Zimbabwe can go it alone, Mugabe tells the West

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for the first time attended the Heroes Day ceremony in the country’s capital yesterday. The ceremony coincided with the funeral of Vice-President Joseph Msika, who died last week. Tsvangirai played no public role in the previous annual Heroes Day ceremonies to honour those who fought in the liberation struggle to end minority white rule. But he and several of his MDC colleagues attended. President Robert Mugabe used the occasion to rail against the West, as usual.

Overhaul Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commission – MDC

The MDC has called for the depoliticisation of the defence forces ahead of Defence Forces Day on Tuesday. On Tuesday 11 August 2009, Zimbabwe will be commemorating Defence Forces Day and festivities have been slotted for the National Sports Stadium in Harare. “The MDC joins the rest of the nation in celebrating and saluting the defence forces’ efforts in defending our country,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. “As we commemorate this occasion we should remember the courage and fortitude that the defence forces have exhibited on duty in Zimbabwe, SADC countries and other United Nations member states.

Zimbabwe Still Facing Significant Food Deficits for 2009-2010 Crop Year

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance says Zimbabwe’s food security outlook remains doubtful with just 45% of humanitarian funding requirements met or some US$315 million of the US$718 million sought in a U.N. coordinated appeal.

OCHA said a recent food assessment by Harare and the World Food Organization pointed to a 2009-2010 shortfall of some 900,000 tonnes of cereals, in part because the winter wheat harvest is shaping up to be a poor one. ENDS

Zimbabwe’s Former Opposition MDC Says 500 Died In 2008 Political Violence

The formation of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says a new compilation of victims of 2008 post-election violence shows as many as 500 of its members lost their lives during that turbulent period. The Tsvangirai MDC has established a follow-up team to document all victims unreported at the time, said its welfare coordinator, Brighton Matimba. Previous estimates from the MDC as to how many fatalities were caused by post-election violence put the number around 200. Most independent accounts of the violence say the vast majority of victims were members or officials of the Tsvangirai MDC formation, and that the violence was mainly carried out by youth militia or war veterans linked to the former ruling ZANU-PF party. But there were indications the military and security forces took part in or supported the violence.

Zimbabwe frees MDC official but many still face ‘charges’

After President Jacob Zuma ’s critical meeting with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday, Harare authorities have released another former opposition MP from police detention. The release of Deputy Youth Minister Thamsanqa Mahlangu, who is also a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislator, on Monday shortly after Zuma met Tsvangirai, signalled a reprieve in the crackdown on former opposition MPs ahead of the Southern Africa Development Community summit later this month. 2 MDC MPs facing different charges were released on Friday.

THE HERALD: ‘Nothing sinister about MDC-T MPs’ arrests’

Government has denied and described as nonsensical the existence of a deliberate plot

to systematically whittle down MDC-T’s majority in the House of Assembly by prosecuting and convicting the party’s MPs. In an interview yesterday, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa said claims by local and private media organisations that the State was trying to diminish MDC-T’s presence in Parliament through the justice delivery system lacked substance. “The rule of law entails that when people commit crimes, witnesses and those affected by the commission of the crimes or anyone else for that matter can make a report to the police.

Details of Tsvangirai’s inaugural Security Council meeting emerge

The MDC on Monday disclosed details of a highy secretive maiden meeting of the last National Security Council Thursday, where Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai sat down for the first time with generals who have previously vowed they would never recognise his leadership. Details of what transpired in that meeting have remained sketchy but an MDC alert sent to zim NET radio Monday said: “Thursday’s NSC meeting dealt with formal introductions and the basic mandate of the organ which is responsible for reviewing national policies on security, defence and law and order and recommending or directing appropriate action.

Student Activists Detained at University of Zimbabwe, Handed Over to Police

Security guards at the University of Zimbabwe on Wednesday detained Zimbabwe National Students Union President Clever Bere and 13 other activists after Bere addressed students on the Avondale campus, then handed them over to the police, sources said. The student leader spoke to a crowd of students unhappy about high tuition fees and poor accommodations. Several student activists remained in police hands late Wednesday. Sources in the student union said four activists remained in police hands.

Speaker sends list of ZMC applicants to Mugabe for approval

The Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo on Tuesday sent the final list of applicants selected to sit on the new Zimbabwe Media Commission to Robert Mugabe for approval. SW Radio Africa has learnt that the Presiding Officers of Parliament, who include the Speaker, his deputy, the Senate President, her deputy and the Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma approved the list before it was dispatched to Mugabe. Tongai Matutu, the Chairman of Parliament’s legal and procedures committee commended the way the whole process was carried out, despite protestations from the state media that, ‘certain pro-ZANU PF applicants were deliberately failed by the panellists.’

 

Msika dies after long illness

One of Zimbabwe’s vice-presidents, Joseph Msika, has died at the age of 85 after a battle with illness, South African public radio reported on Tuesday. Msika died on Tuesday in a hospital in Zimbabwe, the report said. He was admitted to hospital in South Africa in June after falling ill at a summit of eastern and southern African leaders, the radio report said. Reports in Zimbabwe at the time said he had suffered a stroke. He had had poor health since 2005. Msika, who was 85-year-old President Robert Mugabe’s senior by just a few months, had been state vice-president since 1999. Joice Mujuru, wife of influential former army general Solomon Mujuru, is the other vice-president.

Parliament draws up final list of Zimbabwe media Commissioners

Parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders Committee have drawn up a final list of applicants to sit on the new Zimbabwe Media Commission. The list contains 12 names, described by the Committee as ‘experts in the media, and highly professionals in the field.’ The speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo will send the list to Robert Mugabe who will whittle it down to nine. The five-member panel was chaired by MDC-T Senator Obert Gutu, and included ZANU PF Senator Chief Fortune Charumbira, MDC-T MP Tabitha Khumalo, MDC-M MP Edward Mkhosi and ZANU PF MP Mabel Chinomona conducted the interviews.

Army Brigadier-General Mujaji wreaks havoc at Headlands farm

Rights campaigners Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) have published sensational details of the abuse of yet another large-scale commercial farmer and defiance of court orders by a senior official of Robert Mugabe’s armed forces, Brigadier General Austin Mujaji. Charles Lock, one of a handful of white farmers still on the land told the latest ZLHR publication Legal Monitor obtained on Friday (Jul 31) that armed soldiers numbering about eight at any given time were preventing him from harvesting about 500 tonnes of maize and export tobacco, all valued at nearly US$1 million.

Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai Lobbies Region for Backing on Unity Gov’t Issues

Zimbabwean Prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday stepped up regional diplomacy  meeting Botswanan President Ian Khama in Gaborone following talks Monday with South African President Jacob Zuma on issues troubling Harare’s unity government. Sources in Mr. Tsvangirai’s office said that in the days ahead he will be meeting other leaders of the Southern African Development Community, of which Mr. Zuma is now chairman. They said Mr. Tsvangirai hopes to resolve outstanding issues before Mr. Zuma’s tenure ends in September, when he will hand off the chairmanship at a SADC summit.

Research and Advocacy Unit [RAU] July 2009

Gender-based violence, be it in the home or in the public arena, impacts powerfully on the livelihoods of women. When violence becomes embedded in society as a culture, it makes women vulnerable, especially during periods of political tension. Violence is at its worst during times of war and civil strife, and constitutes a major obstacle to development, peace and security.

Women in Zimbabwe have been victims of political violence since pre-colonial times. There has never been a specific examination of the impact of this violence on women. With the development of the concept of transitional justice over the years, Zimbabwean civil society has strongly advocated victims’ rights, demanding redress for past violations. The formation of an inclusive government in Zimbabwe through the “Global Political Agreement” (GPA) of September 2008 has resulted in these demands becoming more pronounced as discussions concerning national healing, reconciliation,  rehabilitation, and the cessation of politically motivated violence are taking place across political divides in Zimbabwe.

These discussions, however, appear not to explicitly address the treatment of women survivors of politically motivated violence. This is an oversight that is not peculiar to Zimbabwe, but is evident in most post conflict approaches to transitional justice. Most transitional processes are not gender sensitive and, more often than not, leave women out without awarding them redress or protective measures to avoid future recurrence of abuses.

Human Rights Violations Against Women and Truth Commissions
A report by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) in Zimbabwe.
This report looks at how African countries have dealt with violations against women in post-conflict situations. Particular attention is paid to the processes in South Africa, Kenya and Sierra Leone in terms of addressing women victims’ rights to reparations and redress.
Click to read report

South Africa’s Zuma to Contact Zimbabwe’s Mugabe on ‘Weighty’ Problems
South African President Jacob Zuma says he will be contacting Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on problems affecting the unity government in Harare. Mr. Zuma was commenting after a meeting in Johannesburg with Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who briefed him on the current situation in Zimbabwe following the establishment of a unity government earlier this year. “I will be contacting his excellency President Mugabe on the matter, as well as the leader of another party, [Arthur] Mutambara, on the issues that the prime minister has raised. But also I will contact our colleagues in the region to sensitize them on what the prime minister has briefed me on; with the sole aim of saying how we could continue working together to make quick progress in Zimbabwe,” Said Mr. Zuma.

‘Media freedom means upholding the law’

Zimbabwe’s former chief media policeman, Tafataona Mahoso, told a parliamentary committee that should he be selected to head a new media commission he would ensure that journalists operated within the confines of the law. Mahoso - dubbed the “media hangman” by Zimbabwean journalists – oversaw the closure of five privately owned newspapers and instigated the arrest of scores of reporters during his time as chairman of the government’s now defunct Media and Information Commission (MIC). He has applied to join the planned Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) that Zimbabwean journalists, human rights groups and pro-democracy activists hope will work to free the media after years of strict government controls.

Zimbabwe opposition politicians arrested

Recent arrests of opposition Zimbabwean members of Parliament are a coordinated strategy to intimidate them, Zimbabwe Finance Minister Tendai Biti says. Biti said Movement for Democratic Change politicians arrested for such offenses as playing pro-MDC music in their cars or the theft of mobile phones are not coincidences but a well-organized campaign to cripple the opposition, Radio France Internationale reported Monday. “The arrests … and convictions of our members of parliament is not accidental,” Biti told the French broadcaster. “The efficiency and the speed in which the prosecutions are taking place is not normal, the fact that these things are being done with such vigor, such exuberance, such energy — and also uniformity — so there’s absolutely no doubt that these are engineered prosecutions.”

Zimbabwe’s Daily News to get licence back

IN a dramatic turn of events, the Zimbabwe government has granted the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe’s (ANZ) an operating licence as a mass media service provider  – six years after its flagship newspaper, The Daily News, was shut down, reports a journalism.co.za correspondent.
ANZ are the publishers of both The Daily News and Daily News On Sunday, the two titles which were shut down by the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) on September 12, 2003. A special committee set up in September 2008 to review the decision was “satisfied that the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) have complied with the provisions of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act”.

Zim looks to SA for investment aid

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has called for South African investment in his country. “We believe South African companies are better placed to understand the environment in Zimbabwe,” Tsvangirai said at a dinner with South African business and government officials in Sandton on Friday night. “Instead of attracting foreign investment from Europe and other places, we believe that South African companies can operate in an environment that is almost similar (to their own).”  South Africans were in a position to understand the “politics, economics and potential of the country”, Tsvangirai said. The Zimbabwean government did not have the resources to make major infrastructure investments, “but if there are private companies who would like to go into private-public partnerships … they are welcome”.

Tsvangirai tells exiles he cannot help them

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai described the conditions under which exiled Zimbabweans were living in the Johannesburg Central Methodist Church as a ’sorry sight’

on Saturday, but could not commit himself to any assistance. During a rally to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Tsvangirai said that on a previous visit to the church he had seen people sleeping all around it. He was responding to a request for assistance from a tearful woman living in the church. She complained of a tough life in SA, beginning with rape at the hands of criminals at the border and ending up on the cold streets of Johannesburg.

Tsvangirai’s grip on power being steadily weakened

Zimbabwe is on the verge of a new political crisis, amid growing evidence that President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF Party has launched a strategy to wipe out the former opposition’s slim parliamentary majority. The campaign has in the past few days seen MPs for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) arrested for offences including playing music that “denigrates” Mugabe, and stealing a mobile phone. Fourteen MDC MPs and senators are facing charges ranging from corruption to rape. If convicted, they will lose their seats, forcing byelections.

As a leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai must be enduring daily anguish. He has to carefully pitch each public statement he makes to ensure it sticks closely not only to the letter but the spirit of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) he signed with Robert Mugabe last September, whereby they entered a unity government. This means he has to hold his tongue and at every provocation contain his outrage. Meanwhile, independent monitors of the performances of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe’s Zanu PF, such as Sokwanele in Zimbabwe and Idasa in Pretoria, agree that even as the MDC has stuck both in deed and spirit to the GPA, Zanu PF violates it every day. And so Tsvangirai’s strict observance of the GPA, including refraining from criticising Zanu PF, is driving some of his supporters wild.

Soldiers to guard borders

South African soldiers, now spread over the continent, may soon be deployed on yet another “peacekeeping” mission - this time to guard their countries leaky borders. There they would keep the peace between angry South African farmers and the stock thieves and illegal immigrants streaming across the virtually unprotected borders with Lesotho and Swaziland in particular.
If all goes according to plan, the soldiers will co-ordinate border protection with several relevant departments working within a border management agency which President Jacob Zuma has promised to establish.

Peace day protesters arrested

15 people were arrested yesterday (26 July 2009) by the Zimbabwe Republic Police for wearing black in protest against the Peace days gazetted by President Robert Mugabe. They were detained at Mbare police station from 0800hrs and released without charge at 1800hrs the same day. The police interrogated  the detainees for the whole day. Tichanzii Gandanga, the ROHR secretary general visited the 15 and assured them that they will be released soon when it became obvious that the motive was dubious and meant to just frustrate the protesters.

Zim sugar daddies ‘don’t have sugar’

Fewer Zimbabweans are being infected with Aids, and researchers speculate this is due, in part, to a battered economy that’s leaving men short of money to be sugar daddies (older men who attract young girlfriends with gifts and money) and keep mistresses. Presenting a study of the infection rate among pregnant women at a major international Aids conference in South Africa this week, Dr Michael Silverman said the prevalence of the virus that caused Aids fell from 23 percent in 2001 to 11 percent at the end of 2008. His study was based on tests of 18 746 women at a prenatal clinic where he works in rural Zimbabwe.

The formation of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said Tuesday that its expulsion of three parliamentarians from its ranks would strengthen the party, though others saw the move as destabilizing. The party’s disciplinary committee on Monday expelled Abedniko Bhebhe, who represents the Nkayi South constituency, Njabuliso Mguni, representing Lupane East and Norman Mpofu of Bulilima East for alleged indiscipline and subordination. All of the constituencies concerned are in the western region of Matabeleland, a stronghold for the MDC formation.

Three Days Dedicated to National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration

Three Days Dedicated to National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration 24th, 25th and 26th July. The following declaration, issued by the President , was published in the Government Gazette Extraordinary dated 15th July, 2009, General Notice 92 of 2009. [Note these days are not being declared public holidays.]

Bill Watch 25 of 21st July 2009 [Parliament Nears End of 1st Session]

Update on Inclusive Government

Referral to SADC – a letter was sent to SADC Chairman Jacob Zuma by the two MDC principals asking for assistance in resolving outstanding disputes in the inclusive government.  A SADC meeting was mooted for the end of July but will probably be deferred until some time in September.

JOMIC – a report to SADC on the inclusive government by the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee is due in mid-August, six months after the formation of the inclusive government.

Lack of Investment   Development Bank of Southern Africa chief economist Sam Muradzikwa said conflicting statements coming from the unity government were a cause of concern for investors. “The all inclusive government is a transitional phase.”  He said investors are sceptical on whether the policies being put in place by the unity government will be maintained because of previous policy changes “which were as rapid as inflation”.

National Security Council – has still not met – there is a meeting scheduled for Thursday 30th July.

National Economic Council  – has still not met.

MDC activist brutally assaulted

Another MDC activist, Ebba Katiyo, 31, is battling for her life in a private hospital after she was brutally attacked by Zanu PF thugs in Uzumba, Mashonaland East province on 12 July 2009. Katiyo, who can hardly speak or move in her bed, was brutally assaulted twice in a space of two weeks on accusations that she was still a member of the MDC. “I was called by the village headman of Katiyo kraal who is also my uncle for a public meeting at his homestead where I was asked why I continued to support the MDC. “After the meeting, he asked youths gathered to beat me up and I was beaten all over the body,” said Katiyo. She said before she had recovered from the assault, she was again called for a second meeting by the headman who again ordered that she be beaten.

Zanu-PF has allegedly deployed youths and war veterans across the country  to campaign for the adoption of the so-called Kariba Draft of the constitution which is at the centre of a dispute between President Robert Mugabe and the MDC. The constitution-making process moves into the second phase which involves the gathering of information from the general public after a constitutional conference held in Harare early last week. Highly placed sources within Zanu-PF told The Zimbabwe Times that the party had deployed youths and war veterans to several parts of the country to campaign for the adoption of the Kariba draft.

Jomic Official Blasts State Media Over ‘Hate Speech’

The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee, stung by accusations that it is a paper tiger, has turned the heat on state media accusing it of poisoning the new political dispensation.

Thabitha Khumalo who represents the MDC-T on Jomic — a tripartite forum monitoring the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) — said they were worried that the state media had relapsed into “disseminating hate speech”.

Zimbabwe won’t return top MDC man’s passport

Zimbabwe’s attorney general is refusing to hand back the passport of Roy Bennett, a senior Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party official, five months after it was confiscated when he was accused of sabotage. The white former farmer is the No.3 in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party and Zimbabwe’s deputy agriculture minister-designate. He is also one of about 50 MDC officials to have been prosecuted since Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe formed a unity government in September.

Biti Threatens To Quit

Finance Minister Tendai Biti yesterday said he will quit the inclusive government if he is forced to resuscitate the Zimbabwean dollar, because he is determined to ensure that his policies are not reversed. Last month President Robert Mugabe told Zanu PF’s National Consultative Assembly he wanted the worthless dollar which was taken out of circulation following the formation of the unity government re-introduced because people had no access to multiple currencies.