Dua
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 14, 2006
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Dispossessed: Zimbabwean farm workers sit outside the house
they say was burned by police as part of an intimidation
campaign against opponents of Robert Mugabe
tatizo ni kuwa mugabe anachukiwa na vibaraka wa wakoloni...kwa hiyo wanajitahidi kuonyesha hata picha za watu wenye magonjwa ya ngozi kisha wanamsingizia shujaa bob.
mi kwa hilo haliniingii akilini na ninaungana na wewe.
The party of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has failed to regain its parliamentary majority after a partial recount of votes from polls last month. Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission said results were unchanged in 18 of 23 seats where recounts had taken place. Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF needed to win nine seats to regain its majority, lost for the first time since 1980.
The opposition MDC says it also won presidential polls, although those results remain unreleased. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said the presidential results could be announced after the completion of the recounts, expected by Monday. But ZEC Chairman George Chiweshe said a "verification and collation" process would take place with agents of the presidential candidates before the long-awaited results were released. MDC spokesman Nqobizitha Mlilo told the BBC the recount results "only serve to confirm what we've always said in the past, that... we won this election hands down".
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told AFP news agency that the recount results showed the electoral system was "transparent". Opposition activists had feared the recount would be used to rig the results.
Opposition arrests
The BBC's Peter Biles in Johannesburg says the protracted recount of votes has given Zanu-PF a lot of extra time in which to decide how to deal with what the opposition says is a defeat for Robert Mugabe. The MDC says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidential election outright, while independent monitors say he fell just short of the 50% threshold to avoid a run-off. Zanu-PF also says there is likely to be a run-off, as no candidate gained more than 50% of the vote. The government has been accused of inciting an increasing campaign of violence against opposition supporters. Lawyers have told the BBC they have been denied access to 185 MDC supporters still in custody after police said they arrested 215 people in a raid on the opposition party's Harare office on Friday. Police said those detained were suspected of involvement in political violence.
But the MDC said they had been taking refuge from attacks by ruling party activists in other parts of the country, and told the Associated Press news agency they included pregnant women and men with broken bones.
'Worsening violence'
The MDC has alleged a government campaign of intimidation
Earlier, US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said the level of government intimidation in Zimbabwe was now so high that a fair run-off would not be possible. She said the only solution was an inclusive government, led by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa called her comments "patently false, inflammatory, irresponsible and uncalled-for". UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was concerned about "worsening violence" in the country and pledged to step up diplomatic efforts at the UN Security Council in the coming days. Four elections - presidential, House of Assembly, Senate and local councils - were held on 29 March. In the House of Assembly, Zanu-PF won 97 seats, compared with 99 for the MDC plus another 10 for a smaller MDC faction. It is the first time Mr Mugabe has lost control of the lower house of parliament in his 28-year rule since independence in 1980.
In the Senate, Zanu-PF and the combined opposition have 30 seats each.
Tererai Karimakwenda said:
April 26, 2008
Hundreds of MDC supporters and officials that were arrested by police at the party headquarters in Harare on Friday are still in detention. The offices at Harvest House were raided as part of a campaign by police to confiscate documents and information relating to the elections held last month. MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said property was destroyed in the building and
police confiscated all computers and equipment used by the MDC at their election command centre.
The police also raided the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) on Friday, and searched for what their warrant termed subversive material, but no arrests were made. They asked the programmes manager, Tsungai Kokerai, to accompany them to the police station to assist with
investigations. No arrests were made.
Harare based journalist Angus Shaw said information on the arrests has been extremely difficult to come by. The state media confirmed that 215 supporters and officials are in the cells. The police spokesperson, Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, reportedly said that the arrested would be screened for various crimes, but most are suspected of involvement in political violence. Yet reports from around the country say
that it is the police, armed soldiers and ruling party youths who are conducting the violence.
Many of those detained already needed medical treatment after being beaten and tortured in the rural areas from where they fled. Shaw said he drove by the police station on Friday and saw women with babies on their backs, children and youths, hardly the types to conduct a violent campaign against the government. With no information available, it is not clear when they
will be released.
The Zimbabwean said:
Friday, 25 April 2008 13:38
HARARE - The losing Zanu (PF) Senate candidate for Gutu, General
Vitalis Zvinavashe, has blamed Zimbabwes dictator, Robert Mugabe, for the partys poor showing in Masvingo Province after a recount of ballots in his constituency failed to change the partys fortunes. The former army commander also urged fellow Zanu (PF) candidates at a counting centre in the province to live with the reality that they had indeed lost the elections to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Zvinavashe, a former army commander who once vowed he would never salute Tsvangirai, spoke on Wednesday while addressing Zanu House of Assembly and local council election candidates during the recounting of ballots for three constituencies at Gutu rural district council offices in
Masvingo. There is no need to fight over these results. We must accept the reality that we have lost these elections to the MDC. What is important is to live together in peace, both losers and winners. We do not want violence in this area. We are relatives, he said.
Zvinavashe startled election officials and agents when he publicly suggested that Zanu (PF) candidates in Masvingo had lost because of the partys presidential candidate - Mugabe.
Most of us lost these elections not because we are not popular in our constituencies. We lost these harmonised elections because of one man. People rejected us because we were campaigning for Mugabe. People in Masvingo have rejected him and we became collateral damage. There is no reason to fight with the MDC over this election. The real problem is that
man not us, he said. - Agencies
Dear Sir
RE: DELIBERATE FAILURE BY POLICE TO CARRY OUT ITS CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY AND SELECTIVE ARRESTS AND PROSECUTION OF MEMBERS OF THE MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE
In the run up to the harmonised elections, the Zimbabwe Republic
Police addressed meetings around the country calling for peace in the run up, during and after the elections. To a large extent, these meetings had the desired effect in the run up
and during the elections. Relative peace was maintained. The Police should be commended for the fine effort. Alas, the post election period has witnessed violence of no mean proportion amounting to a humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
The Police have turned a blind eye to the violence perpetrated on a defenceless population by the Zimbabwe Defence forces and Zanu (PF) youth and militia. We have it on good record that you have ordered members of the Police not to interfere in the orgy of violence perpetrated on the civilian population. It is clear that members of the Zimbabwe Defence forces and Zanu (PF) youth and militia are immune from arrest and persecution despite their
brazen unlawful conduct.
Your conduct is in clear violation of the constitution which obliges the Police, in terms of section 93 thereof, to preserve the internal security of Zimbabwe and maintain law and order therein. You are ultimately responsible and liable for the failure in carrying out this constitutional responsibility.
We hereby demand that you order the Police to carry out their duties in accordance with the constitution of Zimbabwe and without fear or favour.
In particular, we demand that members of the Zimbabwe defence forces and Zanu (PF) youth and militia who have offended against the law be brought to book. It is sad that the people who are being arrested, members of the Movement for Democratic Change, are victims not perpetrators of the violence.
We look forward to the immediate restoration of the Civilian authority by the Police in Zimbabwe as a people's force not an organ of Zanu (PF).
Yours faithfully,
Hon Tendai Biti, MP, MDC Secretary General
Unlawful Deployment of Units of Zimbabwe Defence
24th April 2008
For the Personal Attention of General Constantine Chiwenga
Ref: Unlawful Deployment of Units of Zimbabwe Defence
Section 96 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for defence forces for the purpose of defending Zimbabwe. We note with concern the active and extensive deployment of units of
the defence forces in the whole country, particularly the rural areas in the aftermath of the harmonised elections (whose presidential result is still awaited).
There is no internal danger posed to the security of Zimbabwe
necessitating the deployment. Such deployment is not in support of civilian authority, but is meant to subvert and subjugate the will of the people. We are in receipt of detailed reports of incidences of harassment, assault, torture, murder, burning of homesteads perpetrated by units of defence forces or Zanu (PF) militia, commanded, and led by the said units.
This inhuman and unmilitary behaviour is punishment for the people having exercised their democratic right to vote for the candidate of their choice as President - Morgan Tsvangirai.
During the orgy of violence people are brazenly told they should vote for Robert Mugabe in the presidential run-off (although results are not yet announced).
The conduct of the defence forces against their own innocent fathers and mothers is a callous and contemptuous disregard for their democratic right to choose a leader of their choice and a clear breach of your constitutional office. As Commander, Zimbabwe Defence Forces, you are personally and constitutionally liable for the mayhem occasioned by the unlawful deployment.
Normal civilian life has seriously been disrupted. Zimbabwe faces a humanitarian crisis on account of your serious constitutional breaches. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces has become terror units, not defenders of Zimbabwe. We demand that you immediately rescind the unlawful deployment with the consequent result that all units of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces return
to barracks.
Yours faithfully,
Hon Tendai Biti MP, MDC Secretary General
CC: Commander of Zimbabwe National Army, Lieutenant V. Sibanda
Commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, Air Marshall P. Shiri
Usa Haiwezi Kuingilia Mambo Ya Ndani Ya Zimbabwe
Nakubaliana na mwenzangu aliyesema Wazimbabwe wengine wanaomba Mugabe ashinde ili waendelee kukaa ulaya.hawa watu wali chanty kwenye mkutano wetu wa ndani hapa uk.swali ni kwamba kama kweli wantaka kumngoa Mgabe mbona hawaandamani kwenyw ofice za umoja wa mataifa.
A case against government of national unity
By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
April 30, 2008
‘NATIONAL unity' is a term that people use without thinking. It is especially abused, blindly so, in reference to a government that is formed from the ashes of a bruising election in which the outcome gave an almost 50/50 vote to the political combatants.
In such cases, we hurry to demand, advise or declare that ‘a government of national unity' is the only viable route to take. But a government of national unity is an unnecessary burden – and a dangerous one, too.
There are too many compromises involved. It reduces the people's votes to nothing; it puts the winner under pressure while the losers continue to stay in government and thumb their noses at the electorate.
A government of national unity is a compromise that puts a nation into a quicksand. Supposedly, such a bastard government is expected to encompass the wishes of all the people in a country. False!
Zimbabwe is currently under pressure to form a government of national unity. Some so-called experts have even suggested that such a government should be headed by one Robert Mugabe.
The issue is that peaceful elections took place in Zimbabwe and, as I write today, a month later, the results have not been announced. Yet there is talk and pressure for someone to form a government of national unity.
That is a load of nonsense.
Has the world become so impotent that it seeks compromises when confronted by a recalcitrant losing presidential candidate? If anyone thinks the problems in Kenya under similar outcomes are over, they must think again.
Kofi Annan's remedy in Kenya whereby a loser was accommodated at the expense of the winner should never be repeated anywhere else.
Such a formula rewards a loser, while making a mockery of people's votes.
Raila Odinga won the elections but, instead of being president of his nation as people mandated at the polls, he is now a prime minister.
They had to create a position for him instead of booting out the loser, Mwai Kibaki, who still calls the shots.
But all it did was to set the stage for simmering mistrust and bitterness. Odinga might have acquiesced but the people are not amused. And now such a disaster is being proposed for Zimbabwe.
And, once again, the key word is ‘unity.'
The people of Zimbabwe were not at each other's throats. They don't need to be united because they were never at loggerheads; it is the politicians who need to understand that a political opponent is not an enemy.
On Tuesday, the smaller faction of the MDC announced that they would be ‘rejoining' the MDC proper to make sure the opposition controls parliament.
While commendable, such prima facie accords should be treated carefully not only by the parties but by the elected individuals.
Members of Parliament are elected to the House by the electorate not by the party. The old Zanu-PF way was that all Zanu-PF MPs were party (read Mugabe's) stooges because they stood for him and the party at the expense of the people who had voted for them. That must stop. This is what got the country in such a mess, in the first place.
The people must come before the party. I noticed that the party leaders of the smaller MDC faction just rushed to Johannesburg to talk to the president-elect without so much as consulting the electorate that gave them the twelve parliamentary seats. This is arrogance and abuse of voters. The people voted for Mutambara's 12 parliamentarians and not for Zanu-PF or MDC candidates for a reason. Now the politicians at the top have already sold them to a party they rejected in their respective constituencies.
For twenty-eight years, Zanu-PF, personified by Robert Mugabe, Emerson Mnangagwa, Constantine Chiwenga, not to mention a horde of smaller party functionaries, humiliated, looted, murdered and destroyed the nation without anyone's help.
Who is going to ask the people to give these people the respect they do not deserve? And why? People voted for change and that is what they must get.
It is too soon to talk about a government of national unity. Over the years, Zanu-PF has relentlessly killed people. Let the temperatures and the tempers cool down. Let the people see their wishes have been respected. Do not hold the nation in a vice-grip, threatening violence if Mugabe and his cronies are left out of government.
If such a government is formed, it will render the Movement for Democratic Change politically sterile because the MDC will have to make compromises with Zanu-PF and what is it that Zanu-PF stands for that can be salvaged by the people? Such a government will simply hold the MDC in its grip and Zanu-PF would use such a platform to re-establish itself at the expense of working to improve the lot of the majority.
President-elect Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC must be given a clean slate. Let them fail or succeed on their own.
At independence, Zanu-PF was not pressured into forming a government of national unity because it won an outright majority and the decision to unite with PF-Zanu was not made under duress.
Now for hawks to suggest that before we even know the results of the presidential elections, we should start talking about election run-offs and governments of national unity is scandalous.
The people voted for the MDC because they did not want Zanu-PF anymore so do no drag rejected murderers and abusers into the new set-up. Let us give the MDC a chance just as much as Zanu-PF was given a chance.
On my part, I do not see what benefit Zimbabwe would derive from having Mugabe or anyone of his people in a new government. What purpose would it serve except to remind the people of the suffering they had gone through?
If the MDC is stupid enough to bow to such nonsensical pressure emanating from old Zanu-PF stalwarts who are more interested in looking for a place to hide than to offer civil service then they should start counting their days because they would be numbered.
"Zimbabwe does not need a transitional government; to put it bluntly, Zimbabwe does not need Mugabe," an irate Zimbabwean identifying herself just as Carol told the BBC's ‘Have Your Say'. "A run-off or re-run would not make much sense either, unless the first results have been published. What guarantee is there that the run-off results will be published? We need to know what happened to Mugabe on March 29,"
During his much publicized European tour last week, ANC supremo, Jacob Zuma, told a London news conference that now is not the time to consider an idea of negotiating a unity government in Zimbabwe, a wish muted by some scared bootlicker in the state-owned Herald newspaper on Wednesday.
"Once you begin to ask that question, you are even preventing a possibility of discussing the issue from the beginning," Zuma said.
"You are already influencing what the outcome is likely to be…If that proposal becomes a firm proposal, which must be put to the Zimbabwean people - if they accept it, let us allow them to go there before we scare them with who will lead."
But we know who should lead; the people voted for the MDC and the President-elect is Morgan Tsvangirai.
Should there be need for a government of national unity that is the prerogative of the winners. Mugabe and his cronies cannot demand inclusion in such a government. Any president chooses into cabinet those people he feels he can work with. No one should be appeased except the Zimbabwean people who voted for the direction they want their country to take.
(Tanonoka Joseph Whande is a Zimbabwean writer based in Botswana.)
Ile land reform ilikua politically calculated na ilikuja baada ya British ku turn down deal ya kulipa fidia ya ardhi iloyokuwa ikimilikiwa na walowezi. Ikumbukwe kipindi hicho nchi ilikua imebaki mwaka mmoja kama sikosei ili kwenda kwenye uchaguzi mkuu na Mugabe alishachuja sana kwa wazimbabwe maana alikua hana jipya tena ndipo akafukua tumaini la wazimbabwe, kile alichopata kuwaahidi wazimbabwe hapo zamani, fidia au kurudishiwa ardhi. Waingereza walipokumbushwa hili swala walilipuuzia kinyume na makubaliano ya awali kwamba asiwanyang'anye wazungu mashamba bali wao watalipa fidia. Walikataa kulipa fidia wakiamini hoja ile imeshachuja na haina nguvu tena na Mugabe hana nguvu wala ushawishi.Mugabe pale alipokuja na land reforms ili apate ushawishi na kuendelea kuwa madarakani sikufurahishwa na nilipingwa sana, marafiki mpaka hata walimu na kuitwa "we dogo hujui kitu" bila ya kujua kuwa unafiki na tamaa zake nilizigundua mapema.
Haya yanayotokea sasa hivi baadhi yetu tulijua yatatokea siku moja. Katika umri ule ni ngumu kuamini anaongoza nchi yeye, bali ni kikundi cha watu fulani wenye maslai binafsi. Sasa wameanza kugombana wenyewe kwa wenyewe.
We umeielewaje hiyo sentesi yote katika lugha ya Kiswahili, mbali na hilo neno pekee?error ni kitu kingine mkuu tumia neno era.
Kuweka mambo sawa, UK haikukataa kutoa fidia isipokuwa Serikali ya Robert ili-temper na modalities za namna ya kuilipa ile fidia. Na ikumbukwe fidia sio ilikuwa ilipwe kwa Zimbabwe, fidia ile iliyotolewa na UK ni kuwalipa wakulima wa kizungu ili waweze kuruhusu sehemu ya ardhi waliyokuwa wakiimiliki ili igawiwe kwa wazimbabwe.Ile land reform ilikua politically calculated na ilikuja baada ya British ku turn down deal ya kulipa fidia ya ardhi iloyokuwa ikimilikiwa na walowezi. Ikumbukwe kipindi hicho nchi ilikua imebaki mwaka mmoja kama sikosei ili kwenda kwenye uchaguzi mkuu na Mugabe alishachuja sana kwa wazimbabwe maana alikua hana jipya tena ndipo akafukua tumaini la wazimbabwe, kile alichopata kuwaahidi wazimbabwe hapo zamani, fidia au kurudishiwa ardhi. Waingereza walipokumbushwa hili swala walilipuuzia kinyume na makubaliano ya awali kwamba asiwanyang'anye wazungu mashamba bali wao watalipa fidia. Walikataa kulipa fidia wakiamini hoja ile imeshachuja na haina nguvu tena na Mugabe hana nguvu wala ushawishi.
Huku wakiamini kwamba jamaa angeogopa na kujali kuhusu athari za kiuchumi ambazo zingeikumba Zimbabwe kama angewanyang'a walowezi ardhi.
Na hakika maamuzi ya kunyang'anya ardhi na kuigawa kwa weusi ndiyo yalirudisha imani na mvuto wa Mugabe kwa wazimbabwe. Mugabe kwa dhamira yake ya kuendelea kubaki madarakani aliamua kupuuza viashiria vyote vya hali ya zimbabwe ya baada ya maaumuzi yake. Hivyo kitendo alichokifanya Mugabe hakikua cha kizalendo bali ni mahesabu ya kisiasa tu ndiyo maana kwa zaidi ya moaka ishirini kipindi ana ushawishi kwa wazimbabwe wala hili suala hakuwahi kulipa msukumo.