The recent SADC summit in Lusaka and Mbeki’s continuous regrettable retort that Zimbabweans must solves their own problems should be enough evidence to Zimbabweans that we are on our own. We are at a period in the history of our country where the slide back in to the stone age can become irreversible if not stopped. Once the rot sets in to the machinery at Hwange, ZESA, National Railways and the water supply systems for example, it will take more than just a change of government to recover. That is why we need to change the government in this next election rather than have five more years of this incompetent regime which will surely cement our decline.

You say, but i am only one what can i do?

EACH ONE, TEACH ONE! You know who you know well and trust. Each one of you, take that one person aside and lets start a national dialogue between two people.

The first thing you can do as an activist citizen of Zimbabwe is to first spread the message that “none but oursleves can free” Zimbabwe. Dispel the idea that we can appeal to outsiders to come and sort the regime out for us. It must be clearly understood by the person you are talking to, that we are our own saviour. Remind them that God has always helped those who help themselves.

The second thing in EACH ONE TEACH ONE is for you to get your friend to make their way to the registrar general’s office and register to vote. The mobile registration may be over but voter registration is an on-going exercise (confirm Madiba?) and all you have to do is to make the time to accompnay your friend to the registration office. This in itself is a victory and we must start nothing up small victories.

The third thing is for EACH ONE TO TEACH ONE YOUNG ONE. the youth of our country have their sights firmly fixed outside our borders. They. understandably, plan to leave as soon as they have secured some form of paper qualification. Let them know you understand this but ask them to do their country one big service before they leave. They must register and cast their vote. Let them know that every year hundreds of thousands of young people turn 18 and they have the power to make a huge difference in the direction their country is going to take. The country that their parents will remain in. If they make the right choice they will neither have to leave, and if they still do, nor will have to spend scarce financial resources while overseas in parental and extended family support back home. Get one young person to register to vote and get them to get one other young person to register and this part of your work is done.

The fourth thing you can do in EACH ONE TEACH ONE, is to banish fear. Fear paralyses, it weakens the knee and the nation suffers. The people that you are afraid of have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children. They too are afraid. In fact, they are more afraid of you than you are of them. That is why they act they way they do. With EACH ONE, TEACH ONE, we can talk to each other and not whisper. Lets talk about our issues, lets wonder aloud what life would be like in Zimbabwe if the regime had not spoilt things for us. Lets ask ourselves what kind of future we want for Zimbabwe. Then lets see how we can democratically bring about that future and of course, lets act on our ideas. That way,we will begin to banish fear in our neighbour or trusted friend.

The final thing in EACH ONE, TEACH ONE, is for each parent to teach one or all of their children what it means to be a citizen. Talk to your sons and daughters. Sit them down and explain why you are still in Zimbabwe and why you have not left. Help them understand the histroy and life cycles of nations and get them to develop a love for their country and its rich history. Teach them about what home means.

Action has started with you at an individual level because societies are built from communities which are derived from groups of people, who come from families that are made of individuals. EACH ONE, TEACH ONE to understand that we all have have an individual duty to our country regardless of whether we have support form SADC or not. Lets show the world that the Zimbabwean people are far bigger and more powerful than cartels of racist leaders who are obsessed with the past and revenge rather than concerned about building a future for Africa. We shall overcome! Let the work begin! We have untill March to get ready.

Technorati Tags: Action, Zimbabwe

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This issue of Zimbabwe Election Watch provides a perspective of the political landscape prior to and during the two-month long voter registration programme (18 June - 17 August). The elections are a combination of municipal, presidential and parliamentary polls and are the first to be conducted jointly.

In their latest report for January to June 2007, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) recorded 4 122 incidences of human rights violations that were in most incidences politically motivated. The ZPP says the facts and figures demonstrate the political temperature is definitely rising, with June recording 792 cases up from 671 in May.

Similarly, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum says 2007 is on course to be the worst year for human rights violations by police and government agents in the seven years of political turmoil. Cases of gross human rights violations doubled in the first six months compared to the same period last year.

The often-blatant vote rigging that has characterised past elections is already well underway, with opposition party spokespeople reporting that their rural supporters have been denied the chance to register.

To strengthen its chance of wresting urban constituencies from the opposition, the government has moved people in from rural areas and registered them as urban voters.

A political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe has expressed concern that only about 80 000 names have been added to the electoral roll against the estimated three million who are believed to have left Zimbabwe in search of work abroad.

The Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust has joined the long list of democracy advocates condemning the mobile voter registration exercise as a sham. They said some communities did not even know mobile voter registration teams were in their areas.

Controversial constitutional changes in the pipeline will see the number of MPs increased from 150 to 210 and the forcing through of boundary changes designed to increase Mugabe’s chances of winning a seventh term in office.

Forced internal displacement remains an ongoing problem, with the Internal Displacement Centre warning that new evictions may soon take place.

Police attempted to arrest members of the Crisis in Zimbabwe team who were holding a public meeting and civil society briefing in Gwanda.

The trial of 23 MDC activists accused of banditry has, despite of a lack of evidence against them, been remanded once again after a record 53 court appearances.

Zanu PF youths held a Zimbabwean journalist captive for more than six hours. Attacks and the harassment of journalists are common ahead of elections.

The government, which refuses to declare Bulawayo a water crisis area, is accused of using water shortages to punish political opponents and decimate the city.

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Record Human rights violations in January - June 2007 (Zimbabwe Peace Project Report)
Source Date: 21-08-2007

The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) report covering human rights violations between January and June 2007 logs a range of politically motivated violations:

“ZPP recorded 4 122 incidences of human rights violations that were in most instances politically motivated. These included 7 murder cases, 18 cases of rape, 34 cases of food aid discrimination, 69 cases of abduction/kidnapping, 459 cases of torture, 2 323 cases of harassment / intimidation, 1 141 cases of assault, 152 cases of unlawful detention and one case of a politically motivated suicide.

ZPP acknowledges that there are other incidences that go unreported because the victims would rather not risk reprisals … The facts and figures at ZPP’s disposal demonstrate that the political temperature is definitely rising with June recording 792 cases up from 671 cases in May.”

The executive summary includes the following:

In Manicaland province, traditional leaders are reportedly exercising extralegal powers to evict villagers from their communal homes on the basis that they do not support the ruling party. In some instances, burial space is also denied…

Access to information in the sense of hearing any alternative voice is severely limited. There are reports that people are being harassed for reading newspapers from the independent media such as The Zimbabwean and listening to Short Wave Radio Africa and Studio Seven. In Mashonaland Central one person was harassed for reading a Zimbabwe Election Support Network pamphlet.

In a separate report released on August 23, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said that 2007 was on course to be the worst year for human rights violations by police and government agents in seven years of political turmoil in Zimbabwe.

[Full report available from Kubatana]

Source: Kubatana

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.3: [The member state holding elections shall] Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel …
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

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Zim registers 800 000 new voters as MDC cries foul
Source Date: 22-08-2007

Election officials in Zimbabwe said Tuesday over 800 000 new voters had registered for next year’s general elections, bringing people eligible to vote to over five million. Voter registration for the elections, a combination of municipal, presidential and parliamentary polls, ended last week after being open for two months. The polls will be held early next year, and are the first to be conducted jointly…

Nelson Chamisa and Gabriel Chaibva, respective spokesmen for the two factions (of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change), came together to complain about the registration process.

Chamisa said: “The whole thing was done to give Zanu PF an edge over us before the elections are held. Rigging is already going on…

“We have reports from rural areas that youths were told that their chance to register would come later. Only old people were being allowed into registration centres. There has not been much advertising of the whole process.”

Chaibva added: “We have cases where chiefs refused to give people letters to prove that they reside in their areas. The whole exercise was a shambles. There were also a lot of logistical problems …”

Source: NewZimbabwe.com (ZW)

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 2.1.8: Voter education.
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.2: [The member state holding elections shall] Establish where none exist, appropriate institutions where issues such as … would be addressed;
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…

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Zanu PF ‘busing in voters to win cities’
Source Date: 21-08-2007

Further to the report on August 12 in Issue 4 of Zimbabwe Election Watch:

Zimbabwe’s ruling party is moving people from rural areas to register as urban voters for next year’s planned joint presidential and parliamentary polls to strengthen its chances of wresting urban constituencies from the opposition.

In an update released last week on Zimbabwe’s voter registration exercise, which ended on Saturday, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said Zanu PF was using housing co-operatives made up mostly of its supporters to provide letters to rural voters so they could pose as Harare residents.

According to ZESN, some of the Zanu PF supporters are coming from as far as Gokwe to register as Harare voters. Gokwe is a ruling party stronghold about 170km northwest of Harare…

“For every (vacant) stand, a minimum of six people get registered in a constituency in which they do not reside,” ZESN director Rindai Chipfunde said…

Since 2005, Zanu (PF) has been parcelling out housing stands at various urban farms to its supporters under the banner of housing co-operatives. Most of the stands remain undeveloped and unoccupied…

Source: Business Day (RSA)

SADC standards breached

• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.2: [The member state holding elections shall] Establish where none exist, appropriate institutions where issues such as … would be addressed;
• 7.3: [The member state holding elections shall] Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel …
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…

---

Mugabe secretly registers rural voters in urban areas
Source Date: 20-08-2007

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) told Zim Online that false voter registration has been rampant and widespread throughout the country…

In one case in Mutare Central, 12 people from outside the constituency used the same address to register as voters.

“Sometimes we have 10 people using a single water bill to register in the constituency. Zanu PF officials simply accompany these people and we cannot ask questions in such intimidating circumstances,” a Registrar General Office official said…

Identified perpetrators: Registrar-General Tobiawa Mudede, Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi

Source: Zim Online (ZW)

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 2.1.7: Independence of the Judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions …
• 2.1.8: Voter education.
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…

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CHRA warns that voter registration exercise could be biased towards Zanu-PF Boundary Delimitation exercise
Source Date: 22-08-2007

The Combined Harare Residents’ Association warned in their latest newsletter that voter registration had been flawed:

…”What is most worrying to the ordinary resident is that Zanu PF militants in Mbare, Hatcliffe and Glen View were accused of enforcing dubious directives from the Zanu PF Harare Province to direct citizens (from other areas) to register as Mbare, Hatcliffe and Glen View residents.

The logic behind these manoeuvres is… that the Delimitation Commission will increase the urban constituencies and neutralise the urban population, considered anti-Zanu PF during elections…

Source: Combined Harare Residents Association

SADC standards breached

• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.3: [The member state holding elections shall] Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel …
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

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Voter registration ends with a whimper
Source Date: 22-08-2007

A campaign to register voters for next year’s election ended almost unmarked, with many people saying they were unaware of the two-month long process…

As well as the general lack of information, critics complained that the registration process was manipulated to exclude opposition supporters…

The mobile voter registration teams have two components - members of the government appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission, and staff from the Registrar General’s Office who issue birth certificates and national identification documents to those who do not have them, as this is a prerequisite for voting.

(A resident of Mataga, 450 kilometres south of Harare) said he had heard that “Mugabe people” were issuing IDs and birth certificates, but not that voters were being registered.

A political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe said many people in urban as well as rural areas may have missed the deadline because the registration campaign was poorly advertised and was overshadowed by more immediate political developments…

“There is definitely something afoot,” he said. “The elections may be no more than symbolic. Zanu PF is already manufacturing figures and names before the election dates are known to the rest of the nation.”…

He noted that only about 80 000 names had been added to the electoral roll, a tiny amount set against the estimated three million who are believed to have left Zimbabwe in search of work abroad. The figure of 80 000 was only twice the national average for a single constituency, he said…

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a non-government organisation that does voter education, has reported that traditional leaders in rural areas are excluding known supporters of opposition parties, for example denying them ID papers.

Fidelis Mhashu, an MDC member of parliament for Chitungwiza, 30 km southeast of Harare, claimed that some 65 residential properties in his constituency had been omitted from the document used as proof of residence. He warned that if this practice proved to be more widespread, it would prejudice the MDC in the polls…

Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…

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Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust condemns the voter registration exercise
Source Date: 23-08-2007

The Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET) has joined the long list of democracy advocates condemning the just-ended mobile voter registration exercise as a sham.

ZIMCET executive director, David Chimhini said the government wasted taxpayers’ money by deploying at least 2 000 officials to register only 80 000 people in two months.

Chimhini, a former head of human rights watchdog, ZimRights said more voters could have been registered if the Registrar General’s office and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had held education programmes before the launch and during the registration exercise…

He added that the voter registration programme was poorly communicated to the people. He said some communities did not even know that mobile voter registration teams were in their areas, while in other cases people were turned away after being told that only those wishing to obtain identity documents were being served…

Source: zimbabwejournalists.com

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

---

Opposition draws battle lines as Zim Parliament convenes
Source Date: 21-08-2007

Zimbabwe’s opposition and ruling party squared up in Parliament at the start of a session that is set to usher in controversial changes to the Constitution ahead of next year’s elections.

President Robert Mugabe is expected to get overwhelming approval for his plans to synchronise the timing of the parliamentary and presidential polls as well as force through boundary changes the opposition say will unfairly increase his chances of winning a seventh term in office…

The constitutional changes, which are certain to be nodded through given the ruling Zanu PF’s commanding majority, will see the number of MPs increased from 150 to 210 as well as ensure presidential and parliamentary elections both take place around March next year.

The MDC has been particularly incensed by the boundary changes which will see the proportion of MPs in rural areas — Mugabe’s traditional stronghold — increase markedly at the expense of urban areas, where the opposition usually prevails.

Source: Mail and Guardian Online, The (RSA)

SADC standards breached

7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…

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New evictions likely as humanitarian crisis worsens
Source Date: 20-08-2007

A new report released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) warns that new evictions may soon take place in Zimbabwe. Earlier evictions precipitated by the ‘land reform’ programme started in 2002 and Operation Murambatsvina in 2005, left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans homeless and destitute.

The IDMC report points out that “Evaluating the humanitarian needs and conditions of IDPs is virtually impossible in Zimbabwe [however] in July 2007 it was estimated that 10 500 households are still in need of emergency shelter. Amnesty International, in a report published in 2006, notes that several thousand people remain in the open under makeshift shelters.”

The report highlights the fact that forced internal displacement is an ongoing problem in Zimbabwe…

Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)

SADC standards breached

2.1.2: Freedom of association;

4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens

4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections

7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

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Police launch phase two of Operation Murambatsvina
Source Date: 23-08-2007

Police in the southern town of Masvingo on Tuesday fought running battles with informal traders accusing the vendors of returning to sites they were evicted from under a controversial government “clean-up” exercise two years ago. The police raided informal traders in the poor working class suburbs of Mucheke, Rujeko and Runyararo and confiscated goods worth millions of dollars during the operation.

Residents who spoke to Zim Online … said the fresh police crackdown on vendors was reminiscent of Operation Murambatsvina … (which) left at least 700 000 people homeless while another 2.4 million people were directly affected by the clean-up exercise, according to a United Nations (UN) report.

Although some informal traders had operating licences issued by Masvingo council allowing them to sell their wares, the police ignored the licences arguing that the “papers” were issued in error…

The eviction of the vendors comes hardly a week after the Geneva-based international relief group, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, warned of fresh evictions in Zimbabwe.

Source: Zim Online (ZW)

SADC standards breached

4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens

4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections

7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

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Police hunt Crisis Coalition team in Gwanda
Source Date: 24-08-2007

On August 22, plain clothes police officers failed to arrest the Crisis in Zimbabwe team which organised a Public Meeting and Civil Society Briefing meeting in Gwanda. The police officers rounded the vehicle, which Gladys Hlatywayo (Crisis Coalition Advocacy Officer) and Mehluli Dube (National University of Science and Technology [NUST] Vice President) were using at Gwanda Hotel accusing them of inciting the public to cause anarchy and uprisings against the government of Zimbabwe…

The Gwanda Police communicated with their counterparts in Esigodini to mount a road block and arrest the two (but they managed) to escape…

Identified victims: Gladys Hlatywayo (Crisis Coalition Advocacy Officer) and Mehluli Dube (National University of Science and Technology [NUST] Vice President)

Source: Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

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Justice delayed is justice denied for ‘petrol bombers’: lawyers
Source Date: 24-08-2007

Legal experts have expressed concern over the failure by the magistrates courts to set a trial date in the case of 23 Movement for Democratic Change activists accused of banditry, despite a High Court ruling that there was a lack of evidence against them.

The experts have further argued that the continued incarceration of the opposition activists was tantamount to state persecution. This comes in the wake of the magistrates courts’ decision to further remand the activists a fortnight ago to October 8 on bail. The activists have appeared in court for a record 53 times and by October 8 they would have clocked six months on remand…

The case… has been described by the legal experts as clear indication of the dearth of the rule of law as due process in prosecution has not been adhered to.

Source: Zimbabwe Independent, The (ZW)

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.7: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure that adequate security is provided to all parties participating in elections;
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

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Zanu PF youths harass journalist over alleged Studio 7 links
Source Date: 25-08-2007

Ruling Zanu PF youths on August 22 abducted and held captive a Zimbabwean journalist, Godfrey Mutimba, for more than six hours in Gutu district in the southern province of Masvingo. (This was) after they accused him of working for the Voice of America’s Studio 7…, a radio station run by exiled Zimbabwean journalists…

Attacks and harassment of journalists by Zanu PF supporters are common in Zimbabwe ahead of election times. Several journalists have been arrested and beaten up in the line of duty over the past four years.

Source: Zim Online (ZW)

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

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Mayor attacks government over Bulawayo water crisis
Source Date: 24-08-2007

A storm is brewing between the government and Bulawayo residents amid charges that the authorities were using water shortages to punish political opponents and decimate the city.

Bulawayo mayor Ndabeni-Ncube revealed that the council had last February appealed to the government to declare the city a water crisis area, which would have allowed non-governmental organisations to step in with assistance.

“Our repeated appeals have fallen on deaf ears,” Ndabeni-Ncube told Zim Online… “They want Bulawayo dead.”

ZAPU Federal Party president Paul Siwela described the situation in Bulawayo as an act of genocide.

“By refusing to declare a state of water crisis here the government has paved the way to a mass slaughter of Bulawayo residents through disease,” Siwela said, adding that the move was bent on killing investment in the city.

Source: Zim Online (ZW)

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Election Watch, elections, democracy, justice, voting

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Via FPTV: How Do You Defend a Failing State?

Watch this YouTube video to see zanu propaganda in action for yourself. According to this guy, Zimbabwe is “one of the strongest and most well-organised states in Africa“. Oh, how I laughed!

The rest contains the predictable blaming of the Western powers and the predictable explanation that high inflation results from sanctions (and not printing money which we all know has no effect at all - NOT!).

I started out amused. But I saw red at the bare-faced lies about the death of Gift Tandare and then the absurd declaration that Morgan Tsvangirai had a “bruised face” because he had stormed a police station and the police were forced to defend themselves (see the stitches here and read about how Tsvangirai was tortured by a group of police in a cell).

There’s something about side-stepping the worst abuses of our fellow human beings that strips any humour from a narrative immediately. This casual disregard of human rights is what makes these guys so thoroughly revolting and so deserving of a trial in the Hague!

Stormed a police station? First time I’ve heard that lie so I can’t help wondering if this guy has his propaganda policy all screwed up too?

But I caught myself before I exploded with the injustice of it - you only need to look into this man’s eyes to see he’s a zealot.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, propaganda, Zanu-PF

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This powerful piece was sent to us recently by an angry South African citizen. We blog it here in full.

The personal tragedies caused by the Zimbabwean crisis are an absolute disgrace. Mugabe, the Zanu-PF government and their supporters should be ashamed of the untold suffering they are causing to destitute black Zimbabweans. They should not be allowed to continue to ruin people’s lives and to ruin a once prosperous country in this way.

I am a South African and am appalled by the escalating human tsumani – the flood of ragged, desperate, hungry people pouring into this country. It is heart breaking. Every day those who are known to care about their plight get calls for help, but the numbers are so great it is impossible to assist everyone, and every small effort is just a drop in a vast sea of pain and chaos.

This week a friend who is stretched financially herself received a call to say that a young Zimbabwean woman with a baby was wandering the streets of our town. She had no food, clothing nor shelter and was destitute. After abortive phone calls to shelters and places of safety we finally managed to get through to an organisation which was able to accommodated her at a safe venue. However, this organisation too faces massive difficulties and their budgets are stretched to the limit.

The courageous young Zimbabwean woman, whom I’ve not yet had the privilege of meeting, speaks minimal English. Her child is two years old but is so seriously stunted by kwashiorkor that she still carries it on her back. It still needs nappies – which she does not have, and which the venue is unable to provide. She has no doubt walked hundreds of dusty, thirsty kilometres hoping to find somewhere where she and her child can learn to live and hope again.

A couple of years back, a Johannesburg newspaper reported the story of a woman with a blind child who walked hundreds of kilometres from her home in Zimbabwe to Johannesburg try to find her husband. The stories of courage in the face of hideous adversity are legion. Zimbabweans are not cowardly. They are decent people who want to live peaceful, secure and productive lives but they are being denied their rights by a brutal, power-hungry, corrupt regime which is terrified of losing power and having to face the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Last night the website Zim Online reported that 10 percent of all school children in Harare’s working class suburbs are suffering from chronic malnutrition or stunted growth. The department of health council report admitted that cases of kwashiorkor had last year increased by 43.7 percent from the 2005 figures.

The article continued: “The United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF) last year said there had been a serious deterioration in care for Zimbabwean children resulting in many deaths for children under the age of five. Zimbabwe is also the epicentre of an HIV/AIDS pandemic that is mowing down at least 3 000 people every week, leaving hundreds of orphans without parental care.”

South Africa has no refugee camps to accommodate this human tsunami. These stick-thin, starving, destitute people of all ages crawl under the razor-wire border fences carrying nothing but their own heartbreak. No food, no clothing and often no papers because they can’t afford them or because they were lost when the Mugabe military machine destroyed their homes.

Depending on the season they may be swept away by the floodwaters of the Limpopo River, or attacked by crocodiles. On the other side, the dangers are not over. There are human crocodiles called “Amaguma guma”, who steal the few worthless dollars they’ve saved, and lions roam game reserves bordering the Limpopo, where refugee deaths have been reported. A more recent threat involves vigilante South African farmers who apprehend them effortlessly because they are too exhausted to flee, and then hand them over to the authorities for repatriation.

As if this is not enough, the refugees also have to run the gauntlet of South African army personnel who are known to rape – and on occasion gang rape - women before stealing their paltry savings.

A report in the Cape Times of 8 August quotes a refugee as follows: “The amaguma guma captured six of my colleagues - two men and four women.” He said he has no idea what happened to them. In the latest Zimbabwean newspaper, it was reported that six Zimbabweans were shot dead last month while they were trying to cross the border into neighbouring South Africa. The paper says their bodies were found in an area between Panda Mine and Dete from where people commonly cross into the country.

Exactly when is Africa going to stand up to its responsibilities?

Exactly when is the Southern African Development Community (SADC) going to say that this is no longer acceptable? Exactly when are these brave, broken people going to get the help they deserve? Exactly when is the suffering of mothers and children going to stop? Exactly when will this continent bring the Zimbabwean catastrophe to a halt? The leaders of this continent should be ashamed. When they meet the human beings they have failed – either in this life or in the hereafter, how will they explain their inaction? How will they – who have beds to sleep in, all the money they need and children growing up in privileged conditions - account for their own miserable cowardice?

Angry South African citizen

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, South Africa, Africa, refugees, poverty, SADC, Southern African Development Community

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[This article is being mailed to our subscribers today. Click here to subscribe to the Sokwanele mailing list.]

The articles selected for Issue 4 of Zimbabwe Election Watch confirm the climate of organised violence, torture and intimidation. They also demonstrate massive irregularities in the voter registration exercise.

Food continues to be used as a weapon. It was revealed this week that the Joint Operations Command was enforcing a deliberate and systematic ploy of using food to ensure President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party retain power.

With respect to voter registration, it was reported that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans could have failed to register their names with the mobile voter registration teams after officials avoided certain areas associated with opposition supporters.

A residential stands-for-votes scam was uncovered in Hatfield, Harare North constituency, where people were being registered in a constituency they did not belong to because they had been allocated stands at a non-existent housing project.

Street vendors at Harare’s Mbare Musika market confirmed they were forced to register as voters in this opposition stronghold by youth militia, war veterans and troops, despite the fact that they resided elsewhere.

Although the scale of violence appears to have been toned down in advance of this week’s SADC Summit in Lusaka, 16 activists from Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise were severely beaten in police custody after taking part in netball and soccer games at a stadium in Masvingo. National University of Science and Technology students’ union president Clever Bere was arrested and tortured in Bulawayo.

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JOC plans to starve the nation unveiled
Source Date: 16-08-2007

The Joint Operations Command - a think tank of top security officials - is enforcing a deliberate and systematic ploy of using food to ensure President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party retains power.

Millions of people are going hungry not … because of poor rains but as a direct result of policies … denying food to opposition supporters and enriching its loyalists.

An elaborate plan hatched by the JOC to ban food imports, which has been reversed after being shamelessly exposed, forms part of this broad plan.

Top security officials told The Zimbabwean that control of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Zimbabwe’s state-owned monopoly supplier of commercial maize, has been passed to one of Mugabe’s most loyal henchmen, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, an alleged war criminal.

Shiri, who sits in the JOC together with other generals, two weeks ago appointed a new board at the GMB to oversee the elaborate strategy.

… sources alleged Shiri’s mission was to spend a £17 million loan provided by Libya, buying just enough maize to stave off food riots, which would then be supplied through the GMB.

The organisation … has been selling desperately short maize only to supporters of the ruling Zanu PF party. Backers of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change went hungry.

Worse still was the (planned) Food For Work programme. Thousands of opposition supporters would provide 15 days’ labour only to be told at the end there was no GMB food for them…

There is also evidence that the Zimbabwean government, through the JOC, is deliberately blocking the work of international aid groups and keeping the flow of aid down to a trickle… Last month an aid consignment was seized in Masvingo.

“What we are seeing is nothing but humanitarian torture,” an aid worker said. “It takes three months to die of starvation and this is a torture every bit as bad as beating someone with barbed wire or hanging them from handcuffs.”

Identified perpetrators: Air Marshal Perence Shiri

Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW)
Link to source: http://thezimbabwean.co.uk

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of
  freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and
  peaceful elections

---

Voter apathy expected due to proposed creation of new constituencies
Source Date: 11-08-2007

Many Zimbabweans will be disenfranchised after the delimitation exercise which seeks to introduce 80 more new constituencies in next year’s general and presidential elections leading to massive voter apathy, analysts have said.

They said voters will have to skip from one constituency to another after the Delimitation Commission increases the number of contested constituencies to 200 up from 120 as is being proposed in the gazetted Constitutional Amendment (no.18) bill, which is soon to be tabled in Parliament.

Political analyst and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Professor Eldred Masunungure said given the limited time left before the elections, the only logical thing to do was to postpone the elections.

“There is going to be an artificial voter apathy as most people are going to be disenfranchised after the delimitation of constituencies. Most people would not be able to check their new constituencies and in the end they get disillusioned and frustrated. A sizeable number of eligible voters are going to be turned away after turning up in wrong constituencies,” said Masunungure.

He said the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) has not done enough about publicizing their activities.

“ZEC is being negligent. It’s not doing its constitutional job. We now have less than six months before the local council elections are held and I believe more time should have been devoted to the voter registration process since the delimitation of constituencies is primarily based on the number of registered voters,” said Masunungure.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) chairperson Noel Kututwa said the organisation has since written to ZEC calling for the extension of the mobile voter registration exercise.

The Registrar General’s office is continuing to register voters until 17 August.

Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW)
Link to source:
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?id=5649

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right
  to vote and be voted for
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and
  peaceful elections
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration
  of fraud, rigging…
• 7.6: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Ensure the availability of adequate logistics and resources for
  carrying out democratic elections;
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process
  …

---

Massive irregularities in voter registration exercise
Source Date: 08-08-2007

There are reports that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans could have failed to register their names with the mobile voter registration teams after officials avoided certain areas associated with opposition supporters.

MDC legislator Editor Matamisa, who first raised the issue of the irregularities with her party, claimed … that the mobile registration teams did not … visit her constituency, which has close to 10 000 residents who want be added to the voters’ roll.

Matamisa, the Kadoma central legislator, warned that widespread inefficiencies and fraud are already pointing to massive rigging of the poll by Zanu PF. She said she was shocked to learn that many government officials were unaware of the current registration exercise.

“… There are no posters in the town but what scares us is that Zanu councillors have been bragging to me that most of their supporters have been registered. So the question is where did these people register?” asked Matamisa.

The outspoken MP said instead of guaranteeing citizens’ basic rights to register freely, the government and electoral officials were already actively colluding in the rigging of the presidential and parliamentary polls…

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, like all pro-democracy groups in the country, has proposed that the exercise be extended to at least four months and has called for more public awareness on the on going exercise. The normal voter registration exercise, as opposed to mobile registration, has been taking place at the same time.

Source: SW Radio Africa (ZW)
Link to source:
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news080807/voters080807.htm

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in
  the political process;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right
  to vote and be voted for
• 2.1.7: Independence of the Judiciary and impartiality
  of the electoral institutions …
• 2.1.8: Voter education.
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and
  peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.3: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national
  electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel …
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration
  of fraud, rigging…
• 7.6: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Ensure the availability of adequate logistics and resources for
  carrying out democratic elections;
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process
  …

---

Residential stands-for-votes scam uncovered
Source Date: 12-08-2007

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) continued with voter registration observation.

Visits were made to Hatcliffe, Harare North constituency where the team (found that) people were using letters from a housing co-operative, Enerst Kadungure Housing Co-op, as proof of residence.

This means that people are being registered in a constituency where they do not belong simply because they have been allocated stands at a non-existent housing project.

Those who have been offered the stands and the ‘proof of residence’ by this housing co-operative are ordered to provide five witnesses who are subsequently also given ‘proof of residence’ against the same stand number.

They are also advised to register as voters in the constituency. Thus at least six people per stand are being registered … against these stands.

Teachers who are resident in places as far away as Gokwe have ‘benefited’ from this co-operative and are now registered to vote in Hatcliffe constituency.

ZESN has also noted that there haven’t been any mobile registration teams for Masvingo urban. All the centres covered by the mobile teams are outside the city with the closest being Chikarudzo Business Centre which is more than 20 kilometres away.

ZESN has been inundated by calls from residents of Masvingo who feel disadvantaged by the absence of the mobile registration facility. They said efforts to get assistance from the Registrar General’s office in the city had been futile as the officers … allegedly told them the registration exercise currently taking place “is for rural areas.”

Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW)
Link to source:
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?id=5641

SADC standards breached

• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and
  peaceful elections
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration
  of fraud, rigging…
• 7.6: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Ensure the availability of adequate logistics and resources for
  carrying out democratic elections;
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process
  …

---

False voter registration ongoing in MDC controlled ward
Source Date: 06-08-2007

Street vendors doing business in the bustling Mbare Musika market on the outskirts of Harare say they have been forced to register as voters in the opposition stronghold by youth militia, war veterans and troops though they reside in other areas.

Vendors from other suburbs such as Sunningdale, Kuwadzana and Mufakose said the alleged forced voter registration drive started early last week…

One vendor at Mbare Musika, who is a resident of Sunningdale, speaking on condition that she not be named, (said) ZANU-PF officials had been providing such vendors with documents indicating residency in Mbare.

Source: VOANews (USA)
Link to source:
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-08-06-voa64.cfm

SADC standards breached

• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration
  of fraud, rigging…
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process
  …

---

WOZA activists beaten, released but two more arrested
Source Date: 09-08-2007

Activists from the Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise, who had been arrested by state security agents earlier in the month while playing netball and soccer at Macheke Stadium in Masvingo, were finally released this week.

WOZA co-ordinator Jenni Williams said the 16 victims, who had spent two cold nights in police cells, had been badly beaten…. Two members of their support team, who were going to take food to those in custody, were also subsequently arrested and were in police custody….

Source: SW Radio Africa (ZW)
Link to source:
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news090807/woza090807.htm

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of
  freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and
  peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

---

Student leader finally released; badly tortured
Source Date: 10-08-2007

National University of Science and Technology (NUST) students’ union president, Clever Bere,… who was arrested on 6 August in Bulawayo, was dragged in handcuffs all the way to Bulawayo Central Police Station and detained…

NUST said that charges related to Clever’s arrest were unclear and highly political. They said he was verbally accused of being aligned to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)… and that the torture Clever went through was clearly politically manifested.

Identified victims: National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Students’ Union president, Clever Bere

Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW)
Link to source:
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of
  freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and
  peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall]
  Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

---

Zimbabwean civic groups stress the need for a new, democratic constitution

Zimbabwean civic groups, including the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) met officials from the South African government in Pretoria this week to offer their input into ongoing talks to resolve Zimbabwe’s seven-year old political crisis.

In a communiqué issued after the meeting, the civic groups said any attempts to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis should be premised on the penning and adoption of a new, democratic constitution for the country…

President Robert Mugabe has already rejected opposition demands for a new constitution saying his government will forge ahead with plans to unilaterally amend the constitution in Parliament where Zanu PF has a majority. …

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1853

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Election Watch, elections, democracy, justice, voting

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Business continues to battle for survival amidst the chaotic Price Control regime imposed by government with the flawed belief that they can control inflation. There may be a more sinister objective in trying to force companies to consider selling to politically connected interests. Already a strange group has surfaced and letters are being sent to various companies expressing an interest in buying shares in Zim companies. They claim to represent SA business but the address is Morningside, Bulawayo.

Various industry groups are negotiating with Ministry to have prices reviewed and bread will go up by a mere ZD 4000 per loaf still leaving the baker in a massive loss position. It is now rumoured that beer production has stopped and frantic discussions are taking place. Furthermore it seems that the price of cement will be allowed to rise by a significant margin. The stock exchange continues to suffer losses.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Business Watch, economy, inflation

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I have so much more money in my bank
For all of this, I have you to thank!
I’m saving money at a rate of knots
By the time I’m 40, I’ll really have lots!

I can’t spend it on fags, fine food and fair’
Cos when I go to TM, the shelves are all bare!
Other shops are quite empty of tempting treats
Who needs dairy products, cokes or sweets?

Standing all day in the queue for maize meal
Mean’s I don’t have to work - wow, what a deal!
I see all my mates there from days gone by
We catch up on news and make plans for a braai!

I can’t find any marg or oil in the shop
My bathroom scales are starting to drop!
When I put on my jeans, they fall to the floor’
Cos no sugar or flour, means no baking no more!

Now bread, it seems, is a thing of the past
But I’m not worried, ‘cos I’m loosing weight fast!
There’s no need to lose weight by going to a gym
Just live in Zimbabwe and you’ll get real thin!

I walk everywhere; there’s no fuel in my car
I’m really quite fit now, from walking so far!
I spend more time at home than ever before
This is a good thing ‘cos there’s always a chore!

I take time for all the positive things in life
Like my family, reading and staying out of strife!
I’m coping quite well; so it just goes to show
That living with shortages is not such a blow!

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It’s Friday and the day before a long weekend off. But rather than being excited about a well-deserved break, the atmosphere in our office has been tense. We were all rushing to get work done as quickly as possible so we could leave. A visit from the ‘price police’ (CIO) on a Friday could be calamitous. If they decide to arrest you today, it means a long weekend, four days, in a filthy jail cell.

It doesn’t matter whether you are guilty or not, it just depends on who pays the visit and whether you are able to answer the questions quickly enough. That’s not as easy to do as you might think, especially since the general feeling is that visits are deliberately paid on a Friday so that they CAN lock you up for a long time - all the better for intimidation. It doesn’t matter if you are the owner or the manager, what matters is that it was YOU who was there when they arrived. So, you can understand, we all wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

My colleague and I did get away eventually and driving through town we saw two long queues, both outside butcheries. We guess that one of two things was going on: either a delivery had arrived and people were queuing for a rare chance to buy meat; or the price police are in there forcing the butchers to knock down their prices. In which case the queue is to be the first to grab what they can at absurdly low prices.

As we drove past one queue we saw a fight - or what we thought was a fight - break out at the head of the queue: people running and shouting, women suddenly yelling warnings. We turned for a better look, only to see that it was riot police, three of them, wielding batons at some of the people in the front of the queue. We don’t know why because the queue looked amazingly peaceful and restrained given the stressful conditions in the country these days. But such is life in Zimbabwe.

Happy heroes day everyone.

Where are our heros?

Someone of them - the ‘heroes’ - are living off the fat of the land, feasting on intimidation and cultivated hatred while they strip our country of its assets and turn us into employees running from an office in case we end up spending nights in jail for nothing.

Our other heroes are queuing for petrol, meat, fuel, and they are randomly and stupidly bashed by the riot police simply because they are trying to survive.

Hang in there our Zimbabwe friends; we will have our day one day.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, economy, police, CIO, ZRP, heroes day, intimidation, harassment

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Every now and again we have a company lunch and last week, feeling determined to carry on as normal as possible, we had to arrange a total of 14 ingredients.

There ensued a search as food scouts from the offices were sent out to forage in the various shopping centres. Whilst the total ingredients were not found, the lunch took place, but after having to visit 9 separate locations across Harare.

One could sense the emotion and strength of feeling regarding the issue of food as our plight in Zimbabwe has been reduced to the level whereby such things as fuel, water and electricity pale into insignificance. People are genuinely concerned about from where their next meal will come no matter what income level or society status.

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Confusion, fear and chaos continues throughout the business community. Arrests continue as those running businesses attempt to conform to ambiguous policies often imposed at the will of local “war lords”. In seeking clarification from ministry on just how to interpret the law, officials themselves are bemused. Some sectors are not specifically described in terms of permitted profit levels and then companies are told that a 20% margin will be shared between the manufacturer, the wholesaler and the retailer. Ugly threats from government officials continue and now the statutory instrument governing the price controls/freeze has been extended through to December 2nd.

However, profit making prices appear to be controlled but, on the other hand, input costs continue to rise by as much as 100% a month in some areas where price control is simply unpractical and illogical. Industry and commerce are bracing themselves for the next move by government in what appears to be a form of Nationalisation of business under the guise of state controlled and directed “indigenisation” .

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Business Watch, economy, inflation

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The Constitutions of all SADC Member States enshrine the principles of equal opportunities and full participation of the citizens in the political process. However, the Zimbabwean government continues its flagrant violation of the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections, as Zimbabwe Election Watch demonstrates.

Over the past few years, Mugabe has become increasingly reliant on the military for political survival, appointing serving as well as retired members of the armed forces to take charge of electoral bodies and institutions directly involved in the running of elections. Army and police officers have been engaged by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for the voter registration programme, due to end on 17 August.

In view of the many challenges faced by citizens as they try to register or obtain identity cards and other documents, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network has recommended that voter registration be extended and more effectively publicised.

Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party has traditionally relied on chiefs and village headmen to promote the party’s interests. The allowances for three chiefs and several headmen in the southern province of Masvingo have been withdrawn for backing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Apparently aware of efforts within his party to block his standing for next year’s elections, Mugabe has deployed the political commissar, youths and women leaders on his side to intimidate the pro-change faction within Zanu PF.

Activists, including nursing mothers, who tried to hold a demonstration were rounded up at the offices of the National Constitutional Assembly and taken to Harare central police station where they were beaten relentlessly for up to five hours.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party has filed a Z$504 billion lawsuit against the police for violently crushing a court-sanctioned rally earlier this year.

A secret memo emanating from the Central Intelligence Organisation states that 25 local journalists suspected of supplying stories to foreign media will be ‘eliminated’; by the end of the year. Authorities continue to employ a range of restrictive legislation - including the official Secrets Act, the AIPPA, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), and criminal defamation laws - to harass journalists.

The Interception of Communications Act, signed into law by Mugabe, is unconstitutional and can be successfully challenged in the courts, legal experts said.

Number of breaches in sample: 59

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Mugabe ropes in soldiers for voter registration
Source Date: 30-07-2007

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), that runs elections in Zimbabwe, has engaged hordes of army and police officers for the voter registration programme that ends on 17 August.

In a petition addressed to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the Public Rights Information Forum civic groups condemned what they called “the militarisation of the voter registration exercise” and said it would “compromise the credibility of the polls.”

The forum said it was improper to hire individuals who had declared their loyalty and support to Mugabe to run voter registration as the move would intimidate potential voters.

Sources within Zimbabwe’s electoral body said almost half of all voter educators employed by the ZEC were members of the army. The rest of the voter educators were top civil servants and former liberation war fighters, all loyal to Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, said the source. Under Zimbabwe’s electoral laws, only the ZEC can conduct voter education.

ZEC chairman, Chiweshe, is a former senior army officer and, before his appointment to ZEC, he headed the Delimitation Commission that draws the country’s voting constituencies.

Zimbabwe’s attorney general Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, is also a former army intelligence officer while the chief executive officer of the country’s Grain Marketing Board Samuel Muvuti is a former army colonel.

Last month, the MDC said thousands of potential voters in the party’s urban strongholds had been denied the right to register as voters under the current registration exercise.

The opposition party also charged that the Registrar General’s office which is in charge of the process had opened fewer voter registration centres in urban areas that are known opposition strongholds, in what it said was an attempt by Zanu PF to rig the elections even before a single vote was cast.

Source: Zim Online (ZW)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 2.1.7: Independence of the Judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions …
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.3: [The member state holding elections shall] Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel …
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

---

Zimbabwe election monitor calls for extension of voter registration
Source Date: 02-08-2007

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network has issued a report saying the mobile voter registration exercise now in progress must to be extended and more effectively publicised if all eligible voters are to have enough time to register.

ZESN’s preliminary report on the ongoing voter registration exercise documented the challenges many citizens face as they try to register or obtain identity cards and other documents. The organisation, which mobilized thousands of election monitors in the 2005 general election, said there has been some interference in the registration process by traditional rural leaders…

ZESN National Director Rindai Chipfunde-Vava said that the findings show the timing and logistics of the registration drive raise many questions as the country prepares for local, general and presidential elections in 2008.

Source: VOANews (USA)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 2.1.8: Voter education.
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…
• 7.6: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the availability of adequate logistics and resources for carrying out democratic elections;
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

---

Harare residents worried by voter registration
Source Date: 01-08-2007

Harare’s Kuwadzana residents have expressed concern at the way the Office of the Registrar General has set up voter registration centres in the whole constituency, creating a fertile ground for the marginalisation of the majority of eligible voters.

Voter registration has been running from 18 June and will end on 17 August 2007.

Simon Phiri, the Ward 38 Coordinator told the Combined Harare Residents’ Association that residents in Kuwadzana had only two centres to register as voters.

He said despite appeals to ZEC to increase the number of voter registration centres, they have not been successful, and it is feared more people have been unable to register as voters in next year’s crucial Parliamentary and Presidential Elections under the current exercise…

Source: Combined Harare Residents Association
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.3: Non-discrimination in the voters’ registration;
• 7.1: [The member state holding elections shall] Take necessary measures to ensure the scrupulous implementation of the above principles …
• 7.6: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the availability of adequate logistics and resources for carrying out democratic elections;

---

Mugabe withdraws allowances for chiefs backing MDC
Source Date: 26-07-2007

MASVINGO – The Zimbabwean government has withdrawn allowances for three chiefs and several headmen in the southern province of Masvingo for backing the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party has traditionally relied on chiefs and village headmen to promote the party’s interests by maintaining a tight grip on rural areas, where the party draws most of its support.

“I was summoned by officers from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development and was advised that my allowances had been stopped,” said one of the chiefs. “They said I was not politically correct ahead of next year’s polls.”

Contacted for comment, Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, said, “if there are any who did not get their money for that reason, then it is unfortunate because we expect them not to bite the hand that is feeding them.”

Identified perpetrators: Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo
Identified victims: Chief Ziki of Bikita, Chief Masivamele and Chief Sengwe all from Chiredzi. Several headmen in Gutu, Chiredzi, Mwenezi and parts of Bikita

Source: Zim Online (ZW)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.5: [The member state holding elections shall] Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging…
• 7.8: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process …

Additional comments on this event in relation to SADC standards:
The remarks of Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo, in which he refuses to condemn the unlawful actions of his officers, make him and his government complicit with the perpetrators. It places him, and them, in direct violation of the SADC guidelines.

Further comments in relation to Zimbabwean legislation:
Chiefs operate under the Traditional Leaders Act and it would be unlawful for the government to withdraw a chief’s allowances for solely backing an opposition party,” said MDC Masvingo spokesperson, Tongai Matutu.

---

One Man, One Party, says Mugabe faction
Source Date: 02-08-2007

President Robert Mugabe, apparently aware of the efforts within his party to block his standing for next year’s elections, has deployed the political commissar, youths and women leaders on his side into the provinces, to send the message that the party is intact and doesn’t need any leadership change…

The pro-change faction has confirmed this: “There is even the use of intimidation against party members, who are being told that there are dangers facing those that will be seen to be supporting the leadership change agenda because it originates from enemies of the party,” a source from the Mujuru faction said.

Source: Zimbabwean, The (ZW)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 2.1.6: Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for
• 2.1.8: Voter education.

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Scores of NCA activists arrested and beaten during countrywide demonstrations
Source Date: 25-07-2007

Scores of activists from the pressure group National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) were arrested during countrywide demonstrations intended to raise awareness of the need for a new constitution.

The protestors were distributing educational literature about the implications of the government’s proposed 18th amendment to the constitution which, inter alia, changes the entrenched provisions of the present constitution relating to dates for the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections.

NCA chairperson Dr. Lovemore Madhuku described Amendment no. 18 as ‘treacherous and contemptuous’. He added, “Zimbabwe needs a constitution that entrenches human rights and freedoms, ensures a free and open society and an electoral system that gives citizens power to elect leaders who are responsive to their needs.”

Identified victims: NCA field officer Bernard Dube

Source: SW Radio Africa (ZW)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 2.1.4: Regular intervals for elections…
• 2.1.8: Voter education.
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

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Babies abandoned as police beat mothers
Source Date: 27-07-2007

Six nursing mothers were among 160 people, including grandmothers, who were rounded up at the offices of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an organisation dedicated to constitutional reform, after activists tried to hold a demonstration.

They were taken to Harare central police station and (the mothers were) told to leave their babies in the corner of a hall and join other adults lying on their stomachs. For the next four or five hours, the infants screamed as police lashed their mothers and the other adults continuously with metre-long, heavy rubber sticks.

The beatings were the largest mass assault yet carried out by Zimbabwean police. Violence in March, when Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, and about 30 others were beaten for 2½ hours, sparked international outrage.

Source: Times, The (UK)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.9: [The member state holding elections shall] Encourage the participation of women, disabled and youth in all aspects of the electoral process …

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Lawsuit points up Zimbabwe’s breach of SADC Election Protocols
Source Date: 01-08-2007

Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has filed a Z$504 billion lawsuit against the police for breaching their role of protecting public order when they violently crushed a court-sanctioned rally earlier this year…

Hundreds of MDC supporters and senior party officials were seriously injured in violent clashes with police who sealed the venue in the suburb to prevent the rally…

“The police flagrantly defied a court order and denied our clients entry into the stadium in order to hold the rally, thus infringing our clients’ right to freedom of assembly, association and expression,” the MDC lawyers said…

Identified perpetrators: Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri

Source: Zim Online (ZW)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.2: Freedom of association;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.7: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure that adequate security is provided to all parties participating in elections;
• 7.9: [The member state holding elections shall] Encourage the participation of women, disabled and youth in all aspects of the electoral process …

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Zimbabwe Secret Service to ‘eliminate’ journalists
Source Date: 03-08-2007

A secret memo, emanating from Magnet House in Bulawayo, local office of the feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), … states that 25 local journalists suspected of supplying stories to foreign media will be ‘eliminated’ by the end of the year.

The three page memo, titled “25 journalists: Enemies of the State”, is written by a CIO officer called Edward Chiromo, and is addressed to CIO director general Happyton Bonyongwe…

The memo makes clear that when it uses the word “eliminate” it means kill. Already this year a television cameraman, Edwared Chikomba, is believed to have been murdered by CIO operatives for supplying video clips of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai being beaten to foreign media.

Last week Abel Mustakane, an on-line editor and a noted opponent of the Mugabe regime, who is now based in South Africa, was shot outside his home in Johannesburg.

Identified perpetrators: CIO Bulawayo officer called Edward Chiromo; CIO director general Happyton Bonyongwe
Identified victims: Edwared Chikomba, television cameraman, Abel Mustakane, editor of Zim Online

Source: Zimbabwe Today (blog site)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 6.1.3: Unhindered access to and communicate freely with the media;
• 7.15: [The member state holding elections shall] Allow the members of the SEOM an unhindered access to and communicate freely with the media;
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …

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New Spying Law Unconstitutional
Source Date: 05-08-2007

The Interception of Communications Act, signed into law by President Robert Mugabe last week, is unconstitutional and can be successfully challenged in the courts, legal experts said.

The law authorises the government to set up an interception centre to eavesdrop on telephone conversations, open mail, and intercept e-mails and faxes…

David Coltart, secretary for legal affairs in the pro-Senate faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the law was unconstitutional and will have serious repercussions on people’s rights and freedom of expression…

The president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Beatrice Mtetwa, said the law could be challenged in the Supreme Court…

Source: Zimbabwe Standard, The (ZW)
Link to source

SADC standards breached

• 2.1.1: Full participation of the citizens in the political process;
• 2.1.3: Political tolerance;
• 4.1.1: Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of citizens
• 4.1.2: Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections
• 7.1: [The member state holding elections shall] Take necessary measures to ensure the scrupulous implementation of the above principles …
• 7.4: [The member state holding elections shall] Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens …
• 7.7: [The member state holding elections shall] Ensure that adequate security is provided to all parties participating in elections;
• 7.9: [The member state holding elections shall] Encourage the participation of women, disabled and youth in all aspects of the electoral process …

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