Thokozile Ncube 29.DEC.08
Mystery still shrouds the death of a Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) activist who died last week amid suspicions by his relatives that
he might have had his beer poisoned by state security agents.
Felix Gwafa (30), a staunch MDC supporter died in as yet unclear
circumstances last Friday after complaining of serious stomach pains and
vomiting blood while coming from a beer drink.
Gwafa, a University of Zimbabwe (UZ) graduate in History and Development
studies, was said to have insulted President Mugabe at a funeral wake of
Mukudzei Madondo, the son of prominent Gutu Business person and Chief
Gadzingo Madondo the day before, his relatives revealed.
Mukudzei died in a car accident near Panyanda Lodge, a few kilometers
out of Masvingo, along Beitbridge highway that links the town to South
Africa.
He was aged 28.
Some Gwafa family members who spoke on condition of anonymity said Felix
had made some remarks at Mukudzei’s funeral which might have ruffled the
feathers of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) members
that were also present at the ceremony
Thursday
How Mugabe treats his critics
24.DEC.08
After an orgy of torture and kidnapping by President Robert Mugabe's secret police, eight civil rights activists and Movement for Democratic Change officials were due to appear in the Harare Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Most of them are to be charged, based on "confessions" made in the custody of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), of bombing Harare's Central police station and a "plot" to violently topple Mugabe.
Among those due to appear in court is human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, 54, who was abducted in a dawn raid on her home in Norton, about 30km north of Harare, on December 3.
'Jestina is alive but frail'
The CIO, led by Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, has collected filmed "interviews" with the MDC's director of security, Chris Dlamini, and Gandhi Mudzingwa, a close adviser to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who were both abducted earlier this month.
Mukoko, a widow and mother of a teenage son, was the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), which collected information on human rights abuses by Mugabe's security establishment.
Jameson Timba, an MDC MP in Harare, said on Tuesday: "Jestina is alive but frail."
He said he did not know the whereabouts of the other abductees. At least 15, including a 2-year-old child, have been missing for eight weeks.
On December 9, High Court Judge Anne-Marie Gowora ordered the Zimbabwe Republic Police to produce Mukoko, but in court the police said they didn't have her in their network of cells.
Mukoko had been due to officiate at a USAID-backed awards ceremony before her abduction by a group of seven plainclothes armed men and a woman.
Two of her colleagues, Pascal Gonzo and Brodrick Takawira, were abducted from the project's offices a week later.
The ZPP has played a crucial role in documenting politically motivated violence before and in the run-up to the March 2008 elections, won by the MDC.
The project against the MDC and other anti-Mugabe activists came from Mugabe's team of security advisers, the unofficial committee of security chiefs, known as the Joint Operations Command, of which Mutasa is a member.
On Friday, Tsvangirai, in temporary exile in Botswana, said he would withdraw from negotiations to form an inclusive government unless more than 40 abductees were freed or appeared in court.
President Kgalema Motlanthe said last week he did not believe the MDC had been training insurgents in Botswana to topple Mugabe.
On Saturday, the Harare High Court ordered police to produce a freelance photojournalist, Shadreck Manyere, who was abducted from Norton a week earlier. Nothing has been heard of him since.
- IOL
After an orgy of torture and kidnapping by President Robert Mugabe's secret police, eight civil rights activists and Movement for Democratic Change officials were due to appear in the Harare Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Most of them are to be charged, based on "confessions" made in the custody of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), of bombing Harare's Central police station and a "plot" to violently topple Mugabe.
Among those due to appear in court is human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, 54, who was abducted in a dawn raid on her home in Norton, about 30km north of Harare, on December 3.
'Jestina is alive but frail'
The CIO, led by Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, has collected filmed "interviews" with the MDC's director of security, Chris Dlamini, and Gandhi Mudzingwa, a close adviser to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who were both abducted earlier this month.
Mukoko, a widow and mother of a teenage son, was the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), which collected information on human rights abuses by Mugabe's security establishment.
Jameson Timba, an MDC MP in Harare, said on Tuesday: "Jestina is alive but frail."
He said he did not know the whereabouts of the other abductees. At least 15, including a 2-year-old child, have been missing for eight weeks.
On December 9, High Court Judge Anne-Marie Gowora ordered the Zimbabwe Republic Police to produce Mukoko, but in court the police said they didn't have her in their network of cells.
Mukoko had been due to officiate at a USAID-backed awards ceremony before her abduction by a group of seven plainclothes armed men and a woman.
Two of her colleagues, Pascal Gonzo and Brodrick Takawira, were abducted from the project's offices a week later.
The ZPP has played a crucial role in documenting politically motivated violence before and in the run-up to the March 2008 elections, won by the MDC.
The project against the MDC and other anti-Mugabe activists came from Mugabe's team of security advisers, the unofficial committee of security chiefs, known as the Joint Operations Command, of which Mutasa is a member.
On Friday, Tsvangirai, in temporary exile in Botswana, said he would withdraw from negotiations to form an inclusive government unless more than 40 abductees were freed or appeared in court.
President Kgalema Motlanthe said last week he did not believe the MDC had been training insurgents in Botswana to topple Mugabe.
On Saturday, the Harare High Court ordered police to produce a freelance photojournalist, Shadreck Manyere, who was abducted from Norton a week earlier. Nothing has been heard of him since.
- IOL
Friday
Mugabe hints on dismantling Mthwakazi People's Convention during ZANU PF Central Committee
Full story is found in the ZANU PF mouthpiece the Herald.
Link: http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=1761&cat=1
"I was reading recent utterances by Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State) that African leaders are not prepared to topple President Mugabe and bring about regime change.
"She condemned this inability on the part of African leaders. How could African leaders ever topple Robert Mugabe, organise an army to come? It is not easy. I do not know of any African country that is brave enough to do that."
President Mugabe took a swipe at Botswana for being a mouthpiece for the British and the Americans.
Africans, he said, were rational enough to know that epidemics do occur regardless of whether one is black or white.
He warned delegates to be wary of the enemy who was devising new ways of destroying Zanu-PF from within and urged members to be on high alert.
The President said there has been a build- up of incidents of a military nature perpetrated against the people and country.
"Now we notice there is change . . . that change is that the enemy forces should now concentrate on personalities in Zanu-PF. Let’s take care. You are the leaders of the party," President Mugabe said urging party members to guard against "supping and dining" with the enemy.
"Tikadaro chete tapera. Nyaya iyoyi yekucherana ngaipere," he said to applause from delegates.
Most of the Central Committee members shouted "No" when the President asked whether all the members were clean.
He expressed dismay at the skirmishes that characterised Harare provincial elections warning some party members to desist from being too ambitions, backbiting, tribalist and regionalist.
"You might have an ambition but let not your ambition be misguided. We do not want it. Let us avoid it. I hope we can correct that kind of trend, which is developing.
"Varipo vangataura kuti isu tinoda zvechidunhu, nyika yakarwirwa by all tribes. We are Zimbabweans first and foremost. Yes, we keep our cultures, but we should not allow that to divide us . . . As one people we can move forward together faster than a divided people.
"Zvimaparty zvingamuka kana zvikadini zvazvo but as long as they are not based on unity and have no history as that of our party, the political wealth that our party has, they can never last," he said.
He denounced the use of the youths in fighting against each other while the enemy was plotting day and night to win over the party members in a bid to decimate the party.
"Setting one group against the other . . . Zvava zveboxing? The enemy is planning day and night ways and means of winning our people and therefore reduce our membership . . . Let’s have a counter to that," he said.
"Yes, they will back you to do the foolish business of fighting your people but we are watchful. We are saying that cannot continue."
Link: http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=1761&cat=1
"I was reading recent utterances by Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State) that African leaders are not prepared to topple President Mugabe and bring about regime change.
"She condemned this inability on the part of African leaders. How could African leaders ever topple Robert Mugabe, organise an army to come? It is not easy. I do not know of any African country that is brave enough to do that."
President Mugabe took a swipe at Botswana for being a mouthpiece for the British and the Americans.
Africans, he said, were rational enough to know that epidemics do occur regardless of whether one is black or white.
He warned delegates to be wary of the enemy who was devising new ways of destroying Zanu-PF from within and urged members to be on high alert.
The President said there has been a build- up of incidents of a military nature perpetrated against the people and country.
"Now we notice there is change . . . that change is that the enemy forces should now concentrate on personalities in Zanu-PF. Let’s take care. You are the leaders of the party," President Mugabe said urging party members to guard against "supping and dining" with the enemy.
"Tikadaro chete tapera. Nyaya iyoyi yekucherana ngaipere," he said to applause from delegates.
Most of the Central Committee members shouted "No" when the President asked whether all the members were clean.
He expressed dismay at the skirmishes that characterised Harare provincial elections warning some party members to desist from being too ambitions, backbiting, tribalist and regionalist.
"You might have an ambition but let not your ambition be misguided. We do not want it. Let us avoid it. I hope we can correct that kind of trend, which is developing.
"Varipo vangataura kuti isu tinoda zvechidunhu, nyika yakarwirwa by all tribes. We are Zimbabweans first and foremost. Yes, we keep our cultures, but we should not allow that to divide us . . . As one people we can move forward together faster than a divided people.
"Zvimaparty zvingamuka kana zvikadini zvazvo but as long as they are not based on unity and have no history as that of our party, the political wealth that our party has, they can never last," he said.
He denounced the use of the youths in fighting against each other while the enemy was plotting day and night to win over the party members in a bid to decimate the party.
"Setting one group against the other . . . Zvava zveboxing? The enemy is planning day and night ways and means of winning our people and therefore reduce our membership . . . Let’s have a counter to that," he said.
"Yes, they will back you to do the foolish business of fighting your people but we are watchful. We are saying that cannot continue."
Thursday
To offer Mugabe immunity would not give us long lasting peace
The following article is in today's UK Guardian newspaper.
The culture of impunity that began in the 1980s sowed the seeds for today's crisis, says Mpho Ncube
Article history
Jonathan Steele's suggestion that Robert Mugabe and his henchmen/women might just relinquish power if they are offered a "soft landing" will not bring a lasting solution in Zimbabwe (Softly, softly oust Mugabe, 15 December).
Essentially, Steele is proposing the perpetuation of Zimbabwe's culture of impunity, and we have been here before. When Mugabe came to power in 1980, a similar soft-landing deal was signed by the three warring armies of Zanu-PF,
PF-Zapu and the Rhodesian Front, where human rights abuses in the just finished brutal guerrilla war were swept under the carpet. It wasn't long after that, in 1982, that Mugabe unleashed a crack unit dubbed the Gukurahundi (the wind that washes away the chaff) to maim and murder more than 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland and Midlands.
The seeds of today's political and human rights crises in Zimbabwe therefore have their roots in the culture of impunity that was sown when a deal to end the massacres was signed by Mugabe and his political rival, Joshua Nkomo of PF-Zapu. The so-called Unity deal of 1987 gave a blanket amnesty to all members of the armed and security forces who were involved in the Gukurahundi atrocities, together with their political masterminds. It is therefore no wonder that the same people who masterminded the Matabeleland massacres are in charge of the violence and murder that has enveloped Zimbabwe in the past decade.
The reason Mugabe and his hench-people are so defiant is that they have benefited from previous orgies of violence and have no fear of the consequences. To call for "guarantees of retirement in safety", as Steele does, will be music to Mugabe's ears. Zimbabweans are once again being held hostage by his regime, and so to talk of immunity deals is to reward those who see violence and murder as a legitimate policy tool.
Steele's article makes no reference to the wishes of the many thousand victims of Mugabe's ruthless 28-year rule in Zimbabwe, and herein lies the other problem. Too often, in the discourse on the future of Zimbabwe, the victims' cries for truth and justice are seen as an impediment to a political deal to end the crisis. Steele himself argues that the threat of criminal action may make Mugabe more desperate to cling to power. Yet truth and justice are a prerequisite of any lasting solution. The reward of immunity, retirement in safety, or jobs for Mugabe and his henchpeople is the wrong mechanism for building long-lasting peace and stability.
My organisation is campaigning, on behalf of the victims of Gukurahundi and other state-sponsored abuses, for a Truth, Justice and Healing Commission. Without the direct input of victims of Mugabe's murderous reign, any top-down, expedient political fixes will not prevent abuses by future leaders.
A deterrent must be set in very clear and visible ways, which is why the lesson of the Nuremberg trials after the second world war is very apt. What is required now is for the "never again" principle to be institutionalised in Zimbabwe.
• Mpho Ncube is director of communications for the Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide in Matabeleland & Midlands, a British-based campaigning group for Zimbabwean exiles ncubem@maggemm.org
The culture of impunity that began in the 1980s sowed the seeds for today's crisis, says Mpho Ncube
Article history
Jonathan Steele's suggestion that Robert Mugabe and his henchmen/women might just relinquish power if they are offered a "soft landing" will not bring a lasting solution in Zimbabwe (Softly, softly oust Mugabe, 15 December).
Essentially, Steele is proposing the perpetuation of Zimbabwe's culture of impunity, and we have been here before. When Mugabe came to power in 1980, a similar soft-landing deal was signed by the three warring armies of Zanu-PF,
PF-Zapu and the Rhodesian Front, where human rights abuses in the just finished brutal guerrilla war were swept under the carpet. It wasn't long after that, in 1982, that Mugabe unleashed a crack unit dubbed the Gukurahundi (the wind that washes away the chaff) to maim and murder more than 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland and Midlands.
The seeds of today's political and human rights crises in Zimbabwe therefore have their roots in the culture of impunity that was sown when a deal to end the massacres was signed by Mugabe and his political rival, Joshua Nkomo of PF-Zapu. The so-called Unity deal of 1987 gave a blanket amnesty to all members of the armed and security forces who were involved in the Gukurahundi atrocities, together with their political masterminds. It is therefore no wonder that the same people who masterminded the Matabeleland massacres are in charge of the violence and murder that has enveloped Zimbabwe in the past decade.
The reason Mugabe and his hench-people are so defiant is that they have benefited from previous orgies of violence and have no fear of the consequences. To call for "guarantees of retirement in safety", as Steele does, will be music to Mugabe's ears. Zimbabweans are once again being held hostage by his regime, and so to talk of immunity deals is to reward those who see violence and murder as a legitimate policy tool.
Steele's article makes no reference to the wishes of the many thousand victims of Mugabe's ruthless 28-year rule in Zimbabwe, and herein lies the other problem. Too often, in the discourse on the future of Zimbabwe, the victims' cries for truth and justice are seen as an impediment to a political deal to end the crisis. Steele himself argues that the threat of criminal action may make Mugabe more desperate to cling to power. Yet truth and justice are a prerequisite of any lasting solution. The reward of immunity, retirement in safety, or jobs for Mugabe and his henchpeople is the wrong mechanism for building long-lasting peace and stability.
My organisation is campaigning, on behalf of the victims of Gukurahundi and other state-sponsored abuses, for a Truth, Justice and Healing Commission. Without the direct input of victims of Mugabe's murderous reign, any top-down, expedient political fixes will not prevent abuses by future leaders.
A deterrent must be set in very clear and visible ways, which is why the lesson of the Nuremberg trials after the second world war is very apt. What is required now is for the "never again" principle to be institutionalised in Zimbabwe.
• Mpho Ncube is director of communications for the Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide in Matabeleland & Midlands, a British-based campaigning group for Zimbabwean exiles ncubem@maggemm.org
Wednesday
Robert Mugabe 'doomsday' drawing closer than expected
17.DEC.08Harare -
In scenes that rattled the regime of President Robert Mugabe and stoked speculation its days were numbered, dozens of soldiers ran amok in the capital Harare on December 1 in protest over the country's economic meltdown. Some bystanders watched in amazement, some joined in as junior soldiers who, frustrated at being unable to access their meagre salaries because of acute cash shortages, ran through the streets, looting shops and attacking black-market currency dealers. Although the state moved quickly to put the genie back in the bottle, arresting 16 soldiers who face court martial proceedings, the footsoldiers of Mugabe's repressive regime warn they are likely to hit the streets again before long. "Just like everyone else, we have stomachs and families to feed. We are suffering, just like most citizens in this country," one junior officer Ola (not his real name) tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Sitting in a house in Mbare township south-west of Harare in worn boots and faded fatigues, Ola, a 27-year-old father of two and Duke (not his real name), 29, tell of the frustration that provoked their outburst. "There is no junior army officer that still supports Mugabe. We are tired, we are suffering," says Duke. "If a foreign army comes to fight us, we will join them or flee to a neighbouring country." Long lines The riots began when the soldiers were forced to stand in long line with ordinary Zimbabweans for their money at a bank ATM instead of being paid at the barracks. "Cash ran out (at the barracks) because the top guns finished the money. We then started walking into town to queue for cash," said Ola. "We got angry when we could not get it (the banks ran out of cash). That is when the chaos started." The rioting was the first open challenge to Mugabe in his 28 years in power from within the normally loyal military. While that loyalty is still strong among the top brass, whom Mugabe has showered with gifts, including luxury vehicles and confiscated farms, junior officers, who are feeling the pinch of the economic crisis, are showing signs of fatigue. The lowest-paid soldier in Zimbabwe earns about $10 a month. "I am now (illegally) changing money. My wife does that when I am at work," says Ola, who has just returned from the city centre to receive a money "drop" from his wife. "Because of the recent unrest (a series of protests by unions and activists), we are not allowed to go on leave - lest the situation gets out of hand and the army is called in," says Duke. "They took our passports. Otherwise many of us could have fled the country and sought asylum," Duke says amid widespread reports in recent months that thousands of soldiers have already deserted, mostly to South Africa in search of work. 'Head on' Although the soldiers were seen attacking money changers, Ola blames the police and military police for violence during the protest. The police used batons to quell the riot. "The idea was to show the public that even soldiers were now tired of this chaos. We wanted them to join us in marching since they have the same problems like us," Ola says. Coming after bombings at two police stations in recent weeks that were caused minimum damage and were described by police as an inside job, the riots have sparked speculation that Mugabe's hold on power may be loosening. Ola and Duke said junior soldiers were ready to meet the Mugabe regime "head on." "The top guns are getting payment in foreign currency but the rest of us, we are getting shells of peanuts," Ola complains. "We want to see if we will get a substantial salary rise in December as they promised. Otherwise, there will be another round of protests." - Sapa-dpa
In scenes that rattled the regime of President Robert Mugabe and stoked speculation its days were numbered, dozens of soldiers ran amok in the capital Harare on December 1 in protest over the country's economic meltdown. Some bystanders watched in amazement, some joined in as junior soldiers who, frustrated at being unable to access their meagre salaries because of acute cash shortages, ran through the streets, looting shops and attacking black-market currency dealers. Although the state moved quickly to put the genie back in the bottle, arresting 16 soldiers who face court martial proceedings, the footsoldiers of Mugabe's repressive regime warn they are likely to hit the streets again before long. "Just like everyone else, we have stomachs and families to feed. We are suffering, just like most citizens in this country," one junior officer Ola (not his real name) tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Sitting in a house in Mbare township south-west of Harare in worn boots and faded fatigues, Ola, a 27-year-old father of two and Duke (not his real name), 29, tell of the frustration that provoked their outburst. "There is no junior army officer that still supports Mugabe. We are tired, we are suffering," says Duke. "If a foreign army comes to fight us, we will join them or flee to a neighbouring country." Long lines The riots began when the soldiers were forced to stand in long line with ordinary Zimbabweans for their money at a bank ATM instead of being paid at the barracks. "Cash ran out (at the barracks) because the top guns finished the money. We then started walking into town to queue for cash," said Ola. "We got angry when we could not get it (the banks ran out of cash). That is when the chaos started." The rioting was the first open challenge to Mugabe in his 28 years in power from within the normally loyal military. While that loyalty is still strong among the top brass, whom Mugabe has showered with gifts, including luxury vehicles and confiscated farms, junior officers, who are feeling the pinch of the economic crisis, are showing signs of fatigue. The lowest-paid soldier in Zimbabwe earns about $10 a month. "I am now (illegally) changing money. My wife does that when I am at work," says Ola, who has just returned from the city centre to receive a money "drop" from his wife. "Because of the recent unrest (a series of protests by unions and activists), we are not allowed to go on leave - lest the situation gets out of hand and the army is called in," says Duke. "They took our passports. Otherwise many of us could have fled the country and sought asylum," Duke says amid widespread reports in recent months that thousands of soldiers have already deserted, mostly to South Africa in search of work. 'Head on' Although the soldiers were seen attacking money changers, Ola blames the police and military police for violence during the protest. The police used batons to quell the riot. "The idea was to show the public that even soldiers were now tired of this chaos. We wanted them to join us in marching since they have the same problems like us," Ola says. Coming after bombings at two police stations in recent weeks that were caused minimum damage and were described by police as an inside job, the riots have sparked speculation that Mugabe's hold on power may be loosening. Ola and Duke said junior soldiers were ready to meet the Mugabe regime "head on." "The top guns are getting payment in foreign currency but the rest of us, we are getting shells of peanuts," Ola complains. "We want to see if we will get a substantial salary rise in December as they promised. Otherwise, there will be another round of protests." - Sapa-dpa
Sunday
Missing activist was 'collecting evidence' on Mugabe crimes
Human rights workers are going into hiding across Zimbabwe as regime launches new wave of arrests.
Alex Duval Smith in Bulawayo
The Observer, Sunday 14 December 2008
A prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist abducted 12 days ago was working on case files to be used as possible prosecution evidence against members of President Robert Mugabe's regime, The Observer has learnt.
Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), is the most prominent among 20 political and civil society activists who have disappeared in the past six weeks.
According to fellow campaigners, Mukoko had established a network of hundreds of monitors - mostly church people, teachers and ordinary township dwellers - who had provided handwritten testimonies of the campaigns of brutality carried out by Mugabe's government. The testimony could have been used in any future investigation of human rights abuses by the Mugabe regime. 'She had catalogued thousands of incidents of murder, assault, torture, arson, and who the perpetrators are. The work was so meticulous it could stand up in any court,' said one associate.
A human rights lawyer revealed that just before Mukoko's abduction the ZPP had shifted from cataloguing violence in townships to the organised abuse of food aid, where people were forced to support Mugabe in return for maize deliveries. 'That upcoming report was going to be extremely embarrassing for the ruling party,' said the lawyer.
Lawyers and opposition politicians believe the abduction of Mukoko was carried out as part of a new campaign by elements in the ruling party to intimidate and hinder the work of those gathering incriminating evidence of human rights violations in the country. Most leading human rights figures have in recent days gone into hiding. The ZPP has closed and the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (Nango) has warned that 'there are reasons to fear for the safety of every activist in the land'.
At about 5am on 3 December, 15 armed men wearing civilian clothing burst into the home of Mukoko in Norton, 25 miles from the capital, Harare. Her 15-year-old son watched as the men, who claimed to be police officers, beat up a gardener, then bundled her, barefoot and dressed only in her pyjamas, into a waiting Mazda 323.
Within days, other abductions were carried out by groups of between six and nine armed men in civilian clothes using unmarked vehicles without number plates. On 5 December Zacharia Nkomo, 33, brother of leading human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo, was taken from his home in Masvingo.
Three days later Brodrick Takawira and Pascal Gonzo, both of the ZPP, were abducted in Harare. And on 10 December, Gandhi Mudzwinga, a close associate of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was kidnapped near Harare.
The ZPP, which was formed in 2000 and is funded by the Dutch and Canadian governments, is one of the most respected groups in Zimbabwean civil society. Its reports have been made available to African and Western embassies in Harare and used in confidential diplomatic briefing documents.
They are likely to have been among documents seen by the European Union before it added 11 military, police and ruling party officials to its latest travel blacklist, made official last Monday.
Lawyer Otto Saki said he and his colleagues have made desperate attempts to establish Mukoko's whereabouts. 'We struggled to find a judge to hear our application. Three days after her abduction, a judge we finally managed to speak to in the High Court car park told us it would be heard on Monday, 8 December.
'A week after she was taken, we obtained an order that the police search for Jestina in all places of detention where they have jurisdiction - in other words, everywhere except military compounds. But we have no news and the police say they do not have her.'
Lawyers say the last time the courts acted so evasively was in April - just after the first round of presidential elections - when Movement for Democratic Change activist Tonderai Ndira was abducted.Ndira was later found murdered.
JB Nkatazo of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace said Mutoko's abduction sent 'cold shivers' down the spines of all Zimbabwean activists. 'The new disappearances send a clear message to civil society that we will be picked up one by one,' said Nkatazo.
'We must fear the worst for Mukoko,' said Effie Ncube, 35, of the Masakhaneni Projects Trust for victims of violence. 'If she has been picked up and tortured, that means she also knows who her assailants were.' Paying tribute to her courage, he said: 'We last sat together two weeks ago. She understood the nature of the regime and the risks she was taking. She was documenting cases of human rights abuses to liberate Zimbabweans but also to liberate Mugabe. She paraphrased Nelson Mandela who said the South African transition was about liberating the racists.'
He added: 'What we do is very risky because the regime's attitude is that we are giving information to the CIA or to MI6. Mugabe's rhetoric is calculated to set African governments against Europeans, and so we, as civil society, are viewed as agents of Western imperialism.'
One of the greatest fears of Mugabe and those involved in this year's election-related violence is that the UN Security Council will call for an International Criminal Court investigation, as it did over Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir's involvement in the Darfur killings.
Statements in the past week by Mugabe and his aides provide clear evidence of the regime's paranoia. Presidential spokesman George Charamba told the state-run Herald newspaper that Western countries were planning to 'bring Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council by claiming the cholera epidemic and food shortages have incapacitated the government'.
On Friday, in a bizarre effort to parry criticism of the regime at tomorrow's meeting in New York, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said: 'Gordon Brown must be taken to the United Nations Security Council for being a threat to world peace and planting cholera and anthrax to invade Zimbabwe.'
But Minister for Africa Lord Malloch-Brown said the meeting would focus on the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, especially concerns that UN medical officials have been denied access to the country to assess the cholera outbreak.
'I don't see the prospect of an international tribunal coming up tomorrow,' he said. 'Mugabe is in a state of exaggerated paranoia. The arrests of the human rights activists are part of that. But it is certainly the case that Mugabe's actions this year have exposed him as never before. The day he falls he has huge future vulnerability.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Alex Duval Smith in Bulawayo
The Observer, Sunday 14 December 2008
A prominent Zimbabwean human rights activist abducted 12 days ago was working on case files to be used as possible prosecution evidence against members of President Robert Mugabe's regime, The Observer has learnt.
Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), is the most prominent among 20 political and civil society activists who have disappeared in the past six weeks.
According to fellow campaigners, Mukoko had established a network of hundreds of monitors - mostly church people, teachers and ordinary township dwellers - who had provided handwritten testimonies of the campaigns of brutality carried out by Mugabe's government. The testimony could have been used in any future investigation of human rights abuses by the Mugabe regime. 'She had catalogued thousands of incidents of murder, assault, torture, arson, and who the perpetrators are. The work was so meticulous it could stand up in any court,' said one associate.
A human rights lawyer revealed that just before Mukoko's abduction the ZPP had shifted from cataloguing violence in townships to the organised abuse of food aid, where people were forced to support Mugabe in return for maize deliveries. 'That upcoming report was going to be extremely embarrassing for the ruling party,' said the lawyer.
Lawyers and opposition politicians believe the abduction of Mukoko was carried out as part of a new campaign by elements in the ruling party to intimidate and hinder the work of those gathering incriminating evidence of human rights violations in the country. Most leading human rights figures have in recent days gone into hiding. The ZPP has closed and the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (Nango) has warned that 'there are reasons to fear for the safety of every activist in the land'.
At about 5am on 3 December, 15 armed men wearing civilian clothing burst into the home of Mukoko in Norton, 25 miles from the capital, Harare. Her 15-year-old son watched as the men, who claimed to be police officers, beat up a gardener, then bundled her, barefoot and dressed only in her pyjamas, into a waiting Mazda 323.
Within days, other abductions were carried out by groups of between six and nine armed men in civilian clothes using unmarked vehicles without number plates. On 5 December Zacharia Nkomo, 33, brother of leading human rights lawyer Harrison Nkomo, was taken from his home in Masvingo.
Three days later Brodrick Takawira and Pascal Gonzo, both of the ZPP, were abducted in Harare. And on 10 December, Gandhi Mudzwinga, a close associate of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was kidnapped near Harare.
The ZPP, which was formed in 2000 and is funded by the Dutch and Canadian governments, is one of the most respected groups in Zimbabwean civil society. Its reports have been made available to African and Western embassies in Harare and used in confidential diplomatic briefing documents.
They are likely to have been among documents seen by the European Union before it added 11 military, police and ruling party officials to its latest travel blacklist, made official last Monday.
Lawyer Otto Saki said he and his colleagues have made desperate attempts to establish Mukoko's whereabouts. 'We struggled to find a judge to hear our application. Three days after her abduction, a judge we finally managed to speak to in the High Court car park told us it would be heard on Monday, 8 December.
'A week after she was taken, we obtained an order that the police search for Jestina in all places of detention where they have jurisdiction - in other words, everywhere except military compounds. But we have no news and the police say they do not have her.'
Lawyers say the last time the courts acted so evasively was in April - just after the first round of presidential elections - when Movement for Democratic Change activist Tonderai Ndira was abducted.Ndira was later found murdered.
JB Nkatazo of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace said Mutoko's abduction sent 'cold shivers' down the spines of all Zimbabwean activists. 'The new disappearances send a clear message to civil society that we will be picked up one by one,' said Nkatazo.
'We must fear the worst for Mukoko,' said Effie Ncube, 35, of the Masakhaneni Projects Trust for victims of violence. 'If she has been picked up and tortured, that means she also knows who her assailants were.' Paying tribute to her courage, he said: 'We last sat together two weeks ago. She understood the nature of the regime and the risks she was taking. She was documenting cases of human rights abuses to liberate Zimbabweans but also to liberate Mugabe. She paraphrased Nelson Mandela who said the South African transition was about liberating the racists.'
He added: 'What we do is very risky because the regime's attitude is that we are giving information to the CIA or to MI6. Mugabe's rhetoric is calculated to set African governments against Europeans, and so we, as civil society, are viewed as agents of Western imperialism.'
One of the greatest fears of Mugabe and those involved in this year's election-related violence is that the UN Security Council will call for an International Criminal Court investigation, as it did over Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir's involvement in the Darfur killings.
Statements in the past week by Mugabe and his aides provide clear evidence of the regime's paranoia. Presidential spokesman George Charamba told the state-run Herald newspaper that Western countries were planning to 'bring Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council by claiming the cholera epidemic and food shortages have incapacitated the government'.
On Friday, in a bizarre effort to parry criticism of the regime at tomorrow's meeting in New York, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said: 'Gordon Brown must be taken to the United Nations Security Council for being a threat to world peace and planting cholera and anthrax to invade Zimbabwe.'
But Minister for Africa Lord Malloch-Brown said the meeting would focus on the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, especially concerns that UN medical officials have been denied access to the country to assess the cholera outbreak.
'I don't see the prospect of an international tribunal coming up tomorrow,' he said. 'Mugabe is in a state of exaggerated paranoia. The arrests of the human rights activists are part of that. But it is certainly the case that Mugabe's actions this year have exposed him as never before. The day he falls he has huge future vulnerability.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Friday
Can there be an Ndebele speaking President in Zimbabwe?
By Nkululeko Sapho Ndlovu
Let me begin by deconstructing the semantics. Ndebele is a language which derives from Zulu. The now common currency of calling uMthwakazi or Mahlabezulu the Ndebele is an anomaly, which is still being debated today. The question should be can there be an Mthwakazian president in Zimbabwe? Ndebele being a language, no-one has a monopoly over it, inasmuch the Anglo-Saxons do not hold the monopoly over the English language. The simple and direct answer to this question is NO. This question should be considered by those who consider themselves Zimbabwean. From the perspective of a Mthwakazian, I can not see that happening. A Shona hegemony engineered by Zanu is now so steeped in the Shona psyche that, there has to be a catastrophic paradigm shift on the Shona to realise a President of Zimbabwe who is Mthwakazian. An Mthwakazian President in Zimbabwe will be illegitimate.
Zimbabwe existed as an entity before the advent of BSAC rule (1888-1923), separate from Matebeleland, which shall be referred to as Mthwakazi throughout this document. From 1923 to 1965 both Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe revert to be ruled from London now called Rhodesia, after Mthwakazi was annexed by the Charter, which in itself was illegal and therefore renders the annexation illegal. As there was/is no formal treaty of annexation of Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe by the British, both territories remained independent entities administered jointly as protectorates by the British crown. On 11 November 1965, Ian Douglas Smith declares the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Rhodesia becomes independent from Colonial Britain. This is declared an illegitimate act by not only Britain but by the United Nations. This therefore means Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi have never been formally annexed, and remain independent of each other until today.
As evidence has clearly shown that Mugabe has from the 1980s, intended to rule Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi as separate entities, this emphasises the point of separateness of the two states, making it difficult for an Ndebele speaking person to be President of Zimbabwe, and exposing the illegitimacy of the Zimbabwean government and Mugabe on Mthwakazi.
The unfortunate development is that Mugabe and Zanu-PF, have managed to subjugate and colonise the minds of Mthwakazians, who now have internalised subservience to Zanu and Mugabe’s hegemony on Mthwakazi. Our people now fail to aspire for the top echelons of any facet of life, be it as President; director of a company; manager of a department or principal of a school. The list is endless. This has been created by the usurpation of the democratic space by Mugabe and Zanu. At present there is a quartet of parties led by Shona speaking individuals, two of them MDC-T and MDC-M, deliberately configured to be led by Shona speakers, and possibly the fourth led by Makoni. This deference to the Shona is regrettable and the Obama effect is light years away, if not near impossible.
The other aspect of this is that, after the Gukurahundi massacres, the situation became untenable. Gukurahundi was a clear indication that Mugabe and Zanu wanted Mthwakazi annihilated. Indeed when Mugabe was questioned by the BBC reporter, about the massacres of Mthwakazi civilians in Mthwakazi, he stated that “we do not distinguish between civilians and dissidents”. This was Mugabe showing impatience with the Zanu 1979 Grand Plan, and Gukurahundi was the quick fix solution, to cow uMthwakazi into ultimate submission to a Zimbabwean hegemony, under one party statism.
Preceding the Mthwakazi massacres, Mugabe had demobilised a sizeable number of ex-Zipra cadres. This was to lay ground for the pillaging, and wanton murder by the marauding Gukurahundi, unimpeded by the vastly superior Zipra. The same demobilised ex-Zipra cadres were now hunted by Mugabe’s Gukurahundi, reminiscent of poachers hunting game.
This period was followed by en-masse colonisation of Mthwakazi, to now consolidate the Zanu Grand Plan of 1979. Unless one is deliberately accosting ignorance, it is without a doubt that the Zanu Grand Plan 1979, has come to pass, and has been cemented in all facets of life in Mthwakazi. Now the icing on the cake is Mugabe, with his brother Makoni, and their nephews Tswangirai and Mutambara, leading their respective parties, who are the embodiment of absolute Shona hegemony over Mthwakazi. This is evidence enough that there can be no Mthwakazi person, at the helm of Zimbabwe.
However, I as a Mthwakazian, I have no interest on Zimbabwean politics. To me Zimbabweans rip what they sow. We in Mthwakazi have never given Mugabe and Zanu a mandate. My only interest on Zimbabwe is divorcing Mthwakazi from the Zimbabwe. I discuss Zimbabwe as an illegal reference point, from where uMthwakazi must now reassert herself as an Independent entity, as created by our fore fathers.
Nkululeko Sapho Ndlovu is the Mthwakazi People's Convention (MPC) UK-Secretary and the movement's Director of International Relations based in United Kingdom. He can be contacted on e-mail: international.relations@mthwakazionline.org
Let me begin by deconstructing the semantics. Ndebele is a language which derives from Zulu. The now common currency of calling uMthwakazi or Mahlabezulu the Ndebele is an anomaly, which is still being debated today. The question should be can there be an Mthwakazian president in Zimbabwe? Ndebele being a language, no-one has a monopoly over it, inasmuch the Anglo-Saxons do not hold the monopoly over the English language. The simple and direct answer to this question is NO. This question should be considered by those who consider themselves Zimbabwean. From the perspective of a Mthwakazian, I can not see that happening. A Shona hegemony engineered by Zanu is now so steeped in the Shona psyche that, there has to be a catastrophic paradigm shift on the Shona to realise a President of Zimbabwe who is Mthwakazian. An Mthwakazian President in Zimbabwe will be illegitimate.
Zimbabwe existed as an entity before the advent of BSAC rule (1888-1923), separate from Matebeleland, which shall be referred to as Mthwakazi throughout this document. From 1923 to 1965 both Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe revert to be ruled from London now called Rhodesia, after Mthwakazi was annexed by the Charter, which in itself was illegal and therefore renders the annexation illegal. As there was/is no formal treaty of annexation of Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe by the British, both territories remained independent entities administered jointly as protectorates by the British crown. On 11 November 1965, Ian Douglas Smith declares the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). Rhodesia becomes independent from Colonial Britain. This is declared an illegitimate act by not only Britain but by the United Nations. This therefore means Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi have never been formally annexed, and remain independent of each other until today.
As evidence has clearly shown that Mugabe has from the 1980s, intended to rule Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi as separate entities, this emphasises the point of separateness of the two states, making it difficult for an Ndebele speaking person to be President of Zimbabwe, and exposing the illegitimacy of the Zimbabwean government and Mugabe on Mthwakazi.
The unfortunate development is that Mugabe and Zanu-PF, have managed to subjugate and colonise the minds of Mthwakazians, who now have internalised subservience to Zanu and Mugabe’s hegemony on Mthwakazi. Our people now fail to aspire for the top echelons of any facet of life, be it as President; director of a company; manager of a department or principal of a school. The list is endless. This has been created by the usurpation of the democratic space by Mugabe and Zanu. At present there is a quartet of parties led by Shona speaking individuals, two of them MDC-T and MDC-M, deliberately configured to be led by Shona speakers, and possibly the fourth led by Makoni. This deference to the Shona is regrettable and the Obama effect is light years away, if not near impossible.
The other aspect of this is that, after the Gukurahundi massacres, the situation became untenable. Gukurahundi was a clear indication that Mugabe and Zanu wanted Mthwakazi annihilated. Indeed when Mugabe was questioned by the BBC reporter, about the massacres of Mthwakazi civilians in Mthwakazi, he stated that “we do not distinguish between civilians and dissidents”. This was Mugabe showing impatience with the Zanu 1979 Grand Plan, and Gukurahundi was the quick fix solution, to cow uMthwakazi into ultimate submission to a Zimbabwean hegemony, under one party statism.
Preceding the Mthwakazi massacres, Mugabe had demobilised a sizeable number of ex-Zipra cadres. This was to lay ground for the pillaging, and wanton murder by the marauding Gukurahundi, unimpeded by the vastly superior Zipra. The same demobilised ex-Zipra cadres were now hunted by Mugabe’s Gukurahundi, reminiscent of poachers hunting game.
This period was followed by en-masse colonisation of Mthwakazi, to now consolidate the Zanu Grand Plan of 1979. Unless one is deliberately accosting ignorance, it is without a doubt that the Zanu Grand Plan 1979, has come to pass, and has been cemented in all facets of life in Mthwakazi. Now the icing on the cake is Mugabe, with his brother Makoni, and their nephews Tswangirai and Mutambara, leading their respective parties, who are the embodiment of absolute Shona hegemony over Mthwakazi. This is evidence enough that there can be no Mthwakazi person, at the helm of Zimbabwe.
However, I as a Mthwakazian, I have no interest on Zimbabwean politics. To me Zimbabweans rip what they sow. We in Mthwakazi have never given Mugabe and Zanu a mandate. My only interest on Zimbabwe is divorcing Mthwakazi from the Zimbabwe. I discuss Zimbabwe as an illegal reference point, from where uMthwakazi must now reassert herself as an Independent entity, as created by our fore fathers.
Nkululeko Sapho Ndlovu is the Mthwakazi People's Convention (MPC) UK-Secretary and the movement's Director of International Relations based in United Kingdom. He can be contacted on e-mail: international.relations@mthwakazionline.org
Thursday
MPC forsaw the failure of the ZANU PF,MDC Agreeement in September
STATEMENT ON THE POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT BETWEEN ZANU-PF AND MDC SIGNED IN HARARE ON THE 15th SEPTEMBER 2008.
MPC says there is no need for the world to wait and see how the so-called power-sharing agreement between Zanu-PF and the MDC signed in Harare on Monday, 15th September 2008, will work. Its fate is a foregone conclusion because it is a political fraud preordained to fail.And the agreement fools no one. Mugabe is still firmly in charge. He has not lost any of his powers.The political grandstanding of the whole signing event bore all the hallmarks of a political fraud seeking political legitimacy well after the event.The body language of the signatories and their speeches gave everything away. The one man tried too hard to be accepted while the other was only too happy to showcase his total disdain. A lie that even the supposed actors could do nothing to hide. It will simply not work.A public event cannot legitimise a secret political fraud made out in the shadowy corridors of power. The whole process had no political legitimacy; the outcome completes the political fraud. That it was negotiated with the so-called mediation of South Africa does not grant it legitimacy retrospectively. In the circumstances, it makes it worse. If anything, it is unZimbabwean as it is unAfrican and not international. It is a private agreement, devoid of political legitimacy.We fear the MDC long sold-out the popular cause, the so-called agreement only being the manifestation of that betrayal. Nothing short of a genuine democratization process will suffice. MPC believes it is better to have no revolution at all than to have a still-born one. The people of present-day Zimbabwe are the losers and the 15th September 2008 must be recorded as a sad day and not the great, non-event it was touted as.The citizens of present-day Zimbabwe not only deserved to know what was happening, they have the right to know and to be fully informed and to fully participate on such a crucial matter that not only affects them but their future generations as well.What the world saw on the 15th September 2008 was a re-enactment of the old and archaic mentality that the world should discard in 2008 and not endorse. It is a mentality that says that so-called leaders know everything and the people must just accept and follow. This is a lost golden opportunity to truly democratize present-day Zimbabwe and rescue it from the black-hole of regression that Mugabe and Zanu-PF have frog-marched Zimbabwe into. MPC and Mthwakazi, and indeed all progressive and open-minded Zimbabweans, will and must do everything in our power to stop this.This is also the mentality that gave Zimbabwe the political monster of Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF, and uMthwakazi, the tragedy of Gukurahundi. It is about to hand us the political dinosaur of Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. The people must say; not this time!Who mandated all the actors here and in whose name were they acting, we ask?2MPC and the world know what gave Zanu-PF and MDC-T a place at the negotiating table. It was mutual violence. Kenya is a dangerous precedent that must be buried in Kenya. It is the new head of evil that all Africa and the world must not see repeated elsewhere. It must not see the light of day in present-day Zimbabwe.It is time to stop the privatization of public processes and return their ownership to the people. The people of present-day Zimbabwe must bury their differences and reject comprehensively and loudly this political fraud. More than that, Zanu-PF and the MDC must bear full responsibility for prolonging the political and economic agony that the people of present-day Zimbabwe are going through and will in all probability still go through. Zimbabweans are being made to pay the ultimate political price for the selfish interests of a few men and women who won’t subordinate themselves to the greater and common good.The political fraud of 1987, the so-called Unity Accord, casts a large shadow over this latest charade. The fate of this latest accord is sealed. By this agreement Zanu-PF and the MDC have formally taken us back to the Dark Ages and down the political drain.The political problems of present-day Zimbabwe are political. It does not take a VIDCO Chairman (Village Development Committee) to know that.Therefore a political fraud crafted to achieve an economic miracle will not work. Zimbabwe must address its political problems openly, accountably, genuinely and without fear or favour. That is what will fix the collapsed Zimbabwean economy, not this political mischief-making we witnessed on the 15th September 2008.MPC understands that the diplomatese that has greeted the so-called agreement is unavoidable but we hope that the international community will give careful consideration to this agreement before writing the cheques and tempering with the targeted sanctions presently in place.The world might be tempted to give limited financial support now as an incentive for the regime to increase political reforms. We remind the world that this is a scared and running Mugabe. It will never work. Gukurahundi and all the crimes that he and his cronies have committed since, hang like a sword over their heads. The protection of office is Mr Mugabe and his cronies’ primary and overriding concern. Everything revolves around this concern.MPC remains of the considered view that only a true all-inclusive political process involving all the stakeholders and addressing all political issues openly and robustly, will rescue present-day Zimbabwe, and not the sort of political fraud we saw signed with a pliant, out of sorts political opposition on the 15th September 2008.MPC has long called for and continues to call for such a process. We continue to call for Codaz (the Convention for a democratic alternative in present-day Zimbabwe). Only such a process will stop self-saving leaders disgracing the political landscape of present-day Zimbabwe and give us leaders who are not afraid of the people but are prepared to submit and subordinate themselves to the sovereignty of the people. That is the essence of democracy and democratic activity.Zimbabwe and the rest of the world have an obligation not only to reject this so-called agreement between Zanu-PF and the MDC but also not to waste time on an agreement as visibly hollow as this one. The protection of a group of men and women cannot be allowed to hold a whole nation at political ransom. No man or woman’s mistakes are worth the suffering of all.MPC is challenging the people of present-day Zimbabwe and the rest of the world to reject this agreement without equivocation.
Distributed by the Department of Communications© Copyright 2008 MPC Department of Communications .
Contact: Mr Kirth Dube
Director of Communications- MPC
director.communications@mthwakazionline.org
MPC says there is no need for the world to wait and see how the so-called power-sharing agreement between Zanu-PF and the MDC signed in Harare on Monday, 15th September 2008, will work. Its fate is a foregone conclusion because it is a political fraud preordained to fail.And the agreement fools no one. Mugabe is still firmly in charge. He has not lost any of his powers.The political grandstanding of the whole signing event bore all the hallmarks of a political fraud seeking political legitimacy well after the event.The body language of the signatories and their speeches gave everything away. The one man tried too hard to be accepted while the other was only too happy to showcase his total disdain. A lie that even the supposed actors could do nothing to hide. It will simply not work.A public event cannot legitimise a secret political fraud made out in the shadowy corridors of power. The whole process had no political legitimacy; the outcome completes the political fraud. That it was negotiated with the so-called mediation of South Africa does not grant it legitimacy retrospectively. In the circumstances, it makes it worse. If anything, it is unZimbabwean as it is unAfrican and not international. It is a private agreement, devoid of political legitimacy.We fear the MDC long sold-out the popular cause, the so-called agreement only being the manifestation of that betrayal. Nothing short of a genuine democratization process will suffice. MPC believes it is better to have no revolution at all than to have a still-born one. The people of present-day Zimbabwe are the losers and the 15th September 2008 must be recorded as a sad day and not the great, non-event it was touted as.The citizens of present-day Zimbabwe not only deserved to know what was happening, they have the right to know and to be fully informed and to fully participate on such a crucial matter that not only affects them but their future generations as well.What the world saw on the 15th September 2008 was a re-enactment of the old and archaic mentality that the world should discard in 2008 and not endorse. It is a mentality that says that so-called leaders know everything and the people must just accept and follow. This is a lost golden opportunity to truly democratize present-day Zimbabwe and rescue it from the black-hole of regression that Mugabe and Zanu-PF have frog-marched Zimbabwe into. MPC and Mthwakazi, and indeed all progressive and open-minded Zimbabweans, will and must do everything in our power to stop this.This is also the mentality that gave Zimbabwe the political monster of Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF, and uMthwakazi, the tragedy of Gukurahundi. It is about to hand us the political dinosaur of Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC. The people must say; not this time!Who mandated all the actors here and in whose name were they acting, we ask?2MPC and the world know what gave Zanu-PF and MDC-T a place at the negotiating table. It was mutual violence. Kenya is a dangerous precedent that must be buried in Kenya. It is the new head of evil that all Africa and the world must not see repeated elsewhere. It must not see the light of day in present-day Zimbabwe.It is time to stop the privatization of public processes and return their ownership to the people. The people of present-day Zimbabwe must bury their differences and reject comprehensively and loudly this political fraud. More than that, Zanu-PF and the MDC must bear full responsibility for prolonging the political and economic agony that the people of present-day Zimbabwe are going through and will in all probability still go through. Zimbabweans are being made to pay the ultimate political price for the selfish interests of a few men and women who won’t subordinate themselves to the greater and common good.The political fraud of 1987, the so-called Unity Accord, casts a large shadow over this latest charade. The fate of this latest accord is sealed. By this agreement Zanu-PF and the MDC have formally taken us back to the Dark Ages and down the political drain.The political problems of present-day Zimbabwe are political. It does not take a VIDCO Chairman (Village Development Committee) to know that.Therefore a political fraud crafted to achieve an economic miracle will not work. Zimbabwe must address its political problems openly, accountably, genuinely and without fear or favour. That is what will fix the collapsed Zimbabwean economy, not this political mischief-making we witnessed on the 15th September 2008.MPC understands that the diplomatese that has greeted the so-called agreement is unavoidable but we hope that the international community will give careful consideration to this agreement before writing the cheques and tempering with the targeted sanctions presently in place.The world might be tempted to give limited financial support now as an incentive for the regime to increase political reforms. We remind the world that this is a scared and running Mugabe. It will never work. Gukurahundi and all the crimes that he and his cronies have committed since, hang like a sword over their heads. The protection of office is Mr Mugabe and his cronies’ primary and overriding concern. Everything revolves around this concern.MPC remains of the considered view that only a true all-inclusive political process involving all the stakeholders and addressing all political issues openly and robustly, will rescue present-day Zimbabwe, and not the sort of political fraud we saw signed with a pliant, out of sorts political opposition on the 15th September 2008.MPC has long called for and continues to call for such a process. We continue to call for Codaz (the Convention for a democratic alternative in present-day Zimbabwe). Only such a process will stop self-saving leaders disgracing the political landscape of present-day Zimbabwe and give us leaders who are not afraid of the people but are prepared to submit and subordinate themselves to the sovereignty of the people. That is the essence of democracy and democratic activity.Zimbabwe and the rest of the world have an obligation not only to reject this so-called agreement between Zanu-PF and the MDC but also not to waste time on an agreement as visibly hollow as this one. The protection of a group of men and women cannot be allowed to hold a whole nation at political ransom. No man or woman’s mistakes are worth the suffering of all.MPC is challenging the people of present-day Zimbabwe and the rest of the world to reject this agreement without equivocation.
Distributed by the Department of Communications© Copyright 2008 MPC Department of Communications .
Contact: Mr Kirth Dube
Director of Communications- MPC
director.communications@mthwakazionline.org
Wednesday
Time to Topple Robert Mugabe
The world must know that the people of Zimbabwe are not the problem but Robert Mugabe is, that is simple for any world leader to recognise but do they?
I do not understand why anyone would be blamed and held accountable for plotting to kill this evil monster called Mugabe. Britain and the British people should understand that it is not racist to be vocal against Mugabe but it would be suicidal to be silent and NOT act and say this is only an African problem.
I Also find it absurdly anachronistic for the MDC leadership to use the language of human rights when describing Mugabe’s Gukurahundi massacre of the Mthwakazi people and his brutalisation of all Zimbabweans post 1987 Unity accord.
With the recent breakdown of the country’s health system, the collapse of the economy and the rebellion of some of the national army personal in the streets of the capital, one will envisage the cracks in this defiant regime. With the resurgence of the ZIPRA and ZAPU in matebeleland (Mthwakazi), I as an active member of the opposition MPC, I will be naïve not to be pleased by this development.
Watching distressing footage of the sufferings of our people on international TV screens miles away from my native land is not only emotionally distressing but is psychologically impairing beyond imagination. I urge our youth to rise up against this regime and use every means possible to fight to restore democracy in our land. I am a Mthwakazian who grew up in the townships of Bulawayo, I have no intention nonsoever – to scare people but to write what I like so long it reaches those that it is meant to reach. Sources tell me that the cholera outbreak is a way of dealing with the urban dwellers that voted against Mugabe and ZANU PF, if this is true them Mugabe must be dealt with in the same manner terrorists like Osama Bin Laden who commit mass murder are dealt with.
Tuesday
The Sham State of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's government has pledged transparency in its handling of all donor funds aimed for the fight against Aids.The statement follows the recent controversy, which saw the Global Aids fund compel Harare to repay $7 million, after it was alleged that government had diverted the money to other causes.With around one in seven adults living with HIV, Zimbabwe is experiencing one of the harshest Aids epidemics in the world. Donors suspected that the money had been used to fund other government programmes including farm distribution, and lavish gratuities.
World Aids Day, observed on December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the Aids pandemic caused by the spread of HIV. Aids has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007, and an estimated 33 million people worldwide live with HIV as of 2007, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.
One Zimbabwean national, Loveness Dzvimba has been living with HIV for the past 18 years but she's never felt more vulnerable to the disease. Life has been really tough for many Zimbabweans, but it's been a nightmare for those living with the virus: “ARVs are being sold in foreign currency at about R300 for a month's supply, and most of us simply can't afford.”
As the health system collapses, private medical aids are now virtually non-existent and basic measures such as a balanced diet are but a pipe-dream for many Aids patients.
Zimbabwe's deputy health minister Edwin Muguti says due to the shortages of food, it has been difficult to extend their home-based care programmes. “We're also having difficulties with children made vulnerable by Aids. I'd urge NGOs and all our other partners, to scale up their activities.”
NGOs lament the time lost, when government barred them from operating for almost two months earlier this year and now they've got to deal with the cholera epidemic. Dr Patience Musiwa, a volunteer doctor, says: “If you're living in an area where sewage is flowing in the cities, where there's no proper sanitation, and you already have a compromised immune system, it's very difficult to stay healthy.”
Of the estimated 300 000 Aids patients known to be in urgent need of ARVs, only half are believed to be on medication.
World Aids Day, observed on December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the Aids pandemic caused by the spread of HIV. Aids has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007, and an estimated 33 million people worldwide live with HIV as of 2007, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.
One Zimbabwean national, Loveness Dzvimba has been living with HIV for the past 18 years but she's never felt more vulnerable to the disease. Life has been really tough for many Zimbabweans, but it's been a nightmare for those living with the virus: “ARVs are being sold in foreign currency at about R300 for a month's supply, and most of us simply can't afford.”
As the health system collapses, private medical aids are now virtually non-existent and basic measures such as a balanced diet are but a pipe-dream for many Aids patients.
Zimbabwe's deputy health minister Edwin Muguti says due to the shortages of food, it has been difficult to extend their home-based care programmes. “We're also having difficulties with children made vulnerable by Aids. I'd urge NGOs and all our other partners, to scale up their activities.”
NGOs lament the time lost, when government barred them from operating for almost two months earlier this year and now they've got to deal with the cholera epidemic. Dr Patience Musiwa, a volunteer doctor, says: “If you're living in an area where sewage is flowing in the cities, where there's no proper sanitation, and you already have a compromised immune system, it's very difficult to stay healthy.”
Of the estimated 300 000 Aids patients known to be in urgent need of ARVs, only half are believed to be on medication.
Mugabe government's failures
A BULAWAYO family has abandoned its home as raw sewage is flowing into the house following sewer pipe bursts.A Chronicle news crew yesterday visited House Number 857 in Emakhandeni suburb and found raw sewage flowing into the three-roomed house.The flowing sewage has caused a stench that is sweeping across the area, a development that has sparked widespread complaints from residents. The house’s yard has also been invaded by green flies and neighbours are now living in fear of a cholera outbreak that has claimed hundreds of lives country-wide.Although the family, could not be traced yesterday, details obtained by Chronicle showed that the main reason for deserting the house was because of the raw sewage. Speaking in separate interviews, neighbours said the family left the house two weeks ago.“The sewage has always been a problem and the last tenants tried to keep up with the problem, but could not take it anymore. It is two weeks now and there has been no one in the house,” said Mr Thando Mlilo, a neighbour. The sewer pipes were reportedly bursting every week.“They were reporting the matter to the council but their efforts were fruitless as the council failed to fix the problem. “Ever since 2006 this house has been having this problem, forcing the owners to leave and put lodgers,” said Miss Nomathemba Khuphe, another neighbour.The burst, which occurred in the toilet, has posed a serious health hazard as it has spilled into the house, overflowing even into the bedroom.“The sewage overflows to the bedroom and there is no room that has been spared. This was making it hard for the occupants, as they had to clean raw sewage everyday,” said another neighbour.Efforts to get a comment from the Bulawayo City Council were fruitless yesterday.
Wednesday
Robert Mugabe asks for confrontation
This is no longer a laughing matter, time will tell by Kirth Dube.Zimbabwe a failed state run by Robert Mugabe and his criminals on Tuesday ordered the riot police to seal the exits of the country's main referral hospital, Parirenyatwa, to prevent staff including doctors, specialists, nurses and engineers from marching into the city centre to protest about the country’s deteriorating health system. The state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday that 36 people had died from cholera and more than 430 people had been infected in one single district in Matabeleland South (Mthwakazi), near the border with South Africa.
Last week the Zimbabwe Times said that 12 opposition supporters were on October 30 seized by state security agents in Banket, Mashonaland West province. The State agents raided the homes of the MDC leadership and arrested the MDC members, including a two-year-old girl.During the arrests, police are said to have seized property including a computer and official party documents at the home of MDC’s national executive member, Concilia Chinanzvavana. She and her husband, Emmanuel, an elected councillor in Banket, are alleged to be among the 12 MDC activists who received military training in Botswana. The Zimbabwe Times quoted a source saying the 12 were transferred from Banket to Harare and were initially held at Mabelreign Police Station before they were moved to Avondale Police Station. They were then released into the custody of Makedenge, who has moved them to an unknown location.They are being charged with treason under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly undergoing training in banditry, which carries life imprisonment if convicted. The 12 are being charged under a clause that reads: “Any person who attends or undergoes any course of training, whether inside or outside Zimbabwe, for the purpose of enabling him or her to commit any act of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism in Zimbabwe shall be guilty of training as an insurgent, bandit, saboteur or terrorist and liable to imprisonment for life or any shorter period.”The officials and activists are accused of being part of a team sent by the MDC to Botswana to receive training in sabotage, terrorism and banditry.
I have never been able to “accept” much about the Zimbabwean government and its security agents. I was raised and perpetuated the notion that accepting any form of limit was a week act of resignation.
I somehow ascertained, then, that self-acceptance was worth building into my character.
I have come to various conclusions in life where I find no purpose in our lives as a nation. We now live constrained to social and political rules that not only diminish us but impedes us from reaching our maximum potential. People like Robert Gabriel Mugabe are egocentric beyond comparison, always thinking of themselves and not caring that their actions are hurting others and not realising that in turn hurt themselves.
How can we be free when political and social boundaries hold us down, when the Zanu PF regime defines our personalities and how our lives are decided without our consent. Today in Zimbabwe we see evil beyond imaginable, we see a desperate regime clinging to power through every evil means possible. Life must never be taken for granted. The Zimbabwean government’s act of arresting and torturing opponents, their act of refusing health workers the right to demand a better health service for the citizens whom cannot access adequate health care in their own country shows what kind Mugabe’s regime is like. It is and has been my belief that if one does not respect my life and takes it for granted I should not do likewise but in this instance, I change my gears completely.
In its own stance the Zimbabwean regime has asked for confrontation from its own people. “War is what happens when language fails.” Like Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck once declared to the Prussian House of Delegates and said “The great questions of the day, are not decided by speeches and majority votes, but by blood and iron.” As for now history tells us that it repeats itself and the waves are heading that direction.
Tuesday
British man skips bail in Zimbabwe
Phillip Warrington Taylor the British journalist arrested in Harare last Thursday sneaked out of Zimbabwe at the weekend to avoid trial and a possible two-year jail term.
Taylor was arrested by Central Intelligence Organisation agents at the Harare International Airport last Thursday while boarding a home-bound flight - for allegedly practising journalism without permission.
He was granted bail by a Harare magistrate the following day and was ordered to surrender his passport. By Wednesday afternoon, when it became apparent that Taylor had skipped bail his lawyer Harrison Nkomo told the court that his client had fled.
"I have gathered that Taylor skipped bail and sneaked out of the country over the weekend and so his trial cannot go ahead," the lawyer said.
The magistrate immediately issued a warrant of arrest on Taylor in the event he was located still within the borders of Zimbabwe or in friendly countries with whom Zimbabwe has an extradition treaty.
On his arrest Taylor denied that he had at any one time practised journalism during his month-long stay in the country, insisting he was a tourist.
Under Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIPPA), it is a criminal offence for local and foreign journalists to practise journalism without accreditation from the Media and Information Commission (MIC).
However, the Global Agreement signed on September 15 by Zimbabwe's political protagonists scraps this section of the law and also makes the MIC an "illegal entity" without powers to sanction the operations of media personnel in the country.
Government has however disregarded this part of the September 15 agreement and has proceeded to harrass journalists, local and foreign, on the basis of the nullified sections of AIPPA.
Many journalists including several local practitioners were barred from covering the political negotiations that have been going on in Zimbabwe recently.
Only a handful of foreign journalists still remain in the country after most were expelled a few years ago when BBC and CNN were banned in Zimbabwe
This story appeared on news 24. Nov 11 2008
Taylor was arrested by Central Intelligence Organisation agents at the Harare International Airport last Thursday while boarding a home-bound flight - for allegedly practising journalism without permission.
He was granted bail by a Harare magistrate the following day and was ordered to surrender his passport. By Wednesday afternoon, when it became apparent that Taylor had skipped bail his lawyer Harrison Nkomo told the court that his client had fled.
"I have gathered that Taylor skipped bail and sneaked out of the country over the weekend and so his trial cannot go ahead," the lawyer said.
The magistrate immediately issued a warrant of arrest on Taylor in the event he was located still within the borders of Zimbabwe or in friendly countries with whom Zimbabwe has an extradition treaty.
On his arrest Taylor denied that he had at any one time practised journalism during his month-long stay in the country, insisting he was a tourist.
Under Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIPPA), it is a criminal offence for local and foreign journalists to practise journalism without accreditation from the Media and Information Commission (MIC).
However, the Global Agreement signed on September 15 by Zimbabwe's political protagonists scraps this section of the law and also makes the MIC an "illegal entity" without powers to sanction the operations of media personnel in the country.
Government has however disregarded this part of the September 15 agreement and has proceeded to harrass journalists, local and foreign, on the basis of the nullified sections of AIPPA.
Many journalists including several local practitioners were barred from covering the political negotiations that have been going on in Zimbabwe recently.
Only a handful of foreign journalists still remain in the country after most were expelled a few years ago when BBC and CNN were banned in Zimbabwe
This story appeared on news 24. Nov 11 2008
Sunday
Change must come to our doorsteps
What a week to remember Barak Obama and his victory for the persecuted, unloved, hopeless, abused, victimised, tormented, negleted, refused, denied, rejected and most of all victory over racial inequality that has prevailed in the civilised world for centuries under the guises one could not find space to write on.
I happen to be one of the many who has been moved by Obama's speeches, and been delivered by his eloquence and that has changed me forever. I have seen and listened to great leaders like Nelson Mandela, Joshua Nkomo to mention a few. These are man who have and continue to inspire me in my works for my organisation and for humanity as a whole but Obama surpasses these great man by miles in the way my heart and thinking has been touched. I am a new man, this feels like I have been reborn similar to the day I accepted Christ as my lord and personal saviour. Change as Obama states it is coming to the world and the world must accept it. Soon after Obama's recent election victory Trevor Philips raised eyebrows by accusing the ruling British labour party for being Institutional Racist, Why? I live that answer to the British equality watchdog chief. It is mind buffling that not so long ago the Metropolitan Police was branded institutional racist by Sir William MacPherson published report on the failed investigation into black teenager Stephen Lawrence's 's murder, in 1999.
On the tenth anniversary of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, the head of the Metropolitan police's anti-racism unit said she believed the Met was still "institutionally racist".
Commander Cressida Dick, in charge of the Met's diversity directorate, said in an interview with the Independent: "I would say there is not an institution out there that could say, 'We are not racist'."
What is Institutional Racism?
"The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin which can be seen or detected in processes; attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people." From the Macpherson report.
If Obama's change is coming to the world then I will be the first to cry loud and invite this change to my doorstep where it is needed most. I recently had an encounter with some british authorities who used coercion intimidation and threats so I could submit to their demands even though I and them knew that I have a solicitor whom they denied me to access. This institution employs officials who continue to violate international laws everyday as I speak. When Barack Obama speaks of Change I remeber the words of Clare Xanthos , because she puts this nicely. She says, after citing a few statistics on race disadvantage: … most British policy reports and newspapers simply identify “institutional racism” as the culprit for these discrimination statistics, whilst overlooking the reality that behind the shadowy concept of institutional racism are individual acts of hidden racism.
Those who know me know ecxactly what I mean, I have evidence of abuse by authorities in this country called Britain, a country that is meant to be a model of those that stand to defend human rights. It is diffucult to comprehend the thought of such victimisation especially within these shores having spent almost the whole of my entire life under every sort of abuse. I am one who cannot be lectured on human rights abuse as having been born in Rhodesia under Ian Smith's regime and worse, grew up under the abuse of Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF regime, and also experienced a bit of South Africa's apartheid and later became a man still being victimised by Robert Mugabe and his regime so I know what I am talking about.
In Obama, I see hope and many more victories being one, not only for the Aamerican people but also for this Mthwakazian Zimbabwean man with a young family called me.
Saturday
Of Mugabe gukurahundi and genocide on Mthwakazi
-o00o-
There is a website that has been launched that focuses on the Gukurahundi in Matabeleland in the early to mid-1980. Visit that website here.
"What we are launching today is not just the website but also the re-birth of MAGGEMM," says Rorisang Masiane. "Even though we have been around for a number of years now, this is the first time we are making a proper web presence to internationalise our work. We want to be the main voice for those who have to deal with the trauma of Gukurahundi alone and almost forgotten."
The launch of MAGGEMM’s new website also comes with a revision of their mission and sees the group go back to basics. "In the last two years, we have carried out informal research within the affected communities and our findings made us go back to the drawing board and revise our strategy. With the launch of our website, we are also presenting a return to what we were originally formed to do, which is to focus on the Gukurahundi genocide and the fight for truth and justice on behalf of victims," says Rorisang Masiane.
Notes to Editors;
1. Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide inMatabeleland and Midlands (MAGGEMM) is a not-for-profit group for victims of the Gukurahundi genocide in between 1982 and 1988.
2. MAGGEMM is not a political party/organisation and its actions must not be viewed as such.
3. Gukurahundi is a Shona word which means "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains” and was the codename for the government military operation inMatabeleland and Midlands between 1982 and 1988.
4. At least 20,000 people were massacred during the Gukurahundi campaign."
The launch of MAGGEMM’s new website also comes with a revision of their mission and sees the group go back to basics. "In the last two years, we have carried out informal research within the affected communities and our findings made us go back to the drawing board and revise our strategy. With the launch of our website, we are also presenting a return to what we were originally formed to do, which is to focus on the Gukurahundi genocide and the fight for truth and justice on behalf of victims," says Rorisang Masiane.
Notes to Editors;
1. Mthwakazi Action Group on Genocide in
2. MAGGEMM is not a political party/organisation and its actions must not be viewed as such.
3. Gukurahundi is a Shona word which means "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains” and was the codename for the government military operation in
4. At least 20,000 people were massacred during the Gukurahundi campaign."
-o00o-
Another reason for Mugabe to be a little concerned. He offered a refuge for the Ethiopian when he was ousted and Mengistu readily took up that offer and has stayed in Zimbabwe since the early 1990s.
Mengistu was initially sentenced to life in prison in January 2007 but prosecutors appealed saying the sentence did not match his crimes. Over a 17-year rule Mengistu eliminated his opponents using a combination of famine and the so-called ‘Red Terror’ purges. He was ousted in 1991 and fled to
Wednesday
SWAZI ACTIVIST MURDER SUSPECT HELD IN RSA
Suspect arrested in Gabriel Mkhumane’s murderOctober 29, 2008, 17:45
Mpumalanga police have arrested a 35-year-old man suspected of killing Swaziland's main opposition party's former Deputy President, Gabriel Mkhumane. Mkhumane was robbed before he was shot and killed, and his girlfriend repeatedly raped in Kanyamazane outside Nelspruit earlier this year. Mkhumane fiercely campaigned against the Swazi regime and has been in exile for over 20 years before his death.The suspect is a former police reservist attached to the Kanyamazane police station. Police say he was found in possession of some of the deceased’s items. He will face charges of armed robbery, murder and rape. Despite claims by Swaziland's People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), implicating that the Swazi regime was responsible for Mkhumane's death, police still maintain his killing was a random act of criminality.Mkhumane started working for the underground structures of the ANC in the late 1970s, before being arrested and detained in Barberton for two years for aiding a banned organisation. He also helped established Pudemo before exiling in Lusaka, Cuba and later South Africa.Meanwhile, Pudemo says the arrest will probably bring closure to Mkhumane's mysterious death. The Party has called for the law to take its course.
Mpumalanga police have arrested a 35-year-old man suspected of killing Swaziland's main opposition party's former Deputy President, Gabriel Mkhumane. Mkhumane was robbed before he was shot and killed, and his girlfriend repeatedly raped in Kanyamazane outside Nelspruit earlier this year. Mkhumane fiercely campaigned against the Swazi regime and has been in exile for over 20 years before his death.The suspect is a former police reservist attached to the Kanyamazane police station. Police say he was found in possession of some of the deceased’s items. He will face charges of armed robbery, murder and rape. Despite claims by Swaziland's People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), implicating that the Swazi regime was responsible for Mkhumane's death, police still maintain his killing was a random act of criminality.Mkhumane started working for the underground structures of the ANC in the late 1970s, before being arrested and detained in Barberton for two years for aiding a banned organisation. He also helped established Pudemo before exiling in Lusaka, Cuba and later South Africa.Meanwhile, Pudemo says the arrest will probably bring closure to Mkhumane's mysterious death. The Party has called for the law to take its course.
Monday
WOZA ACTIVISTS STILL DENIED JUSTICE
Mthwakaz's brave women Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu continue to be locked in Zimbabwe's prison despite the fact that the Zimbabwe regime has no case against them. The Zimbabwe government should be held accountable for human rights abuses despite the appeals to the international community by Mugabe's Prime Minister designate Morgan Tsvangirayi to exempt Mugabe from all prosecution.
Click on the following link to listen to VOA interview with the lawyer representing the two women http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/english/2008_10/Audio/mp3/zim_woza_eng_ncube_jonga_24oct08.mp3
Click on the following link to listen to VOA interview with the lawyer representing the two women http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/english/2008_10/Audio/mp3/zim_woza_eng_ncube_jonga_24oct08.mp3
Tuesday
PLEASE HELP THESE MTHWAKAZI WOMEN
Magistrate to give ruling on bail application on Friday 24th October - Williams and Mahlangu remain in prison
October 21, 2008 Posted by web No Responses This post is in: Press statements, Arrests, Protests
Magistrate Maphosa has reserved judgement on the request for bail for Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu until Friday 24th October as the ‘court is very busy’. Bail hearings are normally heard on an urgent basis. Williams and Mahlangu will therefore remain in Mlondolozi Female Prison until that date.
The bail hearing was heard in the absence of Williams and Mahlangu who had not been brought from Mlondolozi as prison authorities claimed that they had no fuel. This being despite the fact that the WOZA support team had been informed yesterday by one of the prison guards at Mlondolozi that they did currently have fuel. Two prison vehicles were also observed by the WOZA support team travelling at great speed into Bulawayo on Sunday afternoon.
The defence lawyer, Kossam Ncube, had also been given permission yesterday by a senior prison officer at Mlondolozi, Mathanire, to bring Williams and Mahlangu to court in his own vehicle if transport was not available. Upon arrival at Mlondolozi this morning however, Ncube was informed that it would not be possible after all by Superintendant Dlamini.
The hearing finally went ahead in their absence before Magistrate Maphosa. Prosecutor Chifamba called another state witness, Detective Sergeant Ncube from the Law and Order Section of Bulawayo Central Police Station to testify.
Ncube claimed he believed that bail should be denied because of pending cases against them, citing four different cases dating back to 2004. None of these cases are actually pending but the witness tried to claim this was because Williams and Mahlangu could never be found to be presented with their summons! On cross-examination however, he could not deny that the two accused had actually appeared in court for all of these cases. Following the cross-examination of the state witness by the defence, the court adjourned for lunch.
After lunch the magistrate heard the arguments of the two attorneys. The state had three main arguments: propensity, that the accused were of no fixed abode and that they had cases pending against them. Chifamba argued that the four cases mentioned by the state witness showed that the two accused had committed similar offences on several occasions and were likely to do so again. He claimed that the court should ignore the fact that these were not serious crimes. He also claimed that because the state witness had testified that he had tried on several occasions to locate the two at their homes, and they were not there at the time, obviously they did not live there. His third argument was that the case relating to a July 2007 arrest that is currently before the Supreme Court is pending and therefore Williams and Mahlangu wilfully lied to the court when asked if they had any cases pending against them.
Thursday
MUGABE CONTINUES TO ABUSE MTHWAKAZI WOMEN
WOZA declares a national disaster and demands food for all Zimbabweans in Bulawayo today – 9 arrested
October 16, 2008
Posted by web
October 16, 2008
Posted by web
This post is in: Campaigns, Press statements, Arrests
Hundreds of members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (MOZA) took to the streets of Bulawayo this morning, marching for several blocks to Mhlahlandlela Government Complex to declare a national disaster and demand immediate food aid for all Zimbabweans. Nine members have been arrested at the time of this release.
On arrival at the Government Complex, the group of approximately 200 sat down outside the gates whilst a delegation of four elderly women went in to request that the Regional Department Heads of all the service departments come out and address the crowd on what is being done to alleviate the humanitarian crisis facing the country.
The group sat peacefully waiting to be addressed for 45 minutes before five riot police approached the group. Two leaders, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, were arrested and taken to Drill Hall, which is across the road from Mhlahlandlela. The rest of the group were forcibly dispersed by being beaten with baton sticks. At least one member is receiving medical attention for the beating she received. Williams and Mahlangu were later taken to Bulawayo Central Police Station, where they are currently being held.
It appears that a group of seven women were arrested before the demonstration began as they were sitting waiting for the signal to start. They were apparently sitting near some black market foreign exchange dealers and were arrested along with them. They have also been taken to Bulawayo Central Police Station. Lawyers are still trying to verify reports that the group had been beaten inside Bulawayo Central.
The peaceful protestors had begun their march near the High Court and processed several blocks to Mhlahlandlela, singing and handing out the October 2008 Woza Moya newsletter to passers-by who rushed out into the street to receive them. A copy of the October 2008 newsletter with the group’s demands can be found below.
The demonstrators also paused at two intersections to sit down whilst chanting in Ndebele – ‘ayihlale phansi ihambe umthetho’ (sit down and maintain discipline). As during their last demonstration two weeks ago, this was sang both as a way to ensure that the activists maintained non-violent discipline and also as a message to politicians to sit down and respect the deal. Other songs sang include a WOZA favourite – ‘this is an issue that men are failing to solve’.
The protest was further to a previous peaceful protest on 29 September where the theme was ‘actions speak louder than words’. The political impasse continues a month after the power-sharing agreement was signed and the crisis facing people in their daily lives deteriorates dramatically every day. The power-sharing deal mentions grave concern for the humanitarian crisis facing people and yet still nothing has been done. People and children are dying of starvation whilst the politicians continue to talk.
WOZA therefore continues to demand immediate action regarding the formation of a new government that will begin to work on solving urgent social issues, like food, electricity and water. Recognising that the situation in the country is now a national disaster we also demand that ALL Zimbabweans receive access to food aid and also seed and agricultural inputs.
In other news, both groups of members facing trial this week have been removed off remand. On Tuesday 14th, the decision on the application for review of the case of Cynthia Ncube and Trust Moyo was not ready. Whilst the decision from the High Court is pending, they were removed off remand.
The ‘Chikurubi 14’ due to face trial in Harare Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday 15th, were also removed off remand. The docket was not available and although the State tried to insist that they were ready for trial and were trying to get the group further remanded for trial, the Magistrate upheld the resolution that she had made on 26th August that if the trial did not take off on the 15th October, the group would be removed off remand.
We also ask that you call Bulawayo Central Police Station on +00263 9 72515 , +00 263 9 61706 or +00263 9 63061 and ask for the immediate release of all WOZA members including Williams and Mahlangu and that they not be mistreated in custody.
Tuesday
TOUGH TIMES FOR MTHWAKAZIANS
Today while scrolling through the sites carrying news from my native land I came across an article that made me weep and cry for almost the whole entire session as I read through it. Not only was I reminded of the way and conditions I once lived under, but also the desperation and the vulnerability of our women and children under such circumstances really breaks me down. In these civilised times, it is unacceptable for women and children to undergo the trauma that this article carries. I have pasted it below for everyone to feel free and read.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/479764/-/148qx9iz/-/index.html
Zimbabweans wait to withdraw cash outside the Central African Building Society bank in the capital Harare. Zimbabwe is facing a major crisis amid signs that a power-sharing deal may collapse. Photo/REUTERS
By KITSEPILE NYATHI NATION Correspondent Message
Posted Sunday, October 12 2008 at 18:46
In Summary
It’s a major crush at border as many Zimbabweans try to cheat their way into South Africa with fake pay slips
Others bribe South African police officers who set up roadblocks on the highway to hunt for Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.
HARARE, Sunday
Park station in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa teems with Zimbabweans arriving in the land of plenty in rattled buses that dramatise the escalating economic crisis back home.
The majority of the arrivals have harrowing tales to tell and complain that the decade old economic problems in Zimbabwe are dehumanising them.
Mrs Nancy Hadebe, a primary teacher with 15 years experience says she braved the crocodile infested waters of the Limpopo River because she had no hope of obtaining a Zimbabwean passport.
An ordinary passport can take up to five years to be processed because the government does not have foreign currency to buy materials used in the production of the documents.
“I was deported from South Africa last week after police raided our apartment in the middle of the night,” she said. “We were dumped in Beitbridge but I could not go home because of the desperate situation back there.”
She joined others
So she joined others who were crossing the river that separates Zimbabwe and South Africa and they escaped detection by army patrols.
To get to Johannesburg, they bribed police officers who set up roadblocks on the highway to hunt for Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.
Mrs Hadebe is among the unlucky thousands who get arrested throughout South Africa everyday for entering that country illegally and are immediately returned home.
The International Immigration Organisation (IOM) which has set up a reception centre to receive the deportees says the majority of them quickly find their way back to South Africa through undesignated entry points.
“I make it a point that I carry 100 rands with me where ever I go to pay the police if I am unfortunate to get arrested,” says Mr George Mkhwananzi who has lived as an illegal immigrant in Johannesburg for the past 10 years.
At Beitbridge border post, the busiest entry point in Southern Africa that operates around the clock, queues snake out of the buildings on both the Zimbabwean and South African sides.
Immigration officials complain that the traffic is increasing at an alarming rate and that Zimbabweans are resorting to desperate measures to try and beat the tough South African visa requirements.
The most common is the use of fake pay slips for civil servants as Zimbabwean government employees do not need visas to visit South Africa.
Ordinary Zimbabweans must have 2,000 rand of travellers’ cheques and proof that they will have accommodation in the neighbouring country to obtain a three month visa.
“I know you people from Bulawayo forge pays lips and I am not going to give you a visa,” shouted a South African immigration official as he handed back middle aged Zimbabwean woman her passport.
The woman began crying like a baby telling the disinterested officials that her sick husband in Johannesburg needed her by his side.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/479764/-/148qx9iz/-/index.html
Zimbabweans wait to withdraw cash outside the Central African Building Society bank in the capital Harare. Zimbabwe is facing a major crisis amid signs that a power-sharing deal may collapse. Photo/REUTERS
By KITSEPILE NYATHI NATION Correspondent Message
Posted Sunday, October 12 2008 at 18:46
In Summary
It’s a major crush at border as many Zimbabweans try to cheat their way into South Africa with fake pay slips
Others bribe South African police officers who set up roadblocks on the highway to hunt for Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.
HARARE, Sunday
Park station in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa teems with Zimbabweans arriving in the land of plenty in rattled buses that dramatise the escalating economic crisis back home.
The majority of the arrivals have harrowing tales to tell and complain that the decade old economic problems in Zimbabwe are dehumanising them.
Mrs Nancy Hadebe, a primary teacher with 15 years experience says she braved the crocodile infested waters of the Limpopo River because she had no hope of obtaining a Zimbabwean passport.
An ordinary passport can take up to five years to be processed because the government does not have foreign currency to buy materials used in the production of the documents.
“I was deported from South Africa last week after police raided our apartment in the middle of the night,” she said. “We were dumped in Beitbridge but I could not go home because of the desperate situation back there.”
She joined others
So she joined others who were crossing the river that separates Zimbabwe and South Africa and they escaped detection by army patrols.
To get to Johannesburg, they bribed police officers who set up roadblocks on the highway to hunt for Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.
Mrs Hadebe is among the unlucky thousands who get arrested throughout South Africa everyday for entering that country illegally and are immediately returned home.
The International Immigration Organisation (IOM) which has set up a reception centre to receive the deportees says the majority of them quickly find their way back to South Africa through undesignated entry points.
“I make it a point that I carry 100 rands with me where ever I go to pay the police if I am unfortunate to get arrested,” says Mr George Mkhwananzi who has lived as an illegal immigrant in Johannesburg for the past 10 years.
At Beitbridge border post, the busiest entry point in Southern Africa that operates around the clock, queues snake out of the buildings on both the Zimbabwean and South African sides.
Immigration officials complain that the traffic is increasing at an alarming rate and that Zimbabweans are resorting to desperate measures to try and beat the tough South African visa requirements.
The most common is the use of fake pay slips for civil servants as Zimbabwean government employees do not need visas to visit South Africa.
Ordinary Zimbabweans must have 2,000 rand of travellers’ cheques and proof that they will have accommodation in the neighbouring country to obtain a three month visa.
“I know you people from Bulawayo forge pays lips and I am not going to give you a visa,” shouted a South African immigration official as he handed back middle aged Zimbabwean woman her passport.
The woman began crying like a baby telling the disinterested officials that her sick husband in Johannesburg needed her by his side.
Monday
MTHWAKAZI PEOPLE'S CONVENTION GLASGOW LAUNCH
MPC Launch – Glasgow, Scotland – September 27, 2008.
Saturday 27th September, 2008 was a historic day for the future of Mthwakazi. Glasgow, Scotland witnessed the birth of Mthwakazi People Convention after being carried in the womb for 2 frantic years of behind the scenes consultations.
The significance of the venue and the date was important. The date was a day early to mark the 140th anniversary of King Mzilikazi’s death. In remembering the King’s death, a new nation was born. Scotland was also significant in that it is a nation that is in transition to seeing full autonomy from the British rule.
People came as far as London for the event. Members of the NEC and the Regional leadership took part in the event. People from all walks of life and affiliations graced the meeting. A moving launch speech by the President of MPC, Edwin Mkhwananzi, was read by the Regional Secretary-general Nkululeko Ndlovu. It defined what Mthwakazi is; how it has been marginalized; the sham of both the 1987 and 2008 so-called Unity Accords. It plotted the systematic and institutional betrayal and annihilation of the Mthwakazi nation by the present day government of Zimbabwe.
The participants were given the opportunity to pose questions and opinions on the speech and the way forward that MPC will take in future. Under the highly efficient and bubbly NEC member and Director of Communications, Kirth Dube, who chaired the meeting, interesting observations from different people were heard and debated on. Some expressed fears, some concerns and some expressing joys to the birth of this new baby. Themba Nyoni, who is the MPC Director of Policy and Research, summed up the launch of the MPC with the analogue of a new born baby, who will grow and acquire language, characteristics, mannerisms and general development from people around it. The people of Mthwakazi will see to the well being of this new baby, see it crawl, run and eventually take its rightful place in the world.
The Glasgow launch was a precursor to the other launches set to take place in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa ,Zimbabwe that will be marked by celebrations, bringing in chiefs, cultural groups, other Mthwakazi political groups and individuals together.
Saturday 27th September, 2008 was a historic day for the future of Mthwakazi. Glasgow, Scotland witnessed the birth of Mthwakazi People Convention after being carried in the womb for 2 frantic years of behind the scenes consultations.
The significance of the venue and the date was important. The date was a day early to mark the 140th anniversary of King Mzilikazi’s death. In remembering the King’s death, a new nation was born. Scotland was also significant in that it is a nation that is in transition to seeing full autonomy from the British rule.
People came as far as London for the event. Members of the NEC and the Regional leadership took part in the event. People from all walks of life and affiliations graced the meeting. A moving launch speech by the President of MPC, Edwin Mkhwananzi, was read by the Regional Secretary-general Nkululeko Ndlovu. It defined what Mthwakazi is; how it has been marginalized; the sham of both the 1987 and 2008 so-called Unity Accords. It plotted the systematic and institutional betrayal and annihilation of the Mthwakazi nation by the present day government of Zimbabwe.
The participants were given the opportunity to pose questions and opinions on the speech and the way forward that MPC will take in future. Under the highly efficient and bubbly NEC member and Director of Communications, Kirth Dube, who chaired the meeting, interesting observations from different people were heard and debated on. Some expressed fears, some concerns and some expressing joys to the birth of this new baby. Themba Nyoni, who is the MPC Director of Policy and Research, summed up the launch of the MPC with the analogue of a new born baby, who will grow and acquire language, characteristics, mannerisms and general development from people around it. The people of Mthwakazi will see to the well being of this new baby, see it crawl, run and eventually take its rightful place in the world.
The Glasgow launch was a precursor to the other launches set to take place in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa ,Zimbabwe that will be marked by celebrations, bringing in chiefs, cultural groups, other Mthwakazi political groups and individuals together.
This story was published by MPC Communications department on 28/09/08. All rights reserved.
Friday
FIGHTING EVIL
Suffering, persecution or even imprisonment comes to our people as a result of open critisism of the Zimbabwean regime. Even authorities of modern day democracies who potray themselves as upholders of human rights laws now have institutions that practice Robert Mugabe's victimisation tactics, threats and use of force to our people, they violate United Nations Human Rights laws simple because we have been left desperate by our own system of governance.
Everyone wants to achieve ambitions and achieve success. We can defeat EVIL. But why do so many people fail? The answer is simple: those who fail have never discovered and explored the tremendous potential for success that is innate in each of us. Zanu PF and Mugabe can be defeated. The evil institutions that torment our people can be exposed and be crushed, its simple, like one leading biologist once said, " It is all too obvious that, in the great majority of human beings, the greater part of their possibilities, whether physical or spiritual, intellectual or aesthetic, remains unrealised," I urge all our people to call all their dormant powers and work towards CRUSHING the EVIL that has befell us.
Thursday
DON'T TURN A BLIND EYE ON THE ZIMBABWE VIOLENCE
Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe's dictator and butcher of the Mthwakazi people continues to defy international law suffocating and brutalising Zimbabweans of all walks of life. It is disturbing that many Zimbabweans who have fled from Mugabe's regime find themselves fighting against the world's 'isms' where ever they have seeked refuge. Many of the Mthwakazi and Zimbaweans are faced with emotional torture, racial prejudice and discrimination of all kinds for the sake of escaping Mugabe's Zanu PF led regime .
While Morgan Tsvangirayi battles to secure himself employment under Robert Mugabe the suffering people of Zimbabwe cannot just look hopeless and expect that a miracle will happen to remove Mugabe. A more radical and forcefull aproach should be exercised by the people of Zimbabwe against these thugs who only are concerned for their wallets than the lives of the voters.
Robert Mugabe and his regime must be pushed away by force rather than by negotiations. The people of Mthwakazi have indicated through their political movement that they are now prepared to get Mugabe and his Zanu PF out of Matebeleland and Midlands using means that will be constututional and avoiding any shed of innocent blood. It remains to be seen how Mugabe and Zanu PF will respond to that. MDC has lost its direction, Tsvangirayi is driving the MDC movement without his licence and M.O.T, thus has misled the people and has fallen into Mugabe's trap. As far as Mthwakazians are concerned, MDC is now non existent in UMthwakazi.
I remember challenging one pro MDC staunch supporter some 8 years ago in Bulawayo at the NRZ building who wanted to recruite me to their movement, telling him that MDC is just onother of the CIO formations with the traits of Zanu. As a Mthwakazian I tried to reason with this Mthwakazi son but couldn't knock sense into his skull. I tried in vain to warn him that MDC, like the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) will eventually dump Mthwakazians when Mugabe's job is welldone. 8 years down the line where are we? the same conversation we held at the National Railways of Zimbabwe headquarters in Bulawayo has come to pass, Tsvangirayi has rejoined Mugabe but has not officially told his supporters whom he has fooled for all these years. Tsvangirayi and MDC have sold to Zanu PF as predicted by all wise Mthwakazians.
The MDC leadership are cowards who sit at the comfort of their luxury homes and can run to any embassy when things don't go according to plan whilst those who support them have to live with the reality of facing up to Mugabe's force or being left destitute, hungry, distressed whereever they have run to for refuge.
This is the time for people to reflect and come out with a solution that will remove the Zimbabwean regime for good. As for me, I am now prepared to die for my freedom. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" Eph. 6:12.
To our people I say, the battle against the Evil Robert Mugabe continues. Our struggle is a penetrating portrayal of our world, a reflection of its spiritual wanderings, and a vivid reminder of the redemptive spirit of our forefathers who created our Mthwakazi state which now lies stolen by Mugabe's regime.
Wednesday
Xenophobia Attacks resume in Cape Town
October 08, 2008, 11:00
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has condemned xenophobic violence that occurred in the Eastern Cape this week."The barbaric incident that occurred in the vicinity of Queenstown and the recent torching of more than 20 shops in Jeffreys Bay, illustrate the dangers that xenophobia is posing to our province," said DA spokesperson Bobby Stevenson. "This unacceptable violence must not be tolerated in our province and urgent action needs to be taken to ensure that it is stamped out."About 200 people went on the rampage, looting shops owned by Somalis in Jeffreys Bay. The police fired warning shots at the looters who threw stones at them. One person was shot and admitted to hospital. - Sapa
Tuesday
MPC INTERVIEW ON SW RADIO AFRICA
Diaspora Diaries 300908
Alex is joined by representatives of the newly launched Mthwakazi People’s Convention, Mkululeko Ndlovu MPC General Secretary for the UK region, Kirth Dube MPC Director of Communcations, and Tony Mafukidze, an activist and supporter of the political movement. Alex and her guests discuss the history and current importance of the emergence of the party, and the goals the MPC has for the future of Zimbabwe’s political sphere. Ndlovu says the party is taking ‘treasonous’ action by moving to oust Robert Mugabe as a recgonised leader in the Mthwakazi region.
http://www.swradioafrica.2bctnd.net/09_08/dd300908.mp3
Alex is joined by representatives of the newly launched Mthwakazi People’s Convention, Mkululeko Ndlovu MPC General Secretary for the UK region, Kirth Dube MPC Director of Communcations, and Tony Mafukidze, an activist and supporter of the political movement. Alex and her guests discuss the history and current importance of the emergence of the party, and the goals the MPC has for the future of Zimbabwe’s political sphere. Ndlovu says the party is taking ‘treasonous’ action by moving to oust Robert Mugabe as a recgonised leader in the Mthwakazi region.
http://www.swradioafrica.2bctnd.net/09_08/dd300908.mp3
Sunday
Mugabe and the entire Zanu-PF must be prosecuted
In the absence of a clear emergence of a deal between the three Zimbabwean political parties on the 11th of September 2008, The people of Matebeleland and Midlands must be feeling the worst betrayal by those who have gone before them and negotiated a deal with the man who masterminded their massacre in the 80's and still continues to abuse their rights.
The world should know that there appears to be a breach of justice for the persecuted people of Mthwakazi and Zimbabwe and without their help Mugabe and his criminal cabal will be celebrating in anticipation of receiving the world's billions in foreign currency so they can continue to rule with fear disguised as a Government of national unity.
I therefore pose this questions to the people of Britain and Europe,
1) Would you have been happy if Winston Churchil had negotiated a new Europe with Hittler as its President after his massacre of the Jews?
2) Would you have accepted it if the United nations had funded Hittler with the much needed foreign currency to revive his army, the police and his economy?
If the world leaders accept this fraud by Mugabe and the MDC they might as well leave Osama bin laden alone.
Zimbabwe's new Prime Minister Tsvangirayi says Mugabe will not be prosecuted
click link to read full story http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-zimbabwe17-2008sep17,0,1425862.story
Thursday
South Africa's Xeonophobia on Zimbabweans
Plight of refugees in Musina under the spotlight (SABC)
September 06, 2008, 14:15
Police in Musina say the plight of refugees in the town on the border with Zimbabwe has reached crisis proportions. Hundreds of foreigners seeking asylum are camped at the refugee reception centre. Last week the municipality dismantled temporary shelters for foreigners set around churches, saying they posed a health hazard.
Asylum seekers including women and children now sleep in bushes near the town centre. Police in Musina say since the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre started operating last month, the number of criminal cases reported by members of the community has increased. Police spokesperson Maggy Mathebula says these include theft and other petty crimes.
Mathebula's house was also broken into and a number of items stolen recently. She says the stolen items were found in Zimbabwe and a suspect has been arrested. Mathebula says suspects that have been detained are mainly Zimbabweans
Sunday
Arise Mthwakazi the time has come
"Whether or not the whisk of mops is about your ears, to engage in mental spring-cleaning is always salutary". Mthwakazi while lunging at pessimism, include also your tendecy to worry and any feelings of inferiority. Worry is a waste of nervous energy. It accomplishes nothing but merely undermines your resilience and capacity to deal with the factors causing the trouble.I will encourage you to face your problems courageosly and objectively. Do something about them, but refuse to worry.Whilst you are on this mental spring cleaning, decide on some new leaders within yourselves. You do not need these Nutty Profs. If these are the best intelligent Mthwakazi guys the nation has ever produced, then Mthwakazi's sperm has gone to waste. Why has the Nutty Prof allowed the other Mutambara to get ahead and sign 13 concessions which never mentioned the Gukurahundi. If the Nutty Prof's aim is to fight our cause from within, how then does he display such political immaturity when at the helm of these people? At this instance the Nutty Prof has climbed into bed with the enemy with the narrow intolerance of an ammature. As an intellectual, the Prof should be informed about the past and be hopeful of the future and must never be making the mistakes of our yester leaders who succumbed to the same enemy through their own selfishness and ignorance. My question to you all iMthwakazi is, why are all Mthwakazi leaders always wanting to play Vice to these Harare numpties? It is about time we raise our own leader regardless of how schooled they are or who they know. All Mthwakazi wants is a person who has their heart kusizwe sikaMthwakazi. There is a lot of our brothers who have taken a lot of stick...but are still standing........ right in Bulawayo. I rate them far above the Dabengwa's, Jonathan Moyo and the Nutty Prof Ncube.
Saturday
Robert Mugabe the Zimbabwean devil
As a Mthwakazian I am deeply saddened by the status quo prevailing in our native land. Many have taken the opportunity to become part - time analyst in Zimbabwean politics therefore misinforming the world about the future of the current negotiations taking place.‘Abakithi’ the real people of Mthwakazi siykwazi njalo we are aware ukuba inhloso yeZanu lo Mugabe yini? We are reliving history where the DEVIL swallows his prey and nobody dares to question why? We will not be moved neither be amazed by the so called Government of National Unity nonsense that the current Zanu -PF party members and the ex – Zanu – PF members parading as Mutambara faction and Tswangirayi faction pretend to be our saviours whilst we know that none of them has had the audacity to table Mthwakazi’s concerns within their agendas. Yes! they tried to meet , discuss and seal the deal in secrecy but have failed ngoba bonke baya “phapha” njalo bathanda izinto. All this secrecy nonsense is now in the public domain and we now know that none of the issues discussed in the so called Unity talks in Harare ever mentioned the suffering of our own people at the hands of the Zanu –PF sponsored Gukurahundi 5th brigade terror.The Zanu – PF party brigade continues to defy international law, rubbishing anything to do with their ethnic cleansing of our kith and kin, and they continue to dwell in denial to their morale obligation where ever they have abused the reigns of power. This war we are fighting is between good and evil and is raging. Mugabe is the evil and we the people are the good. In our native land, in towns and cities villages and farms, ordinary Zimbabweans and the people of Mthwakazi are pitted against powerful leaders with the worst motives. Behind every scene the people’s lives are being consumed as the hosts battle for power . And only the bravery of the Mthwakazi sons ad daughters can tip the balance.Mthwakazi ! Do not be fooled by any of these Zanu - PF thugs, they can never have our concerns at heart. MDC and Tswangirayi will never get our VOTES anywhere as long as they continue to take our people for granted. As much as any of them think that the problems of Zimbabwe started in 2000, let them be reminded that we will not rest until the perpetrators of these hideous crimes during the 80’s and 90’s and to date are brought before the international courts of Human Rights. Morgan Tswangirayi needs to be reminded that the majority of the people who aligned with MDC to vote for him in the Zimbabwe 29th of March 2008 elections are from Matebeleland and Midlands who are direct Mthwakazi “VICTIMS OF GUKURAHUNDI”. And if Morgan Tswangirayi thinks that only him and Biti can release Robert Mugabe and his thugs from prosecution, then he is mistaken BEYOND belief just like his former boss Robert Mugabe .I would like to urge all Mthwakazi organisations, groups and forums to persue the Mthwakazi concerns and issues further without fear. The days of playing second fiddle to the Zanu – PF mob are history. Let’s all come out into the public domain and push our WAR further towards our final freedom. Mthwakazi what lies behind you is history and what lies before you is the future. And what is that future being negotiated without our involvement as Mthwakazi? We as Mthwakazi nation may not be able to change our past, and our future is yet unlivened, but the present provides us with opportunities to maximise our lives and the ability that is within us as a Nation. As a Nation we must take the responsibility for our own ability, no one else can do it for us. Mthwakazi must move away from living a stillbirth life, Mthwakazi must desist from aborting its entire purpose for living. I would also like to encourage the Mthwakazi nation to take responsibilityfor their ability to pursue the issue of the creation of a Mthwakazi state that is free from oppression, xenophobia, racism and corruption and all the ills associated with.
Contact Kirth Dube on 07775890895 Organising for Mthwakazi groups in Scotland
Contact Kirth Dube on 07775890895 Organising for Mthwakazi groups in Scotland
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