I aim to highlight the suffering of our Mthwakazi and Zimbabwean people worldwide, to expose the cruelty of those who are accountable to Human rights abuses on our people.
This Tuesday Special Assignment takes you into Zimbabwe’s prisons - which have become virtual death traps for prisoners.
This exclusive, never before been seen video images, were captured following an intense three month investigation and brave co-operation of officials within the Zimbabwean prison system.
The officials filmed day to day events inside prison on hidden cameras. The result is a grim picture of a huge humanitarian crisis within the penal system.
Inside we meet Brian Gumbo who is half way through his two year sentence for housebreaking…and it seem unlikely that he will make if out of there. The camera follows him around as he shuffles from his cell to a room where he receives a bowl of sadza-a thick porridge made from maize meal. Like many others he is also suffering from pellagra-a deficiency disease caused by a lack of vitamin B3 and proteins.
According to a report by the Zimbabwean Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the offender (ZACRO), at least 20 prisoners are dying each day across the country’s 55 institutions.
Some of the prisoners featured in the programme have already died and others like Brian Gumbo are on the brink of death.
“Hell Hole” was produced by Executive Producer Johann Abrahams and Godknows Nare.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/16/asylum-seekers-immigration-poverty Hundreds of thousands of failed asylum seekers are living in the UK in extreme poverty, because they fear torture or death if they return to their home countries, according to a report released today. The report warns many failed asylum seekers are living in a "twilight zone", with no housing or financial support, and no right to work. Many failed asylum seekers are living on less than "a dollar a day", the global yardstick for extreme poverty, it claims. Recent research by the London School of Economics estimated there are 500,000 failed asylum seekers in the UK. Christine Majid, from the refugee charity Pafras, who commissioned the Underground Lives report, says the number of destitute asylum seekers the charity dealt with tripled in the past two years and called destitution a "deliberate" policy to force asylum seekers out of the country. She said: "In the 21st century the fact that the government is trying to starve people out of the country, it is absolutely inhumane and it just isn't working. These people would rather starve on the street here than return to their own countries." A series of governmental policy decisions including preventing asylum seekers from working in 2002, cutting legal aid in 2004 and an overhaul of the system in 2007 has lead to an "untenable strain" on local charities, she added. The report found that, on average, failed asylum seekers were surviving on £7.65 per week, but the majority lived on less than £5. Two thirds had experienced torture in their countries. Following the refusal of their asylum claims, 72% have spent time sleeping outside; of these, 38% have experienced physical attacks. More than a third of the women sleeping rough had experienced sexual assault, including rape. The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called the report "a timely reminder of how the government has combined incompetence and inhumanity to create one of Europe's most inefficient and cruel asylum systems". "Responsibility for asylum should be taken away from the cack-handed blunderings of the Home Office and given to an independent agency." Asylum claims have fallen sharply in recent years and are at a 14-year low, with 23,430 applications for asylum in 2007 - 4% of all immigration applications - compared with 103,080 in 2002. A lack of access to proper legal advice is having a significant impact on the number of valid asylum seekers being refused sanctuary, and returned to countries where they could be tortured, said human rights lawyer Louise Christian. "The government's asylum policies are entirely at odds with its human rights obligation - particularly with regards to children in detention. It is a huge source of scandal and shame to this country." A UK Border Agency spokesperson said the government provided measures to ensure individuals are not left without basic essentials. But the report says only around 9,000 people receive UKBA support, which provides £35 in supermarket vouchers a week and no-choice accommodation. Many are reluctant to apply for it as they must sign an agreement consenting to be removed from the UK at a later date. The report is being released in conjunction with a major exposition of photographs of failed asylum seekers, launched in association with the Still Human, Still Here campaign, led by a coalition of human rights organisations including Amnesty International and the Refugee Council. • The secret world of destitute asylum seekers is captured in pictures in the exhibition Still Human, Still Here, at the Host Gallery, London from March 18. Telephone 020 7253 2770.
Dabengwa resigned from Zanu (PF) last March to back Simba Makoni, leader of an opposition splinter group, in last year's presidential elections and a former Zanu (PF) Politburo member and Finance minister in Mugabe's government.
After Makoni came out third in the presidential race on March 29, polling 8,3 percent of the presidential vote, Dabengwa severed ties with Makoni and revived Zapu with war veterans from his Ndebele ethnic group. Dabengwa is now the interim president of Zapu.
Dabengwa still commands lot of respect among the Ndebele - the second largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe after the Shona of Mugabe. The Ndebele make up 20 percent of the 11,9 million population. Among senior Zanu (PF) officials who resigned is Effort Nkomo, the former Zanu (PF) information chief in Matabeleland and deputy Tryphine Nhliziyo. There is also war veteran Andrew Ndlovu and many others.
Mugabe said: "I don’t know whether Dumiso and others have the right to withdraw from what has been a merger since December 1987 (when) that unity accord was signed. "He wants leadership which he could not get within Zapu and he thinks it’s now the opportunity. But why has he taken so long to claim it? Why did he not claim it when (Vice President Joseph) Msika was regarded as the successor to (late PF-Zapu leader) Joshua Nkomo? I don’t know."
The Zanu (PF) Politburo which met in Harare Wednesday discussed the revival of Zapu and the threats it poses to Zanu (PF). Chairman John Nkomo was tasked with probing the new party and tabling a report. Mugabe accused Dabengwa of being a tribalist. Dabengwa was not immediately available to respond to the allegations.
Mugabe said: "Now he is forming his own. He thinks he will have support. You cannot in this country succeed on the basis of trying to push the leadership of one tribe. People are refusing.
"You can’t talk of tribe these days. It’s a real shame. It does not matter what guise he is using but we can see through it; that it is the Ndebele tribe (that he wants) to have the dominance."
The Ndebele people have long been hostile to Mugabe. In the early 1980s, shortly after independence, Mugabe sent his notorious Fifth Brigade troops to Matabeleland, where they were accused of killing thousands of civilian supporters of the then-opposition Zapu party.
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