Depending on where you are in the world, tomorrow (15th December) is the last possible day for voting in the in the 2005 Weblog Awards. We’re a finalist, and we’d love it if you would go there now, and again tomorrow, to vote for for ‘This is Zimbabwe’.

Please click on the flashing icon in the column on the right, or visit this link to vote now. Remember, you can vote once a day until the voting closes!

We had a great response to our call for votes yesterday. When we sent out our email yesterday, our votes stood at 514. The current totals show that we have increased our votes by a whopping 275 votes!

Yesterday we asked if you could help us to become the top African blog in a category that we share with the Middle East (Best Middle East or Africa blog). Our closest African competitor comes from Egypt – Rantings of a Sandmonkey.

Well, we’ve now moved past the Sandmonkey – and the sandmonkey is really ranting! Here’s what he posted on his blog a shortwhile ago!

Please vote for the angels’ sake!

There is only 2 days left and Zimbabwe is gaining on me. I don’t know how they manage to pull 150 votes a day, but I am guessing they must be using some zimbabwean internet Voodo rituals or something. In case you didn’t know, using internet vodoo rituals gives angels cancer. Show them that you oppose Vodoo and giving angelscancer and vote for me. I figure a good 300 vote margin should send them Vodoo-using-angel-cancer-giving-zimbabweans a message that says loud and clear that “Giving Angels Cancer is not cool!” by you. Otherwise, what would the children say? That you allowed angels to get cancer when you could’ve stopped it because you were too lazy to vote for the sandmonkey? What a great role model you are being. SHAME!

Stop Vodoo Voting now and vote for me. Do it for the angels. Ohh and the Children. Don’t forget the children!

“Vodoo-using-angel-cancer-giving-zimbabweans” … That’s a neat twist on the usual names pro-democracy Zimbabweans are called. Makes a change from ‘enemy of the state’, or ‘British stooge’, or ‘Blair’s puppet’.

Come on everyone, you know what to do if you want to react!

Sokwanele – Zvakwana – Enough is Enough

Technorati Tags: 2005 Weblog Awards, vote,

National Constitutional Assembly Press Statement on the Victimisation of N.C.A activist Tsitsi Mikitai – a.k.a. Mai Mudhara 13.12.2005

The National Constitutional Assembly roundly condemns the arrest on 13 December 2005 at 3:00pm by Law and Order Police of Tsitsi Mikitai popularly known as Amai Mudhara and other National Constitutional Assembly activists over spurious allegations of public violence.

Amai Mudhara is the National Constitutional Assembly Harare province gender chairperson and was picked up from her home in Mufakose and accused of being connected to the alleged petrol bombing of a police post in 1st Street, Harare on 5 November 2005 which coincided with an National Constitutional Assembly demonstration against the imposed and undemocratic Senate. The National Constitutional Assembly abhors violence and demonstrates its demand for a new constitution through peaceful protests.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police officers bundled Amai Mudhara into a police truck and drove her to the Glen View home of the National Constitutional Assembly Harare province to arrest the Youth representative Clever Bingo who they did not find. On their way to Glen View Police Station they arrested the National Constitutional Assembly Harare Province field officer Nickson Nyikadzino popularly known as ‘Mao’and his assistant Clements Chavarika. They drove the trio to Harare Central Police and released Nickson Nyikadzino and Clements Chavarika after making it clear that they were rounding up National Constitutional Assembly Harare Province activists. They announced their interest in arresting Darlington Madzonga the National Constitutional Assembly Harare Province deputy chairman, as well as the St. Mary’s National Constitutional Assembly gender representative Stella Mapuranga and her Chitungwiza counterpart known as Amai Mpofu. The National Constitutional Assembly lawyer Alec Muchadehama was prevented from seeing Amai Mudhara as she was inexplicably moved from Harare Central Police reportedly to Glen View police last night.

The National Constitutional Assembly views these arrests alongside the draconian withdrawal of passports of government critics as a ploy to instil terror into the hearts of National Constitutional Assembly activists and other Zimbabweans who still have the courage to stand up to the oppression and dictatorship of the ZANU PF government. The government is obviously smarting from the defiance of its dictatorship by the National Constitutional Assembly. The National Constitutional Assembly deplores the obvious link between the fascist calls by the recently ended ZANU PF congress for the government to clamp down on N.G.O.s which criticize it.

A democratic and new constitution will not have room for such a partisan police force and repressive legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act. The National Constitutional Assembly demands that the police rise above narrow party interests and subject Amai due to process of law.

The National Constitutional Assembly is not cowed into submission by this wanton victimisation but is hardened in its resolve and calls upon more Zimbabweans to join it in the push for a

A new Constitution, for all, by all, now!

Fungayi Jessie Majome
N.C.A. National Spokesperson
011 214 375/091 286 801

Image: Police arrests made on 5 November 2005
Related posts: Brave defiance in Zimbabwe

Less than two weeks ago the news was that Zimbabwe had reached a deal with the UN for food aid to feed 3 million Zimbabweans until the end of June next year.

The Standard carried a story on the feasting at zanu-pfs recent conference and it is completely disgusting. ‘Still Here’ posted earlier this week about the conference and commented on the feasting, in one of Zimbabwe’s poorest areas: “The smell of that meat must have driven anyone in smelling distance completely insane with hunger”. If you think that that is overstating things, just read the list of food that 3000 delegates, over 4 days, cooked and consumed:

Fifty beasts were slaughtered for the 3 000 delegates, who were also expected by the end of today to have sampled other dishes following the sourcing of 48 goats, 11 kudu, five reed bucks, 17 impala, five buffaloes, 1.19 tonnes of rice, 60 chickens, 50 kg of wheat and 11 tonnes of maize meal.

Those with a gluttonous appetite for three-course meals and continental breakfast were not left out as there were 250 bags of oranges, a tonne of tomatoes, 400 cabbages, 60 litres of ice cream and other assorted foodstuffs.

And what did Mugabe have to say about this, so soon after settling a deal with the UN for food aid for his starving people?

“When I arrived, I was complaining to (Governor Thokozile) Mathuthu saying that I wanted meat. Now, I don’t want steak but liver. Where is the liver?” he asked, sending delegates into a fit of laughter.

Such a nice guy, and so entertaining and witty! That’s why we all love him so much.

Bitter anger aside, my sums below show estimates of weights for the food listed in The Standard – the weights for all the animals come from a range of farming and wildlife sources and I’ve tried to be conservative with my guesses. Some of the food they had wasn’t listed in the article so please realise that these figures are actually smaller than they should be.

But it seems to me that these individuals each had about 20.79 kg of food to eat for the duration of the conference. Which means that they EACH had 5.20 kg of food to eat PER DAY! And that doesn’t include the ‘other assorted foodstuffs’.

I know someone that I am giving a chicken for Christmas because their family hasn’t been able to afford meat for well over a year. I know another person, a pensioner, who I occassionally help because they struggle to pay for a couple of carrots in a week.

In the context of Zimbabwe – hyper-inflation and starvation - this display of gluttony in one of the poorest areas in our country is not insensitive: I think it’s evil!

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, UN, food aid, zanu, Mugabe, Christmas, starvation

Eddie Cross’s latest diary entry (8 Dec) looks back on 2005 and focusses on the outlook for Zimbabwe in 2006. 2005, he writes,

… will also go down as a year of failure – failure of the regional community to face up to what is going on here and to tackle the crisis, the failure of Mbeki’s “quiet diplomacy” and the failure of the international community to make progress in resolving the plight of the many who live in the “outposts of tyranny”.

For the Zimbabwe government it has also been a year of failure – failure of the much talked about “economic recovery”, failure of their agricultural policies, failure to get any sort of growth and recovery in the mining and tourism industries. To this we might add the failure to halt the slide in the public service and in all social sectors.

And so we come to Christmas 2005, hungry, angry and disappointed. Disappointed with our leaders and disappointed with ourselves for having achieved so little when the needs around us are so great. I think this is going to be the worst Christmas ever for most Zimbabweans.

Cathy Buckle has also recently published another of her now famous letters from Zimbabwe (10 December), and she too comments on failure:

Zimbabwe‘s ruling Zanu PF party have been holding their annual congress this week and watching some of the coverage on television made for staggering viewing. By any standards Zimbabwe is a country in dire trouble. Inflation, which began the year at 134% is again completely out of control and presently at over 400%. Life expectancy continues to plummet and is now just over 30 years. Unemployment is well over 70%, almost a quarter of our population are eating food provided by international donors and the number of people in need grows by the week. With these dreadful facts and figures you would think that our ruling party would have more than enough to worry and talk about at their annual congress. The posters adorning the walls of the now well known enormous white tent were damning. The slogans were not about the economy, early death, hunger or inflation. They were the same old deflectory attacks, just as they have been since Zanu PF first realised they had lost popular support when they were defeated in the constitutional referendum in 2000.

Read both their letters in full at this site, and this one. Be warned, Eddie Cross‘s outlook for 2006 comes with a caveat:

I am the proverbial optimist so all my friends will take what I have to say with the proverbial pinch of salt, but since they will not put their necks on the block – why should I not have a go?

Technorati Tags: 2005, 2006, quiet diplomacy, Cathy Buckle, Zimbabwe, Zanu PF, Eddie Cross

WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise) have released the following press release following protests to mark International Human Rights Day (10 December 2005).

WOZA Press Statement 10 December 2005

WOZA Women Mark International Human Rights Day with Six Street Actions – five women arrested and assaulted in custody

HUNDREDS of members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) took to the streets of Harare and Bulawayo today in six separate protest marches to commemorate International Human Rights Day.

The women wore t-shirts calling on Zimbabweans to ‘Stop Violence against Women’ and also bearing the international symbol for this campaign – an open hand. Whilst marching, the women distributed WOZA’s newsletter which included an open letter to the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to stop arbitrary arrests of WOZA women.

By noon five women from the Harare protest were in custody at Harare Central Police station. They were assaulted with open palms and baton sticks whilst in detention by officers, including one called Mhondoro. Due to a combination of this assault and refusal of access to lawyers, the women decided to negotiate the payment of ZD $25,000 admission of guilt fines. They were released on this basis at 16:45 pm. In Bulawayo no arrests were recorded although five simultaneous protests had been conducted.

The placard-waving women held aloft placards and banners bearing their messages, including “the strongest man is a woman” and an Eleanor Roosevelt quote, “Women are like teabags. We don’t know how strong we are until we are in hot water.”

In the spirit of “Tough Love”, WOZA’s brand of civil disobedience, the ‘mothers of the nation’ defied the Public Order Security Act (POSA) and conducted their protests without giving notification to the police.

In Harare, after a WOZA delegation participated in a ZimRights-organised march, they went on to gather on Fourth Street before proceeding along Nelson Mandela Avenue. The women were intercepted at Second Street by a police vehicle however and five women were promptly arrested. The five are Loise Grezia, Rosemary Mironga, Julia Chipehama, Noria Kadhari and Monica Chimbiro. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have reacted and are attempting to gain access.

In Bulawayo, five community-based protests were conducted simultaneously. They were joined by male defenders and children who found the singing and evident enjoyment of the protestors irresistible.

Women started their protest at Mabutweni Shopping Centre and ended at Mabutweni Police Station where the women dispersed, leaving their placards and the open letter addressed to the ZRP. In Mpopoma, the protest started at Msitheli High School and ended at Matshobana Beer Garden, passing Traffic Police on the way. As the women dispersed, a police vehicle pursued some protestors but soon gave up chase. In Tshabalala, WOZA women gathered at the shopping centre and marched towards Sizinda Beer Garden, leaving their messages with the patrons present. In Magwegwe, Pumula, Emakhandeni and Luveve, protests also started and ended without incident as did the Nkulumane contingent. As the marches proceeded, children joined in helping to distribute the Woza Moya newsletter.

On International Human Rights Day and the final day of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, WOZA made the following demands to the ZRP in their open letter:

• ALL Zimbabweans respect the rights of women and girls and violence against women is stopped. NO MORE VIOLENCE!
• The police respect the rights of women human rights defenders and the women they represent.
• We call on the officers from all ranks to refuse to arrest WOZA women as they go about their peaceful business.
• ALL police officers read and uphold the 2001 Harare Resolution on the Southern African
  Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) Code of Conduct for Police Officials.

The specific points that should be implemented to restore their dignity as professional police officers are, in particular, Articles 1- 5.
Article 1 – ‘In the performance of their duties, police officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons.’

Ends
10 December 2005

NOTE TO EDITORS:
For more information about WOZA and the protests conducted today, please contact Jenni Williams or Magodonga Mahlangu on + 263 91 300 456 or + 263 91 898 110/1/2/ or Ellah Hwenzira on + 263 91 377 800.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ZIMBABWE REPUBLIC POLICE
Joins us in saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, SOKWANELE, ZVAKWANA.

WOZA, the acronym of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, is an Ndebele word meaning ‘Come forward’. WOZA is a registered trust formed in 2003. Our objectives are to:

• Provide women from all walks of life with a united voice to speak out on issues affecting their day-to-day lives.
• Empower female leadership that will lead community involvement in finding solutions to the current crisis.
• Lobbying and advocacy on those issues affecting women.

We encourage women to speak out and hold their government accountable. Our mandate is to conduct peaceful protests in defiance of unjust laws that sanction our fundamental and god-given freedoms of assembly, expression and association. Through our actions, we create space to allow the general public to articulate issues they are too fearful to raise alone. WOZA has conducted over 30 protests in its three year existence. We recognize the sacrifice of over 800 women who have spent up to 48 hours in custody, some more than once. On 31 March this year, over 265 women and 20 babies spent a night in custody after conducting a prayer vigil on election night. These women, front-line human rights defenders, are willing to suffer beatings and unbearable conditions in prison cells to exercise their constitutional rights.

We have set out to prove that the power of love can conquer the love of power. ‘Tough Love’ is our weapon of mass mobilisation. ‘Tough Love’ is the disciplining love of a parent; we must practice it and bring dignity back to our families. Tough Love from the grassroots is the solution to the crisis of governance in Zimbabwe. Our rulers need some discipline; who better to dish it out than a mother! But what kind of mother would we be if we remained silent while our children cry from hunger? Do your children go to bed at night with full stomachs? Can you afford to send all your children to school and provide them with a promising future?

When WOZA was formed we adopted the highest risk option of demonstration when the most repressive laws were in effect. We had to find ways to speak out about our wellbeing rather that suffer in silence. We knew that police officers would support our struggle if they saw our love and determination. So when we march with love in our hearts, it helps us to bear the consequences. The consequences we suffer are arrest, assault and harassment by YOU – police officers. We know that you are our children, parents who are also trying to earn a living and feed your families.

Through our work we must break the chain of oppression. Rhodesia had an elite group of capitalists ruling over and oppressing people with unjust laws based on inequality. Little seems to have changed – we now have Zimbabwe and an elite group of black capitalists ruling over and oppressing people with unjust laws based on inequality. How many houses were some of you forced to destroy because of colonial housing laws? How may people did you make homeless and jobless through Operation Murambatsvina?

As the women of WOZA mark the 16 Days of Action Campaign with activities, we will be calling on Police officers to join us in saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, SOKWANELE, ZVAKWANA. During this time, and forevermore, WOZA demands that:

• ALL Zimbabweans respect the rights of women and girls and violence against women is stopped. NO MORE VIOLENCE!
• The police respect the rights of women human rights defenders and the women they represent.
• We call on the officers from all ranks to refuse to arrest WOZA women as they go about their peaceful business.
• ALL police officers read and uphold the 2001 Harare Resolution on the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) Code of Conduct for Police Officials. The specific points that should be implemented to restore their dignity as professional police officers are, in particular, Articles 1- 5.
• Article 1 – ‘In the performance of their duties, police officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons.’

Signed by
Your mothers, sisters and grandmothers
Women Human Rights Defenders

Technorati Tags: protest, International Human Rights Day, Zimbabwe, WOZA, Human Rights, Women

We have been advised that about 300 votes have been removed from our polling total in the 2005 Weblog Awards as a result of cheating.

We either have an overzealous misguided supporter, or this is an effort to try and discredit us by those opposed to our work and democracy in Zimbabwe. We have no way of getting to the thoughts behind the action.

So let us be very clear: Sokwanele does not support cheating or the ‘rigging of elections’. In fact, our blog was started during the March parliamentary elections and we spent a great deal of time exposing fraudulent activities. We circulated the rules of this competition to our mailing list, and we have published them here on our blog, and on the front page of our website. The rules are clear – please abide by them.

Sadly, we have also been advised that in order to ban the cheating addresses from accessing the site again, the organiser has been forced to block a range of ip addresses:

Since three of the addresses were from a dialup poll I’ve had to ban that subnet – a sanction that may be reconsidered

This unfortunately means that genuine voters who were not cheating will be affected as well. This means that Zimbabwean voters dialing up via that subnet will not be able to vote – but hey, cheer up, you guys should be used to that feeling by now!

On a less ironic note, we have received emails from confused Zimbabwean supporters saying that they can no longer access the polling website and we will respond to all those queries on an individual basis.

Despite the disappointment of realising things weren’t going as well as we thought, we want to re-state the sentiments expressed in this earlier post. Many thanks to all who have supported us. Keep voting – but not more than once a day!

Technorati Tags: 2005 Weblog Awards, cheat, Zimbabwe

People in Bulawayo just aren’t used to motorcades.

On the way home tonight, friends were forced to veer off the main road into the lane for oncoming traffic. rgm had a fabulous day of ranting at the zanu thug congress in Esigodini and the mob were on their way home.

They didn’t know which illustrious VIP zanu criminal was in the leading group of vehicles, because bob usually moves around by helicopter, but because of the downpour he may have opted for a road trip home. Whoever it was, bob or perhaps joyce, was preceded by five cops on motorbikes, sirens were howling, the bulletproof bobmobile was surrounded on all sides by police cars and the rain was absolutely bucketing down.

A megaphone was blaring warnings to motorists to get out of the road, and everyone knows shots will be fired if response is not immediate. It was pandemonium because Bulawayo residents, unlike their counterparts in Harare, are not used to the presence of the presidential motorcade.

To add to the danger of the scene, the roads have developed severe pot holes, pockmarking the way since the torrential rains started almost two weeks ago.

Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic for that would have been certain death for my friends.

This man knows no bounds to his evil.

The country’s fuel supplies have all but dried up and this party of conmen, thieves and liars hog the roads in fuel guzzling American and European luxury vehicles.

The country is in the grip of a severe food crisis and zanu feast on hundred of kilos of meat and sadza, in the very heart of one of the nation’s poorest districts. The smell of that meat must have driven anyone in smelling distance completely insane with hunger.

The country’s food production has dropped dramatically and he predictably continues to blame the few struggling white farmers and western governments for the glaring mismanagement of the land grab and subsequent economic disaster.

The country is in a state of utter collapse, no food, no jobs, no social services, no press freedom, NO HUMAN RIGHTS, homes destroyed by the tens of thousands and he calls the United Nations representative a liar and a hypocrite.

Not so long ago bob told the world Zimbabwe would have bumper harvests, that he felt “choked” with all the aid and that Zimbabweans must eat potatoes. But now he so graciously accepts the desperately needed food the UN has been offering for months.

Then he ends the congress by applauding the confiscation of the passports of those he deems “enemies of the state” and just to top it off, he demands harassment and threatens closure of the very NGO’s that are struggling to keep Zimbabweans alive.

And so ended the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front congress today.

So much for International Human Rights Day.

Technorati Tags: Bulawayo, United Nations, Zimbabwe, International Human Rights Day, zanu-pf, mugabe, food aid, human rights

The list below provides a short selection of links to elected representatives from various countries around the world. Please use it to write to your representatives and ask them to increase pressure of the Zimbabwean government and do what they can to help the people of Zimbabwe.

We’d appreciate it if you could help us to build this list by providing us with useful links that make it easy for people to contact representatives in your area. Please email us, or leave a comment at the end of this post.

Click here to subscribe to the Sokwanele newsletter

• Contact Zanu-PF – email Robert Mugabe’s ruling party
• United States – list of US senators
• United Kingdom – write to your MP
• South Africa – South African government contact information
• South Africa – email President Thabo Mbeki
• Australia - list of Members in the House of Respresentatives
• New Zealand – list of MPs
• Belgium – liste des sénateurs
• Canada – list of senators
• France - list of senators
• Embassies in Zimbabwe – contact foreign embassies in Zimbabwe
• Europe – list of MEPs in the European Parliament, by country
• SADC Parliamentary Forum – contact details for the Secretary General

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, mugabe, action, International Human Rights Day, human rights, MPs, senators, MEPs