals, Mpilo Central and United Bulawayo, in a joint statement.

"Doctors took an oath to save lives, and do not want to continue lying to patients that they can do something for them when they know very well there is nothing they can do, as the hospitals can no longer function."

The striking doctors said they were also concerned about the quality and quantity of food being given to patients, and claimed that malnutrition was rampant in government health institutions. At least five patients at the Ingutsheni Mental Hospital in Bulawayo died in November after allegedly being diagnosed with malnutrition. Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti confirmed the five deaths at the hospital, but said the authorities had yet to establish the cause.

Meanwhile, as the country collapses around him and its citizens die in droves from hunger, disease and neglect, Mugabe and his Mugabemobile continue their daily motorcade show of force. And God help you if you risk even the slightest hint of protest as the Big Man and his entourage sweeps past - the Mugabe government has passed laws that make it a crime to gesture rudely or curse at his convoy, although it is hard to understand how the president can see or hear anything from behind his tinted, bullet-proof windows.

When frustrated motorists unable to get fuel at a petrol station shouted recently at the passing Mugabe parade to do something about the shortages, heavily armed Presidential Guards stopped and beat them up.

Zimbabweans wonder what the late Marley would make of Uncle Bob's behaviour. At independence celebrations in 1980, the reggae star and his band were guests of honour and sang “Zimbabwe”, dedicated to the liberation struggle. More than 26 years later, Marley's dream for Zimbabweans has still yet to come true.

Promise Gondo is the pseudonym of an IWPR contributor in Zimbabwe.

"MDC and Bro M Tsvangirai , We thank you...you gave us hope!"

Dear Mr Gideon Gono,

Open Letter to the RBZ Governor, Gideon Gono
      
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) that you head was involved in the procurement of fertilizer from South Africa. Your Novermber 11, 2006 press statement, as available on the RBZ website, did not address pertinent issues. For that reason, answers to the following questions are required:

Are you aware of the State Procurement Policies, Procedures and Regulations in Zimbabwe? Did you or any of your officers have any contact with the State Procurement Board (SPB) over the fertilizer issue? If you had such contact, can you characterize it?

When and how the decision made to import fertilizer?

Who (respective officials and institutions) were involved in the decision to import the fertilizer?

What were the total foreign currency requirements that would have enabled the three local fertilizer companies to recover their production capacity? How many tonnes would have been produced by the local fertilizer companies if there was adequate foreign currency?

Was the fertilizer tender publicly floated? By whom and where and when? When did the tender close?

What were the product specifications?

How many suppliers tendered to supply? What are their names?

How many suppliers won the tender and at how much? What are their names? Who sat on the selection panel?

Can you provide a half page profile of each of the suppliers who won the tender? Who are the shareholders, directors and managers of their companies? How long have they been in business? Who else have they done business with at this magnitude?

Are the suppliers who won the tender manufacturers, retailers or agricultural commodity brokers?

If they are manufacturers, where are their plants located? If they are an agricultural product commodity broker, where did they procure the fertilizer from?

Who was and is the contact person for Zimbabwe in this deal?

Who structured the finance for Zimbabwe and for how many tonnes? What were the terms? What was the role of Nedbank and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB)?

How and when were the suppliers paid? What was the price per tonne? How

much has been paid so far and for how many tonnes?

Any other information you may find useful to a citizen of Zimbabwe ?

Looking forward to your timeously response.

Concerned Citizen

Harare 
 
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=28

posted also on www.zimfinalpush.blogspot.com

Dear Mr Gideon Gono,

Open Letter to the RBZ Governor, Gideon Gono
      
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) that you head was involved in the procurement of fertilizer from South Africa. Your Novermber 11, 2006 press statement, as available on the RBZ website, did not address pertinent issues. For that reason, answers to the following questions are required:

Are you aware of the State Procurement Policies, Procedures and Regulations in Zimbabwe? Did you or any of your officers have any contact with the State Procurement Board (SPB) over the fertilizer issue? If you had such contact, can you characterize it?

When and how the decision made to import fertilizer?

Who (respective officials and institutions) were involved in the decision to import the fertilizer?

What were the total foreign currency requirements that would have enabled the three local fertilizer companies to recover their production capacity? How many tonnes would have been produced by the local fertilizer companies if there was adequate foreign currency?

Was the fertilizer tender publicly floated? By whom and where and when? When did the tender close?

What were the product specifications?

How many suppliers tendered to supply? What are their names?

How many suppliers won the tender and at how much? What are their names? Who sat on the selection panel?

Can you provide a half page profile of each of the suppliers who won the tender? Who are the shareholders, directors and managers of their companies? How long have they been in business? Who else have they done business with at this magnitude?

Are the suppliers who won the tender manufacturers, retailers or agricultural commodity brokers?

If they are manufacturers, where are their plants located? If they are an agricultural product commodity broker, where did they procure the fertilizer from?

Who was and is the contact person for Zimbabwe in this deal?

Who structured the finance for Zimbabwe and for how many tonnes? What were the terms? What was the role of Nedbank and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB)?

How and when were the suppliers paid? What was the price per tonne? How

much has been paid so far and for how many tonnes?

Any other information you may find useful to a citizen of Zimbabwe ?

Looking forward to your timeously response.

Concerned Citizen

Harare 
 
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=28

posted also on www.zimfinalpush.blogspot.com

Robert Mugabe....(we are in for a very high jump!)

A single individual can be completely out of hand, out of control and out-of-touch with the thinking of the "average" person.

 

We can't even have a Referendum on the issue of his "Life Presidency."

 

But the other problem is:.... No-one is able to take his place today!

 

The Opposition is in disarray.......(Thanks partly to him...iye/yena uMugabe.)

 

But also thanks to the MDC leaders themselves!

 

So......we are in for a very high jump!

 

Radical Observations. 

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How much time is left??

 

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=84&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=2652&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1705&hn=talkzimbabwe&he=.com

 

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Gono's Hypocricy on "Newzimbabwe.com Forums!"

Please visit the following below and read for yourself!

http://newzim.proboards86.com/index.cgi?board=politician&action=display&thread=1164166158

http://newzim.proboards86.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1165831143

DR RGM...LIFE PRESIDENT???

I'm too shocked to comment myself except to ask you to click below.

http://magicstatistics.com/2006/12/10/mugabe-to-be-appointed-president-for-life/



..............................



Rev M S Hove…The Radical Soldier.
(mufarostig@yahoo.co.uk)

For rough comments go to www.zimgossiper.blogspot.com and empty your bowels there.

Mugabe's Attempt To Die In Office To Be Resisted!

By Mr Nelson Chamisa.
http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=200&twindow=&mad=No&sdetail=2637&wpage=&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1705&hn=talkzimbabwe&he=.com

Robert Mugabe's latest ploy to extend his term of office to 2010 must be rejected by all patriotic Zimbabweans who want a new Zimbabwe charecterised by freedom, prosperity and democracy.

The Zanu PF mouthpieces have now confirmed the people's suspicions that Mugabe's term, which expires in 2008, will be extended to allow him to continue ruining the country until 2010. This is unadulterated constitutional fraud. Presidential terms are six-year terms; even under the current defective Constitution and Zimbabweans demand to know on whose mandate Zanu PF seeks to extend an illegitimacy that will mete out further punishment to the people.

The MDC reiterates its position that only a new people-driven Constitution, and not piecemeal amendments by Zanu PF, is the panacea to the crisis of legitimacy and governance facing this regime. Mugabe should not be allowed to abuse a controversial and technical majority in Parliament to buy himself a safe exit. Mugabe is an illegitimate President whose incumbency is being challenged in court. He now wants to use his Parliamentary technical majority, which is being challenged through several electoral petitions that are yet to be heard, to buy himself a further two years in office. Zimbabwe cannot have an illegitimate President, using an illegitimate technical majority to seek further tenancy at State House. The regime simply wants to buy more time to handle its contentious and divisive succession drama that has turned out to be a real-life soap opera.

The MDC believes that seeking a further extension of his term through Parliament is tantamount to Zanu PF turning an internal succession squabble into a national crisis. Zanu PF is unelectable,leaderless, divided and candidateless. In short, Zanu PF is a party in crisis.

The MDC leadership, supporters and the people of Zimbabwe shall not allow a unilateral declaration of a Zanu PF-imposed coup on the wishes of the majority. The country is bigger than Zanu PF. Zimbabwe belongs to all its people who are the ultimate authority in the governance of the country. Zanu
PF must be stopped now if Zimbabwe is to be saved from the jaws of this tyranny. All democratic forces must demand a new, people-driven Constitution
to form the basis of the legitimacy of those occupying the highest office in the land.

Zanu PF's latest antics only serve to confirm that Zimbabwe has become an absolute monarch ruled by power-hungry geriatrics bent on clinging to power at any cost. Zanu PF must not be allowed to sacrifice Zimbabwe on the altar of political expediency. Mugabe has confirmed that he is afraid of a free and fair electoral process and will take the slightest excuse to seek asylum in a controversial technical majority to run away from an imminent and inevitable people's verdict. In their 70's and 80s, Zanu PF's leaders are overdue candidates for the fireside chair, telling folk stories to bemused children wondering how these people have lived for so long when they are presiding over a serious national crisis which has seen life expectancy tumbling down to a mere 34 years.

The MDC believes that all political parties, the churches, labour unions, students, civic groups and the generality of Zimbabweans must urgently demand that Zimbabwe adopts a people-driven Constitution that should lead to free and fair elections under international supervision. We believe that Mugabe's time is nigh. We believe that all patriotic Zimbabweans must heed the clarion call to save our country. Zimbabweans are now tired of the outrageous antics of this regime. We believe that is why the millions of Zimbabweans across the country and those in the Diaspora have resolved to engage in a mass-driven political process of democratic resistance of resistance to express the nation's aspirations for a new Zimbabwe.

Change demands action. Our country deserves better. A new Zimbabwe is inevitable.
Nelson Chamisa, is a Zimbabwean legislator and MDC Secretary for Information and Publicity

The brave representing us, the docile!

 

 

These pictures show the violence used against the WOZA protesters, including children (please see here for further details and for the telephone numbers you can use to express your outrage and disgust):

Via SWRadioAfrica:

WOZA spokesperson Annie Sibanda said the women, including 4 members of the Men of Zimbabwe Arise and a Presbyterian priest, are expected to appear in court on Friday. 36 WOZA activists who were arrested in Bulawayo have been charged under two sections of the notorious Criminal Law and Codification and Reform Act, although 6 of the women who were arrested with their babies were released on Thursday afternoon. They are accused of causing 'a breach of the peace and interfering with the ordinary comforts of the public.'

Members of the pressure group were arrested after riot police violently broke up their gathering Wednesday. It's reported that some of the arrested including the leaders, Jennie Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, were beaten. Sibanda told us that some of those in detention need medical attention but the police are blocking this. The victims lawyer, Advocate Perpetua Dube, was allegedly threatened with arrest, for "interfering with the course of justice" whilst trying to attend to her clients. The activists are being held in a courtyard cage at Bulawayo Central police station.

In an extraordinary twist Advocate Dube was yesterday able to secure the release of a baby who had been separated from it's mother. The mother had not been arrested but the child had.

Meanwhile the 18 month old baby who was hurt yesterday sustained a broken leg. The WOZA spokesperson said the baby was sitting on her mother's lap when police started to beat people, 'They caused a stampede scenario where people were trying to escape from being beaten and somebody actually stepped on the baby's leg in the chaos that was caused."

Another elderly woman also had a broken leg while several other people had minor injuries.

The vicious attack by the police comes in the middle of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence campaign, embarked on by WOZA this past Saturday. Sibanda said although some areas have started banging pots and honking their car horns, the group is urging more Zimbabweans to join in a noise protest for two minutes at 8pm every evening during this period. She said this is to commemorate 16 days of activism against gender violence and human rights abuses.

Police continue to refuse to comment.

Technorati Tags: WOZA, Zimbabwe, women, Jennie Williams, Gender Violence, gender, violence, human rights, justice, law, torture, ZRP, police

Posted by Sokwanele | Comments (2)

 

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Testimony of Mr Gabriel Shumba (Zimbabwe) at Human Rights hearing in Washington DC

http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org/outcomes/details?contentId=1685
Mr. Gabriel Shumba is currently Director of the Accountability Commission – Zimbabwe, an organization based in South Africa which is accumulating evidence of the gross human rights violations of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF government. He was brutally tortured by the Mugabe regime in January 2003 when, as a working human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, he represented an opposition MP who had been arrested under false charges. He fled Zimbabwe shortly afterwards following state-sponsored death threats and harassment. Mr. Shumba currently works with Zimbabwean witnesses and victims of violence in Johannesburg gathering evidence of incidents of politically motivated murder, torture, rape and beatings with a view to opening dockets for prosecution.

United States Congress

House Committee on International Relations

Human Rights Practices Around the World: A Review of the State Department's 2003 Annual Report

Washington, Wednesday March 10, 2004

Testimony of Mr Gabriel Shumba (Zimbabwe)

(Human Rights Lawyer, Doctor of Laws Candidate, Legal Regional Director (Africa) for the Accountability Commission-Zimbabwe)

Mr Chair and Members of the Committee, I request that the entirety of my statement, along with the additional material, be submitted for the record. I thank you for the singular honor that you have accorded to me. To be given the opportunity to address this esteemed body at a time when my country, Zimbabwe, is facing an unprecedented social, economic and political crisis is a manifestation of the Free World’s concern with democracy and human rights the world over. Further testimony of this commitment is evident in the 2003 U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights Practices, which devotes significant space to the human rights issues affecting my country.

Mr Chair, I am a human rights lawyer from Zimbabwe who was last year condemned to live in exile in South Africa because of unrelenting persecution, death threats and torture at the hands of President Robert Mugabe’s regime. Allow me to narrate the ordeal that forced me into exile.

Pursuant to the call of my profession, on the 14^th of January 2003 I consented to represent an opposition Member of Parliament, Mr Job Sikhala. He had engaged me to represent him in a matter in which he alleged political harassment by members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). At that moment in time, the MP was hiding from the police.

My young brother, Bishop Shumba, accompanied me to take instructions. I found the MP in the company of one Taurai Magaya and Charles Mutama. I proceeded to take instructions and confer with Mr Sikhala. However, at or about 23:00 hrs, riot police accompanied by plain-clothes policemen, the army and personnel, who I later discovered were from the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), the spy agency of the government, stormed the room. They were armed with AK 47’s, tear gas canisters, grenades and vicious-looking dogs.

I identified myself as a lawyer and enquired as to the nature and purpose of the police actions. Thereupon, one of the officers confiscated my Lawyer’s Practicing Certificate and informed me that there was ‘no place for human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe’. Others grabbed my diary as well as files and documents. All of us were prodded with guns in the back and bundled into a police vehicle. Several acts of assault and violence were perpetrated upon my person. In particular, I was slapped several times and kicked with booted-feet by amongst others, a certain detective inspector Mbedzi, the officer in charge of Saint Mary’s Police Station. They also threatened to let the dogs maul us, and boasted that this had been done before.

Moments later, we were driven to Saint Mary’s Police Station but no charges were preferred. We were denied access to legal representation and were abused and insulted for allegedly working in cahoots with ‘western powers’ in an attempt ‘to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle’. Our mobile phones were also confiscated, and we were denied contact with our lawyers, relatives and friends.

Around 1:00am we were driven to Matapi Police Station some seven kilometers from the initial place of ‘arrest’. Here Mr Sikhala and Bishop were booked into the holding cells. I was taken to Mbare police holding cells, a further three kilometers away from Matapi, whilst, as I subsequently discovered, Mr Magaya and Mr Mutama were taken to Harare Central Police Station, which is about five kilometers away. The tactic of separating arrestees and taking them to locations removed from where they have been arrested is a favorite of the police in Zimbabwe. This is designed to prevent their relatives or lawyers access to them when they are tortured in torture chambers scattered all over the country.

I was only booked into the cells at around 3:00am. I was denied blankets and had to sleep on a concrete floor. The cell that was about 3m x 4m housed over 20 inmates. I had to spend the whole night squatting in a pool of urine and human waste. This revolting mixture had maggots and worms that irritated or bit at me the whole night. As if this was not enough, I had to endure the torment of other denizens of the cell, which included lice and bed bugs.

Around 12:00pm on the next day, personnel from the CID (Criminal Investigations Dept - Law and Order Section) of the Harare Central Police Station booked me out of Mbare holding cells. Even now I have not been told of the nature of the charges preferred against me, nor had any official entry been made to indicate that I was being held at Mbare, another notorious police tactic. The police were under the charge-ship of one Detective Inspector Garnet Sikhova. In spite of my bruises and the pain that I felt, I was dragged to a yellow mini-bus whose registration numbers I was prevented from looking at. My constant pleas for legal representation, food and water were in vain.

Mr Chair, the mini-bus that I was hauled into had no seats inside. Even more sinister was the fact that it had black curtains and a black carpet lining the windows and the floor. In the extreme end of the vehicle was a raised platform whereupon some of the Police Officers sat. I was nonetheless ordered to sit on the floor facing the back of the vehicle. A black hood was then slipped over my head. It was made of nylon and did not have any breathing-holes in it. In a short while I became claustrophobic, sweated heavily and had difficulties breathing. My requests that part of the hood be pulled slightly over my nose to allow me to breathe were rudely denied. Instead, I was asked to use ‘the mouth that you use to defend the MDC to breathe’.

After what appeared like an hour’s drive, the vehicle pulled over and my hands were handcuffed behind my back. I was bundled out of the car to find myself in a tunnel of some sort, judging by the echoes that our footsteps made. I was advised that ‘you are now a blind man and have to act like a blind person’. After several twists and turns, in what appeared a labyrinth of some sort, we descended about three floors of stairs underground.

Off to the right I could hear the sounds of horrible screaming. I was thrown against the wall and the hood was then removed. I was stripped utterly naked, then had my hands and feet handcuffed and bound so that I was in a foetal position. The police then thrust a thick plank between my legs and hands. Other planks lined the room and the light was dim. In a corner to my right side, there was a pool of what my tormentors told me was acid, into which I could be dissolved without a trace. I was also informed that I could be crucified on the planks against the wall, or have needles thrust into my urethra if ‘you are not co-operative’. In the middle of the room were a small table and a chair. About 15 or so interrogators stood over me and some of them began assaulting me with booted-feet and fists all over the body. I was then given the option of either ‘telling the truth or dying a slow and painful death’.

Several questions were asked about my background as a student activist, the political affiliation of judges, my scholarship to pursue a Masters degree in South Africa, my alleged involvement in the burning of a government bus, and my political ambitions. At some point I was hung upside down on the planks and assaulted beneath the feet with wooden and rubber truncheons, as well as some pieces of metal.

Running concurrently with the other assaults and ongoing interrogation, various electrical shocks were introduced to my body. A black contraption resembling a telephone was placed on the small table. It had several electric cables emanating from it. One cable was tied to the middle toe of my right foot, whilst another was tied to the second toe of the left foot. Another copper wire was wrapped tightly around my genitals. Again, another one was put into my mouth. Still in the foetal position, I was ordered to hold a metallic receiver in my bound right hand and I then forced to place this next to my right ear. A blast of electric shocks was then administered to my body for about eight to nine hours.

On several occasions, I lost consciousness only to be revived to face the same ordeal. A chemical substance was applied to my body. I also lost control of my bladder, vomited blood and was forced to drink my urine and lick my vomit. I was also urinated upon by several of my interrogators. Whilst the questioning was in process, several photographs were taken of me cringing and writhing in pain and in nakedness.

At the end of this ordeal, around 7:00 pm, I was unbound and then forced to write several documents under my torturers’ dictation. In the documents, I incriminated myself as well as senior MDC personnel in several subversive activities. Under pain of death, I was also forced to agree to work for the Central Intelligence Organization, the government spy agency. In addition, I was compelled to swear allegiance to President Robert Mugabe, as well as to promise that I would not disclose my ordeal, either to the independent press or the courts. I later did.

Around 19:30 pm, I was blindfolded and taken to Harare Central Police Station, where I was booked into a holding cell even more horrendously inhumane than that at Mbare Police Station. On the third day of my arrest, my lawyers, who had at that point obtained a High Court injunction ordering my release to court, were allowed access to me. I had not had food or water throughout the period of my detention, which was three days. I had also not been formally notified of the nature of the charge against me. Subsequently, however, I was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order and Security Act, which deals with organizing, planning or conspiring to overthrow the government through unconstitutional means. These charges were dismissed in a court of law after medical evidence established that we had been tortured. Subsequently, I was threatened with death and had to flee for my life.

I worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania for two months and was threatened by the High Commissioner of Zimbabwe to Tanzania. I then had to flee to South Africa. In spite of psychiatric and other medical treatment, I continue to experience nightmares, suffer depression as well extreme fatigue.

I am convinced that my torture and ill treatment was authorized and condoned at the highest level of the Zimbabwe state. It is inconceivable that President Mugabe is unaware that his police, army and intelligence officials are using torture. The President has been aware that torture is being used against human rights activists and those suspected to be linked to the MDC, as is exemplified by the case of journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto. The two were brutally tortured by the army and Chavunduka died later. Mugabe was however on TV gloating that those who write stories about the army should expect ‘army justice’.

I lodged a report of what transpired to me with the police, but up to now no action has been taken. I have also instructed my lawyer to institute civil proceedings, but am not hopeful, as the Executive has largely subverted the judicial system. Furthermore, the police in Zimbabwe are notorious for defying court orders.

Mr Chair, I should also point out that members of my family who are still in Zimbabwe are in mortal danger as I speak. I cannot afford to lose them as we are a very small family, having been orphaned early in life. I am the first born in a family of four. Both my parents are deceased. My father died of cancer of the liver when I was 10 years old. I became the sole breadwinner of the family after my mother passed away some years later. My mother succumbed to the AIDS virus in 1995, having spent many years trying to raise us.

Eventually, I struggled through education with the help of a kind white couple, Mary Austin and John Ayton. I mention this couple to dispel the myth that the crisis in Zimbabwe is a tug of war between black and white.

At the University of Zimbabwe where I obtained a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) degree I was a student activist. In 1995 I led demonstrations against police brutality. This culminated in my suspension from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) for a period of two years. Whilst on suspension, I wrote articles on student rights and addressed seminars on academic freedom in Zimbabwe. After readmission to the University in 1997, I mounted a one-person demonstration to protest the heavy handedness of the police in quelling student disturbances. For this I was abducted and tortured at a torture chamber situated in the basement of Harare Central Prison.

Mr Chair, to date I have been arrested and assaulted or tortured 14 times under the regime of President Robert Mugabe. At my graduation on the 18th of August 2000, I was again arrested and taken into police custody for attempting to hand over a petition protesting the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe, especially on the farms, to President Robert Mugabe. As I approached Mugabe, who is also Chancellor of the University, his bodyguards whisked me away. As a result, I could not graduate with my fellow students as I was in prison, complete in my academic regalia. This incident was reported in the press. Mr Chair, I submit that all that which transpired to me should be seen as a microcosm of the brutality visited upon human rights and opposition activists in Zimbabwe.

I thank you Honorable Members.
United States Congress

"MDC has surely run out of ideas" (M M Betera, UK)

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2058


EDITOR — The article, MDC in new season of politics of "chibanzi" made very interesting reading. It is intriguing how the MDC has been changing tactics in order to "rid Zimbabweans of the dictator". Well, as far as the tactics of getting rid of him are concerned, one wonders what next for MDC?
Zimbabwe has a very interesting and dynamic political terrain which allows political organisations to spring up rapidly and freely. It cannot happen in a repressive state. The other day I was perusing the background of some of the MDC stalwarts and current MPs. I noticed that one of them, of caucasian origin, states that Henry Kissinger, Lady Thatcher and De Klerk were instrumental, together with Ian Smith, in creating the environment for democratic change — and not Robert Mugabe.
"Ah, well", I said to myself,"this proves that the MDC will never come to power." So it was not Mugabe who brought about our independence?
Nevertheless, the fear of a back-door return of fascism in Zimbabwe is truly borne out in those remarks.The political clout of Arthur Mutambara is a non-issue. Student activism, correctly conceived, is not a futile activity. We left (silently) the University College of Rhodesia in the 1960s and worked at the Liberation Centre in Lusaka, Zambia in collaboration with the national leadership of ZANU far away from the close scrutiny of the regime and saw its downfall in the end. It all depends on what Mutambara stands for. If he comes to the UK and speaks against his own government as would Ian Smith on the same platform in Oxford — the English would never respect him (they do not understand people like that being patriotic themselves).

Mordecai Mutiswa Betera
United Kingdom

A professor  stood before his philosophy class and had some items in
 front of him. When the  class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very
 large and empty mayonnaise jar and  proceeded to fill it with golf
 balls. He then asked the students if the jar  was full. They agreed
 that it was.

 The professor  then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into
 the jar.
 He shook the jar  lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas
 between the golf balls. He then  asked the students again if the jar
 was full.
 They agreed it was.
 The professor  next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the
 jar. Of course, the sand  filled up everything else. He asked once
 more if the jar was full. The students  responded with an infamous
 "yes." The professor  then produced two cups of coffee from under the
 table and poured the entire  contents into the jar, effectively
 filling the empty space between the sand. The  students laughed.

 "Now," said the  professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to
 recognize that this jar  represents your life. The golf balls  are the
 important things. Your family, your children, your faith, your health, 
 your friends, and your favourite passions. Things
 that if everything else was  lost and only they remained, your life would
 still be full. The pebbles are  the other things that matter. Your
 job, your house, and your car. The sand is  everything else. The small
 stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he  continued, "there
 is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes  for life.
 If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will 
 never have room for the things that are
 important to you. Pay attention to the  things that are critical to
 your happiness. Play with your children. Take time  to get medical
 checkups.

 Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There  will always be
 time to clean the house and fix the shed door. Take care of the  golf
 balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The
 rest  is just sand."

 One of the  students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee
 represented. The professor  smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes
 to show you that no matter how full  your life may seem, there's always room for a couple
 of cups of coffee with a  friend."

 Please share  this with someone nice.

 I Just  did.

Eng S Mangwengwende on Mutambara (MDC)!

From Eng Simbarashe Mangwengwende (mangwe@ecoweb.co.zw ) on "Mutambara -MDC lacks 'Agenda Setting.'

 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

You have hit the nail on the head. Leadership is all about agenda setting. By that definition we  really have no opposition leaders to talk of because all they do is react to the agendas of other people.

 

###########################################################################

What seems to be lost to Mutambara here is the concept of agenda setting. You can't be a leader who has to react to other people's initiatives without you taking the lead to set up an agenda everyone can follow. No matter how flawed these initiatives are, they still remain that! An initiative.

As long as the opposition does not set a tone and hence a national agenda they will keep responding to us via e-mail like this. 

Nyatsimba Mutota [nyatsimba_mutota@yahoo.com]

 

 

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Message from Izzy Mutanhaurwa [izzymutanhaurwa@yahoo.co.uk]

I Mutanhaurwa has asked us to note more of Mugabe's assassinations.

 

The death of Tchiona Chiminya, the death of Morgan Mutanhaurwa, Peter Munyuki

 

http://beta.blogger.com/profile/02540258169468428051

 

Izzy Mutanhaurwa [izzymutanhaurwa@yahoo.co.uk]

Trying to contact SWRADIOAFRICA!

If there is someone signed on in the UK, please ask anyone at SWRADIOAFRICA to phone me on 0027791463039 (RSA.)

 

Their e-mails are not working, apparently!

 

Their number is (00)442083871441.

 

Thanks.

 

Radical!

FW: Laugh your lungs out!

Mugabe, Mbeki & Tsvangirai were lost in the forest and were captured by cannibals. The cannibal king told the prisoners that they could live if they passed a trial. The first step of the trial was to go to the forest and get ten pieces of the same kind of fruit.

So all three men went separate ways to gather fruits.

Mbeki came back and said to the king, "I brought ten apples." The king then explained the trial to him. "You have to shove the fruits up your butt without any expression on your face or you will be eaten."

The first apple went in.... but on the second one he winced out in pain,
so he was killed.

Tsvangirai arrived and showed the king ten berries.

When the king explained the trial to him, he thought to himself that this should be easy. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8... and on the ninth berry he burst
out in laughter and was killed.

Mbeki & Tsvangirai met in heaven and Mbeki asked Tsvangirai , "Why did
you laugh, you almost got away with it?"

Tsvangirai replied, " I couldn't help it, I saw Mugabe coming with pineapples

Ko anokwana pobva "Gushungo" ndiani? Ngubani ongangena?

Madoda asihambe ku www.zimgossiper.blogspot.com !

Varume handeyi ku www.zimgossiper.blogspot.com !

 

Ndati, "VaTsvangirai vanokwana here?"

Ngiti, "U Professor Mutambara angabamba yini umsebenzi kaExecutive President?"

 

Lets talk now..........No editing....No names......Your posting will not show your name if you don't write it yourself!"

 

Rev Mufaro Stig Hove....The Radical Soldier...[Cell: 0791463039 RSA.

mufarostig@yahoo.co.uk .]

 

Post for yourself by sending to revmshove.gossiper@blogger.com

Lets remove the gloves now!

Lets go to www.zimgossiper.blogspot.com .

Tsvangirai naMutambara vanokwana here "pachigaro chaMambo?"

Hendeyi tinotaura!

"Chop-chop" please!

Mugabe ava kuenda......ava vedu vanokwana here?

ROBERT MUGABE FIRED!

 

http://www.zimdaily.com/news/126/ARTICLE/1138/2006-11-29.html

Robert Mugabe

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:44:00

Tambu Kahari

I am opening my new column with an executive action. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, employee no one of the people of Zimbabwe, you are fired! I believe the law is on my side.

The president of the Republic of Zimbabwe is an employee of the citizens of Zimbabwe. I am your employer.

You took an oath, in 1980 that you would work for every Zimbabwean citizen and as a citizen of Zimbabwe, I say your time is up and I have prepared your letter of dismissal.

I have a great deal of respect for you Mr. President.  I revere you. You are a great man, an amazing man with vision and strength. You are a pride to your people. I will proceed to help you understand who I am.

I am the great, great, granddaughter of Seke himself, who was the younger brother of Harare himself. In other words, Harare is named after my great, great grandfather. Seke is my great, great grandfather. In fact, today we use Seke’s other name, Kahari as a surname.  

I am the original Zimbabwean, there is no doubt.  But, even if I were not an original Zimbabwean, I am a citizen of the Republic of Zimbabwe by birth; therefore, I am your boss.

I am not firing you for the past events. No sir, that is not it at all. For, as the boss, I take full responsibility for all the decisions that you made in my name.

I am guilty of every single thing that has been perpetrated to the people of Zimbabwe. I am guilty as sin. It is my fault, and every Zimbabwean citizen’s fault. Can you blame the fox if it runs away with the chicken? We should have guarded the coup. 

No, I blame myself for being lax, lazy, and frightened. I had no vision and I didn’t forecast and that is why my poor country has come crushing about my ears with a resounding thud! I am homeless.

I am firing you Mr. President, because the requirements for the job of Executive President, Commander of the armed forces and the people’s servant have changed.  Circumstances of the last few years have necessitated that the job requirements change to suit the new situation we are in.

The people of Zimbabwe are a dying breed, dear Sir.  In another two hundred years, there will be no Zimbabweans, of any tribe, colour or hue. We will all be dead or scattered about the world. Our respective cultures will die with us.

Our lands will go to the Somalis, who have started coming to Zimbabwe, running away from their own chaos. I understand many South Koreans are looking at our country too. In two hundred years, Zimbabwe may be the land of “other people.”

Don’t laugh. This has happened to us before. Thousands of years ago, we lived in what is now called Egypt. We built those pyramids and Cleopatra was black.

We left and slowly disintegrated and now, lo and behold, the survivors of that exodus are now Zimbabweans. Cleopatra became an Arab and then in the movies, she became white. Just as the future Zimbabwean is going to be half Somali and half Korean. More power to her!

It is because of this and nothing else that the job requirements for President have changed. We have been fighting extinction and I am not sure if you have noticed Mr.

President, but we are losing the battle. It is time to change the employee.  You just don’t have the necessary qualifications. You are a very educated man, and you are a revolutionary of distinction. But we need a business person. We need someone who looks at the bottom line, which is our very survival.

We need a unifier of those of us who are left. We need someone, white, black, Karanga, Zezuru, Manyika, Kore kore, male or female, it doesn’t matter, as long as that person will be able to whip us into action and drag us off our lazy arses and put us to work! Zimbabweans have become very lazy! To begin with, we were always lazy! We were always starving, until we were colonized.

Then we were whipped into shape and we reaped the benefits of it for years on end. The injustices were a great pity and they were ugly, but in order to move on, we will accept and acknowledge the past with humility and gratitude and move on.  Now, once again, we need someone to put us in order and fight for our lives. You are not that person.

There are to many protests, too many angry and hungry people, too many people wasting energy begging the world and running away, like me, and that has to stop. We have to take responsibility for ourselves.

We have to stop squabbling uselessly and get to work. I have stopped running and will start with you Mr. President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, with all due respect Sir!

I agree with you Mr. President. If we are not careful, only donkeys will live in Zimbabwe. You are so right. Changes have to be made and they have to start at the top, with you.

As part of your severance, you can keep the house, the money, the private planes, the cars, the bodyguards and everything else that you have. It’s all yours. We owe you, for services rendered. But, you may not have our country’s future.  And that is why you have to go.

 I have several complaints, but I will only name what should’ve been solutions: Instead of opening fire on people when they riot, which of course is a waste of time and energy, why don’t you grab those people off the streets and take them to some farm and make them work 16 hours a day for food even at gunpoint! Instead of beating them and crippling them, put their energy to good use! A healthy person works more.

Why didn’t you take the money allocated to the military and diverted it to buying farm implements and supplies and then getting the people, no matter how rich they think they are to put a few hours of national service at a farm growing food?

Why do we have such a heavily equipped army? Who’s our enemy? Who dares to fight with us? We have proven ourselves to our neighbours. They know what we can do. In fact, we don’t need an army. We need food, and money for food.

Instead of wasting money and time indoctrinating the people about ZANU PF and its greatness, which is also a waste of time, why don’t you take all that money, plough it into agriculture? And by the way, Zimbabweans can’t be easily brainwashed.

It took the missionaries 100 years to get one Christian convert. How long do you think it will take to indoctrinate one person on the goodness of the government of the day? NEVER!

Instead of women having, “Dignity. Period,” campaigns and humiliating us all collectively, why don’t you drag those women out of their offices, out of their high heels, dump them on a farm for 16 hours a day and then they can work for their “Dignity. Period.”

There is dignity in working ladies? Go out into the fields and grow some cotton! As a matter of fact, why don’t you just get me and throw me on a farm?

Instead of wasting money and time, “talking, talking” we could all be working to live. The world has no pity for lazy people. And you Mr. President have failed to fire up the people to get back into the fields and work for themselves.

When we are all dead, who will you rule? Hey, you future aspiring leaders, when there are no more Zimbabweans to make you rich and powerful, what will you do?  I am talking to you Morgan Tsvangirai, but I will get back to you. You also don’t qualify to be our servant.

 The world doesn’t owe us anything. Solutions have to come from us. The work has to come from us. Come back from Iran! What are you doing in Iran? You should be leading by example.

Your hands should be dirty from growing maize. A people who cannot feed themselves have no right to exist. It is the law of the world. Civilizations are built on food and crumble because of food. Zimbabweans are dying because they are lazy and you have allowed it to happen.

Zimbabweans have become tribalists and racists because the resources for survival have shrunk. The people fight for resources. Observe, the future citizens of Zimbabwe, the Somali. They have a reputation of being extremely lazy.

They have never, ever, grown any food with their own hands. Finally, it caught up with them and they turned on one another. It was hunger. And now, the Somalis are almost eradicated. They are becoming citizens of Zimbabwe as we speak.

That is what the future has in store for us, if we don’t change direction.

Your entire executive is also fired! They can keep their money, their properties and they can live in Zimbabwe in peace and harmony, like Ian Smith.

As long as you let us get on with the business of building our country from scratch. It is time for the best person for the job to be chosen, regardless of race, colour or creed. Applications are now open for the position of Executive President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

Yes, you probably want to shoot me, but it will do you no good! Destiny is holding a gun to my head already.  I am dying with my people. I have nothing to lose. And you are still fired. Thank you for your years of service. Moving On!

Next week, the women of “Dignity. Period.” We have to talk.

An Open Letter To Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:02:00

 

http://www.zimdaily.com/news/117/ARTICLE/1149/2006-12-04.html

 

Robert Mugabe

Paga Masika

I have always wanted to write this letter to you, father, but I never gathered enough courage to do so.

I know that you are a busy man, and you have better letters to read, but I know that an intelligent and wise old man of your caliber and fibre cannot ignore any piece of wisdom that comes his way.

My letter is different from others because it comes from someone who loves and respects you as a Great father and founder of the nation. It comes from someone who is a full beneficiary of the gains of our independence.

It comes from someone who loves Zimbabwe as much as you do. It comes from a fellow Catholic, educated by the Jesuits like you. It comes from a teacher, just like you; not a mere teacher for that matter, but one who has had the privilege of teaching one of Your Excellency’s sons.

Though unquestionably great you are, but you never had an opportunity to mark the book of the President’s son. I did, and that makes my letter worthy of your small attention. Your son’s teacher!

I appreciate your efforts to resuscitate and re-orient our besieged and ailing economy. I know that you spent many sleepless nights assessing the situation and mapping out the way forward, but to no avail.

I know that you passionately love Zimbabwe, and that all the sins they accuse you of having committed, if any, were committed because of your love of our people and country. I also love Zimbabwe, and that is why I have remained in the country instead of going into the diaspora.

That is why I continue to hope for a better Zimbabwe, amidst so much suffering and hopelessness. I have a feeling that the worst is yet to come, and you also know that, and that makes both of us prophets of doom.

You sometimes wonder why things are not changing for the better, despite all your efforts to harness the unprecedented economic melt down.

The advent of the over-zealous and utopian, but well-meaning Dr Gideon Gono, brought a sigh of hope to many Zimbabweans, only to discover that the Governor is a great talker and day dreamer, interested in taking people by surprises and dealing out vengeance to fellow Zimbabweans.

Your trips to the Far East have not born much fruits. Your well-articulated speeches, though vivid and applausable, have failed to bear fruits. A great thinker of your make does not fail to ask why?

The problem is not Tony Blair, as Dr Tafataona Mahoso and the renowned Professor of Sociology, Mararike would persuade you to believe, Blair has his own problems to nurse. The problem is not George Bush, for his has his own fair share of tribulations.

Tsvangirai is not the problem, for he spends sleepless nights figuring out how to heal the rift between members of his party. The problem is of our own making.

No one tells you the truth about the tribulations ordinary Zimbabweans are going through Mr President. People around you tell you what they think you want to hear.

They tell you that things are okay, but that is not true. They say Zimbabweans are a happy lot, but that is a lie. The majority of our people are mourning.

I know that many a time you have thought of retiring and spend time with amai, and my young brothers and sister, Grace, Tino, Chatunga and Bona, respectively, but the people around you would not accept that.

Your Excellency, the right question to ask is why? Because they know that you love and respect your friends. They want to loot the economy whilst you are still in office.

In another ZANU PF government, they are not sure if they will retain their posts. They want to steal and amass enough wealth and acquire more property: land, houses, factories, etc, whilst the sun shines.

They can steal as much as they want because they are immune from investigation and arrest because some of them went to war.

Father, you established the Ministry of Anti-Corruption, a good idea, but did it ever arrest any one, except the two scapegoats, Chiyangwa and Kuruneri? Zimbabwe is on her knees not because of you, but the hypocrites around you. We know that you are not a thief, you are not a hypocrite.

You say what you mean and mean what you say. You are not like Sam Nujoma, who clapped hands for you when you gave your hate speech in South Africa, but he retired before giving even an acre of land to one of his people.

Your children are here with us, but where are the children of your ministers? Your family watch with us ZTV, and they all have satellite dishes. How many houses do your ministers have? How much money do they have in their bank accounts?

How many farms did they acquire? Who supplies the parallel market with foreign currency? Who sells fuel at the parallel market? Who writes hate speeches for you? Who forbids you from retiring? The answer is – the people around you.

They do not want you to know the truth. They harass demonstrators to keep you out of the picture. They write hate speeches for you so that you create international enemies, lest you get sound advice and you retire.

They forced you to reverse your historic reconciliation to the Zimbabweans which you made at independence, and turned you into a land grabber. They publish lies in news papers to mislead you. Wherever you go they send Mukoma Reuben, who has a diploma in distorting information.

None of them wants economic turn-around programme to be successful, because this will take away their business. They use you and you will go down in history as a very bad person, who brought about the economic meltdown of our country.

One who brought to futility the work of so many decades and well meaning citizens of our country, white and black, women and men, living and dead. They will emerge from the mess clean while all the blame is piled on you.

Father, these people are not our friends, as they pretend to be. Those people who tell you to go, like Dzikamai Mavhaire, Morgen Tsvangirai and Pius Ncube are our friends.

You are a great revolutionary, but your friends have turned you into a villain and monster. We still respect you, not ZANU PF because we do not want to let you down, you as a person.

My advice to you is – leave office now. Arrange for your exit package and go into the diaspora, for the sake of my siblings, Chatunga, Tino and Bona. You will find a place to go now because you still have friends.

If you leave office and decide to remain in Zimbabwe, the people who will take over from you will harass you. Remember how Chiluba harassed our dear Cde K.K. I know that you wonder what happens when you leave office – pure genocide.

People have been silenced, oppressed, starved, harassed, tortured and abused for so long, and one day, at some place, at some particular time, they will burst. I foresee a repeat of Hotel Rwanda. Tsvangirai is a better evil than the people around you.

Start a dialogue with him, and your friends will try to stop you as they always have done, not because they hate MDC, but because they want to continue vilifying you and milking the milkless Zimbabweans, relentlessly.

They give you false hopes like the present canonization of Jatirofa as a panacea for our fuel blues, to make you stay. If you go, most of them know that they will also go. It is a question of making hay while the sun shines.

I am extremely persuaded that a great revolutionary of your make, will take my words seriously, for they come from a passionate and patriotic beneficiary of your sacrifice, and the blood of so many Zimbabweans. I know that the detractors and saboteurs of our economic sovereignty and integrity (reminds you of the verbose Jonathan Moyo), will read this letter before you.

You may not even see it, like many of its kind that have perished before you saw them. Probably they have started looking for me to feed me with fear, but I tell them that a time shall come when the difference between life and death will be insignificant.

Sincerely yours

Son of the soil

Mutambara (MDC) lacks "Agenda Setting!"

What seems to be lost to Mutambara here is the concept of agenda setting. You can't be a leader who has to react to other people's initiatives without you taking the lead to set up an agenda everyone can foolow. No matter how flowed these initiatives are, they still remain that! An initiative.

As long as the opposition does not set a tone and hence a national agenda they will keep responding to us via e-mail like this. 

Nyatsimba Mutota [nyatsimba_mutota@yahoo.com]