The Matebeleland Story

Students removed from University for insulting Mugabe

JOHANNESBURG -- Three Fort Hare University students have been thrown out of President Mugabe's scholarship programme for allegedly insulting their benefactor, Mr Mugabe.One of them, Tonderai Kunyaye, a second-year Bachelor of Social Science (Communications) student has spoken about how the expulsion will ruin his future.Kunyaye, whose student number is 200808194, was allegedly booted out of the university with at least two others for saying "bad things about Mugabe". The dentities of the other two students could not be immediately established.The expulsions are likely to fuel suspicions that the controversial scholarship programme, originally designed for under-privileged students, is being abused by politicians.Documents seen by CAJ News Agency that were signed by Manicaland governor, Chris Mushohwe, who is Mugabe's Fort Hare Scholarship Programme executive director, confirmed the developments.One of the letters from Mushohwe was copied to the University of Fort Hare Registrar Dr N Mrwetyana, executive director of students ZM Mjekula, Vice-Chancellor Professor Alice, Dr Tom Mvuyo and Jerry Samkange, who is a member of the Presidential Fort Hare Scholarship committee.Kunyaye is also being accused of refusing to submit his results to the sponsor and patron, President Mugabe at the end of each semester, a requirement the letter says every student should comply with."The student has violated standing rules and regulations of the programme. The student has defied calls for him to submit his results to the sponsor at the end of each semester, a requirement which every student complies with."He has been broadcasting hate, malicious and defamatory propaganda through self-made music, postcards and addresses to other students in and outside your university (Fort Hare)."The student has spread false, malicious and defamatory allegations through print media which has elicited malicious controversy around the patron and sponsor of this programme (President Mugabe)," reads the letter.The letter also claims Kunyaye confessed that he was involved in illicit dealings in precious minerals in Zimbabwe during the June/July 2009 school vacation."Tonderai has been masquerading as a member of national security organisations as a way of intimidating other students on the programme."Programme authorities have evidence to all these claims from numerous reports written to us by the Zimbabwe Students' Committee there, his own friends on the scholarship and those not on the scholarship and other students who do not subscribe to his unclear agenda," reads the letter.The document claims Kunyaye conned some Zimbabwean students of up to R10 000."It is for the above reasons and many more not listed here that the sponsorship is forthwith terminated."The university is hereby advised that Tonderai is no longer a beneficiary of the Presidential Scholarship Programme."Tonderai is expected to surrender the study permit issued under the auspices of the scholarship. "He is expected to come to Zimbabwe and assist authorities here to substantiate claims contained in tapes and reports in our possession, failure to which his guarantors will be called upon to reimburse what government has expended on his education under the programme sponsorship," reads the letter.But Kunyaye said he was ready to clear his name. "I am a victim of this unjust and very oppressive type of autocracy," he said in an interview."I am prepared to give a testimony at any platform because whatever has happened to us is not in any way a cause of the scholarship programme," Kunyaye said.Mushohwe was not reachable for comment yesterday while Higher and Tertiary Education permanent secretary Washington Mbizvo did not answer calls on his mobile phone - CAJ News.

ZANU PF intimidates Mthwakazi Parties

ZAPU’s ‘illegal’ t-shirts seized at Beitbridge

By Violet Gonda (SW Radio Africa)
3 September 2009

The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and the Matabeleland Freedom Party (MFP) have accused the police and customs officials at Beitbridge border post of political harassment and seizing their campaign material.

Thulani Dhlamini from ZAPU told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that the ZAPU executive in South Africa had sourced funding for the printing of t-shirts for a rally in Plumtree.

But he said the materials were confiscated last week by police, state agents and custom officials at the border with South Africa, who said the t-shirts were illegal. Dhlamini said even the single t-shirts they had as individuals were confiscated. The ZAPU official claims they were told by the authorities that ‘only ZANU and MDC T-shirts were allowed to be worn in Zim,’ and that they were undermining the unity government.

They were allegedly held in custody for 18 hours at the Beitbridge police station where they were subjected to interrogation about the names of party officials and their positions. Dhlamini said they were only released after being forced to apologise verbally to the Member in Charge for bringing the t-shirts into Zimbabwe. However, the pamphlets and t-shirts were not returned to them.
Meanwhile, the Matabeleland Freedom Party has also accused Zimbabwean border authorities of political harassment. MFP member David Magagula told us that officials at the border either confiscate opposition party regalia or charge exorbitant fees to make it impossible for the parties to ship their goods into Zimbabwe. Magagula claims he was recently charged R3 000 for about 150 t-shirts. He said: “This was exorbitant and far more than we had printed the t-shirts for. So we told them we were going back to South Africa with our t-shirts but we made as if we were returning and then we hid the t-shirts and passed.”
He accused the authorities of only ‘recognising ZANU PF and MDC’, and refusing to acknowledge that there are other parties in the country. He said: “Many people voted for MDC but it did not mean they liked the MDC or they liked Morgan Tsvangirai. It is only because they had no alternatives. It was a vote of protest because people don’t want Robert Mugabe.”

He claimed some border officials said Zimbabwe is now a two party state and called them ‘dissidents’. “That shows we are not wanted, why do we force ourselves to be Zimbabwean, when Zimbabweans do not want us.”

Controversially, the MFP does not want to be ruled by a person who is not from the Matabeleland region. Magagula said: “The party was formed so that we liberate Matabeleland from Mashonaland, along borders that were there before colonialism.”
Observers say ZANU PF continues leading the country down this trap of not recognising other political parties, creating intolerance and disharmony. Additionally the Gukurahundi massacres have still not been dealt with, and this will forever remain a painful issue in Matabeleland while the government continues to ignore it.

Productive commercial farm burnt down to ashes in Zimbabwe

2 September 2009

A productive commercial farmer in Zimbabwe has been left homeless after his farmhouse was burnt into ashes in an apparent arson attack by suspected ZANU-PF militias, it has emerged.

The beleaguered commercial farmer in Chegutu, Mr Ben Freeth has faced months of intimidation and attack by land invaders this year and was on Monday night without a home after his farmhouse was burned down.


Farm workers weeping for lost property: photo Sokwanele

Mr Freeth has endured some of the worst attacks on Mount Carmel farm since the renewed offensive against the commercial farming community began in earnest this year.

His farmhouse, the homes of some of his workers and an on-site factory for the farm produce, were also burned down in the fire, which started while he and his family were at Church.

Mr Freeth explained on Monday that because land invaders have stolen all their equipment, including their tractors and irrigation pipes, the family was not able to put out of the fire when they returned home. He described how, with a strong wind, the fire quickly spread, destroying his home and the houses of his staff.

“There was only enough time for me to get my family’s passports and our computer, but that was all,” Freeth explained. “We have literally been left with the clothes on our backs.”

Mr Freeth’s staff have also lost everything, and Freeth said he is determined to rebuild and give his staff a chance to also rebuild their lives. He explained that arson would never be proved, but argued that the fire would not have been so devastating if land invading ‘thugs’ had not stolen their equipment. Freeth added that surrounding farmers would usually rush to help fight a fire, but the renewed attack against Zimbabwe’s farmers means most have fled. Freeth said he, his family and workers were left alone to battle the blaze.

“While we were fighting the fire, some of the thugs were driving around on our tractor with our water pumps and dowsers, but they didn’t come near us,” Ben explained. “They were probably laughing at us.”

The attack came mere days after South African President Jacob Zuma delivered an implied rebuke to Robert Mugabe over the continuing lawlessness on white-owned commercial farms, when he said that the six-month-old coalition government should ensure productivity on all agricultural land. Zuma was in Harare last week to mediate in the unity government dispute and made it clear that he backed Tsvangirai’s insistence that Mugabe had failed to meet his obligations to restore democratic reforms.

Last year, Freeth and his parents in law, Mike and Angela Campbell, were abducted and severely beaten, on the day that Mugabe was announced the winner of the farcical one-man presidential runoff election in June.

Mr Freeth, his family and his workers have since endured months of intimidation and harassment by farm invaders, working for ZANU PF top official Nathan Shamuyarira. The intimidation continued, regardless of the formation of the unity government in February.

In April some of Freeth’s staff were arrested and severely beaten when they tried to defend the farm against the land invaders. Mike and Angela also fled the farm months ago because of the constant stress of the harassment by the land invaders.

The invaders meanwhile have completely taken over the farm, destroying and looting property and plundering the farm produce for personal gain. All the attacks have been reported to the Chegutu police who have repeatedly refused to aid Freeth and his family.

Mr Freeth has also written urgent letters to Prime Minister Tsvangirai pleading for the unity government’s intervention, but the pleas have apparently fallen on deaf ears.

Despite promises by the unity government to encourage food production on farms, there still has been no effort to stop the attacks that have left the community reeling. The government has instead been at pains to dismiss the farm invasions as isolated ‘disturbances’, which Tsvangirai said were blown out of proportion by the media.

Mr Freeth’s farm is supposed to be protected by a ruling passed down by the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) last year.

The SADC Tribunal ruling ordered the government to protect more than 70 farms against future attack in the name of land ‘reform’. But the ruling was ignored and even nullified by Mugabe, who condoned the renewed farm invasions this year. The Tribunal then ruled the government was in contempt for ignoring the earlier ruling, but this has done nothing to prevent the attacks from continuing on the farms.

Meanwhile, the complete breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe continues to take its toll on the farming community’s elderly people, after a farmer’s wife was found murdered in their home this weekend.

75-year-old Sophie Hart was discovered bound and apparently strangled, when her husband returned to their home in Kadoma on Sunday. The house had reportedly been ransacked, but not much was missing, suggesting the intruders were merely after cash. The death brings to three the number of murders of elderly farmers that have taken place in the country since the unity government was formed in February. The Commercial Farmers Union has previously said the attacks show the rule of law no longer exists in Zimbabwe, and that the elderly are soft targets for criminals. Sokwanele/Zim Diaspora/SW

Outspoken Zimbabwean archbishop says government still wants him dead

ZIMBABWE-NCUBE Sep-1-2009 (610 words) xxxi

Outspoken Zimbabwean archbishop says government still wants him dead

By Gunther Simmermacher
Catholic News Service

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- The former archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, said agents of his country's government still want to assassinate him over his criticism of human rights violations under President Robert Mugabe.

Archbishop Pius Ncube, 62, who now lives in western Zimbabwe's Hwange Diocese, made his claims in a letter to South Africa's national Catholic weekly, The Southern Cross, with the request that Catholics pray for him. The Southern Cross published Archbishop Ncube's letter in its Sept. 2 edition.

Before his resignation as head of the Bulawayo Archdiocese in September 2007 after having had an affair with a woman, Archbishop Ncube was internationally known as one of Mugabe's most vocal critics.

Mugabe has frequently attacked Archbishop Ncube in speeches and interviews. Even before his resignation, the archbishop said he was being harassed routinely.

"Where I now live, every two weeks the state intelligence is there to visit me, which they never did when I was in Bulawayo. I now refuse to talk to them," he told The Southern Cross.

He said he was being followed by car and alleged that his telephone and fax lines were being tampered with. Communications are intercepted and blocked or delayed, Archbishop Ncube said.

"My attitude is that the government of Zimbabwe has no right to hound me and get me out of Zimbabwe," he said. "I have a right and duty to live in Zimbabwe. This has been their method to intimidate thousands of their critics so that they leave the country."

He said that, "in compliance with the suggestions from the Vatican," he has abstained from publicly criticizing the government, "a thing which is alien to my convictions."

"I do not agree with quiet diplomacy when people are suffering," he said.

However, he added, that those who are harassing him "are not more powerful than God and our spiritual mother Mary."

"I ask the people of God to help me by their prayers for my protection," he said. "I thank all those who pray for me. I will continue to pray for the delivery of Africa from tyranny."

In his letter, Archbishop Ncube referred to an incident last year when a bomb he believes was intended to kill him injured a priest instead.

On April 6, 2008, Archbishop Ncube was still out of the country, but the government allegedly heard a rumor that he had returned.

"They therefore made an arrangement to kill me," Archbishop Ncube said.

"They planted a bomb in my car. A priest used my car," he said, and about 12 miles from Bulawayo the priest -- whom Archbishop Ncube declined to name to protect him from repercussions -- noticed that he was being followed by two cars.

Archbishop Ncube alleged that the people following the priest "detonated a bomb and the (priest's) car swerved and fell into the ditch." He added that he had been advised to get a driver for security reasons, and the bomb specifically targeted the passenger side of the vehicle.

"Had the bomb been directed to the driver, this priest would have died instantly," the archbishop said.

While the priest was lightly injured and covered in debris, the cars that had followed him passed without stopping or investigating.

"A third car, driven by a Chinese man, stopped nearby," Archbishop Ncube said. The driver allegedly proceeded to take photographs of the scene.

"The priest asked (the man) why he did not help him rather than photograph him, since he was injured. (The man) nervously scurried away and drove off fast," Archbishop Ncube said, adding that it was nearly four hours before the priest was taken to a hospital.

END

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Zimbabwean Refugee murdered on his return to Zimbabwe

BIKITA, August 31, 2009 - A Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party activist who had gone into exile in the run-up to last year's bloody June 27 run-off elections was murdered upon his return home over the weekend, police and the legislator for the area, Heya Shoko, confirmed.

Bikita West Member of Parliament (MP) Shoko said Edwin Chingami (32), an ardent MDC supporter who was an election observer for the party at the initial March 29 harmonized elections, was killed at a funeral in Ward eight, Chirove village under chief Nhema over the weekend.

Chingami had fled the country for fear of retributive violence that had hit the country.

"He had come for the funeral wake of his niece when some ZANU PF youths started accusing him of being a sell-out who had fled the country. They started beating him up and witnesses said he fled but was hit by a stone on the head," Shoko said.

Provincial police spokesperson Inspector Phibion Nyambo confirmed the incident, but denied the murder was politically motivated.

"We received a report of murder at a funeral. The suspects were drunk as there was beer at the funeral wake. I have not heard that the victim was killed because of his political affiliation," said Inspector Nyambo.

But MDC-T provincial chairman, Wilstuff Sitemere confirmed that Chingami, a district youth chairperson, was murdered for campaigning for the MDC-T, as well as standing as the party's elections observer.

"He was the target by ZANU PF youths aligned to former legislator Claudius Makova for vigorously campaigning for the MDC. They had told him that he will die whenever he returns, that's why it took him so long to come back. But this time around, his relative had died and he had no option but come back. We sadly mourn his death, he is a martyr," Sitemere said.

Contacted for a comment, the Minister of National Healing, John Nkomo, said he was unaware of the incident. Nkomo however said that he would investigate the matter so that the culprits are dealt with harshly.

"As the national healing Ministry, we urge people to throw their political differences so that the country can move forward. We also urge the justice system to deal harshly with the perpetrators of fresh political violence," said Nkomo.