The African Commission on Human and People's Rights has adopted a report critical of President Robert Mugabe's human-rights record. The report is the result of investigations done three-years ago by the African Union-sponsored Commission. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has circulated the report, adopted last month by the executive council of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, during the African Union meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.

Fortune Hakata dreams of becoming a pilot. Each morning, like any other 14-year-old, he leaves home for school; at the end of the day he makes his way home - to a street corner in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. Together with 53 others, Fortune attends the Presbyterian Children's Club, which offers six years of primary schooling to street kids between the ages of 6 and 14. Each year, with the assistance of sponsors, it facilitates the entry of 18 children into the normal school system.

"A Zvakwana activist who was moving along Harare Drive towards Enterprise Road in Harare recently saw Zimbabwe national army personnel using both civilian and army vehicles transporting large numbers of downtrodden looking youth. These youth were all covered in blue overalls. It’s not just the zanu pf green bombers to confront; we now have zanu pf blue flies. Zvakwana also thanks activists who are sending this information in along with their photographs. It is always helpful if you make sure to record the very basic facts: time, date, location, vehicle registration numbers and so forth. The regime must realise that concerned citizens will be documenting all of this suspicious activity prior to the general elections, and this will influence how we vote." This is an extract for the Zvakwana newsletter - you can read the full newsletter online by visiting the web page provided.

Five years after he was tortured by agents of the government's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) during the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary election, opposition activist Dumisani Moyo is still in pain. But mention Zimbabwe's upcoming general election in March and Moyo's visibly dejected and angry face lightens up as he vows he will be back on the MDC campaign track, the inherent dangers of doing so not withstanding.

Hats a size too large for most of the small heads, formal school uniforms equally incongruous, they march on regardless - the vanguard in an effort to bring pre-schoolers into Zimbabwe's education system. Beginning this year, primary schools in this Southern African country are required to have at least one class that caters for four- and five-year-olds, to help these children prepare for first grade. This pre-school class, also known as ”grade zero”, is part of government's Early Childhood Education and Care Programme (ECEC).

The activist organisation, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), will return to the streets of the capital, Harare, on St Valentine's Day next week to demand democratic and violence-free elections in March. Under the theme, "The power of love can conquer the love of power", the women will hand out red roses and cards to symbolise their anti-violence message.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, under fire at home and abroad for his intimidation of domestic opponents, was feted as a "warrior of freedom" last Thursday by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. The 80-year-old African leader, who is barred from traveling to the European Union by EU sanctions, was warmly received by left-winger Chavez after he arrived in Caracas to attend a two-day summit of developing nations.

Lack of finance has left the Harare Central hospital, one of Zimbabwe's major referral centres, on the verge of collapse. The superintendent of the 1,428-bed hospital, Chris Tapfumaneyi, told IRIN, "Most of our machines are obsolete and cannot be repaired - some of them have been like this for the past 10 years".

The would-be assassin of former Daily News editor Geoff Nyarota decided he could'nt go ahead with the plot after he met Nyarota in a lift and the editor enquired after his family. Instead he confessed his intentions and details of the plot, intended to silence the Daily News, were published in the newspaper. But six months later on January 28, 2001, an explosion destroyed the printing press of the Daily News. In this commentary Nyarot`a, remembers the extraordinary sequence of events that led to the uncovering of the plot to kill him.

Zimbabwe's main opposition party has announced it will field candidates in parliamentary elections next month "with a heavy heart". The polls would not be free and fair, said the Movement for Democratic Change. "We participate under protest." The MDC had wanted the 31 March elections to be put back so that more reforms could be passed.

A delegation from the International Confederation of Free Trade Union-affiliated Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) which arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday was immediately expelled by the country's immigration authorities. The planned 48-hour visit was intended to bring together COSATU representatives with their colleagues from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), also an ICFTU affiliate. The purpose of the visit, led by COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, was to discuss issues confronting workers in Zimbabwe and in the region in general.
LINK
- The Cosatu delegation and the March elections
http://www.sacp.org.za/umsebenzi/online/2005/RADEGE.htm

We, members of civil society, Zimbabweans in the Diaspora and citizens of Africa, would like to express our serious concern about the continued violations of civil liberties in Zimbabwe, particularly against the freedom of opinion and expression, association and assembly. We call upon the Government of Zimbabwe to immediately cease the systematic human rights violations in the country, including all forms of intimidation, arbitrary arrests and torture of members of civil society. We advocate for the immediate repeal and/or progressive amendment of all pieces of legislation (including those mentioned before) which contravene Zimbabwe’s international human rights obligations and its Constitution.

Unprecedented infighting in Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF shows President Robert Mugabe has lost control of his party ahead of elections due in March, the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, says. "Mugabe now is a leader of a faction, not the leader of the party of the country and that undermines his legitimacy," the Movement for Democratic Change leader said. More than a dozen top party officials have been purged amid jostling to succeed Mugabe, 80, upon his retirement in 2008.
* Related Link:
- Wilf Mbanga on disappearances in Zimbabwe
http://tinyurl.com/3ke8o

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) remains firm in its intention to send a new fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe, despite official warnings that such a delegation would not be welcome. Last week COSATU said the situation in Zimbabwe was critical, as the present legal and political situation was not conducive to holding free and fair elections, due in March, and alleged that labour unions were being suppressed.

Zimbabwean police have reported yet another clash between rival groups within the country's ruling Zanu PF. Police in the remote, central district of Gokwe say two groups of angry supporters - each backing different contestants in primary elections - clashed at a small rural business centre "damaging a lot of property".

Ruling Zanu PF party councillors and the police have taken over the vetting of hungry villagers requiring food under new distribution procedures that could see opposition supporters sidelined. Under the new procedures, which Zim Online witnessed being implemented in the Midlands province and in some parts of Manicaland, villagers must first get a letter from the Zanu PF councillor of their local ward stating that they should be allowed to buy cheaper priced maize from the government's Grain Marketing Board (GMB).

The Zimbabwe government is planning to set up a transit centre in the busy southern border town of Beitbridge to assist vulnerable youths deported as illegal aliens from South Africa. The centre, to be established with the help of Save the Children Fund (Norway), will help youths under 18 who have been expelled for crossing the border illegally, but have no money to return to their homes. Further, there have been reports that some deportees, especially girls, had been victims of abuse and sexual harassment in Beitbridge.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a measure that sets prison terms of up to two years for any journalist found working without accreditation from the government-controlled Media and Information Commission. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Mugabe and his government to turn away from such measures, including another piece of repressive legislation still pending.

Malnutrition and related diseases are expected to rise in Zimbabwe, peaking in the January to March 2005 period, according to a new report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). While staple cereals are increasingly unavailable in rural areas, maize prices on the parallel market continue to climb, limiting the ability of households to buy enough food to satisfy their needs, said both FEWS NET and the World Food Programme (WFP) in separate surveys.

The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is a Christian tradition. It links Christmas day (December 25) with Epiphany (January 6). “Epiphany” comes from a Greek word meaning “manifestation”. In a Christian sense we think of God manifesting (or revealing) himself to humankind in his coming into the world in physical form in the person of Jesus. Hence the link with Christmas, marking the birth of the Christ child, and hence too the tradition that remembers, on the twelfth day, the coming of the “wise men” from the East to witness that miracle for themselves. The twelve days between are days of joyous celebration. On the twelfth day of course all the Christmas decorations come down and life returns to “normal”.

Christmas and Epiphany are essentially Christian festivals, but the event they celebrate is of universal significance – namely that the Creator of this vast, complex and beautiful universe loves each and every one of his children. In fact he has revealed that he has a special concern for the poor, the lowly and the suffering. (Jesus was himself a victim of power politics; he suffered an appalling injustice, and was tortured to death) There is therefore in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” a message of hope for all, and a challenge to all, to show a God-like concern for the victims of injustice and oppression. Which is why Sokwanele selected this time to run a series of features that relate particularly to some of those “at the bottom of the pile” in suffering, crisis-torn Zimbabwe.

Christmas 2004 marked the 20th anniversary of Band Aid, an international charity initiative that set out to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1984. While Band Aid celebrates their achievements in Ethiopia twenty years ago, many Zimbabweans starve today as a result of disastrous government policies. Sokwanele’s articles over the last 12 days have explored a range of ways in which food is manipulated, controlled and exploited in our country. Furthermore, we have shown that using ‘food’ as a tool for short-term gain is an established part of the ZANU PF political tradition. While this campaign recognises the suffering of people in Zimbabwe today, it also remembers the suffering imposed on Zimbabweans at the hands of ZANU PF twenty years ago. We remind those in power that Zimbabweans will never forget what has been done in the past, nor will we forget what is being done today.

The issue of food security in our nation is one that touches all of us. Our most recent articles, focussing on the impact of HIV/AIDS on farming in the rural areas, coupled with first-hand testimony from Binga, clearly show that the promise of a “bumper harvest” is a cruel deception. ZANU PF’s current policies, which set out to monopolise all aspects of food supply and use it to intimidate the general populace into voting for it, renders any such promise a total fiction.

Ida, the 73-year-old pensioner whose story we shared on Day 6 of our campaign, should be living comfortably in her old age. Her husband had worked hard to ensure that when he died, his wife would be taken care of. But Mugabe’s economy, boasting the worst inflation rate in the world, has eroded the value of pensions with the result that hundreds of pensioners like Ida cannot afford to eat today. Yet as difficult as her life is, Ida is ‘lucky’ in comparison to Belinda’s grandmother (Day 3) who is destitute and homeless. Like many other grandmothers in our country, Belinda’s grandmother found herself with the heartbreaking responsibility of looking after her tiny HIV positive granddaughter, orphaned when both parents died while she was still a baby. Without the help of a local organisation, both Belinda and her grandmother would almost certainly have died long ago.

Will organisations like this be able to continue helping once ZANU PF’s controls all NGO activities? We caught a glimpse of how many different lives were affected by one small feeding scheme in one of Zimbabwe’s cities (Day 7). In contrast, our article on Day 4 testifies to how the one institution that is totally dependent on the government for food, namely our prisons, exposes hundreds of human beings to malnutrition and a range of other diseases as a result of paltry amounts of unhealthy food being prepared and served in the most unsanitary conditions. Is this the way of our future once local and foreign feeding schemes are closed down? If this regime cannot feed a few thousand prisoners, how is it ever going to feed the hundreds of thousands – indeed millions -- of starving people who need help today?

Or perhaps it has no intention of doing so? Our articles on Days 5 and 8 speak of extensive corruption in the food supply system, and of the deliberate manipulation of food in our country for short term political gain. These policies and practices amount to state imposed starvation.

We started our campaign by saying that starvation, regardless of political or religious persuasion, is at its core a moral issue that concerns us all. We ask again today, that you put aside your own particular political allegiances, and consider what many Zimbabweans are experiencing today in that light.
And here are some of the practical things that you can do in response to that suffering:

1. Keep yourself well informed about what is really happening so you will not be taken in by the regime's propaganda. The following websites provide Zimbabwean news from a range of sources, both international and local: www.zwnews.com; www.zimonline.co.za; www.newzimbabwe.com; www.zimbabwesituation.com
2. Help others to be informed. Share this knowledge with as many as you can in whatever ways are open to you.
3. Give whatever financial or material help you can to the various local organisations that are working to feed the starving and alleviate poverty and suffering in our country. Visit www.kubatana.net for the contact details of local organisations in your area.

We thank you for your support.

* This is the last in a series of twelve features distributed by Sokwanele. To subscribe to their mailing list email [email protected] Sokwanele, which means “enough” aims to make people aware of what is happening in Zimbabwe. Visit www.sokwanele.com/ for more information. Sokwanele.com retains full copyright on its own articles, which may be reproduced or distributed but may not be materially altered in any way.