Jammed SWRA broadcast – 7:45pm, 1 September 2010

The audio clip above reveals what Zimbabweans heard yesterday when they tuned into SW Radio Africa (SWRA) to hear impartial objective Zimbabwean news. It is a further act of censorship, another effort to suppress free speech and the right of Zimbabweans to access information.

SWRA have done an incredible job ensuring news-deprived Zimbabweans still have access to impartial objective information despite the Zanu PF government’s passing of repressive legislation like the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). This oddly named piece of legislature has served to deny independent media sources permission to operate newspapers, radio or TV in Zimbabwe. SWRA, broadcasting from outside Zimbabwe on short wave, have managed to provide independent news to parts of the country that email and online news sources cannot reach. As such they have been a lifeline  of information to oppressed Zimbabweans.

It has also made SWRA a thorn in the side for members of the political elite who feel most threatened by a critical and enquiring press that seeks to expose corruption and human rights abuses.

SWRA have been jammed before, but their article on their website about this instance conveys shock at the fact that, this time, the jamming  is happening under the inclusive government which includes former opposition parties that have supposedly fought for democratic principles. In fact, just last week, the MDC-T party launched a new party card, describing it as the ‘master card for real change‘. What’s worse, this is the second act of censorship occuring under the unity government this week.

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Reminder: Please complete Sokwanele’s constitution survey online at www.sokwanele.com/zimbabweconstitution/survey. Alternatively, please send a blank email to survey@sokwanele.com to receive an auto-respond reply with information on how you can participate in Sokwanele’s constitution survey. The following are media extracts relating to the constitution outreach process, appearing between 19 August – 31 August.  To review previous news items, or follow updates daily, please visit the Constitution Resource page on the Sokwanele website. Please note that links to sources and full articles are also available on the resource page. These extracts are being emailed to our subscribers today – click here to sign up for our newsletter.

19 August 2010 – cont

Making a constitution no one wants

Opinion by Joram Nyathi – JOMIC communications manager and former deputy editor of the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, (writing in his personal capacity): During JOMIC’s historic interparty workshops, I indicated that Zimbabwe was still too polarised to craft an enduring constitution. We needed national healing first. Traditional leaders know this reality. I understand Party activists too are aware of this but are unemployed, and many crave some bit of action. Civic society wants the dollars. Politicians are playing along and ordinary Zimbabweans are caught between the hammer and the anvil: mention of an election evokes images of 2008, yet political stability has not yielded the much talked-about Mighty Dollar. And they don’t know what a constitution is beyond the propaganda from their parties. Thus the Presidency is not an office but Robert Mugabe, and Prime Minister means Morgan Tsvangirai. [...] Worse still, some COPAC team leaders could not explain what a “preamble” was. Translation into vernacular drew blank faces. At one meeting in Umzingwane District, Matabeleland South, from a crowd of about 120, only two men seemed to have a clue of what was going on. At the close of the meeting, an elderly man stood up and wagged his index finger at the COPAC team sitting up front: “When this thing turns sour, don’t tell us we gave it to you,” he warned grimly. At a meeting in Insiza District, also Matabeleland South, the COPAC leaders couldn’t explain what a devolved state was. Proportional representation, said a COPAC team leader, meant that people voted only for a party and the president selected MPs for them. A federal system of government was equated to the defunct Federation of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland! It is a scandal that a nation can allow itself to be led on wild goose chase for a “people-driven” constitution. Which can lead to only one outcome: a constitution no-one wants, whether it passes or fails the referendum. Not Zimbabweans; not Tsvangirai, not Mugabe. It’s Morton’s fork. We adopt it or revert to the devil we know from Lancaster. Which is back to 2000 when the “no” victory left everybody else a loser except President Mugabe [Via New Zimbabwe Blogs].

MDC Copac teams resolve to cancel meetings in violent areas

Violence related to the constitutional outreach exercise has become so severe in Manicaland that MDC officials on the teams have resolved not to hold meetings in the affected areas. MDC Senator Patrick Chitaka, who is part of the constitutional outreach team in Manicaland, said several MDC members have been hospitalized after attacks when they spoke out in outreach meetings. Reports have been made to the police and details provided of some of the perpetrators, but as usual there have been no investigations or arrests [Via SW Radio Africa].

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While the rand has remained strong against the US dollar, its fairly steady rate and the almost static business conditions in the domestic economy have made Zimbabwe’s inflation a less threatening issue in recent months. Before May this year, price trends were affected by the steep falls in prices in the first half of 2009, and these caused the year-on-year gaps to become temporarily exaggerated.

The June and July figures this year have seen the figures reach levels more appropriate to Zimbabwe’s use of a relatively hard currency. Possible movements in the rand exchange rate seem likely to keep the figure trending downwards in the coming year.

In the forecast shown in the adjacent table, inflation projections have been held between 0,2% and 0,5% a month, at which rates the annual figures would decline to figures below 3% during the first half of next year.

If the rates shown in the table are achieved, only by the end of 2011 is the index expected to reach its re-based starting point of December 2008=100.

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Zimbabwean artist Owen Maseko is in the news again: VOA News report on an act of censorship by the inclusive government banning some of his art:

A special government order was issued in Harare late Friday banning art works by Owen Maseko, briefly seen by the public last march in the main art gallery in Bulawayo.

The artworks, some of them huge murals, concentrated on political violence in the two Matabeleland provinces in the 1980′s aimed at the opposition of that time, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union led by the late nationalist Joshua Nkomo.

President Robert Mugabe sent a brigade of North Korean-trained soldiers into rural areas in the two Matabeleland provinces.  Few outside those areas knew about this terror campaign, South African and British journalists exposed the atrocities in 1983.

[...]

The government order banning the paintings came from the Home Affairs Ministry under the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act.  The ministry is jointly controlled in the 18-month-old unity government by ministers loyal to Mr. Mugabe and to Movement for Democratic Change leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

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Signing the Unity Accord

Owen Maseko art works depicted in this post have been banned in Zimbabwe. Please see this post here for further information. More images available via our gallery on Flickr. Please also visit this gallery on the Solidarity Peace Trust website which also hosts photos of Owen’s art.

Tears of old ladies

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Mugabe's 'liberating' fist

Facebook is great for observation. A short while ago I eavesdropped on a rather heated facebook debate that one of my friends (let’s call her Priscilla) was having with a dyed-in-the-wool Mugabe supporter (we’ll call him Albert). What struck me was that rather than engage with any of the charges of human rights abuse or economic ineptitude that Priscilla laid at the feet of ZANU-PF, Albert simply insisted rigidly that Mugabe was fighting for emancipation of all Africans. What’s more, Priscilla’s critiques only demonstrated her indoctrination via “eurocentric, colonial propaganda”. At one point he referred to her “white-girl mentality”. Impervious to any of the evidence that Priscilla cited, Albert blindly maintained his stance and finally rounded off his remarks with the rather chilling insistence that “it’s great being a black man in Zimbabwe cos we call the shots”.

Priscilla then pointed out that Albert has been living in America for the past 6 years.

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Reminder: Please send a blank email to survey@sokwanele.com to receive an auto-respond reply with information on how you can participate in Sokwanele’s constitution survey. Alternatively, complete the survey online at www.sokwanele.com/zimbabweconstitution/survey. The following are media extracts relating to the constitution outreach process, appearing between 13 August – 19 August.  To review previous news items, or follow updates daily, please visit the Constitution Resource page on the Sokwanele website. Please note that links to sources and full articles are also available on the resource page. These extracts are being emailed to our subscribers today – click here to sign up for our newsletter.

13 August 2010 – cont

SMS news message throws Manicaland CIO into panic

Members of the Central Intelligence Organization who were terrorizing villagers in Manicaland Province have removed registration numbers from their cars, after an SW Radio Africa SMS news alert on the 6th August. The SMS exposed the names of officers involved in the violence and gave the registration numbers of the cars used. The alert exposed the use of a white Nissan double cab ABM0196 used by a CIO officer identified as Shingi, ABM0155 used by the Officer in Charge of Chipinge CID known as Chizemo and another similar truck ABM0203, used by a CIO known as Matake. On Friday Makoni South legislator Pishai Muchauraya told Newsreel; ‘After that exposure by SW Radio Africa the CIO’s involved in that violence removed the number plates of the cars operating in Chipinge. They also confronted some of our members, including some drivers, asking us why we are putting them on the internet including their registrations numbers and names.’ The identified CIO officers were moving from village to village ahead of constitutional outreach meetings and terrorizing known MDC supporters. The campaign is part of moves by ZANU PF to silence any opposition to a draft constitution supported by Mugabe’s regime. The CIO’s named were particularly active in the Chipinge, Chipinge South and Musikavanhu constituencies [Via SW Radio Africa].

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The 30th general summit of SADC has just been concluded in Windhoek, Namibia. That meeting was important in defining key milestones and signposts to the end-game of the Global Political Agreement.

It will be recalled that pursuant to the Maputo troika meeting of 5 November 2009, the negotiators of the political parties were asked to deal with 27 agenda items of dispute, a task they concluded on the 3rd of April 2010. Following this, the principals debated the negotiators’ report on 8 June 2010, and forwarded a report to the SADC facilitator, President Zuma, on 10 June 2010.

Of note is that of the 27 dispute issues, the principals agreed on 24 leaving outstanding the deadlocked issues of:
(a)    The swearing of Roy Bennett
(b)    The appointment of the Attorney-general, Johannes Tomana
(c)    The appointment of the RBZ governor, Gideon Gono.

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