Governor promotes urban agiculture
Herald Reporter
HARARE Metropolitan Governor Cde David Karimanzira has urged residents to make use of open spaces around their communities to carry out farming activities to supplement their incomes and stabilise food prices.
He described farming as another way of boosting income, which can help reduce the prices of food stuffs. "Although farming was regarded as dirty and only for the rural people, it can also be done in urban areas to supplement families’ income."
Cde Karimanzira made the remarks at Highfield District Dry Show, last Friday, where urban farmers were exhibiting their crops in preparation of the Harare Agricultural Show, to be held in August.
Cde Karimanzira said maize production for the 2009- 2010-farming season in the capital increased significantly from 5,5 tonnes per hectare to 6,5 tonnes per hectare.
"Last farming season we had on average 5,5 tonnes per hectare and this time have more than 6,5 tonnes per hectare," Cde Karimanzira said.
He said the hectares that came under farming this last season increased significantly compared to the previous year, as more people demanded land for farming.
"We have reduced the number of hectares to be given to an individual from two hectares to one hectare so that everyone gets a piece of land," Cde Karimanzira said.
"Farming is not restricted to rural people only. We are saying where there is land people should grow something even at their backyards."
The governor said more than 12 000 hectares of land came under urban farming last year, an increase of 3 000 hectares from 9 000 the previous year.
He commended the city of Harare for giving land to urban farmers saying the move contributed significantly to the land reform programme.
"Land reform should not only end in the rural areas but also come to the urban areas because we have open spaces in the province and we thank the city fathers for allowing our farmers to grow their crops."
Cde Karimanzira, however, warned the farmers against farming close to the riverbanks.
Farmers who excelled at the dry show walked away with prizes and would be given a chance to showcase their produce at the Harare Agricultural Show this year.
Labels: DAVID KARIMANZIRA, HARARE, URBAN FARMING
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UN an appendage of US State Department
EDITOR — The UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon is coming through as a tool of the West, especially the United States of America that recently sent him on an errand to Malawi.
It’s no secret that for one to head the world organisation, one has to be anointed by the US, a development that has compromised the UN to the extent that the US can disregard whatever the UN says, a case in point being the illegal invasion of Iraq.
This flagrant violation of international law explains why seasoned leaders like President Mugabe have been calling for the reform of the United Nations.
I don’t think we should call the UN "the world body" because to all intents and purposes it is an appendage of the US State Department since the US even determines who can and cannot be given a visa to attend the UN General Assembly meetings.
Even when our African brothers; Boutrous Boutrous Ghali of Egypt and Kofi Annan of Ghana; got a turn at the helm of the UN, they were still found wanting because of Washington’s stranglehold over the UN.
And when we all thought the ‘‘new moon’’ over the UN headquarters would bring enlightenment, it is proving to be Uncle Sam’s shadow.
For instance, when Malawi locked up a gay couple, the Americans dispatched Ban to Lilongwe to persuade President Bingu wa Mutharika to pardon the deviants. Sadly, President WaMutharika gave in and pardoned the two homos. It will always be a sad day in Africa when we compromise our principles for fear of losing aid.
As Africans, we must remain steadfast on matters of principle even if it means inviting the wrath of the morally degenerate.
The US knows that it is difficult to promote immoral acts like homosexuality in Africa hence their decision to send Ban to preach the truncated gospel of human rights.
African countries should not allow this abhorrent behaviour to stain their morality-driven societies.
Campion wekwaMereki.
Harare.
Labels: BAN KI-MOON, UN
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Remain vigilant, Zimbabweans urged
Herald Reporter
ZIMBABWEANS have been urged to remain vigilant in defence of the gains of the liberation struggle as detractors continue meddling in the country’s domestic affairs to effect regime change and reverse the benefits of independence.
The chairman of the newly founded Zimbabwe Revolutionary Volunteers Front, Cde Goodwine Mureriwa said this at the official launch of the organisation’ at Stodart Hall in Mbare over the weekend.
"The revolution has primarily been about giving the land and all resources on and beneath it to indigenous Zimbabweans. This is what we fought for.
"However, let met hasten to point out that it is not yet Uhuru. At this stage of the revolution, complacency is dangerous. The imperialist will use every trick in the book to derail the revolution," he said.
Cde Mureriwa said the country faces its defining moment in the next two years due to the ongoing constitution-making process.
Labels: LIBERATION, ZIMBABWE REVOLUTIONARY VOLUNTEERS FUND
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More newspapers, more challenges for the readers
By Stephen Mpofu
THE introduction by registration of five new publications marks a bold era for the Fourth Estate in Zimbabwe. It also poses challenges especially to four interest groups that include journalists, media houses, political organisations and readers who form the point of convergence for all the activities by the foregoing groups.
A proliferation of newspapers opens up new opportunities for writers complaining of being paid "peanuts" to hop from media houses too close with their money to those that will pay the scribes handsomely for their sweat.
The Zimbabwe Media Commission announced recently it had approved applications for registration for the re-introduction of assorted newspapers, Daily News; The Worker from a monthly to a weekly; NewsDay, as well as The Mail to be funded through the Youth Empowerment Fund.
The Daily Gazette, we are told, was sitting on a licence all along.
At present The Herald, The Chronicle and H-Metro, owned by Zimbabwe Newspapers, are the only daily newspapers, with weeklies that include The Sunday Mail, Sunday News and Manica Post, also owned by Zimpapers.
H-Metro is meant to circulate in Harare only.
The Financial Gazette, the Independent, the Standard are the other weekly publications plus two weekly vernacular ones, Kwayedza and uMthunywa also owned by Zimpapers.
In addition, New Ziana publishes eight weekly provincial newspapers.
NewsDay hit the market last Friday.
However, journalists may have to hold in abeyance any celebration of any hoped-for new bonanza with the new newspapers, as it is doubtful that our frail economy as a result of painful economic sanctions imposed illegally by the West in protest at the Land Reform Programme, can at this stage support a plethora of newspapers with the shrunken market share that has rendered some of the existing newspapers wobbly.
With no sign yet of a dramatic recovery of the economy, prospects for a quick and massive buck-kill by new players stepping into the fray might recede like a mirage, thereby damning any chances of journalists successfully seeking new fortunes in the newspapers coming on board.
We may therefore see some of the newborn or resurrected newspapers floundering after failing to deliver, therefore making a laughing stock of the much talked-about opening of media space for new players to stop the dominance by the existing newspapers.
But that the owners of the just-registered publications decided to look at the current economic doldrums in the eye at all, persuades one to believe that they have a huge cash outlay in wait since the newspaper industry calls for massive capital investment until such a time as newcomers into the industry can break even and begin to crack a smile at their profit margins.
But — who knows — some of the companies concerned probably have their finance sourced abroad, which makes one wonder what strings the bankroller has attached to the funding in point.
It is known that some foreigners in countries outside Africa are eager to finance new newspaper players to fulfil incessant demands for the opening up of both print media and air waves in Zimbabwe.
It is also no secret that with much talk about elections in the near future some political organisations in Zimbabwe and their imperialist backers are dying to have newspapers that will be supporting parties other than Zanu-PF at which daggers are still poised by local and foreign enemies seething with anger at their regime change agendas not succeeding.
This suggests that media polarisation in Zimbabwe, with some mass media supporting some parties and others campaigning for other parties, is likely to deepen with new publications to come and whose political agenda remains decidedly suspect, at least for some of them.
Any such cut-throat competition between the newspapers supporting different political parties could cause incalculable damage to the inclusive arrangement by the three main political parties Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC.
Even more tragically, such destructive newspaper competition might end up as breaking the fragile spine of the economy in its fledgling recovery.
It is here that journalists in this country, which is less developed, should exercise a great deal of social responsibility by working to spur rather than retard economic development.
For, if they kow-tow to foreign influences, along with any local surrogate grouping steeped in political immorality, they will only have themselves to blame for selling out the country for dirty money or by indulging in profit-margin journalism of the West, which regards lies as facts, be they false or to flesh out a skeletal story.
As a less developed nation, Zimbabweans cannot afford to fork out their hard-earned money in support of gutter journalism. Developed countries have nothing much more serious to worry about concerning social and economic development so they can pander to yellow journalism to titillate their morally decadent societies.
Zimbabwean writers will have become aware by now that journalism sits on a tripod as an art, a science and humanity.
Writers will use scientific skills in research, but more importantly the reader does not wish to pay for the chaff that has characterised some publications of late.
Readers need to be informed, educated and entertained in artistic ways to arrest their interest and make newspapers popular with recipients.
What becomes obvious in many cases is that some writers have no idea of the beauty that gives news stories their stature. They need to take lessons in aesthetics so that readers part with their money for a worthy read, which increases circulation with advertisers falling over each other to sell their products through the country’s newspapers.
Mediocrity and dog-eat-dog journalism can only help to tarnish the image of that noble profession.
Labels: JOURNALISM, MEDIA, PROPAGANDA
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More newspapers, less news
By: Nancy Lovedale
Sunday, June 6, 2010 2:36 pm
ANYONE who reads the news on Zimbabwe and how the media freedom mantra has been peddled by journalists working outside the country would have been shocked by how the news of new papers' registration came and passed.
You would have thought that such an event would spark some "revolution", but alas nothing much has changed, and I can bet you, nothing more will happen.
Zimbabwe is still Zimbabwe. Newspapers can only publish what is happening, although in the Zimbabwean situation we have seen some gross fabrication of what is really going on. You cannot tell lies for too long before the public hangs you.
Since the BBC was allowed into Zimbabwe, it looks like the propaganda has died. Even John Simpson, who used to get into the country "at the back of a van" and then walk the streets of Harare in broad daylight (as if he was not conspicuous) has lost interest since the BBC was allowed back in.
Haru Mutasa and Al Jazeera seem to have "died a natural death" in Zimbabwe. You would imagine that since they have all the tools to report and are allowed access to every nook and cranny, they will "nail" the Zimbabwean government. But no! No "mass graves" have been found in Chiadzwa as we were promised, even with the satellite photos that are capable with Google Maps with Street View.
Isn't that the irony of the Zimbabwean story? As soon as government stops responding to the propaganda, it dies down. Every country has "skeletons", even the much loved US and UK.
The embarassment we have seen lately with UK MPs and their expenses scandals, had it happened in Zimbabwe, would have made rich fodder for western media. The British call those exaggerated claims "scandals". They are just protecting their much claimed to be foolproof Westminster system of governance. Those scandals are nothing but theft. They are nothing but corruption. The British media can mask those scandals as much as they want, but if a man takes £45,000 from the fiscus and gives it to his gay lover, he is stealing; no more, no less.
What exactly new will NewsDay, or a daily Financial Gazette, or the publishers of The Daily News tell the world about Zimbabwe that Al Jazeera or BBC is failing to report? The worst has been said, and lied about. Even the caustic Mavamba/Dawn/Kusile spokesman, Denford Magora, who had become a popular blogger overnight has downed tools. Most other such bloggers have given up. The ones that always told the truth (no need to mention them) are still going strong.
As for the likes of SW Radio Africa, and their so-called journalists, ignorance is better spared. They are scrapping hard to find a bad story; even the match between Zimbabwe and Brazil - a historic event in itself - was cast in bad light.
As the MDC-T list of "outstanding issues" is getting smaller, we are not gettng a corresponding rise in pressure, or rhetoric, against sanctions from that camp. Was "media freedom" not a precondition for the MDC-T? Was the appointment of ambassadors, the media and other commissions, etc, not a precondition for calling for the lifting of illegal western sanctions?
Why are journalists not telling their version of the true Zimbabwean story, as they know it, now that "they are allowed to publish and report" or it was just convenient to repeat the tired, oft used phrase, "We are not allowed to broadcast from inside Zimbabwe!"?
The truth is that nothing new is happening in Zimbabwe, that did not happen when these papers were not publishing. Zimbabwe was, and still is, Zimbabwe. The people are still fun-loving and hard-working. Foreigners are still welcome in the country and the people are still as peaceful as ever.
Some of us used to get the shock at how The Daily News led by Geoffrey Nyarota at the time, was reporting. We were shocked, not only at how he could get away with such propaganda, but with the fact that he would "lie" about things that we were also seeing in the country. At one point, we bought the paper just to shock ourselves with the lies, and the hyperbole.
We wondered where and how he was getting that information, or whether we lived in the same country as him; and his journalists (who were gullible at the time and just looking to make a dime).
As a woman, I was very much interested in issues raised by by the likes of Tambu Kahari about how Nyarota treated women in newsrooms in the country. Tambu was labelled as a psycho for standing up for women's rights, and Nyarota chastised her at every given media opportunity (even though the man claims to be a democrat). For me, those were, and still are, the real issues, not some of the spurious propaganda they spread about Zimbabwe.
Some of us want to know how a man like Mutumwa Mawere made so much money, and owned so many companies, in Zimbabwe. Those are the real issues, not the lies about Chiadzwa, etc. Some of us want to know why Rio Tinto mines diamonds at Murowa without the Kimberley Process approval, and yet Canadile and Mbada (not owned by the West) cannot do so. Those are the real issues. We want to know how ACR got all those Chiadzwa mining claims, and why Andrew Cranswick now lives in Britain, a country so far away from Chiadzwa.
As we move into a "new era of publishing in Zimbabwe", as some would want to call it, we hope to see more responsible reportage.
Zimbabweans, fortunately, are no longer as gullible as they were in 1999-2008. They have been through a lot of trauma, but they have wised up as well. They can no longer be lied to by psychotic journalists who sing for their supper daily.
This new era of publishing is not lenient to media liars and cheats that we saw mushrooming around the time the MDC-T was founded.
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Nancy Lovedale writes from Beijing. She is an avid supporter of Dynamos FC and Arsenal FC and can be reached via nancy_lovedale@yahoo.com
Labels: INTERNATIONAL MEDIA, KIMBERLEY PROCESS, MEDIA, NANCY LOVEDALE, PROPAGANDA
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IMF criticised over 'staff monitoring programme' for Zim
By: TZG, VOA, sources
Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 9:28 am
THE IMF executive board has been criticized for its proposals to institute a "staff-monitored programme" in Zimbabwe in return for debt-forgiveness.
Wrapping up a so-called Article IV consultation with Zimbabwe last month, the Bretton Woods institution concluded that Harare "must adhere to strict economic policies to attract foreign direct investment".
Zimbabwe's inclusive Government is divided along party lines over the proposal by the International Monetary Fund to launch the programme.
The country has some US$7.2 billion dollars in external debt, the IMF recently said.
The Zanu-PF party of President Mugabe says agreeing to IMF "staff monitoring" would erode the country’s independence and leads to more economic mayhem. Zanu-PF rejects reliance on foreign investment, instead urging Planning Minister Elton Mangoma to tap domestic resources to fund capital requirements estimated at US$11 billion.
The Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which initially wanted Zimbabwe declared a Highly Indebted Poor Country, unsurprisingly welcomed the IMF recommendations despite having not worked anywhere else in the world.
Staff monitored programmes have been put in place in Chad, Sudan, Togo, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Macedonia, with disastrous outcomes.
Planning Minister Mangoma said Cabinet is still discussing the way forward on the economy and the IMF role in debt relief and reconstruction.
Meanwhile Wednesday, business leaders from Ghana and Zimbabwe were meeting in Accra, Ghana, aiming to bolster trade relations.
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara led a delegation of ministers and Zimbabwean business leaders to the Zimbabwe-Ghana Business Forum and Exhibition.
About 50 Zimbabwean and 400 Ghanaian companies are taking part in the forum as Zimbabwe seeks a larger share of the $18 billion that Ghana spends annually on imports.
DPM Mutambara said the forum offers a platform for investors from both countries to identify opportunities to increase trade in both directions.
"In Zimbabwe we have the land, agriculture, mining and all so Ghana can tap our rich experience in the agriculture sector while we can also learn from Ghana's banking sector which has seen a lot of reforms and is very good," DPM Mutambara said.
Ghanaian Deputy Trade Minister Mahama Ayariga told journalists: "The best way forward for African countries is to trade among themselves and the initiative by Zimbabwe is a step in the right direction."
Asked by journalists in Ghana about new elections in Zimbabwe, Mutambara said Zimbabwe will not rush things. "We are busy working on electoral reforms, economic, political reforms and constitutional reforms that will make our elections free and fair," he said.
"In Zimbabwe the question should not be about how soon elections should be held, it should be how to organize quality elections. There will be no elections until such time that we are ready."
Asked when elections were likely to be held, DPM Mutambara responded: "It will not go beyond 2013. We want to make sure that everything is set before elections are held."
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, GHANA, IMF, NEOCOLONIALISM, PANAFRICANISM
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COMMENT - Gee, could that 'state department official' be Hillary Clinton - who of course co-sponsored ZDERA and has close ties with Maurice Tempelsman? There is a very interesting 1994 documentary on the business model (monopoly) applied by the Oppenheimer family, called
The Diamond Empire.
US deliberately scuttling Zim diamond sales: govt
Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 9:49 am
THE United States administration of President Barack Obama is deliberately trying to stop international sales of Zimbabwean diamonds, according to reports from the Zimbabwean government. A U.S. State Department official is said to be urging the international diamond control body, the Kimberley Process, to ban Zimbabwean diamonds.
This "well-orchestrated Western-led campaign" is part of a larger plot to unseat President Robert Mugabe which has been going on for over a decade. The government calls it a "regime change" strategy of the U.S.
An official from the international diamond control body, Abbey Chikane, was carrying printed copies of emails from the U.S. government urging him to "stop" Zimbabwe's certification.
Chikane alleges that the documents were stolen from his luggage by Zimbabwean security agents earlier this week.
Kimberley Process investigators have previously recommended Zimbabwe's suspension over their allegations of illicit trading and human rights abuses, which have never been proved.
While the U.S. and other Western countries are urging a ban on the Chiadzwa diamond mining, they are quiet on Rio Tinto's diamond mining operations in Murowa, located near Zvishavane in South Central Zimbabwe. Rio Tinto has, in fact, announced a US$300 million investment boost at Murowa.
The government of Zimbabwe recently banned all diamond exports saying that ban will only be lifted after the Kimberley Process has given the greenlight.
Western companies are benefiting from diamond sales in the country as they are not monitored by the KP process. A consortium run by the government of Zimbabwe and two other non-Western companies has attracted criticism for mining diamonds in the country.
Government says the West is also trying to control operations at Chiadzwa, like they do in other diamond mining areas in the country.
Labels: BLOOD DIAMONDS, DIAMONDS, KIMBERLEY PROCESS, NEOCOLONIALISM
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Group of Elders should re-read history
By: Tendai Midzi
Posted: Friday, June 4, 2010 10:22 am
FORMER U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his so-called "Group of Elders" are making a fool of themselves by making uninformed comments about Zimbabwe without the right kind of briefing from politicians in the country.
There are crises in many places in the world where these so-called "elders" have either remained quiet or taken a more informed approach. There are also other places where their contribution could be more meaningful rather than Zimbabwe where the parties are at peace and have managed to strike a deal without their influence.
Zimbabweans have shown their determination to work for the good of the country by coming out with a home-grown solution without undue input from the West. Their divisive tactics have failed to work in Zimbabwe.
The West has never been known for being good at nation-building. Look at the Middle East today and Iraq to see how botched any attempts by the West are.
By calling Zimbabwe a "tragedy still waiting to be resolved," Kofi Annan, Graca Machel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter are exhibiting ignorance beyond any imagination. The Zimbabwean case is clear-cut. The country went through a protracted struggle and its efforts are not about to be reversed by a bunch of people who think they know better what Zimbabweans deserve or what they have gone through.
We have a solid history of fighting for our rights and will protect that history. We also have a good track record of resolving our own differences.
Their caution that it would be premature for the country to try to organize new elections until a number of measures have been taken, is also ill-advised. These people do not know anything about the Zimbabwean situation, except through reports they get from so-called "human rights organisations" in Zimbabwe.
What they call "the slow pace of implementation of the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe" also shows their ignorance. A country that can come up with a solution in such a short space of time cannot be said to be "going slow". They should read their history well -- in Northern Ireland, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria, just to name a few countries.
Power sharing agreements are not easy to institute and only misinformed people will think Zimbabwe is not making progress.
Archbishop Tutu should look in his backyard to see what exactly is going on, rather than make misinformed statements on Zimbabwe.
The "Elders" would do us good by criticising the resurgence of racism, Fascism, Apartheid and Nazism in South Africa, than look for glory in criticising a country that is making its own progress.
______________
Tendai Midzi is a lecturer in economics at the London Metropolitan University.
Labels: GLOBAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT
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Some ministers under-performing: PM
by Staff Reporter
05/06/2010 00:00:00
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has conceded that some ministers were not “performing” dismissed speculation that a reshuffle of the coalition cabinet was in the offing.
There has been widespread speculation that the coalition principals – concerned about the performance of some ministers - were planning to reshuffle the cabinet and possibly bring in new faces.
However Tsvangirai ruled out a reshuffle of the cabinet but conceded that some ministers were not performing. The premier also moved to clarify his party’s position on the next elections insisting that the ballot would not be held unless a new constitution was in place.
President Robert Mugabe indicated in an interview coinciding with his birthday in February that elections to choose a substantive government would be held whether or not there was a new constitution.
The constitutional reform process – part of the package of reform measures agreed under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) is being held back by unending squabbles between the political parties and inadequate funding.
President Mugabe said with donor support not matching expectations the country did not have the resources to ensure a new constitution was in place before elections must be held next year.
However in article carried by a newsletter published by his office Tsvangirai said holding elections before the constitutional reforms are concluded was akin to putting “the cart before the horse”.
“Elections will be held after the constitutional reform process. You cannot talk about a date for the elections when the constitutional reform process has not been carried out. You will be putting the cart before the horse,” said Tsvangirai.
His position mirrors recent remarks by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara who said the government needed to ensure the country’s economy was firmly on a path to recovery as well as finalise all political reforms agreed under the GPA before elections could be held.
"The question should not be about how soon elections should be held, it should be how to organise quality elections. There will be no elections until such time that we are ready. (But) It will not go beyond 2013. We want to make sure that everything is set before elections are held," Mutambara said.
Labels: MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, MUGABE, NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT
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Tomana warns Makamba, Mawere face arrest
by Staff Reporter
04/06/2010 00:00:00
ATTORNEY General Johannes Tomana says de-specified businessmen, Mutumwa Mawere and James Makamba face arrest on currency externalisation charges should they return to Zimbabwe.
Mawere, Makamba and John Moxon of Meikles Holdings are now based in South Africa where they relocated to after government sought to prosecute them on currency externalisation charges.
All three had also been specified and their assets either seized or frozen but in a surprise move co-Home Affairs Ministers Kembo Mohadi and Giles Mutsekwa recently announced that the restrictions had been revoked.
However it was not been made clear whether the externalisation charges for which all had also fallen away. Regarding the charges, Mawere recently commented: “The de-specification means that the investigations have been completed and a determination made regarding the allegations.
“The Co-Ministers (of Home Affairs) are responsible for the police and I should like to believe that if there were anything outstanding they would have taken note of it before making a ruling that there were no grounds to specify me.”
But Tomana – the government’s chief legal advisor who is also in charge of public prosecutions - said nothing could be further from the truth, insisting that de-specification was separate from the alleged “wrong doings”.
He said all three face prosecution should they return to the country.
“People should understand that, like any other citizen, if the police find that they have a case to answer appropriate action will be taken.
“It is important to find out how the responsible minister reached that decision (de-specification). That way a lot of questions will be answered to a lot of people,” Tomana said in an interview with The Independent newspaper.
Police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena also weighed-in saying: “If there is evidence and they (the three businessmen) have a case to answer they will face arrest. I’m not saying they have a case and neither am I saying they have no a case to answer.”
Mawere and Makamba were specified six years ago as part of an anti-corruption blitz by the government. Both, along with a host of other business executives left the country and have not returned since.
Moxon was specified last year following allegations he had externalized millions in foreign currency after a fall-out with other shareholders in Meikles Kingdom Holdings.
All three businessmen are now based in South Africa.
In a similar case, NMB Bank Chief Executive James Mushore who also fled the country in 2004 and was specified on similar charges was arrested when he returned from the United Kingdom in 2007.
His specification was acquitted on the externalisation charges in 2008 but fined Z$1000 for leaving the country illegally.
Mushore’s specification was only revoked early this year.
Labels: JOHANNES TOMANA, MUTUMWA MAWERE
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COMMENT - Colonialists and their parties are always trying to divide Africa (apartheid was one extreme example, another would be the suggestion to balkanize the DRC). There is a strong current in the MDC that wants Matabeleland to break away from Zimbabwe. The MDC is a colonialist's party.
Zimbabwe: The case for a two-state solution
by George Mkhwanazi
05/06/2010 00:00:00
ZIMBABWE, which was called Rhodesia before its attainment of independence in 1980, is a former British colony.
Although there are over ten tribes that inhabit the country, Zimbabwe can neatly be divided into two nations; the Shona (75 percent) and Mthwakazi, also known as Matabele, (25 percent). Each ethnic group has further sub-divisions.
In both nations cited however, categorisation is not based purely on ethnicity but also on political, historical and geographical factors.
Before colonisation in 1890/93, both groups lived independent of each other. However, whilst Mthwakazi existed as a formally constituted state with all the mechanics of a government, Mashonaland only existed as a collection of scattered chiefdoms which had no central authority linking them together as a nation.
The creation of the state of Rhodesia in 1895, after the defeat of the Ndebele by British Forces in 1894, resulted in the amalgamation of Matabeleland (Mthwakazi) and Mashonaland (Zimbabwe) for the settlers’ capitalist exploitation and administrative convenience.
The occupation of Mashonaland in 1890 took the quiet march of 500 men and that of Matabeleland in 1893, took an invasion force of 5000 troops armed with modern weapons including the deadly Maxim gun in a bloody war that spilled over into 1894.
In 1980, when Rhodesia won her independence from Britain, Matabeleland was inherited by Zimbabwe as a colonial present.
The irresponsible decolonisation process placed Matabeleland under the crushing weight of a cruel ethnic domination programme. The people of Mthwakazi found themselves silently sleep-walking their way to eventual doom and extinction under a ruthless internal colonisation scheme.
If something is not done urgently to salvage the situation, the entire sub-merged nation of over three million people faces a perilous future in which it will cease to exist as an entity.
Since the attainment of the so-called independence in 1980, the Mthwakazi nation has been thrown into a state of confusion and paralysis which has seen various forms of satanic brutality being visited upon the people.
Zimbabwe, as a new colonial power over Mthwakazi, has abused the numerical advantage of the Shona people to effectively exclude Mthwakazi nationals from any meaningful participation in the country’s political and economic affairs.
Colonial Subjugation
There is something unmistakably colonial in Zimbabwe’s attitude to its Mthwakazi subjects. Colonialists impose their values, language, culture and filth on the colonised and Zimbabwe did just that.
Under the leadership of its fascist president, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe has, true to colonial traditions, exerted its authority violently on the Mthwakazians in an attempt to crush their national ego and pride.
The domestic colonialists have designed strategies that seek to reduce the capacity of the Mthwakazi people to compete with them for the same political space, the same economic opportunities and resources and have deviously created a state of inertia in which their victims have remained frozen on one spot as the ‘master’ rapaciously loots, plunders, pillages and exploits resources in Mthwakazi without any modicum of restraint or remorse for his actions.
Zimbabwe has thus effectively barricaded all overtures likely to promote and enhance the life of the Mthwakazi people.
The Shona term for ethnic and racial domination of minorities is ‘chimurenga’. Unlike the other models of domination which are visible and come into being through legislations, the chimurenga conspiracy is neither legislative nor official. It operates in the darkness like a nocturnal snake that slithers under the tall grass and strikes unobserved. The result of its venomous attack is as shocking as it is fatal.
In the absence of a clear-cut anti-chimurenga programme, numerous goals have been scored against the undefended Mthwakazi goal area. Ironically, there are those of Mthwakazi extraction who have served and continue to serve the devil and its mutant forms. This is undoubtedly unacceptable collaboration and participation in the extermination of their compatriots.
Gukurahundi
From January 1983 until December 1987, a Zanla crack regiment exclusively composed of Shona soldiers trained by North Korean experts in manslaughter, killed close to 50 000 civilians in the Mthwakazi territory of Matabeleland and Midlands. In an operation code named ‘Gukurahundi’, which means ‘Operation-Eliminate-the-Chaff’, tens of thousands of people were butchered in cold blood.
Millions more were left traumatised, displaced and disoriented after being subjected to brutal experiences including torture and rape.
While Robert Mugabe denied responsibility, a Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) report revealed that of the total number of people killed, 88 percent were accounted for by the 5th Brigade, 6.5 percent by the CIO, 4.5 percent by the Zimbabwe National Army while 2 percent were murdered by the dissidents. All the four perpetrators were under the command of the Zanu-PF Government.
Rather than seek to unite the nation in the aftermath of a bloody war for independence which left the country divided along tribal and racial lines, Mugabe plotted to exterminate the Mthwakazi nationals and attempted to wipe them off the face of the earth.
In order to achieve this end he had to create a perfect excuse which would allow him to annihilate an innocent nation without being condemned by the international community. Mugabe knew that in the elections that supposedly placed him in power, the people of Mthwakazi had exhibited an unmistakable aversion to being ruled by him and his ilk. His reign over them amounted to a colonial occupation since he did not have their electoral mandate.
For tactics of dealing with an unwilling territory that resists colonial occupation, Mugabe turned to his terrorist allies, the North Koreans, by brutalising a whole nation in which he hoped to break their spines. Thus, the Gukurahundi operation in 1983, undertaken exactly 90 years after the Anglo-Ndebele War of 1893 which paved the way for British rule in Mthwakazi, was a curious repeat of history.
This was a precursor to a second colonisation of the country, this time by another African group.
Reasons for Extermination
Many people have posited numerous hypotheses trying to explain why a tribal army was trained to terrorise people in Mthwakazi. Some have advanced the argument that Mugabe wanted to emasculate and incapacitate ZAPU as an opposition party.
Still others opine that the objective was to subdue political opposition in preparation for the creation of a one party state in the country. The officialZANU(PF)positionisthatitwasagovernmentresponseto `the scourge of dissidents who threatened peace and stability in the country`.
A clear analysis of the course of action undertaken by the Mugabe regime proves all the above hypotheses to be unsustainable. Instead, a clear programme of extermination and ethnic cleansing unmistakably reveals itself.
The stubborn facts on the ground indicate that Mthwakazians were not massacred because they were ZAPU supporters but simply because they were Mthwakazians.
ZAPU was not an exclusively Mthwakazi party. It had substantial numbers of Shona leaders and supporters.
If Mugabe’s intention was to crush ZAPU support, he would have targeted ZAPU supporters in Mashonaland near his home area since these must have offended him even more by their proximity to Zvimba, his rural home.
ZAPU even had a constituency in Mashonaland represented by Ariston Chambati and this was a clear case of Shona supporters and leaders of ZAPU being generally spared the wrath of the government.
The Gukurahundi travelled hundreds of kilometres away from Mashonaland and started perpetrating atrocities only in Ndebele inhabited areas such as Gokwe, Kwekwe, Silobela, Zhombe, Lower Gwelo in the Midlands and the entire Matabeleland region.
In the Shona-dominated top leadership of ZAPU, only the Mthwakazi leaders were targeted: Joshua Nkomo, Dumiso Dabengwa, Lookout Masuku, Welshman Mabhena, Edward Ndlovu, Sikhwili Moyo, Kembo Mohadi, Sidney Malunga, Makhathini Guduza, and many other Mthwakazians in ZAPU/ZIPRA were incarcerated, harassed or forced into exile. Others such as Jini Ntutha were cold-bloodedly murdered.
However, Joseph Msika, the Secretary-General of ZAPU, Josiah Chinamano, the Vice-President of the party, Samuel Munodawafa, the National Chairman, Willie Musarurwa, the Information and Publicity Secretary, Clement Muchachi, Daniel Madzimbamuto, Ariston Chambati, Ambrose Mutinhiri and many other Shona officials of ZAPU were never molested even on a single day.
Instead some of them were offered top posts in the parastatals or sent into diplomatic missions. Chinamano even had the luxury of dying during the height of the political turmoil and still be declared a national hero, a luxury denied to both Jini Ntutha and Lookout Masuku.
Clearly therefore, the intention was not just to crush ZAPU support but to exterminate Mthwakazians. It is also quite interesting to note that the Five Brigade Force was created long before any dissidents had been spotted in the country. The first reported case of dissidents was in July 1982 but the deal with the North Koreans to train an anti-dissident unit of the army was clinched in August 1980, three months after attaining independence.
Here is a situation in which treatment for a disease was discovered long before anyone had suffered the first case of that disease. It is clear once again that the dissident menace was manufactured by Mugabe himself so as to create the appropriate conditions for the annihilation of the Mthwakazi nationals.
The Gukurahundi force was established for military campaign against the Mthwakazi nationals so as to break their spines and prepare them for a new colonial status under their Zimbabwean masters.
In an interview with a British newspaper in 1983, at the height of the military campaign against the Mthwakazi people, Mugabe remarked that the action was meant to ‘re-orient the Ndebeleand streamline them to accept the verdict of the majority under whom fate has placed them permanently’. The aftermath of the Gukurahundi massacres left in Mthwakazi an enfeebled population which frantically struggled to learn Shona as a language in order to escape death.
Mthwakazians soon realised that the inability to speak Shona was an outright death sentence or at the very least, a disqualification from access to the job market. By the end of the military campaign in 1987, roughly 90 percent of the jobs in Matabeleland were held by Shona people. Government departments, parastatals, public institutions and the private sector became exclusively filled with Shona labour force.
Consequently, Mthwakazians were pushed out of the country’s borders into neighbouring Botswana and South Africa where they began to live a precarious life as economic refugees long before the post-2005 outpouring of Zimbabwean refugees into neighbouring countries.
It is quite astonishing that when the Mthwakazi people were bearing the brunt of Zanu-PF brutalities, the world stood by, watching gleefully. Nobody raised a single finger in condemnation of these dastardly acts.
This contrasts sharply with the international reactions provoked by Mugabe’s bashing of the white commercial farmers in 2000. The international community was tricked into indifference by Mugabe who sent secret state agents to kill six foreign tourists in Matabeleland and blame their murder on the ‘Ndebele speaking dissidents’.
This way, Mugabe scored a diplomatic coup against ZAPU as he succeeded in starving the Mthwakazi nationals of the international sympathy they so desperately needed. Hence the world viewed the Mthwakazi people as a ‘rogue people’ who needed to be punished.
It is inconceivable that the search for six abductees and less that 100 dissidents resulted with nearly 50 000 people being killed, over a million being displaced and traumatised.
It is also difficult to understand the psychology of a black government which was prepared to slaughter so many of its African population in search of a handful of foreign visitors.
Curiously, when three British tourists were killed in Manicaland in1982, near the training bases of the Five Brigade, their gruesome murder did not prompt the Zanu-PF government to unleash the notorious force on the Manyika people. The Five Brigade had obviously been trained for the subjugation of the Mthwakazi populace, not the Manyika.
The issue of the statehood of Mthwakazi should have been resolved at the pre- independence negotiations in 1979 and the error should be condemned as a tragic constitutional omission on the part of the delegation led by Joshua Nkomo. It should not have been assumed that Mthwakazians embraced the Zimbabwean identity. That assumption has never been put to test.
Mugabe’s Legacy
At its most robust performance, the Zimbabwean economy had already been substantially converted into Shona control, thanks to Mugabe’s indigenisation policies. Even during the debilitating period of its collapse, those that had been empowered by the Zanu-PF government continued to show allegiance to the regime and they are responsible for averting a total degeneration to anarchy.
Financial institutions, manufacturing industry, parastatals, public institutions and the private sector all became monuments of Shona economic and political supremacy. In the financial services sector all the commercial banking institutions – from Agribank to the Zimbabwe Building Society were herded by Shona chief executives and chairman. The only excerption was Mthuli Ncube’s Barbican Bank.
There is no doubt that Zimbabwean businessmen and executives have directly or indirectly benefited from Mugabe’s legacy. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which has never been headed by an Mthwakazian, is responsible for the issuing of bankers’ licences. It is not surprising therefore to note that the system favours the ‘indigenous Zimbabweans’.
This trend of Shona domination of key economic sectors is also evident in state enterprises either privatised or still wholly owned by the government. Most of the companies - from Dairiboard to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBC) were headed by Shona executives. Again, there was only one excerption – Willovale Mazda Motor Industries which was headed by Ben Khumalo.
It is now common knowledge that Robert Mugabe sourced funds from the IMF and World Bank and then channelled them into loan disbursement programs through the indigenous banks ‘in order to ensure that the necessary discrimination policy against the Ndebele was applied’ (Secret Zanu-PF Document,2002).
The funds, in some instances, were scooped directly out of the Treasury or Central Bank to be distributed to selected people to establish banks or buy white-owned businesses. This is the reason why the Zanu-PF government was vicious as it dealt with its beneficiaries when they became disloyal to the party.
The parastatals are absolutely in ‘indigenous’ hands and it is these companies that were used to drain the national fiscus as they were perennial loss-makers. Several times the Treasury had to ‘rescue’ Ziscosteel, Noczim, Air Zimbabwe, GMB, CAAZ, NRZ and ZBC. Incidentally, it is these parastatals that recorded unprecedented levels of corruption and under hand deals involving Cabinet Ministers in Mugabe’s government.
Security and Civil Services
Ethnic origins unclear? General Sibanda gets medal form President Mugabe
Even the top brass in the security service has traditionally been dominated by Shonas and it the time under review the senior posts in were configured as follows: Commander Zimbabwe Defence Forces - General Vitalis Zvinavashe; Commander Zimbabwe National Army - Lt-General Constantine Chiwenga; Zimbabwe Air - Augustine Chihuri; Zimbabwe Prison Services – Maj. General Paradzai Zimhondi; Central Intelligence Organisation – Hapson Bonyongwe.
All the top six positions in the military are in the hands of Shona people drawn from former Zanla guerrillas. The appointment of Perence Shiri came as an extreme shock to Mthwakazians since they had known him as ‘Black Jesus’ who had commanded the Five Brigade forces in Matabeleland when they committed 90 percent of the atrocities. Although the new Army commander, Phillip Valerio Sibanda is a former ZIPRA, his ethnic identity is unclear.
The Chronicle of 12 March 2004 published a list of appointments of Senior Civil Servants by President Robert Mugabe. Of the 20 permanent secretary and other senior appointments, onlyRay Ndhlukula, Deputy Secretary for Policy Coordination and Administration in the Office of the President and Cabinet was a Mthwakazian. Even then, he was only a Deputy Secretary.
Resettlement
Land hunger in the country is not a fictitious phenomenon. Immediately after independence, people in various parts of Matabeleland abandoned their villages to resettle themselves in the neighbouring commercial farms. In Tsholotsho, villagers resettled themselves in the Teakdale, Durban and Muntu Farms near Nyamandlovu. In Matobo District, Inqama Settlers resettled themselves in the Rhodes Estate in the Matopo Game Park. In Nkayi, villagers resettled themselves in the Kenilworth Farm.
In all the cases above, the government responded with a heavy hand, evicting all of them with brute force.
However, twenty years later in 2000, the same government sponsored farm invasions in Svosve in Mashonaland and lied to the whole world that the occupations were spontaneous. Under a new Land Acquisition and Resettlement Programme, the Government resettled 70 000 families in Matabeleland all imported from outside the region.
The people of Matabeleland suddenly discovered that strangers had been resettled in farms adjacent to their homes, the same farms from which they were forcibly removed 20 years earlier on. This is a scandal that the people must resist with all force.
Infrastructural Development
In 1993 Bulawayo-based economist, Dr Eric Block was quoted by The Sunday Mail as having said that ‘no development will trickle down to Matabeleland unless three million Shonas, including the President, are relocated to that province’. It is perplexing that whilst Matabeleland is drier than Masvingo, the latter has had more dams constructed for it than the former.
With the completion of Tokwe-Mukosi Dam, Masvingo became the proud home of the largest and second largest in-land dams in Zimbabwe. Lake Mutirikwe is the largest inland water body while Tokwe-Mukosi Dam is the second largest. Seventeen years after Eric Block’s ‘foul-mouthing’, the Zambezi Water Project still remains a pipe dream.
Thirty years since independence, Bulawayo’s skyline has remained basically the same whereas Harare has transformed into a modern city comparable to any in the developed world. Except for short stretches of tarred roads from Nkayi to Kwekwe, Tsholotsho to Siphepha and Gwanda to Guyu, the road networks in Matabeleland have remained with their Rhodesian outlook.
The Government electrified the railway line between Harare and Gweru but did not allow Matabeleland the same luxury. Yet the electricity denied to Matabeleland is generated within the province.
Education & Hospitals
In the education sector, all schools in Bulawayo have a Shona majority in terms of staffing. This is traceable to the teachers’ colleges which have a decidedly pro-Shona admissions policy. This means Matabeleland has been under producing educators resulting in it having to depend on the spill over teachers who have been over reproduced by other regions.
Whenever they complain about discrimination, Mthwakazians are always reminded that these institutions are ‘national.’ As such, people should not expect them to be filled with local students. They are also reminded that the statistics in these institutions are a reflection of demographic ratios of the whole country.
Ironically, Khami Prison, another ‘national institution’ located in Mthwakazi, does not reflect those ethnic ratios. The Ndebele constitute over 90 percent of the inmates. However, the prison staff, including wardens and chaplains, is predominantly Shona and Shona is the medium of shouting orders and preaching!
In 1999, in an article published by Moto magazine, Doctor Cotton, a white medical practitioner at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH), expressed grave concern about the fact that there were so few Ndebele doctors and nurses at the institution that they had to rely on the interpretory services of non-medical staff in order to communicate with patients.
He attributed the situation to a ‘disproportionate number of Shona doctors and nurses being trained and deployed in Matabeleland’. All Government health institutions are predominantly manned by Shona staff which refuses to speak to the patients in the languages they understand.
Language
Venda, Kalanga, Sotho, Nambya and Tonga are officially categorised as minority languages. That means they do not enjoy government priority when it comes to language development programmes. Apart from Nambya, all the above languages are also spoken outside Zimbabwe. For their most basic literature such as dictionaries, these ethnic groups have to rely on publications done in Zambia (Tonga), South Africa (Venda and Sotho) and Botswana (Kalanga).
In schools, these languages are offered only up to the elementary level. Some of their language activists erroneously blame SiNdebele for their underdevelopment. Yet Ndebeles are not responsible for the formulation of the present language policy.
However, the greatest hostility of the state is against SiNdebele. SiNdebele, which had its own radio station (Radio Mthwakazi) before independence in 1980, had that facility callously seized from it and arbitrarily placed under a Shona radio station called Radio 2 (later renamed Radio Zimbabwe).
Since then, SiNdebele has been relegated to an echo of Shona programs. All news bulletins are broadcast in Shona first and SiNdebele last. It is not known what informed the adoption of such an order.
Because Shona is used inside SiNdebele news broadcasts, up to 8 minutes of a ten-minute airtime allocation can be taken up by Shona newsmakers forcing Ndebeles to listen to a Shona news bulletin during a SiNdebele slot. This is calculated to project SiNdebele as an inferior language which the listeners can dispense with.
In some churches, Mthwakazians are not permitted to worship in their languages as illustrated by the cases of the Roman Catholic Church (Sunday News, 16/02/03), the Anglican Church (The Standard, 23/06/02) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Zimbabwe (ELCZ), (Bhebe, N 1995).
In Bulawayo, all church services and songs in the Roman Catholic Church were conducted in Shona, prompting Archbishop Pius Ncube to convene a bishops’ conference in which a new language policy was crafted allowing worshippers the right to worship in their language.
In the Anglican Church, Rev Kunonga banned the use of SiNdebele during the Bernard Mizeki pilgrimage whereas in the ELCZ the church imposed Pastor Shoko in Tshabalala (Bulawayo) who conducted his sermons in Shona much to the chagrin of the largely Ndebele congregation.
Political Options
Zanu-PF is the single ugliest symbol of Ndebele humiliation. Nothing and nobody else has ever been so ruthless, so atrocious and genocidal in the life and history of the Mthwakazians. For that reason Zanu-PF presents fewer challenges than the MDC when it comes to mobilising the people against colonial occupation by Zimbabwe.
In parliament the Ndebele do have representation mostly from the MDC legislators. Superficially, it could be argued that these are the leaders of our people. However, for as long as the people believe in the MDC, they (both MDCs are Shona led) will continue to draw them away from their genuine national cause as Matabeles and offer them false hopes in an artificial ‘national’ effort to unseat the Zanu-PF government.
This is a tragic cost to the Mthwakazi revolution.
The gesture of removing Mugabe and Zanu-PF in collaboration with other citizens of Zimbabwe is quite honourable but when it demands that Mthwakazians should suspend their original cause of reclaiming their sovereignty, expend their energies in assisting the Shona to replace Mugabe with Morgan Tsvangirai/Arthur Mutambara then that gesture is an enemy too.
Up to this moment it is not clear what, after unseating Zanu-PF, the MDC government intends to do to reverse the damage caused by the Mugabe regime on the Ndebele. Much to the advantage of the Mugabe regime, the MDC gravy train has managed to overrun Matabele political psychology and enclosed it in a potable container which they manipulate through the independent media.
It is in this area that The Daily News excelled before it was banned. That publication succeeded in parrying off Zanu-PF propaganda against the MDC as well as crushing alternative opposition views different from those of the MDC.
Surely if the MDC wanted to win the electoral backing of Matabeleland it should have made its post-Mugabe programme clear and clean and should have lucidly spelt out how it would be different from its proto-type (Zanu-PF). Whilst the party’s quarrel with Zanu-PF over economic mismanagement and political power remains sincere, their intentions of what to do with that power remains a worrying source of mystery.
Tsvangirai’s Cabinet appointments following the Global Political Agreement excluded Ndebeles until a massive public outcry forced him to hastily announce the appointment of Sipepa Nkomo, Joel Gabhuza and Thamsanqa Mahlangu. How such a man can be looked upon as a Mthwakazi saviour defeats all logic.
he fact that he can wantonly overlook those that have stood with him during his political dry spells in favour of those that have just recently discovered that he is a credible leader makes him a dangerous political gamble. The Ndebele cannot afford that kind of gamble anymore.
Two-Nation State Solution
From the foregoing, it is evident that Zimbabwe is not one country. Continuing to pretend that it is one is a dangerous hallucination. It goes without saying that as a means to manage this historicity, the country has to adopt either a federal constitutional arrangement or break up into two republics.
The first option is to divide Zimbabwe into two federal states of Mashonaland and Matabeleland, where there will be a 50-50 share of everything including representation in parliament and government. It is not the issue of population or areal size of the countries that matters. What matters is the fact that two nations would have agreed to confederate.
There should be a rotating presidency after every five years between the Mthwakazians and the Zimbabweans. This would be done in order to forestall a situation where those with numerical advantage abuse their numbers to deny other citizens their democratic rights. These principles will have to be enshrined in a constitution that provides for the creation of a federal republic of Zimbabwe crafted by both groups and adopted by consensus.
Zimbabwe’s current unitary constitution is guilty of fomenting conflict in the country. It is a time bomb whose explosion will one day cause the devastation of the lie called ‘Zimbabwe’. Not even a trilateral power deal by three unitarist political parties can stop that. The country needs to acknowledge, accept and accommodate its diversity by crafting a constitution that recognises that reality.
The administrative superstructure should ensure that resources, opportunities and power are distributed equally to all sections of the population.
The two nations will have their own cabinets headed by elected premiers. The regional governments collect revenue and remit some of it to the federal government. This arrangement can be achieved without bloodshed, and that would be a demonstration of political maturity. However, if this cannot be achieved amicably, then a higher order of self-rule that merits patriotic sacrifice should be demanded, and that is total sovereignty.
The Ultimate Option
It has always been human nature that when man is denied his most basic needs, he goes for the highest perched fruit. This is the scenario in most African countries where there is conflict.
In Ethiopia, the state of Eritrea would have continued as a province of that country had the authorities there agreed to a federal arrangement. When denied the federal option, the Eritreans fought for total self-rule even against the will of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which stubbornly opposes boundary alterations. The Eritreans achieved their ultimate objective through an armed struggle.
For the rest of the struggling peoples of the world, an armed revolution remains a viable solution to achieve a solid foothold for outright sovereign statehood. The sovereign statehood option would be the most ideal for the region of Mthwakazi. In terms of the size of the new country, its demography, economy, or precedence, this is a highly feasible option.
In terms of the size, Matabeleland is bigger than Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Togo, Guinea Bissau, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea and Djibouti all found in Africa and are full members of both the African Union and United Nations.
In terms of population, Matabeleland has 3, 5 million people making her one of the ten most populous nations in the SADC region. Economically, Matabeleland contributes nearly 40 percent of Zimbabwe’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This translated to US$12 billion in 2000. This figure is enough to comfortably sustain its people without subsidising the rest of Zimbabwe.
It is unfair for Mthwakazi to continue to exist to sustain Zimbabwe, her colonial master, at the expense of her own people. Successful precedents recorded in Eritrea, Sothern Sudan, Somaliland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Herzegovina, Slovenia among others are quite encouraging.
Conclusion
Oppressive governments create conditions which drive their citizens to wage war against them. Where there is war there is no prosperity. Resources are drained to feed the insatiable appetite of the god of war.
Rather than being used for the development of infrastructure and humanity, national resources are gobbled up in the war effort. This way, human needs become neglected and poverty reigns supreme. In these conditions, malnutrition and diseases erupt and become difficult to combat.
Zimbabwe may regard its current unitary constitution as non-negotiable. This is evidenced by the consistent rejection of demands for a federal dispensation in the past thirty years by the unitarist parties in government. During the 1999/2000 constitutional review process, six out of ten provinces wanted the constitution to adopt a ‘federal’ system of government.
Yet the compilers of the final draft document that was presented for the referendum edited this popular demand out of the final text.
Today, ten years later, Zimbabwe is back again on the road to finding a lasting solution to its constitutional anarchy. This was a good opportunity for a two-nation state to be introduced. However, owing to political disorientation of the Mthwakazians, this noble cause suffers a lack of political vehicle through which it could be achieved: Zanu-PF and the two MDCs are all sworn enemies of the idea.
A recently published article by The Chronicle that Chief Khayisa Ndiweni told a Constitutional outreach team that Zimbabwe needs to be separated into two states, that of Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi, is quite refreshing. It would be very sad if younger generations fail to take up the mantle from visionaries like Chief Ndiweni and lead Mthwakazians to a new dispensation. George Mkhwanazi writes in his private capacity.
Labels: MDC, TRIBALISM
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Stop this abuse of power!
By Editor
Sun 06 June 2010, 04:00 CAT
Intimidation, harassment and persecution of those who fight for the truth can never defeat the truth. You can imprison a person and deny them the freedom to go where they like and do what they like, but you cannot imprison the ideals and principles that drive those who choose to fight injustice and abuse.
Rupiah Banda and his minions’ hatred towards this newspaper is now an open secret. It is also clear they have decided to do everything possible to crush it. This does not surprise us. This is the way intolerant people deal with dissenting voices. Although Rupiah and his minions claim to be democrats, they have no capacity to live democratically. To them, anyone who opposes what they stand for is an enemy and must be crushed. We are not the only victims of Rupiah’s venom. Even those who work closest to him know how intolerant he is.
They understand that expressing a divergent view in Rupiah’s government is not tolerated at all. Rupiah’s style is more dictatorial than anything else. When it suits him, as he did for most of the time when he was Vice-President to Levy Mwanawasa, he pretends to be a meek and humble soul who can harm no one. But anyone who cares to study body language can quickly see that the meekness that Rupiah sometimes shows is fake.
We wonder if Rupiah has any advisors at all. And if he does, we wonder if he ever listens to them. We say this because Rupiah does not seem to have problems with fighting on all fronts. He thinks that he can crush everybody because he is President. This overvaluing of the capacity of political power has swallowed leaders much greater than Rupiah. Great leaders are those leaders who learn to tamper the exercise of the powers of their office with humility. After all, the power that they exercise is not theirs; it belongs to the people. This is something that Rupiah would do well to learn and learn very quickly.
The hatred that Rupiah and his minions have for The Post is dangerous. As we have warned them before, this hatred will cause them to commit atrocities if they allow it to continue the way it is. We know that it is not only The Post that they hate with a passion. But they also hate anyone who they think is not supportive of them. This is a dangerous spirit when possessed by those who control state power. Before they know what has happened, they will find themselves abusing this power in ways which even they never thought possible.
Yes, such unbridled hatred can produce results which can surprise anyone including the people who harbor the hatred.
We saw something of this in the recent Mufumbwe parliamentary by-election. The hatred that Rupiah and his minions have for anyone that they consider to be a threat on their hold on power led them to commit atrocities in Mufumbwe. The exact extent of that violence has been hidden from the public. But Rupiah and his minions know that it was a deplorable incident which even they cannot be proud of. This is why they have resorted to accusing the opposition of being responsible for the violence when they know very well what they did.
Rupiah and his minions are so intoxicated with the idea of settling old scores with their enemies that they seem to have lost the ability to reason over very straight-forward things.
The incarceration of the editor-in-chief of this newspaper is something that they would not support if they were thinking rationally. This is because they would see how illogical and contradictory their behaviour is. Rupiah himself, as President, was in the forefront of calling for the arrest of Post employees in relation to the Chansa Kabwela matter. As many will recall, he launched a vicious attack against The Post for what he termed distributing pornography.
Rupiah was literally baying for our blood. The Post had to be crushed because according to him, it was distributing pornography. He put up a splendid show of anger and indignation. But as we said before, this was all a show meant to aid his now open desire to crush The Post. This was the beginning of the matter that has seen the editor-in-chief of this newspaper sentenced to four months imprisonment.
The double standards and selective application of the law are there for anyone to see. The same Rupiah who pretended to be a champion for the observance of the law is very quiet when the breakage of the law is by his cadres or other minions.
During the Chitambo by-election, we published pictures of his deputy minister in the Vice-President’s office Gastone Sichilima involved in a fist fight. A serving minister in a government was photographed in a shameful breach of law.
Rupiah has never uttered a word in public. This is the man who was calling for the arrest of Post journalists for bringing information about the extent of the medical crisis in the country to the Vice-President.
It is not long ago that known MMD cadres appeared on television threatening to gang-rape Edith Nawakwi, president of the Forum for Democracy and Development. Again, Rupiah and his minions did nothing about such a shameful declaration of criminal intent.
More recently, the Mufumbwe by-election that we have already spoken about saw the MMD using known thugs to brutalise those they considered to be opposition supporters. Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde who was present during the period in Mufumbwe did nothing but ran away from the same cadres when they became unruly. Rupiah has done nothing. But when they thought the opposition had done something, they were quick to arrest without waiting for the Director of Public Prosecutions to allow them to prosecute.
To Rupiah and his minions, it is more important to pursue an editor of a newspaper for doing his job whilst ignoring clear criminal acts.
Our people know that losing MMD Mufumbwe parliamentary by-election candidate Mulondwe Muzungu’s son killed three people in the aftermath of the election. He has not been arrested. They claim that they are waiting for the Director of Public Prosecutions to tell them what to do. No one will be given any points for guessing what would have happened if the deaths were caused by someone associated with the opposition.
The Muzungu situation is not the only contradiction in the behaviour of Rupiah and his minions. Just the other day, the deputy minister for health Dr Solomon Musonda shot someone in Chitambo. Predictably, nothing has happened to him.
Instead of the police arresting him for such a violent act, we have seen the chief government spokesman going to pray for the man who was shot. Prayers are important, but so is justice. The man who was shot deserves justice.
Giving the impression that the justice system exists to fix political opponents will lead this country to chaos. This is something that Rupiah and his minions need to think about carefully. Persecuting The Post and its editors may seem like a very profitable undertaking, but ignoring the prosecution of clear criminal acts is leading to impunity. And our people should not be expected to accept this endlessly.
We saw the vigour with which Rupiah’s minions pursued the Solwezi Central UPND member of parliament Watson Lumba. We also saw the vigour with which the same minions pursued The Post over allegations of distributing pornography. But we do not see the same vigour in dealing with those closely connected to the MMD who have committed criminal offences.
This behaviour of Rupiah and his minions is criminal in itself and corrupt. Anyway, when people are in power, they forget that the power that they exercise is not theirs but the people’s. This is what has happened to Rupiah. Rupiah and his minions should stop this abuse of power.
Labels: FRED M'MEMBE, THE POST
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Zambia’s justice system has collapsed - Hichilema
By Mwala Kalaluka
Sun 06 June 2010, 04:02 CAT
PF-UPND PACT LAUNCH: PF leader Michael Sata and UPND president Hakainde Hichilema (circled) during the launch of the Pact at the Freedom Park in Lusaka yesterday - Picture by Thomas Nsama
UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema yesterday said Zambia’s justice system has collapsed. And Post editor Fred M’membe has said from Chimbokaila (Lusaka Central) Prison that he is as fine as anyone could be.
Meanwhile, Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) vice-president Amos Chanda yesterday said the media body regards M’membe as a prisoner of conscience who deserves the support of all those that cherish the cause of freedom of expression.
In an interview after he visited M’membe in prison, Hichilema said it was good to see M’membe looking positive. M’membe was on Friday sentenced to four-months imprisonment with hard labour by senior resident magistrate David Simusamba for contempt of court.
Hichilema and his entourage, which included Siavonga, Mwinilunga East and Mazabuka Central UPND members of parliament Douglas Syakalima, Stephen Katuka and Gary Nkombo respectively, arrived at Chimbokaila prison at 10.00 hours.
They were immediately ushered inside the prison where they met M’membe for over thirty minutes.
“We came to see Fred. We came to see Mr M’membe and we are grateful to the prison officers for allowing us in as this is not the official visiting hour,” Hichilema said.
“We saw Fred. He is looking positive. He is talking positive, which is very good for someone who is in this place. It is clear in our country that we don’t have one justice system. We have a dual justice system.”
Hichilema said he was of the view that the contempt of court matter upon which M’membe had been sent to prison was a frivolous one and that things should not have been that way.
“Definitely we understand that everything is political,” Hichilema said. “The magistrate could have looked at things from one way.”
Hichilema said although the above could have been the case, the magistrate was probably under extreme political pressure.
“This is a bailable offence. Why wasn’t bail granted on Friday?” Hichilema asked. “The conviction was on Wednesday and ruling was deliberately reserved to Friday so that they could lock up Fred. Obviously, they just want to embarrass Fred.”
Hichilema said while M’membe and other ordinary citizens were in Chimbokaila, people like health deputy minister Dr Solomon Musonda who shot at a PF cadre in Serenje was not.
“Solomon Musonda shot a young person with intention to kill and Solomon is out. He is not here. Is he?” Hichilema wondered. “A person shoots someone to kill and is not in the cells!”
Hichilema said Dr Musonda was trained to serve lives but that he was the first one to attempt to save life.
“Then there is Kajilo Muzungu (son of MMD losing Mufumbwe parliamentary candidate Mulondwe Muzungu who caused the death of three children through dangerous driving after his father lost the election). I think you are aware of his activities in Mufumbwe,” Hichilema said.
He said it was a confirmation of the country’s dual justice system that Kajilo Muzungu who drove his vehicle into a crowd and killed three children whilst others were still in hospital was still a free person.
“Is he in a prison in Mufumbwe?” Hichilema asked. “The MMD is protecting Kajilo and is protecting Musonda but Fred M’membe is here. The justice system has collapsed. It is a dual justice system; one for the MMD and its sympathisers and another for ordinary citizens. You can’t run a country like that. The leadership of the police is just serving the MMD. We know what (Inspector General of Police Francis) Kabonde is up to.”
Hichilema said he had already said that Kabonde must resign for professional reasons.
“That is if he has any professionalism in him,” said Hichilema.
And M’membe told Hichilema that he was fine as anyone could be.
“We are fine as anyone could be,” M’membe told Hichilema who wanted to know how he was doing and coping in prison.
Meanwhile, Amos Chanda said PAZA was saddened by M’membe’s conviction.
“…and therefore takes this moment to offer him and his newspaper its deepest solidarity and fraternity deserving of the cause he has championed over the years,” Chanda said.
“PAZA considers Mr M’membe a prisoner of conscience who deserves the support of all those who cherish the cause of freedom of expression and of the media that he, together with like-minded colleagues, champion on behalf of the silent majority.”
Chanda said at this moment of tribulation, PAZA offered M’membe its deepest solidarity and the fraternity freely shared by advocates of freedom of expression and the media.
“We also encourage journalists at The Post and beyond to work even harder in their struggle to overcome the various pressures that have been mounting against media professionals in recent times,” Chanda urged.
“As law-abiding citizens, we respect the independence of the judiciary but at the same time we reserve our right to disagree with some of its decisions like this one, which is why we support the grounds of appeal defence lawyers will lodge before the High Court next week.”
Chanda described M’membe’s conviction as a setback that must not dissuade The Post from pursuing the sound values it espouses given that it operates in a political environment that is so hostile to media freedom.
“The practice of journalism has become a constant daily struggle against a myriad of legal and political landmines,” Chanda bemoaned. “When the case is fully discharged by the courts of law, PAZA will give a comprehensive position on contempt laws that affect media freedom and other restrictive laws generally called ‘insult laws’ in the media advocacy parlance.”
The Zambian Roman Catholic Church leadership has also pledged to stand shoulder to shoulder with The Post and M’membe in what they described as a trying moment.
“We respect the court’s decision. However, we are aware that the persecution of Mr Fred M’membe is meant to humiliate him,” Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) spokesperson Fr Paul Samasumo said in an interview.
“We as a church and as Catholic Media, The Post is a very important institution because it is only The Post that usually gives us space as a church. So we can only express our solidarity with The Post in this trying moment and that we will stand shoulder to shoulder with them.”
MISA Zambia chairperson Henry Kabwe expressed sadness at M’membe’s conviction and subsequent sentencing to four months imprisonment.
Kabwe stated that MISA Zambia respected the decision of the court but would like to state that the sentencing of an editor of a renowned and well-established media that could afford legal representation would undoubtedly have a chilling effect on the media in Zambia.
“We wish to state that an independent and vibrant media has the ability to act as a conscience or beacon for society that highlights both good and ills of society,” Kabwe stated.
“The media must not be viewed as an enemy of society. Instead it should be viewed as a trumpet that sounds the daily happenings of our society.”
M’membe calmly entered Lusaka Central Prison at exactly 13.40 on Friday after attempts by his lawyers to secure bail pending appeal for him failed.
M’membe was on Friday sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour as accused number one and four months imprisonment simple imprisonment as accused number two (The Post) in a matter where he and The Post stood charged of contempt of court.
The contempt charges arose from an article published in The Post edition of August 27, 2009 titled ‘The Chansa Kabwela case: A comedy of errors’ authored by US-based Zambian professor of law, Muna Ndulo.
Labels: AMOS CHANDA, COURTS, FRANCIS KABONDE, FRED M'MEMBE, HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, PF-UPND
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Rupiah to get brief from Kunda over M’membe
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 06 June 2010, 04:01 CAT
President Banda greeting pilots upon arrival from France at the Lusaka International Airport on Friday - Picture by Thomas Nsama
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda on Friday said he did not want to get involved in Fred M’membe’s jailing until after he gets a brief from Vice-President George Kunda. And President Banda said the just-ended France-Africa summit will greatly benefit Zambia and Africa in general.
Asked to comment on the four-month imprisonment of M’membe, President Banda, on return from France, said he was yet to be briefed.
“I just heard of it as I came down here. You know these are legal matters and I don’t want to get involved until I have had a chance to talk to my minister of justice and get a brief about it,” President Banda said.
On his health deputy minister Dr Solomon Musonda’s attempted murder case in which he shot and wounded a Patriotic Front (PF) cadre in Serenje District on Tuesday evening, President Banda said: “I have just arrived; I wasn’t aware of this until now when I came. I would like to ask that I don’t make a comment on what happened in my absence.”
And President Banda said some great benefits would come out of the France-Africa Summit, which he attended on Monday and Tuesday in the French city of Nice.
“As you know, we had three major subjects; one was on development and climate, the other one was for peace and security in Africa and the other one was the development issues between ourselves and the French government. It was really wonderful to see both French speaking Africans as well as Portuguese speaking Africans and English speaking Africans together,” President Banda said.
“As you know France is going to be the chair of the G20 and we have agreed amongst ourselves that France will try and carry some of our issues especially on issues of international governance, in other words permanent membership to UN Security Council and other such decisions. We have agreed with France that they will carry our message but they have to wait until when the AU will meet where we are going to finalise our position and pass it on to France. This was a very useful meeting.”
He also said he met several French investors that showed interest to do business in Zambia.
“I spent one and half days talking to various investors, people who want to come to Zambia, to invest in various fields. I look forward to greater achievement in that sense. The delegations will start to come from next week onwards,” said President Banda.
Labels: FRED M'MEMBE, GEORGE KUNDA, RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST
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Govt finally sells Zamtel’s 75% shares to Libyan firm
By Fridah Zinyama
Sun 06 June 2010, 04:01 CAT
Ministry of Finance head of public relations Chileshe Kandeta (c) with finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane and Lap Green executive director Abdulbassat Elazzabi (r) during the signing ceremony at the Ministry of Finance in Lusaka yesterday - Picture by Thomas Nsama
THE government has finally sold Zamtel’s 75 per cent shares to a Libyan telecommunications network called Lap Green at a cost of US $257 million.
Zamtel’s partial privatisation had raised a lot of questions, following the
total disregard to procedure that then transport and communications minister Dora Siliya had taken to choose RP Capital to value Zamtel’s assets.
Announcing the privatisation of Zamtel at the Ministry of Finance offices yesterday, finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane said Lap Green had agreed to pay a total consideration of US $257 million for the 75 per cent equity in Zamtel, which values 100 per cent of the equity in the company at US $343 million.
“This is an excellent price, but also a fair price, given the opportunity that lies before Zamtel,” he said.
Dr Musokotwane said in addition to the US $257 million, Lap Green had agreed to provide US $62 million in additional funding, to finance part of Zamtel’s network expansion programme going forward, and taking over government guarantees relating to a further US $75 million in vendor financing, covering Zamtel’s existing network expansion projects.
“In total, therefore, their total commitment to Zamtel is US $394 million,” Dr Musokotwane said. “The government will retain 25 per cent of Zamtel, and will continue to have an active role in management and direction of the company going forward, retaining two seats on the board out of a total of seven, and veto rights relating to certain key decisions.”
Dr Musokotwane, however, said the government recognised the experience and expertise of Lap Green, and could therefore afford them management control of the business.
“One of the key objectives of the government in the privatisation of Zamtel was to ensure that the employees of Zamtel are properly looked after,” he said. “We know that a substantial programme of the redundancies is a regrettable but necessary reality if Zamtel is to be turned around.”
Dr Musokotwane said of the US $257 million, the government would ensure that a very substantial part is allocated to the settlement of the full redundancy packages for Zamtel’s 2,341 employees, as agreed with the unions’ representatives.
“Independent auditors have been appointed to ensure that the package for every single employee is correct and paid in full,” he said.
Dr Musokotwane said it is Lap Green’s intention to subsequently rehire a significant portion of the workforce, and begin the important business of returning Zamtel to growth and profitability.
“I can’t over state the importance of this element of the transaction,” Dr Musokotwane said. “What it means is that all the 2,341 employees will be given a lump sum, proportionate to their pay grade and tenure at Zamtel.”
Dr Musokotwane said much of the US $257 million would go straight to Zamtel’s workers and into the Zambian economy.
Dr Musokotwane further added that the government would reinvest a portion of its proceeds from the sale in order to recapitalise Zamtel sufficiently.
And transport and communications minister Professor Geoffrey Lungwagwa said the ICT sector would be enhanced with the coming of Lap Green on the local market.
“Lap Green will start work as soon as the business transaction is finalised by the end of June,” he said. “The transformation will follow soon after.”
Professor Lungwagwa said Lap Green would undertake network expansion programmes, infrastructure rehabilitation and increase in coverage among other things.
“The company will also bring with it innovation which is very important to the company,” he said. “With Lap Green’s investment, Zamtel will soon be a key source of competition on the local market.”
And Lap Green executive Abdulbassat Elazzabi said the company was into different sectors of the economy like agriculture, tourism and technology.
“Lap Green Group is worth about US $5 billion and we look forward to transforming Zamtel,” he said.
Labels: CORRUPTION, PRIVATISATION, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE, ZAMTEL
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Muntanga calls for action on RDA corruption report
By George Zulu
Sun 06 June 2010, 04:00 CAT
KALOMO Central UPND member of parliament Request Muntanga has warned that government’s failure to act on the Auditor General’s report over the misuse of funds by the Road Development Agency RDA has created a picture that Zambians are very corrupt.
In an interview, Muntanga said the picture government was painting to the outside world for failing to punish those abusing donor funds was that Zambians were totally corrupt.
“If we take action, we are showing that there is someone answerable for whatever they are doing. The only problem I get concerned about Zambia is that certain things are revealed and we start having excuses for not taking action or we start supporting this person defending the other that is not what is good, hence the people supporting us will not take us serious. They will even stop funding us, because we are corrupt as a country,” Muntanga said.
He said what was good for the government was to take action on the Auditor General’s report on the RDA revelation because it revealed glaring abuse of donor funds meant for road rehabilitation.
“What is good is that they must take action, the Auditor General has revealed a lot of glaring misapplication and theft of public funds, the report has said this is wrong and the one who is guilty let him be punished straightforward like that. The problem we have is we apply rules to certain people…that is the problem,” he said.
Muntanga said any person who has stolen or misappropriated funds must be arrested and prosecuted, adding that no excuses should be entertained for not acting.
“There should be no excuses at all, theft is theft, no sacred cows in any misapplication of funds. Out of that money we hear stories that no the money was given to this except certain rules were not followed and certain financial regulations were not followed that is not the point; if regulations were not followed and there is theft, arrest them. They have gone on doing things that are out of corruption as we know that sometimes certain dubious contractors are contracted to do useless jobs…those in government must know that that is theft. So the question of misuse is the question of theft and they must be arrested therefore in my own view to just close RDA and wash down the wrongs under the bridge because now money is missing is not the best thing to do,” said Muntanga.
Labels: AUDITOR GENERAL, CORRUPTION, RDA, REQUEST MUNTANGA
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Cops’ double standards alarming, annoying - TIZ
By Moses Kuwema
Sun 06 June 2010, 04:00 CAT
TRANSPERANCY International Zambia chapter (TIZ) president Reuben Lifuka has said the double standards in the way the police are discharging their functions is alarming and very annoying.
Commenting on health deputy minister Dr Solomon Musonda’s shooting and wounding of PF cadre Jackson Musaka, Lifuka said the police seem to only act on political stimulus.
“I mean there are so many times that we have said the police seem to only act on political stimulus. They don’t seem to act on their own professional analysis of the cases. This is not the case that is even up for debate,” Lifuka said.
“The law is very clear. In an event of this nature - attempted murder and use of a weapon - the deputy minister should have been picked up. What the police are doing is that they are creating two justice systems for this country; one for the politicians and the rich, one for the poor and the unconnected Zambians.”
Lifuka said it was time the police became more professional in their work.
“The Zambian people will only gain confidence in what they are doing if they can see that they act, not by political stimulus or impulse but they act out of their own professional analysis of events and they do their work which is above board and they are willing to take responsibility for the action that is taken,” Lifuka said. “Clearly what we can read from this scenario is that probably they are waiting to brief the President about this incident before they move in to act. But that’s not the way we should administer our laws. Our laws should be administered fairly and equally. We should not have a law that favours ministers and the one that does not favour the ministers.”
Lifuka urged the police to move in and move in very quickly.
“If the trend is allowed, impunity sets in and what will stop ordinary Zambians from equally picking up weapons and doing what the deputy minister has done and challenging the system that why should they be picked up because it was in self defence?” Lifuka asked.
“I think we need to realise that even the violence we have seen in the political sphere is coming from the actions or lack of actions from the police or politicians themselves. If politicians took a strong stance against violence and demonstrated by being good examples themselves, we would not see this strain of violence which is creeping into the country.
We see the MMD cadres led by Mr William Banda threatening everyone, threatening people who are just expressing their views as the case was with honourable Ng’andu Magande recently. So does the government say we should also group together and protect ourselves from the militia activities of Mr William Banda and their cadres? No they can deal with this violence by taking leadership. Leadership is what is needed.”
Labels: CADRES, FRANCIS KABONDE, MMD, TIZ
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COMMENT - So, Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Robert Hormats, what are the names of the companies supply the likes of Vodafone and Alcatel with the coltan that is put in their cell phones?
Congo's Resources: Who Benefits?
VOA News - June 5, 2010
The DRC's mineral wealth is not being exploited to improve the lives of its people, but rather to fuel conflict.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, is tremendously rich in natural resources, with extraordinary reserves, including the world’s largest deposits of cobalt and significant quantities of the world’s diamonds, gold and copper. Nonetheless, the DRC is one of the world's poorest countries.
That is because the DRC's mineral wealth is not being exploited to improve the lives of its people, but rather to fuel conflict. Local warlords and foreign bandits alike fight over control of mines and sell minerals excavated by forced labor to the highest bidder.
Illicit exploitation of the DRC's mineral wealth "has financed armed groups that target civilians and perpetuate widespread human rights abuses in the eastern part of the country," said Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Robert Hormats.
"The crisis has undermined the ability of the Congolese people to benefit from the country’s vast mineral resource wealth.”
Under Secretary Hormats announced that the U.S. State Department is implementing a new strategic action plan on conflict minerals as part of a larger strategy on the DRC. It depends on publicizing the issue and working toward the elimination of trade in illegally obtained minerals, while helping to create conditions for legal trade. At the same time, the U.S. will work with the U.N. Mission in the DRC and other international partners to strengthen the country's institutions and civil society.
The U.S. also sees the need to protect small-scale artisanal miners and mining communities, which are unregulated in the DRC, yet do most of the mineral extraction. Some 12.5 million people are employed by these small mines.
"If we can promote transparency, accountability, security, and professionalization of the industry it can enhance the well-being and self-sufficiency of several thousand men, women and children," said Under Secretary Hormats. "More miners will be able to exercise their right to work without coercion. That means more parents will be able to provide for their children without succumbing to debt and indentured servitude. And more boys and girls will be able to go to school and live up to their full potential."
Labels: DRC, NEOCOLONIALISM
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DR Congo suspends police chief over Floribert Chebeya death
BBC News - June 6, 2010
The head of police in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been suspended following the death of a human rights activist, officials say.
Three police officers have also been arrested and the president is determined to resolve the case, the interior minister said.
Floribert Chebeya, head of the group Voix des Sans Voix, was found dead in his car near Kinshasa on Wednesday.
He had reportedly been due to meet the police chief that evening.
Both the police and Voix des Sans Voix have said the meeting never took place.
'Precaution'
The police chief, John Numbi, is seen as a close ally of President Joseph Kabila, the BBC's Thomas Fessy reports from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
Activists say Mr Chebeya had received regular threats over the last 20 years.
On Friday, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for an independent inquiry into the incident. The government has ordered its own investigation.
In a statement read out on television, Interior Minister Adolphe Lumanu said on Sunday that President Kabila was "determined that all light be shed" on Mr Chebeya's killing.
"To allow the enquiry to be conducted smoothly, the national defence council decided as a precaution to suspend inspector general John Numbi," the statement said.
DR Congo is struggling to recover from years of civil war and insecurity. The UN has about 20,000 peacekeepers there.
Labels: ASSASSINATION, DRC, FLORIBERT CHEBEYA, HUMAN RIGHTS, POLITICAL VIOLENCE
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