COMMUNITIES POINT CHAIRMAN’S NEW YEAR MESSAGE: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
I join others who have sent New Year messages to all of us. Yes, as the year turns again, we have the unique opportunity to look back and face the future. Like every citizen of every country in the world we have hope for the future, yes because we have this belief in ourselves that continues to tell of procrastination where indeed we have to believe that our country will do better. In my line of work I have had the opportunity to meet with many people and many nationalities. One thing I can say about Zimbabweans is the resilience and resourcefulness. We therefore have every reason to continue believing that this resilience and resourcefulness will one day, yes a day into the future, be rewarded. Just like every other Zimbabwean I continue to hope that our payday will not be in the distant future, we hope that the future we envisage is in our generation and that the payday will come with befitting reward and we will be able to leave our children a legacy of respect and dignity. Yet we also have to regard the past in total, not only as a year but as a decade for indeed 2011 will herald the start of a new decade.
Background
I am persuaded to look back at the years gone by and what our country has become. At the turn of the century I was 26years old and a pioneering leader of the then new opposition the Movement for Democratic Change in Chitungwiza Province. I was unmarried and without a child, things have since changed. If anyone who was with the party at that time will be honest enough, politics was unchatted territory and although I personally wished my party well I never thought we would grow to become such a formidable force. In 1999, we had participated in Local Government elections and although we had wanted to win the leadership decided that the party regalia not be used and that candidates were to register as independents rather than MDC. That was a clever decision taken as our candidates risked losing and we correctly feared the fallout from losing. We reasoned that in the past opposition political parties who participated in elections at their inception tended to lose heavily to ZANU PF and once that happened there was no remedial action that could resurrect them. That had been the fate of United Parties and Forum Party of Zimbabwe. So the deficit that we had had to be covered by party cadres and as it turned out the party did not even have financial resources to sponsor its candidates. I ended up sponsoring more than 6 candidates in Chitungwiza alone and a comrade Alexio Musundire [Chairman of Chitungwiza Province MDC led by PM Morgan Tsvangirai] did a wonderful job financing the activities of the party. Worse still not only did we have a financial deficit but we also did not have the personnel. Trust me, MDC, the party that has today become very popular was struggling to fill its portfolios. I was a member of both Chitungwiza Province and Zengeza Constituency and to an extent St Mary's Constituency [I had helped found the three and wouldn't want to see their collapse] not because we were power hungry but there just wasn't any personnel.
To compound the problems the situation in Harare was even worse, with MDC struggling to fill positions there. The Provincial Chairman there was Makuyana who hailed from Chitungwiza and he had wanted me to be the Secretary of the province but I just could not there was too much in my plate but one of our comrades from Chitungwiza Denford Muchenje was also a member of Harare. It was a "no takers MDC". Against that background the performance of the party in the 2000 General Elections surprised many. I am not going to be talking about MDC here, I am going to be talking about Zimbabwe, and Communities Point's role in the past and going forward. Yet the reason why I have talked about MDC is in line with what then became of our country in the past decade and so far I have been able to dispel one of the widely held myths of an MDC that was funded by white capital and that was fuelled by western philosophies. By the way I forgot to say we lost in the local government elections of 1999 winning only 2 wards in Seke, Chipiyo and Chipungu and lost all the other 22 wards then contested.
Post referendum
Yet given all that ZANU PF still managed paranoia after the February Referendum and started a campaign of terror that would forever change the course of politics in Zimbabwe. War Veterans largely led by Joseph Chinotimba started to occupy farms and even ZANU PF leaders and the ZRP voiced concern. Vice President Msika, John Nkomo, Dumiso Dabengwa and ZRP Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri all condemned the violent occupations and ordered war veterans off the farms. Chenjerai Hunzvi, then the National Chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association refused to budge and said that they would only take orders from their patron President Robert Mugabe who was on tour. When the President finally came back to the country he condoned the violent farm invasions and called them peaceful demonstrations and said that no member of the ZRP would be deployed on the farms to stop. ZANU PF had 117 MPs of the elected 120 seats and had they genuinely wanted to take the land without paying a single penny there was nothing that would have stopped them from legislating in that direction rather than take the country on a violent path. The ZANU PF propaganda machinery then started playing part of a clip in which Morgan Tsvangirai is filmed receiving cheques from white Zimbabwean commercial farmers. In that clip in fact Morgan Tsvangirai warns the farmers: "Now you have said we are together, we have to be together because in the past what has stopped you from attending our sports and our independence celebrations?" which to me does not tell of traitor because traitors or puppets wouldn't have told cheque bearing funders that they have not been co-operative enough in the past. I don't know how MDC has failed to use this as a counter to the attacks they receive from ZANU PF but events in the past decade proceeded on the wrong premise that a servile Tsvangirai accepted white bribes in exchange for his soul.
We saw a lot of violence then-after. Even as people such as Chenjerai Hunzvi and Border Gezi, protagonists of election violence during the campaign period publicly denounced violence and called for national healing after the June 2000 Parliamentary Elections, the culture of violence continued unabated. We went to address a rally in Mhondoro around that time, but the way we did it was as if we were an Advance Party or a Reconnaissance Mission in a war zone because it had to be clandestine yet it was an innocent political mission.
As the politics grew bad the economy too did and the fallout was high flight in every resources; capital, human resources, Zimbabwe just lost and a generation was left behind that knew nothing but hate. Those who left Zimbabwe settled in other countries and for all purposes most of them became second class citizens. The 2002 Presidential Elections was mismanaged and the decision by the Government to close election observers to the EU and other western countries, though a legitimate sovereign decision as the west simply does not have the automatic right to monitor elections, it increased the suspicion and for some strange reason the Government of Zimbabwe made the mistake of closing the international community in the 2005 elections. The Director of ZESN Rindai Chifunde, the local network that observed those elections was quoted as saying the elections had been free and fair and there were no huge incidents of violence. Had the international community been allowed to observe those elections probably ZANU PF would have been given the international recognition it required. The mother of all mistakes was the continued perpetuation of the violence by the government in Operation Murambatsvina.
That culture of violence was seen in 2007 when repression was used against political and civic leaders with the 2007 public assault and humiliation of Morgan Tsvangirayi, Tendai Biti and Lovemore Madhuku and the barbaric assaults on defenceless women such as Sekai Holland, Lucia Matibenga, Grace Kwinjeh, Jane Williams, Magodonga and others being a permanent scar on our collective consciences. Needless to say the wanton destruction and unwarranted deaths in 2008 still testify this endless barbarism being perpetuated mainly by or for the benefit of one party ZANU PF.
The GNU
There can be no doubt that the GNU has managed to stabilise things in Zimbabwe both economically and politically. Yet we should remember that Zimbabwe is not growing both economically and politically but we are recovering, so bad had the economy become that even a half percentage growth in our GDP is an act of genius by the person in charge. And there are certain issues that are yet to be settled which make elections in Zimbabwe unpalatable. The environment remains not conducive for elections and. we personally seek the advent of a new era and that will be heralded by a new constitution in the first place.
Doing things differently
Zimbabwe must learn to do things differently. At Communities Point I have introduced a campaign that we called No Reconciliation Without Justice. This was promulgated by the acceptance by the team of that campaign and where others have tended to talk about the post-2008 Elections Violence we have been adamant that any real and meaningful accountability has to start with the injustices and atrocities that were committed during the UDI era by Ian Smith. We rejected that such issues be negated and we rejected that Gukurahundi should be swept under the carpet. We did not join others who said the Rhodesia Era Army Commander Peter Walls was a good soldier. We believe Peter Walls and Ian Smith died war criminals and we still maintain that is so as they also acted against 2 important United Nations Security Council Resolutions. I have personally been called a "kaffir" [and to think we were in 2010] for that but I have the resilience to continue. ZANU PF calls me names and UDI protagonists call me names together with some of my own colleagues in MDC so I personally take those as badges of honour. We have to believe in justice as the basis of our true freedom and the trial medium for every wrongs that were committed in Zimbabwe will put the country on a true path to recovery. The general guilt of every white person for atrocities committed on blacks in Zimbabwe is a myth, the general guilt of every soldier for Gukurahundi is a myth, the general guilt of ZANU PF and War Veterans for atrocities against farmers and members of the MDC and other opponents of ZANU PF is a myth. Yet we remain locked in uncertainties and refusing ourselves a fresh start. People need to know what they forgave in 1980, people need to know what "constitutes acts of madness" that happened in the 1980s in Matabeleland and people need to know who assaulted Tsvangirai, Holland, Kwinjeh, Biti, Madhuku, Matibenga etc and who killed Machiridza, Ndira, Nabanyama etc. There has to be a closure on everything and we have failed to do so. We are not guaranteeing a safe future and we cannot safely say Zimbabwe is not under threat of a civil war. Those who died left behind relatives and orphans and as long as they don't know what happened, our country is tension filled and it is a time bomb just waiting to explode.
As we approach 2011, a new decade, I urge us to approach it with a new way of thinking. On behalf of Communities Point I urge Transparency, Accountability, Trust, Respect and Equality. "Perseverance plus Come On!"
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Contacts: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07529705413 or 07401182271
Friday 31 December 2010
Monday 29 November 2010
ZIMBABWE: A REFLECTION ON WIKILEAKS: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Like everyone else I have read the wiki-leaks and like everyone else I can say that this is really embarrassing for US diplomacy. Where does it go from here?
It reminds of a forum I recently participated in on Face Book. The issue was about gossip; some of my colleagues stated that gossiping is a sign of failure another one them even went on to put a religious dimension to it and said those who gossiped would not get blessings [maybe those who gossip should forget about ever going to heaven]. I begged to differ with all them, I warned that in fact I knew most of them and I put it to them that in fact we had engaged in gossiping with them at some point. I also begged to differ with them that gossipers are failures because in fact there are many living gossipers who are billionaires and I warned against conclusive mentalities which created nexuses away from empiricism. Proven knowledge is always better than idealistic perspectives and I put to them my proven nexus between gossiping and those billionaires.
Gossip in the contemporary world has become an integral part of a moving discourse and it has created its own ethics, professions, professionals and entrepreneurs. Gossip has always been there with us and it has become a way of life for others and a livelihood for many more. In politics, be it corporate governance or political party politics gossip can be used as a tool for manoeuvring and those who don’t engage in it may not do so at their own peril. What’s the purpose of all this in the context of what I have embarked on saying; because to me the wiki-leaks represent gossip in the Zimbabwean perspective. What former Ambassador Chris Dell said was also gossip; it was a diplomatic briefing that involved his assessment of the Zimbabwean situation and both the American narrative and perspective in the Zimbabwean question and it is an individual assessment that to me seems to border on four missions; (i) the obligatory mission that emanates from his diplomatic role in Zimbabwe (ii) the observatory role which emanates from his duty to observe and assess the situation in Zimbabwe on behalf of his country, (iii) the expectation interest which is the appraisal by the wider public of his role as an American ambassador at a very difficult time in the history of Zimbabwe and (iv) his own performance appraisal. The last two represent the main reasons for his briefing because he would naturally be bent on coming up with a vindication for his posting in Zimbabwe. His motivation was obviously to justify his presence and the promotion of American interests in the same way as a Zimbabwean ambassador must justify his presence in a diplomatic mission and promote Zimbabwean interests.
Wiki-Leaks founder Julian Assange is also a gossiper and again he has his own motivation but his instant heroism or vilification is due to the fact that he leaked documents that were not supposed to be in the public domain. I am not going to attempt to look at that but I am going to look at Ambassador Dell and his verdict on the politics of Zimbabwe. Although there is no proof whatsoever that US policy on Zimbabwe was influenced by what he said, the US will not escape a charge of trying to meddle in the politics of Zimbabwe. His criticism of almost everyone and his fascination to see the back of President Mugabe in particular will definitely be viewed as an attempt at regime change. Yet some of his analyses can only be ignored at our own peril. Let’s ignore the regime change agenda for a moment and let’s take the whole criticism by him as the construction of an anthropologist. Because I think there is an interesting payout of social and political dividends from this derivative.
Ambassador Dell has touched at what is wrong with our politics. He has not tried to hide the fact the President Mugabe is an intelligent man. He clearly is and he has also said President Mugabe is a shrewd tactician; which he truly is. But Ambassador Dell has talked of the fascination of President Mugabe to dwell on the past and overlook the dividends of openness and this is what is drawing us back as a country. Openness in politics, in the economy, in the social scene all are important facets of the contemporary political discourse. Zimbabwe has removed itself from the path of progress by paranoia. It is sad that 30 years after our independence we still think we can be re-colonised. To me that is a clear admission of mental subjugation, those who talk about the possibilities of re-colonisation 30 years after our independence are admitting failure in a coded language. What they are telling the whole world is that "look we have been there for 30 years during which time we have been playing and warming our seats and we neglected the duty of building the structures to withstand any external threats". For the major part of our history we were a free country, we are the home of heroes such as Changamire Dombo, my ancestor, who stood against both the Mwene Mutapa his own black brothers and the Portuguese who wanted to colonise us. We are the proud home of Mzilikazi; that principled King who stood against both Zwide his tormentor and Shaka, the man who had freed him from Zwide but who was oppressive towards his own people, and chose freedom rather than being a better captive. The period in which we were colonised is 90 years compared to the many years we have been a country, two major Empires were based here and they built the Great Zimbabwe and attempted to explore the moon.
The paranoia about colonisation is a verdict on the structuralism and functionalism of the Zimbabwe nation state, 30 years after our re-independence. It has shaken even the proud liberation history as if we have enemies and indeed we have been fighting them for the past 10years, then we have bad generals because a good fighter will choose wisely the battles to fight. I was once a street-fighter but I never failed because I knew when to fight and when to make peace but when I fought I won big battles and retained a reputation as one of the finest. It is sad that the tactics that have been employed have been solely driven by paranoia and it was meant to destroy descent and not to advance the nation state. Yes ZANU PF cannot be forced to see the rise of the MDC and they cannot aid them in that upward direction but an attack on democracy is not desirable either.
And Ambassador Dell’s assessment of PM Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC cannot be vilified either. That he is a brave leader is without doubt. I however differ where he seems to say he is not shrewd. I personally think PM Tsvangirai is both brave and shrewd because if he was not shrewd he could not have been standing to this day. He has survived many plots both within the MDC and also by ZANU PF and shrewdness will have another meaning if that is not its example. But PM Tsvangirai has a problem of not listening to advice, nepotism, surrounding himself in the comfort of people who will not criticise him and has also shown a total disregard of the MDC constitution in particular and democratic principles in general. He has fallen trap to his own success in opposition and has now become another revolutionary aristocrat who thinks that “nothing meaningful in Zimbabwe’s opposition politics” can be done without him”.
He has failed to maintain alliances that the MDC has always had like the NCA and at times even ZCTU because he forgot that MDC is a product of those organisations and not the other way round. The attempt to influence what happens in ZINASU, ZCTU, NCA etc is a very worrying scenario for a party that can one day become the sole governing party. It simply means that during the tenure of MDC labour and student activism may fail to exist independently. His unwillingness to follow the constitution and allow the emergence of another leader is also worrying as it shows that there will be a continued disregard of the rule of law even under his rule. It shows his unwillingness to dictate the pace in the politics of Zimbabwe by occupying space as the true alternative as MDC would have shown a different agenda by doing what ZANU PF has failed to do since 1977; leadership renewal.
Professor Welshman Ncube has repeatedly failed to articulate the real reasons behind the split of the MDC in 2005 with his answers bothering on defensiveness and playing into trivial issues such as his “membership” of the Central Intelligence Organisation. The ghost of that split will continue to haunt him because at the time of the split their camp made the mistake of putting a picture of Morgan Tsvangirai as the real devil of Zimbabwean politics but against the backdrop of “Operation Murambatsvina” that portrayal of Morgan Tsvangirai was laughable even in ZANU PF circles. He has failed to show that there were ideological differences and personality clashes between him and Morgan Tsvangirai and that those differences were unhealthy for the union prompting it to split.
He has failed to tell the public tribunal that MDC would have split even if the issue of the Senate had not come and October 12 2005 was a date for long on the calendar. I personally think he is a good politician who also has his own ambitions but has failed to tell his story clearly. Zimbabweans also know that there can be nothing shocking for a political party to emerge in Zimbabwe that has an agenda which is more radical than ZANU PF. This is what Professor Mutambara wants to do but he seems to be dishonest about it. In the UK the British Nationalist Party is a far right party with views that are more radical than the Tories but it is there and has a good number of supporters.
My conclusion is that the Wiki-Leaks are really bad for American diplomacy but at least to Zimbabwean leaders they give us an anthropological perspective into own our strengths and weaknesses and Ambassador Dell has criticised almost all the important players in Zimbabwe which found favour with me. He is not God or his second son, but he has enriched the political landscape in our country and we have the chance to work out our weaknesses for the good of everyone in Zimbabwe.
Be Judge!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point but writes in his own capacity.
Contact: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
It reminds of a forum I recently participated in on Face Book. The issue was about gossip; some of my colleagues stated that gossiping is a sign of failure another one them even went on to put a religious dimension to it and said those who gossiped would not get blessings [maybe those who gossip should forget about ever going to heaven]. I begged to differ with all them, I warned that in fact I knew most of them and I put it to them that in fact we had engaged in gossiping with them at some point. I also begged to differ with them that gossipers are failures because in fact there are many living gossipers who are billionaires and I warned against conclusive mentalities which created nexuses away from empiricism. Proven knowledge is always better than idealistic perspectives and I put to them my proven nexus between gossiping and those billionaires.
Gossip in the contemporary world has become an integral part of a moving discourse and it has created its own ethics, professions, professionals and entrepreneurs. Gossip has always been there with us and it has become a way of life for others and a livelihood for many more. In politics, be it corporate governance or political party politics gossip can be used as a tool for manoeuvring and those who don’t engage in it may not do so at their own peril. What’s the purpose of all this in the context of what I have embarked on saying; because to me the wiki-leaks represent gossip in the Zimbabwean perspective. What former Ambassador Chris Dell said was also gossip; it was a diplomatic briefing that involved his assessment of the Zimbabwean situation and both the American narrative and perspective in the Zimbabwean question and it is an individual assessment that to me seems to border on four missions; (i) the obligatory mission that emanates from his diplomatic role in Zimbabwe (ii) the observatory role which emanates from his duty to observe and assess the situation in Zimbabwe on behalf of his country, (iii) the expectation interest which is the appraisal by the wider public of his role as an American ambassador at a very difficult time in the history of Zimbabwe and (iv) his own performance appraisal. The last two represent the main reasons for his briefing because he would naturally be bent on coming up with a vindication for his posting in Zimbabwe. His motivation was obviously to justify his presence and the promotion of American interests in the same way as a Zimbabwean ambassador must justify his presence in a diplomatic mission and promote Zimbabwean interests.
Wiki-Leaks founder Julian Assange is also a gossiper and again he has his own motivation but his instant heroism or vilification is due to the fact that he leaked documents that were not supposed to be in the public domain. I am not going to attempt to look at that but I am going to look at Ambassador Dell and his verdict on the politics of Zimbabwe. Although there is no proof whatsoever that US policy on Zimbabwe was influenced by what he said, the US will not escape a charge of trying to meddle in the politics of Zimbabwe. His criticism of almost everyone and his fascination to see the back of President Mugabe in particular will definitely be viewed as an attempt at regime change. Yet some of his analyses can only be ignored at our own peril. Let’s ignore the regime change agenda for a moment and let’s take the whole criticism by him as the construction of an anthropologist. Because I think there is an interesting payout of social and political dividends from this derivative.
Ambassador Dell has touched at what is wrong with our politics. He has not tried to hide the fact the President Mugabe is an intelligent man. He clearly is and he has also said President Mugabe is a shrewd tactician; which he truly is. But Ambassador Dell has talked of the fascination of President Mugabe to dwell on the past and overlook the dividends of openness and this is what is drawing us back as a country. Openness in politics, in the economy, in the social scene all are important facets of the contemporary political discourse. Zimbabwe has removed itself from the path of progress by paranoia. It is sad that 30 years after our independence we still think we can be re-colonised. To me that is a clear admission of mental subjugation, those who talk about the possibilities of re-colonisation 30 years after our independence are admitting failure in a coded language. What they are telling the whole world is that "look we have been there for 30 years during which time we have been playing and warming our seats and we neglected the duty of building the structures to withstand any external threats". For the major part of our history we were a free country, we are the home of heroes such as Changamire Dombo, my ancestor, who stood against both the Mwene Mutapa his own black brothers and the Portuguese who wanted to colonise us. We are the proud home of Mzilikazi; that principled King who stood against both Zwide his tormentor and Shaka, the man who had freed him from Zwide but who was oppressive towards his own people, and chose freedom rather than being a better captive. The period in which we were colonised is 90 years compared to the many years we have been a country, two major Empires were based here and they built the Great Zimbabwe and attempted to explore the moon.
The paranoia about colonisation is a verdict on the structuralism and functionalism of the Zimbabwe nation state, 30 years after our re-independence. It has shaken even the proud liberation history as if we have enemies and indeed we have been fighting them for the past 10years, then we have bad generals because a good fighter will choose wisely the battles to fight. I was once a street-fighter but I never failed because I knew when to fight and when to make peace but when I fought I won big battles and retained a reputation as one of the finest. It is sad that the tactics that have been employed have been solely driven by paranoia and it was meant to destroy descent and not to advance the nation state. Yes ZANU PF cannot be forced to see the rise of the MDC and they cannot aid them in that upward direction but an attack on democracy is not desirable either.
And Ambassador Dell’s assessment of PM Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC cannot be vilified either. That he is a brave leader is without doubt. I however differ where he seems to say he is not shrewd. I personally think PM Tsvangirai is both brave and shrewd because if he was not shrewd he could not have been standing to this day. He has survived many plots both within the MDC and also by ZANU PF and shrewdness will have another meaning if that is not its example. But PM Tsvangirai has a problem of not listening to advice, nepotism, surrounding himself in the comfort of people who will not criticise him and has also shown a total disregard of the MDC constitution in particular and democratic principles in general. He has fallen trap to his own success in opposition and has now become another revolutionary aristocrat who thinks that “nothing meaningful in Zimbabwe’s opposition politics” can be done without him”.
He has failed to maintain alliances that the MDC has always had like the NCA and at times even ZCTU because he forgot that MDC is a product of those organisations and not the other way round. The attempt to influence what happens in ZINASU, ZCTU, NCA etc is a very worrying scenario for a party that can one day become the sole governing party. It simply means that during the tenure of MDC labour and student activism may fail to exist independently. His unwillingness to follow the constitution and allow the emergence of another leader is also worrying as it shows that there will be a continued disregard of the rule of law even under his rule. It shows his unwillingness to dictate the pace in the politics of Zimbabwe by occupying space as the true alternative as MDC would have shown a different agenda by doing what ZANU PF has failed to do since 1977; leadership renewal.
Professor Welshman Ncube has repeatedly failed to articulate the real reasons behind the split of the MDC in 2005 with his answers bothering on defensiveness and playing into trivial issues such as his “membership” of the Central Intelligence Organisation. The ghost of that split will continue to haunt him because at the time of the split their camp made the mistake of putting a picture of Morgan Tsvangirai as the real devil of Zimbabwean politics but against the backdrop of “Operation Murambatsvina” that portrayal of Morgan Tsvangirai was laughable even in ZANU PF circles. He has failed to show that there were ideological differences and personality clashes between him and Morgan Tsvangirai and that those differences were unhealthy for the union prompting it to split.
He has failed to tell the public tribunal that MDC would have split even if the issue of the Senate had not come and October 12 2005 was a date for long on the calendar. I personally think he is a good politician who also has his own ambitions but has failed to tell his story clearly. Zimbabweans also know that there can be nothing shocking for a political party to emerge in Zimbabwe that has an agenda which is more radical than ZANU PF. This is what Professor Mutambara wants to do but he seems to be dishonest about it. In the UK the British Nationalist Party is a far right party with views that are more radical than the Tories but it is there and has a good number of supporters.
My conclusion is that the Wiki-Leaks are really bad for American diplomacy but at least to Zimbabwean leaders they give us an anthropological perspective into own our strengths and weaknesses and Ambassador Dell has criticised almost all the important players in Zimbabwe which found favour with me. He is not God or his second son, but he has enriched the political landscape in our country and we have the chance to work out our weaknesses for the good of everyone in Zimbabwe.
Be Judge!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point but writes in his own capacity.
Contact: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
ZIMBABWE: A REFLECTION ON WIKILEAKS: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Like everyone else I have read the wiki-leaks and like everyone else I can say that this is really embarrassing for US diplomacy. Where does it go from here?
It reminds of a forum I recently participated in on Face Book. The issue was about gossip; some of my colleagues stated that gossiping is a sign of failure another one even went on to put a religious dimension to it and said those who gossiped would not get blessings [maybe those who gossip should forget about ever going to heaven]. I begged to differ with all them, I warned that in fact I knew most of them and I put it to them that in fact we had engaged in gossiping with them at some point. I also begged to differ with them that gossipers are failures because in fact there are many living gossipers who are billionaires and I warned against conclusive mentalities which created nexuses away from empiricism. Proven knowledge is always better than idealistic perspectives and I put to them my proven nexus between gossiping and those billionaires.
Gossip in the contemporary world has become an integral part of a moving discourse and it has created its own ethics, professions, professionals and entrepreneurs. Gossip has always been there with us and it has become a way of life for others and a livelihood for many more. In politics, be it corporate governance or political party politics gossip can be used as a tool for manoeuvring and those who don’t engage in it may not do so at their own peril. What’s the purpose of all this in the context of what I have embarked on saying; because to me the wiki-leaks represent gossip in the Zimbabwean perspective what former Ambassador Chris Dell said was also gossip; it was a diplomatic briefing that involved his assessment of the Zimbabwean situation and both the American narrative and perspective in the Zimbabwean question and it is an individual assessment that to me seem to border on four missions; (i) the obligatory mission that emanates from his diplomatic role in Zimbabwe (ii) the observatory role which emanates from his duty to observe and assess the situation in Zimbabwe on behalf of his country, (iii) the expectation interest which is the appraisal by the wider public of his role as an American ambassador at a very difficult time in the history of Zimbabwe and (iv) his own performance appraisal. The last two are to me represent the main reasons for his briefing because he would naturally be bent on coming up with a vindication for his posting in Zimbabwe. His motivation was obviously to justify his presence and the promotion of American interests in the same way as a Zimbabwean ambassador must justify his presence in a diplomatic mission and promote Zimbabwean interests.
Wiki-Leaks founder Julian Assange is also a gossiper and again he has his own motivation but his instant heroism or vilification is due to the fact that he leaked documents that were not supposed to be in the public domain. I am not going to attempt to look at that but I am going to look at Ambassador Dell and his verdict on the politics of Zimbabwe. Although there is no proof whatsoever that US policy on Zimbabwe was influenced by what he said, the US will not escape a charge of trying to meddle in the politics of Zimbabwe. His criticism of almost everyone and his fascination to see the back of President Mugabe in particular will definitely be viewed as an attempt at regime change. Yet some of his analyses can only be ignored at our own peril. Let’s ignore the regime change agenda for a moment and let’s take the whole criticism by him as the construction of an anthropologist. Because I think there is an interesting payout of social and political dividends from this derivative.
Ambassador Dell has touched at what is wrong with our politics. He has not tried to hide the fact the President Mugabe is an intelligent man. He clearly is and he has also said President Mugabe is a shrewd tactician; which he truly is. But Ambassador Dell has talked of the fascination of President Mugabe to dwell in the past and overlook the dividends of openness and this is what is drawing us back as a country. Openness in politics, in the economy, in the social scene all are important facets of the contemporary political discourse. Zimbabwe has removed itself from the path of progress by paranoia, it is sad that 30 years after our independence we still think we can be re-colonised. To me that is a clear admission of mental subjugation, those who talk about the possibilities of re-colonisation 30 years after our independence are admitting failure in a coded language. What they are telling the whole world is that look we have been there for 30 years during which time we have been playing and warming our seats and we neglected the duty of building the structures to withstand any external threats. For the major part of our history we were a free country, we are the home of heroes such as Changamire Dombo, my ancestor, who stood against both the Mwene Mutapa his own black brothers and the Portuguese who wanted to colonise us. We are the proud home of Mzilikazi; that principled King who stood against both Zwide and Shaka and chose freedom rather than being a better captive. The period in which we were colonised is 90 years compared to the many years we have been a country, two major empires were based here and they built the Great Zimbabwe and attempted to explore the moon.
The paranoia about colonisation is a verdict on the structuralism and functionalism of the Zimbabwe nation state, 30 years after our re-independence. It has shaken even the proud liberation history as if we have enemies and indeed we have been fighting them for the past 10years, then we have bad generals because a good fighter will choose wisely the battles to fight. I was once a street-fighter but I never failed because I knew when to fight and when to make peace but when I fought I won big battles and retained a reputation as one of the finest. It is sad that the tactics that have been employed have been solely driven by paranoia and it was meant to destroy descent and not to advance the nation state. Yes ZANU PF cannot be forced to see the rise of the MDC and they cannot aid them in that upward direction but an attack on democracy is not desirable either.
And Ambassador Dell’s assessment of PM Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC cannot be vilified either. That he is a brave leader is without doubt. I however differ where he seems to say he is not shrewd. I personally think PM Tsvangirai is both brave and shrewd because if he was not shrewd he could not have been standing to this day. He has survived many plots both within the MDC and also by ZANU PF and shrewdness will have another meaning if that is not its example. But PM Tsvangirai has a problem of not listening to advice, nepotism, surrounding himself in the comfort of people who will not criticise him and has also shown a total disregard of the MDC constitution in particular and democratic principles in general. He has fallen trap to his own success in opposition and has now become another revolutionary aristocrat who thinks that “nothing meaningful in Zimbabwe’s opposition politics” can be done without him”. He has failed to maintain alliances that the MDC has always had like the NCA and at times even ZCTU because he forgot that MDC is a product of those organisations and not the other way round. The attempt to influence what happens in ZINASU, ZCTU, NCA etc is a very worrying scenario for a party that can one day become the sole governing party. It simply means that during the tenure of MDC labour and student activism may fail to exist independently. His unwillingness to follow the constitution and allow the emergence of another leader is also worrying as it shows that there will be a continued disregard of the rule of law even under his rule. It shows his unwillingness to dictate the pace in the politics of Zimbabwe by occupying space as the true alternative as MDC would have shown a different agenda by doing what ZANU PF has failed to do since 1977; leadership renewal.
Professor Welshman Ncube has repeatedly failed to articulate the real reasons behind the split of the MDC in 2005 with his answers bothering on defensiveness and playing into trivial issues such as his “membership” of the Central Intelligence Organisation. The ghost of that split will continue to haunt him because at the time of the split their camp made the mistake of putting a picture of Morgan Tsvangirai as the real devil of Zimbabwean politics but against the backdrop of “Operation Murambatsvina” that portrayal of Morgan Tsvangirai was laughable even in ZANU PF circles. He has failed to show that there were ideological differences and personality clashes between him and Morgan Tsvangirai and that those differences were unhealthy for the union prompting it to split.
He has failed to tell the public tribunal that MDC would have split even if the issue of the Senate had not come and October 12 2005 was a date for long on the calendar. I personally think he is a good politician who also has his own ambitions but has failed to tell his story clearly. Zimbabweans also know that there can be nothing shocking for a political party to emerge in Zimbabwe that has an agenda which is more radical than ZANU PF. This is what Professor Mutambara wants to do but he seems to be dishonest about it. In the UK the British Nationalist Party is a far right party with views that are more radical than the Tories but it is there and has a good number of supporters.
My conclusion is that the Wiki-Leaks are really bad for American democracy but at least to Zimbabwean leaders they give as an anthropological perspective into own our strengths and weaknesses and Ambassador Dell has criticised almost all the important players in Zimbabwe which found favour with me. He is not God or his second son, but he has enriched the political landscape in our country and we have the chance to work out our weaknesses for the good of everyone in Zimbabwe.
Be Judge!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point but writes in his own capacity.
Contact: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
It reminds of a forum I recently participated in on Face Book. The issue was about gossip; some of my colleagues stated that gossiping is a sign of failure another one even went on to put a religious dimension to it and said those who gossiped would not get blessings [maybe those who gossip should forget about ever going to heaven]. I begged to differ with all them, I warned that in fact I knew most of them and I put it to them that in fact we had engaged in gossiping with them at some point. I also begged to differ with them that gossipers are failures because in fact there are many living gossipers who are billionaires and I warned against conclusive mentalities which created nexuses away from empiricism. Proven knowledge is always better than idealistic perspectives and I put to them my proven nexus between gossiping and those billionaires.
Gossip in the contemporary world has become an integral part of a moving discourse and it has created its own ethics, professions, professionals and entrepreneurs. Gossip has always been there with us and it has become a way of life for others and a livelihood for many more. In politics, be it corporate governance or political party politics gossip can be used as a tool for manoeuvring and those who don’t engage in it may not do so at their own peril. What’s the purpose of all this in the context of what I have embarked on saying; because to me the wiki-leaks represent gossip in the Zimbabwean perspective what former Ambassador Chris Dell said was also gossip; it was a diplomatic briefing that involved his assessment of the Zimbabwean situation and both the American narrative and perspective in the Zimbabwean question and it is an individual assessment that to me seem to border on four missions; (i) the obligatory mission that emanates from his diplomatic role in Zimbabwe (ii) the observatory role which emanates from his duty to observe and assess the situation in Zimbabwe on behalf of his country, (iii) the expectation interest which is the appraisal by the wider public of his role as an American ambassador at a very difficult time in the history of Zimbabwe and (iv) his own performance appraisal. The last two are to me represent the main reasons for his briefing because he would naturally be bent on coming up with a vindication for his posting in Zimbabwe. His motivation was obviously to justify his presence and the promotion of American interests in the same way as a Zimbabwean ambassador must justify his presence in a diplomatic mission and promote Zimbabwean interests.
Wiki-Leaks founder Julian Assange is also a gossiper and again he has his own motivation but his instant heroism or vilification is due to the fact that he leaked documents that were not supposed to be in the public domain. I am not going to attempt to look at that but I am going to look at Ambassador Dell and his verdict on the politics of Zimbabwe. Although there is no proof whatsoever that US policy on Zimbabwe was influenced by what he said, the US will not escape a charge of trying to meddle in the politics of Zimbabwe. His criticism of almost everyone and his fascination to see the back of President Mugabe in particular will definitely be viewed as an attempt at regime change. Yet some of his analyses can only be ignored at our own peril. Let’s ignore the regime change agenda for a moment and let’s take the whole criticism by him as the construction of an anthropologist. Because I think there is an interesting payout of social and political dividends from this derivative.
Ambassador Dell has touched at what is wrong with our politics. He has not tried to hide the fact the President Mugabe is an intelligent man. He clearly is and he has also said President Mugabe is a shrewd tactician; which he truly is. But Ambassador Dell has talked of the fascination of President Mugabe to dwell in the past and overlook the dividends of openness and this is what is drawing us back as a country. Openness in politics, in the economy, in the social scene all are important facets of the contemporary political discourse. Zimbabwe has removed itself from the path of progress by paranoia, it is sad that 30 years after our independence we still think we can be re-colonised. To me that is a clear admission of mental subjugation, those who talk about the possibilities of re-colonisation 30 years after our independence are admitting failure in a coded language. What they are telling the whole world is that look we have been there for 30 years during which time we have been playing and warming our seats and we neglected the duty of building the structures to withstand any external threats. For the major part of our history we were a free country, we are the home of heroes such as Changamire Dombo, my ancestor, who stood against both the Mwene Mutapa his own black brothers and the Portuguese who wanted to colonise us. We are the proud home of Mzilikazi; that principled King who stood against both Zwide and Shaka and chose freedom rather than being a better captive. The period in which we were colonised is 90 years compared to the many years we have been a country, two major empires were based here and they built the Great Zimbabwe and attempted to explore the moon.
The paranoia about colonisation is a verdict on the structuralism and functionalism of the Zimbabwe nation state, 30 years after our re-independence. It has shaken even the proud liberation history as if we have enemies and indeed we have been fighting them for the past 10years, then we have bad generals because a good fighter will choose wisely the battles to fight. I was once a street-fighter but I never failed because I knew when to fight and when to make peace but when I fought I won big battles and retained a reputation as one of the finest. It is sad that the tactics that have been employed have been solely driven by paranoia and it was meant to destroy descent and not to advance the nation state. Yes ZANU PF cannot be forced to see the rise of the MDC and they cannot aid them in that upward direction but an attack on democracy is not desirable either.
And Ambassador Dell’s assessment of PM Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC cannot be vilified either. That he is a brave leader is without doubt. I however differ where he seems to say he is not shrewd. I personally think PM Tsvangirai is both brave and shrewd because if he was not shrewd he could not have been standing to this day. He has survived many plots both within the MDC and also by ZANU PF and shrewdness will have another meaning if that is not its example. But PM Tsvangirai has a problem of not listening to advice, nepotism, surrounding himself in the comfort of people who will not criticise him and has also shown a total disregard of the MDC constitution in particular and democratic principles in general. He has fallen trap to his own success in opposition and has now become another revolutionary aristocrat who thinks that “nothing meaningful in Zimbabwe’s opposition politics” can be done without him”. He has failed to maintain alliances that the MDC has always had like the NCA and at times even ZCTU because he forgot that MDC is a product of those organisations and not the other way round. The attempt to influence what happens in ZINASU, ZCTU, NCA etc is a very worrying scenario for a party that can one day become the sole governing party. It simply means that during the tenure of MDC labour and student activism may fail to exist independently. His unwillingness to follow the constitution and allow the emergence of another leader is also worrying as it shows that there will be a continued disregard of the rule of law even under his rule. It shows his unwillingness to dictate the pace in the politics of Zimbabwe by occupying space as the true alternative as MDC would have shown a different agenda by doing what ZANU PF has failed to do since 1977; leadership renewal.
Professor Welshman Ncube has repeatedly failed to articulate the real reasons behind the split of the MDC in 2005 with his answers bothering on defensiveness and playing into trivial issues such as his “membership” of the Central Intelligence Organisation. The ghost of that split will continue to haunt him because at the time of the split their camp made the mistake of putting a picture of Morgan Tsvangirai as the real devil of Zimbabwean politics but against the backdrop of “Operation Murambatsvina” that portrayal of Morgan Tsvangirai was laughable even in ZANU PF circles. He has failed to show that there were ideological differences and personality clashes between him and Morgan Tsvangirai and that those differences were unhealthy for the union prompting it to split.
He has failed to tell the public tribunal that MDC would have split even if the issue of the Senate had not come and October 12 2005 was a date for long on the calendar. I personally think he is a good politician who also has his own ambitions but has failed to tell his story clearly. Zimbabweans also know that there can be nothing shocking for a political party to emerge in Zimbabwe that has an agenda which is more radical than ZANU PF. This is what Professor Mutambara wants to do but he seems to be dishonest about it. In the UK the British Nationalist Party is a far right party with views that are more radical than the Tories but it is there and has a good number of supporters.
My conclusion is that the Wiki-Leaks are really bad for American democracy but at least to Zimbabwean leaders they give as an anthropological perspective into own our strengths and weaknesses and Ambassador Dell has criticised almost all the important players in Zimbabwe which found favour with me. He is not God or his second son, but he has enriched the political landscape in our country and we have the chance to work out our weaknesses for the good of everyone in Zimbabwe.
Be Judge!
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point but writes in his own capacity.
Contact: mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Kuwaza skirted the issues raised
By Geoffrey Nyarota: Opinion and Analysis: The Herald
On Tuesday, November 16, The Herald published an article submitted by the deputy chairman of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Mr Charles Kuwaza.
The article was written in response to one written by me and published in the same newspaper on November 12 as a follow-up to an earlier piece also written by me to challenge a story written by British journalist, Jon Swain, and published in The Sunday Times of October 24.
Swain claimed that his article was based on information furnished by two primary sources, Sabina Mugabe, President Mugabe’s late sister, and Senior Assistant Commissioner Cain Chademana, his most trusted bodyguard, who is also late.
Swain claimed to have spoken to other sources at the Central Intelligence Organisation, at the Reser-ve Bank of Zimbabwe and at President’s Gushungo Diary Farm.
Sabina Mugabe and Chademana had curiously both died before Swain wrote his story.
My November 12 article suggested that Swain’s article may not have been anything more than the latest episode in an ongoing battle, pitting the embattled governor of the RBZ, Gideon Gono, against Kuwaza, his deputy chairman.
I wrote the article after I spoke to Kuwaza on Tuesday, November 2, and on Thursday, November 4. The first meeting was held in unusual circumstances, while we sat in the dark in Kuwaza’s car.
He had parked the vehicle behind a building next to the tennis courts at Old Hararians Sports Club in Milton Park. Kuwaza had picked me up in his car from the club’s main entrance, and driven to the dark spot, music blaring on his radio at full blast.
He said this was a security measure.
Before I asked any question or formally introduced myself or explained the purpose of the requested meeting, Kuwaza started to talk non-stop about Gideon Gono and the much reported about goings-on at the Reserve Bank.
Research conducted on the Internet had revealed much infighting at the Reserve Bank between the governor and chairman and his deputy chairman, Kuwaza.
My conversation with Kuwaza that night left me in no doubt that there was bad blood between him and Gono. He said he was particularly angry that Gono had caused his arrest on allegations of fraud at the State Procurement Board, where he is chairman.
My second discussion with Kuwaza was held again in his vehicle. He picked me up from behind his wife’s pharmacy in Belvedere, where he had asked me to wait for him. He parked the vehicle in a far corner behind the Belvedere Shopping Complex where refuse collection vehicles plied their business while we discussed.
Kuwaza had informed me during the first meeting that certain politicians, described by him as his sympathisers who had been angered by Gono’s action in allegedly causing his arrest, had informed Swain that Gono was allegedly having an affair with the First Lady. During the second meeting I asked for the identity of the politicians.
Kuwaza said they belonged to Zanu-PF. I suspected this statement was not true.
In his November 16 article, Kuwaza suggested that my article was "full of lies and distortions".
"Here is what I have mailed Mr Nyarota in response to his article," Kuwaza stated in the article before he proceeded to analyse my article, paragraph by paragraph.
The claim by Kuwaza that he mailed to me his response to my article before he submitted it to The Herald for publication is totally false. I never received any email message from Kuwaza. I don’t believe he knew my e-mail address at the time. He was elusive last Friday when I phoned his office several times while seeking to discuss the issue of the e-mail message which he claims he sent to me.
I gave my e-mail address to Kuwaza’s secretary on Friday. I requested her to pass on to her boss the challenge that he re-send his alleged e-mail message to me or forward it to a third person of his choice.
If Kuwaza re-sends the message to me or forwards it to a third party, as requested, the message will show the date on which the original message was allegedly sent to me.
But then, Kuwaza cannot re-send any message to me because he never sent any e-mail message to me in the first place.
His claim, like a number of other statements he made about me in his article, is a blatant lie.
It is not true that I told Kuwaza that his life was in danger. I did not know Kuwaza until the night I met him at Old Hararians. I informed him truthfully on the phone that I wanted to discuss with him what appeared to be his link to the furnishing of the information used by Swain to craft his article for the Sunday Times issue of October 24.
Kuwaza was so excited by this disclosure that within hours I was sitting with him in his car at the sports club.
I did not know that Kuwaza had been arrested in September, as he claims. I first knew about Kuwaza’s arrest only when he told me about it on the night of our first meeting. I could not have informed Kuwaza that there was any suspicion that Gono was behind this arrest when I did not know about it.
It is Kuwaza who complained biterly about his arrest at the alleged behest of Gono.
Kuwaza stated that his sympathisers, who were politicians, had been angered by Gono’s action and had passed damaging information about Gono on to Swain in retaliation.
When I asked Kuwaza for his opinion of Swain’s October 24 article he stated categorically that the article was "facts, opinions, half-truths, lies, all meshed together to give credence to the story".
I never asked Kuwaza whether the leaking of information to Swain was the result of infighting within Zanu-PF, as he claims. It is Kuwaza who raised the spectre of Zanu-PF, apparently to divert attention from the MDC. Kuwaza realised that he had somehow implicated the MDC when he made the following series of statements:
l That Zanu-PF had fired him from the position of Permanent Secretary for Finance because he was closely linked to the MDC;
l That Finance Minister Tendai Biti had appointed him chairman of the State Procurement Board.
l That Biti had appointed him deputy chairman of the board at the Reserve Bank.
l and, finally, that he played chess with Biti.
Because he had associated himself so closely with the MDC, Kuwaza realised that if he merely stated that his political sympathisers had supplied damaging information to Swain to hit at Gono, I might jump to the conclusion that his political sympathisers were linked to the MDC.
He then stated that the sympathisers were in fact Zanu-PF politicians, adding that Gono had made many enemies within the ranks of Zanu-PF.
During my discussion with Kuwaza on two occasions he never mentioned anything about "the pink Press attempting to elevate ordinary discourse at board level to something newsworthy", as he now claims. This statement is a complete fabrication.
Kuwaza says he never saw my article before I "sold it to the highest bidder".
The truth is that I never offered my article to any bidder. No publication ever paid or offered to pay me for the article. I offered this article for free in the first instance to The Sunday Standard on Friday, November 5. I had previously offered another article on the same subject which appeared in The Standard on October 31. I was not paid for that article either; not that newspapers in Zimbabwe offer life-sustaining rates to the correspondents who submit the articles which they publish.
When the Standard did not publish the article which I submitted on November 5 I offered the article to The Herald and The Zimbabwe Mail, an online publication. The Zimbabwe Mail published the article first and it was then published in The Herald on November 12.
The Zimbabwe Mail never pays for the articles that it publishes. I never discussed any payment for the article when I offered it to the editor of The Herald.
The suggestion by Kuwaza that I offered my article to the highest bidder is, therefore, a malicious falsehood
Kuwaza claims that I approached him while pretending to assist him "but turned out to be the proverbial wolf".
He then rushes to state that he had never met me before. I wonder in what circumstances I would have attempted to assist Kuwaza in these circumstances when he was totally unknown to me.
Kuwaza finally suggests that my journalism should focus on "issues which advance the national agenda".
It is my opinion that it is a matter of national interest if a renowned British journalist relies on fabrications apparently fed to him by an ambitious deputy chairman at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, who is seeking to be appointed governor of the same financial institution through subterfuge and political intervention, as appears to be the case here.
In his article, Kuwaza did not address any of the pertinent issues that I raised in my own articles.
He merely sought to malign me out of spite and anger after I exposed his role in Swain’s October 24 "scoop".
Last Friday, on November 19, I was invited by the National Press Club to participate in a debate on journalism ethics and professionalism at the Quill Club in Harare. During the proceedings two members of the audience angrily took me to task for submitting my article to The Herald for publication. I was taken aback by this. One of them told me after the meeting that he belonged to the MDC.
Since the formation of the MDC in 1999 and more so since the establishment of the government of national unity in 2009, the MDC has protested vehemently that Zimbabwe Newspapers and the ZBC have not provided adequate coverage of political parties or individuals other than Zanu-PF or Zanu-PF aligned.
The MDC has vigorously campaigned for coverage of its affairs in The Herald and on radio and television. In a democratic dispensation all media should provide equal coverage to all political organisations and interests. Yet here I was, being lambasted by an MDC politician for submitting an article to The Herald for publication.
From a different perspective, if the same MDC joined hands in 2009 with Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe's now troubled government of national unity, why can’t I, as an individual, submit an article to be published in the Herald, given that the same article had been rejected by an independent newspaper, The Sunday Standard?
On Tuesday, November 16, The Herald published an article submitted by the deputy chairman of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Mr Charles Kuwaza.
The article was written in response to one written by me and published in the same newspaper on November 12 as a follow-up to an earlier piece also written by me to challenge a story written by British journalist, Jon Swain, and published in The Sunday Times of October 24.
Swain claimed that his article was based on information furnished by two primary sources, Sabina Mugabe, President Mugabe’s late sister, and Senior Assistant Commissioner Cain Chademana, his most trusted bodyguard, who is also late.
Swain claimed to have spoken to other sources at the Central Intelligence Organisation, at the Reser-ve Bank of Zimbabwe and at President’s Gushungo Diary Farm.
Sabina Mugabe and Chademana had curiously both died before Swain wrote his story.
My November 12 article suggested that Swain’s article may not have been anything more than the latest episode in an ongoing battle, pitting the embattled governor of the RBZ, Gideon Gono, against Kuwaza, his deputy chairman.
I wrote the article after I spoke to Kuwaza on Tuesday, November 2, and on Thursday, November 4. The first meeting was held in unusual circumstances, while we sat in the dark in Kuwaza’s car.
He had parked the vehicle behind a building next to the tennis courts at Old Hararians Sports Club in Milton Park. Kuwaza had picked me up in his car from the club’s main entrance, and driven to the dark spot, music blaring on his radio at full blast.
He said this was a security measure.
Before I asked any question or formally introduced myself or explained the purpose of the requested meeting, Kuwaza started to talk non-stop about Gideon Gono and the much reported about goings-on at the Reserve Bank.
Research conducted on the Internet had revealed much infighting at the Reserve Bank between the governor and chairman and his deputy chairman, Kuwaza.
My conversation with Kuwaza that night left me in no doubt that there was bad blood between him and Gono. He said he was particularly angry that Gono had caused his arrest on allegations of fraud at the State Procurement Board, where he is chairman.
My second discussion with Kuwaza was held again in his vehicle. He picked me up from behind his wife’s pharmacy in Belvedere, where he had asked me to wait for him. He parked the vehicle in a far corner behind the Belvedere Shopping Complex where refuse collection vehicles plied their business while we discussed.
Kuwaza had informed me during the first meeting that certain politicians, described by him as his sympathisers who had been angered by Gono’s action in allegedly causing his arrest, had informed Swain that Gono was allegedly having an affair with the First Lady. During the second meeting I asked for the identity of the politicians.
Kuwaza said they belonged to Zanu-PF. I suspected this statement was not true.
In his November 16 article, Kuwaza suggested that my article was "full of lies and distortions".
"Here is what I have mailed Mr Nyarota in response to his article," Kuwaza stated in the article before he proceeded to analyse my article, paragraph by paragraph.
The claim by Kuwaza that he mailed to me his response to my article before he submitted it to The Herald for publication is totally false. I never received any email message from Kuwaza. I don’t believe he knew my e-mail address at the time. He was elusive last Friday when I phoned his office several times while seeking to discuss the issue of the e-mail message which he claims he sent to me.
I gave my e-mail address to Kuwaza’s secretary on Friday. I requested her to pass on to her boss the challenge that he re-send his alleged e-mail message to me or forward it to a third person of his choice.
If Kuwaza re-sends the message to me or forwards it to a third party, as requested, the message will show the date on which the original message was allegedly sent to me.
But then, Kuwaza cannot re-send any message to me because he never sent any e-mail message to me in the first place.
His claim, like a number of other statements he made about me in his article, is a blatant lie.
It is not true that I told Kuwaza that his life was in danger. I did not know Kuwaza until the night I met him at Old Hararians. I informed him truthfully on the phone that I wanted to discuss with him what appeared to be his link to the furnishing of the information used by Swain to craft his article for the Sunday Times issue of October 24.
Kuwaza was so excited by this disclosure that within hours I was sitting with him in his car at the sports club.
I did not know that Kuwaza had been arrested in September, as he claims. I first knew about Kuwaza’s arrest only when he told me about it on the night of our first meeting. I could not have informed Kuwaza that there was any suspicion that Gono was behind this arrest when I did not know about it.
It is Kuwaza who complained biterly about his arrest at the alleged behest of Gono.
Kuwaza stated that his sympathisers, who were politicians, had been angered by Gono’s action and had passed damaging information about Gono on to Swain in retaliation.
When I asked Kuwaza for his opinion of Swain’s October 24 article he stated categorically that the article was "facts, opinions, half-truths, lies, all meshed together to give credence to the story".
I never asked Kuwaza whether the leaking of information to Swain was the result of infighting within Zanu-PF, as he claims. It is Kuwaza who raised the spectre of Zanu-PF, apparently to divert attention from the MDC. Kuwaza realised that he had somehow implicated the MDC when he made the following series of statements:
l That Zanu-PF had fired him from the position of Permanent Secretary for Finance because he was closely linked to the MDC;
l That Finance Minister Tendai Biti had appointed him chairman of the State Procurement Board.
l That Biti had appointed him deputy chairman of the board at the Reserve Bank.
l and, finally, that he played chess with Biti.
Because he had associated himself so closely with the MDC, Kuwaza realised that if he merely stated that his political sympathisers had supplied damaging information to Swain to hit at Gono, I might jump to the conclusion that his political sympathisers were linked to the MDC.
He then stated that the sympathisers were in fact Zanu-PF politicians, adding that Gono had made many enemies within the ranks of Zanu-PF.
During my discussion with Kuwaza on two occasions he never mentioned anything about "the pink Press attempting to elevate ordinary discourse at board level to something newsworthy", as he now claims. This statement is a complete fabrication.
Kuwaza says he never saw my article before I "sold it to the highest bidder".
The truth is that I never offered my article to any bidder. No publication ever paid or offered to pay me for the article. I offered this article for free in the first instance to The Sunday Standard on Friday, November 5. I had previously offered another article on the same subject which appeared in The Standard on October 31. I was not paid for that article either; not that newspapers in Zimbabwe offer life-sustaining rates to the correspondents who submit the articles which they publish.
When the Standard did not publish the article which I submitted on November 5 I offered the article to The Herald and The Zimbabwe Mail, an online publication. The Zimbabwe Mail published the article first and it was then published in The Herald on November 12.
The Zimbabwe Mail never pays for the articles that it publishes. I never discussed any payment for the article when I offered it to the editor of The Herald.
The suggestion by Kuwaza that I offered my article to the highest bidder is, therefore, a malicious falsehood
Kuwaza claims that I approached him while pretending to assist him "but turned out to be the proverbial wolf".
He then rushes to state that he had never met me before. I wonder in what circumstances I would have attempted to assist Kuwaza in these circumstances when he was totally unknown to me.
Kuwaza finally suggests that my journalism should focus on "issues which advance the national agenda".
It is my opinion that it is a matter of national interest if a renowned British journalist relies on fabrications apparently fed to him by an ambitious deputy chairman at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, who is seeking to be appointed governor of the same financial institution through subterfuge and political intervention, as appears to be the case here.
In his article, Kuwaza did not address any of the pertinent issues that I raised in my own articles.
He merely sought to malign me out of spite and anger after I exposed his role in Swain’s October 24 "scoop".
Last Friday, on November 19, I was invited by the National Press Club to participate in a debate on journalism ethics and professionalism at the Quill Club in Harare. During the proceedings two members of the audience angrily took me to task for submitting my article to The Herald for publication. I was taken aback by this. One of them told me after the meeting that he belonged to the MDC.
Since the formation of the MDC in 1999 and more so since the establishment of the government of national unity in 2009, the MDC has protested vehemently that Zimbabwe Newspapers and the ZBC have not provided adequate coverage of political parties or individuals other than Zanu-PF or Zanu-PF aligned.
The MDC has vigorously campaigned for coverage of its affairs in The Herald and on radio and television. In a democratic dispensation all media should provide equal coverage to all political organisations and interests. Yet here I was, being lambasted by an MDC politician for submitting an article to The Herald for publication.
From a different perspective, if the same MDC joined hands in 2009 with Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe's now troubled government of national unity, why can’t I, as an individual, submit an article to be published in the Herald, given that the same article had been rejected by an independent newspaper, The Sunday Standard?
Monday 22 November 2010
Zapu is a party of retrogressive reactionaries
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 21 November 2010 14:01
By Sibusiso Dlodlo
This article is a synoptical analogy of ZAPU as a new entrant into the
political fray in Zimbabwe. On the one hand, the revival of ZAPU is a
welcome development as it gives the people of Zimbabwe a range of political
parties to support and sympathise with in our quest to achieve multi-party
democracy.
On the other hand, the revival of ZAPU is as ill-fated as it is
inconsequential. It is a desperate attempt by a few individuals that seek to
revive their dead political fortunes.
For starters, ZAPU wants to pretend it is a popular political party that has
the overwhelming support of the people of Matabeleland. Save for Dumiso
Dabengwa and Methuseli Moyo, the president and the spokesperson
respectively, one cannot identify any other serious comrades in the ZAPU
gravy train. It appears ZAPU is a personal project for Dabengwa and his
hangers-on. They seem to regard in high esteem the principle of megaphone
politics that seeks to hoodwink the public that they are acting on behalf of
the masses yet they have no electoral mandate whatever.
The party has shown that it is not as progressive as it wants to portray
itself to the general public. We have it on good authority that the
Dabengwa-led executive cowed people into voting them into power during their
elective congress in August this year by scuttling any form of opposition
before and during the congress. For some of us that was to be expected from
people like Dabengwa and Thenjiwe Lesabe who spent the greater part of their
post-independence political careers in ZANU-PF, a party renowned for its
dirty tricks and callousness.
It is therefore not surprising to hear that disgruntled elements in the
revived ZAPU are pushing for a special congress early next year. We will
keep watching from the sidelines.
ZAPU is in serious need of leadership renewal. Dabengwa is no stranger to
politics being the war veteran that he is. But I am of the strong opinion
that Dabengwa is past his prime and is more of a liability to the party
than anything else. The man is old and tired and will offer nothing to brand
ZAPU as a modern party that appeals to the young and old alike. No wonder
ZAPU congregations appear as if they are a network of old people short of
past time activities. Their gatherings are like a forum for old people
interested in sharing ancient folklore.
What we have in ZAPU is a group of angry people who have a tribal agenda and
are driven by anger and vengeance. I submit that there is no development
under the sun that a bunch of emotional people, equally led by a frustrated
leadership, will ever bring to the people of Matabeleland.
The strategy that ZAPU wants to employ of capitalising on the frustrations
of the people of Matabeleland will not yield any significant resultsl. MDC-M
is a classic example of a party that got a rude awakening when they thought
Ndebele votes were all but theirs during the 2008 general elections.
A tribal agenda, worse still of a minority, will not steer development. Let
people be aware of the real nature of ZAPU, that it is a small retrogressive
clique of angry reactionaries who will never test the echelons of power.
About the Author
Sibusiso Dlodlo is a political commentator based in Bulawayo.
sibusiso.dlodlo@gmail.com
This article first appeared in The Standard
Sunday, 21 November 2010 14:01
By Sibusiso Dlodlo
This article is a synoptical analogy of ZAPU as a new entrant into the
political fray in Zimbabwe. On the one hand, the revival of ZAPU is a
welcome development as it gives the people of Zimbabwe a range of political
parties to support and sympathise with in our quest to achieve multi-party
democracy.
On the other hand, the revival of ZAPU is as ill-fated as it is
inconsequential. It is a desperate attempt by a few individuals that seek to
revive their dead political fortunes.
For starters, ZAPU wants to pretend it is a popular political party that has
the overwhelming support of the people of Matabeleland. Save for Dumiso
Dabengwa and Methuseli Moyo, the president and the spokesperson
respectively, one cannot identify any other serious comrades in the ZAPU
gravy train. It appears ZAPU is a personal project for Dabengwa and his
hangers-on. They seem to regard in high esteem the principle of megaphone
politics that seeks to hoodwink the public that they are acting on behalf of
the masses yet they have no electoral mandate whatever.
The party has shown that it is not as progressive as it wants to portray
itself to the general public. We have it on good authority that the
Dabengwa-led executive cowed people into voting them into power during their
elective congress in August this year by scuttling any form of opposition
before and during the congress. For some of us that was to be expected from
people like Dabengwa and Thenjiwe Lesabe who spent the greater part of their
post-independence political careers in ZANU-PF, a party renowned for its
dirty tricks and callousness.
It is therefore not surprising to hear that disgruntled elements in the
revived ZAPU are pushing for a special congress early next year. We will
keep watching from the sidelines.
ZAPU is in serious need of leadership renewal. Dabengwa is no stranger to
politics being the war veteran that he is. But I am of the strong opinion
that Dabengwa is past his prime and is more of a liability to the party
than anything else. The man is old and tired and will offer nothing to brand
ZAPU as a modern party that appeals to the young and old alike. No wonder
ZAPU congregations appear as if they are a network of old people short of
past time activities. Their gatherings are like a forum for old people
interested in sharing ancient folklore.
What we have in ZAPU is a group of angry people who have a tribal agenda and
are driven by anger and vengeance. I submit that there is no development
under the sun that a bunch of emotional people, equally led by a frustrated
leadership, will ever bring to the people of Matabeleland.
The strategy that ZAPU wants to employ of capitalising on the frustrations
of the people of Matabeleland will not yield any significant resultsl. MDC-M
is a classic example of a party that got a rude awakening when they thought
Ndebele votes were all but theirs during the 2008 general elections.
A tribal agenda, worse still of a minority, will not steer development. Let
people be aware of the real nature of ZAPU, that it is a small retrogressive
clique of angry reactionaries who will never test the echelons of power.
About the Author
Sibusiso Dlodlo is a political commentator based in Bulawayo.
sibusiso.dlodlo@gmail.com
This article first appeared in The Standard
Tuesday 16 November 2010
FSA recommends changes to mortgage sales to achieve a sustainable mortgage market
Sheila Nicoll
This next step of the Mortgage Market Review recognises the importance of the intermediary and ensuring the quality of every mortgage sale.
.
FSA/PN/164/2010
16 November 2010
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today outlined proposals which focus on enhancing the mortgage sales process, the role of intermediaries and improving disclosure of information for customers.
The consultation builds on the FSA’s Mortgage Market Review to date, and a key element is requiring that those selling mortgages ensure that each one sold is ‘appropriate’ for the customer’s needs and circumstances, therefore clarifying the role of the mortgage seller (both intermediary and branch based).
This follows earlier proposals by the FSA which looked at responsible lending and the role of the lender and the customer, and which set out that the responsibility to assess whether a customer can afford a mortgage ultimately lies with the lender.
In addition key proposals include:
•Replacing the obligation to issue an Initial Disclosure Document to the customer with requirements to clearly and prominently disclose key information about how the intermediary will be paid and the service they offer;
•Changing the trigger points for providing the Key Facts Illustration to minimise information overload on consumers and reduce burdens on firms;
•A requirement for all individuals that sell mortgages to hold a relevant mortgage qualification ensuring appropriate professional standards across all sales;
•Replacing the existing labels used to describe the firm’s service with the Retail Distribution Review’s ‘independent’ and ‘restricted’ labels; and
•Requiring firms to disclose to customers whether they will consider deals that can only be obtained directly from a lender.
Sheila Nicoll, the FSA’s director of conduct policy, said:
"This next step of the Mortgage Market Review recognises the importance of the intermediary and ensuring the quality of every mortgage sale. It also indicates how the intermediary and other sales staff fit into our vision of a sustainable mortgage market that works well for consumers.
By clarifying the role and responsibility of mortgage sellers, we are removing the blurring that could take place between the role of seller and lender."
The FSA has published the above as the Consultation Paper forms the third follow up to the Mortgage Market Review discussion paper published in October 2009. Consultation on these proposals will close on 25 February 2011.
The FSA's consumer research suggests that disclosure documents were not being used as originally intended.
The above report is part of what the FSA publishes as part their role to regulate the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers; fighting financial crime; and contributing to the protection and enhancement of the stability of the UK financial system.
Source Financial Services Authority and edditional comments by The Royalty Dimensions
This next step of the Mortgage Market Review recognises the importance of the intermediary and ensuring the quality of every mortgage sale.
.
FSA/PN/164/2010
16 November 2010
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today outlined proposals which focus on enhancing the mortgage sales process, the role of intermediaries and improving disclosure of information for customers.
The consultation builds on the FSA’s Mortgage Market Review to date, and a key element is requiring that those selling mortgages ensure that each one sold is ‘appropriate’ for the customer’s needs and circumstances, therefore clarifying the role of the mortgage seller (both intermediary and branch based).
This follows earlier proposals by the FSA which looked at responsible lending and the role of the lender and the customer, and which set out that the responsibility to assess whether a customer can afford a mortgage ultimately lies with the lender.
In addition key proposals include:
•Replacing the obligation to issue an Initial Disclosure Document to the customer with requirements to clearly and prominently disclose key information about how the intermediary will be paid and the service they offer;
•Changing the trigger points for providing the Key Facts Illustration to minimise information overload on consumers and reduce burdens on firms;
•A requirement for all individuals that sell mortgages to hold a relevant mortgage qualification ensuring appropriate professional standards across all sales;
•Replacing the existing labels used to describe the firm’s service with the Retail Distribution Review’s ‘independent’ and ‘restricted’ labels; and
•Requiring firms to disclose to customers whether they will consider deals that can only be obtained directly from a lender.
Sheila Nicoll, the FSA’s director of conduct policy, said:
"This next step of the Mortgage Market Review recognises the importance of the intermediary and ensuring the quality of every mortgage sale. It also indicates how the intermediary and other sales staff fit into our vision of a sustainable mortgage market that works well for consumers.
By clarifying the role and responsibility of mortgage sellers, we are removing the blurring that could take place between the role of seller and lender."
The FSA has published the above as the Consultation Paper forms the third follow up to the Mortgage Market Review discussion paper published in October 2009. Consultation on these proposals will close on 25 February 2011.
The FSA's consumer research suggests that disclosure documents were not being used as originally intended.
The above report is part of what the FSA publishes as part their role to regulate the financial services industry and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers; fighting financial crime; and contributing to the protection and enhancement of the stability of the UK financial system.
Source Financial Services Authority and edditional comments by The Royalty Dimensions
AND THE CIRCUS CONTINUES AS...........................
Drama in Cabinet
BRIAN MANGWENDE
There was drama ahead of the usual Tuesday Cabinet meetings on Tuesday when security agents, whether from overzealousness or instructions, stopped and attempted to frisk deputy prime ministers Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara.
Impeccable sources said Khupe (MDC-T) objected and remonstrated most vehemently with the “inexorable and unyielding” agents and ended up walking away from the entrance to the Cabinet.
But the melodramatic Mutambara of the splinter group of the mainstream MDC would have none of it, they said.
He reportedly not only protested, but allegedly bulldozed his way in, leaving the agents stunned and mortified.
Once Mutambara has made up his mind on something, he is unstoppable, a source said.
Realising that the former student activist and robotics professor had blown a big hole in their mesh, the sources said the security agents could only but drop their jaws.
Sources said Khupe turned her back on the agents and returned to her office huffing and puffing only to be recalled and she obliged.
“When Khupe and Mutambara wanted to enter Cabinet, they were stopped by security agents so that they could be searched, but they protested,” sources said.
“They queried why they should be searched yet President Robert Mugabe was not subjected to the same treatment. This search business started last week but is selective. The two argued that they are senior political leaders with high stakes in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) therefore should not be subjected to this type of humiliation.”
CONTINUES BELOW
Contacted for comment by NewsDay, an official in Khupe’s office said:
“She was stopped because they wanted to search her, but she refused. However, she has since returned and is now attending Cabinet.”
It is not clear why suddenly these top officials have to be frisked or what threat they are suspected to pose.
Sources said one of the three principals is not searched and the other two say what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and they will not yield to searches if the same does not apply to their counterpart.
It was not clear whether ministers were also subjected to security searches ahead of Cabinet meetings, but at one point when Nicholas Goche was Minister of State Security that was the norm before the consummation of the inclusive government.
The incident occurred when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has not been present at a number of Cabinet meetings for a variety of reasons, was in Buhera attending the funeral of a relative identified only as Makuvise.
The incident comes at a time ministers have been accused of leaking Cabinet deliberations to the media and warned of arrest.
The debacle comes hard on the heels of renewed acrimony between long–time arch-rivals President Mugabe and Tsvangirai over the former’s so–called intransigence by disrespecting the porous GPA which both parties want ripped down the middle.
Although both men signed the controversial coalition agreement which has brought relative peace and economic stability to the country, they now regret the marriage of convenience.
As the cookie crumbles, the protagonists say they want elections next year to end the chaos and acrimony prevailing in the coalition.
While President Mugabe and his inner cabal, which is under sanctions for alleged human and property rights violations, are adamant the polls will be held next year come hell come thunder, Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out if the environment is not conducive for free and fair elections.
This article first appeared in the NewsDay
BRIAN MANGWENDE
There was drama ahead of the usual Tuesday Cabinet meetings on Tuesday when security agents, whether from overzealousness or instructions, stopped and attempted to frisk deputy prime ministers Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara.
Impeccable sources said Khupe (MDC-T) objected and remonstrated most vehemently with the “inexorable and unyielding” agents and ended up walking away from the entrance to the Cabinet.
But the melodramatic Mutambara of the splinter group of the mainstream MDC would have none of it, they said.
He reportedly not only protested, but allegedly bulldozed his way in, leaving the agents stunned and mortified.
Once Mutambara has made up his mind on something, he is unstoppable, a source said.
Realising that the former student activist and robotics professor had blown a big hole in their mesh, the sources said the security agents could only but drop their jaws.
Sources said Khupe turned her back on the agents and returned to her office huffing and puffing only to be recalled and she obliged.
“When Khupe and Mutambara wanted to enter Cabinet, they were stopped by security agents so that they could be searched, but they protested,” sources said.
“They queried why they should be searched yet President Robert Mugabe was not subjected to the same treatment. This search business started last week but is selective. The two argued that they are senior political leaders with high stakes in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) therefore should not be subjected to this type of humiliation.”
CONTINUES BELOW
Contacted for comment by NewsDay, an official in Khupe’s office said:
“She was stopped because they wanted to search her, but she refused. However, she has since returned and is now attending Cabinet.”
It is not clear why suddenly these top officials have to be frisked or what threat they are suspected to pose.
Sources said one of the three principals is not searched and the other two say what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and they will not yield to searches if the same does not apply to their counterpart.
It was not clear whether ministers were also subjected to security searches ahead of Cabinet meetings, but at one point when Nicholas Goche was Minister of State Security that was the norm before the consummation of the inclusive government.
The incident occurred when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has not been present at a number of Cabinet meetings for a variety of reasons, was in Buhera attending the funeral of a relative identified only as Makuvise.
The incident comes at a time ministers have been accused of leaking Cabinet deliberations to the media and warned of arrest.
The debacle comes hard on the heels of renewed acrimony between long–time arch-rivals President Mugabe and Tsvangirai over the former’s so–called intransigence by disrespecting the porous GPA which both parties want ripped down the middle.
Although both men signed the controversial coalition agreement which has brought relative peace and economic stability to the country, they now regret the marriage of convenience.
As the cookie crumbles, the protagonists say they want elections next year to end the chaos and acrimony prevailing in the coalition.
While President Mugabe and his inner cabal, which is under sanctions for alleged human and property rights violations, are adamant the polls will be held next year come hell come thunder, Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out if the environment is not conducive for free and fair elections.
This article first appeared in the NewsDay
Sunday 7 November 2010
COMMUNITIES POINT COMMENT ON THE STATEMENT OF ANC SECRETARY GENERAL GWEDE MANTASHE
BY THE CHAIRMAN: JULIUS MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
Communities Point is disturbed by the recent reckless statement of the African National Congress Comrade Gwede Manthashe in which he all but stated that COSATU, Zimbabwe’s main opposition the Movement for Democratic Change and Zambia’s ruling party Movement for Multi-Party Democracy are agents of what he termed “regime change”: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-3738-COSATU+plotting+regime+change+ANC/news.aspx
In trying to qualify his statement with his attack on ANC own partner Congress of South African Trade Unions, Comrade Manthashe seemed to operate under the unfortunate illusion that opposition to former liberation movements is unheard of and that post-liberation political opposition derives from nudging by the West. While Communities Point is not MDC or Zambia’s MMD and will therefore not speak for them we are worried that Africa’s oldest and therefore supposedly the most mature political party is failing to be the guiding light in proffering an African political system that will be progressive and that does not promote the segmentation of its polity into the unnecessary discourses that we have seen playing in Zimbabwe where a genuine opposition has been called names unnecessarily.
The identities of the leadership of the three formations that call themselves MDC are MDC-T, MDC and MDC-99 and these are led respectively by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, Professor Arthur Mutambara and Mr Job Sikhala all of whom were not imported from any foreign country but are all nationals of the country. Mr Tsvangirai was born in Buhera which is in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe and he is a former Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the largest Zimbabwean trade union and a one time ally of ZANU PF. Professor Mutambara also hails from Manicaland Province and is a former student leader. Mr Job Sikhala was born in Gutu in Masvingo Province which is also in Zimbabwe and he is a former student leader. Not only is Comrade Manthashe’s allegation of “regime change” agenda inaccurate because it lacks substance but it is mischievous as it was made by a person who either does not have a clue of where Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces are or it is a deliberate ploy to mislead his audience into believing that there is an alien invasion in Zimbabwe which is of course very false.
THE HEGEMONIC ROLE OF SOUTH AFRICA
The utterances are further disturbing given the mediation role that South Africa is playing in Zimbabwe. It will be difficult for processes in which President Zuma is the mediator to be free from public scrutiny as the Secretary General of his party seems to be saying that ANC will do all it can to prevent the democratic will of Zimbabweans in its own bid to prevent “regime change” by COSATU. We are further disturbed by the term “regime change” in the context of democracy. We believe that the business of opposition political parties is to win elections and change governments, in other words the obvious agenda of opposition political parties has always been regime change. We are therefore perturbed at the attempts by the ANC Secretary General to criminalise opposition parties in Zimbabwe and worse still to criminalise Zambia’s ruling party.
South Africa is clearly confused about its responsibilities as the political and economic hegemony on the African continent. In modern politics that role is not prescriptive but mediatory and taking sides as what the ANC Secretary General seems keen on doing will not show South Africa in good light. It is difficult to understand why the same ANC that allows a thriving opposition in its own country and which has even gone to the extent of entering into an electoral pact by the architects of apartheid, the National Party, and which even governed with apartheid era President de Klerk as its Vice President does not wish the same for Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The hypocrisy in that is so clear because Zimbabweans also want the same racial harmony that South Africans enjoy and all they asked for is for real democracy to emerge. Communities Point is led by people whose legacies are in the liberation struggle with our parents, brothers and sisters having taken part in the liberation of the country. We believe the same applies to most people in MDC. The attempt to paint opponents of ZANU PF with exclusivity is irresponsible because the main judgment against ZANU PF is by Zimbabweans since they are the ones that have been affected by positively or negatively by its governance. The electorate that voted ZANU into power in 1980 is the same Zimbabwean electorate that voted overwhelmingly against it in 2008 and the statement of the ANC serves only to extend the falsehoods we have heard repeatedly from ZANU PF.
AGGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY
We now call upon Comrade Manthashe and the ANC to retract his statement as it all but shows that where Zimbabwe is concerned, ANC and South Africa have a side and the three MDCs and Zimbabweans can only trust them at their own peril. Furthermore we find the ANC’s attitude on the ruling party in Zambia unacceptable and tantamount to interference in the sovereign matters of a member of SADC and may qualify not as “regime change” but as a clear threat on the sovereignty of Zambia. This will be aggressive foreign policy because it disrespects the manifest will of the people Zimbabwe and Zambia by questioning their choices of government and trying to impose governments of South Africa’s and ANC’s choice. Such a development is clearly unacceptable.
www.communitiespoint.com or mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or Julius.mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 00447529705413
cc Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front
Zimbabwe African People’s Union
Movement for Democratic Change- led by Morgan Tsvangirai
Movement for Democratic Change led by Arthur Mutambara
Movement for Multi-Party Democracy- Zambia
Movement for Democratic Change-99
Southern African Development Community
Communities Point is disturbed by the recent reckless statement of the African National Congress Comrade Gwede Manthashe in which he all but stated that COSATU, Zimbabwe’s main opposition the Movement for Democratic Change and Zambia’s ruling party Movement for Multi-Party Democracy are agents of what he termed “regime change”: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-3738-COSATU+plotting+regime+change+ANC/news.aspx
In trying to qualify his statement with his attack on ANC own partner Congress of South African Trade Unions, Comrade Manthashe seemed to operate under the unfortunate illusion that opposition to former liberation movements is unheard of and that post-liberation political opposition derives from nudging by the West. While Communities Point is not MDC or Zambia’s MMD and will therefore not speak for them we are worried that Africa’s oldest and therefore supposedly the most mature political party is failing to be the guiding light in proffering an African political system that will be progressive and that does not promote the segmentation of its polity into the unnecessary discourses that we have seen playing in Zimbabwe where a genuine opposition has been called names unnecessarily.
The identities of the leadership of the three formations that call themselves MDC are MDC-T, MDC and MDC-99 and these are led respectively by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, Professor Arthur Mutambara and Mr Job Sikhala all of whom were not imported from any foreign country but are all nationals of the country. Mr Tsvangirai was born in Buhera which is in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe and he is a former Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the largest Zimbabwean trade union and a one time ally of ZANU PF. Professor Mutambara also hails from Manicaland Province and is a former student leader. Mr Job Sikhala was born in Gutu in Masvingo Province which is also in Zimbabwe and he is a former student leader. Not only is Comrade Manthashe’s allegation of “regime change” agenda inaccurate because it lacks substance but it is mischievous as it was made by a person who either does not have a clue of where Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces are or it is a deliberate ploy to mislead his audience into believing that there is an alien invasion in Zimbabwe which is of course very false.
THE HEGEMONIC ROLE OF SOUTH AFRICA
The utterances are further disturbing given the mediation role that South Africa is playing in Zimbabwe. It will be difficult for processes in which President Zuma is the mediator to be free from public scrutiny as the Secretary General of his party seems to be saying that ANC will do all it can to prevent the democratic will of Zimbabweans in its own bid to prevent “regime change” by COSATU. We are further disturbed by the term “regime change” in the context of democracy. We believe that the business of opposition political parties is to win elections and change governments, in other words the obvious agenda of opposition political parties has always been regime change. We are therefore perturbed at the attempts by the ANC Secretary General to criminalise opposition parties in Zimbabwe and worse still to criminalise Zambia’s ruling party.
South Africa is clearly confused about its responsibilities as the political and economic hegemony on the African continent. In modern politics that role is not prescriptive but mediatory and taking sides as what the ANC Secretary General seems keen on doing will not show South Africa in good light. It is difficult to understand why the same ANC that allows a thriving opposition in its own country and which has even gone to the extent of entering into an electoral pact by the architects of apartheid, the National Party, and which even governed with apartheid era President de Klerk as its Vice President does not wish the same for Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The hypocrisy in that is so clear because Zimbabweans also want the same racial harmony that South Africans enjoy and all they asked for is for real democracy to emerge. Communities Point is led by people whose legacies are in the liberation struggle with our parents, brothers and sisters having taken part in the liberation of the country. We believe the same applies to most people in MDC. The attempt to paint opponents of ZANU PF with exclusivity is irresponsible because the main judgment against ZANU PF is by Zimbabweans since they are the ones that have been affected by positively or negatively by its governance. The electorate that voted ZANU into power in 1980 is the same Zimbabwean electorate that voted overwhelmingly against it in 2008 and the statement of the ANC serves only to extend the falsehoods we have heard repeatedly from ZANU PF.
AGGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY
We now call upon Comrade Manthashe and the ANC to retract his statement as it all but shows that where Zimbabwe is concerned, ANC and South Africa have a side and the three MDCs and Zimbabweans can only trust them at their own peril. Furthermore we find the ANC’s attitude on the ruling party in Zambia unacceptable and tantamount to interference in the sovereign matters of a member of SADC and may qualify not as “regime change” but as a clear threat on the sovereignty of Zambia. This will be aggressive foreign policy because it disrespects the manifest will of the people Zimbabwe and Zambia by questioning their choices of government and trying to impose governments of South Africa’s and ANC’s choice. Such a development is clearly unacceptable.
www.communitiespoint.com or mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or Julius.mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 00447529705413
cc Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front
Zimbabwe African People’s Union
Movement for Democratic Change- led by Morgan Tsvangirai
Movement for Democratic Change led by Arthur Mutambara
Movement for Multi-Party Democracy- Zambia
Movement for Democratic Change-99
Southern African Development Community
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Phillip Chiyangwa chickens out
By Staff Reporter
Tuesday, 02 November 2010 16:08
HARARE - Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda and eight Harare City councillors
were Tuesday cleared of the criminal defamation charges they were facing
after the complainant, controversial Harare businessman, Phillip Chiyangwa
withdrew the charges.
Chiyangwa told Harare magistrate Memory Chigwaza on Tuesday that he was
withdrawing the case due to changed circumstances from the time he reported
the matter to the police and now.
The former Rhodesian policeman-turned-businessman and politician did not
explain the changed circumstances although in the past he has announced in
the media that he struck a deal with the councillors and the mayor.
Masunda and the eight councillors were arrested after a special council
committee investigating the theft of vast tracts of prime land in Harare
implicated Chiyangwa and the Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo.
In the report, council resolved that it would take back all the land
acquired by the duo as prescribed in the Urban Councils Act and also
resolved to report the matter to the police.
However, police never took action and instead, it is the councillors who
were arrested. The journalists who exposed the scandal were also
interrogated by police from the notorious Law and Order Section but due to
lack of evidence, they were later roped in as state witnesses.
Councillors who spoke to the Daily News soon after the court case said they
were not aware why Chiyangwa suddenly decided to withdraw the case saying
they wondered why they were dragged to court in the first place.
“Maybe he is now aware that his case is so weak he cannot stand the heat. We
were ready to go all the way with him in court. Our resolution remains the
same – council has to repossess all its land which was taken away improperly
by these well connected people. Also we resolved that those who stole
council land must be arrested.
“As councillors, we are empowered by the Urban Councils Act to set up
special committees to investigate such anomalies like the theft of land from
council. The Act also protects us from being held liable for the outcome of
our investigations.
“Chiyangwa was supposed to have been advised by his lawyers of this but
somehow they did not. It’s now up to him to take it up with his lawyers.
From here, we are going to hold an emergency meeting to come out with
strategies to recover council land improperly acquired by different
individuals in society,” said the councillor who refused to be identified.
The councillors refuted reports that they had reached a mutual agreement
with Chiyangwa resulting in him withdrawing charges. They said they would
proceed to implement the recommendations of the special council report.
Chiyangwa’s woes worsened four months ago when government acquired one of
the farms he had subdivided into residential stands. He had reportedly sold
some of the residential stands to companies and individuals.
This article first appeared in The Daily News
Tuesday, 02 November 2010 16:08
HARARE - Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda and eight Harare City councillors
were Tuesday cleared of the criminal defamation charges they were facing
after the complainant, controversial Harare businessman, Phillip Chiyangwa
withdrew the charges.
Chiyangwa told Harare magistrate Memory Chigwaza on Tuesday that he was
withdrawing the case due to changed circumstances from the time he reported
the matter to the police and now.
The former Rhodesian policeman-turned-businessman and politician did not
explain the changed circumstances although in the past he has announced in
the media that he struck a deal with the councillors and the mayor.
Masunda and the eight councillors were arrested after a special council
committee investigating the theft of vast tracts of prime land in Harare
implicated Chiyangwa and the Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo.
In the report, council resolved that it would take back all the land
acquired by the duo as prescribed in the Urban Councils Act and also
resolved to report the matter to the police.
However, police never took action and instead, it is the councillors who
were arrested. The journalists who exposed the scandal were also
interrogated by police from the notorious Law and Order Section but due to
lack of evidence, they were later roped in as state witnesses.
Councillors who spoke to the Daily News soon after the court case said they
were not aware why Chiyangwa suddenly decided to withdraw the case saying
they wondered why they were dragged to court in the first place.
“Maybe he is now aware that his case is so weak he cannot stand the heat. We
were ready to go all the way with him in court. Our resolution remains the
same – council has to repossess all its land which was taken away improperly
by these well connected people. Also we resolved that those who stole
council land must be arrested.
“As councillors, we are empowered by the Urban Councils Act to set up
special committees to investigate such anomalies like the theft of land from
council. The Act also protects us from being held liable for the outcome of
our investigations.
“Chiyangwa was supposed to have been advised by his lawyers of this but
somehow they did not. It’s now up to him to take it up with his lawyers.
From here, we are going to hold an emergency meeting to come out with
strategies to recover council land improperly acquired by different
individuals in society,” said the councillor who refused to be identified.
The councillors refuted reports that they had reached a mutual agreement
with Chiyangwa resulting in him withdrawing charges. They said they would
proceed to implement the recommendations of the special council report.
Chiyangwa’s woes worsened four months ago when government acquired one of
the farms he had subdivided into residential stands. He had reportedly sold
some of the residential stands to companies and individuals.
This article first appeared in The Daily News
Saturday 30 October 2010
The Gono-Grace ‘affair’: Was that story the truth?
Saturday, 30 October 2010 00:00
Last week Zimbabwe was rocked by the scandalous details of an alleged affair between First Lady Grace Mugabe and the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono.
While the details of the sensational Sunday Times story reverberated on the Internet around the world, none of the Zimbabwean newspapers touched it.
The Sunday Times recently laun-ched a special Zimbabwean edition of the newspaper. While the details of the Gono/Mugabe affair would make more relevant reading in Harare than in Johannesburg and London, the majority of the population of Zimbabwe, those without access to the Internet remained largely ignorant of the alleged scandal.
That was until copies of the article were printed on office computers and circulated in Harare.
Reporter Jon Swain’s scandalous scoop has raised many an eyebrow, particularly within the Zimbabwe media many asking, “Is the story true?”
I will attempt to provide a logical response to that question.
I seek to address fundamental issues of professional and ethical journalism in the context of the strategies employed in the construction of Swain’s article.
A source close to both Gono and Grace told an online publication the story was “littered with falsehoods”.
“The story claims Cain Chademana was a senior police officer and a decorated veteran of Zimbabwe’s independence struggle,” she said. “That’s a decorated lie because Chademana died aged 36, and (was) therefore too young to have fought in any war. Again, he was never a police officer.”
The source said around the time Sabina Mugabe is supposed to have spoken to President Mugabe about his wife’s alleged infidelity she was in a coma and was, therefore, unable to speak.
Both Sabina Mugabe and Chademana, the only two witnesses who could testify in court to the veracity of the alleged facts, are dead and, therefore, not available to help their defence. The Sunday Times was cognisant of this.
Another give-away indication that there might be more to Swain’s story than meets the eye is the manner in which he handles his sources.
On one occasion Swain apparently conducted a group interview with several (CIO) officials.
Not only did Swain accomplish the rare feat of persuading CIO officials to be interviewed as a group, which is very unlikely; he also got them to articulate whole sentences, while speaking in unison, which, of course is impossible.
A Zimbabwean journalist who also cannot be named, said he had known Chademana personally from 1997 when he was security aide to the late Eddision Zvobgo.
“Chademana was probably 36-38 years at the time of his death,” he said.
“He was almost my age, and would never have gone to war. In fact, he went to school with my journalist colleagues, and finished his A-Levels here in 1992.”
The journalist said Chademana had been unwell for a long time.
suspect investigative journalism
Many journalists in Harare have openly marvelled at Swain’s apparent long-distance penchant for cultivating hordes of sources, even in the most unlikely places. Apparently he remarkably has several sources within the ranks of Zimbabwe’s much feared Central Intelligence Organisation also within the fortress that is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and at Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy Farm.
Normally only a journalist with suicidal tendencies would pester “the boys in dark glasses” with pointed questions about the alleged secret love life of the First Lady of Zimbabwe, before proceeding to her farm to do the same among the farm workers.
The security arrangements around the farm would be above average. It is unlikely a white journalist straight off a flight from London would be pampered with details of which bedroom the lady of the house uses when allegedly visiting with the governor of the Reserve Bank.
by geoffrey nyarota
This article first appeared in The Standard
Last week Zimbabwe was rocked by the scandalous details of an alleged affair between First Lady Grace Mugabe and the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono.
While the details of the sensational Sunday Times story reverberated on the Internet around the world, none of the Zimbabwean newspapers touched it.
The Sunday Times recently laun-ched a special Zimbabwean edition of the newspaper. While the details of the Gono/Mugabe affair would make more relevant reading in Harare than in Johannesburg and London, the majority of the population of Zimbabwe, those without access to the Internet remained largely ignorant of the alleged scandal.
That was until copies of the article were printed on office computers and circulated in Harare.
Reporter Jon Swain’s scandalous scoop has raised many an eyebrow, particularly within the Zimbabwe media many asking, “Is the story true?”
I will attempt to provide a logical response to that question.
I seek to address fundamental issues of professional and ethical journalism in the context of the strategies employed in the construction of Swain’s article.
A source close to both Gono and Grace told an online publication the story was “littered with falsehoods”.
“The story claims Cain Chademana was a senior police officer and a decorated veteran of Zimbabwe’s independence struggle,” she said. “That’s a decorated lie because Chademana died aged 36, and (was) therefore too young to have fought in any war. Again, he was never a police officer.”
The source said around the time Sabina Mugabe is supposed to have spoken to President Mugabe about his wife’s alleged infidelity she was in a coma and was, therefore, unable to speak.
Both Sabina Mugabe and Chademana, the only two witnesses who could testify in court to the veracity of the alleged facts, are dead and, therefore, not available to help their defence. The Sunday Times was cognisant of this.
Another give-away indication that there might be more to Swain’s story than meets the eye is the manner in which he handles his sources.
On one occasion Swain apparently conducted a group interview with several (CIO) officials.
Not only did Swain accomplish the rare feat of persuading CIO officials to be interviewed as a group, which is very unlikely; he also got them to articulate whole sentences, while speaking in unison, which, of course is impossible.
A Zimbabwean journalist who also cannot be named, said he had known Chademana personally from 1997 when he was security aide to the late Eddision Zvobgo.
“Chademana was probably 36-38 years at the time of his death,” he said.
“He was almost my age, and would never have gone to war. In fact, he went to school with my journalist colleagues, and finished his A-Levels here in 1992.”
The journalist said Chademana had been unwell for a long time.
suspect investigative journalism
Many journalists in Harare have openly marvelled at Swain’s apparent long-distance penchant for cultivating hordes of sources, even in the most unlikely places. Apparently he remarkably has several sources within the ranks of Zimbabwe’s much feared Central Intelligence Organisation also within the fortress that is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and at Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy Farm.
Normally only a journalist with suicidal tendencies would pester “the boys in dark glasses” with pointed questions about the alleged secret love life of the First Lady of Zimbabwe, before proceeding to her farm to do the same among the farm workers.
The security arrangements around the farm would be above average. It is unlikely a white journalist straight off a flight from London would be pampered with details of which bedroom the lady of the house uses when allegedly visiting with the governor of the Reserve Bank.
by geoffrey nyarota
This article first appeared in The Standard
Thursday 28 October 2010
RBZ restored to lender of last resort
Thursday, 28 October 2010 20:54
GOVERNMENT has restored the banker-of last-resort function of the debt-ridden Reserve Bank after injecting US$7 million to improve fluidity of banking operations.
A lender of last resort is an institution, usually a country’s central bank, which offers loans to banks or other eligible institutions that are experiencing financial difficulty or are considered highly risky or near collapse.
Zimbabwe has 25 operating banking institutions, comprising 15 commercial banks, five merchant banks, four building societies and one savings bank. The banking sector is now largely dominated by commercial banks following the migration of some merchant banks into commercial banking.
Finance minister Tendai Biti and central bank governor Gideon Gono yesterday reached an agreement in the capital that would result in the re-emergence of overnight lending, revival of the interbank market and ultimately improving confidence in the financial services sector.
The central bank was rendered redundant after government last year adopted the use of multiple currencies to stem unprecedented inflation. The central bank has an estimated US$1,5 billion debt incurred during the decade-long economic meltdown.
The decision by the Finance ministry to restore one of the core functions of the apex bank could be a response to numerous calls from International Monetary Fund and local banks which raised the red flag warning of an imminent exposure of banks in the absence of a lender of last resort.
Local banks are currently holding US$2 billion in deposits.
“As Ministry of Finance we are officially restoring the lender of last resort function of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,” Biti said. “To us this marks the completion of a task we set out to do at the bank.”
He added: “We are providing amounts to the tune of $7 million which is consistent with the mid-term fiscal statement. We have got the power and discretion of increasing these amounts depending on how the lender-of-last-resort operation is going to operate…If there is going to be demand I can assure you that we can increase that amount from $7 million.”
Before the restoration of the lender-of-last-resort function, the apex bank in July scrapped statutory reserves as a stop-gap measure to reduce bank vulnerabilities and systemic risks.
The restoration of the function to the central bank — save for printing local currency — is also expected to reduce lending rates currently as high as 30%. This measure could again be a reprieve for depositors on the other hand as it is expected to increase depositors’ interest rates.
Gono said he was “pleased” that treasury had surpassed the central bank expectations after the former initially pledged US$5 million to revive the apex bank operations.
He said the bank — which during the Zimbabwe dollar era faced criticism of misappropriating funds held in foreign currency accounts — had set up a committee tasked with an oversight role of the lender of last resort funds in line with good corporate governance principles.
The central bank chief said the agreement would “add a tonne of confidence where there was a tenth of confidence”.
He expected the monetary development to boost transactions carried through the country’s national payment system.
The Real Time Gross Settlement, according to Gono, has since resumption last year in April facilitated transactions worth US$14,5 billion while cheques and internet banking accounted for US$200 million apiece.
Bernard Mpofu
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
GOVERNMENT has restored the banker-of last-resort function of the debt-ridden Reserve Bank after injecting US$7 million to improve fluidity of banking operations.
A lender of last resort is an institution, usually a country’s central bank, which offers loans to banks or other eligible institutions that are experiencing financial difficulty or are considered highly risky or near collapse.
Zimbabwe has 25 operating banking institutions, comprising 15 commercial banks, five merchant banks, four building societies and one savings bank. The banking sector is now largely dominated by commercial banks following the migration of some merchant banks into commercial banking.
Finance minister Tendai Biti and central bank governor Gideon Gono yesterday reached an agreement in the capital that would result in the re-emergence of overnight lending, revival of the interbank market and ultimately improving confidence in the financial services sector.
The central bank was rendered redundant after government last year adopted the use of multiple currencies to stem unprecedented inflation. The central bank has an estimated US$1,5 billion debt incurred during the decade-long economic meltdown.
The decision by the Finance ministry to restore one of the core functions of the apex bank could be a response to numerous calls from International Monetary Fund and local banks which raised the red flag warning of an imminent exposure of banks in the absence of a lender of last resort.
Local banks are currently holding US$2 billion in deposits.
“As Ministry of Finance we are officially restoring the lender of last resort function of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,” Biti said. “To us this marks the completion of a task we set out to do at the bank.”
He added: “We are providing amounts to the tune of $7 million which is consistent with the mid-term fiscal statement. We have got the power and discretion of increasing these amounts depending on how the lender-of-last-resort operation is going to operate…If there is going to be demand I can assure you that we can increase that amount from $7 million.”
Before the restoration of the lender-of-last-resort function, the apex bank in July scrapped statutory reserves as a stop-gap measure to reduce bank vulnerabilities and systemic risks.
The restoration of the function to the central bank — save for printing local currency — is also expected to reduce lending rates currently as high as 30%. This measure could again be a reprieve for depositors on the other hand as it is expected to increase depositors’ interest rates.
Gono said he was “pleased” that treasury had surpassed the central bank expectations after the former initially pledged US$5 million to revive the apex bank operations.
He said the bank — which during the Zimbabwe dollar era faced criticism of misappropriating funds held in foreign currency accounts — had set up a committee tasked with an oversight role of the lender of last resort funds in line with good corporate governance principles.
The central bank chief said the agreement would “add a tonne of confidence where there was a tenth of confidence”.
He expected the monetary development to boost transactions carried through the country’s national payment system.
The Real Time Gross Settlement, according to Gono, has since resumption last year in April facilitated transactions worth US$14,5 billion while cheques and internet banking accounted for US$200 million apiece.
Bernard Mpofu
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
.South Africa woos investors towards huge solar plant
Joshua Howat Berger, 14:49, Thursday 28 October 2010
South Africa wooed investors Thursday towards what could become the world's largest solar project, built on the edge of the Kalahari Desert to provide an eighth of the country's electricity.
More than 400 investors and solar industry insiders from as far away as India, South Korea, Spain and the United States descended on the tiny town of Upington in South Africa's arid Northern Cape province for a conference aimed at laying the groundwork for a 5,000-Megawatt solar park.
Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the park, whose estimated price tag is 150 billion rands (21.3 billion dollars, 15.4 billion euros), would be funded mainly by private developers that would finance and build individual projects and sell power to the national grid.
She called the park a "win-win" project that would move South Africa toward a green economy and help break its long-time dependence on coal -- currently about 90 percent of the country's energy mix -- while giving investors a share in one of the world's best locations for solar power.
"I know you are here to make money. We are also here to say we want you to generate power," Peters said.
"But we also want to be able to create jobs for our people," she added.
"We are here creating a win-win situation."
The area around Upington has some of the best conditions in the world for solar power, according to a pre-feasibility study by the non-profit Clinton Climate Initiative, a clean energy programme sponsored by former US president Bill Clinton's charitable foundation.
The arid Northern Cape, which sits at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, has some of the strongest sunshine in the world, relatively developed infrastructure and seemingly endless expanses of flat, empty land.
"When you drive around here with a solar developer's hat on, it's magic. It's flat, there's good grid lines," said Dick Berlijn, director of project development firm Subsolar.
"Both on the industrial side and also just on how it looks, it's an amazing area."
Peters said the government hopes the solar park will have a capacity of 5,000 Megawatts -- about the amount produced by the very biggest coal-fired power stations -- by 2020. The country currently generates almost 40,000 Megawatts nationally.
She said the project was part of government plans to create 300,000 "green economy" jobs by 2020 and make South Africa a global leader in solar energy.
"We want long and sustainable impact," Peters said.
"We are not creating a platform ... for our people to just be those who mix concrete and dig holes. We want them to contribute even at the technical levels."
Gideon Joubert, an engineer at South African firm Windmeul, said the solar park has the potential to create large numbers of jobs at local companies.
His firm, which specialises in steel construction, already has experience building frames for solar generation stations used by oil companies in places like Angola, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
"We will be able to manufacture the stuff in South Africa," Joubert told AFP. "We just have to get the right people here to get the (solar panels) from overseas so we can do the manufacturing here."
Peters said in time South Africa will produce solar panels locally, contributing to the larger vision of a green economy.
"We cannot say we reduce (emissions) by building the solar park and then at the same time, we keep on using even more jet fuel to be able to bring in panels, to bring in (reflector) mirrors,," she said.
"We need to manufacture those things here."
Buzz up! 0Print..Topics:Sector MoversAsia.
This article first appeared in YahooNews
South Africa wooed investors Thursday towards what could become the world's largest solar project, built on the edge of the Kalahari Desert to provide an eighth of the country's electricity.
More than 400 investors and solar industry insiders from as far away as India, South Korea, Spain and the United States descended on the tiny town of Upington in South Africa's arid Northern Cape province for a conference aimed at laying the groundwork for a 5,000-Megawatt solar park.
Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said the park, whose estimated price tag is 150 billion rands (21.3 billion dollars, 15.4 billion euros), would be funded mainly by private developers that would finance and build individual projects and sell power to the national grid.
She called the park a "win-win" project that would move South Africa toward a green economy and help break its long-time dependence on coal -- currently about 90 percent of the country's energy mix -- while giving investors a share in one of the world's best locations for solar power.
"I know you are here to make money. We are also here to say we want you to generate power," Peters said.
"But we also want to be able to create jobs for our people," she added.
"We are here creating a win-win situation."
The area around Upington has some of the best conditions in the world for solar power, according to a pre-feasibility study by the non-profit Clinton Climate Initiative, a clean energy programme sponsored by former US president Bill Clinton's charitable foundation.
The arid Northern Cape, which sits at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, has some of the strongest sunshine in the world, relatively developed infrastructure and seemingly endless expanses of flat, empty land.
"When you drive around here with a solar developer's hat on, it's magic. It's flat, there's good grid lines," said Dick Berlijn, director of project development firm Subsolar.
"Both on the industrial side and also just on how it looks, it's an amazing area."
Peters said the government hopes the solar park will have a capacity of 5,000 Megawatts -- about the amount produced by the very biggest coal-fired power stations -- by 2020. The country currently generates almost 40,000 Megawatts nationally.
She said the project was part of government plans to create 300,000 "green economy" jobs by 2020 and make South Africa a global leader in solar energy.
"We want long and sustainable impact," Peters said.
"We are not creating a platform ... for our people to just be those who mix concrete and dig holes. We want them to contribute even at the technical levels."
Gideon Joubert, an engineer at South African firm Windmeul, said the solar park has the potential to create large numbers of jobs at local companies.
His firm, which specialises in steel construction, already has experience building frames for solar generation stations used by oil companies in places like Angola, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
"We will be able to manufacture the stuff in South Africa," Joubert told AFP. "We just have to get the right people here to get the (solar panels) from overseas so we can do the manufacturing here."
Peters said in time South Africa will produce solar panels locally, contributing to the larger vision of a green economy.
"We cannot say we reduce (emissions) by building the solar park and then at the same time, we keep on using even more jet fuel to be able to bring in panels, to bring in (reflector) mirrors,," she said.
"We need to manufacture those things here."
Buzz up! 0Print..Topics:Sector MoversAsia.
This article first appeared in YahooNews
Wednesday 27 October 2010
STRANDED
Stranded. no more caution
Not knowing where to go
Oblivious of what to do
The earth upside down
The world upside down
Life unyielding
Death unyielding!
Stranded no more action
suddenly the lion stands still,
pondering the next move
All energy drained from his muscles
From a night of luckless hunt
All zeal strained from the misfortune
Of being chased away by a mightier competitor
All hope lost to shifting prey
So where is his next meal?
Stranded, no more option
Suddenly the manager sweeps the floor
No more job to do
This place is new and this culture is not his
Unfamiliar face after fairness in an unfamiliar land
Why is he not shaken by the intriguing face of his unwelcoming host?
The lion suddenly shifts his appetite to grass
As the antelope here is for the local tiger!
Stranded, little alternatives
All these resources must be harnessed
Yet all the fortunes have not been realised
By Julius Sai Mutyambizi from Preaching to Priests Anthology
* Publisher: Timeless Avatar Press (12 April 2007)
* ISBN-10: 0978156730
* ISBN-13: 978-0978156732
* Order from Amazon.co.uk
Not knowing where to go
Oblivious of what to do
The earth upside down
The world upside down
Life unyielding
Death unyielding!
Stranded no more action
suddenly the lion stands still,
pondering the next move
All energy drained from his muscles
From a night of luckless hunt
All zeal strained from the misfortune
Of being chased away by a mightier competitor
All hope lost to shifting prey
So where is his next meal?
Stranded, no more option
Suddenly the manager sweeps the floor
No more job to do
This place is new and this culture is not his
Unfamiliar face after fairness in an unfamiliar land
Why is he not shaken by the intriguing face of his unwelcoming host?
The lion suddenly shifts his appetite to grass
As the antelope here is for the local tiger!
Stranded, little alternatives
All these resources must be harnessed
Yet all the fortunes have not been realised
By Julius Sai Mutyambizi from Preaching to Priests Anthology
* Publisher: Timeless Avatar Press (12 April 2007)
* ISBN-10: 0978156730
* ISBN-13: 978-0978156732
* Order from Amazon.co.uk
Thursday 21 October 2010
Angry Tsvangirai vows to defy Mugabe
21/10/2010 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter-/*
Forget it ... Morgan Tsvangirai
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has vowed to defy President Robert Mugabe’s attempts to force his MDC-T party out of the coalition government by violating the Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Tsvangirai reacted angrily after Mugabe re-assigned some of the country’s ambassadors and re-appointed provincial governors without consulting his coalition partners.
The prime minister told party supporters that the move was part of attempts by Mugabe to frustrate the MDC-T out of the coalition government.
“Who doesn’t know that this unity Government is a shared compromise? Mugabe alone cannot constitute the GPA, he came begging me to form the transitional government with him,” Tsvangirai told a consultative meeting of the MDC-T in Harare’s Mabvuku suburb during the week.
The MDC leader insisted he was the legitimate winner of the last elections and vowed not walk away from government.
“If Mugabe thinks we can leave this transitional Government then he must forget, it.
“It is him who is supposed to leave it because the MDC won the elections; we don’t want to be diverted from our goal which is to respect the will of the people,” Tsvangirai said.
He also told his supporters that he is ready to take on Mugabe in new elections expected next year and insisted that there would not be any violence.
“I can assure you there will be no violence because we will use all our powers nationally, regionally and internationally to have a credible election. We are tired of people who want to intimidate people if they want violent elections why don’t they do it alone,”
“We need international observers, SADC must bring peace keeping force who will be monitoring the situation. Only a peaceful, credible and legitimate election will solve us from this ZANU PF mess.
What happened in 2008 must not be repeated,” Tsvangirai told his supporters.
The MDC-T has also claimed Harare police were barring its meetings in the capital as parties begin to campaign for the next elections.
In a statement, the party said police had invoked sections of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to stop two meetings in Budiriro and Highfields which were supposed to be addressed by Tsvangirai.
“The MDC is appalled by the action shown by the police in using the draconian POSA to bar peaceful public gatherings.
"The party is equally disturbed by the attempts by Zanu PF to abuse the police in achieving political ends,” the statement read
This article first appeared in New Zimbabwe
by Staff Reporter-/*
Forget it ... Morgan Tsvangirai
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has vowed to defy President Robert Mugabe’s attempts to force his MDC-T party out of the coalition government by violating the Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Tsvangirai reacted angrily after Mugabe re-assigned some of the country’s ambassadors and re-appointed provincial governors without consulting his coalition partners.
The prime minister told party supporters that the move was part of attempts by Mugabe to frustrate the MDC-T out of the coalition government.
“Who doesn’t know that this unity Government is a shared compromise? Mugabe alone cannot constitute the GPA, he came begging me to form the transitional government with him,” Tsvangirai told a consultative meeting of the MDC-T in Harare’s Mabvuku suburb during the week.
The MDC leader insisted he was the legitimate winner of the last elections and vowed not walk away from government.
“If Mugabe thinks we can leave this transitional Government then he must forget, it.
“It is him who is supposed to leave it because the MDC won the elections; we don’t want to be diverted from our goal which is to respect the will of the people,” Tsvangirai said.
He also told his supporters that he is ready to take on Mugabe in new elections expected next year and insisted that there would not be any violence.
“I can assure you there will be no violence because we will use all our powers nationally, regionally and internationally to have a credible election. We are tired of people who want to intimidate people if they want violent elections why don’t they do it alone,”
“We need international observers, SADC must bring peace keeping force who will be monitoring the situation. Only a peaceful, credible and legitimate election will solve us from this ZANU PF mess.
What happened in 2008 must not be repeated,” Tsvangirai told his supporters.
The MDC-T has also claimed Harare police were barring its meetings in the capital as parties begin to campaign for the next elections.
In a statement, the party said police had invoked sections of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to stop two meetings in Budiriro and Highfields which were supposed to be addressed by Tsvangirai.
“The MDC is appalled by the action shown by the police in using the draconian POSA to bar peaceful public gatherings.
"The party is equally disturbed by the attempts by Zanu PF to abuse the police in achieving political ends,” the statement read
This article first appeared in New Zimbabwe
Sunday 17 October 2010
Bombing survivor accuses MDC-T of abandoning violence victims
Sunday, 17 October 2010 13:33
A survivor of the infamous June 3 2008 militia attack on the MDC-T Jerera offices which claimed the lives of three activists has launched a stinging tirade on the party leaders for abandoning victims of political violence.
A visibly irritated Edison Gwenhure said MDC-T had forgotten him and wondered whether the leaders still remembered the grassroots activists who propelled them to power.
“From all the struggles I waged for the party, all I got was disability,” said Gwenhure, who suffered serious body and facial burns after a Zanu PF militia doused him with petrol.
He made his comments just a metre away from the makeshift office which was petrol-bombed by five men who came in uniform.
Gwenhure survived the attack but three of his colleagues lost their lives.
Asked what he thought about war veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda’s widely condemned activities in Zaka district, an area he once fiercely fought to defend, Gwenhure said he had lost interest in politics.
“Why should I be involved, what do I get from it. Look at me, look at my face I never received any compensation for the suffering I went through.”
“I fight and get these injuries. Look at the MP (Harrison Mudzuri), he enjoys driving around in a double cab. People like us who endured the brunt of the Zanu PF militia are now like scarecrows with no one bothering to help us.”
Gwenhure however said, like any other Zimbabwean who had a right to vote, he would go the polls and cast his vote for MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the councillor for the area Peter Imbayarwo whom he said stayed among the people.
“I have learnt my lesson,” said Gwenhure, “I am more careful this time. Even for you (this journalist), I won’t allow you to take my picture, you can use the one in your files.”
BY WALTER MARWIZI
This article first appeared in The Zimbabwe Standard
A survivor of the infamous June 3 2008 militia attack on the MDC-T Jerera offices which claimed the lives of three activists has launched a stinging tirade on the party leaders for abandoning victims of political violence.
A visibly irritated Edison Gwenhure said MDC-T had forgotten him and wondered whether the leaders still remembered the grassroots activists who propelled them to power.
“From all the struggles I waged for the party, all I got was disability,” said Gwenhure, who suffered serious body and facial burns after a Zanu PF militia doused him with petrol.
He made his comments just a metre away from the makeshift office which was petrol-bombed by five men who came in uniform.
Gwenhure survived the attack but three of his colleagues lost their lives.
Asked what he thought about war veteran leader Jabulani Sibanda’s widely condemned activities in Zaka district, an area he once fiercely fought to defend, Gwenhure said he had lost interest in politics.
“Why should I be involved, what do I get from it. Look at me, look at my face I never received any compensation for the suffering I went through.”
“I fight and get these injuries. Look at the MP (Harrison Mudzuri), he enjoys driving around in a double cab. People like us who endured the brunt of the Zanu PF militia are now like scarecrows with no one bothering to help us.”
Gwenhure however said, like any other Zimbabwean who had a right to vote, he would go the polls and cast his vote for MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the councillor for the area Peter Imbayarwo whom he said stayed among the people.
“I have learnt my lesson,” said Gwenhure, “I am more careful this time. Even for you (this journalist), I won’t allow you to take my picture, you can use the one in your files.”
BY WALTER MARWIZI
This article first appeared in The Zimbabwe Standard
Friday 15 October 2010
Heroes status loses its legitimacy
Heroes status loses its legitimacy
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:46
THE national heroes status has lost legitimacy due to the Zanu PF nomenklatura making it their private preserve.
The question lingering on many minds is whether the National Heroes’ Acre is still a national asset or a Zanu PF shrine.
Mugabe’s recent outburst at the burial of the late Zanu PF national deputy commissar Ephraim Masawi that the national heroes acre was solely for Zanu PF members who participated in the liberation struggle has angered many Zimbabweans and those who fought in the liberation struggle.
For the first time ever, the family of national hero, the late former Matabeleland North governor, Welshman Mabhena, rejected Zanu PF’s honour to bury him at the national shrine preferring instead to lay him to rest at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo.
Political analysts pointed out that the rejection by the Mabhena family shows that the honour, credibility and respect, which was once attached to the national hero’s status, is now gone.
Sapes Trust executive director Ibbo Mandaza said the Mabhena issue has exposed Mugabe’s reckless statement regarding the importance of the shrine. He said Mugabe should not equate the national heroes’ acre to a Zanu PF shrine.
“The mistake was made by Mugabe after saying the shrine was a Zanu PF place. It’s embarrassing because now they have egg on their face following Mabhena’s rejection to be buried at the acre,” he said.
Matabeleland Civic Society Consortium (MCSC) applauded the Mabhena family for resisting Zanu PF’s attempts to bury the former PF-Zapu secretary-general at the National Heroes Acre.
“A hero’s status is not conferred by a party but it’s supposed to be an individual earning and it doesn’t matter where someone is buried,” said MCSC spokesman Dumisani Nkomo. “Mugabe said it’s a Zanu PF shrine, so people should not be worried about that anymore. It has lost its meaning, credibility, and status because we have some people without proper credentials who were buried at the heroes’ acre.”
Nkomo said the heroes’ acre was maintained by tax-payers’ money, therefore Mugabe should be accountable to the masses instead of privatising the state property. The department of National Museums and Monuments manages the heroes’ acres around the country.
Other analysts said Mabhena did not decline to be a national hero but he declined to be chosen by Zanu PF which has turned the heroes’ acre into a burial place for Mugabe’s clique.
London-based lawyer Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa said: “He refused to share his final resting place with people whose own lifetime careers were defined by the extent to which they persecuted defenceless citizens and stole from them.”
“The status quo with regards to the conferring of hero status just reflects victor justice and the power of political hegemony in Zimbabwe which is not only wrong, unjust and unfair but is also dangerous as it creates a cyclic spiral of politically defined heroes and villains depending on the existing political hegemony at a given time.”
Mutyambizi-Dewa said Zanu PF has failed to live above politics when entrusted with issues of national importance and has caused widespread cynicism on national day celebrations.
He noted that most of the people currently in Zanu PF fail to be heroes because they cannot pass the consistency test.
“The problem in Zimbabwe has always been of a ruling party that failed to redefine itself as a governing party and this also explains why people opposed to them are not heroes. However there comes a time when people must disregard them and declare their own heroes with or without Zanu PF,” said Mutyambizi-Dewa.
Analysts said they believed the depiction of national heroes is lop-sided in favour of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, neglecting other pivotal players in the liberation struggle, who criticised the President.
There are a number of luminaries including former Zipra commander Lookout Masuku, Zanu founder Ndabaningi Sithole, and veteran nationalist James Chikerema who were denied the national hero’s status after crossing Mugabe.
But the mention of national heroes like Cain Nkala, Border Gezi and Sabina Mugabe, analysts say let-slip Mugabe’s intentional manipulation and distortion of the country’s history.
This week, Zanu PF blundered after declaring the wife of late national hero Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai, Pamela, a liberation war heroine. The party’s women’s league and Harare province led fierce criticism against Zanu PF, saying she deserved to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
Trevor Maisiri, the executive director of a Harare based politics think-tank, African Reform Institute (AR), said Mugabe’s party was diverting from the principles of the liberation struggle in honouring national icons.
“Many (Zanu PF officials) are embroiled in activities for self economic empowerment even through unbecoming means. Some have lost the morality that the liberation struggle principles sought to promote. Others have lost the service to the people, yet others have lost their own foundational identity that motivated them to go out there and be liberators of the nation,” he said.
“Such disparities will cause many potential heroes-acre-destined comrades to turn down the accord. This will all be because the fundamentals of the liberation struggle have been lost and some of the people at the shrine may really not be reflective of the virginity of the original intention, motivation, principles, values and integrity of the liberation war.”
Maisiri criticised Zanu PF for claiming ownership of the history of Zimbabwe’s struggle when it is known that a group of people do not define the history of a nation. He said Mugabe and his allies have created notions that the liberation struggle has been privatised, excluding the rest of Zimbabweans.
Even political parties to the inclusive government, MDC-T and MDC-M have attacked Mugabe for monopolising the selection of national heroes when it is underpinned in the Global Political Agreement that the parties should consult. In protest, MDC-T and MDC-M boycotted the burial of Masawi last month but attended the burial of Mabhena at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo on Saturday.
The MDC formations were angered by Mugabe’s refusal to confer the hero’s status on the late National Healing co-Minister Gibson Sibanda.
Other political parties say council should be given powers to build national heroes’ acres where icons will be buried without involving Zanu PF.
Zapu spokesman Methuseli Moyo, said it was embarrassing for Mugabe to declare Mabhena a national hero, when he fired him as governor in 2000.
Brian Chitemba
Readers Comments (1)
Show/Hide comments...
written by SOBUZA GULA SHONA, October 15, 2010
The heroes acre is just now like any other cemetry Yangofanana neku No 6 , Luveve kana kuMbudzi Vakagona vana Mabhena vakaramba kuvigwa pamwe nembavha ,varoyi,nemab****a +0
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:46
THE national heroes status has lost legitimacy due to the Zanu PF nomenklatura making it their private preserve.
The question lingering on many minds is whether the National Heroes’ Acre is still a national asset or a Zanu PF shrine.
Mugabe’s recent outburst at the burial of the late Zanu PF national deputy commissar Ephraim Masawi that the national heroes acre was solely for Zanu PF members who participated in the liberation struggle has angered many Zimbabweans and those who fought in the liberation struggle.
For the first time ever, the family of national hero, the late former Matabeleland North governor, Welshman Mabhena, rejected Zanu PF’s honour to bury him at the national shrine preferring instead to lay him to rest at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo.
Political analysts pointed out that the rejection by the Mabhena family shows that the honour, credibility and respect, which was once attached to the national hero’s status, is now gone.
Sapes Trust executive director Ibbo Mandaza said the Mabhena issue has exposed Mugabe’s reckless statement regarding the importance of the shrine. He said Mugabe should not equate the national heroes’ acre to a Zanu PF shrine.
“The mistake was made by Mugabe after saying the shrine was a Zanu PF place. It’s embarrassing because now they have egg on their face following Mabhena’s rejection to be buried at the acre,” he said.
Matabeleland Civic Society Consortium (MCSC) applauded the Mabhena family for resisting Zanu PF’s attempts to bury the former PF-Zapu secretary-general at the National Heroes Acre.
“A hero’s status is not conferred by a party but it’s supposed to be an individual earning and it doesn’t matter where someone is buried,” said MCSC spokesman Dumisani Nkomo. “Mugabe said it’s a Zanu PF shrine, so people should not be worried about that anymore. It has lost its meaning, credibility, and status because we have some people without proper credentials who were buried at the heroes’ acre.”
Nkomo said the heroes’ acre was maintained by tax-payers’ money, therefore Mugabe should be accountable to the masses instead of privatising the state property. The department of National Museums and Monuments manages the heroes’ acres around the country.
Other analysts said Mabhena did not decline to be a national hero but he declined to be chosen by Zanu PF which has turned the heroes’ acre into a burial place for Mugabe’s clique.
London-based lawyer Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa said: “He refused to share his final resting place with people whose own lifetime careers were defined by the extent to which they persecuted defenceless citizens and stole from them.”
“The status quo with regards to the conferring of hero status just reflects victor justice and the power of political hegemony in Zimbabwe which is not only wrong, unjust and unfair but is also dangerous as it creates a cyclic spiral of politically defined heroes and villains depending on the existing political hegemony at a given time.”
Mutyambizi-Dewa said Zanu PF has failed to live above politics when entrusted with issues of national importance and has caused widespread cynicism on national day celebrations.
He noted that most of the people currently in Zanu PF fail to be heroes because they cannot pass the consistency test.
“The problem in Zimbabwe has always been of a ruling party that failed to redefine itself as a governing party and this also explains why people opposed to them are not heroes. However there comes a time when people must disregard them and declare their own heroes with or without Zanu PF,” said Mutyambizi-Dewa.
Analysts said they believed the depiction of national heroes is lop-sided in favour of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, neglecting other pivotal players in the liberation struggle, who criticised the President.
There are a number of luminaries including former Zipra commander Lookout Masuku, Zanu founder Ndabaningi Sithole, and veteran nationalist James Chikerema who were denied the national hero’s status after crossing Mugabe.
But the mention of national heroes like Cain Nkala, Border Gezi and Sabina Mugabe, analysts say let-slip Mugabe’s intentional manipulation and distortion of the country’s history.
This week, Zanu PF blundered after declaring the wife of late national hero Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai, Pamela, a liberation war heroine. The party’s women’s league and Harare province led fierce criticism against Zanu PF, saying she deserved to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.
Trevor Maisiri, the executive director of a Harare based politics think-tank, African Reform Institute (AR), said Mugabe’s party was diverting from the principles of the liberation struggle in honouring national icons.
“Many (Zanu PF officials) are embroiled in activities for self economic empowerment even through unbecoming means. Some have lost the morality that the liberation struggle principles sought to promote. Others have lost the service to the people, yet others have lost their own foundational identity that motivated them to go out there and be liberators of the nation,” he said.
“Such disparities will cause many potential heroes-acre-destined comrades to turn down the accord. This will all be because the fundamentals of the liberation struggle have been lost and some of the people at the shrine may really not be reflective of the virginity of the original intention, motivation, principles, values and integrity of the liberation war.”
Maisiri criticised Zanu PF for claiming ownership of the history of Zimbabwe’s struggle when it is known that a group of people do not define the history of a nation. He said Mugabe and his allies have created notions that the liberation struggle has been privatised, excluding the rest of Zimbabweans.
Even political parties to the inclusive government, MDC-T and MDC-M have attacked Mugabe for monopolising the selection of national heroes when it is underpinned in the Global Political Agreement that the parties should consult. In protest, MDC-T and MDC-M boycotted the burial of Masawi last month but attended the burial of Mabhena at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo on Saturday.
The MDC formations were angered by Mugabe’s refusal to confer the hero’s status on the late National Healing co-Minister Gibson Sibanda.
Other political parties say council should be given powers to build national heroes’ acres where icons will be buried without involving Zanu PF.
Zapu spokesman Methuseli Moyo, said it was embarrassing for Mugabe to declare Mabhena a national hero, when he fired him as governor in 2000.
Brian Chitemba
Readers Comments (1)
Show/Hide comments...
written by SOBUZA GULA SHONA, October 15, 2010
The heroes acre is just now like any other cemetry Yangofanana neku No 6 , Luveve kana kuMbudzi Vakagona vana Mabhena vakaramba kuvigwa pamwe nembavha ,varoyi,nemab****a +0
This article first appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent
THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS OF ZIMBABWE AND OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICS OF ZIMBABWE AND OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE: JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
There is a difference between democracy and the majoritarian principle. Democracy goes beyond winner take all elections and encompasses the rights of minorities among other issues such as rule of law and pertinent issues of national interest are set before the whole country in a referenda. In a majoritarian set up the winner takes all and minorities are crowded out. Democracy listens to and involves divergence
The problem we have in Zimbabwe is the absence of both majoritarian rule and democratic rule. There is neither at the moment, the majority is not in charge so there is no group that can be identified as the oppressive majority. At the same time the rights of minorities are not encompassed. The truth is the single largest ethnic group, Shona-speaking Zimbabweans are oppressed together with the second largest group, Ndebele-speaking Zimbabweans and so are Zimbabwe's minorities such white Zimbabweans, Kalangas, Vendas, Nambyas, Tongas, Chewas, Asian-Zimbabweans, mixed-race Zimbabweans and many others.
As a nation this is the reality that confronts us, we are where we are because we have refused to come to terms with some stubborn truths about our country. This has been so for generations. We have failed to understand that we are a multi-racial and multi-ethnic country that ought to exist as a unit; no race or tribe should ever exist in the shadows of another. Zimbabwe must be a composite unit not just a sum-total of its cultures. There has been a failure to heed this to our own detriment. In 1965, whilst his idea of declaring independence from the British through UDI was not really bad on the face it, it was meant to impose a Rhodesia where blacks and other races existed in the shadows of their white compatriots. This is why I personally welcomed the demise of Rhodesia, because they were advancing a dangerous policy of racism that could not be allowed in a modern society.
Post-1980 the Government of President Robert Mugabe has not done much to make every Zimbabwean enjoy being part of this beautiful country. They behave like an irresponsible opposition not the governing party. They deliberately promote reverse racism and encourage disunity among teh citizenry. It is important for the resumption of order in our country which will start by an unequivocal acknowledgement of diversity as we move towards the creation of a composite unit. Zimbabwe must move towards creating a happy Kalanga, Ndebele, Shona, Nambya, white Zimbabwean, Tsonga, Chewa, Asian Zimbabwean, Venda, Tonga, Nambya, mixed-race Zimbabwean etc as a move towards creating a Zimbabwe in which everyone feels confident to belong.
But such a composite unit will only be realised with the emergence of composite thinking and the birth of a truly composite organisation whose sole aim is to bestow to Zimbabwe a society that we can all be proud of. It will assume a character beyond the sum-total concept but will seek to build on the diversities a unique unit that is capable of defining itself as one country and culture but at the same time letting its constituent members retain their unique and individual characteristics. It will be an organisation that seeks to redefine and give confidence to even the most basic institution of society; the family. It will be the ultimate symbolism; taking Zimbabwe to another level; rebutting the inferiority presumption and restating the agenda of the country and continent as accolade-deserving not accolade-ululating.
Zimbabwe deserves to be high up there among the other nations but we have defined ourselves as a SADC country. Zimbabwe must be a world player, a serious world player. We already have standing monuments to point at: Lake Kariba and Great Zimbabwe, these monuments are a constant reminder of what we can do if we are working together as a nation. We conquered the world with both and we can still conquer the world today. It takes time but the foundations are laid now. I am tired of Afro-centric statistics, I am tired of being SADC's number 2 or Africa's number what...Zimbabwe was not created to be a player in a closet. It is a country in the world and it has to position itself to be a serious player in the whole world.
Contemporary political parties in Zimbabwe are not the best platform for delivering to Zimbabwe the virtual nation which will restore the pride that we had when we constructed Great Zimbabwe and when we gave the world the largest man-made lake in Lake Kariba. The concept of ultra-super Zimbabwe is beyond all of the contemporary political parties because it is beyond contemporary politics. It is beyond the humiliating finger-pointing that we currently witness almost daily since the formation of the GNU. It is beyond ZANU PF because the party has clearly run of ideas. They have been saying the same things since 1985.
They have surrendered their own fate and invested their own future in an old man who they cannot free and allow him the grace of being with his own family. Ironically that family includes his wife who is also called Grace. Investing one’s future in a person who looks more at the past is clearly a wrong strategy. No wonder why in every speech President Mugabe has not spared a minute in reminding Zimbabweans rightly about a bad past under Ian Smith but his often very interesting humour-filled speeches have not offered anything for the future. ZANU PF is a party of the past hey dwell on the past and use the past to scare away forward looking Zimbabweans. It is sad that 30 years after independence ZANU PF still talks of a ghost called Rhodesia; a country which no longer exists but thanks to ZANU PF there is a nationality called Rhodesian. A party that fears its own citizens and fails to come to terms with the fact that it is the government can only be entrusted with the future at our detriment.
The same is true of the Movement for Democratic Change. Their policies are not innovative in character but are reparative. MDC is very good at repairing damage. Their presence in the GNU has evidently done a lot in repairing the damage that ZANU PF had done. But MDC is not growth-oriented they are a current party, a party that fixes current damage. They too do not believe in an all conquering Zimbabwe. They are comfortable and therefore focus at being South Africa’s number two in SADC. They were happy with our literacy records in Africa. A strategy that looks at fixing damage is not sustainable because it retains the wear and tear which continues to haunt the country forever. It will manage to arrest decline and may succeed in taking Zimbabwe to where it was in the year 2000 but this is not what Zimbabwe should aim at. Certainly Zimbabwe was not in the same position as is now but it was not rich either. There must emerge an organisation that will confront the future with the aim of utilising all our resources so that we become a rich nation and join the world as an important player whose tag is not developing but developed country.
We all celebrated the resurgence of ZAPU, but as we have come to realise ZAPU is also a party of corrections not innovation. They have looked at what has gone wrong during the governance of ZANU PF and indeed the GNU and they seem to be keen on correcting that. This is not good strategy because it lacks innovation. The future belongs to the galvanization of all our phases, asking about our past beyond the GNU or ZANU PF’s advent to power and also looking beyond contemporary issues and approaching the future with innovation and facing the challenges with the belief that the seemingly unachievable can be achieved. So far ZAPU has not yet told Zimbabweans that it will be abandoning or maintaining the Marxist ideologies of its main liberation war sponsor the then Soviet Union.
The organisation that will deliver Zimbabwe will not be a reproaching organisation. It will look at the good and the bad of every given period and it will also look at other systems and countries and how they have succeeded. As it encourages its peoples not to live in the shadows of one another it will also encourage Zimbabwe not to live in the shadows of other countries or its past. Our colonial past cannot be allowed to stand in the way of our development anymore. We are not the only country to be colonised. The USA, India, Canada, Australia, China, New Zealand and indeed the UK are all former colonies. The Mwene Mutapa and the Rozvi were both major empires that subjected people as far afield as Tanzania and Angola to some form of colonisation with Zimbabwe as the centre of their power.
The dosage our current political parties are feeding us is very dangerous. They still talk of the west and bigger countries. They are collective agents of our re-colonisation. Day in day out they are subjecting our minds to the wrong picture of the west which is supernatural. According to them The West causes our disasters and the West is our salvation. This is what they have told us. Some of us who have had the chance to live in western nations know that this is untrue. Western countries are normal countries whose own citizens also eat, sleep and drink and do the same menial jobs that we do in own countries. Zimbabwe deserves to be a player in the world. The emergence of China, India and Brazil as world players is evidence that with the right policies developing countries can emerge to be developed and successful. Zimbabweans are fed up with political parties that frighten us and discourage us to tackle the future.
By its own mistakes ZANU PF has surrendered its political leadership of SADC to South Africa. A country that in its early years looked so much up to us is now the one now mediating on our warring parties despite the fact that its own democracy is supposed to be 16 years younger than ours. The diplomatic landscape has been altered forever and it is South Africa and other countries which include even Senegal that are forwarding their names for consideration into the Security Council. We are now viewed in the same light at countries that are at war and we no longer have the respect we deserve. Zimbabweans have been left pointing at the past when seeking glory because their contemporary world is an ugly beast they cannot look in the face. An organisation shall emerge that seeks to correct the perception of Zimbabwe as a pariah state and give not only meaning, but strength and respect to the country’s moral, political, social and economic fibre. Such is an organisation whose birth I keenly await and hopefully together with most of us, we will all feel free to belong and with it be geared to change our country forever!
Until then;
BE JUDGE
Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point, a Zimbabwean Pressure Group. He writes in his own capacity and he can be contacted on mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
There is a difference between democracy and the majoritarian principle. Democracy goes beyond winner take all elections and encompasses the rights of minorities among other issues such as rule of law and pertinent issues of national interest are set before the whole country in a referenda. In a majoritarian set up the winner takes all and minorities are crowded out. Democracy listens to and involves divergence
The problem we have in Zimbabwe is the absence of both majoritarian rule and democratic rule. There is neither at the moment, the majority is not in charge so there is no group that can be identified as the oppressive majority. At the same time the rights of minorities are not encompassed. The truth is the single largest ethnic group, Shona-speaking Zimbabweans are oppressed together with the second largest group, Ndebele-speaking Zimbabweans and so are Zimbabwe's minorities such white Zimbabweans, Kalangas, Vendas, Nambyas, Tongas, Chewas, Asian-Zimbabweans, mixed-race Zimbabweans and many others.
As a nation this is the reality that confronts us, we are where we are because we have refused to come to terms with some stubborn truths about our country. This has been so for generations. We have failed to understand that we are a multi-racial and multi-ethnic country that ought to exist as a unit; no race or tribe should ever exist in the shadows of another. Zimbabwe must be a composite unit not just a sum-total of its cultures. There has been a failure to heed this to our own detriment. In 1965, whilst his idea of declaring independence from the British through UDI was not really bad on the face it, it was meant to impose a Rhodesia where blacks and other races existed in the shadows of their white compatriots. This is why I personally welcomed the demise of Rhodesia, because they were advancing a dangerous policy of racism that could not be allowed in a modern society.
Post-1980 the Government of President Robert Mugabe has not done much to make every Zimbabwean enjoy being part of this beautiful country. They behave like an irresponsible opposition not the governing party. They deliberately promote reverse racism and encourage disunity among teh citizenry. It is important for the resumption of order in our country which will start by an unequivocal acknowledgement of diversity as we move towards the creation of a composite unit. Zimbabwe must move towards creating a happy Kalanga, Ndebele, Shona, Nambya, white Zimbabwean, Tsonga, Chewa, Asian Zimbabwean, Venda, Tonga, Nambya, mixed-race Zimbabwean etc as a move towards creating a Zimbabwe in which everyone feels confident to belong.
But such a composite unit will only be realised with the emergence of composite thinking and the birth of a truly composite organisation whose sole aim is to bestow to Zimbabwe a society that we can all be proud of. It will assume a character beyond the sum-total concept but will seek to build on the diversities a unique unit that is capable of defining itself as one country and culture but at the same time letting its constituent members retain their unique and individual characteristics. It will be an organisation that seeks to redefine and give confidence to even the most basic institution of society; the family. It will be the ultimate symbolism; taking Zimbabwe to another level; rebutting the inferiority presumption and restating the agenda of the country and continent as accolade-deserving not accolade-ululating.
Zimbabwe deserves to be high up there among the other nations but we have defined ourselves as a SADC country. Zimbabwe must be a world player, a serious world player. We already have standing monuments to point at: Lake Kariba and Great Zimbabwe, these monuments are a constant reminder of what we can do if we are working together as a nation. We conquered the world with both and we can still conquer the world today. It takes time but the foundations are laid now. I am tired of Afro-centric statistics, I am tired of being SADC's number 2 or Africa's number what...Zimbabwe was not created to be a player in a closet. It is a country in the world and it has to position itself to be a serious player in the whole world.
Contemporary political parties in Zimbabwe are not the best platform for delivering to Zimbabwe the virtual nation which will restore the pride that we had when we constructed Great Zimbabwe and when we gave the world the largest man-made lake in Lake Kariba. The concept of ultra-super Zimbabwe is beyond all of the contemporary political parties because it is beyond contemporary politics. It is beyond the humiliating finger-pointing that we currently witness almost daily since the formation of the GNU. It is beyond ZANU PF because the party has clearly run of ideas. They have been saying the same things since 1985.
They have surrendered their own fate and invested their own future in an old man who they cannot free and allow him the grace of being with his own family. Ironically that family includes his wife who is also called Grace. Investing one’s future in a person who looks more at the past is clearly a wrong strategy. No wonder why in every speech President Mugabe has not spared a minute in reminding Zimbabweans rightly about a bad past under Ian Smith but his often very interesting humour-filled speeches have not offered anything for the future. ZANU PF is a party of the past hey dwell on the past and use the past to scare away forward looking Zimbabweans. It is sad that 30 years after independence ZANU PF still talks of a ghost called Rhodesia; a country which no longer exists but thanks to ZANU PF there is a nationality called Rhodesian. A party that fears its own citizens and fails to come to terms with the fact that it is the government can only be entrusted with the future at our detriment.
The same is true of the Movement for Democratic Change. Their policies are not innovative in character but are reparative. MDC is very good at repairing damage. Their presence in the GNU has evidently done a lot in repairing the damage that ZANU PF had done. But MDC is not growth-oriented they are a current party, a party that fixes current damage. They too do not believe in an all conquering Zimbabwe. They are comfortable and therefore focus at being South Africa’s number two in SADC. They were happy with our literacy records in Africa. A strategy that looks at fixing damage is not sustainable because it retains the wear and tear which continues to haunt the country forever. It will manage to arrest decline and may succeed in taking Zimbabwe to where it was in the year 2000 but this is not what Zimbabwe should aim at. Certainly Zimbabwe was not in the same position as is now but it was not rich either. There must emerge an organisation that will confront the future with the aim of utilising all our resources so that we become a rich nation and join the world as an important player whose tag is not developing but developed country.
We all celebrated the resurgence of ZAPU, but as we have come to realise ZAPU is also a party of corrections not innovation. They have looked at what has gone wrong during the governance of ZANU PF and indeed the GNU and they seem to be keen on correcting that. This is not good strategy because it lacks innovation. The future belongs to the galvanization of all our phases, asking about our past beyond the GNU or ZANU PF’s advent to power and also looking beyond contemporary issues and approaching the future with innovation and facing the challenges with the belief that the seemingly unachievable can be achieved. So far ZAPU has not yet told Zimbabweans that it will be abandoning or maintaining the Marxist ideologies of its main liberation war sponsor the then Soviet Union.
The organisation that will deliver Zimbabwe will not be a reproaching organisation. It will look at the good and the bad of every given period and it will also look at other systems and countries and how they have succeeded. As it encourages its peoples not to live in the shadows of one another it will also encourage Zimbabwe not to live in the shadows of other countries or its past. Our colonial past cannot be allowed to stand in the way of our development anymore. We are not the only country to be colonised. The USA, India, Canada, Australia, China, New Zealand and indeed the UK are all former colonies. The Mwene Mutapa and the Rozvi were both major empires that subjected people as far afield as Tanzania and Angola to some form of colonisation with Zimbabwe as the centre of their power.
The dosage our current political parties are feeding us is very dangerous. They still talk of the west and bigger countries. They are collective agents of our re-colonisation. Day in day out they are subjecting our minds to the wrong picture of the west which is supernatural. According to them The West causes our disasters and the West is our salvation. This is what they have told us. Some of us who have had the chance to live in western nations know that this is untrue. Western countries are normal countries whose own citizens also eat, sleep and drink and do the same menial jobs that we do in own countries. Zimbabwe deserves to be a player in the world. The emergence of China, India and Brazil as world players is evidence that with the right policies developing countries can emerge to be developed and successful. Zimbabweans are fed up with political parties that frighten us and discourage us to tackle the future.
By its own mistakes ZANU PF has surrendered its political leadership of SADC to South Africa. A country that in its early years looked so much up to us is now the one now mediating on our warring parties despite the fact that its own democracy is supposed to be 16 years younger than ours. The diplomatic landscape has been altered forever and it is South Africa and other countries which include even Senegal that are forwarding their names for consideration into the Security Council. We are now viewed in the same light at countries that are at war and we no longer have the respect we deserve. Zimbabweans have been left pointing at the past when seeking glory because their contemporary world is an ugly beast they cannot look in the face. An organisation shall emerge that seeks to correct the perception of Zimbabwe as a pariah state and give not only meaning, but strength and respect to the country’s moral, political, social and economic fibre. Such is an organisation whose birth I keenly await and hopefully together with most of us, we will all feel free to belong and with it be geared to change our country forever!
Until then;
BE JUDGE
Julius Sai MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA is the Chairman of Communities Point, a Zimbabwean Pressure Group. He writes in his own capacity and he can be contacted on mutyambizidewa@yahoo.co.uk or 07401182271 or 07529705413
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