April 22, 2008 - April 30, 2008
Zimbabwe: UN snubs MDC-T
Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Herald Reporters
April 30, 2008
THE United Nations yesterday snubbed attempts by Western backers of the MDC-T to put Zimbabwe on the agenda of the Security Council meeting as British moves to subvert Zimbabwe's democratic electoral process by mooting the formation of a contact and pressure group of three selected Sadc countries to put pressure on Harare were exposed.
MDC-T attempts to gatecrash into yesterday's Security Council meeting hit a wall after it was told that only governments could address the world body organ's meetings.
MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti and secretary for international affairs Eliphas Mukonoweshuro had travelled to New York in a bid to address the Security Council meeting on the situation in Zimbabwe following last month's elections.
But Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the UN, Mr Boniface Chidyausiku, said the opposition officials were told off and ended up meeting the world body's secretariat.
"They were told that they are not a government and cannot address the Security Council," said Mr Chidyausiku.
In the meeting with the UN secretariat, the two claimed that there was post-election violence in Zimbabwe and asked for a UN special envoy to probe the situation in the country.
After the opposition could not get into the Security Council meeting, its backers – led by the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and the United States – unsuccessfully tried to get the Security Council to discuss Zimbabwe.
Eight countries – namely South Africa, Russia, Vietnam, China, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Libya and Indonesia – blocked the move.
Recently South Africa – which was chairing the Security Council meetings in April – also refused to have Zimbabwe put on the agenda of a joint UN and African Union peace and security meeting.
AU chairman Mr Jakaya Kikwete – who is the president of Tanzania – said the Zimbabwe issue was being handled by Sadc.
Britain and the US were trying hard to get Zimbabwe on the agenda of the Security Council especially during April when South Africa was chairing the UN body.
But Mr Chidyausiku described the attempts as "mischievous" and pointed out that the MDC-T could not address the Security Council as it could only lobby its "friends" at the UN.
It has emerged that Britain's Labour and Conservative parties were seeking to divide Sadc over the Zimbabwean issue.
The British sought to entice Zambian, Botswana and Tanzanian high commissioners in London to form a group that would influence other regional countries to be hard on Zimbabwe and subsequently push President Mugabe out of office.
On April 24 2008, William Hague, the Conservative shadow secretary for foreign affairs, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, indicating they would soon be meeting with diplomats from the three Sadc countries to force them to condemn President Mugabe.
It could not be established last night if the meeting was eventually held.
The letter also reveals that the opposition MDC-T has been working closely with the British to circumvent the electoral process by finding a way of installing Morgan Tsvangirai as President despite the apparent reality that no presidential candidate managed to avoid a run-off in the March 29 harmonised elections.
"In the weeks since the elections, I have met with the London representatives of the Tsvangirai's MDC party (sic). Keith Simpson, (Conservative) shadow minister for Africa, has met Lord Malloch Brown (Minister for Africa) to urge more decisive action and will shortly meet with the high commissioners of Botswana, Tanzania and Zambia to discuss the contribution their countries can make.
"I have called on Zimbabwe's neighbours to send a united signal that (President) Mugabe should go, and be prepared to offer to mediate. We would like to see the African Union and the Commonwealth take a strong stance and back these efforts.
"Britain and its partners should make it clear that they will isolate the regime and impose tougher sanctions if it continues down this path.
"We will continue to press the government on these matters," Hague concluded, "to support all international efforts to intensify the pressure, and advocate clearer action to prepare for the eventual departure of the Mugabe regime."
It is believed that the proposed meeting with the three African high commissioners in London is part of efforts by the British establishment to form a "Contact Group" on Zimbabwe that would also seek to subvert the electoral process.
In an article in the April 6, 2008 edition of the UK newspaper The Sunday Telegraph, Hague said: "And we should set up a 'Contact Group', backed by the weight and resources of the United Nations.
"Such a body would be able to pool international efforts on Zimbabwe, manage the inflow of assistance and advance the political process."
He added that the UK should also lay the groundwork for establishing a military force "under the auspices of the African Union and backed by the major powers" to invade Zimbabwe.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Let's unite, defend Zimbabwe
Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
By Reason Wafawarova
April 28, 2008
The Herald
THE United States' ruling elite is gleefully keeping fingers crossed in an envisaged opportunity that presents a Zimbabwe they see as ready for the picking.
On the 15th of April, US ambassador to the UN, one Zalmay Khalilzad, described Zimbabwe as "the most important and urgent issue in Africa".
Said Khalilzad: "It would be very surprising that we will have a meeting on Africa in which quiet a number of African leaders will be there and not talk about the most important issue, the most urgent issue on that continent, being Zimbabwe."
Now, Jendayi Frazer, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, has been gallivanting across Southern Africa lobbying, or is it arm twisting the regional leaders one by one, in her assignment to ensure an ouster of President Robert Mugabe and the liberation nationalist party, Zanu-PF.
Zimbabwe's former colonial master and the US's trusted lapdog supporter and ally, Britain, has been running all over the show in a bid to restore her battered sense of supremacy over the affairs of her former colonies – states whose affairs Britain runs through the Commonwealth. David Milliband, the British Foreign Secretary has already told the world that his country cannot wait to have Zimbabwe back in the Commonwealth.
Milliband's most unassuming boss, Gordon Brown has already complained that his patience is "wearing thin" on Zimbabwe and he reckons that this personal feeling can safely be interpreted to be representative of the attitude of the "international community" a term now cynically monopolised by the West with arrogant disregard for the rest of this world.
South Africa, under Thabo Mbeki has refused to be the equivalent of the pre-1979 Iran, an Iran that was the hub of US interests in the Middle East, and the West is badly looking for an alternative to Mbeki. When the shah of Iran was ousted by a popular revolt in 1979, the US created Saddam Hussein, just across the border in Iraq. Hussein, immediately attacked Iran on behalf of the US and for eight years he was armed to the hilt by Washington – killing millions of Iran civilians and Iraq Kurds in the process.
The recent utterances by Jacob Zuma to the effect that the US and her Western allies wanted South Africa to attack Zimbabwe militarily are not only revealing but also very characteristic of US foreign policy.
The so-called quiet diplomacy approach by President Thabo Mbeki has not only irked George W Bush and his administration but it has also been seen as a failure to establish a client state in Southern Africa.
If South Africa could play an Israel in the region, then the US interests would be protected – interests vested in the region's natural resources and possibly the setting up of AFRICOM; that unwelcome idea of a US military base meant to control Africa.
It is this background that makes the US consider Zimbabwe the "most important and urgent issue on the continent" of Africa. Khalilzad was only speaking on behalf of George W Bush's administration. This is the official US State Department's position and it is the same view held by the UK and the rest of the West.
Tsvangirai becomes so relevant because Zimbabwe has a history of military supremacy in the region. They played major roles in stopping Angola's Jonasi Savimbi, defeating Mozambique's Renamo and also in stopping the overthrow of Laurent Kabila of the DRC in 1998.
Zimbabwe is rich in its agricultural potential and in natural resources, like platinum, gold, coal and other minerals. It has a relatively big population by the region's standards, a population estimated at 14 million.
Above all, Zimbabwe has Morgan Tsvangirai, a man who rides on the suffering of people – a suffering in which he has played a major role as the chief mobiliser of economic sanctions from the West. Zimbabwe has Morgan Tsvangirai, a man Washington can deeply trust as a tabula rasa in terms of policy. The man is ideologically illiterate and that is the perfect scenario for the US. He is motivated by power and money and not by popular policies and for Washington, there is no better candidate.
Morgan Tsvagirai, if ever allowed to rule, is most likely going to neutralise the militant war veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war. He is most likely to restore the white dominated agrarian regime, as was the case before 2000. He is most likely going to carry out Washington's instructions on the sub-region – that without causing so many problems like Mbeki of South Africa is seen as doing.
A Morgan Tsvangirai-led Zimbabwe is likely to be armed to the hilt by Washington – all for purposes of whipping each country in the region into the imperial line.
It is hoped that South Africa will remain relatively controllable, as is the case right now and that it does not develop into another Iran in a region where Zimbabwe will be playing an Israel.
The West's reaction to Israeli offensive was revealingly fraudulent and unusually more apparent. Just a day before the capture of Corporal Shalit, on the 24th of June 2006, Israel had kidnapped two civilians in Gaza, the Muammar brothers. Obviously, this was a far more serious crime than the capturing of a soldier, especially when one considers that the Muammar brothers were abducted to Israel in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
They were swallowed into the Israeli prison system, where over 1000 people are currently held without charge, hence kidnapped. There was neither notice nor reaction in the West, in fact in the West nothing happened in Palestine on the 24th of June 2006.
There is general agreement to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict among the Arab states, including Iran, and Hezbollah has also said they would respect this kind of a
solution, although it is not exactly their preference. Hamas has also indicated that it is prepared to negotiate for a settlement in the two-state terms.
The United States and Israel continue to block this political settlement, as they have done for the past thirty years, never mind the brief and inconsequential exceptions often meant to hoodwink the Palestinians before each major onslaught. Denial of this attitude is preferable in the West, but the victims of US-Israeli brutality do not exactly enjoy this kind of luxury.
US-Israeli rejection of reality is not only in words, but also more importantly, in action. With precise and decisive US backing, Israel has been systematically pursuing its programme of annexation and dismemberment of shrinking Palestinian territories, and imprisonment of what remains by taking over the Jordan Valley. This is the so-called convergence programme, which Washington astonishingly calls "courageous withdrawal."
This is exactly why the Palestinians are facing national destruction. The only meaningful support for Palestine is from Hezbollah, which was formed in reaction to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Hezbollah is basically a prestigiously supported group, mainly because of leading the effort to force Israel to stop its aggression on Lebanon in 2000, as well as for its popular social service provision programmes.
The US-Israeli planners would want Hezbollah and similar Islamic organizations like Hamas severely weakened or most preferably destroyed – just like the PLO had to be evicted from Lebanon in 1982.
In the same way, the US would want every liberation movement in Southern Africa severely weakened if not completely annihilated. Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF, Namibia's SWAPO, Angola's MPLA, Mozambique's Frelimo, Zambia's ousted UNIP and South Africa's ANC are all viewed in the same light with Hezbollah, Hamas and every other popular Islamic group.
The Western dream to weaken or annihilate these popular movements can only be enhanced when people like Morgan Tsvangirai, Alphonso Dhlakama and others like them, avail themselves as willing mercenaries to push forward the reactionary imperialist agenda.
The main reason Hezbollah has not been destroyed is that it is deeply embedded within Lebanese society that it cannot be eradicated without eradicating much of Lebanon just like its virtually impossible to destroy Hamas without eradicating much of Palestine.
It still remains very hard for the US to destroy Zanu-PF without having to eradicate much of Zimbabwe. The same goes for all the other liberation movements and even the ousted UNIP of Zambia just refused to die under the spirited efforts by Fredrick Chiluba.
Chiluba even tried to arrest everyone who mattered in UNIP and he even attempted to make legislation that would strip Kenneth Kaunda of his right to Zambian citizenship and identity.
No doubt, a Tsvangirai government, if ever there could be one, would be assigned to do similar efforts on Zanu-PF and what the West now calls Mugabeism.
This is the kind of Zimbabwe that Washington would want. They want a Zimbabwe that is totally divorced from its own liberation legacy, a Zimbabwe totally disenfranchised by their own history and a Zimbabwe totally depended on the Western doctrine of donor funding.
This is why the MDC derides war veterans, preaches the gospel of the "international community" more than they preach nationalism and above all believe in borrowing more than they believe in production.
When they say Zimbabwe is on the brink they mean the country is on the brink of being a client state to Washington.
We are on the brink of servitude to Western ideals and economic supremacy. Can this be allowed to happen? If yes, the question is why?
Some have written this writer saying if the people want imperialism and Western domination, let them have it. In other words, a country can be handed over to its oppressors if the oppressors are cunning enough to deceive a large chunk of the population.
This is the predicament that Zimbabwe finds itself in, a very sad and precarious predicament. The envisaged run off in the presidential election is just but the last option to choose between rule by Washington and self-determination.
That is the plain truth, despite the apparent temptation for people to try and stop the economic crisis via the ballot box.
People are being coerced to vote for the lifting of sanctions while handing their sovereignty right in the hands of the US-UK alliance.
Are we going to stand aside and look?
Is Sadc going to stand aside and watch?
Are Zimbabweans in their majority going to allow this travesty to occur?
It is homeland or death.
Together we will overcome.
Reason Wafawarova is a political writer and can be contacted on wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe: A game plan that went awry
Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2008
By Stephen T. Mambodei
April 28, 2008
The Herald
IT was a well-planned and well-calculated psychological game plan whose execution was supposed to produce a certain desired result.
Its takers wanted nothing else, but that result.
Three weeks after the poll, while the nation awaits the announcement of the full result of the historic March 29 poll, one has the feeling that the decisiveness, sense of finality, and the matter of fact mission accomplished attitude with which MDC and their backers in the Western community talk with respect to President Mugabe's leadership, is a pointer to a well-planned and well-orchestrated campaign to ensure that, that objective of "Mugabe must be stopped" designed a long time ago looks set to be realised.
To them, the 2008 harmonised polls could not have presented a better opportunity as the Zimbabwean President was surrounded by a slew of problems, which they thought they would use to their best advantage as election issues. It was also a game plan meant to shock, paralyse, immobilse.
It had an instant killer instinct. It was believably tactfully planned, just like a laboratory experiment.
It was also executed with immense speed and in some cases with military-like "precision".
On hindsight, the planners, as they revisit their strategy or go on to Plan B, they must really be wondering what went wrong, for the experiment produced a fluke.
The groundwork had been well-prepared by none other than American ambassador, James McGee, when he wrote in the Financial Gazette on February 21: "The citizens of Zimbabwe will go to the polls on March 29 to choose their representatives for public office. Despite the concerns about whether the conditions for free and fair elections . . . a growing chorus of voices is expressing doubt about the coming poll.
"My government shares the concerns expressed in recent weeks by a wide variety of organisations about the pre-election environment including reports of voter confusion and inadequate preparation, evidence of irregularities associated with registration and inspection of the voters' rolls and concerns that the violence of the past year will inevitably affect the campaign and election.
"Despite all these ominous signs, however, we urge all Zimbabweans to vote."
Then what followed were outcries of an "uneven level playing field'' with some players claiming that the election would be rigged or stolen from them.
A well-oiled international media machinery was also working for nothing but an opposition win, come what may. For hadn't Tsvangirai himself proclaimed: "Gore rino! Hazvikoni!"
As expected, people cast their ballots peacefully on March 29, and the whole nation naturally started waiting for the election results after close of polling at 7pm.
It was with amazement therefore that barely 12 hours after polling stations had closed, urban dwellers woke up to an euphoric atmosphere.
Put simply, people were celebrating an MDC-T "win" and they were also celebrating that at long last "More Morgan" was going to State House.
Car hooters and music were blaring away and people were congratulating each other.
Thanks to satellite TV, mobile phones, the Internet and the many brothers and sisters in the Diaspora who had taken over the constitutional mandate of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and had made it their responsibility to announce results of an election in which they had not even been directly involved.
Simply stated, ZEC's independence was usurped and it did not seem to worry some sections of our society that they were setting a very dangerous precedent, and tampering with the nation's sacrosanct document - the Constitution.
With the exception of a few who had crossed over from neighbouring countries, how many from the purported three million Zimbabweans in the Diaspora returned to Zimbabwe to cast their vote?
From then on, the rumour-mill ran riot.
Allegations, counter-allegations, conspiracy theories, claims and counter-claims abounded.
Everyone suddenly became an expert, and everyone suddenly had information from impeccable sources substantiating his or her claims about the results they were peddling around.
In less than 24 hours, Zimbabwe became a stage of number crunching "experts", with the players upstaging one another, each time there was another rumour in circulation,
Then it became clear that the battle for Zimbabwe has always been a psychological one fought primarily in the public domain, the media.
This is why personalities like Morgan Tsvangirai, Simba Makoni and Arthur Mutambara are branded media constructs, for without the image building done by some media sources they would have gone nowhere politically.
By midday on March 30, this writer cross-checked to see whether the dates and times were correct. Was it a Monday morning or what?
He wondered how ZEC officials had managed to meticulously finish counting ballots from the presidential contest; 210 House of Assembly, and 60 Senate constituencies as well as 2 000 wards; collate the information and send it to the National Command Centre and broadcast it all within a space of less than 12 hours?
Where had I been when the results were announced, for I was awake for a good part of the night, waiting for the results, and my neighbourhood had had uninterrupted power supply for quite some time?
Well, more was to come. This writer was to later learn that the high spirits were a common phenomenon in a number of urban centres. There were also allegations of an influx of text messages coming from people in the Diaspora.
Then the third phase of the psychological game was put in motion. That Sunday morning, by 10am apart from President Mugabe, names of some key personalities in Zanu-PF started doing the rounds that they had dismally lost the election.
The announcements were done also in stages. The first psychological shocker was the claim that key provinces in Zanu-PF's rural strongholds of Mashonaland East, West and Central had all gone to MDC-T.
But the best of them was that MDC-T had also won major constituencies in Zanu-PF's stronghold of Uzumba Maramba-Pfungwe. As they claimed: "Zanu-PF yaita kutsvairwa chaiko". (Zanu-PF has been whitewashed).
One middle-aged lady remarked in shock and awe: "Nhai veduwe, ko inga nyika yaipa. Toringepi?" (The picture does not look good. Whither Zimbabwe?)
One of the celebrants said: "Zvino kana atorerwa (President Mugabe) Mash East neMash West kunosara ndokupi iwo matowns ari mastrongholds eMDC?" (Now if he (President Mugabe) lost Mash East and Mash West, what will he be left with since urban centres are MDC strongholds?)
Another one remarked: "Tiri kunzungu, tiri kunyimo. Chiringazuva chiya chazotsvuka chikakwata. Takati isu musi wa29 March mumwe nemumwe ngaamire panzvimbo. Mugabe kumunda. Makoni kuFinance. Tsvangirai kuState House." (Let's us look at the issue from both perspectives. Time is up. We made it clear that come March 29, each one should stand in his appointed place. President Mugabe should go back to the land. Makoni, to Finance and Tsvangirai should go and occupy State House).
The blatant lies were deliberate, but also harmful.
Within those 12 hours, the Zimbabwean landscape was deemed to be so untenable for some Zanu-PF big guns, and it was alleged that this had forced some of them to flee the country fearing people power and vengeance.
One alleged Harare International Airport employee wrote to BBC claiming that one of the airport wings had been closed to allow certain people to escape.
The alleged "massive loss by Zanu-PF" had to be credible as names of well-known politicians started being floated around. These included Zanu-PF national commissar Cde Elliot Manyika and Deputy Secretary for Youth Cde Saviour Kasukuwere.
Apart from Tsvangirai, Edgar Tekere of the Simba Makoni camp was also alleged to have made a clean sweep in the Mutare Senate constituency he was contesting, and it was claimed that he was having the last laugh on Zanu-PF.
But with time and patience, the whole nation was to learn that the former Zanu-PF secretary-general had come a dismal fourth, garnering just over 2 000 votes.
The puzzle would not be complete without further damaging information, the allegation that Cde Manyika had shot and killed an MDC supporter after the announcement of the results.
To give the so-called results credence, they had to be authenticated by none other than Basildon Peta, who claimed in an interview with Julian Marshall on News Hour, at 14:15hrs that President Mugabe was politically finished, and that all he could do was to pack his bags and retire to his Zvimba rural home.
This threat that was later repeated on April 18, by none other than Arthur Mutambara on the pirate radio station, VOA's Studio 7.
Peta claimed there was no way Cde Mugabe could survive since the unofficial results they were receiving in South Africa showed that one of his vice presidents, Cde Joice Mujuru, had lost dismally in Mt Darwin.
One wonders how Peta could make such claims when he knows full well that exit poll or no exit poll, opinion poll or no opinion poll, it was practically impossible for ZEC to have had completed the counting exercise in so short a time.
If there was no sinister agenda, it would not have made sense for anyone working under the auspices of ZEC to release results to the outside world before fulfilling their national mandate of announcing them to Zimbabweans who were primary stakeholders in the whole exercise.
That the results were a subject of interest not only nationally, but also regionally and internationally was well known, for since 2000, Zimbabwe has become a battleground, and every activity is always put under microscopic scrutiny.
This is why ZEC invited a number of authoritative organisations and individuals to observe the process.
If people had wanted to use their common sense, they would have asked themselves how results from one or two wards in a constituency could be translated into a national result, even a representative sample and irrespective of who had won or lost in that particular ward?
This writer also realised that it was an exercise in futility to argue, let alone disagree with people who were celebrating a result that had not been officially announced.
Late Sunday, as the rumor mill went into overdrive, with the merrymaking going on and the onslaught continuing, some people started showing signs of exasperation and frustration as ZEC had not yet announced any result.
As usual, the term "rigging" started being floated around as some of these people thought that the delay was a tactic being used by ZEC and Zanu-PF to rig the election, and automatically, steal the victory from Tsvangirai.
But the psychological game was still being played.
The big one came on Sunday evening when Studio 7 hosted by the Voice of America made a special announcement from the American Embassy in Harare advising all American citizens resident in Zimbabwe to move to safe areas as they expected that violence would break out at any moment, due to delays by ZEC in announcing the results.
In the same bulletin, Cde Manyika was also interviewed about the alleged shooting incident, an allegation he vehemently denied.
By Monday, the euphoria started dying down, and what was on people's lips was when ZEC would start announcing the results.
When the results started coming in for the better part of the week, it was evident that people were doing nothing but making post-mortems of a partial result and making conclusions based on that.
But the damage from Sunday had already been done, and it is a damage that will take time to repair.
MDC-T also heightened the tempo, when they threatened that if ZEC did not announce the presidential result they would announce their own version of the presidential result, which they actually did on April 2.
And, it was a result that gave Tsvangirai a lead over other presidential candidates.
And this was followed by Tsvangirai's "victory" speech, all actions, which were meant to force ZEC to announce premature results, especially the presidential results.
This is why this writer maintains that the post-election posturing by MDC-T and their backers was nothing but a psychological game.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Hands off Zimbabwe, Kaunda tells Brown
Posted: Monday, April 28, 2008
From Augustine Hwata in LUSAKA, Zambia
April 28, 2008
The Herald
BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown is not qualified to comment on challenges facing Zimbabwe, let alone to call for more sanctions, founding Zambian president Dr Kenneth Kaunda has said.
Dr Kaunda told Zambia's Post newspaper at the weekend that Brown lacked proper background information regarding Zimbabwe's problems and was not helpful towards finding a lasting solution to the current situation.
"It is sad for Prime Minister Brown to say what he said about the Zimbabwe situation," Dr Kaunda said while delivering a speech as a special guest to recipients of recognition awards from Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican Embassy here last week.
"Brown does not understand what he is talking about. It is a sad thing that he said that (calling for more sanctions against Zimbabwe)," said the former president.
Dr Kaunda said he had wanted to inform Brown on how the challenges facing Zimbabwe came about before the British premier had even replaced Tony Blair, but failed to get that opportunity.
Dr Kaunda was at one time determined to travel to Britain to meet Brown, but did not do so on the advice of his doctors.
The former Zambian president, who turns 84 today, said Brown and the West should leave Zimbabwe alone so that it solves its own challenges, especially the political tension between Zanu-PF and the opposition.
"I think people in Zimbabwe are trying to find a way out of their own problems by talking of a government of national unity."
He urged the West to discard the belief that they were the best to prescribe solutions for Africa's problems.
"As usual, they want to tell what they think is right for us."
Dr Kaunda said calls by Brown for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe were misplaced and do little to solve the problems.
"Embargoing the defence forces is not the solution at all," said Dr Kaunda, adding that he wondered why the shipment of arms from China was being blocked when the order was placed last year.
It was unfortunate that the consignment was now being linked to the post-election period and a stalemate over the result of the presidential election.
Meanwhile, Zambian farmer and boxing promoter Mr Gevan Mumba has thrown his weight behind President Mugabe and the land reform programme.
Mr Mumba said Africans had a right to work on their land.
"I own more than 80 hectares of prime land in the Mufulira area and have two streams that pass through my plot. I produce crops and feel empowered that I have something to call my own," he said.
Unlike Zimbabwe, Mumba said Zambia does not have much pressure on land because it had a bigger geographical area and vast open areas against fewer people who wanted to farm.
"We are lucky that there is land available to Zambians who need it, unlike in Zimbabwe where the whites had most of the good areas. Because land is important, Britain, which does not have as much land, was pained when President Mugabe took some farms from their white relatives to redistribute to his people.
"I know for sure that Britain and America want (Cde) Mugabe to go and replace him in office with someone they can control over Zimbabwe's land. The same thing happened in Iraq when Saddam (Hussein) was killed for his oil," Mr Mumba said.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Expressions of imperialism within Zimbabwe
Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2008
By Stephen Gowans
April 27, 2008
gowans.wordpress.com
Zimbabwe's Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa on Friday denounced the US and Britain for their interference in Zimbabwe's elections. At the same time, he decried the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), and its civil society partner, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), as being part of a US and British program to reverse the gains of Zimbabwe's national liberation struggle.
"It is no secret that the US and the British have poured in large sums of money behind the MDC-T's sustained demonization campaign," Chinamasa said. (1)
"Sanctions against Zimbabwe (were intensified) just before the elections," while "large sums of money" were poured into Zimbabwe "by the British and Americans to bribe people to vote against President Mugabe." (2)
The goal, Chinamasa continued, is to "render the country ungovernable in order to justify external intervention to reverse the gains of the land reform program." (3)
The justice minister went on to describe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC "for what they are – an Anglo-American project designed to defeat and reverse the gains of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, to undermine the will of the Zimbabwean electorate and to return the nation to the dark days of white domination." (4)
The minister also described the ZESN as "an American-sponsored civil society appendage of the MDC-T." (5)
Were they reported in the West, it would be fashionable to sneer at Chinamasa's accusations as lies told to justify a crackdown on the opposition. But, predictably, they haven't been. For anyone who's following closely, however, the minister's charges hardly ring false.
The ZESN is funded by the US Congress and US State Department though the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Its board is comprised of a phalanx of US and British-backed fifth columnists. (6)
Board member Reginald Matchaba Hove won the NED democracy award in 2006. Described by its first director as doing overtly what the CIA used to do covertly, the NED - and by extension the NGOs it funds – are not politically neutral organizations. They have an agenda, and it is to promote US interests under the guise of promoting democratization. Hove is also director of the Southern Africa division of billionaire financier George Soros' Open Society Institute, which has been involved in funding overthrow movements in Yugoslavia, Georgia, Ukraine and elsewhere. Soros also has an agenda: to open societies to Western profit making. Indeed, the board members of the ZESN comprise an A-list of overthrow activists, with multiple interlocking connections to imperialist governments and corporate foundations.
It doesn't take long to connect Hove to left scholar Patrick Bond (of Her Majesty's NGOs) and his Center for Civil Society. The Center is a program partner with the Southern Africa Trust, one of whose trustees is ZESN board member Reginald Matchaba Hove. The Center for Policy Studies, whose mission is to prepare civil society in Zimbabwe for political change (that is, to prepare it to overthrow the Zanu-PF government), is funded by the Southern Africa Trust, a partner of Bond's Center for Civil Society. Other sponsors include the Soros, Ford, Mott, Heinrich Boll (German Green party), and Friedrich Ebert (German Social Democrats) foundations, the Rockefeller Brothers, the NED, South African Breweries and a fund established by the chairman of mining and natural resources company, Anglo-American. Significantly, Zimbabwe is rich in minerals. Zanu-PF's program is to put control of the country's mineral resources, as well as its land, in the hands of the black majority, depriving transnational mining companies, like Anglo-American, of control and profits. Everjoice Win, the former spokesperson for the ZESN, is on the advisory board of Bond's center. The Center supports the Freedom of Expression Institute (FEI), which is funded by George Soros and the British government's Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). The FEI is a partner of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (also funded by the British government), whose director Rashweat Mukundu is a board member of the ZESN.
Bond co-authored a report with Tapera Kapuya, a fellow of ZESN sponsor, the NED. He also contributed to a report titled Zimbabwe's Turmoil, along with John Makumbe and Brian Kagoro. The report was sponsored by the Institute for Security Studies, which is financed by the governments of the United States, Britain, France and Canada, the Rockefeller Brothers, and of course, the ubiquitous George Soros and Ford foundations. Makumbe has published in the NED's Journal of Democracy, and is a former director of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (funded, not surprisingly, by the NED). The Coalition, like the Center for Policy Studies, is devoted to ousting the Mugabe government under the guise of promoting democracy, but in reality promotes the profits of firms like Anglo-American and the interests of US and British investors. Kagoro is a former coordinator of the Coalition. Significantly, the Coalition is a partner of the ZESN.
Add to this Bond's celebrating the Western-trained and financed underground movements Zvakwana and Sokwanele as an "independent left" (7) and his co-authoring a Z-Net article on Zimbabwe with MDC founding member Grace Kwinjeh [8] (MDC leader Tsvangirai admitted in a February 2002 SBS Dateline program that his party is financed by European governments and corporations (9)), and it's clear that Bond links up with the spider web of American and British-sponsored civil society appendages of the MDC-T.
Chinamasa's clarification of the connections between the US and Britain and Zimbabwe's civil society and opposition fifth columnists is a welcome relief from Western newspapers' attempts to cover them up. The ZESN, despite being generously funded by the US through Congress and the State Department, is described by the Western media as "independent" while ZESN partner, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), is called "an international pro-democracy organization" (10) and "a Washington-based group." (11) What it really is, is the foreign arm of the Democratic Party. The NDI receives funding from the US Congress (as well as from USAID and corporate foundations), which it then doles out to fifth columnists in US-designated "outposts of tyranny." Only in the service of propaganda would the Democratic Party be called "a Washington-based group." One wonders how Americans would have reacted to the British monarchy parading about post-revolutionary Washington as a "London-based" group - an "international good government" organization bankrolling an American NGO to monitor US elections? Would anyone be surprised if the leaders of the British-financed NGO were dragged off to jail, especially were its backers openly working to oust the government in Washington to restore the rule of the British monarchy? In Zimbabwe, the only surprise is that the Zanu-PF government hasn't reacted with as much force as the Americans would have done under the same circumstances. That Zimbabwe's government has tried to preserve space for the exercise of political and civil liberties in the face of massive hostile foreign interference is to be commended.
Washington is quite open in its intentions to overthrow the Mugabe government. Under the 2001 US Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act "the President is authorized to provide assistance" to "support an independent and free press and electronic media in Zimbabwe" and "provide for democracy and governance programs in Zimbabwe." (12) This translates into the president financing anti-Zanu-PF radio stations and newspapers and bankrolling groups opposed to Zimbabwe's national liberation movement to inveigle Zimbabweans to vote against Mugabe.
"The United States government has said it wants to see President Robert Mugabe removed from power and that it is working with the Zimbabwean opposition...trade unions, pro-democracy groups and human rights organizations...to bring about a change of administration." (13)
Last year, the US State Department acknowledged once again that it supports "the efforts of the political opposition, the media and civil society" in Zimbabwe through training, assistance and financing. (14) And the 2006 US National Security Strategy declares that "it is the policy of the US to seek and support democratic movements and institutions in every nation...with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in..." North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Belarus and Zimbabwe. (15)
The goal of the overthrow agenda is to reverse the land reform and economic indigenization policies of the Zanu-PF government – policies that are against the interests of the ruling class foundations that fund the fifth columnists' activities. The chairman of Anglo-American finances Zimbabwe's anti-Mugabe civil society because bringing Tsvangirai's MDC to power is good for Anglo-American's bottom line. Likewise, the numerous Southern African corporations that Lord Renwick of Clifton sits on the boards of stand to profit from the MDC unseating Zimbabwe's national liberation agenda. Lord Renwick is head of an outfit called the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust (ZDT), also part of the interlocked community of imperialist governments, wealthy individuals, corporate foundations, and NGOs working to reverse Zimbabwe's liberation struggle. The ZDT is a major backer of the MDC. (16)
Police raids on the offices of the ZESN and Harvest House, the headquarters of the MDC, seem deplorable to those in the West who are accustomed to elections in which the contestants all pretty much agree on major policies, with only trivial differences among them. But in Zimbabwe, the differences are acute - a choice between losing much of what the 14-year long national liberation war was fought for and settling for nominal independence (that is crying uncle, so the West will relieve the pressure of its economic warfare) or moving forward to bring the program of national liberation to its logical conclusion: ownership of the country's land, resources and enterprises, not just its flag, by the black majority. In this, there is an unavoidable conflict between "a government which is spearheaded by a revolutionary party, which spearheaded the armed struggle against British imperialism" and "a party that was the creation of the imperialists themselves (that) has been financed the imperialists themselves." (17)
It's impossible to achieve independence from foreign control and domination without turmoil, disruption and fighting - not when the opposition and civil society are directed from abroad to serve foreign interests. Can Zimbabwe's elections honestly be described as free and fair when the economy has been sabotaged by the West's denying Harare credit and debt relief [18] and where respite from the attendant miseries is promised in the election of the opposition? Are elections legitimate when media are controlled by outside forces (19), and civil society and the opposition have been controlled by foreign powers?
Chinamasa's complaints, far from being demagoguery, are real and justified. Zanu-PF's decision to fight, rather than capitulate, ought be applauded, not condemned. Imperialism cannot be opposed without opposing the MDC and its civil society partners, for they too are imperialism.
NOTES:
1. Herald (Zimbabwe) April 26, 2008.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Michael Barker, "Zimbabwe and the Power of Propaganda: Ousting a President via Civil Society," Global Research.ca, April 16, 2006. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8675
See also http://www.ned.org/dbtw-wpd/textbase/projects-search.htm and http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Zimbabwe_Election_Support_Network
7. Stephen Gowans, "The Politics of Demons and Angels," April 15, 2007, http://gowans.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/zimbabwe-and-the-politics-of-demons-and-angels/
8. Stephen Gowans, "The Company Patrick Bond Keeps," March 24, 2008, http://gowans.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/the-company-patrick-bond-keeps/
9. Rob Gowland, "Zimbabwe: The struggle for land, the struggle for independence," Communist Party of Australia, http://www.cpa.org.au/booklets/zimbabwe.pdf . The MDC is also financed by the British government's Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust, whose patrons include former British foreign secretaries and is headed by Lord Renwick of Chilton, vice-chair of investment banking at JPMorgan (Europe.)
10. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 26, 2008.
11. The Washington Post, April 26, 2008.
12. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s107-494
13. The Guardian (UK), August 22, 2002.
14. US Department of State, April 5, 2007.
15. http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss/2006/
16. "Zimbabwe ambassador: Self-determination is at the root of the conflict," FinalCall.Com News, April 22, 2008. http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_4611.shtml
17. Ibid.
18. Under the US Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, "the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive director to each international financial institution to oppose and vote against-
(1) any extension by the respective institution of any loan, credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; or
(2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United States or any international financial institution."
See http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s107-494
19. The same question can be asked of elections in Western liberal democracies, where the media are controlled by an interlocked community of hereditary capitalist families and corporate board members who share common economic interests inimical to those of the majority.
Reproduced from:
http://gowans.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/
expressions-of-imperialism-within-zimbabwe/
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Police swoop on MDC-T HQ nets 215
Posted: Saturday, April 26, 2008
April 26, 2008
Herald Reporters
POLICE yesterday arrested 215 people after raiding MDC-T's Harvest House headquarters in central Harare on allegations of committing acts of political violence countrywide and going into hiding.
Police also searched offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network in the city seeking evidence showing Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials were paid through ZESN to corruptly alter the outcome of the March 29 elections.
Chief police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the information they had indicated that most of those who had participated in post-election violence had sought refuge at the MDC provincial and national headquarters.
"Police rounded up 215 people at Harvest House this afternoon and these will be screened against participation in politically motivated criminal activities around the country," he said.
Asst Comm Bvudzijena said just after the elections, police issued a statement that they had observed, with concern, the reactivation of the MDC-T's so-called democratic resistance committees to establish bases to operate countrywide.
Since then there had been isolated cases of violence around the country with the most recent being the burning of four homesteads, tobacco barns and fowl runs belonging to Zanu-PF supporters in the Mayo resettlement area in Manicaland on April 16.
"Those accused of burning the homesteads were said to have fled to Harare to seek refuge at the MDC headquarters. This is not the first time the MDC headquarters have been raided.
"Last year after the petrol bombings in Harare and around the country some suspects sought refuge at the MDC headquarters and a similar raid was conducted. The suspects were picked up during the raid," said Asst Comm Bvudzijena.
He said police would not tolerate any acts of violence by anyone and for any rea-
son. Those who commit crimes should expect the long arm of the law to catch up with them, whether they were Zanu-PF or MDC.
"The police will pursue such perpetrators until they are finally brought to book and hiding at party offices should not be seen as an escape route from prosecution," he said.
Asst Comm Bvudzijena appealed to victims of political violence to immediately report at any nearest police station so that the cases could be attended to quickly.
Heavily armed police were seen milling around Harvest House yesterday afternoon keeping a close eye at the premises.
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Nelson Chamisa confirmed the raid.
"They have raided our offices and they did not produce any search warrant. They took away victims of violence, those people who were beaten up in the rural areas including women and children who were being attended to by our social welfare desk," he said.
Mr Chamisa claimed that the police also took away the opposition party's members of staff based at Harvest House.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe - No going back on land: President
Posted: Saturday, April 26, 2008
Bulawayo Bureau
April 26, 2008
The Herald
THE land reform programme under which thousands of Zimbabweans were allocated land taken from the white minority is the final solution to the land question and will never be reversed, President Mugabe has said.
Addressing thousands of people at the official opening of the 49th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair here yesterday, Cde Mugabe said all land which was legally acquired and settled would never be returned to its white former owners.
"When the West – led by the British – shamelessly continue to denounce our country, what is our crime? We are simply claiming our birthright, defending our hard-won national sovereignty. ZITF grounds stand on that precious land. Most exhibits have a connection with the land. That's why we love our land.
"Better all those who shake and quiver at every word of our colonial masters please know Zimbabwe will never be for sale. Zimbabwe is not for sale and will never be a colony again."
Before amending the Constitution to compulsorily acquire land, the Government had tried to get land through the willing buyer-willing seller concept but failed.
"Land was subsequently acquired in the national interest following the amendment to the Constitution. Land acquired and legally resettled will never revert to the previous racist owner settlers. It is our land, our treasure. Inhaka yedu, lilifa lethu.
"Let the colonist know this is the final solution," he said.
The President paid tribute to local business for its resilience in the face of illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West that have resulted in local industry grappling with hyperinflation, a shortage of foreign currency and failure to access foreign lines of credit.
All these challenges had affected capacity utilisation.
He said the road to success was never easy except for those who used crooked ways to acquire wealth. But he said those who break the law to get rich quickly would eventually be caught, leaving them with an unforgettable lesson.
The President said only through perseverance could success come.
The Government had come up with various intervention policies for national economic recovery.
The National Economic Recovery Programme had laid the foundation for economic recovery through prioritisation of agriculture, tourism and mining while the Government continued to rehabilitate infrastructure to buttress the productive sector.
"I would like to urge the local industry to be more aggressive and take advantage of measures such as toll manufacturing.
"It is pleasing to note more and more companies are embarking on toll manufacturing arrangements," he said.
Cde Mugabe said the Government would continue to support small and medium-scale enterprises because of their role in creating employment and exports.
Zimbabwe, the President said, would continue to welcome well-meaning support from regional and international partners and hailed the assistance given to the country by organisations such as the Southern Africa Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the African Union.
President Mugabe said this year's trade fair was special in that it came just a few days after the country celebrated its 28th independence anniversary and before the country played host to the 13th Comesa summit to be held in Victoria Falls.
He paid tribute to exhibitors and visitors who continued to support ZITF.
This year all the exhibition space was taken up and Government treasured this gesture of support and solidarity.
"I am greatly encouraged by the resurgence of A'Sambeni, which continues to blossom since its return last year," he said.
Earlier, the President toured Cairns Holdings Limited, foreign exhibitors, the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Ecoweb, South African Embassy, Zambian Embassy and Namibia Embassy stands.
He also visited the stands of CMED (Private) Limited, Letor Zimbabwe which makes agricultural equipment and the Produce and Home Industries Hall where farming produce was on display.
Cde Mugabe shook hands with some people, especially children, as he moved from the produce hall to the National Foods stand.
Most of the children whom the President greeted could not hide their joy and went about boasting to those around them.
At the National Foods stand, the President viewed stockfeeds made by the company before taking time to view the different breeds of cattle at the exhibition.
The President also visited the Seed Co, Cold Storage Company and CFI Holdings stands before going to the Malawi Embassy stand where he bumped into the First Lady who was also doing her tour.
From there, he visited Hall 3 where the A'Sambeni Exhibition was taking place before winding his one-and-a-half-hour tour with a visit to the Grain Marketing Board stand.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe: Who is speaking for the Church?
Posted: Friday, April 25, 2008
By Bishop Trevor E. C. Manhanga
April 25, 2008
The Herald
THE statement released on April 21 2008 purportedly from Heads of Christian Denominations, i.e. church leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Catholic Bishops Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches claiming the current situation in Zimbabwe resembles that of genocide Rwanda, cannot go unchallenged.
Let me at the onset state that I do not believe that this "statement" reflects the views of the broad church community it claims to speak for, and I can emphatically state that the majority of church leaders were never consulted and did not sign this very unfortunate statement.
In my involvement with the church community both as head of a Christian denomination (and its current chair), and with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe as a member and immediate past president, I can categorically state that the first I saw of this statement was when it appeared in the international Press.
I was not privy to seeing this statement prior to its release and know of many other heads of denominations who are in the same position, both in the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.
On principle, therefore, I personally distance myself from the contents of the statement, and would go further and challenge those who saw it fit to put this statement in the public domain to put the names of church leaders that supported the views contained in the statement, in the public domain.
This will help to prevent a situation where all church leaders are painted with the brush of the opinions of those who authored this statement.
For my part, I can bring to the table a host of reputable church leaders who are quite eager and prepared to state their clear disagreement with this statement, and are not afraid to publicly make their position known.
The statement correctly reports that prior to the harmonised national elections, there was a meeting convened at the Cresta Jameson Hotel in Harare where, among other matters, church leaders collectively agreed on and published a pre-election statement.
At this very meeting it was agreed that after the results of the election were announced, another meeting would be convened and the situation reviewed.
In the aftermath of the election when the result of the presidential election was delayed a representative group of church leaders met with the chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Justice George Chiweshe, seeking clarity on a number of issues, including the reason for the delay and expressing the concerns of the church.
A meeting was also convened with the Commissioner-General of the ZRP to discuss the security situation in the period after the election in light of reports of violence and destruction of property.
This was done in an effort to gather information so that when church leaders convened they could carry out their discussions in an informed environment.
The statement does not take into consideration the input gathered from the meeting with Justice Chiweshe and that with Comm-Gen Chihuri, and one has to wonder therefore if there is another agenda being pursued that is contrary to the consensus of the majority of the church leaders.
For those who would criticise me for coming out clearly against this statement (and I have no doubt they will do so now as they have done in the past), citing the fact that we need to maintain church unity, I categorically state that we cannot have unity at the expense of principle.
The principle is clear in this instance, in that a statement is being issued under the guise of having the broad support of church leaders when that is clearly not the case.
Even if church leaders agree with the sentiments expressed in the statement, principle dictates that they are consulted and their agreement or disagreement canvassed, before something is put out in the public domain linking them to it.
Furthermore, over the past couple of years there has been an open door extended by Government to the church to bring forward their concerns and indeed their disagreements with Government policy and actions, and within that environment vigorous debate has often ensued between the Church and Government.
To their credit Government, led by President Mugabe, have kept their doors open, albeit often times too much time has passed before meetings have been convened, but the Church has had an open door extended to it, and for the most part this has been used for the benefit of the nation.
This does not mean that there has been universal agreement on issues between the Church and Government, but Government officials have, for the most part, listened to the Church and in many instances taken into consideration the concerns of the Church.
That has been very positive, and indeed is as it should be, and there are many of us in the Church community who have appreciated this open-door policy. It is for this reason therefore that the statement flies in the face of the spirit in which relations between the Church and Government have been conducted to date.
I am not stating that the Church must not make its concerns known, and if the Church feels strongly about something they must in no uncertain terms make that known, but surely we must ask ourselves the rationale of publishing a statement in the Press before taking up those concerns and allegations with the powers that be.
No Church leader that I know supports the death or injury and destruction of property of any fellow Zimbabwean.
If indeed we took proven cases of deaths and injuries of our fellow Zimbabweans to the appropriate authorities and did not receive adequate answers, or if our concerns were received indifferently, then we have every reason to publicly take issue with those in authority. However, what I am protesting is the fact that not only have Church leaders (or the majority of them) not been consulted on the contents of this statement, but we have not taken any information we have to the relevant authorities and seek answers and thereafter arrive at positions, prior to making a definitive statement.
Those who authored this statement and saw it fit to publish it without consultation of the very Church community it purports to speak for, must understand the potential damage their actions have done to the standing of the Church.
There can be no doubt on the position of the Church on matters of national reconciliation, peace, political violence, human rights abuse and fair play. There has been a consistent and clear stance from the majority of Church leaders in this country on these issues and so let me not be accused of trying to paper over any of the pressing socio-political issues currently facing our country. However, one must ask from what vantage point people are coming from, who claim that the current situation in Zimbabwe resembles that of genocide Rwanda? Such statements are clearly outrageous and alarmist. The fact of the matter is that Zimbabweans must be commended for the restraint and peaceful manner in which they have conducted themselves and continue to conduct themselves.
For the most part both Zanu-PF, the MDC and other contestants in the recent harmonised elections, must be commended for the manner in which they conducted themselves in the period prior to, during and after the elections.
It is common knowledge that the delay in the publication of the presidential election results has caused tension, consternation and led to the deterioration in the peaceful climate that we had enjoyed. Where violence has broken out and if any lives have been lost, the causes must be investigated and the perpetrators of violence and those found to have caused the loss of life and or destruction of property, must be dealt with swiftly and in accordance with the law.
This is not the time to allow the country to lose the peaceful environment we have enjoyed, but rather to build on the peace we had and for the most part still enjoy.
So while it is clear that the current situation prevailing in the country is one that requires urgent attention, it does not require alarmist proclamations.
No one in his or her right mind will claim the situation in our country is normal. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to acknowledge that there is an impasse.
We have both political and economic challenges, and the result of this is that the people are enduring tremendous difficulty as they struggle to make ends meet. But this is a situation that calls for all of us as Zimbabweans to acknowledge honestly and tackle rationally.
It calls for cool heads with decisive, concerted action taken. It is not a time for international intervention (though we appreciate the support and concern of friends outside Zimbabwe) but for national consensus and action.
This is a situation that calls for all Zimbabweans, not just the political players, to put their collective efforts to addressing, and as I have consistently stated in the past, it is a problem or problems that we can address and resolve, in a manner that maintains our national integrity and dignity.
Nobody can, must, and should be expected to do for us, what we can and must do for ourselves. Our collective national future cannot be outsourced to anyone; we must tackle it and solve it ourselves.
This is therefore a call for a resolution of the political impasse currently existing in our nation. It is for this reason that we need not resort to alarmist statements that incite emotions, but rather appeal to and reach out to people of goodwill on both sides of the political equation (and they are there), to find acceptance of, and accommodation with each other.
This is very possible and my prayer is that, as Zimbabweans we will find each other, and without influence from non-Zimbabwean actors, who have their own agendas that they are pursuing, move our country forward, away from the politics of name calling, violence and destruction. It is in our collective interest that we put aside sectarian and other interests, and put the national interest first and foremost.
Once we do this, I have no doubt we can move forward, together, to peace and prosperity. In this regard the current calls for prayer by church leaders and churches throughout the country must continue and the Church and its membership must continue to offer prayers for our national leaders, those in positions of authority, national reconciliation, the peace and prosperity of the nation, and that the forces of darkness and destruction may be banished from the borders of our beloved nation.
We must never underestimate the power of prayer as we gather together to pray for our nation. Let the words of that powerful worship song of the church galvanise us as we come together in various places of worship, our offices, our schools, our colleges, in our cars and our homes to declare: "If you believe and I believe and we together pray, the Holy Spirit must come down and Zimbabwe shall be saved." We believe.
Bishop Trevor E. C. Manhanga is the Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe and Chairman of the Heads of Christian Denominations.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe: Outcry Over Arms Exposes West's Hypocrisy
Posted: Friday, April 25, 2008
By Caesar Zvayi
April 25, 2008
The Herald (Harare)
IN the strongest indication yet of the real motives behind the Western hullabaloo over the Chinese arms shipment to Zimbabwe, a leading American daily intrinsically linked to the United States' ruling elite has proposed that the Bush administration arm the MDC while simultaneously weakening the Government to abet illegal regime change.
The revelations were contained in an article headlined "Arm Zimbabwe's opposition", in yesterday's issue of the Wall Street Journal, a publication that reflects the thinking of the White House on financial and foreign policy issues.
The newspaper claimed the MDC-T leadership had already indicated there was a war in Zimbabwe and it was time for the US to intervene.
"The argument for arming the Zimbabwean opposition has gained new urgency in light of the news that three million rounds of ammunition, 3 500 mortars and 1 500 rocket-propelled grenades were on a Chinese ship, to be delivered to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe ...
"Mr Mugabe's rule is a continuing crime against humanity. Lest that not serve as a wake-up call to the world, last week the MDC's secretary-general, Tendai Biti, bluntly announced: 'There is a war in Zimbabwe being waged by Mugabe's regime against the people.' America has chosen a side in this war. Perhaps it's time we help it fight back," wrote James Kirchick, an assistant editor.
Zimbabwe bought an assortment of arms from China last year and was set to take delivery last week but was prevented from doing so when South Africa's Cosatu trade union movement, working in cahoots with the MDC-T leadership, influenced South African dock workers to refuse to offload the shipment, claiming the arms would be used against MDC supporters.
MDC's Western allies jumped into the fray with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on regional leaders to deny the ship permission to dock to offload its cargo.
On Monday, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa dismissed claims that the arms would be used against civilians, saying Zimbabwe had a right to arm itself to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity while South Africa's ruling ANC president Mr Jacob Zuma has rejected calls for a weapons embargo on Zimbabwe in the wake of the election, saying: "I do not think we have reached the stage of an arms embargo."
China has since indicated that the contract to supply the arms was signed last year and had nothing to do with the elections.
Ms Jiang Yu, spokesperson in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, reiterated her country's long-held policy that economic dealings with other countries, including the sale of arms, adhered to strict non-interference in sovereign affairs.
The ship is being brought back to China, the Beijing government said yesterday.
"To my knowledge, the Chinese company has decided to bring back the boat," Ms Jiang told reporters.
She blasted Western countries - which were criticising China for selling arms to Zimbabwe - for politicising the issue.
"Some people in the US are always critical, positioning themselves as the world's policeman, but they are not popular in the world," Ms Jiang said about the US State Department's demand that China halt the shipment.
"It's pointless ... to politicise this issue," she said.
The European Union, the United States and their allies slapped an arms embargo on Zimbabwe in 2002 in addition to economic sanctions, prompting Harare to increase trade with traditional partners in the East.
China helped Zimbabwean guerillas with military andlogistical support during the Second Chimurenga as the West helped their kith and kin in the minority Smith regime.
Western media have since tried to use the arms shipment as an excuse to demonise the forthcoming Olympic Games to be hosted by China in Beijing. All along they have been berating China over standing firm against secessionists in Tibet.
Analysts have blasted Western hypocrisy over the shipment, saying China's contribution to global arms trade stood at only 2 percent and is channelled to nation-states whereas the US's 30 percent flowed mainly to sponsored wars of destabilisation throughout the developing world.
The Wall Street Journal argued that though announcing military support "for dissidents abroad ... could endanger the dissidents' cause and credibility, ... this critique might make sense in the Middle East, but it does not carry much water in Africa" where the US is considered a "most dependable ally", and where, at times, "it is faulted for not doing more".
Former British military chief Sir Charles Guthrie recently revealed that erstwhile British prime minister Tony Blair had contemplated a military invasion of Zimbabwe but was advised against it.
There have been reports, over the past few months, that the opposition has been training youths grouped into what it calls "democratic resistance committees" in various subversive tactics on isolated commercial farms.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe: Unity govt not feasible
Posted: Thursday, April 24, 2008
By Mabasa Sasa
April 24, 2008
The Herald
THE buzzword in opposition parlance, locally and internationally, these days is "government of national unity".
And perhaps it is no great coincidence that the prime drivers of the "government of national unity" discourse particularly in the context of Zimbabwe's recent elections are primarily opposition-aligned elements.
Western media have been titillated, maybe even physically aroused, by the idea of Zimbabwe going the Kenya way in both the violence and "national unity" phenomena and the MDC-T waltzing into Munhumutapa Building on the back of negotiations rather than votes.
The "government of national unity" debate should be approached from a critical perspective that seeks to denude the agendas behind those advocating it, its semantics and legalistic implications.
From the word go, one can be forgiven for thinking that the supporters of this option are in a way trying to side-step the electoral legal reality of a potential run-off between President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.
It appears March 29 failed to produce an outright winner in the presidential race and the requirement as agreed by both Zanu-PF and the opposition during the Sadc-brokered talks is that there should be a run-off.
Questions naturally arise: Why are some people willing to pervert the country's democratic electoral processes by calling for a "government of national unity" that has no constitutional basis? What are they afraid will happen in a run-off that ensures both candidates cannot hide from minute scrutiny?
Why should people ensconced in some foreign isles far from the practicalities of our politics tell Zimbabweans to form a "government of national unity"? Surely, that should be a discourse originated, developed and concluded by Zimbabweans.
Furthermore, why is it that the majority of those driving this discourse assert that "the establishment of a government of national unity should begin with a transitional government, maybe with President Mugabe at the helm, while a new constitution is drafted?"
The language of this whole discourse indicates an overwhelming desire by some politicians, academicians and media practitioners to fast-track the opposition into office without going through the democratic rigours of a fool-proof electoral process that fully gauges and reflects the will of the people of Zimbabwe.
The inescapable interpretation is that a government of national unity should ultimately push President Mugabe out and ease Tsvangirai into power on the back of a constitution that does not threaten the economic and political interests of the West in Zimbabwe.
But why should there be talk of transitional governments that will birth "national unity" as if the majority of Zimbabweans did not vote for Zanu-PF to lead them for the next five years?
It seems that those behind this discourse would like to place more weight on what opposition sympathisers want than on the wishes of Zanu-PF's supporters as if our system is not based on one-man/woman-one-vote.
And this is precisely where the whole discourse breaks down and any self-respecting Zimbabwean should feel outraged that anyone should seek to short-circuit a democratic electoral system and deny him/her the right to choose who should be President of Zimbabwe.
Apart from this, the people who are talking about a "government of national unity" should explain exactly what they mean by "national unity".
Is such a government one where an opposition party is allowed to become a part of the executive without satisfying the electoral requirements? Whose unity is being talked about – that of politicians or of Zimbabweans?
After all, at the ideological and practical level there certainly cannot be much unity between Zanu-PF and the MDC as led by Tsvangirai.
Zanu-PF's central ideology, more concisely, President Mugabe's philosophy is diametrically opposed to that of Tsvangirai.
The differences between the two are too vast to even start contemplating the establishment of a government – even a transitional one – that is headed by President Mugabe and Tsvangirai would draw chuckles were the matter not so serious.
Zanu-PF has over the decades been built on an ideology that has resonance with a vast majority of land-hungry Zimbabweans who realise that Land Reform Programme was a giant leap forward in the total liberation of this country.
This ideology has firm roots in President Mugabe's unwavering philosophy that the people own this land and as such they should be masters of their own destiny.
In the mother tongue, it can be said Cde Mugabe is about gutsaruzhinji. His principled stand on this matter, which is premised on an appreciation and respect of human rights, has set Zimbabwe firmly on the path of true independence.
On the other hand, what Tsvangirai offers is the obverse of what Cde Mugabe has put on the table.
MDC-T's central ideology has its roots in the first attempts to block Land Reform and economic empowerment.
MDC was created to frustrate land reforms and protect the interests of the minority landed classes and today this has not changed.
There can be no denying that Tsvangirai has considerable support among young Zimbabweans and the proponents of the "government of national unity" discourse argue that the democratic rights of these supporters must be respected through giving the MDC executive power.
But would it not be more sensible then to ask for a parliamentary system of proportional representation implemented through due constitutional procedure than to try and foist an executive on this country that is out to protect the interests of Western capital at the expense of ordinary Zimbabweans?
We cannot therefore begin to talk of a government of national unity when one party stands for genuine empowerment while the other is comfortably reposed at the opposite end of the nation-building spectrum.
There can be no talk of a government of national unity as long as the Beatties and Kays of this world threaten new farmers with eviction if MDC is granted executive power.
There can be no talk of a government of national unity as long as Tsvangirai supports sanctions against his fellow man while he sleeps restfully in Botswana or wherever it is he is spending his 30 pieces of silver.
There can be no talk of a government of national unity as long as the opposition continues to throw veiled threats of Iraq-like scenarios and Afghanistan-style invasions.
There can be no talk of a government of national unity for as long as MDC-T does not recognise that Zimbabweans and Zimbabweans alone have the final say on who should constitute the national leadership.
The world should leave Zimbabwe alone to complete its democratic electoral processes and elect a political leadership of its choice.
Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com
Visit: Zimbabwe Watch
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe: China clears air on arms shipment
Posted: Thursday, April 24, 2008
Herald Reporter
April 24, 2008
CHINA has poured cold water on opposition and Western claims that an arms shipment to Zimbabwe was to be used in a clampdown against MDC-T supporters, pointing out that Harare placed the order last year.
A spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Jiang Yu, has stated the arms contract was signed last year contrary to claims that it was related to the current election situation in Zimbabwe.
"This is normal trade in military products between the two countries," Jiang told a Press briefing in Beijing.
She added that the shipment was "irrelevant" to what was taking place in Zimbabwe at the moment.
Jiang also reiterated China's long-held foreign policy that its economic dealings with other countries, including the sale of arms, adhered to a strict policy of non-interference in their sovereign affairs – a stance that has boosted the emerging power's ties with Africa, much to the chagrin of the West.
This is contrary to claims in some quarters that the Government intends to use the arms in a clampdown on opposition MDC-T supporters.
On Monday, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa pointed out that Zimbabwe had a right to arm itself to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity while dismissing suggestions that the military would want to use the arms against civilians.
The European Union, the United States and their allies slapped an arms ban on Zimbabwe in 2002 and observers have said in such a situation, it was only natural that the country would increase such trade with traditional partners such as China.
Zimbabwe and China's military co-operation dates back to the Second Chimurenga.
China's Xinhua news agency has also criticised the attention the West has given the transaction, citing data provided by Sweden's Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showing that Beijing contributes just 2 percent of the global arms trade compared to the United States' 30 percent.
Interestingly, in recent years Kenya, which experienced election-related violence that accounted for over a thousand deaths, has been the biggest official purchaser of US arms in Africa though there has never been a corresponding outcry there.
Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com
Visit: Zimbabwe Watch
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe: Zanu-PF retains Goromonzi West
Posted: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
By Zvamaida Murwira and Sydney Kawadza
April 23, 2008
The Herald
ZANU-PF has retained Goromonzi West House of Assembly and Senate seats in the first batch of poll recount results released last night while the Sadc observer team says it is satisfied with the vote recounting process currently underway in 23 constituencies.
The ruling party gained one vote in the House of Assembly recount, pushing the result to 6 194 against MDC-T's 5 931 while the results for the Senate remained unchanged at 5 672.
The Goromonzi West recount was one of the two recounts requested by MDC-T while Zanu-PF requested 21 others.
In Zvimba North, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission officials are expecting to wrap up the recount today.
Mashonaland West provincial elections officer Mr Michael Guzha yesterday said the exercise was still going on with no hitches.
"We are currently clearing Ward 18 and then work on Ward 30 and Ward 31 that have a total of 14 polling stations," he said.
Sadc director of politics, defence and security at the regional bloc's secretariat Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Tanki Mothae said they had deployed almost 60 observers for the recounting process.
"Everything is going on smoothly. There are good relations between the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, political parties' polling agents and observers. We have not received any problems so far.
"We are receiving reports from our teams on the ground, but so far we have not heard any reports of any irregularity, like tampering with ballot boxes for example. We are satisfied with the process," said Rtd Lt-Col Mothae.
Angolan Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture Mr Marcos Barrica, who headed the initial Sadc observer team which was in the country for the March 29 elections, is also heading the current team that arrived in the country last Wednesday and Friday.
He said the team was drawn from all the Sadc countries and would be in the country until the whole process was complete.
The Sadc observer team, along with many other foreign observers, endorsed the March poll as free and fair.
The foreign observers included the Pan African Parliament, the African Union, and Comesa, among others.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which is also observing the recounting process, yesterday said it was not yet in a position to comment.
ZEC yesterday said the recounting process was expected to be completed in Goromonzi West today and that the exercise was at various stages in the other 22 constituencies.
The commission's deputy chief elections officer responsible for operations Mr Utloile Silaigwana said the process had taken longer than anticipated because of the meticulous verification process involved.
"Recounting is going on well but rather on a slow pace than had been anticipated because the agents want to verify one or two things.
"There is progress and maybe we should be through in Goromonzi West by tomorrow (today). In the other constituencies, the recounting is at varying stages," he said.
Mr Silaigwana said results from the recounting would be announced in the constituencies.
Recounts are being carried out in Chimanimani West, Mutare West, Bikita West, Bikita South, Bulilima East, Zhombe, Zaka West, Zvimba North, Silobela, Chiredzi North, Mberengwa East, West, South and North, and Gutu South, North and Central.
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Who has last word on Zim's democracy?
Posted: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
From Obi Egbuna in WASHINGTON DC
April 22, 2008
The Herald
BECAUSE Mother Africa's children, whether at home or abroad, are ancestral products of colonialism and slavery, we realise that fighting for democracy and human rights is an extension of our struggle for liberation and human dignity. The most intense phase of this process deals with barring our former colonial and slave masters from imposing their definitions of these concepts on us or to diminish our genuine efforts to achieve these noble objectives.
Those among us who choose this approach are almost guaranteed to be attacked viciously and mercilessly, since Africa's past and present exploiters feel it is not our place to plan our future without their approval or validation.
While the elections in Zimbabwe that took place on March 29, 2008 focused on four different levels of government; local government, senate, House of Assembly and presidential; Zimbabwe's President Cde Mugabe and the ruling party Zanu-PF approached the process with a two-fold responsibility: Firstly, to give Zimbabweans an electoral process with the level of fairness they had become accustomed to, and secondly preventing the imperialist duo of George W. Bush and Gordon Brown from exploiting the developments for their own benefit.
The American and British governments have campaigned tirelessly to convince the world that democracy cannot flourish in Zimbabwe without their watchful eye and direct involvement. This interpretation of politics in Zimbabwe is only embraced by those who are either ignorant of the country's history or for subjective reasons, have chosen to overlook it.
The first opposition party in Zimbabwe, after the Unity Accord was signed between Zanu-PF and PF-Zapu, was formed by Zanu-PF's former secretary general Edgar Tekere who accompanied Cde Mugabe to Mozambique to direct the final phase of the Second Chimurenga (the armed struggle).
Tekere formed the Zimbabwe Unity Movement and challenged Cde Mugabe for the Sate presidency in 1990. He claimed he was opposing the proposed one-party State and was committed to a socialist driven economy.
Ex-combatant, Margaret Dongo wanted to challenge President Mugabe in the 1996 presidential election but was found to be below the minimum age required for the presidency, 40 years. Dongo contested the Harare South constituency seat as an independent, won and latter formed the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats.
Former Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo, after being expelled from Zanu-PF, was also linked to a political party called the United People's Movement. He contested the Tsholotsho constituency as an independent and won.
This is why Western media claims that Simba Makoni's departure from Zanu-PF was something monumental and unprecedented, simply do not wash.
The unwarranted attacks by Western opposition in relation to President Mugabe and Zanu-PF's efforts to maintain democratic standards during elections, have taken on a predictable character since their tactics of choice are on display for the third time this decade.
The US State Department initially persuaded the oldest civil/human rights group the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) not to publish their report of the Presidential elections in 2002, and for the 2005 parliamentary elections the reports of the (Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Council of Churches, the Southern African Development Community, and the African Union) were ignored by Western media, NGOs, and the British-based Amnesty International and US-based Human Rights Watch who appear rather comfortable in echoing London and Washington's isolationist views of President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.
On April 2 2008, The Washington Post's express magazine published an excerpt from an interview conducted by the Associated Press with Mrs Imani Countess who is the senior policy advisor for Washington DC based TransAfrica Forum.
The article stated Mrs Countess was an observer to the elections in Zimbabwe and quoted her as saying she had a conversation with a high level Zanu-PF official, who shared with her that the ruling party would use all instruments at their disposal to remain in power.
This information raised several questions. Firstly, why would the Associated Press refer to Mrs Countess as an election observer when her organisation was not invited to observe the elections?
How does withholding the identity of the Zanu-PF senior official who made these remarks help the people of Zimbabwe? Why would any Zanu-PF official share such incriminating comments with an organisation that is its biggest critic in the African American community in the United States?
It appears the current propaganda slant President Mugabe and Zanu-PF's detractors both inside and outside Zimbabwe want to project is – corruption and intimidation are the only way Zanu-PF can hold on to power.
This explains why the convener of the Southern African Political Economy Series Dr Ibbo Mandaza and senior advisor to Makoni told The Mail and Guardian that intelligence agents representing the MOSSAD of Zionist Israel, were in Harare six months before the elections to plan vote rigging and sabotage exercises at the invitation of the ruling party.
The claim was supported further by MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti who claimed an Israeli IT company called Cogniview provided President Mugabe with technical support to "rig" the elections.
The MDC-T and Mandaza want Zimbabweans and observers throughout the world to believe that the British and US governments would allow an alliance between Zimbabwe's CIO and Israel's MOSSAD, when we know that President Mugabe and Zanu-PF have maintained the strongest ties with the Palestinian people arguably more than any party or government in the Sadc region or Africa for that matter.
This attempt to link President Mugabe and Zanu-PF to the intelligence agency of Zionist Israel, is even more absurd than US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's reference to MDC-T as a peaceful opposition party in his resolution submitted to the US Senate and Congress attacking President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in March of 2007.
President Mugabe and Zanu-PF are teaching Africa's daughters and sons that practicing democracy is directly connected to defending your sovereignty. We must commend President Mugabe and Zanu-PF for creating a political atmosphere and demonstrating a flexible approach, in the face of Britain and American attempts to force illegal and racist regime change in the name of democracy and human rights.
Zimbabwe's elections were observed by 14 regional and sub regional organisations, all 13 countries from southern Africa, 10 other African countries, five Asian countries, four countries from the Americas, one from Europe and a Liberation Movement from the US – the December 12 Movement.
It should be noted that Nigeria and Ghana were invited to observe the elections despite the fact that President John Kufour while chairing the African Union criticised President Mugabe and Zanu-PF for the way the altercation with Tsvangirai's goons and MDC was handled on March 11, and in December shortly before the EU-Africa summit in Portugal Nigerian President Yardua attacked President Mugabe for what he called "heavy handed tactics against his opposition."
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is performing the function that was assigned to various bodies in previous elections. The dynamics and procedure were explained by Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Patrick Chinamasa to the Sadc Group of Ambassadors on April 10th 2008.
The main concerns raised by the collective groups was whether the election results of the Parliament reflect people's frustration with the sanctions and if Zimbabwe was in a position to finance run-offs in light of the current economic challenges.
The "Sadc" meeting in Lusaka chaired by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa on April 13 2008 saw the collective body commend the Government of Zimbabwe for ensuring that elections were conducted in a peaceful environment.
The body also commended Sadc facilitator Thabo Mbeki and his facilitation team for the role they played in ensuring elections were successful, and commended the people of Zimbabwe for their peaceful demeanour they maintained before and after elections.
Because this conclusion was reached even after unofficial consultations with both opposition candidates – Tsvangirai and Makoni, President Mugabe and Zanu-PF can look forward to Washington and Britain accusing Sadc of quiet diplomacy, instead of realising their brand of diplomacy is without eyes or ears since they refuse to listen to those in the region who have the most to lose if Zimbabwe loses complete political and economic stability.
The task of reinventing Tsvangirai has truly taken its toll on London and Washington. In nine years, he has gone from a trade unionist fighting for workers, to a lobbyist who was to convince his own family sanctions against Zimbabwe were better than defending the land reclamation programme, to a civil disobedience maverick who encouraged throwing petrol bombs at police stations was an act of peaceful protest, to now becoming Zimbabwe's "new president" beginning the dawning of a new era in Southern Africa.
If Tsvangirai is given too much exposure he will become like the meteorologist that always gets the weather forecast wrong.
On February 17 2008 the Washington Post's Parade Magazine ranked President Mugabe the "sixth worst dictator" in the world, the sources for this annual ranking system comes from the US State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders even though President Mugabe was ranked among the bottom half, he had the distinction of having an entire article dedicated to him entitled My Life Under a Dictator written by Jabulani Moyo who teaches at a small college in the US where he was placed by the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education.
If the Blair and Bush administrations believe true democracy is to let all voices be heard, when will the travel ban be lifted on President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in order for them to travel around the US and UK, with the same latitude that MDC continues to have.
This leaves us with one question who should have the last word on Democracy in Zimbabwe, those who once colonised the nation or those who liberated it?
Obi Egbuna is a member of the Pan African Liberation Organisation and Zimbabwe-Cuba Friendship Association.
Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com
Visit: Zimbabwe Watch
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
No way MDC-T could have 50.3% of presidential vote
Posted: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
By Gabriel Mauto
April 22, 2008
The Herald
THERE is absolutely no way MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai could have won the presidential election by 50.3 percent of the votes cast, because the figures his party unilaterally released do not even give him 50 percent of the vote.
Going by the information on the MDC-T website as contained in their Press statement of April 2 2008 proclaiming their "win", it's clear that no presidential candidate reached the 50 percent threshold.
In paragraph two of the statement, reproduced in full in subsequent paragraphs, MDC-T said Tsvangirai got 1 169 860 votes, to President Mugabe's 1 043 451 while Simba Makoni weighed in with 169 636. MDC-T further claims that Tsvangirai's votes translate to 50.3 percent.
Assuming these figures are correct, simple addition, division and multiplication would show that Tsvangirai would have 49.09 percent, President Mugabe 43.79 percent and Makoni 7.12 percent. This means no one attained the requisite 50 percent + 1 vote hence a run-off would help settle matters.
So where did Tendai Biti get the 50.3 percent from? What worries me are these banal lies peddled by the MDC-T leadership to the largely captive Western world.
Does this mean MDC-T has no one in its ranks who did basic mathematics at Grade 7 level? It is evident that the MDC-T leadership is hell-bent on whipping up emotions among the gullible to create mayhem in this country.
The question is: If the MDC-T leaders start lying to the electorate now, before they are even in office, what more when they are in office? What will happen to all the high-sounding promises supposing they win the run-off?
No doubt they will definitely return land to white former commercial farmers and fail to fulfil any of their promises such as free transport, education, health and so on.
Food for thought Zimbabweans. Consider the following statement issued by Biti on April 2 proclaiming "victory" for MDC-T and Tsvangirai.
President Tsvangirai wins Presidential race 2nd April 2008 - MDC Press room.
President Morgan Tsvangirai has won the presidential race in an election, which has seen the MDC winning in most rural constituencies.
President Tsvangirai garnered 1 169 860 votes, Robert Mugabe 1 043 451 and Simba Makoni 169 636. President Tsvangirai has 50.3 percent of the total presidential vote and he has won the election with no need for a run-off.
President Tsvangirai, who has addressed bread and butter issues in his campaign, has won the presidential race, setting the mood and the hope for a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning in a country ravaged by gross misgovernance, corruption and unprecedented economic decline.
The MDC president has won even in those few constituencies where MDC parliamentary candidates narrowly lost to Zanu-PF candidates in an election marred by serious irregularities.
The MDC has 99 seats. We won all 12 House of Assembly seats and four out of five senatorial seats in Bulawayo, 28 out of the 29 seats in Harare and the majority of the seats in Manicaland, Masvingo and the Midlands provinces.
Addressing a Press conference in Harare today, MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti told journalists, diplomats and observers in Harare that President Tsvangirai had won the presidential vote and there was no need for a re-run because he had more than 50 percent of the total vote.
"While the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is delaying announcing the results, we avouch to you these results as confirmed by the figures pasted outside the polling stations in accordance with the law.
"President Morgan Richard Tsvangirai has won the election and we are waiting for the official announcement by ZEC," said Hon Biti.
"We see the state media is trying to psyche the nation towards a run off. Even though we have won the election, we are prepared to
contest the run-off even though Mugabe should avoid embarrassment by conceding defeat."
Zanu-PF had the misconception that the MDC was made up of urban supporters.
This election has debunked the myth that the MDC is an urban-based party. We have MPs in Murehwa, Hurungwe, Makoni, Buhera, Zhombe, Binga, Matobo, Bindura and Mutasa.
The nation, however, is worried about the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's delay in announcing the presidential election results.
In the townships, the Government has deployed armed police and intelligence operatives in what many suspect is a move to intimidate the people while the regime tries to fiddle with the figures.
Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com
Visit: Zimbabwe Watch
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Zimbabwe: Prove violence claims - Govt
Posted: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
By Mabasa Sasa
April 22, 2008
The Herald
GOVERNMENT has challenged anyone with information demonstrating that acts of State-sponsored violence have characterised the post-election period to furnish the police with details to facilitate full investigations.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde Patrick Chinamasa yesterday said at a Press conference it was possible that the opposition MDC-T was behind the cases of politically motivated violence as part of a propaganda campaign to justify international intervention in the country.
Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena also dismissed claims that 10 people had been killed in post-election political violence, saying three of the four names given to the police yielded no results while one case was being investigated.
"It is being said that 10 people have been killed. Four names were given. I have personally investigated these cases. Of those four, three have no basis whatsoever while the fourth is still under investigation and will be concluded soon.
"It is unfortunate that these reports of violence are only surfacing on the Internet with no formal reports being made. We respond to information supplied to us by the public and we have nothing to hide," Asst Comm Bvudzijena said.
Cde Chinamasa said they could not put anything beyond the MDC-T because its officials were gallivanting all over the world lying through their teeth that there is genocide in Zimbabwe and that the country was in a state of war.
He said they were at the forefront of accusing Zanu-PF of rigging the elections and yet it was clear that they were the ones who had rigged.
"Now they are saying that we are sponsoring acts of politically motivated violence and anyone will be forgiven for thinking that they are the ones who are fomenting genocide in Zimbabwe," he said.
Cde Chinamasa also said the police were arresting and would continue to arrest anyone suspected of committing crimes and solid cases would be taken to the courts.
"If anyone has information they should approach the police and furnish them with the details so that full investigations are instituted. Why go to the media and splash unsubstantiated pictures and stories. For your own information, some of those pictures being carried by the media date back to 2000. At present we are not aware of any such violence," he said.
The police, Cde Chinamasa said, arrest people regardless of their political affiliation.
"When a crime is committed the police do not ask what party the perpetrator belongs to. They just make an arrest. So if you believe that political violence has taken place go to the police."
Cde Chinamasa, who also chairs Zanu-PF's information sub-committee, said the MDC-T had a long history of claiming any dead people to be their supporters who had been murdered by the State.
"They have this macabre tendency to claim dead bodies. Even people who have died of natural causes are adopted by the MDC-T and the cause of death is subsequently attributed to State-sponsored violence. I refute completely that people are dying because of political violence," he said.
"People should ask the MDC to give the names, addresses and other details of those it says have been killed. This is a lie that has no basis whose only aim is to achieve international intervention. It is all part of a scheme to undermine the country, President Mugabe and our processes. But the rule of law is being observed and will continue to be observed," he said.
Cde Chinamasa said the MDC-T should desist from agitating for war because Zanu-PF does not want war but would use its resilience to weather any such outcome.
Last year Home Affairs Minister Cde Kembo Mohadi challenged the opposition and its civil society sympathisers to come forward with information on alleged State-sponsored political violence to facilitate investigations but they failed to do so.
On the issue of the vote recount in 23 constituencies, Cde Chinamasa said it was hypocritical for the MDC-T to oppose the process when they too had appealed against the results in two House of Assembly races.
He said Zanu-PF requested recounts in 21 constituencies while the MDC-T requested recounts in the other two constituencies. The electoral law, Cde Chinamasa said, made it clear that any stakeholder can ask for a recount within 48 hours of an election as was agreed by both Zanu-PF and the opposition during the Sadc-brokered dialogue.
"Now they are saying we should not exercise our legal rights and yet they can. Those are the surprises you find in politics. People aren't honest and they prefer to play to the gallery. They want to lie through their teeth, but lying isn't a crime so they do it with impunity."
Cde Chinamasa said they were happy with the manner in which recounts were being conducted and urged the nation to continue to be patient so that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission could do its work professionally and independently as it had been doing all along.
Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com
Visit: Zimbabwe Watch
Printer friendly version
Send page by E-Mail
Share your views on the Online Forums
View last 5 days / Advance search
