Dispatches from Zimbabwe
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Blow by Blow from the Ground
Dispatches from Zimbabwe
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Zimbabwe in Crisis
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Zimbabwe is on a knife's edge between democracy and chaos. Results still have not been released from the 29 March elections and each day, more signals emerge that Mugabe will resort to violence and fraud to hold on to power.
Mugabe is unlikely to listen to the world's outcry - but he might listen to his old friend and powerful neighbour Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Ziso: 'Killing Democracy with boredom'
Apparently, the limit for a run off is anywhere between 3 weeks and 90 days – the government will of course buy time to send the fear-mongers out and swing what should be a landslide for the MDC to another defeat. In that 90 day interim, great suffering will take place. Not only will the economy crash (again!) after the state bankrolled the electoral process with toilet paper (headline of the Herald yesterday was the release of the 50 million dollar note! NB: read 50 billion as three noughts were cut off last year), but the widespread intimidation and suffering of the population is inevitable. This is what has caused the gloom in the country today. It is game-over for the current regime whether they like it or not. If not the MDC, then the economy is going to finally backlash on them. The few businesses keeping the country afloat are bound to leave if change is not afoot. It is just a pity that the transition period may involve violence and blood.
Less than 40% of the electorate voted on 29 March. The apathy is astounding. But when you watch how the government operates it is understandable. They have been shown time and time again that their vote means absolutely nothing. One would imagine the MDC would be more prepared to prove that rigging took place given that their victory has been stolen two times previously. The next few weeks will show whether their leadership is equipped to out-strategize the ZANU machine. A stronger alliance with MDC-Mutambara and Mavambo would create a united front in the opposition, but Tsvangirai seems to be going it alone. He has the overwhelming support of the nation, but the final battle of 90 days’ intimidation and violence could outwit and undermine his current lead. Mugabe’s is probably holding out till his 85th birthday to avoid being called to the Hague – his plan must be to win by any means and hand on to one of his loyalists next year. This could mean disaster.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Ziso: 'Judgment Day '
Harare, 3 April 2008
At this minute, the corridors of power are still working late. The MDC has claimed victory pre-empting the official announcement in a brave maneuver. The government is planning its next move. It will be decisive. There are endless scenarios of what follows, both good and bad, most of them grey and murky. Nothing is simple in
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Ziso: 'And then the silence'
Zimbabwe, 2 April 2008
In the aftermath of the election, there were a number of arrests of supporters and candidates of all political factions. In Mashonaland Central, a ZANU MP was arrested for shooting someone, and even in Mvurachena the Mavambo MP candidate for Hatfield and the Senatorial candidate’s daughter spent Election Day imprisoned. A surge of violence in the run-off could lead to the declaration of a State of Emergency and marshal law. In the townships there is already an informal curfew: people are not being encouraged to leave the house after 7.30. Armoured vehicles and riot police are already on guard in these areas. Even during the day the streets of Harare are empty as tension mounts.
ZEC is slowly announcing each parliamentary result from the thousands of constituencies across the country. They carefully announce a ZANU win followed by an MDC win – there is nothing random in the order. It is widely believed that these are delay strategies while piles of papers are reshuffled. Bureaucratic delay is a characteristic tactic of the state, which most Zimbabweans have experienced when getting anything official signed. The election result will be no different. Zimbabwean Television broadcasts football, nature programmes and Japanese shopping shows to the majority of the nation who are left in a vacuum. But those with access to satellite television know that the eyes of the world are on this nation. Whether the military will concede to salute Tsvangirai is the big question. And whether Mugabe will (uncharacteristically) go down without a fight. The Makoni camp will have an influential swing vote in the event of a run-off and have made a profound contribution to Tsvangirai’s apparent win by showing that ZANU PF is not as unbreakable as it would like the nation to believe. But Zimbabweans have watched elections before and hoped for change. Even with all these stresses and tensions we are still hopeful, but with the full knowledge that democracy is not an easy concept for ZANU PF to understand.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Ziso: 'Kick Off'
Harare, 1 April 2008
A hushed silence returned to the streets on Sunday, but this time with an edgy tension. Polling agents were transported home and results collected from the 53 stations. A complete study has not been done of Mvurachena but it is clear that MDC-Tsvangirai has won in this constituency by a huge majority winning double of Mugabe’s score. Makoni lagged in third place. It appears that the electorate did not discriminate in the harmonized election and generally voted Tsvangirai for president, with the same scores received by most other MDC-Tsvangirai candidates. The only break in the pattern was the persistence of the incumbent ZANU MP who maintained his hold of the farming area. Fay Chung will not be winning the seat as Senator in this constituency. This is disappointing for the people of this area as she is a committed advocate of great experience and was determined to champion the rights of the Hopley people, but with a six-week campaign it is not surprising that Mavambo did not achieve total victory at once (ka One!) It is most likely that they will now form a party to develop their manifesto and plans for a future government.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is trickling the count out at a snail’s pace. Although very few results have been declared, it is clear that the final fight will be Round Two between the old boxers Mugabe and Tsvangirai. It must be a great disappointment to Simba Makoni, who certainly displayed the most impressive and sophisticated leadership qualities in this election; the Mavambo campaign has been a major revolution in the Zimbabwean political scene and completely reinvigorated what had devolved into a politics of name-calling and dog-fights. The idea that truth can be heard is simple, and the MDC have been saying it for a long time. But it is a great step that some of those entwined in the Liberation Struggle history stepped out of the shadows and admitted the truth, in memory of ideals and dialogues now squandered and forgotten. It is a clear and strong voice that has been hidden by the party for twenty-eight years. Finally it has been unveiled. Although it would be an exaggeration to say that the idealists of ZANU broke out in glorious cavalcade and victory. Only a few recent members defected, Simba Makoni and Dumiso Dambengwa, but their immense bravery and courage is even more impressive for the great risk they took.
The silence has been broken in the family and at last the young son is willing to challenge the father that he once so revered and respected. He has the strength to tell sekuru (grandfather) he is wrong. He has stepped out alone, buffeted by a wave of activism and renewal, Hope and the ideal that good will win out in the end. For Simba Makoni there is no turning back; this is only the beginning.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Election result projection points to runoff vote
HARARE (Reuters) - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will beat President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's crucial election, but be forced into a runoff vote in three weeks, according to a ruling party projection.
Two ZANU-PF party sources said on Tuesday the projection showed Tsvangirai falling short of the 51 percent needed for outright victory. It was similar to projections by an independent monitoring group.
ZANU-PF ahead in official count; Concerns grow over rigging
HARARE, April 1 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling party edged ahead of the main opposition on Tuesday with over half of parliamentary election results released and concerns grew that President Robert Mugabe was trying to rig the vote.
Riot police in armoured carriers patrolled two of Harare's opposition strongholds overnight and residents were told to stay off the normally bustling streets.
Three days after the most important vote since independence, only 109 out of 210 parliamentary constituencies had been declared, showing the ruling ZANU-PF two seats ahead of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Monday, 31 March 2008
MDC and ZANU PF equal at 19:19 - second government minister loses seat
A total of 210 constituencies are being contested. No official results have been published yet from the presidential election.
Public Affairs Minister Chen Chimutengwende is the second government minister to lose their seat.
First results announced in Zimbabawe: Justice Minister loses seat
The election results pages of the official Simba Makoni, MDC, and Government of Zimbabwe www sites are yet to release their first statement of the results. Meanwhile, Reuters and others have been filling the gaps.
HARARE, March 31 (Reuters)
08:59 GMT
Zimbabwe's opposition MDC and ruling ZANU-PF were running neck-and-neck, according to the first election results issued by the Electoral Commission on Monday. The commission started announcing the results from Saturday's election shortly before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) after a long delay prompted the opposition to accuse President Robert Mugabe of trying to rig the vote to stay in power. The first six parliamentary constituencies were evenly split between Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the commission.
09:45 GMT
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa lost his seat in Zimbabwe's election as latest official results on Monday showed the ruling ZANU-PF and opposition MDC running neck-and-neck. The electoral commission said each party had won 12 parliamentary constituencies out of a total 210 seats. No official results were yet available in the presidential poll, in which Robert Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule.
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Results news: Disputed reports and counter claims
(Reuters) HARARE - Zimbabwe's opposition said on Sunday it had won the most crucial election since independence but President Robert Mugabe's government warned its opponents that premature victory claims would amount to an attempted coup.
(BBC) ...BBC Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says the MDC is working on the basis of partial, unofficial results...Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu accused Mr Biti and the MDC of "speculation and lies" and "causing unnecessary havoc".
The state-run Sunday Mail quoted the ministry's secretary, George Charamba, as saying that if Mr Tsvangirai declared himself president "it is called a coup d'etat and we all know how coups are handled".
Friday, 28 March 2008
Ziso: 'Calm before the storm'
The night before Election Day and the Zimbabwean sky is calm and clear, not a sign in the peaceful starscape that all hell is about to break lose. Already the rustlings of the underground have reported incidents of intimidation and double-dealing, and the threat of violence looms in the shadows. Armoured tanks and riot police have crept into the city over the past few days - an intimidation tactic - a silent reminder that the eyes of the state are watching you. A paralyzing fear that they hope will accompany you into the booth in which you alone may sign your death sentence or grab your lifeboat with the crossing of an X. In the farmlands of Mvurachena, the intimidation and bullying of the isolated communities is obvious. There is a fear that breathes in this country, in both the homes of the poor and vulnerable and on the tables of the safe middle class, even in the hearts of those Zimbabweans far from home and thinking of their families and in the consciences of those within the ruling party still paralyzed into silence.
Tomorrow is going to be a hard slog for everyone involved in this election. In fact Tomorrow is most likely to last until Sunday, maybe Monday, possibly Thursday people are saying. Expect a
Fay Chung calls for a courageous turnout in the Zimbabwean elections tomorrow
In an interview with the BBC, candidate Fay Chung calls on the electorate to take courage and come out to vote for change in the elections tomorrow.
Read the full article on BBC Online...Earlier, a former government minister told the BBC that Mr Mugabe might not be able to prevent one of the two main opposition candidates from winning the presidential election.
"I think the issue is whether the electorate is going to be brave or courageous enough to come out in large numbers, because I think the rigging of the election has been possible when there were small numbers dividing votes," Ms Chung said.
"But if you have millions coming out to vote, it will be very difficult to rig. If the polling agents and the observers are very watchful, it will become more difficult."
Ms Chung, a Senatorial candidate now allied to Simba Makoni, conceded that "there are a lot of 'ifs'", but insisted that Zimbabweans were desperate for change after 28 years of Mr Mugabe.
"I hear people saying... 'We are being abused. If we keep on electing the same government, we will continue to be abused'," she added. "So the question is: will they vote for the MDC or Simba's movement?"
Ms Chung said Mr Makoni's decision last month to stand against the president because of what he described as a "failure of national leadership" had begun a "period of change" in Zimbabwe.
"The steps taken by Simba Makoni have broken a Gordian Knot in which we were so tightly strung that we did not know how to get out of it," she told Radio 4's World Tonight programme.
"I think that whether he wins or not - I think he will win - he has changed the political geography of the country."
Ms Chung also acknowledged there was a potential for violence similar to that witnessed after the Kenyan presidential election last year, regardless of the result.
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Ziso: 'A day in Mvurachena '
Fay Chung spent the day visiting her most impoverished constituents. Mvurachena encompasses suburban housing areas, and then the vast expanse of farmland that surrounds the
The evening was spent at a conference between Makoni and women’s groups. Makoni spoke passionately about the fact that women have borne more of the load of hardship in the past decade, and lived with great fear for themselves, fear that they will not be able to feed their children, fear that their loved ones will die in their arms. He then went on to lay out his vision for women’s equal participation and engagement in rebuilding the country, but not from a segregationalist perspective. His manifesto does not specify a section on women’s issues; his outlook is macro – the government will create the structure in which things start working again, and the people will be empowered to solve problems themselves. Integration and self-determinism are at the heart of his outlook on gender, “We are not going to solve the problem for you instantly, but we will remove the impediments to you solving the problem for yourself. We will be an enabling, not constraining leadership. Together - pamwe chete - we will solve the problem.” (The Mavambo gesture is two hands clasped together over the head: the ZANU fist of Black Empowerment and the MDC open palm of Change joined together to rebuild the country in Unity.)
Fay Chung spiced up the debate by pointing out that in her university days in the sixties there was only one black woman enrolled and 100 black men – ‘What are the reasons?’ she asked and called for in-depth research on systemic problems that disempower women in Zimbabwe. For instance, under a Mugabe law married women are unable to inherit from their parents. “If they want to inherit, they shouldn’t get married,” was Mugabe’s response to criticism. Although Simba’s gender policy is still vague, what was genuine was his willingness to listen, and he set up the meeting asking for a genuine response to his views and was not afraid to test his views in a room full of well-spoken women. He railed against the culture of ‘chef’dom (big-wigs are known as, and act like, chefs/ chiefs). “Government is about service, not being served.” Fay ended the conference by thanking Simba for his bravery, acknowledging the fearful environment that Zimbabweans live in where suffering takes place in silence without criticism of one’s leader, “Simba has cut through the gordian knot that Zimbabwe has been trapped in.”
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Amnesty International reports on harassment as election nears
Amnesty International's Zimbabwe researcher, Simeon Mawanza, has recently returned from Zimbabwe. He said:
'We continue to receive reports of intimidation, harassment and violence against perceived supporters of opposition candidates - with many in rural regions fearful that there will be retribution after the elections.'
Ziso: 'It’s not working! But we’ll get it working again'
Zimbabwe, 25 March
The songs end and there is a mad dash as someone shouts out that T-shirts are available. It is a false alarm, however, and the mood settles as it becomes clear that proceedings are about to get serious. A procession of vehicles arrives and people rush to line the dirt road, shouting, President awuya! (The President has arrived). But it is not Robert Mugabe and his firing squad of protectors, but Simba, who the people now call their President.
He performs with passion, and fiery conviction, moving back and forth across the stage with easy familiarity, not a politician, but a man on a mission to make sure that people understand what he stands for. For being widely described as a geeky technocrat he performs with surprising humour and aplomb, and the crowd laugh and cheer good-naturedly in response.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Link roundup
Some selected mainstream, historical, and more esoteric links:
Coming to a Crunch
(The Economist, March 19th)
David Coltart
(Blog of a MDC MP and Human Rights Lawyer in Zimbabwe)
H-Net
(A review of Fay Chung's book, 'Re-Living the Second Chimurenga: Memories from the Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe')
At Home Abroad; Shadow on the future
(New York Times talks with fay Chung in 1989, while she was Minister of Education in Zimbabwe)
Mugabe's Last Stand
(Newsweek, 22nd March)
Mugabe's Maneuvering Dims Hopes for Fair Election
(Wall Street Journal, 22nd March, sub required)
Ziso: 'Simba kaOne!'
Zimbabwe, 24 March
Makoni’s
Today Fay Chung supported a rally of the indomitable Margaret Dongo. Dongo is an outspoken ZANU war-vet who famously broke from the party in 1995 and, to ZANU’s shock and amazement, won her seat in Sunningdale as an independent candidate. She was
Post Dates and Entries
Thanks! Zimbabawe Now.
Ziso: 'Can I have a T-shirt?'
Zimbabwe, 23 March
The Fay Chung Senatorial Campaign Team prepare for the Saturday election: Mvurachena includes over fifty polling stations within a vast urban expanse. The upshot of Makoni’s entry into the ‘harmonized election’ is that voters will have a wide choice for their various ballots, with the option of choosing MPs, senators and presidential candidates from varying parties at the same time. The concept is refreshing after years of no real choice. Polling-agents from four different parties (ZANU, MDC1, MDC2 and Simba’s Movambo movement) will be present to ensure that rigging does not take place. This is a first for Zimbabwean elections, which have previously had only one opposition polling-agent observing the voting. Fears are still high that the vote will be stolen in the chaos, but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has assured the candidates that the presidential count will be presented outside each polling station as soon as counting is done.
Monday, 24 March 2008
Optimist: 'A Glimmer of Hope'
"The entry of Simba Makoni into Zimbabwe's presidential race broke through the darkness of recent months to give us a small ray of hope. If someone within the ruling party can stand up and disagree and challenge the seemingly all-powerful ZANU-PF political machine, maybe each of us can stand up, speak out and do something to improve life for all.
I rejoiced when Fay Chung joined Simba's movement. Fay is known for her integrity, intelligence and concern for the poor. If someone of her caliber is also willing to take the risk of challenging those who have been in charge of this country since Independence, it gives all of us a bit of courage to do what we can to bring peaceful and positive change.
It won't be easy. Few believe that the coming elections will be free and fair. The state broadcasting company blatantly favours the ruling party, although it has been forced to broadcast advertisements by all parties. The government controlled print media publishes the most nasty attacks against all opposition candidates and parties, although it too publishes their ads. I can't say whether all parties have the freedom to campaign throughout the country, but at least it seems as if there is less violence this time.
The country is full of rumours about civil war, coups, rigged elections, a Kenya scenario! Perhaps these have been planted by those in power to prevent people from voting for change. We don't know what will happen next Saturday.
We can only hope that if all those who registered go out and vote, the will of the majority will prevail."
Optimist
Harare
Saturday, 22 March 2008
Ziso: 'Red and Yellow Dance for Change'
Zimbabwe, 22 March
In Avondale, at Trudy Stevenson’s rally a fascinating collaboration is taking place. The red of MDC mingles with the yellow of the Makoni camp. Behind the table sits Trudy Stevenson, one of Tsvangirai’s earliest and most hard-working supporters who now protests his autocratic leadership. Beside her is Arthur Mutambara, whose withdrawal of his nomination for presidency has allowed many former MDC supporters to rally behind Makoni. Fay Chung and Rudo Gaizdanwa sit in yellow, two former members of ZANU, now women leaders in the Makoni camp. MDC slogans are shouted, “Change! Change!” followed by Makoni chants. Activists in yellow dance with MDC supporters in red, the Zimbabwean flag waving above them. There is a sense of real camaraderie between former ZANU and MDC activists, a sense of reconciliation and moving forward. Trudy reminds the crowd that people from ZANU can change, after all Morgan Tsvangirai was once a member of ZANU!
A vibrant dialogue takes place between the leaders and the crowd who burst into song at any pause. “We are not fighting the white man,” shouts the chair, “we are fighting a system that needs to be dismantled!” Mutambara is the final speaker; he is vibrant and charismatic, “Be the change you wish to see in your country.” The rally ends in song. The atmosphere is festive and colourful, the leaders black, white, Shona, Ndebele and Asian, the crowd full of MDC and ex-ZANU supporters, with the odd real war veteran and white suburban. A reminder of the rainbow nation
Anticipation is growing for the Makoni rally on Monday in Highfield, the climax of the Easter weekend.