Mandebvhu Talks “Zimbabwe”…

ZNU 121 released. In this programme I look at the ‘extension’ to 90 days of the 21 day rule for the second round of the Presidential election - the forced postal ballots of policemen, their spouses and dependents, the release by the RBZ of the 250 and 500 million dollar bearer cheques (including the advent of the agro-cheque), and the diplomatic hoo-haa caused by the ZRP when they stopped a party of diplomats who were returning from a detention camp and a hospital where they had visited injured MDC members who had been beaten…

The programme can be heard using the multiplayers in the right hand sidebar on The Bearded Man blog, here or even played and/or downloaded here.

All historical programmes can be played as required from my Odeo page.

I do appreciate your continued support in my audio adventures…

Take care.

‘debvhu

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Veteran Cabinet minister Pallo Jordan has called on Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party to “surrender power” to Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Jordan’s comments are the first of their kind by any member of President Thabo Mbeki’s senior Cabinet, and are in radical contrast to Mbeki’s refusal to openly condemn either Mugabe’s refusal to accept election defeat or the accompanying violence. In a searing critique appearing on the ANC website, Jordaan said ZANU PF only has itself to blame “for losing the confidence of a substantial number of the citizens of that country, such that the only means by which it can win elections is either by intimidating the people or otherwise rigging them.” Referring to those who label Mugabe’s ZANU PF critics as “imperialists”, Jordaan said ‘nobody doubts the anti-imperialist credentials of ZANU PF, but that cannot be sufficient reason to support it if it is misgoverning Zimbabwe and brutalising the people.”

Jordaan’s analysis was a direct response to a document authored jointly by academics Eddy Maloka and Ben Magubane which circulated in political circles and various media houses, including the Sunday Times, in which they labelled the MDC an imperialist movement. Said Jordaan: “Perhaps the most alarming suggestion of all is that opposition to ZANU PF, irrespective of its merits, is ipso facto illegitimate and necessarily counter-revolutionary, and therefore pro-imperialist. This curious line of reasoning dominated in the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union and other east European countries. When workers complained about the conditions of work (as they did in Poland) that was characterised as counter-revolution. If intellectuals complained about rigid censorship and the repression of the free flow of information, ideas and knowledge, that was counter-revolution. Even youth, yearning to enjoy rock and other forms of popular music produced in the rest of the world, that was counter-revolution.”

Jordaan said “democracy is not a luxury, perhaps affordable in a few rich countries, but far too expensive for peoples and countries emerging from decades of colonial domination. What is more, I insist that democracy is not merely the right to participate in elections every few years; it is a complex institutional framework that serves to secure the ordinary citizen against all forms of arbitrary authority, whether secular or ecclesiastical. It is an undisputed historical fact that colonialism denied the colonised precisely these protections, subjecting them to the tyranny, not only of imperialist governments, but often to the whims of colonialist settlers and officials. All liberation movements, including both ZANU PF and ZAPU, deliberately advocated the institution of democratic governance with the protections they afford the citizen. All liberation movements held that national self-determination would be realised, in the first instance, by the colonised people choosing their government in democratic elections.”

“The questions we should be asking are: What has gone so radically wrong that the movement and the leaders who brought democracy to Zimbabwe today appear to be its ferocious violators. What has gone so wrong that they appear to be most fearful of it? Maloka and Magubane want us to ignore the will of the Zimbabwean people, as expressed in elections, and do what the imperialists did in Congo and Chile. Such action, they claim, would be anti-imperialist. In other words, we must behave like the imperialists to demonstrate our commitment to anti-imperialism. Rather than raising and attempting to answer such tough questions, they skirt around them by marshalling a mixture of emotive arguments and outright political blackmail, again reminiscent of the far-right and its adherents. You are either with ZANU PF in the anti-imperialist camp, or against it (and therefore with Blair, Bush, the DA, etc).”

Jordaan said “it cannot possibly be right that, while we in South Africa expect our democratic institutions to protect us from arbitrary power, we expect the people of Zimbabwe to be content with less. Let all recall that the people of Zimbabwe endured a 15 year war of national liberation, during which the colonialist regime employed every device from beatings, to torture, to executions and massacres to repress them. They did not waver. Yet it is being suggested that today, for no apparent reason, they have fallen under the sway of the helpers and agents of that colonial power. I think that betrays a worrying contempt for the ordinary Zimbabwean. A contempt reminiscent of the colonialists’ contention that the people rose against them because they had been incited by “outside agitators!

“We will not assist ZANU PF by encouraging that movement to proceed along the disastrous course it has embarked on. Offering it uncritical support because it is anti-imperialist will not help ZANU PF to uncover the reasons for the steep decline in the legitimacy it once enjoyed. That party would do well to return to its original vision of a democratic Zimbabwe, free of colonial domination and the instruments of that domination - such as arbitrary arrests, police repression of opposition, intimidation of political critics, etc.” “Given the outcome of the recent elections, said Jordaan, “ZANU PF should surrender power to the party that has won.”

(Source)

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Over the past two years my main concern has been that ZANU PF would abandon any pretext that they were a democratic party, simply declare that they were going to govern indefinitely by dictate and continue as a civilian/military junta. Such a junta has effectively governed us since the security chiefs declared in 2002 that they would not accept into power anyone who did not participate in the 1972/80 struggles for Independence.

That they have not done so is due to a number of factors - pride and reluctance to acknowledge that they, among most other African states, were not pursuing democracy as a basic system of determining who governs.

Arrogance, in that they believed that somehow they had a divine right to govern and could use whatever means necessary to achieve the retention of power. Belief, that no matter what they did, their links with other SADC States would protect them diplomatically.

There were other factors of course. They had been rigging elections and using violence as a means of intimidating voters from day 1. Their skills in the former area were widely respected in Africa and many other regimes took note of “how it was done”. The complicity of the Mbeki led government in this process was crucial and they clearly understood how to manipulate South Africa. Finally they viewed local democratic forces with distain and regarded all opposition parties as inferior.

Make no mistake about it, ZANU is a formidable adversary. They are now nearly 60 years old and are well established throughout the country. They have almost unlimited resources by local standards, an infrastructure that has been built up over many years and of course, control of State resources.

They use such resources without constraint and the taxpayer pays for much of what goes on.

But aside from this they have learned a great deal over the past 60 years - how to deal with other political movements in Africa, with African States and the AU/SADC. They are skilled at manipulating global opinion and controlling local information flows. Some of this activity is quite crude, but much of it is sophisticated and in recent years I have admired how swiftly they respond to a challenge or a problem. Like all fascist movements they are also very disciplined.

For example, next week they plan to launch a propaganda onslaught on the issue of violence. In the period 1982 to 1987 they were able to conduct the violent suppression of ZAPU in Matabeleland very much behind closed doors.

Civil Society was not as well organised or resourced in those days and the international community more compliant.

Now when they try to do the same thing in 2008 they have found, after 4 weeks of nation wide violence against MDC and others that they are in all sorts of trouble. American and other foreign diplomats are visiting ZANU bases and torture centres without fear and in a deliberate effort to expose the programme. Civil society is documenting every incident and advertising the perpetrators and the consequences. Modern information technology and the satellite communications system does the rest. I am told the outcry is so great that the UN (that useless lumbering elephant) might actually get off its proverbial posterior and do something.

So next week we expect the regime to start a campaign to blame the MDC for the violence and to show what terrible deeds we are carrying out! We can expect all ZANU actors - Ministers, senior civil servants, diplomats and party aficionados to speak from the same hymnal. Thank goodness we are in fact behaving ourselves.

I spoke to a young farmer last week who had been held hostage in his home by a gang of thugs who eventually opened fire with live ammunition. Although he was armed and perfectly capable of doing some damage, common sense prevailed and he kept his cool. Incredible when you think that over the past decade of violence on farms with all the theft and provocation that has taken place, that hardly a shot has been fired in retaliation or retribution. That is strength - not a weakness.

So now at last, and to my personal relief, we have a date with destiny - the 27th June 2008, three months after the March election. The rules will be the same although the regime is changing all the personnel in the ZEC to try and make it more compliant to orders of a political nature from the ZANU PF and its functionaries. But we have an election - a chance to use the only tool for change that we are prepared to use.

For ZANU PF this presents many problems - they must come out of the Jesse where they are at present, into the open and face their mortal enemy. And make no mistake about it - this is a fight to the finish. Both sides have repudiated compromise; we want to see just who has the support of the people. They must finish this game in front of the whole watching world and every move will be watched and analyzed. I hope they also realize it would be a serious mistake to underestimate the MDC or the people.

Watching Mugabe launch his campaign last night on local television was interesting. It told one salutary story - age matters. At 84 he is no spring chicken and those beady eyes no longer have the same impact they once did.

Gone was the suave English and Oxford row mannerisms. Sometimes he is a bit unsteady on his feet and must be helped.

By rejecting compromise and opting instead for a hard line and violence, Mr Mugabe and his closest allies have in fact sealed their fate. When they are defeated on the 27th of June, they will have no option but to relinquish power to the hated MDC and when that happens they are naked in a legal blizzard. Could not happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Now all you Zimbabweans - once more into the fray! You may be weary, you may be bruised and battered, the business may be on its last legs - but we have to garner the energy and the courage to go back into the field for one last time. This is our decisive moment. With a gallery of billions we have to face ZANU and defeat it - defeat it so decisively that no one can argue that MDC has won and then we can get on with the business of rebuilding this great little country.

Spare a thought today for Morgan who comes back into the country and launches the campaign in Bulawayo on Sunday. We eventually got a Judge torule that we could go ahead and we expect a large crowd. In front of Morgan is six weeks of tough campaigning after the exhausting campaign for the March 29th election. He has not had a break and the pressure on him is massive. Also pray for the family - there is huge pressure on Susan as well.

When we win on the 27th it will be a matter of days and then we will be flung into the arena with many wild animals to fight in a new contest - education, health, starvation and stability, inflation and reconstruction, potholes and shortages of every kind. At least in dealing with thosechallenges we will not be alone. On the 27th June it’s only us - no one elseso get involved. Call me if you want to help 091 2227144, its quite secure!

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 17th May 2008

(Source: via email)

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This afternoon Mr Justice Cheda heard the MDC application for the Police ban to be overturned. The hearing was in Chambers and was convened at 12.00 hrs today. The Police, the Attorney Generals department and Home Affairs all failed to pitch up and the Judge asked to have sight of proof that they had been properly served.

This we provided at 14,30 this afternoon and when the respondents had not materialised the application was heard unopposed.

Justice Cheda granted our application and has issued a final order to the Police not to interfere with the MDC celebration rally on Sunday at White City Stadium.

We are now going ahead with the rally - everything is more or less in place and we expect a crowd of 30 000. Morgan has confirmed he will be at the event and it will mark the start of his campaign for the run off which is now scheduled for the 27th June 2008.

Eddie Cross
16th May 2008 at 17.00 hrs.

(Source: via email)

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In an interview with Channel Africa, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission (ZEC), Judge George Chiweshe, says the run-off election will now be held on June 27. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the leader since independence in 1980, and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, are due to square off again after neither achieved over 50% of the vote needed for outright victory in the elections at the end of March. Earlier this week the ZEC said the run-off could be delayed until the end of July. Meanwhile the Pan African Parliament (PAP) is ready to send another mission to Zimbabwe to observe the presidential run-off election there. This was announced by PAP President, Gertrude Mongella, at the closing session of the parliament’s sitting at Midrand today. Mongella says the PAP bureau is trying to mobilise funds to send observer missions to seven forthcoming elections in Africa.

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The Chinese cargo ship carrying arms for Zimbabwe was lying south of Port Elizabeth and outside South African territorial waters yesterday, the International Transport Workers Federation said. Federation spokesperson Sam Dawson said the An Yue Jiang appeared to be making its way to China, although it could dock at a Mozambican port. It could take the ship weeks to reach China, he said. The ship sailed from Durban on April 18 within an hour of the high court ordering that its controversial cargo could not be transported across South Africa to Zimbabwe. The An Yue Jiang was carrying six containers of ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles, mortars and grenade-launchers for landlocked Zimbabwe, where violence against opposition supporters has increased since the elections in March.

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Retired South African army generals investigating post- election violence in Zimbabwe have uncovered “shocking levels” of state-sponsored terror, sources close to them say. The continued violence makes any chance of a peaceful runoff election “almost impossible”, they say. When President Thabo Mbeki visited Harare last week, the team’s leader, Lt-Gen Gilbert Lebeko Romano, briefed him on their findings. The violence intensified after it was confirmed that President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF had lost to the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the March 29 poll. Senior members of the investigating team said their findings were “alarming” and that most of the violence was state sponsored, although the opposition had also retaliated. “What we have heard and seen is shocking. We have heard horrific stories of extreme brutality and seen the victims,” said one of the generals. “We have seen people with scars, cuts, gashes, bruises, lacerations and broken limbs, and bodies of those killed. It’s a horrifying picture.” The generals’ report will soon be given to Mbeki, who will decide whether to publish it. Since it lost the elections, Mugabe’s regime has launched a crackdown in a bid to win the expected presidential election runoff. Opposition and human rights activists, trade union leaders, lawyers and journalists have been arrested during the past three weeks.

Yesterday police briefly detained US, British, Dutch, Japanese and Tanzanian diplomats and journalists in Glendale outside Harare while they were visiting scenes of political violence. Human Rights Watch last week accused the army, deployed nationwide, of creating a climate of fear and of committing human rights abuses. The military has denied this. The incident which has shocked the investigators most happened at Chaona village in the Chiweshe area last Monday. A ZANU PF MP is believed to have led an armed gang of 45 in an attack on MDC activists, leaving four dead. Three other victims died later and at least 50 people were seriously injured. “It was a ferocious onslaught on the village. We have never seen anything like that before. The village is still in a state of shock and we now live in fear,” said an eye - witness at the Avenues Clinic in Harare, where some of the victims have been admitted. The team of generals has met government, ZANU PF and opposition officials, civil society leaders and other interest groups. Mbeki is understood to have been “shaken” by what he was told, and it is hoped he will press Mugabe to curb the violence and to ensure that the runoff is held in a secure environment. While Mugabe agreed that violence should end, he complained that the MDC was behind some incidents. Sources say Mbeki is convinced that a runoff cannot take place in the tense climate. His envoy on Zimbabwe, Kingsley Mamabolo, highlighted these concerns even before he travelled to Harare last week. The MDC claims 32 of its activists have so far been killed. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said yesterday that political violence has reached alarming levels.

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President Thabo Mbeki’s role as a mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis took another knock yesterday after disclosures that he ignored the advice of two judges he commissioned to observe that country’s 2002 general elections. Mbeki commissioned judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke to observe the controversial Zimbabwean election in 2002 - which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) still claims was rigged. On their return the judges wrote a scathing report on the conduct of the election and submitted it to Mbeki. This was despite the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the government and the Southern African Development Community giving a thumbs up, saying the election result “represented the will of the Zimbabwean people”.

Their report detailed the constitutional changes made by President Robert Mugabe before the presidential election to give him sweeping powers to amend electoral laws. It also said the failure of that country’s legal system to permit a valid challenge to the results undermined these efforts. The shortcomings in the 2002 election that returned Mugabe to power included a failure to properly constitute the Electoral Supervisory Commission; a change in the Electoral Act to give Mugabe, rather than parliament, the authority to alter electoral law; and the change of wording in the Electoral Act to stymie challenges to election findings. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai attempted to nullify the changes that Mugabe had made to section 158 of the Electoral Act but the challenge was thrown out by Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court a month after the election.

Matthew Walton, a lawyer acting for the MDC in SA, approached the local courts demanding the report’s release. But the MDC later said it had stopped the court action, out of respect for the South African government’s right to keep certain matters private. Neither Moseneke, now SA’s deputy chief justice, nor Khampepe could be reached for comment. Walton said he had written to Mbeki to request the report, but the president’s legal adviser had replied that it was never intended for publication and could not be released as it dealt with relations between heads of state - exempting it from SA’s Promotion of Access to Information Act. Adv Jeremy Gauntlett, who represented the MDC in its challenge of the 2002 presidential election, said of the report: “There is a second secret Khampepe report. It concerns a matter of no less importance: has Mugabe in fact ruled Zimbabwe for the past six years in a documented breach of the law and his electorate’s will?”

In an article written exclusively for Business Day and published elsewhere in the paper, Gauntlett said the tricks used in the 2002 report are likely to be used again in the presidential runoff necessitated by the lack of a clear winner in the March 29 elections. The details of the report submitted to Mbeki six years ago make it almost impossible he is unaware of the deceptions and illegalities perpetrated by Mugabe to cling to power. His unwillingness to blow the whistle on Mugabe - which dates back beyond the 2002 poll - is the reason Tsvangirai last month asked Mbeki to step down as the lead negotiator for the Southern African Development Community’s mediation efforts on Zimbabwe. But while Tsvangirai has a difficult relationship with Mbeki, behind the scenes meetings between the MDC and Mbeki are continuing. Business Day understands that Mbeki, who visited Mugabe last week to resuscitate his mediation efforts, has been engaging the MDC in behind the scenes talks intended to break the political impasse in Zimbabwe.

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ZNU 120 released. In today’s programme I have a look at Mbeki’s admitting that he is a Robert Mugabe/ZANU PF supporter, and a look at the future for Zimbabwe… The programme is available to play using the multiplayers in the right hand sidebar of The Bearded Man blog, here or even downloaded from here.

As usual, the historical programme are available to play on demand from my Odeo page…

My thanks for the continued support of my audio endeavours…

Take care.

‘debvhu

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Hunger is giving a brutal edge to the alleged work of militias implementing Operation Mavhoterapapi (Who did you vote for?), a campaign launched by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF government in the wake of the ruling party’s loss of its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence in 1980. The post-election crackdown, allegedly orchestrated by police, soldiers and veterans of the liberation war, has led to widespread reports of torture, the razing of houses and killing of livestock, perpetrated mainly against people in rural areas suspected of voting for the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change.

Sergeant Mungofa (not his real name), 44, was previously stationed at the army headquarters in the capital, Harare, but within days of the 29 March poll was sent to rural Matabeleland South Province, where he leads a team of militias. Mungofa’s eight-member team is alleged to have set alight the homes and food stocks of perceived MDC supporters, leaving a trail of destruction that has forced entire families to seek refuge in the bush or to flee to larger towns and cities. “From the orders and briefings that I received from my superior in the province, a lieutenant-colonel, the war is just beginning. MDC supporters have to be flushed out before the run-off presidential election,” he told IRIN.

The official tally in the presidential election, only published last week after a delay of more than a month, put MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who garnered 47.9 percent of the vote, ahead of incumbent Robert Mugabe, who took 43.2 percent. A minimum of 50 percent plus one vote was needed to avoid a second round of voting for the presidency. The youth were particularly easy to seduce, especially in times of want, according to David Chimhini, president of the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust. It was easy to woo the young militias by promising them material things and giving them “a sense of usefulness”. “Zanu PF is dangling short-term gains to the youths, who fall prey because of the current poverty. Systematic propaganda is being employed, and when they are given guns and military uniforms, that gives them a new image, albeit a bad one,” Chimhini told IRIN.

Sergeant Mungofa alleged that his team and others like it had not been supplied with sufficient food rations or money, and this had driven them to looting. “Maiming people or killing them for supporting the MDC are two evils that we are fully aware of, but because of the hunger that we are suffering, the torment against those villagers is going even further. We are being forced to raid the people for food and other material belongings that we can lay our hands on in order to keep going,” he claimed. Instead of just burning down granaries or torching livestock, he alleged that the militias were now resorting to slaughtering cattle to feed themselves and selling the remains for cash. Any reserves of grain stored by subsistence farmers after the meagre harvest were also taken, he alleged.

“People would be better advised to remove their belongings to secure places because, the way I see it, even wardrobes, blankets and pots will be seized in the coming few weeks,” Mungofa said. The military has denied any involvement in the violence. “The Zimbabwe National Army wishes to raise concerns over articles being published in the print and the electronic media on allegations relating to the alleged political violence, assaults, harassment and robberies perpetrated by men in army uniforms. The army categorically distances itself and any of its members from such activities,” army spokesman Alphios Makotore said. According to an army captain based in the Dema district of Mashonaland East Province, about 70km south of Harare, who chose to remain anonymous, there was division among the ranks, with the lower ranks opposing the violence.

He alleged that support for the campaign came from higher up, mainly from veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war, “because they have been given big farms, have the latest cars, enjoy fat salaries and allowances, and know that political change will take all those things away”, the captain claimed. “This is bad. People should not be killed for supporting a political party that is recognised by the law. The unfortunate thing is that, being in a military establishment, you just have to follow orders.” He also claimed that in a number of cases, victims were simply labelled as MDC supporters if they owned something a soldier wanted.

According to Thokozani Khupe, deputy president of the opposition, “20 MDC supporters have been killed by Zanu PF militias, while over 5,000 families have been displaced, with over 1,000 homes burnt or destroyed” and more than 2,000 opposition activists hospitalised across the country. Japhet Moyo, Deputy Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said it was “shocking that some people are submitting themselves to Zanu PF to be used as tools of violence”, and that in addition to being forced to carry out orders, militias and war veterans had been brainwashed. “If cabinet ministers can be made to believe that all our evils are authored by Britain, and the MDC is a puppet party of the whites, what more can you expect from the war veterans and militias, who underwent intense indoctrination at youth training centres?” he said. Since 2000, when the government launched a controversial land-reform programme that saw over 4,000 white-owned farm redistributed among landless blacks, the government has run national youth centres throughout the country, purportedly to train young people in patriotism.

But the graduates, popularly known as ‘Green Bombers’, have allegedly instead been used to terrorise opposition supporters. John (who declined further identification), from Mount Darwin, a town in Mashonaland Central Province, about 300km northeast of Harare, is a Green Bomber. He said he and around 20 other militias was given brief lessons in weapons-handling at a “re-orientation course” in mid-April, after swearing allegiance to Mugabe and Zanu PF. He was subsequently given an army uniform, an AK-47 assault rifle and Z$5billion (US$45). “Since graduating from the training camp, I had not been employed, and which government in the whole world can just give you Z$5 billion, with promises of more. In fact, I had never handled so much money at any one time in my entire life and I managed to buy new clothes for myself,” John said. Among those that John and his team have allegedly targeted are his 76-year-old uncle, cousins and the neighbours he grew up with. He claimed that “Even during the war [of liberation], freedom fighters were made to swear that they could kill even their own parents if they turned out to be sell-outs.”

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