HIGH Court judge, Justice Benjamin Paradza, on Friday ordered the police to storm a Zanu PF and war veterans torture camp in Mashonaland East province to rescue a couple captured and detained there for almost a month. Ephraim Tapa and his wife, Faith Mukwakwa, were captured on 16 February and taken to Mushimbo township in Mutoko where Zanu PF supporters and war veterans operate a torture camp.
Paradza ordered John Nkomo, the Minister of Home Affairs, and Augustine Chihuri, the Police Commissioner, to direct the police to dismantle all Zanu PF and war veterans torture chambers in Mashonaland East province.
Tapa is the president of the Civil Service Association of Zimbabwe, an affiliate of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Mukwakwa is a teacher at Masvitsi Primary School in Mutoko.
In his interim relief, Paradza said: “Nkomo, Chihuri and Masango be ordered to go, enter and search Mushimbo base at Mushimbo township and its environs to cause the release of Tapa and Mukwakwa.
“In the event of the said Tapa and Mukwakwa not being located at the Mushimbo base, the respondents be ordered to go, enter and search any bases in Mashonaland East to cause the release of Tapa and Mukwakwa.”
Tapa and Mukwakwa’s lawyer, Jacob Mafume of Kantor and Immerman, was on Friday trying to serve the court order to the police so his clients could be liberated.
Paradza gave Nkomo and Chihuri 10 days to show cause why a final order in the matter should not be effected. The officer commanding Mashonaland East province, Assistant Commissioner Masango, is also a respondent in the matter.
In the event that Nkomo, Chihuri and Masango fail to show cause why they should not destroy the bases, Paradza will issue a final order which states: “Nkomo, Chihuri and Masango be and are ordered to dismantle Mushimbo base which is being used to commit crimes of torture, assault and kidnapping, among other things.”
The terms of the final order said that Nkomo, Chihuri and Masango “be ordered to dismantle and destroy all the bases being used by Zanu PF and war veterans as torture chambers and unlawful detention centres”.
Paradza said the three should prohibit the formation and establishment of bases in Mashonaland East. Mafume told the court that his clients are currently being tortured at the base.
Tapa’s brother, Chamunorwa Chisoko, who took the case to the High Court, said on 16 February he was in the company of Tapa, while escorting Mukwakwa to the school where she teaches.
He said they were approached by a group of Zanu PF supporters when they stopped at a store along the Nyamapanda Highway. They were asked what they were doing in the area.
“They went on to accuse us of being MDC supporters since we were coming from Harare, but we denied that and produced Zanu PF membership cards. We were advised to carry these cards for our safety,” Chisoko said.
He told the court that unfortunately, John Murwisi, the former district administrator of Mutoko, insisted that they be taken to a base at Masvitsi Primary School.
“At the base, hundreds of Zanu PF supporters and war veterans started to assault us, but I managed to escape,” Chisoko said. Another captive, Morgan Mazenge, also escaped and they reported the matter at Marondera Police Station, where Detective Sergeant Chapisa was asked to handle the case.
Mafume told the court his investigations revealed that his clients were being detained at Mushimbo township in a metal structure.
Violence, arrests reported
News24,10 March
source
Harare - The intimidation of voters trying to oust Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe continued on Sunday with human rights monitors and the opposition reporting arrests and beatings across the country.
The independent Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said at least 58 people had been arrested by Sunday, the second day of voting in the country’s presidential election, in actions apparently targeting opposition supporters.
They included 11 white farmers detained while helping opposition election monitors, two Britons and two Americans arrested on charges of having illegal radio equipment and dozens of opposition election monitors.
The forum said police and liberation-war veterans loyal to Mugabe had attacked poll monitors in several areas.
One of them was Joseph Dladla, who had his hands tied behind his back before being beaten by ruling Zanu-PF party supporters with iron bars and sticks, the forum said.
South Africa’s independent e. tv television news showed grim images of Dladla and other victims of alleged ruling party attacks.
Their backs were livid with whip marks and some had gashes on their heads and arms.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai has the best chance since independence in 1980 of unseating Mugabe, listed attacks around the country.
“The attacks appear to be systematically implemented and are clearly aimed at preventing MDC officials from observing the voting process in certain areas, increasing the potential for Zanu officials to distort the ballot,” the party said in a statement.
It said the homes of several MDC supporters were firebombed in Mashonaland West in northern Zimbabwe, where police arrested several groups of MDC supporters.
In Harare, police looked on as Zanu-PF militia attacked people waiting to vote in Mbare township, the MDC said. The party said MDC polling agents appointed to monitor voting procedures were arrested and beaten in Umbanje in rural Manicaland in the east of the country.
“The agents were severely beaten and had darts stabbed into their feet,” the MDC said in a summary of political violence.
In other areas, MDC supporters had their identity cards destroyed to prevent them voting and suffered attacks by gangs of ruling party supporters, the party said.
Voting resumes five hours late
News24,11 March
source
Harare - Zimbabwe’s chaotic presidential elections resumed for an unscheduled third day on Monday, with polling stations opening five hours late. Two senior opposition officials have also been arrested.
President Robert Mugabe is facing the toughest challenge ever to his 22-year grip on power from Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader and head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
After being chased away from polling stations by police on Sunday night, thousands of voters returned on Monday morning after the High Court ordered the government to extend voting countrywide for a third day. But the polling stations did not open until noon, after many voters had given up and gone home or to work.
Would comply ‘under duress’
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on state television on Monday morning the government would comply with the court order under duress and would only extend voting in Harare and a nearby township, both opposition strongholds.
He said many polling stations in the rest of the country had already been dismantled.
Tsvangirai accused Mugabe and his ruling party of attempting to steal the election by driving opposition observers from 43% of the rural polling stations, some of the rural counting stations and discouraging people in urban areas from voting.
“If those thousands of people are not allowed to vote, this is a stillborn election,” he said on Monday. “The MDC will not be part of an illegitimate process to try to disenfranchise people.”
The opposition party’s secretary-general and third ranking official, Welshman Ncube, was arrested on Monday in the southwestern town of Plumtree, while his deputy, Gift Chimanikire, was detained in Harare, said opposition legislator David Coltart. Police gave no reason for the arrests, but Ncube has been charged with treason in a previous case.
’Won’t succumb to intimidation’
“We will not succumb to this kind of intimidation,” Tsvangirai said, adding that he will not appeal to the country’s Supreme Court because they consistently rule against the opposition.
He appealed to the people to show restraint and avoid confrontation with security forces.
Government officials were not immediately available for comment. Despite pre-election violence and intimidation that opposition officials blame on Mugabe loyalists, voters headed out in record numbers to cast their ballots during the weekend vote - especially in urban areas like Harare.
The opposition and many observers have accused the government of trying to rig the elections by preventing urban residents - who mostly support the opposition - from voting.
In the poor Mbare neighbourhood of Harare, Duncan Gideon, an unemployed 25-year old who waited all day on Sunday to vote, returned to the polling station after his sister called him and said it had reopened.
’Angry’
“Others have gone to work, others are hungry, sunburned,” Gideon said, explaining why many had given up on voting.
About 250 people were waiting in line with him.
The presiding officer of the station, who did not give his name, said the reopening was delayed because officials had just received the order to reopen.
Gilot Mudiwi,30, had waited in line all day on Saturday and Sunday and returned at 05:00 on Monday to vote.
“I’m angry now, I waited for a long time,” he said. In Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, observers said most people appeared to have cast their ballot and there appeared to be no need for an extra day of voting. The ballot boxes were kept at polling stations overnight and were being moved to counting centres on Monday.
48% voted
Also on Monday, the government announced turnout figures that showed massive voting in Mugabe strongholds with far fewer voters casting ballots in opposition areas.
Mashonaland Central, which normally votes strongly for the ruling party, had a turnout of 68%. Harare had a 47% turnout so far, and the city of Bulawayo 46%, the government said.
Despite the long lines in Harare, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was quoted in the independent Daily News on Monday as saying that reports of high turnout for Harare were “really pictures painted by people with creative imaginations”.
Overall,2.7 million of the nation’s 5.6 million registered voters, or 48%, went to the polls by Sunday, the government said.
US, UK setting stage for ‘military offensive’
The Zimbabwe Educational Trust, an independent research group, said last week that the voters’ rolls were in such disarray that any turnout higher than 2.6 million could be rigged.
Also on Monday, the state-run Herald newspaper said white people, opposition officials and an American were deployed to some polling stations in a suspicious manner that led authorities to believe there was a plot to disrupt the elections to give the international community a chance to declare them unfair.
The Herald also accused the US and British governments of “setting up the stage for a major military offensive”. US Embassy spokesperson Bruce Warton called the claim “ridiculous”.
Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s most competitive challenger since independence in 1980, is promising to revive the economy and end corruption.
Mobile pollings stations ‘simply disappeared’
Mugabe, however, has painted Tsvangirai as a servant to white interests and Western powers who want to see the country fail. Two weeks ago, Tsvangirai was charged with treason in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe, an allegation he has denied.
Mugabe has promised public works initiatives if he is re- elected and has pledged to continue his controversial programme of seizing white-owned farms and giving them to landless blacks. Whites make up less than 1% of the country’s population but own about a third of the nation’s commercial farmland.
During the vote, ruling party militants reportedly took over polling stations, stole voting materials, and brought ballots already marked in favour of Mugabe, observers and opposition supporters have said. Tsvangirai also said his party’s poll observers had been abducted, beaten and some were still missing in rural areas.
He said some mobile polling stations in rural areas had “simply disappeared”.
Politics hits Zimbabwe’s economy
Gina Doggett
Business Day,11 March
source
HARARE - Zimbabwe’s economy, once one of Africa’s soundest, has been shrinking for more than two years, largely as a result of economic mismanagement and President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reforms.
The land reforms have hit the key agricultural sector, contributing to food shortages that have turned a country that was once a regional breadbasket into a recipient of emergency food aid.
On Wednesday, just three days before this weekend’s presidential elections, the president declared the food situation a “national disaster”.
The notoriety of the government’s forcible land seizures has severely affected the once lucrative tourism sector, and investment has all but dried up.
Finance Minister Simba Makoni, in presenting the 2002 budget last November, forecast a decline of 5.3 percent this year, on the heels of a 7.3 percent drop in 2001.
It is Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis since the nation won independence from Britain in 1980. Inflation is running at nearly 120 percent, unemployment at around 60 percent, and foreign exchange reserves are nearly exhausted.
Per capita, Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product dropped to 385 US dollars in 2001 from 421 dollars in 2000.
Three in four Zimbabweans live below the poverty threshold, and more than half a million of the overall population of 12 million have been designated for food aid by the UN World Food Program.
Foreign debt is estimated at about four billion dollars, and the country’s military engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been a severe drain since 1998.
Mugabe has repeatedly accused the white minority and the opposition, which he says are controlled by Britain, of seeking to sabotage the country by selling out to London.
But many of the country’s woes can be traced to Mugabe’s heavily politicized campaign to redress colonial inequities by seizing productive land owned by whites and giving it to blacks – a programme that was first launched at independence but gradually lost steam amid charges of cronyism.
To this day, some 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s prime farmland is in the hands of about 4,000 white farmers.
But hundreds of the farms have been invaded, the occupiers sometimes meting out heavy punishments to black farmworkers as well as attacking white farmers.
The 24 months since the invasions began have been a catalogue of assaults, intimidation and disruption, the occupiers burning down farmhouses as well as crops, slaughtering livestock and cutting down trees.
Mugabe, in line with his liberation war-era rhetoric, last October thumbed his nose at the constraints imposed by international lenders and said he would return to the socialist doctrine he espoused at the start of his rule.
The government imposed price controls on basic goods in a bid to rein in the galloping inflation and mollify voters ahead of this weekend’s presidential election.
But the move backfired, because it did not take into account production costs, resulting in crushing shortages.
So far donors have been reluctant to stop aid flows to the country, and sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States have been limited to travel bans and asset freezing against Mugabe and his top aides.
But in January, Denmark cut off aid to Zimbabwe “because President Robert Mugabe practices state terrorism,”
Finance Minister Thor Pedersen explained. “I think it would be shameful for Denmark to sustain a cooperation partnership with such a nation,” the minister said.
Thabo Mbeki is Disgraceful
Zimbabwe Standard,10 March
source
I WISH to air my disappointment at the rate at which Mugabe is trying to rig the elections and also using the influence of his Sadc dictators to declare that the elections in Zimbabwe are free and fair.
According to the information I have heard from a senior ANC youth official, I have been told that the South African observers composed of the ANC had been delegated to make sure that they don’t talk anything bad about Zanu PF.
That’s why up to now, the South African delegation on CNN has been saying all is well in the Zimbabwe presidential campaigns.
The information I have been told is that Thabo Mbeki is scared that once Tsvangirai gets into power, he is going to support Cosatu (South African Trade Union) which has been a major threat recently to the ANC.
He said a private meeting was convened in South Africa to rally African leaders behind Mugabe at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The Sadc leadership is concerned of power rather than serving its people. During the night, the delegation is being entertained by Zanu PF leadership.
When MDC offices were attacked in Kwekwe, the head of the South African delegation appeared on CNN saying: “I don’t know whether it’s Zanu PF or MDC who have attacked our convoy and the MDC offices.”
My question to him is, how can MDC attack its own offices? It comes to sense that they are in Zimbabwe to serve Mugabe and are going to declare that the presidential election was free and fair, all Zimbabweans mark my words.
Thabo Mbeki has embarrassed the entire black community and Africa at large. He can’t even fight for the South African media which has not yet been accredited to observe the elections.
If things are well in Zimbabwe, why are you sending the army along the Zimbabwe/South Africa border? The clock is ticking Thabo, you are in the line of fire.
Patrick Craven and Moloto Mothapo
Acting COSATU Spokespersons
011 339 4911 or 082 821 7456
siphiwe@cosatu.org.za
082-821-7456
339-4911
