Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) deplores new public statements by the commander of a state institution which ostensibly exists to impartially protect the safety and integrity of all people of Zimbabwe, regardless of their political persuasion. This comes in the light of the intemperate and unlawful utterances made by the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF), Constantine Chiwenga, which were published in The Standard on 9 March 2008.

According to The Standard report Commander Chiwenga stated that two of the presidential candidates, Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni, were “sell outs”, reiterating that:
“Elections are coming and the army will not support or salute sell outs and agents of the West before, during and after the presidential elections. We will not support anyone other than President Mugabe who has sacrificed a lot for the country”

Upon further enquiry as to the role of the army in a democracy the ZDF Commander is reported to have asked:
“What is wrong with the army supporting the President against the election of sell outs?”

These statements echo similar threats made just two week ago on 29 February 2008 by the Commissioner of the Zimbabwe Prison Service, Retired Major General Paradzayi Zimondi, which ZLHR has already condemned, in which he stated that:
“If the opposition wins the election, I will be the first one to resign from my job and go back to defend my piece of land…We are going to the elections and you should vote for President Mugabe. I am giving you an order to vote for the President.”

ZLHR again expresses its concern over a developing trend where senior members of influential state institutions such as the Zimbabwe Republic Police, the Zimbabwe Prison Service and the Zimbabwe National Army resort to intimidating their subordinates, the electorate and ordinary Zimbabweans prior to elections for the purposes of manipulating their vote in favour of the incumbent President and ruling party. Uniformed forces’ influence over the electoral process is generally unacceptable under national and international law.

These statements intimidating the electorate go back as far as the run up of the 2002 Presidential elections when the Commissioner of Police and then Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Vitalis Zvinavashe made similar pronouncements.

This conduct essentially amounts to an attempt to use the cover of the electoral and other democratic processes to establish de facto military control, and are thus inconsistent with any of the principles of democratic rule.

According to Section 133B (c) of the Electoral Act, it is a criminal offence to intimidate people with the effect of compelling or attempting to compel them to vote for a particular political party or candidate. Section 134 (3) (b) goes on further to prohibit and criminalise any undue influence, whether duress or threats, upon a voter which influence seeks to make them vote or not vote during an election. The SADC Principles and Guidelines governing Democratic Elections also impart upon member states, including Zimbabwe, the obligation to ensure that elections adhere to the principles of freedom of association and political tolerance. Commander Chiwenga’s statements serve to directly intimidate both members of the ZDF and the electorate, through implied threats of violence, from voting freely for a presidential candidate of their choice, as is their right.

It is therefore clear that the ZDF Commander is in breach of the law and the regional guidelines, and should be prosecuted by the appropriate authorities forthwith.

ZLHR is also concerned by reports that members of the armed forces are allegedly being sent to their rural homes to campaign for the ruling ZANU PF party. ZLHR wishes to make it clear that the use of such a state institution as the army, which is supposed to be a non-partisan arm of the state, for party political purposes is clearly an abuse of state resources, moreso where such resources will be used to intimidate the people from voting freely.

ZLHR urges the law enforcement authorities and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to take action and speak out against these continuing statements which will surely create an environment of fear and intimidation in the run up of and during the March 2008 Elections, depriving the electorate their right to exercise their choice and cast their vote freely.

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/352/we-remember.jpgWith presidential elections in Zimbabwe just around the corner, Patrick Bond and Grace Kwinjeh look at who the national, regional and international players are, and consider various people-centered alternatives.

INTRODUCTION

The March 29 election in Zimbabwe is very likely to result in Robert Mugabe winning, by hook or by crook, a slim 50%+ majority, so as to avoid a run-off. In the last presidential election, in 2002, his main opponent Morgan Tsvangirai – leader of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions from 1988-99, but subsequently also supported by business and most Western governments - officially received just 40% of the vote.

Massive irregularities – such as far fewer urban polling stations - were noted by all honest observers, and the pre-election playing field was skewed by lack of a free press, Tsvangirai's frame-up on a bogus treason charge, and his party's inability to campaign peacefully in many regions. He nearly certainly won, but was cheated out of a democratic, peaceful regime change supported by most progressives in civil society.

Since then, core degenerative dynamics have included economic rot, sustained political repression, and two important splits in the dominant parties, Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZanuPF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)-Tsvangirai.

THE MDC AND ZANU-PF INTERNAL SPLITS

The first split was when in October 2005, key officials of the MDC – led by secretary-general Welshman Ncube and Vice President Gibson Sibanda – broke away a small faction of supporters, due to what they claimed was Tsvangirai's ‘dictatorial style’. The catalyst was Tsvangirai's insistence on boycotting Mugabe's new Senate. Ironically, in this election MDC-Tsvangirai has posted candidates for the Senate.

A brand new leader was chosen for the breakaway group, Dr Arthur Mutambara, formerly a firebrand student leader opposed to Mugabe's early 1990s structural adjustment program and state corruption, who subsequently studied at Oxford and Michigan, and by the mid-2000s moved back to the region, to take a job at Johannesburg's Standard Bank.

An effort to rejoin the two factions failed when MDC-Tsvangirai demanded too many parliamentary seats in MDC-Mutambara's Matabeleland heartland, according to the latter. Then Mutambara dropped out of the presidential race once a brand new candidate – from the ruling party (the first substantial defection since 1990) – jumped in to challenge Mugabe on February 5.

In Zanu PF's case, the split may yet become serious, but now amounts to just renegade former finance minister Simba Makoni, a long-term favourite of neoliberal forces internal and external. By early March, only two other major ruling party figures, former revolutionary Dumiso Dabengwa and parliamentary leader Cyril Ndebele, publicly supported him. Makoni hoped for backing by the powerful couple Solomon and Joyce Mujuru (Zimbabwe's vice-president), not only failed to materialise, but Joyce then endorsed Mugabe to most observers' surprise.

Although she was once tipped as his successor, a different faction in ZanuPF led by Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to reign once Mugabe finally retires.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/352/46561.jpg COST OF MUGABE’S REIGN

But the damage done in the meantime, including the coming weeks of violent electioneering, will be extreme.

For example, the economic contradictions of running a growing patronage-based regime with a rapidly declining Gross Domestic Product are felt mainly in the inflation rate. Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono made a stunning revelation in January: 67 trillion Zimbabwean dollars (US$33 million at the then effective exchange rate) were in circulation but could not be traced inside the financial system.

The banks had only Z$2 trillion cash on hand. Said Gono, "The rest of the money is with cash barons who have opened mini-central banks at their houses. Unfortunately the people doing that are influential citizens with leadership positions."

One accused was the former chairperson of the Finance Portfolio Committee in Parliament, David Butau, who escaped to Britain. Butau's rebuttal was that he was about to make a stunning revelation of "shady deals" by the central bank: "Gono should publish all the payments he made to Flatwater, to Michigan as well as declare how he bought shares in Doves." At least Z$7 trillion is estimated to have been captured by these shady shell companies in recent months.

Instead of coming to grips with cronyism, Gono's solution is to print infinite numbers of Z$, using expensive imported German paper. With inflation rising far beyond the 100,000% level, amongst the highest recorded in world history, there are only a few areas Zimbabweans can dump money into so as not to see it evaporate instantly: hard currency, real estate, local stock market shares and durable consumer goods.

As a result of the cash shortage thus caused, a large proportion of Zimbabweans suffered the Christmas and New Year holiday break without access to money. The shortages of cash and basic goods – electricity, clean water, petrol, most medicines, many foodstuffs - epitomises the freefall of a once quite prosperous site for a largish middle class.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/352/46561cartoon.jpgMeanwhile the tiny, kleptocratic ruling elite grew wealthy at the expense of the vast majority of people, as unemployed soared to more than 80%. Life expectancy for an average Zimbabwean dropped to 32 and 37 years for females and males respectively, and AIDS medicines that were once available have become scarce. The education system faces near total collapse.

Without growing electricity supplies, there is little hope of an upturn. Mozambique's Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa power utility recently suspended supplies over an outstanding debt of US$26 million. The South African parastatal Eskom cut Zimbabwe's power supply when in January regular 'load-shedding' electricity shortages hit home.

As for the durable political repression faced by any opposition politician or civil society activist, anyone brave enough could have remarked upon Mugabe's monomaniacal and extremely violent tendencies from at least 1982, not long after the country`s liberation from white-ruled Rhodesia. Over the subsequent four years, the Matebeleland region witnessed the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade massacre over 20 000 civilians, mostly of the Ndebele ethnic group.

THE BIRTH OF THE MDC

The West preferred to look the other way, courting Mugabe as an ally in part to persuade the apartheid government to begin gradually deracialising capitalism, the way Zimbabwe was – ever so gradually. By 1989, whites still received 97% of bank loans, though they were 3% of the population; during the 1990s white control of land actually grew thanks to liberalisation and lower state spending.

As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund began screw-tightening from 1984, intensifying the loan flows and neoliberal pressure in 1991, Zimbabwe's once impressive expansion of health clinics and schools, the development of a state-based middle- and lower-middle-class, and the sustenance of the inherited vibrant manufacturing sector, all waned.

Then the inevitable IMF Riots began in the early 1990s, growing in intensity and numbers of aggrieved constituencies until 1997. That year Mugabe began the political and economic zigzagging for which he is now famous. There were new patronage payments to liberation war veterans following embarrassing protests, and a new war against Democratic Republic of the Congo rebels (with Mugabe propping up Laurent Kabila), whose high costs were offset by army elite accumulation.

Alongside deep structural economic rot, the fiscal drain and threats of radical land reform led to a late 1997 currency crash. In 2000, after losing a referendum on a new Constitution, Mugabe authorised the war vets to invade white farmers' properties (some inherited from Rhodesian days but a large share paid for in cash since liberation in 1980 after the state declined its first option to buy), causing a substantial agricultural sector collapse. By then, too, corruption was so well entrenched that inevitably, civil society turned to alternative organisations for political inspiration. A Working People's Convention in 1999 mandated the trade unions to form a new party, and the MDC was born.

Was the MDC born free? Or free-market? By early 2000, it appeared the white business elite had captured the MDC, as economic spokesperson Eddie Cross promised the privatisation of "everything", including the schools. In subsequent years a more explicitly social-democratic ideology was adopted. But how deep?

In July 2007, for example, the first drafts of the MDC's 2008 electoral programme were shown to neoliberal officials of the Cato Institute in Washington; in contrast, it was only at last month's launch that Zimbabwean civil society got its first glance at the quite uninspired manifesto. Makoni's is just as vapid. And Mugabe's will change nothing.

SOUTH AFRICA: WHOSE FRIEND? WHOSE FOE?

Some may conclude, then, that the March 29 election is only interesting from the standpoint of personalities operating within preconstrained 20th century paradigms (nationalism and neoliberalism), with little or no mass popular content or appeal. And after all, nearly all the prior contested elections – since 1990 - have been marked by rigging, state sponsored violence, and repressive legislation curtailing media and political freedoms.

For this, plus sustained repressive behaviour, Mugabe and more than 100 top officials face Western personalised "smart sanctions" - travel bans and account freezes – as well as an arms embargo. China and Russia subsequently became much more important trading partners.

But one major regional supporter of Mugabe continues to have influence: South African president Thabo Mbeki. Although displaced as African National Congress president by Jacob Zuma in December, and although Zuma's labour backers hate Mugabe and expect him to shift tack, there was no apparent change in the nurturing of the Zimbabwean dictatorship from Pretoria in subsequent weeks. South African officials continued to hope and "expect" a "free and fair election".

Mbeki had gained a mandate from regional governments to mediate the Zimbabwe crisis in March 2007, and managed to sucker both MDC-Tsvangirai and MDC-Mutambara into endless talks that gained superficial legislative changes. Late last year, amendments were made to the Electoral Act and the Access to Information and Privacy Act, but there is still no free press and highly constrained ability to even campaign for the coming election.

Worse, Mugabe unilaterally announced the 29 March election date, which the MDC desperately wanted postponed until June so as to vet the now-corrupted voters' roll and also gain more media and non-violent campaigning space. It was clear the Mbeki negotiations were a stalling and divide-and-conquer tactic, and that this worked to raise hopes of internal reform in the two MDC camps.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

In the context of recent upheavals rocking Kenya over disputed elections, can Zimbabwe afford another stolen poll? Unfortunately, there may be insubstantial protests from the political elites who lose. A top official of MDC-Tsvangirai, Johannesburg-based former member of parliament Roy Bennett, specifically called on the party's constituents not to hit the streets, though he suggested no other recourse than more talks.

And the smaller MDC-Mutumbara seems able to stomach any level of state repression in the interests of elite participation, a matter embarrassingly obvious when Makoni snubbed Mutumbara's attempt at an alliance last month - yet the latter still endorsed the former.

In short, what was once a united opposition, one strong enough to defeat Mugabe's sponsored Constitutional proposals in a 2000 Referendum, is now deeply fractured, but on personality not substantive lines.

And sadly, a good many of those who might have insisted on the MDCs putting petty squabbling over trivial spoils behind them, in search of a common platform to not only dismiss Mugabe's government but generate a real socio-economic alternative, are no longer in Zimbabwe. A huge exodus of young Zimbabweans, the cream of the country's talent and literally millions of its hardest workers, have emigrated, desperate for survivalist opportunities further a field.

Thousands based in central Johannesburg, some have found refuge in Bishop Paul Verryn's Central Methodist Church. At any one time, says Verryn, he has 200 teachers sleeping on the church floor: "They are amongst the best teachers in Africa, Zimbabwe, until recently, has had the highest rate of literacy in Africa."

The Johannesburg metro police arrived on February 7 at midnight to arrest 1500 Zimbabweans, alleging they were illegal aliens. Police captain Bheki Mavundla bragged of his "sustainable crime-combat operations" aimed at "eradicating criminal elements from the district and building". In fact only 15 were found not to have papers, and thankfully this new version of apartheid-style "swart gevaar" – the Afrikaner's notorious fear of black immigration to the cities – was widely condemned in what is usually a quite xenophobic South African society.

Some like senate candidate, torture victim and war veteran Sekai Holland see hope in the latest political developments: "However most Zimbabweans are finally forced by this bad situation to talk to one another across all political divides, to find common ground to move on and build the country together. Mugabe continues to ignore these developments. It is a dangerous time, yet it is also a time of great opportunity if this current mood to work together continues,"

This leaves us to search for the main wellspring of hope for a Zimbabwean recovery within those courageous civil society forces who remain. In early February, reminiscent of the Working People's Convention nine years earlier, more than 5000 representatives of activist groups gathered for the National People's Convention. Key groups included the trade unions, Women of Zimbabwe Arise, the National Students Union, National Constitutional Assembly, Christian Alliance, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, and Lawyers for Human Rights.

The Peoples Charter adopted touched on many issues, ranging from constitutional reform, gender, elections, national economy- but the most fundamental statement to come out of this gathering was the resolve: “And hereby further declare that never again shall we let lives be lost, maimed, tortured or traumatised by the dehumanising experiences of political intolerance, violence and lack of democratic government.”

*Professor Patrick Bond is the Director of the Durban based Centre for Civil Society and Grace Kwinjeh is a South-African based Zimbabwean journalist.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

In the absence of a reliable supply of other energy sources, the Zimbawean Government has launched a programme to promote the use of solar energy as an alternative source of energy for computers in schools around the country, in conjunction with Mukonitronics Private Limited. The programme to be spread to all the country's provinces is also being implemented with the Zimbabwe Academic Research Network.

The head of Zimbabwe's prison service has ordered his officers to vote for President Robert Mugabe and said he would resign if the opposition won next month's election, official media reported on Friday. The southern African country holds joint presidential, parliamentary and council elections on March 29 in which Mugabe faces former ally Simba Makoni and long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The Zimbabwe Youth Network (ZYN) and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) have announced that there will be a huge demonstration at the Zimbabwe Consulate in Jo'burg on Wednesday, one day before another protest is due at the same location on Thursday. The Wednesday protest is being supported by numerous Zimbabwean groups, including the Crisis Coalition, Zimbabwe Political Victims Organisation (Zipovo), Civil Service Organisations Forum and both formations of the MDC.

The provincial elections officer for Manicaland has declined to institute an investigation into reports that a Zanu-PF legislator has allegedly helped ‘illegal aliens’ to register as voters. The MDC on Tuesday approached the head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in Mutare, Colonel Moffat Masabeya, and informed him of reports that Zanu-PF MP for Chipinge south Enock Porusingazi, was involved in voter registration fraud.

With the number of reported cases of children raped in Zimbabwe surging more than 40 per cent in the last three years, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has joined with the Government and religious groups in an awareness campaign to fight the scourge. The Zimbabwean Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, the National Faith Based Council of Zimbabwe, and UNICEF have launched their Stand Up and Speak Out campaign against child abuse, aiming to reach more than six million of the African country’s citizens.

Blessing-Miles Tendi argues that because Britain lacks the moral authority to comment on or interfere in Zimbabwean affairs, it would serve the Zimbabwean search for freedom and justice by keeping away.

Since 2000, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe government has cast the Zimbabwe crisis as a struggle by Britain, an ex-colonial power, to re-colonise its former colony by supporting and funding the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party. Britain has blindly walked into Mugabe’s anti-colonial trap consistently, which has exposed Zimbabwe’s internal opposition to harmful labels such as ‘sell-outs to the imperialists’.

Britain has expressed its frustration with Southern African leaders’ unwillingness to censure Mugabe publicly and to force him into retirement. A number of factors explain Southern African leaders’ stance on Mugabe and chief among them is that for a long time the MDC was distrusted by regional leaders and perceived as sell-outs to new-imperialism. Britain bore responsibility for this false perception of the opposition in Zimbabwe because its anti-Mugabe stance made Zimbabwe’s opposition easy prey for Mugabe’s anti-colonial constructions. Britain is partly responsible for the failure of a democratic opposition to replace the undemocratic Mugabe in elections since 2000.

Mugabe has also proved adroit at articulating British double standards on global human rights promotion to bolster his refutation of Western criticism of his government’s human rights record. Britain dilutes its moral authority when it calls for its national cricket team to boycott tours of Zimbabwe because of the country’s poor human rights record but remains silent when its national team tours Pakistan, which is also a grave human rights violator. Britain’s condemnations and targeted sanctions against the Mugabe government would command more moral authority if the same human rights standards were applied everywhere evenly. Failure to apply human rights standards evenly results in staunch claims to sovereignty in the non-Western world. The danger lies in the fact that some of these claims are merely pretexts for internal repression – something Mugabe is guilty of.

After Britain’s involvement in the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq its moral authority is at its lowest ebb internationally. Thus, it is breathtakingly naïve for the Foreign Secretary David Milliband to insist, as he did in Oxford this month, that despite Britain’s failures in Iraq, Britain has ‘a moral duty’ to intervene in undemocratic countries – and by force if necessary – in order to spread democracy internationally. Very few countries still look up to Britain as a champion of human rights and democracy, and none in Southern Africa will countenance its involvement in their internal affairs. ‘We are tired of being lectured on democracy by the very countries which, under colonialism, either directly denied us the rights of free citizens, or were indifferent to our suffering and yearnings to break free and be democratic’ – remember these utterances by the Tanzanian government, one of Britain’s favoured donor recipients in Southern Africa, in 2004?

Britain has, as a starting premise, the logic that its modern day standing as a developed democracy automatically confers the moral authority to censure what it considers to be less democratic countries such as Zimbabwe. But its flawed history of intervention and interference in Zimbabwe has left it with little or no moral credibility there. Britain granted Rhodesia’s white settler community ‘responsible self-government’ in 1923. However, the country remained a British colony and Britain retained the right to veto legislation affecting the black African majority. Rhodesia’s white minority passed various laws that subjected the blacks to treatment as subhuman. Not once did Britain exercise its veto power to strike down Rhodesia’s dehumanising and racist laws.

In 1965, Rhodesia severed ties with the British crown by declaring the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Britain was called upon to use military force to rein in the rebellious UDI government’s perpetuation of white minority rule. Prime Minister Harold Wilson ruled out the use of force. He chose to impose sanctions and declared that the UDI government would survive the sanctions for no more than 6 weeks. Rhodesia weathered the sanctions until black majority rule was attained in 1980, after a peace settlement a year earlier, which brought to an end one of the most bloody and bitterly fought liberation wars in Africa.

In the 1980s, Britain venerated Mugabe while he massacred 20000 civilians in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland province. The reason? According to Roger Martin, Deputy British High Commissioner to Zimbabwe (1983-86), ‘no British government wanted a couple of hundred thousand British citizens appearing with cardboard suitcases at Heathrow, the sudden expulsion of whites if we had pulled the rug on the aid [to Zimbabwe] and as it were denounced Mugabe [for the massacres].’

In spite of assurances Britain made to the Mugabe government at independence, to fund the redress of racially biased land distribution in Zimbabwe, in 1997 it declared that it did not accept ‘a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe’. 3 years later a violent programme of land seizures from white farmers without compensation began to unfold. Zimbabwe is what it is economically today partly because of these land seizures.

Foreign Secretary Milliband has called for international monitoring of Zimbabwe’s 2008 elections, saying conditions for the poll are ‘far from free and fair’. But Britain should be the last to speak out and it should desist from prejudging the forthcoming elections publicly because this is exactly what Mugabe wants Britain to do. Already, Mugabe has said his party’s 2008 election campaign will focus on resisting Britain’s regime change agenda in Zimbabwe. Mugabe has set his anti-colonial trap for Britain and if Milliband’s comments are anything to go by, Britain is walking into it once again. Britain would better serve the struggle for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe by taking a back seat in the country’s elections next month because it has no moral authority in Southern Africa. Groupings such as the European Union and the Southern African Development Community should take the lead not Britain because it risks aiding Mugabe’s re-election bid.

*Blessing-Miles Tendi is a researcher at Oxford University.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Former finance minister and member of the Zanu PF politburo, Simba Makoni is challenging Robert Mugabe later this month for the leadership of Zimbabwe. Sehlare Makgetlanen tackles the question of whether he represents a break from the past or more of the same.

Zimbabwe under the leadership of Mugabe is facing fundamental governance, democracy and development challenges. It has failed to ‘‘legitimately exercise power and authority over the control and management of the country’s affairs in the interest of the people and in accordance with the principles of justice, equity, accountability and transparency.” Mugabe has prevented some members of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) from expressing their governance, democracy and development policy preferences through democratic means to be the president of ZANU-PF and the country. He regards himself as the only leading judge of what best serves the national interests of Zimbabwe which include governance, democracy and development demands, needs and interests of the country and its people.

Mugabe has threatened to be the stumbling block for ZANU-PF to win free and fair elections and for the resolution of Zimbabwe’s governance, democracy and development problems. Processes and issues leading to true national self-determination should not be left into the hands of one leader irrespective of the unquestionable content of his or her commitment to the liberation cause and that the political leadership including the leadership in the political administration of the society is the collective process in which no individual is indispensable. He has in the process mobilised some members of ZANU-PF to implement their decision to use their strength and resources in challenging him not only as the president of the party but also as the president of the country. Those theirs is hostility to the new leadership of the party and the country as required by the present situation – the struggle fought for under the pretext of defending the unity of the party – must be democratically fought against. It is not in the interest of the country and its people in defending the unity of the party if its president is against the popular national interests – the governance, democracy and development demands, needs and interests of the country and its people.

Whether they will use this development to have collective leadership and the democratic means capable of adequately appropriating Zimbabwe’s problems for their confrontation and resolution remains to be seen. These problems have intensified. This development led Simba Makoni to challenge Mugabe in the 29 March 2008 presidential elections. What is the present state of Zimbabwe’s national situation? “The Zimbabwe of today,” according to Makoni at the launch of his election manifesto in Harare on 13 February 2008, “is a nation full of fear, a nation in deep stress, a tense and polarised nation, a nation also characterised by disease and extreme poverty.” It is a nation in which “immediate and urgent tasks to resolve the food, power and fuel, water and sanitation problems, resolve health and educational services” should be undertaken.

Highlighting the gravity of Zimbabwe’s socio-political and economic situation, Makoni in his 5 February 2008 announcement that he would challenge Mugabe in the 29 March 2008 presidential elections as candidate pointed out that he shares “the agony and anguish of all citizens over the extreme hardships we have all endured for nearly 10 years.” Admitting the role played by the national leaders on the development of the national situation, he told reporters that he also shares “the widely held view that these hardships are a result of failure of national leadership and that change at that level is a prerequisite for change at other levels of national endeavour.” He was denied opportunity to a “renewal of the leadership in the ZANU-PF and country” to end economic crisis and “national despair.” It is for this reason, among others, that what he is “offering is the chance for hope” to rid Zimbabwe of fear and poverty. The point is that “we believe that solving these problems will not be intractable, once we remove the barriers and impediments that bar the expression and pursuit of our common interest and common purpose.” If elected, he promises that he would “address national issues that separate and divide us as a nation and institute a process of national healing and reconciliation.” Having been expelled from ZANU-PF, he is standing as an independent presidential candidate in the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 29 March 2008. He calls upon Zimbabweans particularly members of the party to join him in his struggle to prevent Mugabe from winning a sixth term in office. “I particularly invite those compatriots who have been pushed into despair and despondency, but have the qualities of leadership, to please enter the race. I also invite those in ZANU-PF who share our yearning for renewal to contest the election as independent candidates under our banner.” He is contesting elections under the banner of the movement called Dawn (Mavambo/Kusile), whose logo features a rising sun. “The time for decision has come. Jump off the fence, climb out of the false comfort zones.” Contrary to Makoni’s position, members of the ruling alliance are not in “the false comfort zones.” Theirs are structures of wealth and privileges.

There is essentially nothing new Makoni has pointed out since announcing his decision to challenge Mugabe in the elections. He has repeated statements opposition political parties and their critics have been saying about the country’s problems and how to resolve them. On the atrocious abuse of power and public resources and use of violent measures to deal with dissent and opposition including within the ruling party, he maintains: “Zimbabweans are experiencing stress and tension because of the siege mentality in the state, with the state resorting to violence to suppress dissent, a lack of respect for the law and gross abuse of state resources.” He continues: “National institutions have been corrupted, privatised and politicised. We are seeing a scourge of the politics of patronage and gross abuse of power and a culture of chiefdom.” He has served as a senior participant in creating and sustaining this democracy practice. He continues stating what has been attributed not only to the ruling party, but also to two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). “There is lack of a national vision and agenda on the basis which all Zimbabweans could be mobilised for national reconciliation and revival.” What is his vision and agenda on the basis which Zimbabweans could be mobilised to serve as social agents for development and progress of their country is the strategic question which he has so far failed to answer. Predicting a landslide victory in the elections, he is basing his campaign platform on the revival of the economy and the restoration of political freedoms and property rights. He claims that this strategy will “restore our people’s independence, dignity and confidence.” This strategy will continue, if he wins elections, in managing the inequality of power relations between the rulers and the ruled of the country.

As it happened in the past, members of ZANU-PF were denied their democratic rights and opportunity to fight for nomination during its December 2007 congress so as to stand as the party’s candidate in the 29 March 2008 presidential elections. It endorsed Mugabe as its sole candidate. This decision ensured that he should not be challenged within the ruling party in his attempt to be re-elected as the president of the country. Makoni was defying this decision in announcing that he would challenge him as the ruling party’s candidate in the elections. He maintains that at the December 2007 congress, some party members including himself were prevented from seeking nomination as its presidential candidate. In his words: “I would have very much wished to stand as (ZANU-PF) official candidate. Unfortunately, as we all know, that opportunity was denied to other cadre who would have offered themselves to serve the party and country.”

While Makoni’s announcement is viewed by some individuals as a substantial and welcome addition in the arsenal against Mugabe, the MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai and civil society organisations aligned to it regard him as the ruling party agent deployed to divide the opposition vote in the elections. Tsvangirai dismissed him as “nothing more than old wine in a new bottle.” Lovemore Madhuku was more harsh and brutal. He dismissed him as the part of the ZANU-PF-state institutional machinery and its project guilty of many years of its rule. As usual, the ruling party viewed him as the traitor and agent of imperialist interests. Questions are raised as to whether he is honest and sincere in his declared challenge to Mugabe. Is he the intelligence project by supporters of Mugabe designed to identify senior members of the ruling party who are Mugabe’s opponents he maintains support his campaign? Some are of the view that his aim is to split the opposition vote – most importantly urban voters who have supported the MDC in the previous elections.

Why did Makoni decide to challenge Mugabe? At what time did he seriously convince himself that he should summon his courage to challenge Mugabe? Why did he announce his decision so late? Is it because his wish to be the ruling party’s official candidate was rejected? Was he forced to make his decision? If he was forced, who forced him, for what strategic and tactical reasons? The announcement of his decision raises the key question as to whether he is a shrewd politician capable of effectively challenging Mugabe. What are his strategy and tactics to win elections and to effect the democratic transformation of the state and society? Is his campaign individual or collective effort? Can the majority of Zimbabweans regard it as their proud national product? Who within the ruling party are supporting his campaign? Have they participated in the creation and sustenance of the current situation? Are they now convinced that Mugabe is threatening their interests and therefore he should be replaced as the country’s president for their interests to continue being protected? Why they have not publicly articulated what they stand for – particularly how and for what strategic and tactical ends Zimbabwe should be governed? He initially stated that he was standing as an independent presidential candidate within the ruling party challenging Mugabe. He refused, given his loyalty to the party, to end his relationship with it. He was embracing leaderless illusion that the party will not end its relationship with him. As the party correctly pointed out, he expelled himself from it by making his announcement. He continues, after expulsion from the party, refusing to provide a critical analysis of the party and how it ruled the society and articulating this to Zimbabweans so as to with their support for him to solve problems they have been facing as he claims to be his key reason why he decided to contest elections. He continues refusing also to use opportunity to substantiate in practice that he is independent from the ruling party.

Makoni has so far failed to provide failed to provide alternative vision and agenda of the future Zimbabwe to that offered by ZANU-PF and two MDC factions. Despite acute problems confronted by the masses on the daily basis, his strategy and tactics have failed to meet their demands and needs. The consequence is that they do not recognise them as expressions of their own experience. Briefly, they failed to capture their imaginations. Is he for the authentic national popular democratisation of the society and the state for the masses of the Zimbabwean people to be the main authority in achieving, maintaining and expanding their interests? Unless the power to determine the form and content as well as the timetable of the change is in the hands of the masses of the people through the leadership of those who have surrendered their being their representatives to their cause, unilateral declaration of independence of leaders from the people will always be the negation of the popular principle, “we are our own liberators.”

The strategic tasks confronting the masses of Zimbabweans are political. Who should be their national president and why? How should be their national problems be resolved? What should be the nature of the future Zimbabwe’s relations with its regional and continental African countries and the rest of the world particularly developed countries? How best and effectively to improve the material conditions of the millions of Zimbabweans? These are some of the questions which should be answered to the satisfaction of the majority of Zimbabweans.

*Sehlare Makgetlaneng is the head of Southern African and SADC Desk at the Africa Institute of South Africa.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Global Zimbabwe Forum would like to express its dire concern at the current state of the preparations for the forthcoming harmonized elections that are due to be held in Zimbabwe on 29th March 2008.

We would like as Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, to state in no uncertain terms our unequivocal stance on the following issues:

The outcome of the forthcoming elections will be highly compromised by the fact that over three million eligible voters who are now living outside Zimbabwe will be excluded from participating in the process. We believe that the exclusion of the Diaspora vote is a fundamental flow that brings the credibility of the elections into question.

We also note with concern the rather inconclusive nature of the SADC mediation process that was being led by President Thabo Mbeki. Should Zimbabweans expected more from this rather protracted process.

We further call upon SADC and Africa in general to ensure that the elections are held in accordance with the expectations of the SADC Protocol on Elections that was adopted in Mauritius in August 2004.

We urge all the interested political parties and independent candidates in the forthcoming elections to promote a spirit of peaceful election campaign process. Political violence must be condemned unconditionally.

We endorse current efforts to mobilize some Zimbabweans in the Diaspora especially those living in the SADC region to return home and vote in the forthcoming elections.

While we respect the individual members' preferences of candidates of their own, we do not endorse any candidates in the elections since we are a politically non-partisan organization but urge the Zimbabwean electorate to vote for a candidate who will seek to promote the democratic ideals of Zimbabwe especially the interests of the diverse Diaspora community.

We urge all Zimbabweans at home to go turn out in their numbers on 29th March and fully exercise their right to elect the leaders of their own choice.

Issued in Johannesburg on Monday 25th February 2008 by

The Global Zimbabwe Forum c/o The Zimbabwe Diaspora Forum 4th Floor, Noswal Hall, Braamfontein Johannesburg, South Africa Tel/Fax: +27113393629

President Robert Mugabe has likened independent presidential aspirant, former Zanu-PF political bureau (politburo) member and finance minister, Simba Makoni to a political prostitute who tries to endear himself to the electorate even when the electorate does not like him. This is the first time that the 84-year old leader has openly castigated Makoni for having brokered away from his ruling Zanu-PF party, an attack that could be the opening episode of more that are yet to come as Mugabe moves to launch his presidential campaign in the near future.

There was confusion at most voter registration and verification centres when people rushing to make last minute checks were told the exercise finished on Wednesday. Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said the exercise ended at 7pm Wednesday despite notices in the official state media that it was going to end Thursday.

The Zimbabwean newspaper has published a story claiming South African President Thabo Mbeki is supportive of Simba Makoni’s bid to run for president. Editor Wilf Mbanga said their reporter picked up the story in South Africa and confirmed it with officials from Mbeki’s government. He says they have also run it by Makoni’s people, who confirmed Mbeki had hoped for a change of leadership within Zanu PF at their special congress in December last year.

Riot police are reported to have used violence to break up peaceful demonstrations by students in Bulawayo and Harare on Wednesday. Several student leaders, who were briefly detained in both cities, say they were brutalised by police while in custody. The group detained in Bulawayo included Privilege Mutanga, the ZINASU Gender and Human Rights Secretary, who is 9 months pregnant. She suffered a broken hand and a twisted ankle during the assaults and was rushed to Harare for treatment on Thursday.

I dressed for the occasion.
Put my cute fanny in lace nickers,
Gave my breasts some serious gravity (EJ Win always
says wear new, matching underwear on important days,
that’s why she got me stuff from Bravissimo).
I was already sizzling
Rainbows around my waist, beads, and beads, and beads
of them from Codou and Roses in Dakar.
She’s also sent me incense. Intoxication is critical.
I wasn’t just sizzling, I was leaving a most musky trail.
Layering: Vanila bath what what from Sisonke, coconut
oil something wafting.
Slipped my pink pedicured feet into slinky sandals.
Shells on the rim.
A trade we did with Alice from Rwanda in Zanzibar,
plotting Feminism
Needed some bling. Hooked in amber and silver earrings,
Muthoni Wanyeki style. Off of Biashara
street in Nairobi, necklace from Hope Chigudu, a
talisman from Thailand — Awid, Bangkok, Massage - Men
in our movements, masquerading comradeship, turning our
voice to footnotes.
Pulled back the dreadlocks. One side like Sylvia.
Now the war paint. Eyes the way Jessica Horn taught me -
intense, serious, sparkling. Mac to the Lips - pout,
shimmer, shine: Pat Made put this in my purse (need
to text Thoko Matshe to stop by the counter next time
she’s in London - I got to have another one).
Stand tall like Bisi, this is an election year after
all:
But my name was not there: Not on the voters roll,
where it had been 5 years ago. Vanished. Disappeared.
My name was not there.
Who took my name? I hollered, vagina twitching with
rage. I said - who took my name? Ziii no answer other
than stares of intimidation from some twobit cop
representative of rigging. Txt message to Teresa
Mugadza - most kicking lawyer in Town. Woman wrote
Domestic Violence Legislation surely this is a
piece of cake for her!
Someone took my name Tere I howl, mad as ever. So get
it back girl, she croons. Get it back. You know you
got to vote. Right?
Zimbabwe: hurting and burning. Rage.
Straight up. I am taking it back. And today I am going
back. War clothes and all. This V is my Day.

*To read more of Isabella Matambanadzo, please visit where this poem was first posted.

***Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Steve Kibble argues that the upcoming elections in Zimbabwe are tilted to a ruling party victory and will be marred by serious political and technical problems.

The unilateral declaration by President Mugabe of March 29th 2008 as the date for Zimbabwean elections (presidential, house of assembly, senate and local) was followed by the president’s reported statements at the recent African Union summit that he would never accept an opposition victory. This means that the negotiation process between the ruling party Zanu PF and the opposition parties (two fractions of the MDC) undertaken by Zimbabwe’s SADC neighbours is dead. Even if SADC itself publicly applauded this mediation as successful, it privately acknowledged failure. It was widely predicted to fail especially by civil society and progressive church personnel, given the unlikelihood of the ruling ZANU-PF party relinquishing power. It did, however, for a time give some hope as it provided for the first time since 2000 an opening up in an otherwise blocked situation.

South African president Mbeki, charged with bringing a solution to the crisis, staked his reputation on solving the Zimbabwean crisis, even recently telling visiting Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern that a solution was near. But he has been unable to persuade ZANU-PF to take the supposed negotiations seriously. The ruling party, despite concessions by the divided opposition party the MDC, refused to recognise the necessity for a free and fair electoral process and a new democratic constitution to be in place before any elections.

The actual electoral process has not only been geared to a ruling party victory but marked by serious political and technical problems, as well as intimidation. The electoral commission has no independence or impartiality, and the judicial process has still to hear petitions relating to the unfree and unfair elections of 2005. The constituencies have been increased in number and altered to favour the rural population – more under the control of ZANU-PF - and the delimitation exercise was opaque. The voter registration process has been problematic with many left off the register and unable to rectify this within the seven days allowed for inspection of the new roll. Even those who are registered have little or no idea where they are supposed to vote. Independent international election observers and foreign media will not be allowed in.

These elections are taking place in a dire economic and humanitarian situation amid reports of politicisation of food aid The local independent media whilst still alive is fighting for space and due to shortages of paper and power cuts even the state media, has found it difficult to publish its own biased information about elections, for which they are noted. The opposition having said earlier that it would not contest a skewed election, has now decided to stand, although with rival candidates. It acknowledges it will not win under current circumstances but also want “a piece of the small cake”. It will however have massive problems in getting sufficient candidates in place in time and with any access to the population.

This all means that energies are now directed towards a ruling party victory (including the reported hiring of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, to help them do so) whilst the economy contracts, infrastructure collapses and the population is surviving on a day to day process, even worse failing to, or leaving the country. Some see the presidential electoral challenge to Mugabe by former Finance Minister, Simba Makoni, as opening up a little democratic space and opening up the cracks within the ruling party. Whilst popular in urban areas and amongst the international community, it seems unlikely he can seriously challenge ZANU-PF’s rural hegemony, even if he is supported by powerful ruling party Mugabe opponents such as ex army chief Solomon Mujuru. It may be that his sole impact is to split further the opposition vote.

What other pressures for necessary transformation remain? It is useful to distinguish here between transition and transformation. The SADC process was aimed at the former – with the hope that a reformed and re-elected ZANU-PF minus Mugabe could hope to attract international support for re-engagement and reconstruction. More necessary now, though is a complete overhaul of the repressive, corrupt and ineffectual system of governance. At present neither the opposition party/ies, nor civil society, having been under constant attack, have the capacity to bring about such change and there seems little international or regional support for them to do so. Church leaders have never seemed sure of their role, preferring quiet diplomacy with the government, alleviated by the occasional critical statement, rather than attempting to provide alternative leadership and solutions to the crisis. With former Catholic archbishop Pius Ncube silenced, there are few voices except groups like the Christian Alliance coming forward to lead such a process. Of paramount importance in such a transformation process will be the need to work at and include the grassroots level. Not only in advocating for a people driven constitution – but supporting peoples organising themselves, particularly in the rural areas.

It seems likely that Zimbabweans faced with a 6% shrinking of gross domestic produce last year and 50% decline since 2000, inflation officially at 27,000% and according to the IMF at 150,000%, employment at 8% with formal incomes depreciated by 90%, constant food, crops, fuel, transport and power shortages and continued repression face a disastrous future. The elections will do nothing to halt this spiral of decline. As Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor said after his recent visit ‘The economy no longer functions, the health service and education systems have collapsed, most of the skilled workforce has left the country’. Zimbabweans are going to need all the international solidarity and support they can get.

*Steve Kibble is a human rights activist. This article wasriginally commissioned by NigrIzia the Italian faith-based development magazine.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

A senior official of the ruling Zanu-PF party and former Finance Minister of Zimbabwe has been expelled from the party a day after he had announced to contest against President Mugabe in the 29 March polls. Simba Makoni, an ex-ally of Mugabe, on Tuesday revealed his presidential ambition at a press conference. He pledged loyalty to the party, although he wants to run as an independent candidate. He also wants to un under Zanu-PF colours.

The program has now been finalized for the February 21 – 22 protest. The Global Zimbabwe Forum need to contact as many Zimbabweans as we can reach to come to the demonstration. Please contact by email or by phone as many friends as you can reach.
We need to know by Wednesday next week how many people we can expect at the demonstration.

The following have been tasked with coordinating recruitment efforts:

New York.Fungisai and Alice (516) 967 4613/(646) 577 5289
Pennsylvania Nick Mada (610)2469462 [email][email protected] Stan Mukasa (724) 467 0001 [email][email protected]
Ohio/Michigan Zvidzair Ruzvidzo/Allan Banda Phone :614 622 0427 [email][email protected]
Washington DC "Robson Nyereyemhuka"[email protected]
Indiana Alan Bako (317) 345 2368
Accommodation arrangements are being made byMaswela at [email][email protected] (513) 410 9495
Scheduled speakers for the protest are Ralph Black Handel Mlilo Ruzvidzo Zvidzair Nassar Rusike
The Event MC and also in charge of publicity will be Briggs Bomba
The next conference call will be on Thursday, February 14, starting at 9 p.m.
Conference details:
Number to Call ---: 1-605-475-6000 Access Code---- : 875057# Time----------:9.00PM (Eastern Time)

The MDC national council, the party’s main decision making body, has endorsed Morgan Tsvangirai as its presidential candidate for next month’s general elections. Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said primaries to choose parliamentary and council candidates are also almost complete. He said party structures have since Saturday been selecting candidates for all the 210 constituencies up for grabs.

The government has announced that the Nomination Courts that were scheduled for Friday February 8th, have been moved to Friday February 15th. This is for registration of candidates seeking to run in the presidential, parliamentary and council elections on March 29th. According to the state’s Herald newspaper, the date was changed following requests by ZANU-PF and both factions of the MDC for more time to select candidates.