We are receiving reports of MDC activists being arrested in Bulawayo today. Nonsensical charges are being laid against them. The purpose seems to be to do nothing more than harrass and intimidate and try and scare them. We have been told that efforts are being made to get them released.

The news we’re hearing is corroberated by information that Mike has left here in our comments. He says he has received an email tonight from Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) saying:

“Security alert. The Zimbabwe Police looking for ROHR members. They came to [address; name omitted]’s flat looking for our office and threatened [name omitted] the tenant with detention if she fails to give them our address. She did not know our address. Individuals from various civic orgs and MDC are being picked and arrested. So far more than 100 arrests have been reported”.

It looks like a coordinated phase of Mugabe’s crackdown against human rights and opposition activists.

In addition to the news of the arrests, we have received further information from a trusted source who says that the awful Obert Mpofu is up to his dirty tricks and thuggery and violence in Umguza. This is what our source sent us:

Obert Mpofu, the ‘former’ Minister of International trade and Industry controls all the intimidation and violence in Matabeleland North. He was also indirectly implicated in the violent murder of Martin Olds on Independence Day in 2000.

One of Mpofu’s main henchmen is Richard Moyo, the Zanu PF Chairman for Ward 8, Umguza.

Moyo runs a store and beerhall on Cranmore farm, Umguza. He drives a new white Nissan King Cab with Zanu PF Umgusa District on the door.

Moyo is very dangerous and has been known to murder anyone getting in his way. He has a murder charge pending on him since 2005 when he beat-up and then burned to death a guy called Zenzo, who had spoken to one of his girl friends.

Moyo’s cohort is a so-called warvet called Nicholas Ndlovu. The youth militia who are brought into the area stay with Ndlovhu.

Jili Mtemele who owns a supermarket in the high density areas in Bulawayo (also referred to as Mangena) and his employee, called Sayi, are currently leading and supporting mobs in the Umguza area.

Others employed by Obert Mpofu are villagers from the resettled on Arda Balu Estates.

If those arms and weapons ever reach Zimbabwe, these are the kinds of psychopathic-people who may end up using them.

We ask all violence loving thugs whether they really think its a good idea to behave like this when the country is on the brink of a transition to a new government. It may not be long before they no longer have the protection of a partisan police and corrupted judicary.

Just think about it for a moment.

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I danced when I read this. Via The Times (South Africa):

SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) general secretary Randall Howard said: “Satawu does not agree with the position of the South African government not to intervene with this shipment of weapons.

“Our members employed at Durban Container Terminal will not unload this cargo neither will any of our members in the truck driving sector move this cargo by road.” He said the ship, the An Yue Jiang, should not dock in Durban and should return to China.

South Africa cannot be seen to be facilitating the flow of weapons into Zimbabwe at a time where there is a political dispute and a volatile situation between the Zanu-PF and the MDC.”

“The view of our members is that nobody should ask us to unload these weapons,” he said.

Satawu said it planned to engage support from the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu).

Defence secretary January Masilela told Sapa today that the scrutiny committee of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee’s (NCACC) scrutiny committee, which he chairs, had approved the conveyance permit on Monday already.

Did you notice on the logo that the Satawu motto is “An injury to one is an injury to all”. How unbeliveably appropriate and relevant.

Thanks once again to Tara. Above all, thank you so much to the good people of Satawu.

Please can everyone send them the warmest emails congratulating them on such an amazing stance. They are bound to come under pressure to do what they clearly do not want to do, so send them some strength and solidarity to keep them resolute. Contact page here.

Tell them they are saving lives and protecting democracy.

But most of all, they are defending the ideals of the South African people.

The colours of that Rainbow Nation are looking a lot brighter to me tonight!

Update: 18 April, ~10.30
We have been advised that Randall Howard’s email address is nana@satawu.org.za. Thanks CG.

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Apparently top dog public relations officers are required to deal with all the attention the arms shipment destined for Zimbabwe is causing in South Africa. Good. I hope it continues until the shipment is stopped.

I do not know how Thabo Mbeki can ever function as a ‘point man’ on the Zimbabwean crisis if he allows guns and bullets to pass through his country and into the hands of Zanu PF. He is hardly neutral!

Has this grabbed the attention of the media elsewhere in the world?

The SA Police Services (SAPS) and the SA Revenue Services (SARS) were on Thursday sending their top public relations officers to Durban to deal with media enquiries surrounding a Chinese ship carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe.

Both national police spokesperson Captain Dennis Adriao and SARS spokesperson Adrian Lackay told Sapa that they were on their way to Durban and would comment on the ship once in Durban.

Enquiries over the contents of a cargo of arms aboard the An Yue Jiang have sparked a media frenzy, however various government departments have declined to comment over the ship and its cargo.

Noseweek editor Martin Welz told Sapa on Wednesday that “the cargo ship was openly delivering a containment of arms for Zimbabwe”.

He said that he had copies of all the documents.

The controversial cargo packed into 3 080 cases includes three million rounds of 7.62mm bullets (used in the AK47 assault rifle), 69 Rocket Propelled Grenades as well as mortar bombs and tubes.

(Via news 24 - thanks Tara!)

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This amazing blog sent to us for publication. South Africans - please contact your friends who live en route to Musina and ask them to make an effort to go out there and cheer these guys on. Take them refreshments and walk with them for a bit to keep them going. We are going to try and find out where they are and if possible give you updates on their route in time for you to meet them.

My feet are killing me, but my heart is strong! We are Zimbabwean exiles in South Africa and we are marching from outside of Pretoria to Musina, the border with Zimbabwe, to demonstrate against our government’s refusal to release the presidential election results.

We are also demonstrating against the violent retribution which the Mugabe regime has unleashed on our people for voting for the Movement for Democratic Change. President Morgan Tsvangirai is now our legitimate leader but Zanu PF is holding onto power and holding our people to ransom.

The distance is 540km and we will get to Musina on Friday 18 April, the day Zimbabweans should be celebrating independence. But there is nothing to celebrate. Our beautiful country has been ruined by the Zimbabwean regime and our people are starving.

We are marching under the banner of the Peace and Democracy Movement of Zimbabwe and we are holding our heads high under the hot South African sun.

The support of South Africans along the road has been wonderful.

The municipalities have been very helpful and we were met and encouraged by one of the mayors.

People have offered to buy us water and food and have even offered us money. In fact, we could almost be millionaires by now (and not Zimbabwean millionaires either!) but this march is to raise awareness, it is not about making money.

The last 100 km are going to be very tough. But we have South African farmers in dusty 4×4s hooting and cheering us along and some have even driven behind us as a show of support.

We hope you will see our faces tomorrow on television when we reach Musina. We will continue with our campaign of action until we have a legitimate government in power in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is now our former president. The people of Zimbabwe have spoken.

REMEMBER MOYO
Spokesperson
Peace and Democracy Movement of Zimbabw

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This banner, measuring 278m², was flown over the UN by the advocacy group Avaaz, while Thabo Mbeki a special Security Council meeting inside. I doubt even he missed the message this time.

Why not email Avaaz and thank them for doing such an amazing job? Writing a ‘thank you’ email is infinitely more pleasurable than writing one begging people to help. Contact details here.

There are more images of the banner in action in this flickr photoset. I particularly like the one with the Statue of Liberty in it. Symbolic.

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There was a riot at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) yesterday (16 April).

We heard that several activist students called all the students from their lessons to start a boycott of classes until the Presidential results were released.

There was a slow trickle of curious students out of their classes to see what was going on, and at about this point the riot police were called in.

Things turned aggressive and the university was locked down. We believe that the activists have been arrested, but this fact has not yet been confirmed. The whereabouts of the student activists is unknown.

The student situation in Zimbabwe has been very under-reported.

During our months of working on Zimbabwe Election Watch, closely monitoring the electoral conditions prior to the March 29th elections, we were seeing that students were being harrassed, arrested, abducted, intimidated and threatened almost on a weekly basis for months leading up to the elections.

SW Radio Africa has more detail on what happened yesterday, and anger evident in the students’ response is indicative of the tinder-box state of our country.

The demonstration is said to have turned violent when riot police entered the campus and started beating up students indiscriminately. Angry students then turned on one member of the police force who was brandishing a pistol, and stoned him. Several cars and buildings were stoned during the skirmishes.

The students are angry about the poor educational standards in the country and blame Mugabe’s misrule for their plight. They also demanded a release of presidential election results, which have still not been announced 18 days after Zimbabweans voted. Zimbabwe National Students Union President Clever Bere warned Mugabe that students would make the country ‘ungovernable’ if he tried to ‘steal’ the election.

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This ‘heads up’ was left in our comments - thank you:

Hey, heads up.

Transnet and National ports authority of South Africa have just released the ship to begin off loading the Arms and Ammo.

Looks like you have the shit heading your way.
Keep safe, grab your bullet proof and camera. Get out into the field.

A journalist friend in South Africa

This is like watching a murderer plan and assemble his tools in slow motion. As if torture and violence are being played out on movie screens everywhere.

We all know what’s going to happen. We are not a nation at war: the only people on the receiving end of those bullets are innocent civilians.

I feel like the people in our country are on the brink of untold violence, with China and South Africa enabling it, and the world watching. It’s horrific!

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We wrote about a few Chinese goings on earlier. The story about the arms destined for Zimbabwe seems to now be confirmed:

Leonard Hadebe, head of Durban Customs told Sapa: “We have confirmed that the shipment was headed for Zimbabwe. It arrived at the Durban Harbour on April 14.

“Right now the ship is awaiting clearance. If they are carrying any prohibited or illegal goods, they will be detained by customs,” said Hadebe.

And:

Inspector Nicholas Gunther of the SA Explosives Unit in Durban told Sapa the vessel - called ‘An Yue Jiang’ - was carrying a shipment of arms.

“We went there just now and they are not being allowed in,” he said. “There was a problem with the documents they submitted and we have directed the matter to the Chief Inspector of Explosives in Pretoria, Senior Superintendent van Sittert and it may take days for them to get clearance,” said Gunther.

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These guys are planning to protest Thabo Mbeki’s “no crisis” statement - remember - the one that got me so upset. With this, and what avaaz have planned, and the London protests coming up, I’m beginning to feel a bit better.

South African readers, please take note for yourselves and alert people in Cape Town to this planned protest via your blogs and email. Everyone else, email your South African friends and family in Cape Town and get them to go along. If you’re in the Diaspora, get your South African friends there to email their friends in Cape Town. Roll out the message!

The protest is between 12 and 2pm so couldn’t you stretch your lunch hours and attend? Take cameras and send us pictures so Zimbabweans can see the support for them in South Africa despite what Mbeki said.

PASSOP and TAC formally invite you to join us in Protest!

Who: Everyone who believes in Truth and Justice

What: To Protest ongoing Xenophobic Attacks on Immigrants in South Africa AND Thabo Mbeki’s “No Crisis in Zimbabwe” Statement.

When: 1200-1400, Thursday, April 17, 2008

Where: Outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre

(more…)

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One of our activists yesterday evening received an email from a contact in Mutare, who saw and reported this:

There are some chinese army personnel staying at the Holiday Inn here in Mutare and they are moving between their hotel and the local army/police HQ.

What are they doing there? Especially at this time?

A quick search this morning pulled this article up, published on zimbabwejournalists.com, which corroberates the truth of what he saw:

“Residents are going about their normal business despite a call by the opposition to stay at home. Businesses were operating as usual but there was a heavy police presence in the city centre and in all the high density suburbs,” he said.

The police are armed with AK rifles, teargas canisters and baton sticks. Water cannons were being driven throughout the suburbs. There were no incidents of violence as of mid-morning. However, says Baxter, there was a surprise presence of Chinese soldiers armed with revolvers in the city.

(more…)

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For those who are in London, or who can travel to London, please make a special effort for this one. 18 April is Zimbabwe’s Independence Day. It would be good if the day was clearly marked by protests and demonstrations against the lack of Independence in Zimbabwe.

My cynical suspicious mind tells me that Mugabe might choose 18 April for ZEC to finally release Presidential results, and announcing that he has in fact won. Can you imagine anything more nauseating than him claiming he has fought and regained ‘independence’ after those ‘British tried to take it from us’ in the elections with their ‘puppet Tsvangirai’? I could be sick just thinking about it.

T-Shirts

We have a small selection of T-shirt designs on our website if you’d like to print yourselves an iron-on transfer and to make a T-Shirt to wear on the day. Please, if there are better T-Shirt printing resources (middle column of our website on that page) please let us know so we can give people the best advice. (more…)

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Thanks to N, who brought this to my attention - two days ago - and that’s how long it took me to wake up and look around at what is happening outside Zimbabwe.

In a nutshell: Thabo Mbeki is travelling to the United Nations tomorrow to Chair a special Security Council meeting:

Mr Mbeki is chairing a presidential level Security Council meeting on Africa on Wednesday, and is widely believed to be the man best placed to change Mr Mugabe’s mind. But his brand of “quiet diplomacy” has so far failed to win meaningful results. On Saturday, Mr. Mbeki provoked outrage by saying “there is no crisis in Zimbabwe.

Petition to sign - lets drive those numbers up!

There’s a petition organised by Avaaz.org, who are apparently the world’s largest international online advocacy network. Sign it here. The petition, titled ‘DEMOCRACY FOR ZIMBABWE!’ will be delivered to Mbeki tomorrow. (more…)

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The first bit of news I received this morning had nothing to do with the general strike called by the opposition. It was a call from a friend: “I hope you’ve got news for me!” I said loudly, before he could say hullo.

“I do” he said.

I thought it would be strike related news. Instead he said a contact of his had phoned him and told him that people in the Musana Communal Lands, in the Bindura / Shamva area (Mashonaland Central), have had their hands cut off. That the pattern of beatings and burnings had taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

The open hand is the symbol of the winning opposition.

Despite the fact he trusts his contact, he said he needed to do what he could to verify the information. He asked me to blog it anyway, but to stress we are trying to find out more - to verify and confirm. It’s hard getting info out of the darkest areas in Zimbabwe. So right now we don’t know if it’s true, and if it is how many people are affected.

I know it could be possible. The Gukuruhundi, for example, is littered with torture and violence designed to psychologically damage as well as hurt. I also remember, many years ago, going through a particular area in Zimbabwe and seeing a women with a mutilated face. I was told that her lips had been cut off during the liberation war because Mugabe’s fighters believed she had ‘talked’ to the Smith regime. Symbolic violence is potent and doesn’t shout a message to the community, it screams it.

I don’t know if its because news of the hands violence is so grotesque that my mind is struggling to accommodate it as a truth. I need it confirmed, even as I don’t doubt the capability of Mugabe’s crowd to be so grotesque. I think its denial at what it means for our future.

If this level of torture is endorsed at higher levels - a kind that doesn’t heal externally and get covered over by clothes - then it suggests the military big wigs have thrown all caution to the wind and are going for broke.

You can’t draw back from this. It’s one thing for politicians to have a discussion about immunity for crimes committed in 1982; but quite another to talk about immunity for what happened yesterday and today.

How do I move from that to news about the strike….? Awkwardly:

Strike news: an sms colleague from a friend in Harare has said: “There is talk of soldiers chasing people on the streets of Glen
Norah in Harare early this morning”

An email to us this morning said: “This is a very good idea but the majority of Zimbabwe is not aware of this call. Even myself was not aware until this morning when I was already at work, just to see this e-mail now.”

So, I’m not sure yet what is or isn’t happening. I was trying to find out but the news about the hands that came instead has left me winded.

Update: I called my colleague in Harare. He said … there is a report of a Kombi bus having been burnt in Warren Park, a township in Harare, and soldiers chasing people in the streets of Glen Norah, another township in Harare. Companies in the industrial sites of Harare are reporting less than 50% turnout by staff.

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GENERAL STRIKE:
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has today called for a general strike in Zimbabwe starting tomorrow (Tuesday, 15 April 2008) after the high court refused to order the immediate release of the presidential election results. Take Action!

These photographs of reprisal attacks by Zanu PF thugs were taken yesterday.

TAKE ACTION

We have been waiting for word from our elected leaders on the way forward after the farcical way in which the Presidential results have been withheld from public knowledge by the Zimbabwe Electroal Commission (ZEC).

The word has come and we need to stand by and do what we can to ensure justice and democracy are delivered to Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.

Please support the call for a General Strike. We elected Morgan Tsvangirai to be our President; let’s RESPOND POSITIVELY to his call.

• Do not come to work tomorrow (April 15th).
• Stay peacefully at home.
• Phone everyone you know NOW and spread the word.
• Ask them to start phoning and spreading the word too.
• Encourage those who are fearful or unsure that there comes a time when people need to stand together, strong and proud and peaceful, for what we believe in as a nation.
• Don’t forget: we have won. The only reason why ZEC is delaying is because the results showed that the opposition leader, Robert Mugabe, lost the elections
• Be peaceful, be proud and be strong

Sky News have been broadcasting evidence today that shows that Morgan Tsvangirai won the Presidential election. The reporter says: “The significance of this paper work is that although it belongs to the MDC, it comes from the polling stations. To all intents and purposes these are the verified results.” The world has seen this with their own eyes, and now knows what we know to be true.

MDC confirms national strike as tensions rise in the suburbs
published on ZimbabweJournalists.com

HARARE - The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has confirmed its calls for an indefinite general strike starting Tuesday following the High Court’s rejection of an MDC petition to order the immediate release of results of the presidential election, which the party believes was won by their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

No presidential results have yet emerged from the harmonised March 29 election, effectively believed by many to have been poised to signal President Robert Mugabe’s demise after 28 years at the helm. The Zimbabwe Election Commission, ZEC, has instead announced it will be going ahead with a partial recount of votes in 23 constituencies being contested by the ruling Zanu PF.

The MDC said yesterday the continuing delay in making public the results of the ballot held more than two weeks ago, and the breathing space given to Mugabe by a failed weekend summit of regional leaders, was permitting the regime to widen its campaign of violent intimidation in rural areas.

“We are calling on the public to speak against ZEC for failing to release the results,” the MDC’s deputy president Thokhozani Khupe told a news conference.

“We have called for a mass stay-in, starting tomorrow, until the results are released.”

Khupe spoke soon after Justice Tendai Uchena turned down a petition by the MDC urging the electoral commission to end its silence over the March 29 election presidential election.

Khupe said that it had now been proved that voting on its own was not enough to bring about a regime change and accused President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party of trying to use the delay since the elections to fix the result.

“We are receiving information that the ballot boxes are being kept by Zanu PF, that they have been stuffing more ballot papers,” she said.

“What we want is for ZEC to announce the results. We hope every Zimbabwean takes it upon themselves to speak out and be heard. Voting alone was not enough. We want our results, the time has come.”

In the high density areas of Harare, the mood on the streets was volatile. In Highfields this reporter spoke with many opposition supporters who threatened to turn violent against any commuter buses that may try to ferry people into the cities during the strike.

“We are going to burn those vehicles coming from Mtoko, Murewa and such areas with tomatoes and vegetables,” an MDC supporter, Andrew Pishai, told zimbabwejournalists.com at a market in Lusaka, Highfields.

“They should not bring their tomatoes and vegetables here. They should go to Zvimba or to state House and sell them to Robert Mugabe. We are serious, there is not going to be any business here. We are tired of people who aid Mugabe in exploiting the people of Zimbabwe.”

Pishai spoke as reports about widespread violence in the rural communities of Zimbabwe continued to trickle in with a number of opposition activists apparently being hospitalised after being beaten up by Zanu PF people and youth militia.

Peter Nguwani said he had heard that in his rural home of Mutoko, those believed to have voted for the opposition MDC had their huts burnt by Zanu PF activists.

“Our message to them today is that those who are in Mutoko, Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe and such other areas who are in love with Zanu PF, please do not come to the cities because we will deal with you and we are also warning all transport operators to heed the call for the stay-in. By 12 midnight today there should be no commuter buses on the road otherwise we will deal with them.”

The tone of the interviews indicated that all hell may break lose on Zimbabwe’s streets tomorrow. A heavy police presence was also expected to deter those seeking to speak out against the holding of presidential election results.

Meanwhile Tsvangirai had to cancel a planned trip to South Africa to meet SADC mediator South African President Thabo Mbeki following his support for Mugabe at the regional leader’s summit over Zimbabwe in Lusaka at the weekend.

Instead, Tsvangirai had decided to go to Mozambique after a similar sojourn to Botswana. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to meet Mbeki and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the election impasse in Zimbabwe.

In the meantime, all eyes remain on Zimbabwe as the people’s patience continues to wear thin over the results of the presidential election.

[Ends]

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The General Strike is on, starting tomorrow.

Please can everyone spread the news as widely as possible.

Zimbabweans, phone everyone you can think of and tell them to phone everyone they can think of and just pass on and on and on.

If you are in the diaspora, please phone home and tell them and do the same.

Sms’s have been flying all day and I am told the news is spreading like wildfire, but I haven’t actually heard anything clearly from the horses mouth yet (MDC MT). I am concerned this might make people question if its true.

Communications in Zimbabwe are very poor at the moment so we need as much help to drive this news out as possible.

Please can you also use all the powers of persuasion you have to ask people who might be fearful or reluctant to just stay at home.

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