Help Zimbabwe - Levy
By KASUBA MULENGA
PRESIDENT Mwanawasa has urged the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to help Zimbabwe resolve her domestic problems so that the effects do not spill over to neighbouring countries. Mr Mwanawasa expressed hope that the SADC summit to be held in Zambia some time this year would deliberate on the problems facing Zimbabwe.
However, the President was mindful that Zimbabweans themselves were in a better position to resolve their problems. “We can only offer advice which can be accepted or rejected. We are looking forward to a time when we will once again see a prosperous Zimbabwe,” he said. Mr Mwanawasa said this at State House yesterday when he received credentials from new Zimbabwean ambassador to Zambia, Lovemore Mazemo. The President said like other SADC countries, Zambia had shared the anguish of the difficulties Zimbabwe had experienced over the past few years. Mr Mwanawasa said he was greatly concerned about the prevailing political situation in Zimbabwe where police allegedly mistreated leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, while he was in detention.
However, he said he would not comment further on the beating of Mr Tsvangirai, until he received a detailed report from the Zambian mission in Zimbabwe. “Just this morning (yesterday), I heard something on television that the MDC leader was beaten while in incarceration. I am unable to comment much on the situation because I am yet to receive a report from our ambassador there,” Mr Mwanawasa said.
However, the President said Zambia had supported Zimbabwe’s policies, which had corrected the inequity of the colonial legacy. “The land policy which has served as a pretext for Western Europe and the United States of America to impose sanctions on your country is good for our Zimbabwean brothers and sisters. After all, they sacrificed their lives during the liberation war for their freedom and land,” he said.
President Mwanawasa said the ownership of land was the inalienable right of the indigenous people of any country including Zimbabwe. He said land should be accessible to ordinary people because it was essential in the creation of wealth and in the fight against disease and poverty. The President said Zambia and Zimbabwe enjoyed brotherly relations based on trust and confidence and this meant that the two countries could engage in frank dialogue when an uncomfortable situation arose.
Mr Mwanawasa urged Mr Mazemo to explore ways of ensuring that the two countries mitigated the consequences of the burden of the sanctions on Zimbabwe's shoulders. And Mr Mazemo said during his stay in Zambia, he would dedicate his duties towards strengthening the relations with his country.
And President Mwanawasa also urged new Brazilian ambassador to Zambia, Josal Luiz Pellegrino, to apply his personal efforts to ensure that his government invested in the production of anti-retroviral drugs in Zambia. Mr Mwanawas also appealed to Mr Pellegrino to convince his country to invest in Zambia's agricultural sector by providing equipment to farmers. “Brazil is strong in manufacturing agricultural equipment which can be of great benefit to Zambian small-scale farmers.
Since 45 per cent of water in southern Africa is in Zambia, Brazil can exploit the resource for the benefit of the local people,” he said. Mr Mwanawasa also looked forward to meeting Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Siva, during the course of this year to hold bilateral talks since the two countries had re-opened embassies.
And Mr Pellegrino said the two countries had a common history of good relations with neighbours
He said Zambia had, since independence, been generous in using her internal political stability, amid limited resources, to promote regional peace, security and sustainable economic development.
Who is this Levy Mwanawasa? I have never heard of him before. :)
ReplyDelete" However, the President said Zambia had supported Zimbabwe’s policies, which had corrected the inequity of the colonial legacy. “The land policy which has served as a pretext for Western Europe and the United States of America to impose sanctions on your country is good for our Zimbabwean brothers and sisters. After all, they sacrificed their lives during the liberation war for their freedom and land,” he said. "
W.O.W. Wow. This is a guy I could support. So where has he been all these 5 years?
And I agree, there should be a solution, with the help of neighboring African countries, to help Zimbabwe find it's feet in the international world. There also has to be an acknowledgment from the West that the present land distribution patterns have to be revised for the benefit of the indigenous people, whatever Western interest it may conflict with. Africa's countries are the only countries African people really have. And the West has to recognize that finally. There is not going to be an end to poverty or famine, until the so-called 'subsistence farmers' have enough land to become commercial farmers. And an extra hectare here and there isn't going to do it. Every farmer must have access to 100 hectares of land, so he can make a real living for his family, and contribute to the economy to the maximum extent.
I hope its ok for me to comment here despite my being Zimbabwean and not Zambian,
ReplyDeleteMugabe did not attack white farmers to empower zimbabweans hes talked about land to get support from all the nieghbouring African countries for hes pathetic regime even with a
pound at 25000 zim dollar and inflation rate at 1000plus what do you our neighbours need to see to know its not about land, how on earth could a sane man take street men or what you call in zambia cadres to a commercial coffee farm to loot and not improve the land, theres still alot of land in Zimbabwe why not give small loans to improve those and negotiate with the white farmers, today Zim is worse than haiti because all the neighbours are pretending its about land am very worried at the likes of mwanawasa and mbeki,they pass a comment becaue of what theyve seen on CNN and BBC if the media said nothing what would happen,and yet we are all geting goods from zambia?
mugabe has not given a single hectare of his own land to any zimbabwean. We need your support Zambia remember we were like you and you could be like us if you dont learn from our mistakes.
AMERICA SAID FREE THE ACTIVISTS THEN ALL OUR NEIGHBOURS ARE TALKING WITH CAUTION!!
mrk
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say:nice blog
as a zimbo we cant afford not to have a sense of humour so here we go
This is how the joke about the increasingly worthless Zimbabwe dollar goes: "American President George Bush had $20 000, he bought himself a posh car. South African President Thabo Mbeki had R20 000, he bought a posh car. President Robert Mugabe had Z$20 000. He wanted Z$40 000 more to buy half a loaf of bread."
Tendai,
ReplyDeleteThanks that you like my blog, and the more the merrier.
So... I am sure the land reform program doesn't boil down to taking "street men or what you call in zambia cadres to a commercial coffee farm" or that "mugabe has not given a single hectare of his own land to any zimbabwean".
250,000 people have been resettled. And no, I don't buy that they are all his 'cronies'. Or allies and friends and family.
Also, I am not at all impressed with the fact that apart from one rickety government website, there are 20 or 30 anti-Mugabe websites on the internet.
What I want and need is real, objective, credible information about and from Zimbabwe.
I hear all this relenting and often uncredible criticism, and laying the blame for anything happening in Zimbabwe at the feet of Robert Mugabe.
However, I don't hear of anyone supplying an alternative to land reform, which leads one to believe that all the detractors want, is to return to the old colonial situation.
Are there any alternatives presented to the present land reform program? Do the MDC want to turn back the land reform program and reinstate white farmers?
Also, the MDC website seems to have some cybersquatters on it.
What I cannot get past, is the impression that Morgan Tsvangirai is another stooge for western interests.
What is the alternative that the MDC is presenting to Zimbabwe?
And of course I would like to hear your input on the following article:
Zimbabwe: Life After The Election
by Baffour Ankomah
http://www.swans.com/library/art8/ankomah1.html
Thanks mrk, for the link,
ReplyDeleteunlike Zambia in our Mashonaland, land is something weve fought for, for as long as weve known ourselves.
Theres the known truths and the unknown truths,the rich farmers supported mugabe before 1980 in exchange for staying put in zim and as a result Nkomo, backed by the nationalists like Kaunda, lost because he was a threat to the western intrests.
How did mugabe change camp, simple he jumped on the land band wagon which no black man including yourselves judging from the posts would tolerate, land belongs to us and period, whats the MDC plan?
1. Mugabe must GO
2. Go back to the round table with the British
note: this is the real Battle
to negotiate without harming the people we want to protect.
Mugabe is the original stodge,like the other arab bearded man hes just turned enemy.
when Mugabe came to power why didnt he change the policies, not only about farms but about protecting the Zim worker instead, our workers became second hand citizens, then he wants to be president for life, hes got nothing to lose hes the president weather or not theres cooking oil in zim it will not affect him.
you wont read much from the real zim because owning a blog like yours in zim is = treason.
whilst we are fighting for land we need our human rights,
the same way zambia is giving away land and mines thats what our ancestors did and this is the price we are paying.
how do we fight the 5th generation whites backed by their grandads without feeling the pinch, how does mugabe turn onto his own people?
250000 resettlement,have you seen this land can anything grow there,
where the given money to make something out of this land? the answer is NO.
" when Mugabe came to power why didnt he change the policies, not only about farms "
ReplyDeleteWell that is easy to answer - the Lancaster House Agreement. Zimbabwe became independent in 1979. There was a clause that for 10 years, whites would remain overrepresented in parliament, and the land would not be touched.
So by 1989, the ANC across the border is negotiating with the apartheid regime, and wants to make things as smooth as possible. The ANC came to power in 1994.
The land issue began three years later, in 1997, with Claire Short's letter to the Zimbabwean minister, the very year Labour came to power in the UK. Short made it very clear that as non-Conservatives, they did not feel themselves at all obliged to compensate white farmers for land in the 'willing buyer, willing seller' scheme. The land invasions began.
And there it is. Also notice that compensation was always for the white farmers, not the people who had been driven off their land as late as 1973.
And you are saying that Joshua Nkomo was not a stooge, but Robert Mugabe was?
You say that having a blog like this in Zimbabwe is treason. Well, how come there are all these anti-Mugabe blogs all over the internet? I haven't seen one single pro-ZANU PF blog yet. I have seen a lot of racist blogs though.
Perhaps the MDC, whoever they are, need to pay attention to the company they are keeping.
Also, if Robert Mugabe would go, what would you have to get back to the table with the British for? They are apparently only interested in a scheme that compensates white farmers, while they themselves do not have the money or the political will to fund such a scheme.
How can you convince me that the land issue isn't simply going to be shoved out of sight when Tsvangirai comes to power? What the MDC's economic plan anyway? Do they have any, apart from getting into power? Because we've seen that one before.
What I'm looking for is independent information.