The schools and citizens of Bulawayo have banded together to CLEAN UP THE CITY !!

In an exercise encouraged by Bulawayo South Constituency, the campaign has been enthusiastically received by all those who love Bulawayo and have a great deal of Civic Pride.

This campaign is planned for Saturday 16 May and we will all meet at the Large City Hall car park at 6.46 am.

Many firms have pledged the use of their trucks, firms have been encouraged form teams of ten and armed with spades, trash bags and sun cream, will endeavour to make a start on cleaning up the City Centre.

Once the “back has been broken” in a manner of speaking of course, the Municipal workers will then be able to take over their duties as before.

Firms, schools, church groups, clubs are asked to band together and form fun filled teams who will work together for the good of the City.

Please join us by pledging your support.

Telephone:

Danielle: 0912 929580
Stella: 0912 406 686
Ceri: 011 613 855
or e mail magskriel@mac.com for more information

Saturday 16 May starting at 7.45 at the City Hall Car Park.

Lets clean up our City together !!

This is a second blog from a Zimbabwean refugee, still living in South Africa and still afraid to return to Zimbabwe. These are his thoughts on Independence Day.

Refugees met on Independence day to show South Africa, Africa, and the world what they think and feel about independence in Zimbabwe.

In actual fact, I personally, I have nothing to celebrate on this so-called Independence day.

Taking history from my Mum, in 1984 I was six years old when ZANU PF started the Gukurahundi in Matabeleland. It was after Independence. (more…)

“Road to Lindela” will be launched in Cape Town at 17h30 on Thursday 30 April at the Center for the Book, 52 Queen Victoria Street.

Mention the word “Lindela” to asylum seekers in South Africa and raw fear immediately clouds their faces, especially those of Zimbabwean origin who fled the government-sponsored violence and economic chaos and are living in South Africa illegally.

Lindela is the feared detention centre outside Krugersdorp, about an hour’s drive west of Johannesburg. This is where captured asylum seekers without legal documents issued by the South African Department of Home Affairs are sent prior to being repatriated to their home countries.

According to the authors of a book being launched in Cape Town this week, Road to Lindela, the detention centre has, among other serious deficiencies, “the worst health hazard conditions that human beings are expected to live under.”

“Security guards torture detainees, the place is overcrowded and dirty, and 90 percent of the detainees come out sick. It is a breeding ground for TB and HIV/AIDS … in an era when we are fighting the spread of the pandemic.”

“Deaths usually occur in Lindela or even at the nearby hospital where those who are sick are ferried…,” they write. (more…)

This is a transcript from an interview between Violet Gonda of SWRadio Africa and Gandhi Mudzingwa. Gandhi is still in hospital and still under police guard.

Broadcast 24 April 2009

VIOLET GONDA: In the Hot Seat is political detainee Gandhi Mudzingwa, a former personal aide to MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai. Despite being freed on bail, he and the MDC ’s Director of Security Chris Dhlamini are still under police guard at the Avenues Clinic where they are having treatment for injuries received from torture during their five months in detention. The MDC officials are among a group of political and civic activists facing charges linked to alleged plots to overthrow the former Zanu-PF government. They deny all the charges. In a telephone interview from his hospital bed Gandhi Mudzingwa talks about the abuse he continues to suffer at the hands of the police and expresses his disappointment in the MDC ’s Home Affairs co-minister, Giles Mutsekwa. I first asked him to explain his present situation.

GANDHI MUDZINGWA: Thank you very much Violet. Yes I’ve gone through a long ordeal starting from the 8 th of December last year and this abuse seems to be not ending. Last week on Friday we were granted bail by the Supreme Court, in fact by the High Court, on the basis that the State had not filed an appeal in time. And the Registrar of the Supreme Court issued a Warrant of Liberation and as I’m speaking I am supposed to be a free man. (more…)

The video above features Jonathan Shapiro – known to must of us as ‘Zapiro’ – the South African political cartoonist who has a gift for nailing the truth in images that can be completely hilarious or utterly shocking. His cartoons of Zimbabwe have often given me boost because sometimes it is wonderful to have the truth amusingly reflected right back at you. Zapiro is in a spot of trouble at the moment, because he turned his lethal pen on Jacob Zuma, and Zuma didn’t like it one little bit. (The full details of what’s happening between Zuma and Zapiro can be read here on GlobalPost.)

The end of the video clip concludes with Zapiro saying:

I’ve been asked over the years, so many times, whether we could go the Zimbabwe route, and I have poo-poohed it, and laughed it off, and said never, never, never. For the first time in my life, in the last few months, I’ve seen signs of some of that stuff that is really worrying… (more…)

The government has confirmed that the Zimbabwe Dollar will only be re-introduced once industrial capacity utilisation reaches 60%, which is not expected for about 12 months. Statistics reveal some improvement but the 20% level is only being reached now as funding for the economic turnaround is still not forthcoming because of the political stalemate.

The Consumer Price Index showed inflation at 94,6% compared to last year whilst prices dropped over 3% in the last month. Competition is driving the downward trend. It is expected that prices will settle at the right levels and match those of the region by the end of the year.

Both Industrial and Mining indices rose by healthy margins; however Stock Exchange trading volumes are small and investor confidence remains low and this is expected to continue until there are definite signs of economic stability.

Businesses continue to be constrained by the lack of cash and funding from financial institutions whilst fierce competition reduces profit margins.

Wage negotiations loom as unions demand what employers would deem as unrealistic, further pressurising profit margins.

As March drew to a close amid ongoing reports of lawlessness across the country, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai warned those engaged in unlawful activities that they would be brought to justice. “Of particular importance is restoring the rule of law, without which we will not make progress on any front. I have tasked the Ministers of Home Affairs to ensure that all crimes are acted upon and the perpetrators arrested and charged. For too long a culture of entitlement and impunity has stained our society, but after the signing of the Global Political Agreement no crime will go unpunished,” he said.

However, as Zimbabwe Inclusive Government (ZIG) Watch has demonstrated since its inception, the Rule of Law is violated daily by corrupt Zanu PF ministers who have enriched themselves ruthlessly at the expense of the entire population – and continue to do so.

As South Africa’s Business Day commented on 31 March: “The party (MDC) has assumed token responsibility for critical aspects of the country’s governance such as the running of the economy, but does not have the political power or access to resources to turn things around. Meanwhile, an unrepentant Mugabe has been given a new lease on life and Zanu PF thugs continue to run rampant, grabbing land from the few remaining white farmers and preventing free political activity….”

The Rule of Law is the principle that no one is above the law. Its most important application is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that are referred to as due process. The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance, whether by a totalitarian leader or by mob rule. Thus, the rule of law is hostile both to dictatorship and to anarchy.

For Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies, who have relied on the power of a dictatorship and strategically engineered anarchy to achieve unlimited power and fabulous wealth, a return to the rule of law is not only undesirable but could see them facing charges at the International Criminal Court.

One of the thorns in their flesh is respected lawyer Tendai Biti in his new role as Finance Minister who has already made significant changes in his short tenure. Of the Mugabe appointees most at risk from Biti’s reforms, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono – widely blamed for the collapsed economy – heads the pack. (more…)

We’ve received more information from a Harare activist giving us an update on what’s happening to Chris Dhlamini and Ghandi Mudzingwa. To remind you, Dhlamini and Mudzingwa were both granted bail on Friday last week. Our emailer tells us that the bail conditions were:

“US $1000, report to nearest police station on a Friday between 6 am and 6 pm, and don’t interfere with witnesses. They are to appear in court on 30th April, 2009 for further remand”.

As a result of of receiving bail, the prison guards left the hospital where both Mudzingwa and Dhlamini are being treated (for horrific torture injuries inflicted upon them by State agents). Mudzingwa and Dhlamini spent Saturday and Sunday on their own, unguarded.

On Monday 20th, as we reported in this post here, the two men received visits from three men we named – Detective Chief Inspector Ntini, Detective Inspector Muchada, and Detective Assistant Inspector Mukwaira – our emailer has provided a fourth name and further information on where the men are based and their roles. See summary below:

Detective Chief Inspector Ntini – Harare Central Law and Order

Detective Inspector Muchada – Harare Central Law and Order (refused Chris Dhlamini food while he was in the cells)

Detective Assistant Inspector Mukwaira – Harare Central Law and Order

Chief Superintendent Magwenzi - CID Fraud Squad (one of the main actors in Chris Dhamini’s torture and waterboarding at Goromonzi) (more…)