Messages From Zimbabwe

Inflation in Zimbabwe surged to 355,000 percent in March as food and non-alcoholic beverage costs jumped, the Zimbabwe Independent reported, citing the Finance Ministry. The inflation rate rose from 164,900 percent in February, the Harare-based newspaper said on its web site. Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate. The southern African nation is in its 10th year of economic recession and has the fastest-shrinking peace-time economy, according to the World Bank.

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The bail application of two leaders of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was deferred in the Harare High Court to the Thursday, the union said in a statement. Spokesperson Last Tarabuku said the state prosecutor told the court on Wednesday that he had nothing to present and that the previous prosecutor could not proceed with the case as he claimed to be related to one of the men. ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo and secretary general Wellington Chibebe are being charged with inciting people to rise against the government. The allegations arise from comments which the two made at this year’s May Day celebrations at the Dzivaresekwa stadium. ZCTU lawyer, Aleck Muchadema denied any relationship between the prosecutor and the accused, saying the lie was meant to delay the legal process.

Tarabuku said the judge then adjourned the court to 11.30am and ordered the state to present its response. The state failed to respond and the judge re-ordered that the state respond by 4.30pm on Wednesday. The application was postponed until Thursday. ZCTU said the state was deliberately delaying the process. The ZCTU’s application to the High Court comes after a Magistrate’s Court on Monday refused to grant the two men bail, claiming they were not suitable for bail and had to remain in custody, in the interest of justice. The Magistrate’s Court remanded the two into custody until May 23.

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Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU PF has accused Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa of siding with the opposition in its bid to oust President Robert Mugabe, in yet another sign of worsening relations between the two countries.

The ruling party, which is gearing up for a bruising presidential election run-off between Mr Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, said it was disappointed with Mr Mwanawasa because he had failed to call for the lifting of sanctions imposed by Western countries.

It said that, as the chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mr Mwanawasa had been tasked to ask the United States and Britain to scrap the “illegal” sanctions.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mr Patrick Chinamasa, who chairs ZANU PF’s media sub-committee, said the sanctions had contributed to Mr Mugabe’s embarrassing defeat in the first round of the elections.

“SADC undertook to call for the lifting of the illegal sanctions but Mr Mwanawasa, as the chairperson, has not done so yet,” he said.

“It is his obligation to implement the resolution issued at the extraordinary summit held in Tanzania last year to remove immediately all forms of the illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe.

“We have not heard him calling for the lifting of the sanctions… we have been adversely affected by the sanctions, as they are creating an uneven playing field.”

Mr Chinamasa’s outbursts were the first direct attacks on Mr Mwanawasa by the government since signs of a breakdown in relations between the two countries started appearing early this year.

Relations between the two countries have been deteriorating since Zimbabwe accused Zambia of trying to block its maize imports in the run-up to the March elections.

The decision by Zambia to call an emergency SADC summit to address a political impasse occasioned by delays in releasing the Zimbabwean presidential election results invited an angry response from the authorities in Harare, who claimed the meeting was the brainchild of its enemies in the West.

Last week, Zambia deported hundreds of Zimbabwean traders operating from its resort town of Livingstone. Zimbabwean state media called for the deportation of Zambians in retaliation.

Mr Mwanawasa has been one of the most outspoken African leaders on the crisis in Zimbabwe, whose effects he fears could spill over in the region.

Botswana has also taken a cue from Zambia and has since banned the export of gasoline to the neighbouring country, dealing a major blow to an economy that has been in recession for close to 10 years.

Meanwhile, Mr Chinamasa says Zimbabwe will not invite international election observers for the presidential election run-off unless sanctions against the country are lifted.

The declaration, coming a few days after Mr Tsvangirai finally confirmed that he would participate in the run-off on condition that international observers were invited, is likely to lead to another political stalemate over the holding of the elections.

Zimbabwe barred Western countries from observing the first round of voting, saying they were biased against the ruling party but following the controversy surrounding the presidential election, pressure has been mounting for a United Nations-led observer mission to be allowed into the country. “We will not allow them (Western countries) because they are players.” Mr Chinamasa said.

The US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most members of the European Union (EU) have imposed travel bans and economic sanctions on Mr Mugabe’s inner circle for alleged human rights violations since 2002.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is yet to set a date for the run-off, which should have been held before the end of this month.

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To understand the indifference of Burma’s military rulers to the suffering of cyclone Nargis survivors, look no further than the large gold lettering on the gates of the army’s officer training school. It proclaims the young officers to be ‘the Triumphant Elite of the Future’, which sums up the attitude of the men who have run Burma for 46 years and regard themselves as above the people, with the perpetual right to tell them what to do. It’s much the same in Zimbabwe where Robert Mugabe’s recent campaign slogan was ‘Get behind the fist’ with a picture of his, firmly clenched. Mugabe’s message - that his opponents are traitors to the liberation movement and not true Zimbabweans - was clear and those not behind the fist are liable to be crushed by it. In winning the war against white domination, he regards his ZANU PF party as also having won the right to rule indefinitely.

The two regimes have much in common besides decades in power and a deep-seated paranoia. The crisis in Burma lays bare how both regard their own survival, and enrichment, as paramount, no matter how many of their citizens die along the way. It’s a common trait in authoritarian regimes. The Burmese army doesn’t really think it is better able to deliver aid than the World Food Programme. But the regime is fearful of allowing in hordes of foreigners from countries it blames for Burma’s problems because that would be an admission of its own failings and limitations. General Than Shwe and the rest of the junta know they are deeply unpopular and that only fear and a sense that the army is all-powerful is what keeps the population from rising up. So large numbers of Burmese who survived the cyclone are likely to die because their government, like the regime in Zimbabwe, is really afraid of its own people.

They were dying unnecessarily, through neglect, in Burma even without a cyclone. Health care is dire. Hospitals are ill-equipped and antiquated. Parts of the country were fed by the WFP long before Nargis hit. Burmese live about 15 years less than people in Thailand or Vietnam. Not that the generals show any concern so long as they are building mansions from the profits of Burma’s natural gas. Zimbabweans are dying in vast numbers too, with the lowest life expectancy in the world because of acute shortages of food, medicines and work, while the ZANU PF elite enriches itself. It’s the same callous disregard for life shown by authoritarian regimes from Mobutu Sese Seko’s decades of derelict rule in Zaire to successive Nigerian military juntas that plundered billions of dollars from their nation’s vast oil wealth while its people struggled to survive.

For all that, the regimes in Burma and Zimbabwe feel the need to seek legitimacy through the ballot box. The results might be rigged or coerced, but Robert Mugabe and Than Shwe still want to be able to tell the world they are acting in the name of the people. So Zimbabwe held an election in March, Mugabe sat on the results for weeks and, even after admitting he lost, continues to cling to power by delaying a second round of voting while his forces kill and maim in an effort to break support for the opposition. Burma’s junta pressed ahead yesterday with a referendum on a new constitution effectively designed to extend military rule. Given a free vote, it’s likely that a majority of Burmese would opt to get the soldiers out of government. The army knows that and has resorted to an extensive campaign of intimidation and nationalist propaganda to win and it probably will. But for all claims to be serving the interests of the people, Zimbabweans and Burmese know that their rulers are only serving themselves.

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ZNU 120 released. In today’s programme I have a look at Mbeki’s admitting that he is a Robert Mugabe/ZANU PF supporter, and a look at the future for Zimbabwe… The programme is available to play using the multiplayers in the right hand sidebar of The Bearded Man blog, here or even downloaded from here.

As usual, the historical programme are available to play on demand from my Odeo page…

My thanks for the continued support of my audio endeavours…

Take care.

‘debvhu

Zimbabwe’s presidential runoff cannot take place in the time allotted by law, the head of the electoral commission said in an interview published Sunday. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has insisted the vote should be held within 21 days of the May 2 announcement of the results from the initial vote. However, Zimbabwean government officials have said the electoral commission has up to a year to hold the runoff. “It was ambitious for the legislature to think 21 days would be enough,” George Chiweshe was quoted as saying in the state-run Sunday Mail. Chiweshe said the electoral body was still waiting for funds from the government to hold the poll. It took the commission more than a month to announce results from the March 29 election. Tsvangirai maintains he won the first round outright and that official figures showing a second round was necessary were fraudulent.

Mugabe has been accused of orchestrating violence against the opposition since the first round, raising questions about whether a runoff would be free or fair. Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party, meanwhile, has already launched its runoff campaign. Tsvangirai said Saturday at a news conference in South Africa that although another election may bring more violence, he will return shortly to Zimbabwe to face Mugabe. He and other top opposition figures have stayed out of Zimbabwe since the initial voting. Speaking after a meeting with Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos later Saturday, Tsvangirai said he assured regional leaders that if he were to win the presidency, he would respect Mugabe’s place in Zimbabwe’s history. Dos Santos is seen as close to Mugabe and heads the key political, defense and security committee of the Southern African Development Community.

Tsvangirai told reporters in the Angolan capital that he had assured dos Santos Mugabe would be treated as the “father of the nation” in the interest of building peace and stability in Zimbabwe. That position appeared to indicate a softening: Tsvangirai told The Associated Press in an interview last month he believed the Zimbabwean people would press for Mugabe to stand trial for crimes against humanity. Tsvangirai also said he spoke with dos Santos about escalating violence in Zimbabwe, and what needed to be done to improve conditions for the presidential runoff.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights has said 22 people have died and 900 have been tortured in postelection violence, while 40,000 farmworkers have been displaced in an effort to prevent them from voting in the runoff. “If this is going to be a successful runoff, opposition leaders and supporters must be able to freely campaign free of violence,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council. “We would like to see election monitors - U.N. human rights monitors to ensure we have a safe electoral process there.”

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Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called on Saturday for an end to violence and asked the Southern African Development Community to send peacekeepers to monitor an upcoming presidential run-off. He detailed a series of conditions needed to ensure a fair election against veteran President Robert Mugabe, who lost the first round of disputed elections on March 29. “We have given some conditions to SADC (Southern African Development Community) for the run-off,” he said. “One, total secession of all violence; number two, unfettered access by international observers; number three, the reconstitution of ZEC (Zimbabwe’s electoral commission); number four, media access should be unfettered; number five SADC should provide peacekeeping to curtail violence.”

Tsvangirai criticised the ZEC, which has played a central role in the country’s elections. Results from the first round were delayed by five weeks and no date has been given for the second-round run-off despite a legal requirement for it to take place within 21 days of the first-round results being announced. “ZEC is partisan to ZANU PF,” Tsvangirai said, referring to Mugabe’s party which has ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1980. The SADC is a regional African body that has been traditionally reluctant to criticise Mugabe, but some of its members are losing patience with the 84-year-old.

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Suspected war veterans and ZANU PF loyalists have seized over 20 commercial farms in Mashonaland West in the past fortnight, amid reports that a countrywide new wave of farm invasions was looming ahead of a presidential election run-off between President Robert Mugabe and the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai. The most high-profile person to occupy a farm in Mashonaland West was the Reserve Bank’s deputy governor Edward Mashiringwana. Last month Mashiringwana allegedly invaded a farm owned by South African farmer Louis Fick in the same province. This was despite a Chinhoyi magistrate’s court interdict barring the deputy central bank boss from occupying the property. Mashiringwana reportedly invaded Friedawill Farm in Lions Den, 20km west of Chinhoyi. Fick told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday that Mashiringwana had seized his farm.

“Let me say this in short, our workers are being locked outside the farm and they are not being allowed access to the animals,” Fick said. “We have lost pigs and crocodiles. Mashiringwana - the deputy governor - is behind this.” Reports from the farm have graphically described the squeals of piglets devoured by sows driven insane by lack of food and water. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals which tried to take food and water to the farm was denied access. Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president Trevor Gifford told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that a group of white commercial farmers in Chegutu made reports to the police that war veterans and ZANU PF supporters have forcibly taken over their farms. “We have reports that over 20 farms have been invaded,” Gifford said. “The owners made reports to the police, but they got no assistance.”

He alleged that the police displayed a lackadaisical attitude towards the invasions, which he claimed were also spreading to Mashonaland Central. “The situation is so severe, police in Mashonaland West are reluctant to deal with the invasions,” Gifford said. “It is only in a few cases that the Police Support Unit reacted.” Impeccable sources in the province said police officers were declining to enter their names in the Report Record Book (RRB) once a farmer made a report for fear of victimisation by their superiors. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said he was not aware of the new wave of farm invasions. “We are not aware of those (invasion) reports at the moment,” Bvudzijena said. On why police officers were not writing their names on RRBs, Bvudzijena said it was an administrative issue that must be dealt with by a police station officer-in-charge. However, he said with or without officers’ names on the RRBs, the cases would be investigated. Gifford alleged that a white couple in Chegutu was assaulted by ZANU PF youth militia on Monday after resisting the seizure of their farm and were later admitted at a private hospital in Harare.

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Gangs of ruling party youths beat to death 11 opposition activists in a remote Zimbabwean town Monday, setting a gruesome new standard for the post-election violence surging through that nation, according to opposition party officials. Two large truckloads of youths, led by two senior members of President Robert Mugabe’s party, marauded through Chiweshe, a rural area about 90 miles north of Harare, the capital, and beat prominent members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change with branches, gun butts, bicycle chains, and whips, party officials said. Four of the victims were teachers, and at least two were elderly. The deaths brought to at least 32 the number of opposition activists killed in the past two weeks, said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa. Thousands of others have been beaten, tortured, arrested, kidnapped, or chased from their homes since the March 29 election, opposition officials say.

“They converged and they attacked,” said Shepherd Mushonga, a lawyer and newly elected opposition member of parliament who visited Chiweshe yesterday. He spoke extensively with witnesses, including several relatives of the victims, and provided a list of all 11 of the dead. Mushonga said that two were relatives of his. He said the violence was intended to weaken opposition resolve ahead of a possible runoff election. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the election but failed to reach the majority necessary for a first-round victory, according to official results. A second vote has not yet been scheduled, but violence has been focused in areas that supported the opposition. The attacks have been especially vicious in areas, such as Chiweshe, that once were strongholds of Mugabe’s Zanu PF but supported Tsvangirai in the election.

In the neighborhood where the 11 people were killed Monday, Mushonga said, Tsvangirai got 70 votes compared with 15 for Mugabe. “They want to instill as much fear as possible so either you run away and don’t vote, or you succumb and vote for the ruling party,” Mushonga said. His account was backed by a close relative of one of the victims, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear that he could be assaulted. He said he received a text message on his cellphone Monday night saying that the relative had been “murdered by Zanu PF youth.” When he arrived in Chiweshe on Tuesday, he found his relative’s body severely battered and bloodied. Funerals are scheduled to begin today. “When people do that to people, it’s not even human,” the man said. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”

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ZANU PF and MDC-T have filed a total of 105 election petitions, prompting Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku to appoint 17 more High Court judges to the Electoral Court to preside over the cases.

ZANU PF is challenging results in 53 constituencies while MDC-T is contesting those in 52 constituencies. The appointments, made in terms of Section 162 of the Electoral Act, bring to 20 the number of judges who will handle the election disputes.

Three judges - Justices Tendayi Uchena, Antonia Guvava and Nicholas Ndou - were appointed to the Electoral Court early this year. In a letter dated April 29, 2008 and copied to Judge President Rita Makarau and Master of the High Court Mr Charles Nyatanga, the Chief Justice said the appointments were made in terms of the country’s electoral laws. The appointments were also made in consultation with the Judicial Service Commission and Justice Makarau in her capacity as the Judge President and would be effective from April 29, 2008 to April 29 2009.

Justice Makarau would also preside over some of the petitions. Mr Nyatanga confirmed the latest development saying the Judge President had scheduled a meeting with lawyers handling the petitions for 10am this Friday at the High Court. “All the lawyers who are dealing with election petitions (are invited) to attend the meeting where the procedure would be discussed with the Judge President chairing. “The JP (Judge President) is going to issue a practice directive on the procedures to be followed in dealing with the petitions,” he said. Mr Nyatanga said his office had received 105 petitions, which have to be determined within six months in terms of the Electoral Act.

He said both parties filed more or less an equal number of petitions challenging results of the concerned constituencies countrywide. In its petitions, ZANU PF will, among other issues, contend that MDC-T bribed election officials while the opposition party will argue that ZANU PF candidates and its supporters bought votes and interfered with the voting process.

In the synchronised presidential, parliamentary and council elections the opposition MDC-T won 99 seats against ZANU PF’s 97. The MDC got 10 seats. ZANU PF won the Senate while no absolute winner emerged in the presidential election, which now requires a run-off between President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

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