Thank you for linking to the next News Page. I will eventually find a format that doesn’t go on forever, but allows for a lot of words !!!!! We have just had an enormous storm, lots of thunder & lightning, and of course, plenty of rain. Harare (and most of Zimbabwe) has been on water rationing for years, which included a ban on using hosepipes in the garden. This particular ban was lifted this week in Harare. It seems our dams are full, and we can water the garden as much as we like ! Good news for those who don’t have boreholes Not so for Matabeleland North, where they are feeling the effects of a major drought.

The result of the by-election in Bikita West is in, and ZanuPF won the seat. Many are claiming that there could be no other outcome, due to the violence and intimidation. To me, the result is not a reflection of the popularity of ZanuPF, but more of its ability to control and manipulate. Yes, I am disappointed, but had I been intimidated and subjected to the reign of terror that the folk of Bikita West have just suffered, maybe I would have voted for ZanuPF. Who knows ?

Another bread increase has been announced. The last increase sparked the awful rioting that resulted in the police going crazy in the streets and causing a lot of injuries. I hope this one will not be the same.

It’s time to ask you all for help. I have mentioned before that I spend so much time emailing anyone overseas, in a position of authority (MPs etc), who may be able to put some pressure on their Governments with regards to Zimbabwe. I have had a fairly good response from those I have emailed, but it takes SO LONG! Just to gather addresses takes forever. Zimbabwe is running out of time. All of us here know it, but our hands are tied. There is nothing we can do from inside Zimbabwe, but wait for the Presidential elections. It may be far to late to restore our economy by that time. Some economists are claiming that it is already too late.

So, here is my plea. Please would you email your MP or Congressman (or whatever) and ask that something be done for the people of Zimbabwe. We are really in a desperate situation here. Plead for pressure to be put on our leaders, that they return to the Rule of Law, remove the war veterans from the land, start a sensible land redistribution programme, and refrain from using acts of violence and intimidation on their own people. The Law is completely disregarded when it suits them ! I am personally appealing to all foreign Governments to intervene, start up dialogue with our leaders, and help us to get out of this mess. I notice a deafening silence from Thabo Mbeki and the South African Government, (our neighbour): Kofi Annan and the UN hover in the background: Britain & the US make a statement every now and then, but – NO-ONE IS DOING ANYTHING ! We need help. All of these foreign powers have stood by and watched as farmers have been murdered and the culprits roam free, opposition supporters have been murdered, maimed, raped, intimidated in the most horrendous political violence (which still continues), thousands have been made homeless, law and order has broken down, - need I go on ? I will ! The rights of minority groups here are slowly being removed (this is encouraged by our leaders and I regard it as blatant racism !), supporters of ZanuPF have been encouraged by our President, Robert Mugabe to “instill fear in the whites”: our opposition party members often have to resort to hiding for fear of their lives, and we are expecting more violence in the run up to the Presidential elections next year. To whom do we turn in our hour of need ? Please, dear readers, do something, in whatever small way you can.

Friday 19th January 2001
Hi folks ! As most of you should be aware by now, Laurent Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is dead. He was shot in Kinshasa, at his home, we are told. There is a mystery surrounding the exact way in which he was killed and by whom. There was also great confusion here in Zimbabwe over whether he was actually dead or not. At first, we had heard that he was dead (this was announced by Government officials) and then we were told that he was NOT dead ! Then we were told that he had been flown here to Harare for medical attention. It has now been officially announced that he is dead. His son, Joseph Kabila, who is described as “not brilliant” by one of his Generals, has been appointed as head of the DRC (I assume a temporary measure until they sort themselves out).
The question is – how does this impact on Zimbabwe ? As yet, we have no answer. There is a lot of speculation, but nothing concrete. Kabila and Mugabe go a long way back – I think it was a mutual back-scratching affair that has cost this country dearly. We have so many of our troups in the DRC, and a good number of them have lost their lives or are missing in action. Zimbabwe, with Angola, has been supporting Kabila against the Congolese rebel forces (aided by Uganda & Ruwanda). It has cost this country an absolute fortune, and is a complete waste – especially of our boys who have not come home ! I don’t know if Kabila’s death will bring our boys home, or stop Zimbabwe ploughing millions of dollars into the DRC. We will have to wait & see – the story of our lives. I must say there is a lot of jubilation among folk as a result of his death, which I find rather uncomfortable. (I cannot seem to bring myself to celebrate at the death of anyone). Should I be jubilant ??? We all know what kind of a man he was, and I personally did not support him or his government. I wonder what the reaction will be from the rest of Africa.
I plan to do a detailed update over the weekend, so back later.

Saturday 20th January 2001
On to the promised update.
It seems that the MDC are going ahead with the mass action that was planned some time ago. I don’t quite know what form it will take, but I presume a complete stay away ! This action was planned at the end of last year, but the MDC didn’t go ahead with it. They claimed at the time that it would have been the perfect excuse for our President to unleash his forces to squash the masses, and would have resulted in a lot of unrest and injury. I feel that it will happen if we have a stay away. We have, on the front page of today’s Daily News, an unbelievable story. Chenjerai Hunzvi, the leader of the war vets, has threatened to take over any companies found locked during the mass action. Addressing journalists in Harare, Hunzvi said "We are already setting up committees to move around the Industrial areas. If we find any companies locked, we will break in and take them over. We will take them, just as we did the commercial Farms". The gall of that man ! Hunzvi said the stay away would be considered a lockout, by employers working in cahoots with the MDC. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader said the mass action would go ahead anyway. Hunzvi warned that the war veterans are now the army’s reserve force, and would meet next week in towns and cities throughout the country to come up with strategies to counter the mass action. On the MDC he said, "They think they might get to rule, but we are ready. We have a political outlook. We are prepared to protect the gains of Independence by whatever means. The MDC should respect ZanuPF’s one-man one-vote system". This statement would have me rolling in the aisles if I didn’t know how deadly and how serious Hunzvi is. So, it looks like we are in for a bit of trouble. I will be sure to watch this situation very carefully and keep you all informed.

On to Kabila’s death. I cannot get any feedback on how this will affect us. There is a lot of talk on how it will affect the DRC. I see his death as the opportunity for peace to be restored to the area. Kabila was brought to power by non-Congolese forces. He managed to hold on to that power with support from non-Congolese forces. The DRC needs a Congolese government, not a government that is loyal to, and is kept in power by another country. We, Zimbabwe, need to stop our involvement! There is a genuine chance for peace here if all the parties involved will gather & commit to serious negotiation. One thing that has come out of this, is the realization that, no matter who your allies are, no matter how well protected you are by body guards and the like, if some-one wants you dead – they can get to you! Frightening thought.

On the weather front, it is mid-afternoon, and has been a beautiful, warm, sunny day. It looks as though it is building for rain. We have had a lot of rain lately, and everything is lush and green. I hope it helps those farmers who have been able to plant their summer crops.

For a long time now, I have been fighting the attitude of acceptance that many Zimbabweans show. I, myself, have to fight daily against a growing acceptance (on my own part) of the situation here. Most folk know of the "boiling frog syndrome". If a frog is placed in a pot of cold water, which is gradually brought to the boil, it accepts the temperature change without any fight whatsoever. It’s own body temperature slowly increases with that of the heating water, until eventually it overheats and dies. I read the following report from the MDC and I am going to type it in here. It makes interesting reading.

Will ZanuPF’s militarisation of civil & state institutions succeed? Will Zimbabweans continue to watch the restriction of their freedom as the ruling party pursues a strategy of self-destruction?
In Zimbabwe today, militarisation is present at every level of government and in every corner of public activity. It is seen from the senseless roadblocks across the country, to the campaigns of violence on the farms and during elections. The ruling party is abusing state funds and state organs to instill fear and to coerce Zimbabweans to think in a particular direction, which is determined by ZanuPF.
The recent Marondera West and Bikita West by-elections are excellent examples of ZanuPF’s determination to militarise civil state institutions. By fielding former Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri in Marondera West, and Col. Claudius Makova in Bikita West, and by involving war veteran leader Chenjerai Hunzvi in the election campaign for Bikita West, ZanuPF aimed at increasing the military portfolio of it’s Parliamentarians, in an effort to bring in a broader base of military thinking into the House.
Outside Parliament, ZanuPF seeks to further militarise the state by appointing permanent secretaries with military backgrounds (such as the appointment of Col. Katsande in the Transport & Communications Ministry and Col. Dube in the Defence Ministry), and by ensuring that civil servants are loyal to the ruling party. Comments such as those made by Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation Minister, Border Gezi, and later affirmed by the President that civil servants who did not support the ruling party would be singled out in retrenchment processes, further manifest the ruling party’s determination to control all levels of governance and public life.
Another example of this continued mindless militarisation of public life is the government sponsored farm invasions and it’s arming of the war veterans. By refusing to ensure that land reform takes place in an orderly and transparent way, by supporting and encouraging a hooligan section of the war veterans in their nefarious activities through the allocation of state funds and resources, and by creating a war veteran reserve force, ZanuPF has created a semi-martial state on the farms and in the rural areas. The rule of law is now subordinate to the power of the rifle.
In a democratic country, it is critical that the armed forces be loyal to the country and to the constitution, and that they be apolitical. To place the War Veterans Association, an organization known for it’s political partiality, under the control of the Minister of Defence, is political mischief, designed to compromise the impartiality of the armed forces.
In an effort to crack down on the urban areas where no fair-minded Zimbabwean would support ZanuPF, the party has increasingly militarized its presence there. There are road blocks coming on to the main roads leading into Harare and Bulawayo, as well as at other points across the country. The ruling party has posted armed, uniformed police and army personnel across the urban areas. These troops are meant to overreact to any legitimate manifestation of frustration. Recent disturbances in Harare, Kadoma and Mutare, and on the University of Zimbabwe campus, where popular protests met with violent police reactions, bear witness to that.
The actions of President Robert Mugabe and the ruling party clearly indicate that ZanuPF has lost faith in state institutions. ZanuPF no longer has support from the general populace. The good will, which people had extended to this party before, and after Independence, has gone. Thus the ruling party seeks to turn Zimbabweans against themselves by directing that these state institutions and civil servants be loyal to ZanuPF. By infiltrating every level of governance with the hooligan section of the war veterans, the party seeks to further ensure that no level of governance will be supportive of the opposition party or any legitimate view that contradicts ZanuPF doctrine.
The ruling party, however, is playing a dangerous game with people’s emotions. ZanuPF has targeted the war veterans because of the government’s own failure in the past to properly reintegrate this segment into society. Having starved and isolated the ex-combatants, the ruling party now seeks to pay off their loyalty by throwing them whatever scrap of hope they see fit on any given day. Zimbabweans, however, are not foolish. One day the chickens will come home to roost.
Zimbabwe risks being caught in the "boiling frog" syndrome – the militarisation gradually increases. Zimbabweans in their accommodatory nature are gradually accepting each increase as it comes along. However, the decay in the rule of law must not be accommodated. Zimbabweans, in their tolerance, cannot simply accept ZanuPF’s strategies of survival which disregard our nation’s need for our survival.

My thought for today – "Never a frog !!!!"

I have added a page for
YOUR STORY !

Have you left Zimbabwe for greener pastures ? Where are you ? How are you doing there ? Was it difficult to start up again ? Have you found a job ? Accommodation ? Let us know ! Those thinking of leaving, read the YOUR STORY PAGE first - maybe you'll change your mind. Who knows ?

Wednesday 23rd January 2001

Last update for few days as I am off to South Africa and will be back on Sunday. I will, of course, be taking photographs along the way !

We had a protest in Harare yesterday, involving bussed-in war veterans, and ZanuPF supporters. They were protesting against the Daily News, and it’s reaction to the death of Laurent Kabila, the late President of the DRC. The Daily News carries a full report on the front page. Please link and read it. The rent-a-crowd gathered in their hundreds outside the offices of the newspaper, broke windows and generally harassed people who they thought did not support ZanuPF. The offices of the Daily News are not far from my office, but I did not hear anything about the protest until I got home, thank goodness. The Police were out in full force. The protesters blocked traffic, harassed journalists and members of the white community who failed to respond to ZanuPF slogans. The thugs grabbed Julius Zava, Deputy News editor of the Daily news, as he walked along Samora Machel Ave. He ran towards his offices, but they finally caught up with him and he had his glasses broken in the process. They were led by Chinjarai (Hitler) Hunzvi Joseph Chinotimba, Endy Mhlanga, Andrew Ndlovu and Sabina Mangwende. The crowd, according to the placards they were carrying, seemed to have been particularly furious with the newspaper’s coverage of the death of Kabila. Our President had declared 3 days of national mourning, starting on Sunday. Many Zimbabweans had complained about this and the Daily News had carried their stories, and also stories of the tyranny of Kabila
I have not heard if any arrests were made.

An ex-Zimbabwean, now residing in New Zealand, organised seminars on business and general migration opportunities in New Zealand. One of the seminars was held in Harare on Monday night. It was packed, and a second seminar had to be held straight after the first one, to accommodate the large crowds. The organizers had expected a few hundred people to turn up, but thousands attended ! A lot of people are desperate to leave here, and are grasping at any straw that comes their way. I cannot say that I blame them. The time may yet come when I have to leave, and I would like to think that I would not be condemned or judged for doing so. Young families are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. Even renting a decent house is beyond the reach of most people, who have to share houses among three or four families at a time. The prospect of a peaceful and prosperous future in another country is very tempting to all of us, and those who do get accepted by New Zealand have a chance of a better life for themselves and their families. I wish them all the luck in the world.

Now on to some thoughts about the new US President, George Bush. I would appreciate any feedback from US residents on this one, especially African Americans. How do you all think Bush is going to handle Africa ? I hope he is going to address the Africa problem at some time, but wonder how he will do this. I call it "The Africa Problem" because that is just what it is. Leaders across this continent, not just in Zimbabwe, (particularly those leaders who brought their countries to Independence) continue in their ideas of total control of the population, wealth for the ruling class and poverty for the masses, no freedom of speech or association, and no opposition to the ruling party (dissidents are dealt with swiftly and without mercy). A spokesperson from the Daily News, after yesterdays "incident" said the following and I quote,
"The attack on Zava and the damage to the Daily News offices was callous & cowardly. ZanuPF, using a section of the war veterans and it’s supporters, is increasingly employing the law of the jungle to impose it’s will on the people. Beatings and intimidation are being used with increasing frequency as the party demonstrates its intolerance of anything it perceives as an impediment to its goals. No one should pretend they are safe. As long as they hold views at variance with those of the ruling party, they are not."
This internecine fighting amongst the various tribes across the whole continent of Africa, has been going on since time began, and I wonder if it will ever cease.

Looking towards Harare very early this morning as I was driving to work, the rising sun was reflecting in the windows of the tall buildings; the trees - msasa, jacaranda, flamboyant, so many others – swayed gently in the cool breeze. The air was crisp and clean. I stopped on the side of the road near the edge of town, and turned off the car engine. There were no other cars in sight and very few people about, and I wanted to cry ! I can’t explain it, and don’t quite know what happened, but I sat there and thought about having to leave Zimbabwe and I felt as though my heart was breaking. I thought of all the years that had gone before – as a child growing up in a in a colonial era that robbed people of even their most basic human rights; as a teenager and young married woman in war torn country where so many lost their lives for nothing (my own husband almost lost his); as an older woman, attending the funerals of relatives and friends who had been born here so many years ago. I thought of the small graveyard on what was the family farm at Nyanga. The remains of my husband’s great-grandparents lie there, in the shadow of World’s View, undisturbed for almost a century – and I wondered what was to become of us. Is there a permanent place for the white man in Africa ? I cannot bring myself to admit the answer.

Tuesday 30th January 2001

Hi folks. I had a good trip to South Africa last week, and got back late on Sunday night. This is the first chance I have had to update, and it will be a short one, but I needed to comment on what happened here at the weekend.
While I was gone, the printing press at the Daily News premises in Southerton was blown up. A bomb went off, destroying the press and other property worth more than Zim$ 100 million. What lengths some people will go to, to silence any form of opposition to ZanuPF. The Daily News, in my humble opinion, gave credit where it was due, and has, at times, sharply criticized the MDC as well.
This saga started a while back, in April 2000 in fact, with the bombing of the Daily News offices in Samora Machel Avenue. Luckily at the time, no-one was injured. Since then, the Daily News and it’s staff have been harassed continually. Their slogan is “telling it like it is”. And it is this that has got them into trouble. They have uncovered a lot of dirt in the last 12 months. Last week we saw the rent-a-crowd outside the Daily News offices in their thousands, beating up anyone and everyone (while the Police stood by). A couple of days after that, on Saturday, the group burned flags at the American and British embassies, seized and destroyed copies of The Daily News and declared openly their wish to ban the paper, led by Chenjerai Hunzvi. Then we have the printing press bombed in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Unfortunately, there is no prize for guessing who the culprits are !
Anyway, security guards at the scene of the crime saw a cream coloured Mazda truck. They managed to get the Registration number, which is 336-518. The Press then went straight to the Vehicle Registration office and asked the guy on duty to look up the number, which he did. He then scuttled into the offices and later a senior officer told members of the Daily News that he could not reveal the owner of the vehicle as this was a very "sensitive" issue. After about 15 minutes, the officer apologised and confessed he lacked the guts to divulge the details. "If it was the police officer investigating the matter - and only him seeking that information - we would give it to him," said Nduku. The police refused to say anything new, preferring to stick to the standard: "We are investigating." So…another whodunit ! We have so many of them, mysterious crimes that is, and they eventually disappear and are forgotten about. This one, though, has caused an uproar, and I don’t believe the Daily News will let it be forgotten. Stuart Mattinson, the chairman of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of The Daily News, said: "This cowardly act of destruction will not silence The Daily News. If anything, it will stiffen the resolve of the staff at the paper and, indeed, every independent media organisation within Zimbabwe to ensure that every Zimbabwean has access to the truth," he said. Well done, Stuart and the Daily News ! The people of Zimbabwe are continually punished for wanting change, and wanting the truth. But I would really like to hear the truth of this shocking incident.

I would like to copy in an article here, published in the Zimbabwe Independent on the 26th January.

War vets, ZRP mobilise against MDC mass action
by Vincent Kahiya
WAR veterans who have been spoiling for a fight with the opposition are limbering up to reinforce the Zimbabwe Republic Police in crushing the proposed mass protest being mooted by the Movement for Democratic Change.
Reports reaching the Zimbabwe Independent this week suggest that hundreds of militiamen are undergoing crash courses in crowd control and use of tear gas.
The self-styled war veterans and other Zanu PF hoodlums have of late refined techniques in violent suppression of opposing views, including assaults on rural voters. They now appear to be transferring these "skills" to the cities.
Our Bulawayo bureau reports that war vets yesterday stormed and closed the Victoria Falls council offices in the town centre and Chino-timba township in protest at their failure to win a tender for the running of a lodge.
Two companies, Shearwater and Kandah Hire Canoeing, which are housed in the council offices, were also forced to close.
The war veterans have taken it upon themselves to bar rural people from accessing certain newspapers which they feel run articles too critical of the ruling Zanu PF and government.
Reports from Mutoko yesterday said the war veterans were stopping vehicles along the Harare-Nyamapanda highway searching travellers for copies of the Zimbabwe Independent, the Daily News and the Financial Gazette. The war veterans have "banned" the papers from the district.
The war veterans are preparing to take their brand of anarchy into the urban areas, which are expected to be centres of conflict if plans for the mass action proceed.
The war veterans’ leadership headed by Chenjerai Hunzvi has called for a special meeting tomorrow at the party’s headquarters to agree on a strategy to deal with the proposed protest. A source said tomorrow’s meeting would be a formality as the veterans had been talking to law enforcement agents to formulate a plan that would accommodate the militias in government’s policy of suppressing peaceful protest.
Training of militiamen is believed to be taking place as part of the police’s regular training of recruits and Support Unit personnel.
MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart yesterday said the war veterans’ plans were misguided, as there were no real plans for mass action. "As vice-president Gibson Sibanda said, mass action has never gone off the MDC agenda and we are constantly reviewing the situation," said Coltart.
"There are no real plans to engage in mass action and those plans by the war veterans are misguided," he said. Coltart said the police had a duty to uphold the constitution instead of conniving with a group that had clearly demonstrated allegiance to one political party.

Back later.

Thursday 1st February 2001

February already ! I cannot believe how the time is flying – it ia almost a year ago that our troubles started. How I have not jumped ship in the last year I will never know ! Waiting for better times, I think. The weather is beautiful, it’s a lovely time of year. But there is a slight nip in the air in the early mornings. We are moving towards winter.

On to some news.

The fuel situation seems to have got a lot easier since Christmas (thank goodness). We have not had to queue at all in the last few weeks. It is a relief not to constantly worried about petrol. Our power cuts have stopped as well. That is the greatest relief. I hope this continues.
Prices continue to rise, and folk are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. So many people have been laid off work. Our unemployment figures are at their highest ever.
Crime is on the increase. We have gangs of hijackers roaming the suburbs at night. They are extremely violent to any who resist them. They are after later model cars, and then of course, they steal your wallet, phone, jewelry etc. It is quite daunting to drive around at night. I have stopped doing it. A couple of years ago in Harare, we didn’t even lock our doors at night. Now I see electric fences going up at a rapid rate, and very many houses are employing night guards. Is it a sign of the times ? Does this happen in other countries? Please let me know.

‘Professionals’ planted the bomb at the printing press works of the Daily News, according to military experts. Sources say the event was very carefully planned and executed. They calculated that up to 3 Eastern-made anti-tank land mines, bolstered by a limpet-type detonator, were used to destroy EACH of the 5 cast iron rollers. That’s a big explosion ! (Actually it lifted the roof off the factory). They also said that there seems to be indications that our own Army had now been given the political task of destroying the enemies of the government and ZanuPF. They also said ‘No other group of people in Zimbabwe today has access to the type of explosives used in the blast, or to the professional acumen to so completely wreck the machinery’. Quite a statement ! The attacks on our press are becoming more frequent. War veterans besieged the offices of the ‘Observer’, Mutare’s weekly newspaper. They accused Shadreck Beta (former ZanuPF Manicaland chairman) of publishing stories critical of the government and ZanuPF in last week’s edition. They have stopped the printing of this week’s issue, and are saying they will not allow another issue to be published. Where do they draw the line, I wonder ? What happens when they decide they don’t like the kind of business I am running ? Do they come in and close me down ? We have seen this kind of action for a year now, and I, personally, am thoroughly fed up with it. Any utterance, action or even the slightest indication of anything that is deemed to be anti ZanuPF, is dealt with, usually by violent means. During the election period, I saw photographs of burnt and bleeding buttocks, lashed backs, beaten and broken bodies, maimed and tortured children – enough horror to last a life time. And please bear in mind that we are not at war. We are supposed to be at peace. Everyone I have spoken to since the weekend has had ENOUGH. Tempers are beginning to flare – the people are angry. Our situation worsens each day.

ZanuPF, you cannot silence the voice of the people forever. There will come a time, and I believe it is not too far away, when the cries of a subdued, defenseless population will become the shouts of victory. In your attempt to frighten and intimidate, you are strengthening the resolve of the people of Zimbabwe. This strength is growing by the day. Each vicious statement you utter, each murderous act you commit fuels the fire that, as yet, is but a small flame within the hearts of the people. Your attempts to separate and segregate are actually uniting us, and the small flame is burning steadily brighter. It won’t be long before you have a raging inferno on your hands, and nothing you do or say will prevent it from burning a path right through your midst !

Sunday 4 February 2001

A huge thunderstorm is building, the sky is black, and I will have to turn off soon if lightning starts !

On Friday there was to be a peaceful march through the streets of Harare. MDC supporters were protesting against Police Brutality, the lack of Law & Order etc. and I was there, in 1st Street, when the Riot Squad started chasing marchers. The marchers were apprehensive – they were obviously expecting trouble. Many fled as fast as they could. It was pretty scary to see so many people running in panic, but I managed to stand my ground and observe what was happening. The march actually never got off the ground. The Police have obviously been told not to allow this kind of protest, and so they clamped down hard on the protesters. I saw a couple of people getting clobbered with batons, seemingly for no other reason than the fact that they were there ! It was shocking behaviour from our police.

In Friday’s paper, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists advertised that they would be marching on Saturday (yesterday) morning in protest against the recent bombing of the Daily News printing press, and the general attacks on press freedom. It was a full-page advert, strongly condemning recent events and attitudes. I was in town yesterday morning, and the Riot Police were there in full force - but no sign of the planned march. Maybe the marchers realised that it would have been futile. These marches are not working. They cause a lot of innocent people to be injured, and, although I agree with the sentiments, I don’t think they are effective. They are getting us nowhere. The Police have been on the alert since last week when John Nkomo, the Minister of Home Affairs, said the security forces were ready to deal with any demonstrations by the MDC. On Thursday, police and soldiers beat up and harassed resident in Chitungwiza. At Makoni, Zengeza and St Mary’s shopping centres, baton-wielding soldiers descended from military trucks and stormed into nightclubs, where they beat folk up and accused them of burning copies of the ‘Herald’ (the government sponsored daily), and plotting to topple the government. I got reports from staff members who witnessed these events. They said it was horrific, and people were beaten mercilessly, for absolutely no reason. At one restaurant, folk were all made to lie on the floor, and then were beaten.

Last weekend, a seminar was held at Petra Primary School in Bulawayo (one of my grandsons attends this school.) It was organized by an Australian Immigration agency, aimed at facilitating Zimbabwean migration to Australia. About 60 war vets invaded the school and seminar, and totally disrupted it. They threatened those present and told them that they would not leave Zimbabwe. Folk who attended, black & white, said they were shocked at the war vets actions. I must say I am not at all shocked. I am beginning to expect anything from them. They have a free reign at the moment, with both ZanuPF and our security forces backing them in whatever they say or do.

You may remember that the MDC set about challenging the results of approximately 34 seats won by ZanuPF in the general election. Then on the 8th December 2000, Mugabe issued a decree stating that the challenges were illegal and he banned them. The MDC then took this to court, and the full bench of the Supreme Court set aside Mugabe’s decree. The planned challenges will now go ahead. But, our Chief Justice, Anthony Gubbay, will be retiring in June. He has been under serious attack lately from government, war vets, and Mugabe himself, who have accused him of passing judgments in favour of white commercial farmers. This is, of course, nonsense. He has done nothing but abide by the Law. He has been under so much pressure, and has even been threatened by the war veterans. He was supposed to retire in April next year. Patrick Chinamasa, Minister of Justice, Legal & Parliamentary affairs said the Gubbay would go on leave for 4 months, from March to June, when his retirement will come into effect. The nutcase tipped to take over from Gubbay has been criticizing him in public, and condemning Gubbay’s decisions. I will be watching this one carefully. Maybe he has had enough (as so many have) and made the decision to retire early all by himself – but I doubt it. He has been a marvelous Chief Justice, completely above reproach, and all fair-minded Zimbabweans will miss him. His critics (those who would like to change the law to suit their devious ends) will be delighted when he is gone.

I have, in my possession, Reports from numerous agencies on the violence and intimidation during and after the election period. There are personal accounts and affidavits from many people who were themselves violated, tortured, etc. and also from those who witnessed the events. It makes for very grim reading, and I have been reduced to tears a few times while reading it. I have to keep putting the reports down for while, to catch my breath !!! I am busy typing up the accounts so that I can put them on this site, but please be warned, some of the reports are extremely upsetting. It will take some time, but I will try to type as fast as I can !!!! As I complete each account, I will upload it. There were, and still are, thousands of violations of human rights, tortures, etc. Who will eventually be made to answer for all these vicious crimes ? Some-one has to.

Thursday 8th February 2001

Sorry for not updating in the last few days (and I am really getting behind in answering emails). I am recovering from a bout of flu – still at home – and will be back at work on Monday. It has been quiet at home, but I have managed to keep up with all the news.

It has rained on and off the whole week. In fact, my garden is quite waterlogged, and the dogs are full of mud ! Bath time for them, I think.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a huge explosion (well, it sounded like an explosion !) awoke most of Harare. No one seems to know what it was, or where it came from. The Police even announced, via the newspapers, that they don’t know what it was. There is still no idea as to who planted the bomb at the Daily News press. Investigations are continuing. I wonder if we will ever get to hear who the culprits are ? There is a lot of speculation, and some very definite ideas, but nothing official yet. We wait !

The war veteran saga continues. Yes, they are still on the farms, causing problems for everyone concerned. There is an interesting development from the High Court. A newly appointed High Court Judge, Ms Rita Makarau, has just ordered our Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, to evict war veterans and Zanu PF supporters from commercial farms they have forcibly occupied in Hwedza since February last year. She said ‘It is ordered that all persons illegally occupying farms in Hwedza commercial farming district and all persons occupying farms through them be ordered to vacate the farms forthwith. The deputy sheriff for Marondera is empowered to enlist the assistance of the Zimbabwe Republic Police if the assistance is considered necessary to enforce the eviction orders.’ The government did not oppose both the application and the order. Our papers reported that ‘There was no legal officer from the Attorney General's Office, which normally handles such cases on behalf of the government’. I wonder why no one appeared from the AG’s office. Do they know that the order will not be complied with anyway, so feel it is a waste of time to even bother turning up ?

This brings me on to the Judiciary. Antony Gubbay, our Chief Justice, has been forced to resign. This is now common knowledge, and the Judiciary is furious about it. (Well, not all !). Several Zimbabwean judges have begun to seek employment elsewhere, it seems, as a direct result of ZanuPF’s siege on the Judiciary. The move by the judges became known just as ZANU PF announced that Vice President Simon Muzenda would tomorrow chair a caucus meeting of ruling party legislators in Harare to consider, among other issues, a resolution for the ‘removal of all the judges of the Supreme Court’. This is so typical of ZanuPF. If it gets in the way – remove it ! And the Judiciary has certainly been getting in the way lately – BY UPHOLDING THE LAW !

‘The greatest fear in some of us is that we might end up being eliminated physically,’ one judge said.

Another judge said he had ‘frightening information’ on the government’s attempts to dilute the present character of the judiciary, under incessant attack by President Robert Mugabe and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, for refusing to bend the law to suit ZANU PF’s whims. The judge said he and colleagues, with whom he had shared this information, no longer felt secure remaining on the Zimbabwe bench. He said he could not yet share the information with the media. ‘It seems that for one to be accepted as a fair judge you have to discard the book of rules and pass judgments in favour of the government and the ruling party. This is skewed reasoning on the part of some political upstarts who have now completely discredited themselves by doing more talking than thinking,’ the judge said. Mugabe, Chinamasa and Information Minister Jonathan Moyo have made no secret of the government’s intention to ‘revamp’ the operations of the judiciary, which they brand colonial’.

One senior judge said he understood that part of the measures being mulled by the government include appointing more judges of appeal to the Supreme Court to ‘neutralise the influence of the present justices who are perceived as anti–ZANU PF’. ZANU PF’s chief whip Joram Gumbo said tomorrow’s caucus meeting had been called specifically to discuss last week’s Supreme Court judgment that overruled Mugabe’s decree which sought to nullify court challenges by the MDC against 39 parliamentary seats won by the ruling party in the June ballot.

Trying to muzzle the Judiciary ! Am I surprised ? Not at all. It is just the next step in a carefully controlled plan on the part of ZanuPF. What exactly does the ruling party want ? I’ll tell you what they want ! They want a Judiciary – no, a nation – of mindless idiots, who will do nothing but kow-tow to their every whim, and keep them in the style to which they have become very accustomed! Well, they are NOT going to get it.

I want to copy in an article from the Financial Gazette here.

ZIMBABWE’S ruling ZANU PF party is leaving nothing to chance as it fights for political survival with everything it has — public funds, propaganda and violence — ahead of a crucial ballot that could end its 21-year reign. But the multi-pronged onslaught could yet unravel in the face of an economic meltdown which has brought bread and butter issues to the fore, reports Assistant News Editor ABEL MUTSAKANI.

Sensing defeat in presidential elections due next year, ZANU PF has launched an onslaught against disgruntled voters by loosening the national purse strings and ordering a fresh crackdown on civic society spearheading growing opposition to the party. And where everything else has failed, the former socialist guerrilla movement that has ruled Zimbabwe alone since 1980 has resorted to outright terror to suppress swelling public discontent ahead of the crucial ballot.

Political analysts and commentators this week said the onslaught against both civic society and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would intensify markedly in the coming months. With tension and state-led violence rising quickly and sharply, the analysts ruled out a free and fair presidential ballot. ‘We cannot say we will have a free and fair election in 2002,’ Brian Raftopoulos, a senior research fellow at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ)’s Institute of Development Studies, acknowledged. ‘President Robert Mugabe will do anything to stay in power. The onslaught on the MDC and civic society will increase. We will see more violence being unleashed,’ he told the Financial Gazette.

Most Zimbabweans hold Mugabe responsible for the economic crisis that is gripping the country and threatens to spawn unprecedented social and political upheaval. Analysts say the MDC’s trade unionist leader Morgan Tsvangirai could take advantage of Mugabe’s lowest support ever to win the presidential race, hence the government’s panic and new clampdown on the opposition.

The commentators spoke during a week when Zimbabwe’s Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay was forced to retire prematurely for standing up for the rule of law, when police pounced on MDC leaders and the government’s invective against the media moved up another notch. The strategy crafted at ZANU PF’s Harare headquarters is meant to divide and weaken civic society by installing puppet leaders in some of the organisations in a bid to re-establish the ruling party’s hegemony over all national institutions, the analysts noted. And in moves reminiscent of its failed experiment with socialism shortly after independence in 1980, the party is dishing out public funds in the name of paying school fees for poor children since its near defeat by the MDC in last June’s general election. Various other cash gifts funded from the state coffers have also been doled out to potential supporters ostensibly as funds for income-generating projects. The grand objective, said UZ political scientist Masipula Sithole, is to weaken and discredit the MDC and eventually throw it into a state of disarray.

Raftopoulos said ZANU PF and government strategists had been quick to capitalise on a vacuum created within civic society when most of its leaders joined the MDC at its launch in 1999. The analysts said the dominant state-owned media was playing a central role in the strategy which promotes pro-government civic leaders while deliberately blacking out voices of all those perceived to be anti-ZANU PF, crucially the MDC. The result, observed Raftopoulos, is that ‘civic society is now more divided and clearly less strong than it was six months ago’.

The trade union movement, once a formidable force that was the first to seriously challenge ZANU PF’s dominance during running battles for better living conditions for workers, has been crushed and rendered directionless.

The umbrella Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), unable to hold even its own congress as officials argue over whether or not to join an empty social contract with the government, has at best only managed feeble protests against harassment of farm workers by pro-government mobs. Neither has the ZCTU been able to protest the daily rises in prices of almost every commodity despite evident seething anger among consumers.

The churches, a powerful voice in the largely Christian country, have been equally split by the state’s propaganda and divide-and-rule tactics. After months of silence as the government disrupted the key agricultural sector by seizing farms and unleashing its supporters on farmers and workers under its fast-track land reforms, selected churches have resurrected to pronounce their support for the programme, which has already been ruled illegal by the country’s highest court. At least five white farmers have been murdered and several others injured since the government began its latest land seizures last year. Echoing government propaganda, the selected church leaders two weeks ago urged farmers whose land is being seized not to seek recourse in the courts. The Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian grouping in Zimbabwe, immediately distanced itself from the stance taken by the pro-establishment clerics, most of them little known in Zimbabwe.

’It is rather unfortunate,’ said Oskar Wermter, social communications officer of the conference of the Zimbabwe Roman Catholic Church’s Bishops, lamenting the split in the church. ‘It would be better if we spoke with one voice. We need to revisit the issue and see if the church could speak with a united and stronger voice.’

The media has not been spared either. ZANU PF’s divisive strategy has unleashed wide and acrimonious divisions between the independent and state-run media. The divisions were dramatised in Harare at the weekend when most state journalists boycotted a peaceful march called to protest the bombing of the Daily News by as yet unknown people a week ago. Journalists working for the government-owned papers and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation claimed that the demonstration, subsequently called off after police menacingly threatened to act against the protesters, was anti-government.

The judiciary, a key institution also targeted by the embattled party and government, showed last month the first signs of succumbing to the onslaught, with Chief Justice Gubbay publicly clashing with Judge President Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku. Justice Chidyausiku, known to be sympathetic to ZANU PF, accused his superior of causing a conflict between the judiciary and the executive over the land reforms. The enforced resignation last week of Justice Gubbay had not only accentuated the rift within the judiciary but also made the institution vulnerable to pressure from ZANU PF and its government.

From setting up rival residents and civic associations in Harare’s poor ghettos to promoting pro-government lecturers into influential positions at state universities and launching pro-ZANU PF ‘development’ lobbies, the onslaught by the ruling party and the government has been unrelenting.

’Divide and conquer is the tactic which is being orchestrated here,’ Sithole observed, echoing the views of most analysts. But Sithole said the strategy was not working as shown by the increasing use of violence to cow voters. Sithole said Zimbabweans would see through the cash gifts while the divide-and-rule technique would at best only split the top leadership of civic society and not the masses who are bearing the brunt of the economic meltdown. ‘ZANU PF itself realises that the carrot — that is the school fees and other cash gifts plus the divide-and-rule technique — will not work, hence the very long and hard stick,’ the respected UZ political analyst said. Raftopoulos said the highly coercive and oppressive methods being used by the government and ZANU PF would not win them broad consent from the people. ‘At best for them, it will lead to apathy and fear, which have always been an advantage to ZANU PF,’ he said. Sithole added: ‘Infiltrating and splitting the opposition without solving the economic hardships which are fuelling public discontent against ZANU PF is a non-strategy. Only a strategy that can infiltrate the economy and resurrect it is bound to work.’

Another interesting development this week: Simba Makoni, our Finance Minister, returned empty handed from meeting with the World Bank and IMF. ‘He (Makoni) was told to go and attend to the breakdown of the rule of law in the country, the need for a just, legal and transparent land reform programme first, before meaningful dialogue on resumption of financial aid could start,’ one senior diplomat said. Makoni, already back in Harare, is expected to give Mugabe and his Cabinet a frank briefing on his talks with Kohler and Wolfenson and what the government must do if it still wants any financial rescue from an increasingly hostile international community.

It wasn’t that long ago that Mugabe told foreign donors that they could shove their money ! We, as a country, are in dire straits, and yes, we could do with some help, but pressure needs to be put on our leaders to back down from the stand they have taken. If withholding aid and loans will have the desired effect, then so be it. All patriotic Zimbabweans are prepared to struggle through the next while, if there is seen to be light at the end of the tunnel.

If any of you have read John Hollaway’s new book, ‘All Poor Together”, you will see John’s analysis of the ‘aid’ situation in Africa. It is heavy reading, but if you can get your hands on a copy, it’s worth every cent. John is a Zimbabwean, who was described by a British journalist as a ‘crusty old Rhodie’. His book makes a lot of sense as he details how ‘aid’ never did any lasting good in Africa. Overseas donors have ploughed billions of dollars into Africa in the last 30 years, and Africa is more badly off than it ever was. Read the book !

That’s it for tonight folks.

Friday 9th February 2001

I thought I would update again tonight. It’s very cool here, and has rained on and off all day. Friends of my son arrived after lunch and said that streets in the northern suburbs are under water. We really have had a lot of rain this past week.

We are facing another fuel shortage, and this one is serious. By lunchtime today, most garages had run out. A friend, who is a garage owner, said he got fuel yesterday…it was finished by this morning…and he does not expect any more until late next week. He warned me that this shortage is going to be serious. I have a quarter of a tank of fuel – so let’s see how far I can make it stretch. I wasn’t in town at all today, but those who were said there were queues miles long, and a lot of garages had run out altogether. These regular fuel shortages affect the business community very badly. They also affect all the buses etc. and make life more difficult than it already is ! During the last serious fuel shortage, there were just no buses, and folk were walking miles and miles to work. This means getting up before 4 in the morning in some cases, and then having to repeat the journey after work in the evening ! We all know that things are going to get worse before they get better !

Yesterday, I mentioned the court order demanding that the police remove war vets from farms in the Hwedza district. Well, the government has publicly announced that it will completely disregard the last 6 such orders. Vice President Joseph Msika told reporters late yesterday that police and security personnel would not be used to carry out any evictions of black ‘demonstrators’ on farms. ‘There is no turning back. No courts will be allowed to stand in the way of a just resolution of the land question,’he said. Mugabe has repeatedly supported often-violent occupations of the farms, calling them a legitimate protest against whites' disproportionate ownership of land. Since 1980, the land reform program has been plagued by corruption and mismanagement, with many prime farms being shared out by politicians and their cronies. None of us are surprised by this latest defiance of the law. It has really got me worrying though. How far will ZanuPF go, I wonder, in it’s blatant disregard of law and order ? It seems there is no limit.

I have mentioned many times, that the salute of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) is a wave with an open hand. The ZanuPF salute is a fist, shaken in the air. Well…the government is considering a petition to ban the open hand salute, according to our State television. The report said that a group of ruling party lawmakers and fundamentalist christian clerics (?) said the MDC salute gave ‘political connotations to normal greetings and farewells. Waving hands is an international symbol of happiness created by God and using it on political grounds is a total violation of human rights.’
What absolute tripe !!!!! and to bring God into it to justify their warped thinking…!!! State television said the petition was drafted by three ruling party lawmakers and clerics from the Emakhandeni Church of Christ, a fundamentalist group in western Zimbabwe. An MDC spokesman was quoted as saying that the move was part of a ‘continuing clampdown on government opponents’.

A report by the Independent Audit Committee, (IAC) which is in the possession of the Zimbabwe Indpendent newspaper, says that our Electricity Supply Commission (ZESA) is corrupt to the core, and that there are millions of dollars missing. As far as I’m concerned, this comes as no surprise whatsoever, and just another in the long line of corruption cases that are surfacing regularly. At the centre of the investigation, where the loss of millions through theft and fraud is described as ‘business as usual’, are the top brass at Zesa including former transmission director Francis Masawi, executive chairman Sidney Gata and former boss Simbarashe Mangwengwende. The Zesa top brass has been on a collision course with the government-appointed audit committee after management ordered it to halt investigations into theft and fraud running into millions. Unnamed government officials and the Central Intelligence Organisation were also quoted by Gata as being privy to the rackets. The report has revealed that a number of middle and senior managers at Zesa were involved in fleecing Zesa of millions. The report has been sent to Mines and Energy minister Sydeney Sekeramai.
We law-abiding citizens have watched for years, as certain members of our government, civil service, parastatals etc. have got wealthier and fatter…on a civil servant’s wage ? Give me a break ! It seems that it eventually does ‘all come out in the wash’! It’s just a matter of time. One thing about all these revelations – there must be a lot of people out there quaking in their boots!

The government has come under attack from the president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), Danny Dube. He said it should concentrate on it’s core business of running the country, and stop interfering with the business community. Well-said Danny. I think this is the first time I have heard the ZNCC speak out so clearly ! (Correct me if I’m wrong). Dube, a banker, told business executives at a lunchtime meeting in Harare the ZNCC was taking a new direction and would not ‘sit while things get worse and worse’. He said: ‘We will be more pro-active and stop reacting to things which have already been decided, yet affect our operations.’ He was referring to the new monetary measures introduced by Dr Leonard Tsumba, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The business community described the measures as ‘largely meaningless’ because they do not tackle the exchange rate issue. He said the ZNCC was apolitical and, therefore, did not support the MDC or Zanu PF. Dube said: ‘Governments come and go, but the business community remains. Zimbabwe is currently facing hard times because of the bad economic situation. The country is facing its worst economic nightmare since independence. Inflation, interest rates, fuel shortages, impending food shortages, as well as lack of donor support because of poor international relations and arrogance have all characterised the country's policies’.
There are really loud rumblings of dissatisfaction over our forex situation. We just can’t get any! Businesses have been waiting weeks for forex from the banks, and they have now been told that they will have to apply directly to the Reserve bank. Any forex that comes in will go firstly to our fuel and energy suppliers…if there’s any left over, it will be shared out among the business sector.

Just a brief insert here from the British Telegraph. I have not seen this reported anywhere else, so will try to find out if it is fact or not.

Printing threat to paper that opposes Mugabe

The future of Zimbabwe's largest independent newspaper as a daily publication was thrown into doubt yesterday when a state-owned printing company abruptly announced that it was ending a deal to produce it. Last month, the Daily News's own press was wrecked by a bomb. The National Printing and Packaging Company came to its rescue by agreeing to share the printing with a smaller company. Natprint's withdrawal from the deal means the Daily News is expected to be reduced to three issues a week and may no longer be viable. Criticism of President Mugabe has made the Daily News Zimbabwe's biggest-selling newspaper and a target for constant harassment. - David Blair, Harare

If this is true, it will be a great pity ! Anybody out there have a spare printing press ? I will really miss my daily copy.

Please spare a thought for our farmers. They are still going through very hard times with the war vets on the farms. How they manage to keep going, I will never know. Please read the latest farm reports from the Commercial Farmers Union. I sometimes forget to give them a thought, then I read the reports and am always jolted back to reality.

Wednesday 14th February (Valentines Day – Yes…I got red roses !!!)

Time for another update.

The business community was in an uproar on Monday over the Reserve Bank’s announcement that all forex taken in by any bank has to be sold to the Reserve Bank. This means that no one else in Zimbabwe has any access to foreign currency. This announcement was made at the end of last week, and has caused the business community sleepless nights since then. The forex is needed to bail out the corruption-ridden Noczim (our fuel supplier), and also to pay Zimbabwe diplomats based abroad. Word has it that the diplomats have not been paid for months ! Many businesses started buying up local stock immediately, and a rush was reported on all imported goods. No…I didn’t rush out and stock up…but I am worried. Then, yesterday, we had a further announcement that the banking community has heavily criticized the announcement by the Reserve Bank, and they communicated their displeasure to the RBZ governor in no uncertain terms. The Reserve bank has backed down, and announced today that this measure will be in place only for a few short days, until the 15th February 2001 (this Thursday coming). Although this latest statement has brought some relief, I can feel a very strong undercurrent of anger and dissatisfaction growing. Some of my staff asked me what it would mean if we could no longer get foreign currency (as a business). I explained as best as I could that this would stop me from importing the goods I need to keep the business going. This would then result in me having to close some of the branches and retrench some of the workers (this would be a last resort). I stressed the importance of tightening of the belts, reducing wastage etc. and it is finally hitting home. My operations Manager had a meeting with all staff members at 5.00 p.m last night, and he too explained how serious our situation is. The staff questioned him in detail, on how the lack of foreign currency would affect us, and he explained in detail. They were stunned at the fact that they actually COULD lose their jobs through no fault of their own (nor Management). I had quite a few men coming up to me throughout today, saying that they will do their best to pull their weight through the next few months. It was very encouraging…but my heart was breaking for them. They are facing the very real threat of retrenchment - and they have finally realized it. And the awful thing is, those who have already been retrenched recently (throughout Zimbabwe) have no chance of finding another job in the near future (maybe even the long term future). I am really trying to bring all my experience into play here, to keep the business going. Our major stock item is paper – (A4 white bond – no, we don’t sell it, we print on it). I get it from suppliers who import it from South Africa. As at yesterday morning, I could only get my hands on 400 reams. I have been promised more by the end of this week. The business will use those 400 reams in 2 days. Without paper, I will have to close the doors. This is how serious things are at the moment. I manage 8 Branches, 2 in Bulawayo, and this involves a lot of manpower. Any advice from experts in business management would be most welcome. I don’t have all the answers, and I will appreciate hearing from anyone who thinks they have any good ideas.

The fuel situation has once again reached a critical stage. There are only 2 garages in Harare who are serving fuel today, and their queues were kilometers long by 5 am this morning. My Accountant put his car in the queue at 5.30am and it was still in the queue when I left work after 5 pm. We had left a driver in the car, to move it along, but the queue had not moved by lunchtime. On enquiring why the pumps had not been opened, he was told by the garage attendants that the garage management had heard there was to be price increase today, so they were not going to serve any fuel until they got confirmation of the new price. The Accountant took his place in the queue after we left work. I just hope he doesn’t have to sit there all night. I got home on fumes last night – I expected to run out all the way home. I planned to get the supper organised, and then go out and find a queue. I gave a lift home to a wonderful young man, who lives near me, and he joined us in watching the fuel gauge in anguish ! Not half an hour after I got home, he knocked on my front door, and introduced me to his mother whom I have never met. They then presented me with 25 litres of petrol. I was so overwhelmed, I nearly burst into tears ! When I asked her how much I owed her, she said “Nothing, just fill the container up again and return it when there is fuel”. She has restored my faith in my fellow Zimbabweans – and also become a new friend ! In times like these, we can’t have enough of them ! Thank you !

We have had so much rain in the last few weeks that everything is waterlogged. Some of the streets in the northern suburbs are under water. We had one of the worst storms of the season last night, we couldn’t even hear ourselves think ! So, of course I could not get on to the computer at all. At 6pm the electricity went off, and we assumed it was due to the storm (which was still raging at midnight). The power came back on at 8.30. We discovered in an announcement today, that it was NOT due to the storm at all – we are back to load-shedding ! So, it’s out with the candles once again. A friend asked this morning ‘Where else in the world would anyone put up with what we have ?’ I couldn’t answer ! I guess no-one would put up with this kind of thing in Europe or the US. But…this is Zimbabwe…and anything can happen ! Had any foreign government made the duff ups that our government has made, they would have been out on their ears years ago.

On to the issue of our Judiciary…pressure is now being put on two more Supreme Court Judges to resign. One of them, Justice Nick McNally has absolutely refused to bow to the pressure, and the other, Justice Ahmed Ebrahim has said he needs to consult with his family. ZanuPF has made it clear that they will NOT be satisfied until the full bench of 5 Justices is removed. They want more puppets in high places. This, as far as I can see, is an urgent matter on their agenda. The court cases contesting the results of 37 constituencies in our general election, began last week. You will remember that Mugabe banned these actions, and this banning was thrown out by the Supreme Court (2 0r 3 days before Chief Justice Gubbay was forced to resign). Should the MDC win the cases, they will find themselves with an almost 2/3 majority in the house !!! This will NOT be allowed by ZanuPF, and will, of course, be appealed against. These appeals will then be heard in the Supreme Court…hence the need for puppets on the Supreme Court Bench. After all, what good is a Supreme Court that will not sing & dance to every tune called by ZanuPF ! The forced resignation of Antony Gubbay has been strongly condemned by Law Associations in South Africa and Zambia. (At last, voices from across our borders !) Andres Van Vuuren, the Director of the Law Society of South Africa had the following to say, ‘It is with dismay that the Law Society of South Africa has learnt that the Robert Mugabe government has forced Zimbabwe’s Chief Justice to resign’. Van Vuuren said the matter had been compounded by impending government action against 2 other Supreme Court Judges. ‘The independence of the Judiciary is one of the cornerstones of a democratic society. Judges should be independent from government interference so that they can adjudicate on matters in a fearless and objective manner in any case brought before them’. Yesterday, Tuesday, while the cases were being heard in the High Court, hundreds of war vets and ZanuPF supporters tried to march on the High Court to disrupt the hearings. The Police set up road blocks and stopped them from entering the area ! So the hearings went ahead uninterrupted. I am following these hearings with great interest. The outcome could affect the balance of power in parliament, if Mugabe allows any results against ZanuPF to stand. I do not see this happening. These hearings could go on for months, and of course, the appeals will take even longer. The MDC candidates who are contesting the results, want the results to be declared null and void, and want by-elections held in the constituencies. This, if it goes according to plan, will cause a further reign of terror in the areas contested.

An MDC Member of Parliament, Mr Job Sikhala, has petitioned the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to probe Mugabe for human rights abuses. Job, his wife, and a maid, were dragged out of their home at 4 am on the 5th February by 5 men. They were severely assaulted, and Mrs Sikhala is pregnant. The men responsible told Job that they were under strict instructions from the highest office in the land. The instructions were that he would co-operate with them, or they would kill him. He has sent a 3 page letter to Kofi Annan, who has, up to now, remained silent on the Zimbabwe situation. Dear Job, do you think you will get a response. I hope you do, but I’m not holding my breath.

A very serious situation is developing here (yes, another one). Men dressed in army uniforms, and driven in army vehicles, are entering the high-density suburbs under cover of darkness, and are beating and intimidating people at will. These men have not proved by means of identification, that they are army personnel, and it is the general opinion that they are thugs dressed in army uniform. This is happening on a nightly basis, and our Police Force is very conspicuous by it’s absence. So many have been beaten and ‘accused’ of being MDC supporters. Yes, many are intimidated, but many more are so very angry. Morgan Tsvangira has accused the government of pushing the country into civil strife by provoking the nation into violence to justify the reintroduction of the emergency powers regulation. The emergency powers regulations basically give Mugabe the power to do anything he wants. These regulations are a carry over from pre-Independence days, and Mugabe has conveniently kept them on the statute books. Morgan thinks that Mugabe want to push the nation into a state of low intensity civil war, provoking the nation to take precipitate action, so as to find an excuse to impose a state of emergency and clamp down on dissent. We have to be very careful at the moment, not to give Mugabe the excuse that he is looking for. Mugabe is losing his grip on the people of Zimbabwe, and this has him panic-stricken and completely paranoid. The result of this panic and paranoia is the attempt by him and those under him, to completely subjugate the masses. This could get very messy.

I have just read this article which you all need to read ! I am copying it in directly as it is written

Philip de Bruin - Johannesburg - The Zimbabwean judiciary is a ‘bomb waiting to explode’. When it does – ‘and it will be soon’ - the whole country will be disrupted, and anarchy will reign.

Top Zimbabwean legal experts were reacting on Tuesday to an open declaration of war on all the country’s judges, and on white judges in particular, by the leader of the Zimbabwean organisation for war veterans, Chenjerai ‘Hitler’ Hunzvi.

Hunzvi, in an interview on Tuesday with the programme Monitor on Radio Sonder Grense, admitted that his organisation was behind death threats to judges.

In a conversation with Beeld on Tuesday afternoon, his attitude was even more militant: ‘We won’t stop at threats. We will act. We will ensure that they [serving judges] are kicked out. All of them. They murdered our brothers during the freedom struggle by hanging them’.

'There Will Be Action'

Responding to a question over what tactics he would employ to get rid of the judges, Hunzvi replied: ‘That is our secret. Wait and see. There will be action’.

Hunzvi’s threats and confessions elicited immediate strong reaction from jurists in Zimbabwe. Their demands include beefed-up security measures to protect judges.

Hunzvi is uncompromising in his demands for the ‘entire judiciary’ to resign, and for judges be replaced by people who fought in the ‘struggle for freedom’. His deputy, Peace Kiliwane, confirmed his statements: ‘We want all those judges out, immediately’.

More Judges May Resign

Hunzvi and his followers evidently have the support of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party, since the country’s chief justice, Judge Anthony Gubbay resigned last week, a year prior to the end of his term, after being accused by officials of serving the interests of the white minority.

More judges have also indicated that they would resign.

The international legal community have rallied in support of the threatened Zimbabwean judiciary. UN special representative for courts Param Cumaraswamy condemned the latest events in the strongest terms.

Similarly, the International Commission of Jurists and the South African Bar Council expressed strong criticism of Hunzvi and President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwean Law Society president Sternford Moyo said in reaction to Hunzvi’s threats that security for judges should be increased immediately. He would also probe the possibility of a criminal prosecution against Hunzvi, since ‘making death threats is a criminal offence’.

Law Society secretary Edison Musaboyane called Hunzvi ‘militant and unethical’.

'A Boiling Cauldron'

’The truth of the matter is that jurisprudence in Zimbabwe is a boiling cauldron waiting to explode. Hunzvi and his followers are allowed to say and do as they please, while the government refuses point-blank to act and restrict them.’

’It is clear to us that Hunzvi will not rest before the entire existing bench is disposed of, but particularly the white judges. This may be coupled with violence, since the government allows Hunzvi and his followers to take the law in their own hands.

’It is tragic that an open vendetta against a bench with such integrity is allowed. If there is an explosion, the whole of Zimbabwe will suffer and it could result in anarchy.’

Very worrying !

Wednesday 28th February 2001

I am still in Bulawayo, and will be for some time. My children are slowly recovering from what was a horrific accident. Bones can mend, thank God ! There were no head injuries or internal damage, so we have much to be thankful for. I will be here until they are all back at home, which will take weeks.

There is such a lot going on here at the moment, and I hope to be able to update you all in the next few days. This is just a brief stop at an Internet Cafe. My thanks to all those who have emailed. My mail bin keeps filling up and it will then bounce the emails back to you. I am trying to empty it at the moment by answering as many as I can in half an hour (and then I'm back to the hospital). God Bless you all and thanks for thinking of us.

Please check out the Zim Newspapers that are on line, and also John Robertson's reports to keep yourselves informed. If you go to M-Web Zimbabwe, there are links to all the papers etc.

Back as soon as possible.

Monday 19th March 2001

Hi folks. Its good to be back home and back online !

I am at home once again after a month in Bulawayo tending to my children. They are all well on the road to recovery, and I felt I could leave them at last. It has been the most worrying time, but it made me realise where my priorities lie, and also gave me a chance to realise how thankful I am for all the good things I have. My son-in-law came off traction today (a fractured pelvis and fractures of the acetabulum, also facial injuries);my daughter is confined to a wheelchair (fractured foot, ankle, and tib/fib)- she could walk on crutches but for the fractures of her shoulders & arms ! The children are fine, the youngest also came off traction today, his was a clean fracture of the femur. They are very, very lucky !!! We all realise it, and are indeed thankful ! None of their injuries will cause any permanent damage, and, with time, they will all be back to normal.

As for the situation here, nothing has changed and it has grown steadily worse in the 4 weeks that I have been away from home. I do have a lot to catch up on ! but will try to spread it over the next few days.

One awful thing that happened while I was in Bulawayo, was the murder of Gloria Olds (2 weeks ago). She was the mother of Martin Olds, a Bulawayo farmer who was murdered by war veterans. The farming community (and most of the district) was devastated. She was shot 15 times to her body. She was an old woman, defenceless - but it doesn't make any difference ! The Matabeleland farmers are going through a bad time at the moment with the war vets. Please read the latest CFU Farm reports.

We have no fuel whatsoever in Harare. Diesel has been unavailable for weeks, and a lot of businesses have come to a standstill. My husband & I managed to get fuel at the weekend in Bulawayo - enough to get us home - but there is nothing at all in Harare.

I have to admit that I rarely bought the paper while I was away, and I'm afraid the "Zimbabwe Situation" was the furtherest thing from my mind. I was back at work today for the 1st time in 4 weeks, and a member of staff commented "Bulawayo must have done you good, you've come back and you're not even angry about anything". Well.... that statement was a real eye-opener for me. I sat and had a good think about how angry I have actually been for so long. I started discussing it with other members of staff, and realised that it isn't just me that feels this way - they are ALL angry. We have become an angry and frustrated people.

I have emptied my email bin which was overflowing and bouncing all the messages back I believe. I do apologise. To all those who did manage to contact me, thank you so much for your prayers. I will be answering everyone as soon as I can.

Thursday 22nd March 2001

At last ! Time for a short update. I have had a very busy week at work (it’s not over yet), and have had to catch up on what has been happening around Zimbabwe. It doesn’t look very promising. It seems the whole country is grinding to halt. I think we will need a miracle to rescue us from total disaster.

A major crisis is the fuel situation. I am always saying that it is critical – well…I believe it has got beyond that. We, as a country, have not had any diesel for weeks, and it does not look as though we will be getting any in the near future. This has impacted on every sector of our society. The latest to suffer is the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). There is NO diesel to maintain our train services, and so thousands of travelers are stranded as the NRZ has suspended all but 2 of its passenger services. It is only running the Bulawayo/Chriedzi and the Bulawayo/Vic Falls trains. It has also suspended all of the goods trains except the Beit Bridge/Bulawayo train. This is a shocking state of affairs. The fuel shortage has affected businesses the length and breadth of the country. Wankie Colliery, Zimbabwe’s sole supplier of coal, has announced that it is going to scale down its operations, as is Ziscosteel. The list goes on and on. There has been a call for the Minister of Mines & Energy, Sidney Sekeramayi, to resign. Hear, hear !!!Our government is continually being criticized for its failure to come to grips with the economic decline, and the elusive way it handles the crisis. It needs to pay at least US$ 30 million before its major supplier, Kuwait based Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) will resume fuel supplies. This figure does not include the billions of Zim dollars still owed to other suppliers, including Sasol in South Africa. It seems our creditors are beginning to wake up to the fact that they could lose their money !!! (and probably will).A team from the IPG is in Zimbabwe at the moment.
Simba Makoni, our Minister of Finance, has actually admitted that the government is cash strapped and is frantically looking for foreign currency (along with the rest of us). That brings us to the next major crisis – foreign currency or the lack of it !!!

The forex situation is desperate – we can’t get any, anywhere. I personally know someone who paid Zim$113 per US$ the other day. Over 100 to 1 is common now on the ‘parallel market’ – funny, this used to be called the black market. On the official market the price is pegged at 55 to 1 – that’s if we could get some. Imports are becoming impossible – how do we pay ??? Local manufacturers are also feeling it as they cannot import the goods they need to manufacture. Each sector affects another, and each is watching the other as it slowly dies. No sector has the economic strength to pull another back from the brink of disaster. We all dance to the government’s dirge. We protest - and we are killed, maimed or deported for our protestations. We are told in today’s Daily News that Simba Makoni, our Minister of Finance has just had a meeting with the IMF requesting emergency funding to push Zimbabwe out of its economic crisis, but the IMF is not putting its hand in its pocket this time.

Another interesting article in today’s paper (the front page, in fact), is the story that our Foreign Affairs Minister is accusing Britain of a plot to overthrow our President. He described Britain as a ‘racist nation with sinister motives’. I have never heard such utter rubbish in all my life. Our Zanu PF ministers continually make the most irrational and ridiculous statements. The mind boggles !!!

On to the war vets. They continue to disrupt farming activities countrywide, and they are now interfering in civil society as well. Joseph Chinotimba has been appointed the new leader of the Harare Province of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (yes – quite a mouthful). I think his appointment has gone to his head ! On Monday, he stormed into a management meeting of Trinidad Industries here in Harare, and ordered the management to re-instate 30 workers who have been retrenched. The audacity ! All over the country the war vets have been closing down district councils, saying the workers are supporters of the MDC. They actually closed down 2 schools at Sawmills in Bulawayo this week, saying the teachers were teaching the students MDC slogans. Half of the teachers fled for their lives and haven’t been back at the schools since. This is allowed to happen. They continue to intimidate and physically beat up farmers and their workers, and it is allowed to happen. They have the backing of our president, so who can stop them – and at this present time, no-one is even trying.

Our biggest problem of all is, in fact, our president. It is time for some straight talking here. He really has to go. He is responsible to, and for this nation. He is causing its downfall. Everything that is going wrong in this country is his fault, and it’s about time he was called to answer for his shortcomings. There can be no hope for us as long as he is the president of this country. He has allowed the havoc on the farms; he encourages it. He has condemned our judiciary because they failed to toe his line, and he is doing his utmost to get rid of them. He has made it plain to all those who oppose him, black or white, that they will be made to pay, and he encourages his henchmen, the war vets and other thugs, to mete out the payment. His main concern is that he holds onto power at all costs, and he is destroying a country and its people in the process. How long ??? How long will we have to wait ????

Tuesday 27th March 2001

Hi to all ! I have been so busy lately - and have a lot of work ahead of me. Freesite (the guys who provide this site) are closing down their services, and I am having to move the whole site before the 1st April !!!! I am frantic ! and working very late every night to get it moved before they shut down. I will email all those on my mailing list to let them know the new address as soon as I can. I have another email address which I will put up on the new site. It is lorraine_in_zimbabwe@hotmail.com if any of you want to try it. The old email address will be running till the weekend. Very inconvenient, I know !

Zimbabwe is beautiful at this time of the year. The mornings are cool, days are warm. We have had so much rain everything is green and lush. I can't keep up with the garden ! I do seem a lot calmer of late - I think the Bulawayo trip really did get my mind off Zimbabwe & it's problems. That's not to say I am not concerned about us ! Never that ! I am just as frustrated as ever with our situation !

The war vets are now taking it upon themselves to start interfering with things that don't concern them at all. A group of them marched into the Harare Children's Home (yes - the home for orphaned and abandoned children) and they harassed the staff and children. It was a terrifying experience for all concerned. They then came back the following day and started their harassment all over again. No one seems to know what they wanted, and nothing has been done about it.

We have Joseph Kabila, the President of the DRC visiting us at the moment. He addressed Parliament today, and the streets were thronged with folk trying to get a look at him. It disrupted the traffic ! I listened to his speech in Parliament, and heard him say that the Zimbabweans who died in the DRC did NOT die in vain !!! Piffle !!!!! That is exactly what they did - DIED IN VAIN !!! I would like to copy in an email here that I received from the MDC.

"MDC Press

March 26, 2001

"Now Zimbabwe is posing as a champion of democracy of the DRC. We are persuaded to ask: for whose benefit is the war in the first place?

"We are not talking of individual deals and all the diamond mines that Zanu PF cronies have been promised. We need answers as to how the country as a whole will benefit from that war. There has been utmost secrecy and non-disclosure on the part of the Zanu PF government on salient issues about our intervention in the DRC. What will ordinary people have to show for our country's three years of engagement in this war?

"There are some facts we know. Families have lost their fathers - breadwinners at that. Others have lost their beloved sons and daughters - we are with them in their grief. We share their sorrow and cry the same tears they cry. The level of arrogance and insensitivity shown by the Zanu PF government heightens our anger. To this day we still do not know how many of our sons and daughters lost their lives in the battle front. Why is that a secret?

"We need to know the economic impact of the war and the multiplier effect in the economy. Last year alone we heard that the government was spending at least one billion a month in the first six months of the year. We want to know what the total expenditure in the war has been.

"On 29 August 2000 Finance Minister Simba Makoni told Parliament that $260 million was spent on the war in 1998, $3,9 billion in 1999, and $6 billion in the first half of 2000. These figures were viewed with scepticism, as many believe that as much as US$1 million a day is being spent to sustain this war. It goes without saying that while the rest of the population is starving, losing their jobs, and the fuel crisis threatens even more jobs, the government continues to pour more resources into the DRC for the benefit of a few individuals.

"Most importantly, we would like to know the value of the economic benefit from the war. Surely no material gain can justify such a high expenditure both in human lives and capital resources. Are the fruits of the war coming to Zimbabwe, or to individuals? Will ordinary soldiers' efforts, their sweat and blood bear fruit to their families and children and all ordinary Zimbabweans, or are these soldiers just sacrificial lambs to fatten the stomach's of the few?

"We demand answers as to what equity and property rights, title deeds and interests have been acquired by the Zimbabwean government in mines, farms and other interests in the DRC.

"Section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe clearly states that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces shall be used only for the purposes of defending Zimbabwe. The intervention in the DRC war was clearly illegal if we consider that parliament did not approve the deployment. The fact that Mugabe willingly sent troops to the DRC without Parliamentary approval illustrates his total disregard for Parliament.

"The MDC undertakes that under its government there will be responsible assignment of our forces, bearing in mind the urgent need to priorities our expenditure. These shall remain those that benefit the country as a whole, such as health, education and agriculture."

Back later

Sorry I had to cut and run, but there was lightning overhead and I refuse to lose another modem. Now, where was I ?

Yes, Kabila is visiting. He made his speech in Parliament and guess what - not one MDC member attended ! How's that ! I think they are going to get a serious rollicking for it, but I support them wholeheartedly. They object to Zimbabwe supporting the DRC, spending millions of our weak dollars every month on a war that has nothing to do with us. Any sane Zimbabwean will agree that we should NOT be in the DRC. We are fighting to survive here in Zimbabwe.

Corruption cases and investigations continue. It seems that every Tom, Dick & Ngoni has taken a bribe (in a big way) for something or other, or has stolen the funds, trusts, etc in his care, and it is all surfacing. This is good news for those of us who REFUSE to allow ourselves to be corrupted, but it doesn't really help to know we are among a den of thieves. The bribery system is really bad here. You can get anything you want, I have discovered (even forex), if you are prepared to pay the official concerned. I refuse, and I know there are many others who stand with me on this here in Zim. There has got to come a time when we say NO, NO MORE !

The cases challenging the election results are being heard at the moment, and already a few of them have been dismissed. The winning ZanuPF candidates who have testified claim they knew nothing of violence & intimidation during that period. Unbelievable ! So appeals are being made, and will be heard in the Supreme court as I expected. I am following these cases closely, as to me they will reflect how independent our judiciary actually is. We'll see.

Discontent seems to be growing by the day. Prices are now unbelievably high. I will put in some grocery prices after I do my shopping at the weekend. Everyone is grumbling - even staunch ZanuPF members must be suffering with the cost of living the same as everyone else. As I drive along Samora Machel Avenue (Jameson Ave.) to work each morning, I have noticed a growing number of folk, adults and many schoolchildren, walking ! The bus fares are so high, that they have no choice. The lack of fuel doesn't help either, as our public transport system is in a shocking state. Trains have ceased to run altogether, but I have heard that a consignment of diesel has come in and a limited service will be offered shortly.

I just need to mention our health care system here. When my children had the accident, they were taken by passing vehicles to a Gweru hospital. My husband & I got the message about the accident at 6 pm, and we rushed off to Gweru in the middle of a horrific storm. The roads were so bad that it took us almost 5 hours to do what should have been a 3 hour trip. When we got to the clinic, the whole family was lying in ICU, doped up to their eyeballs to relieve the pain, but they had received no treatment whatsoever. I was horrified, and of course I went ballistic. I discovered that there were no x-ray facilities working in Gweru, and even if there had been facilities, there was no-one capable of treating the injuries. Well, I can't describe the night we had. It was too awful, knowing that they all needed immediate attention, and they JUST DIDN'T GET IT ! This was a medical emergency. We arranged for ambulances at daybreak the next morning and we transported the whole family by ambulance to Bulawayo. By this time, my daughter and son-in-law were nearly demented with the pain from their injuries. The ambulance crew were marvelous and we got them through to the hospital in Bulawayo by 10am. The whole experience was very traumatic for all of us. To see your children screaming in agony, and know that there is no immediate help for them is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. It is very alarming to think that they would have died had their injuries been life threatening. It scares me ! While I was away for the 4 weeks, 3 members of my staff lost family members. These people were all taken to government hospitals, and died ! No, they were not suffering from HIV. The staff members were given no reasonable explanations as to the causes of the deaths of their loved ones; they just accepted this, and took the bodies home for burial. I am appalled ! They gave me detailed explanations of the events leading up to the deaths, and I can honestly say there was neglect in all three cases.

An interesting article follows. This was emailed to me.

Hon Phil Goff

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Media Statement

EMBARGOED UNTIL MIDNIGHT MONDAY 19 MARCH 2001

GOFF VOICES CONCERNS OVER FIJI & ZIMBABWE TO COMMONWEALTH WATCHDOG

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff has expressed New Zealand's concern about events in Fiji and Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth's watchdog on democracy, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG).

Mr Goff has written to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat Don McKinnon on the eve of CMAG's latest meeting in London.

"I have told Mr McKinnon that New Zealand is disappointed that the opportunity to immediately return to Fiji to a constitutional and democratic government has been lost and with it the chance of a government of national unity which may have been able to help reconcile differences within the community.

"New Zealand is concerned that the former interim administration declared illegal by the Court of Appeal has effectively been legitimised and appointed as a caretaker government. The most constitutional approach would have been the reconvening of Parliament and letting it decide who should govern until elections are held.

"The path chosen by President Iloilo appears to give only lip service to the Court of Appeal ruling and at best is on the outer edges of constitutionality.

"I have told Mr McKinnon that New Zealand is not yet ready to life sanctions against Fiji. Suspension of the sanctions will need to await clear evidence of early elections and an unequivocal commitment by the caretaker government to a democratic outcome at the ballot box.

"I hope that CMAG is able to send a clear message expressing concerns about the doubtful constitutionality of the caretaker government. The Commonwealth should emphasise that Fiji's return to full membership of the Commonwealth will depend on it's successful return to a constitutional democracy," Mr Goff said.

The minister has also expressed to Mr McKinnon his concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe.

Mr Goff supported CMAG's concerns already expressed over ongoing violence, loss of life, illegal occupations of property, failure to uphold the rule of law and political intimidation in the run-up to Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections.

"There have been further reasons for profound disquiet in recent months. Reported human rights abuses include serious threats to Opposition MP's, apparent tolerance of violence, murder, intimidation and a growing climate of fear.

"I am concerned by reports of interference with the independencies of the judiciary and the reticence of law enforcement authorities to investigate or act upon intimidation directed at citizens who are not supportive of the regime.

"The independence of the press has also been compromised by the failure to protect newspapers which dare to be critical of the government while there has been the expulsion of British and South African journalists.

"CMAG should call for an immediate end to these abuses. New Zealand supports the early dispatch by the Commonwealth Secretariat of a fact finding team to Zimbabwe. CMAG should then meet to review its finding and formulate the next steps for commonwealth action. This might include assistance to Zimbabwe to move away from the disastrous political and economic course which it is following or sanctions such as suspension from the Commonwealth if it does not." Mr Goff said.

Wednesday 28th March 2001

Had to put in these two interesting articles.

R.W. Johnson
National Post
JOHANNESBURG - As international pressure builds on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to cease his human rights violations and observe the rule of law, the dread possibility now exists that the ailing 77-year- old President will, in a desperate attempt to retain power at any costs, seek to emulate the "re-peasantization" tactics used by Pol Pot in Cambodia.
Ever since last June's elections, Mr. Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party has waged a low-intensity war aimed at destroying the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. In the Harare townships -- which went massively MDC -- this has led to widespread and indiscriminate assaults by the army and police. A similar, though less publicized, campaign is underway in the countryside, where particular ferocity has been used to try to root the MDC out of areas it penetrated in June. Every night for more than a week, MDC officials have been paraded on Zimbabwe TV to renounce their party, explaining that they understand that really the MDC is a party for whites and they are now rejoining Zanu-PF.
The reality is, such MDC activists are told they and their families will be killed if they do not renounce the party. Having done so, their next task is to identify all other key MDC members in their district -- and then go house to house, leading the whipping and beating of such people until they, too, renounce. Already there have been many hundreds of such public renunciations.
Even these measures may soon be dwarfed by the retribution the Mugabe government seems to be planning for the MDC-voting masses of the Harare townships. The Harare city council was put under direct government management two years ago as a result of gross corruption and the government has since refused to hold the local elections there to which the constitution commits them. Using its continuing powers, the government has announced it will demolish the estimated 145,000 backyard shacks that have long been an integral part of township life, providing accommodation for an extra million people and rental incomes for those in whose yards the shacks are built. As if to show it is serious, the government has brought in the bulldozers and destroyed several thousand unofficial township shops -- the "tuck shops" on which many township residents depend.
The idea seems to be to create massive insecurity among the whole township population, driving people into the countryside and forcing them to rely on the farm plots Zanu-PF will offer them from land taken from white farmers. For some months, it has been possible for blacks to buy certificates giving them ownership of little parcels of land on white farms. The take-up has been small, however, for the certificates have no validity in the eye of the courts or the farmers who still have title to the land -- which is in any case often already occupied by self-styled "war vets." Those who have paid money for such certificates have generally gone away disappointed once they have visited "their" plots.
In effect, the government seems to have decided to force town-dwellers en masse toward taking up such land grants and thus pouring into the countryside and out of the MDC-controlled towns. For if the back-garden shacks really are destroyed, the million people thus rendered homeless will have little option but re-ruralization. Many house-dwellers in the townships, thus deprived of the rents from the shacks in their back-gardens, may also be pushed in the same direction.
If implemented, this would involve a massive de-population of urban areas and a forced "re-peasantization" of the kind attempted by the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. This prospect is so dire, many commentators wonder whether even the attempt to achieve it might not lead to an explosion of violent protest great enough to allow the government to decree a state of emergency -- under which it could ban the MDC and detain its leaders without trial.
Already the European Union and United States are discussing possible sanctions against the regime and the Commonwealth is preparing to send a fact-finding team to Harare. But Mr. Mugabe has now again asked for help from the International Monetary Fund -- despite having earlier denounced the IMF as imperialist -- and it is possible he will attempt to blackmail foreign donors into resuming aid in return for holding his hand on "re-ruralization." Donors would not normally allow themselves to be drawn into such tactics but these are not normal times in Zimbabwe.

Thanks Joanna - and another one from the Star in Canada.

In Zimbabwe, change is just a word . . .
Rosie DiManno
COLUMNIST

IN ZIMBABWE, two decades removed from independence and white supremacist rule, 70 per cent of the country's rich arable land is owned by a 1 per cent white minority population.
That's 60,000 whites in a nation of 12 million blacks.
How did they get the land? They homesteaded it less than a century ago. They seized what they wanted, the best of Zimbabwe, and declared it their own. They planted themselves, ignoring traditions of tribal land that had been communally farmed ever since the Shona and Ndbele had migrated into the region in the dawn of African settlement.
The tribes were not compensated for their land. The indigenous people were ousted by British and South African colonizers - individuals staking claim to spectacularly vast estates, thousand-acre farms - relegated to the most miserable of village plots, barren tracts that barely supported subsistence farming.
By what right? Because they were white, they were civilized, they had the backing of a great imperial power.
This was the reality of Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was known before independence in 1980. When Rhodesia became a pariah state, isolated by Great Britain and the rest of the world, the racist government of Prime Minister Ian Smith further subjugated the black majority. Only South Africa supported Smith, with money and arms, through two decades of brutal warfare against a guerrilla army, until even Pretoria grew weary of the fight and threw in the towel.
Recent history, the ugliness of it, cannot be thrown out, holus-bolus, when addressing what's happening in Zimbabwe now.
Mugabe is corrupt. His ZANU-PF party is corrupt. How fitting that party headquarters in Harare are located on Rotten Road.
The country is bankrupt and teetering on the verge of complete collapse, with a debt of $105 billion. But that doesn't automatically cast the Movement for Democratic Change - the first vigorous opposition Mugabe has ever faced, and narrow losers in last June's first democratic parliamentary elections in 20 years - on the side of the angels.
The problem with MDC is this: Despite being led by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, despite taking 57 seats in the election (most, but not all, of its candidates were black), despite appealing hugely to an urban black electorate, this is still a party designed for and by whites.
When I visited MDC party headquarters in Harare last June, the only black face visible was the security guard outside the front entrance. Within, it was a sea of pale political strategists, organizers, media spinners and volunteers. Described as a coalition of trade unionists, intellectuals, business people, religious groups and Zimbabwe's white population, MDC prospered largely by liege of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represented 4,500 farmers, only a handful of them white.
Media coverage of the elections - and in particular dispatches filed by British reporters, stories picked up all around the world - did a good job of demonizing ZANU-PF, but then they had a lot to work with. When one of the party stalwarts is a wildly anti-white nutbar who called himself Hitler and had been investigated for allegedly torturing MDC supporters, ZANU-PF did a good job of shooting itself in the head.
Four white farmers were slain in the weeks leading up to the two-day vote. One of those farmers had been a grotesquely abusive bully who'd served in the Grey Scouts - a vicious and vilified reconnaissance unit that fought to the bloody end during the Liberation War - and had been in trouble with police for shooting suspected poachers on his property. Yet he, along with the three other white victims, was eulogized and sanctified by the British press.
While the violence and intimidation tactics adopted by the pro-ZANU War Veterans Association was thoroughly documented, little was made of the abuses inflicted by MDC supporters, including eight party organizers who appeared in court on the same day, charged with fomenting violence and intimidating voters.
The war veterans had good reason for taking unilateral action against land owners. They'd fought for all those years, in hideous circumstances, for independence. And, except for Mugabe's cronies, they got nothing for it. No land, meagre pensions, dwindling respect from a new generation of blacks, especially those living in the cities. And still 60,000 whites owned 11.86 million hectares of prime farmland. Naturally, Mugabe made land redistribution its main election issue in an appeal to rural voters.
So the war vets squatted.
Ignoring court orders for their forcible evacuation - police refused to move against the well-armed squatters - the vets hunkered down on pieces of some 1,500 white-owned farms.
Most are still there.
In the past year, Mugabe and ZANU-PF have continued to wage war against MDC. One tactic, according to reports, has been to buy off key MDC officials by bestowing on them land and privilege. A steady parade of MDC members have gone on TV, of late, to renounce the party and proclaim their return to ZANU-PF. Newspaper dispatches claim these epiphanies have also been obtained through violence and threats to MDC supporters and their families. Which may be true. But I have no faith in the reporting of non-Zimbabwean journalists.
It's been further suggested that Mugabe is ushering in a Mao-style - some prefer the Pol Pot analogy - ``re-peasantization'' program, by threatening to abolish 145,000 backyard shacks in the Harare townships, where up to a million black Zimbabweans live. Forcing them into the countryside would undercut MDC support in the capital, where the party enjoyed much of its electoral success. Mugabe is himself facing presidential elections next year and Tsvangirai - who didn't win a seat in the parliamentary election - intends to run against him.
The thing is, foreign observers continue to predict colossal violence will be unleashed in Zimbabwe. Some sound as if they would welcome such a purging, as if the bloodying of Zimbabwe is worth the crushing of Mugabe and ZANU-PF.
But Zimbabwe didn't convulse in protest and bloodshed during the elections. It was an almost stunningly peaceful, orderly experience.
Some were disappointed by that. It didn't serve their purpose.
In geopolitical terms, some still consider black lives cheap and expendable.
Tell me what's changed?

Thanks to the sender of this article.

Saturday 31st March 2001

It’s Saturday morning – cool and overcast – looks like we are in for MORE rain !

I have been working frantically to transfer this website to the new server. I am not finished yet, there are a lot of photographic pages that have not been moved, but the NEWS pages should be fully operational by this evening. This website has been a part of my life for so long, that I feel quite panicked at the thought of the new server, and whether the new site will function properly etc. I also feel a strong obligation to those of you who visit regularly. You have supported me for so long by reading my reports and then emailing. Your friendship means so much to me and I thank you.

So…o…o…o

…from tomorrow morning – Sunday 1st April – the address of the website will be….(drum roll)

http://members.fortunecity.com/lorraine8/

My new email addresses are

lorraine_in_zimbabwe@hotmail.com

lorraine_inzimbabwe@email.com

If you are a regular, please write the above down. Once this site has been closed by Freesite, you will have nowhere to link to, to get to the new website. I am going to plead with Freesite to let me have one page so that I can redirect visitors, but it may not happen. Thanks.

I would like to ask you to bear with me at the new site. You may find that links are not working properly – but please remember that I am hard at it, changing all the links etc. There are also quite a few graphics that are not showing – I am getting help with those. I was only given a weeks notice to move the website, and it has seems like a mammoth task ! Probably a piece of cake for those of you who are experienced !!!

Now, on to some news.

A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Gloria Olds, Martin Olds mother (Martin was murdered by war vets in April last year). She was 72 years old, living alone on her farm. She was not a threat to anyone; she was murdered because she was a white farmer.

The Provincial Governor of Masvingo Province, Josaya Hungwe addressed about 1000 people at the Masvingo civic hall. He said that a total war would be declared if the people did not vote for ZanuPF. He told them, publicly, and I quote,

If you do not vote for ZanuPF in the coming mayoral election, people are going to be killed. I want to tell you that some one is going to die. I want you to repeat what you did in Bikita. We lost the seat to the MDC and we corrected our mistakes and we regained it. I would like the people of Masvingo to make history by voting for ZanuPF.

Utterances of this kind are not uncommon. We are growing used to them. Last year we had Mugabe, when he opened the Pungwe Water Project in Mutare, saying, "Those who try to cause disunity among our people must watch out because death will befall them." I used to get so angry when I heard statements like this, but I have realized that ZanuPF knows no other way but violence. Violence brought them to power; they maintained their hold on the country by violence – remember Matabeleland in the 80's; thousands were murdered and as yet no-one has been made to answer for their deaths – and they continue to use violence as their only means of retaining power. For them, there is no other way.

There was an outcry, as I expected, over the MDC’s boycott of Joseph Kabila’s speech in Parliament. ZanuPF had a field day ! The war in the DRC is costing this country so much. I cannot believe that we CONTINUE to plough our money into the DRC while we, here in Zimbabwe, stand by and watch every sector of our economy struggling to survive. ZanuPF condemned the MDC boycott as "shameful". Where is THEIR shame at the death of Gloria Olds, or the other innocent members of our society who have been brutally murdered ? Where is their shame at the mass terror campaign which they continue to wage against their own people ? Where is their shame at the poverty they have caused ? We have yet to hear from them – we have yet to hear that they regret even one death ! Shameful indeed !

I want to mention the state of our roads here. They are falling apart. There are potholes everywhere – from small dips to huge craters (and I’m talking HUGE – some of them over two feet deep and spreading across the width of the road). I admit we have had a lot of rain, and the council is trying to get them repaired, but they don’t seem to be making any headway. Every journey is a challenge – Will I hit a pothole ? Will I get stopped at a police checkpoint? Will I get car-jacked? Will I hit stray chickens or goats – or pedestrians? Will I run out of fuel? I would make an excellent rally driver!

I was in a fuel queue the other day. It was a short queue, and I only had to wait an hour to get my tank filled. Believe me, an hour is not a long time to spend waiting, and I considered myself very lucky. I spent the hour observing the queue, and the people in it. There were folk in the latest Mercedes, and there were folk in an old Datsun (held together by wire). There were young people, and very old people – all the colours of the rainbow. There were even two gardeners pushing lawnmowers (I had a good laugh at that but didn’t have my camera on me!) People smiled politely at each other, some got out to chat to friends further up in the queue; some read books or did their knitting. Businessmen paced up and down impatiently – they were losing time and money. By the time I had been in the queue for 45 minutes, and was nearing the front, there must have been over 100 cars behind me. It struck me how we have come to accept the changes that are taking place in Zimbabwe. No…not changes for the better – there are none of those – changes in our lifestyles, our priorities, our outlooks, our plans for the future, our allegiances, our habits, even our purses !

Complacency is our worst enemy, we must continually fight against it. We must NOT accept negative change ! We need to be kicking and screaming against it ! I will NOT accept that this is to be our lot in life ! I am holding on to the hope that Mugabe will be ousted in the Presidential elections (or be forced to back down even before then). It is all I have to cling to. There is no life-raft coming along to rescue us from the troubled waters; no soft landings here ! I do not for one moment think that ZanuPF will allow their power to be taken from them without a fight, so I anticipate an increase of the terror tactics we have seen since this time last year. We have to save ourselves, we have no-one else to turn to, and it is my hope and prayer that all Zimbabweans will stand firm in our resolve to fight back, and make a better future for our children.