The recent news that Zimbabwe has given the Libyan Ambassador 72 hours to leave our country, expelled by the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi for recognising the National Transitional Council (NTC), embarressed me:

“The Libyan ambassador and his staff decided to renounce their allegiance to the government of Colonel Kadhafi. This act deprives the Libyan ambassador and his staff of any diplomatic status in Zimbabwe because Zimbabwe does not recognise the TNC,” Mumbengegwi told journalists.

“So it is in this context that the Libyan ambassador and his staff are required to leave Zimbabwe within the next 72 hours.”

Embarressed me, disappointed me – but maybe didn’t surprise me. Mumbengegwi is a member of the Zanu PF party, and its not surprising that they would hesitate to recognise an authority that managed to override a despot who had held power for more than forty years. They must have one eye on our own dictator who has ruled for more than thirty years, and the other eye on a potentially unsteady future ahead for themselves if the same happens in our country! (more…)

Media reports in July highlighted a notable development; namely, a stepping-up of SADC’s continued efforts, led by South African President Jacob Zuma, to pull the Global Political Agreement (GPA) back on track for free and fair elections. This month, a total of 88 media articles were logged, recording breaches of the GPA.

Cases of violence, intimidation, hate speech, threats, abductions and brutality, and violations in the form of legal harassment of perceived opposition politicians and supporters made up the bulk of articles logged, with 29 articles recorded for each (33.0% of total). 8 articles (9.1% of total) comprised cases of deliberate non-cooperation with other partners of the GPA, while violations denying or abusing freedom of speech were represented by 7 articles (8.0% of total).

In total, these four breaches account for 83.0% of the total media articles logged in July. The Zanu-PF party complied the least with the terms of the GPA, being either responsible for, or involved in, 96.6% of all breaches recorded in July through media reports.

We have compiled ten articles at the end of this report to represent this month’s media coverage of events in relation to the GPA. Our first example focuses on the commanding officer for Murehwa District, Chief Superintendent Simon Mwatsikesimbe, who asked traditional leaders and chiefs in Murehwa to generate lightning through witchcraft and kill MDC-T Secretary General and Finance Minister Tendai Biti. This inflammatory public statement, violating several clauses in the GPA, was made before more than 100 traditional chiefs and headmen on the 5^th July.

In early July, Mathias Mlambo and Pishai Muchauraya – both MDC-T legislators – decided to confront Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba over an attack that had taken place in June, where soldiers assaulted villagers in Chipinge East. Nyikayaramba did not respond favourably, allegedly threatening their security, telling the two that he was going to “send his ‘scorpions’ to deal with them”. (more…)

The fight for votes in Matabeleland has always been a contentious issue in Zimbabwe and although no election date has yet been set, there are forces on the ground actively campaigning, predictably in a subversive and corrupt fashion.

It is always difficult to separate rumour from fact in our country, but I recently heard one such rumour from a normally reliable source …

It appears that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives and members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) are engaged in flirtation with some cadres of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), the military wing of the late Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). The rumour is that by offering access to monthly pensions, that ZIPRA cadres will then be listed on a Government roll of ex-combatants from the Liberation War and open to manipulation come election day.

This rumour is strengthened by further gossip that strategists in Zanu-PF hope that, come election time, ZIPRA veterans will stand together with Zanu-PF against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. ZIPRA veterans may be tasked in the post-Robert Mugabe era, in exchange for the promise of a pension, to support the candidacy of Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa against any rival supported by the late General Solomon Mujuru’s wife, Joice.

Mnangagwa, known to some as the “Crocodile”, recently declared Gukurahundi a “closed book” in his attempt to deny the need to once and for all deal with the issue of genocide in Matabeleland. See for example reports written in The Herald and NewsDay.

Mnangagwa’s crocodile tears will never wash away the innocent blood of Matabeleland. A leadership that refuses even to apologise for its role in cold-blooded murder cannot buy the votes of the families of the victims who perished only one generation past. Some may take the money, but for Mnangagwa, one of the architects of the 1980s massacre, it is a clear sign of desperation that he believes he can buy the hearts and souls of the people of the south in his “see-through-petticoat power manoeuvres”.

Press statement
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)

Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) 300 member’s representatives delivered 101 000 ‘anti abuse of power’ petition signatures, red cards and symbolic ‘Coffins’  to Parliament for onward submission to the Anti Corruption and Monopolies Committee on Wednesday 24 August 2011. Riot Police made a police line and refused to allow anyone to cross. The coffin carrying protest group 50 meters from reaching the door of parliament.

Some leaders managed to cross the police line with the red cards and box of petitions but the Coffin ‘pall bearers’  were stopped by the police officers who then ‘arrested’ the coffins.

A Riot Police officer was overheard making a call to his superior from his mobile phone.  Obviously speaking to a secretary, he said – “Tell the boss I have WOZA here what should I do. Its urgent, the first group has arrived and there are many. (more…)

Every citizen especially the vulnerable groups are supposed to feel secure whenever they see a member of the security forces, but the situation here in Zimbabwe sees the reverse occurring.

Street Children are suffering a double tragedy as they are being kicked around from left, right and centre. These children do not have shelter, source of food and they are labelled by the society. Because of their situation they all too often turn to criminal activities.

The most worrying development is that they are being sexually harassed by the police and soldiers whose job it is to protect them. So who will defend these unfortunate  souls, most who are where they are because of circumstances beyond their control. (more…)

This narrative was written by Zimbabwean farmer Guy Watson-Smith in 2004, recounting his experiences at the hands of General Solomon Mujuru. We are re-printing it as he wrote it at that time. General Mujuru died in a fire earlier this month on August 17th. You can read our obituary for the General here.

Background.

Our farm in Beatrice had been two smaller units, but was consolidated in the 1960’s, decades before I bought it. It was designated in1997 for acquisition and then again in 2000, and of course we did what was legally our right, and proper to do, and that was to launch a detailed and fully backed up objection to the Minister of Agriculture. To this day we have not had a response and it must be fair to assume that nobody in the Ministry has read, let alone considered our submission or the thousands of others.

We bought our 1400 hectare farm in 1983, with Government funded Agricultural Finance Corporation backing, 70 Kms. south of Harare near Beatrice. My wife and I devoted the next 14 years to extremely hard work and heavy investment in a Zimbabwe where black and white worked together, the country produced surpluses of every commodity it put its mind to, and phrases like “the Switzerland of Africa” and “the breadbasket of Africa” were commonly heard.

Our farm became a garden of production. In a relatively arid part of the country we managed to capture water in a series of huge reservoirs built during the droughts of the late 1980’s. By 1997 when the farm was first designated for compulsory acquisition we had a model village of over 300 families employed full time on the farm. We produced the largest ‘single-farm’ crop of tobacco in the country, with all of it under irrigation, and more each year being committed to an Israeli ‘drip’ system, for the most efficient use of all resources. The rest of the arable land on the farm was under irrigated pastures. Our breeding herd of 460 simbra beef cattle had been bred over years, with the use of semen imported from the USA, and introduced under a scientific programme of artificial insemination which we ran. The non-arable area of the farm was fenced and we had introduced viable breeding herds of all the 15 main species of plains game found on the ‘highveld’ of Zimbabwe, including giraffe, sable antelope and waterbuck, and numbering over 600 in total. (more…)

As I was walking in my neighbourhood today, I heard young school children talking about condoms . I was both impressed and baffled.

During my days at school -  not so long ago, in the late 1990s -  it was taboo to talk about sex so frankly. Times have changed, and today forms a new era where the effects of HIV/AIDS have been felt by almost everyone.

It is widely accepted that we need to talk about HIV/AIDS from the earliest age possible. We must empower the young with information vital for their future.

However, we face an issue that has divided Zimbabwe just as much as its politics. And it’s the issue of having condoms at schools.

I feel also in a dilemma as to whether we should soil young souls and expose them to condoms at an early age . I somehow feel that it promotes the young to engage in sex whilst at school: “Here is protection; go have sex.” (more…)

Press statement
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)

Twenty members have been arrested in Bulawayo around noon on 22 August 2011. These arrests followed protests to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Company over poor service. Five hundred members, in four separate protests managed to converge on the Power station to deliver 63 000 signatures that remained after police seized the million signatures on the ‘anti abuse of power’ petition signatures. As they marched they distributed flyers. They also delivered ‘red cards’ and 4 mock coffins symbolising the need for ‘parliament to bury ZESA’ or remove the monopoly.

Town looked perfectly normal until 11:30 am when large contingent of police were deployed. Over one hundred police officers, many in full Riot police gear conducted arbitrary ‘stop and search’ of anyone walking. Other officers stopped every commuter omnibuses enroute into the CDB and searched handbags and people’s pockets. The police officers told some members that they were looking for WOZA material.

(more…)