MILITARISATION OF ZIMBABWE: Does the opposition stand a chance?

When Major General Vitalis Zvinavashe and Air Marshall Perence Shiri announced in March 2002 that;

"… let it be known that the highest office in the land is a straitjacket whose occupant is expected to observe the objectives of the liberation struggle. We will, therefore, not accept, let alone support or salute, anyone with a different agenda that threatens the very existence of our sovereignty, our country and our people."

It became clear that the military had diverted from its constitutional mandate into civilian politics. As we brace for another presidential election there are many questions we ask ourselves; is the 2002 threat not going to be sent out again? If it does what would be the consequences? How far anyway is the army involved in civilian politics? It is the objective of this article to explore the levels of militarization in Zimbabwe and probably give a prognosis of the future political climate.

In 1980, when Zimbabwe got its independence from Britain there were more than 65 000 fighters from ZANLA, ZIPRA and RSF who were waiting to be integrated into the Zimbabwe National Army whose capacity then was a mere 30 000. What it meant then was that there arose the need to demobilize and rehabilitate the other 35 000 soldiers. The first program Soldiers Employed in Economic Development (SEED) was a total failure. Later the John Shonhiwa led Demobilisation Directorate decided to award a package of $185 per month for two years to each demobilized soldier. A combination of factors like lack of financial discipline and proper investment training resulted in most beneficiaries reverting back to poverty within five years. Thus although the government had managed to integrate the 35 000 into civilian life most had to rely again on the same government for survival. The problem of poor demobilization program culminated in the War Victims Fund, the 1997 Gratuities and the 2000 farm invasion. Ultimately though, this program produced a crop of perpetual government dependencies who the government also symbiotically used and continues to use to sustain its cling to power.

At the height of the ZIPRA/ZANLA clashes between 1980 and 1987, ZANU PF created the Zimbabwe People's Militia which was typically a vigilante. It comprised of mujibhas and zvimbidos of the liberation struggle and the ZANU PF Youth Brigade. This branch was under the command of the Deputy Minister of Defence and at one point was trained by the notorious North Koreans infamous for the ruthless Fifth Brigade. It does not come as a surprise that ZPM has been implicated in the Matebeleland massacres of that time. The total number trained was estimated to be 20 000.

The government reintroduced the National Youth Service in the new millennium. The purpose of the training although the government claims is noble was specifically to consolidate power. The curriculum of the program involves basic military drills and at most the more advanced military ideology similar to that propagated during the liberation war. In 2005 Deputy Minister of Youth Development and Employment Creation Saviour Kasukuwere announced that 18 000 youths had graduated and absorbed by the government. Coupled to the ministerial objective of producing 6 000 graduates per year it extrapolates to about 30 000 graduates to date.

The Zimbabwe National Army and the Zimbabwe Republic Police have in total recorded a voluntary retirement of about 15 000 members since 1997.
What then do these figures mean to Zimbabwe? If you add up 35 000 war veterans, 20 000 ZPM, 30 000 from National Youth Service and 15 000 retirees we have a total of 100 000 civilians who have at least basic military education and training. This number, add 35 000 from ZNA, 5000 from Air Force of Zimbabwe, 25 000 from ZRP, 10 000 from Prisons and about 15 000 from CIO it means we have at least 190 000 people in Zimbabwe who have a basic understanding of military language!

At the level of leadership and policy-formulation there is need to also explore the level of involvement of the military in strategic entities that strictly deal with civilians. We have many cases, below are just some notable examples.

The Minister of Energy and Power Development is Rt Lieutenant General Mike Nyambuya. Rt Brigadier-General Ambrose Mutinhiri is the Minister of Youth Development and Employment Creation. Ministry of Transport has Rt Colonel Hubert Nyanhongo as Deputy Minister, whilst National Railways of Zimbabwe has Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba and Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai as Board Chairman and CEO respectively. At Grain Marketing Board there is Rt Colonel Samuel Muvuti as CEO. Permanent Secretary for Industry and International Trade is Rt Colonel Christian Katsande. Justice Chiweshe who leads the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) is a former Advocate-General in Zimbabwe National Army. The Attorney General Sobuza Gula-Ndebele is a Retired Colonel. Brigadier General Gibson Mashingaidze and Rt Lt Colonel Charles Nhemachena are both with the Sports and Recreation Commission.

What do these appointments mean to Zimbabwe?

Food (GMB) - ZANU PF controls
Transport - ZANU PF controls
Energy, fuel, Power - ZANU PF controls
Industry, Trade - ZANU PF controls
Sport - ZANU PF controls
Youth - ZANU PF controls
Attorney General - ZANU PF controls
Elections - ZANU PF controls

In the Joint Operations Command , there are Ministries of Defence, Finance, State Security, Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs. The military therefore controls the finances in one way or the other. Even the foreign policy is dictated by the military and not parliament, that's why there are a number of military men on diplomatic missions- Rt Major General Jevan Maseko in Cuba and Rt Brigadier Elsha Muzonzini in Kenya to name a few.

The question we pose to ourselves then is: in a country of nearly 200 000 military people, in a country whose public sector is run by the military, where does the common man fit? Is there a possibility of civil participation in the country?

This predicament compels one to pose and think of the state of the opposition in Zimbabwe. Where exactly on this well-oiled military setup can an opposition party hope to paralyse the system. Are democratic options in Zimbabwe feasible?

Can the civilians of this country go and impose their right to vote on an institution controlled by the military, funded by the military, run by the military, with the military fielding a military man (Commander-in-Chief) in the elections?

The picture does not look good yet I am compelled to commend MDC for struggling against the military with bare hands, NCA for provoking and outrunning the lion every day, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights for trying to prove how wrong the judge was for killing a man and prosecuting himself before acquitting himself, ZINASU for scaring the lion with the cover of a book and the whole of the civil society for standing up to the military junta. It is time to bury the hatchet and be one!

The Struggle Continues


Freeman Forward Chari

Secretary General
Zimbabwe Youth Movement

ZIMBABWE: Choosing between two devils

When two devils at the table to discuss the appropriation of the boot it becomes apparent that the victim himself is about to be stripped and sucked to the satisfaction of the vampires. Whilst the prey is struggling to survive the monsters engross themselves in a struggle to clandestinely outmaneuver each other regarding the loot. The bottom-line however; is that the victim is at the mercy of the devil; so are the people of Zimbabwe .

The arrogance shown by the elitists parties in Zimbabwe – ZANU PF and MDC- in the resolution of the current crisis does not only confirm the widely held perception amongst the youths and the masses that both parties are the same only differing on players. Their ultimate motive is to milk and plunder the people of Zimbabwe in pursuit of unrealistic principles. It becomes a maze to try and choose the better of the two devils especially in view of the upcoming elections in Zimbabwe .

It might be necessary to analyze the two parties to see which one could be a better evil than the other. ZANU PF (The Patriotic Front as represented by people who went to the Lancaster House Conference in 1979) initially was made up of people whose conscience was driven by the unconcealed wish to free Zimbabwe ; nevertheless when freedom finally came, many found it hard to come to terms with it. They had misconstrued the meaning of the very word they had used for most of their lives. Some thought freedom meant shooting whites (Tekere), some thought freedom was the ability to take whatever one wanted at whatever time without being accountable to anyone, (all those implicated in the Willowgate Scandal etc); some obviously because of the comfort with which it brought thought that freedom is an asset which can be debited to one’s ledger and so began to view it as a personal fortune guaranteeing monopoly ( Mugabe, Zvinavashe of the straightjacket fame etc) we might forgive these as senile people but what of those who are still perpetrating abuses on their people.

It might be a waste of time to draw attention to all the crimes the ruling class is committing against the people of Zimbabwe yet it reminds me of Steve Biko,

“When, I turn on my radio, when I hear that someone in Pondoland forest was beaten and tortured, I say we have been lied to: Hitler is not dead. When I turn on my radio and I hear that someone in jail slipped off a piece of soap, fell and died I say that we have been lied to: Hitler is not dead.”

Maybe one needs to add a few instances to make this applicable to Zimbabwe :

“ When, I turn on my radio, when I hear that murderers were pardoned for killing people during the 2002 elections, I say we have been lied to: Hitler is not dead. When I turn on my radio and I hear that the only rational minister in this government died while bathing in a hotel, I say that we have been lied to: Hitler is not dead he is probably sitting in an office in Harare !”

Now the Movement for Democratic Change is again another collection of elitist personalities whose existence is influenced by envy of the ZANU PF looting system. It typifies the very aspects which ZANU PF is guilty of. It remains a fact that MDC is a Western sponsored party. Whilst there is virtually nothing wrong with getting sponsorship from anywhere in the world it is its blatant association with the well-known proponents of White supremacy that makes me and many of the people of Zimbabwe suspicious of this party. I am bound by extrapolation of logic, to conclude that the devil is about to reincarnate; that is if one plus one equals two then two plus one should obviously be greater than two. In this regard if a small devil joins with another small devil we have a bigger devil; what if they join with another small devil again? That is MDC to us.

Let me elucidate on that; the way Morgan Tsvangirai handled the senate election impasse in his own party in 2005 typifies the behavior of a despot and thus I do not like despots because they are evil. So we have a small monster in him. That’s one.

The natural behavior of the whites in Zimbabwe was known to be purely and typically in perpetuance of the white supremacy premise. For example, a visit to Triangle Limited in the Lowveld in 1996 could have shown you what I mean. All whites regardless of posts or qualifications stayed in the low density company suburbs and mind you some where boilermakers like blacks who stayed in Section 6. They went to Triangle Country Club free of charge whilst the black workers had to fork out more than double their salaries to be allowed in. They went to Collin Saunders Hospital which had an elite section for first-class employees (which all whites were) but blacks had to go to a different facility within the same yard with a proportion of 30 patients to one doctor. They had their own primary school and their children would be sent to school by the company yet those who actually had nothing had to pay fees for their children at low class schools like Dunuza and Ngwindi. This alone shows how skewed these people were and thus they qualify to be small devils.

Morgan Tsvangirai came out in the open on national TV soliciting for funds from these same whites! And for the record one of the meetings for the formation of MDC was held in Triangle. Now today, Morgan is leading a band wagon which includes an American trained robotics professor and a convicted thief and fraudster, around the western world (another devil in the eyes of Africans) soliciting for assistance to take over the country. God knows where we are headed for.

Now given the above state of affairs and the status quo plus the meeting of the devils under the initiative of another failure who cannot even see that Azania is still under the manacles of apartheid what can a common man expect? Can he expect that when the two devils sit down to talk they would choose to remove each other’s menacing teeth for the benefit of the masses of Zimbabwe or rather they would choose to sharpen them in anticipation to devour more from them?

Having said this, I at a personal level, am a proponent of a People’s Movement. A movement that is purely mass driven and clear on its dealings with the people of Zimbabwe . A movement whose drive is to specifically align the growth of the country to the development of its people. This same movement should be clear on its dealings with the whites of this country, that:

1) Zimbabwe is a plural society whose growth and sustenance is attributable to the efforts of all races in the country.
2) Zimbabwe belongs o blacks as does Britain to whites and that all whites who are Zimbabwean remain so on terms set out by the blacks in the same way that blacks in Britain or any other white man’s country live on terms spelt out by them.

This obviously should not be misconstrued to mean that we are anti-white, No, No! Africans are the natural inhabitants of Zimbabwe and therefore are the owners; whites are always welcome as long as they prescribe to the dominion of Africans!

This movement should definitely exclude protagonists of the current spheres. In other words we cannot risk the dirt on the hands of both ZANU PF and MDC. For the record, all personalities who are sustaining themselves through the delicacies brewed from the current crisis (I mean the so-called civil society which is not so civil) should if possible be excluded from the process. First to be excluded also are all those who once caused pain and suffering to the masses of Zimbabwe especially the bamboozled former Minister of Propaganda!

Finally it would be foolhardy to think that the movement would, if formed today be in a position to participate in the 2008 election. Nevertheless it can influence the course of events in a manner never thought of in Zimbabwe . It could be the only medium for the people to express their disregard of both ZANU PF and MDC: maybe a mass boycott may do!


Freeman Forward Chari

Former University of Zimbabwe SRC Chairman and currently Secretary General of Zimbabwe Youth Movement.

Free-ZimYouth Comrades with Peter Tatchell
The march to South African Embassy
with a coffin


LONDON - The pressure group Free-Zim Youth(UK) marched and danced on the streets of London and staged a demonstration at the South African embassy last weekend. The event coincided with the fourth anniversary of the Zimbabwe Vigil. The event, which was attended by more than 200 people, was filled with chants and songs against the Zanu (PF) government in Zimbabwe. Many political and human rights activists, Zimbabwean and non-Zimbabwean, attended the event showing solidarity with the Free-Zim Youth group.

Speakers included the prominent civil rights activist, Peter Tatchell, gender activist and advocate, Yvonne Marimo, and the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALSCN)'s Tokumbo Oku, who called on all Africans to show international solidarity as was done to the African National Congress (ANC) during the apartheid era.Tokumbo blasted the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe for writing historic wrongs about his contribution and about neo-colonialism. He blamed Mugabe for presenting himself as an African revolutionary, instead calling him an "African dictator".ALSCN is a democratic organisation led by Africans who support independent African organisations who are fighting oppression and tyranny in Africa, and who are fighting racism in the West.


The long trail marched from Zimbabwe House to the South African embassy in central London. Free-Zim Youth leaders, Alois Mbawara and Wellington Chibanguza were dressed in military gear to mark the renewed fight for democracy in Zimbabwe. The group marched carrying a mock coffin symbolising the Gukurahundi massacres and this was dumped at the embassy. Alois Mbawara and Wellington Chibanguza leaders of Free-Zim Youth, expressed their disappointment at Mbeki for not speaking out against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and blamed the South African leader as not being an honest broker in the crisis. They said that this is the first of a number of campaigns scheduled at the South African and SADC country embassies in the UK.


After the demonstration the Free-Zim Youth group marched back to the Zimbabwean embassy to join the Zimbabwe Vigil in marking their fourth anniversary.The event included many groups, including the press from different Zimbabwean and foreign newspapers and many concerned people from the streets of London often stopped to join in the dances and find out more about the demonstrations."Mugabe should be ashamed of his betrayal of the Zimbabwean people," said one passer-by. "I saw him here in London in the late 70s during the Lancaster House negotiations and he seemed like a visionary who would make the lives of Zimbabweans better, instead he has made their lives worse, and should be ashamed", she continued.


The Youth said this was only the start of war with Mbeki. They are also demanding an update from the outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan before he leaves office. Solidarity messages from YCL (young communist league) of South Africa, Gabriel Shumba (Zim Exiles Forum SA) and COSATU who are also working to put pressure on the South African Government.

Zim Crisis A Collective Responsibility
By Wellington Chibanguza

THE resolution to the Zimbabwean issue has always been reliant on a collective effort between Zimbabweans and the region “SADC”.

Given the recent political and economic upheaval fuelled by ZANU (PF) cocktail of African culture and Politics. Comprising a deadly mixture of ingredients elitism, brutality, individualism, superiority complexes and corruption.

One is to question the regions reluctance in pushing for a resolution to the Zimbabwean crisis. But forced to highlight a catalogue of missed opportunities to address the issue head on.

At the recent SADC Summit held in Maseru, Lesotho, the chairman, Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, said, "The situation in that country is of concern. We have been engaged with the leadership of Zimbabwe on how best we can recover the economic viability of that country. (But) there has been progress," Please note the key word here being progress.

Signalling that the regions attitude is still one being played on the colonial card by Mugabe. Intern the supposed illegal travel sanctions by the international community are crippling the economy right? Hence the regions heads of states position on Zimbabwean crisis is stagnant, with astonishing support for Mugabe’s, outstanding record of the struggle against colonialism and minority settler rule.

It’s somehow the norm amongst the African leaders not to acknowledge the Zim crisis as one of bad governance by one true liberation hero. Due to Looming fears of being labelled puppets of the west, resulting in them forming a legion of support for Mugabe.
Referring back to the questions of reluctance, one is quick to point out SADC’s flaunting of the regions economic, social and political growth. Undoubtedly some of the SADC’s member states have be lavishing in economic growth at the expense of Zimbabwe’s migrant skilled and labour workforce not mentioning the vital investment organs that flooded the region from Zimbabwe.

Is SADC’s solidarity with the regime out of fear of Mugabe or is it systematic exploitation of Zimbabwe’s economic and political meltdown. “African to African slavery“ With Zimbabwe’s highly educated and skilled population at grabs, the regions reluctance can be justified as “progress” in the words of Mr Pakalitha Mosisili.

As for SADC’s prosperity of democracy within the region, it’s high time the Political tide turns on the Mugabe regime. There is a need of transparency and immediate shift from the “quite diplomacy” with Zimbabwe, despite of September the 13th brutal attacks by police and Youth militia on leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions after their attempt to petition government on the plight of workers, the region maintained a code of silence.

The Mugabe regime is in clear breach of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights by intimidating and assaulting and not respecting the basic fundamental freedoms of its citizens. This should call on the African Union and SADC to condone such Gross Human rights violations and adopt an attitude that recognizes the suffering being incurred by millions of Zimbabweans and the negative impact this has on the region.

The big question being how can we as Africans move forward economically, socially, political and most important as a people, if we cant uproot the evil unjust being done to our own people. But it’s important that SADC uses its influence on the ever-isolated Mugabe regime to push forward a long overdue political resolution that has the plight of Zimbabweans at heart.

Zimbabwean crisis is collective responsibility between Zimbabweans and the region. Like how the region played a pivotal role in the liberation struggle “Chimurenga”, South Africa’s Apartheid and the civil war in Mozambique.

Drawing to the general consensuses shared amongst most young Zimbabweans, that 'Our independence is meaningless unless we can be totally liberally and exercise our civil rights‘. And the denial of good governance is a shamefully mockery to all those who died in the struggle for a Free and Democratic Africa.

Wellington Chibanguza is a founding member of Free-Zim Youth, UK
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that together as a people we are way powerful beyond measure and our presents will automatically liberate our people” Free-Zim”

Beatings put Zimbabwe back on International Arena


By Alois. P. Mbawara

One can perceive the recent brutal attacks on civic leaders with a two-edged knife as a bad and as a good development. I will start with the bad side of it. It is true that Robert Mugabe has vowed to persist with his iron-fisted rule as a way to clinch onto power. He does not accept that people have and are suffering to due to his bad policies which have led to the dramatic economic meltdown we continue to see in Zimbabwe today.

The brutal beatings are a clear indication that Mugabe and his cronies do not respect and don't care about the majority as long they are in power. Considering the economic decay, all the mounting international pressure and condemnation against the state of affairs in Zimbabwe, Mugabe should now be in a position to accept that it is not possible for Zimbabwe under his rule to proper economically due to the trade sanctions and the collapse of the agricultural system (the back-bone of the economy).

Yes we have taken farms from the white commercial farmers, then what? Are we as a country able to supply the new farmers with inputs and the knowledge they should have to farm at commercial level and sustain food security? The evidence is there for all to see. The Zimbabwe government has failed dismally hence the food crisis we face in the country today. And Joseph Made continues to mock our intelligence as Zimbabweans by suggesting the food crisis is not a direct result of his government’s poor and unplanned land reforms. He blames a monkey for the crisis in the country after it “sabotaged” or “tampered” with a transformer at Sable Chemicals, the country’s sole fertiliser producer.

Made, Mugabe and colleagues also tend to blame the targeted sanctions against them as the root of the rot in the country. The sanctions have nothing to do with the deficits we are facing today. It is because the so-called new farmers don't have the adequate inputs and knowledge to supply millers and bakers at national level hence the government gazetting bread prices leading to artificial food shortages.Simple logic and economics shows there is no way one can put a price control on a commodity without considering the cost of production.

There is nothing wrong with subsidies but do they have the money to do so and for how long will they be able to do so. There are many questions that are left unanswered. For example with the level of corruption in the country today, will the subsidies not worsen the ordinary person’s life in the long run and corruption with those who have hoarding commodities and re-selling at higher prices. All indicators in our country show that Mugabe and his cronies no longer care about the need for a healthy economy in the country. They do not have the solutions to the country’s crisis hence they now resort to shock treatments of those within the pro-democracy movement. They would rather deal ruthlessly with unarmed protesters like Wellington Chibhebhe and Lucia Matibenga and not talk to the opposition and all other stakeholders on how they could come together and salvage something out of the mess we find ourselves in.

Mugabe is only interested in maintaining his stranglehold on power. He will rule until the *censored*s come home to roost. Instead of addressing the political and economic crisis in the country, the man would rather put all his remaining money and strength in brutal efforts to fight for political survival.The good thing about the beatings is that on-going streets protest and sacrifices by civic leaders have managed to put back Zimbabwe into the international arena. It has sent a message to the likes of Thabo Mbeki and Kofi Annan who had fooled the world that the crisis in Zimbabwe was being addressed. It comes again as an embarrassment to Kofi Annan who recently told the world that Mugabe was accepting the reality on the need for an urgent solution to the Zimbabwean crisis.

What is happening now in Zimbabwe is also proof that the so-called Benjamin Mkapa mediation talk was being used to buy more time for the brutal Mugabe government, allowing him to continue to terrorise our leaders trying to galvanise support to bring him to the negotiating table or force him to call it quits after 26 years in power. At this point of time it very crucial for all pro-democracy forces all over the world to put their differences aside and expose the continuation of abuses of human rights to the international community, mainly African countries.

That is our biggest weakness - we are failing to convince our African counterparts of the real situation obtaining on the ground and why they should support our cause. All Western countries know and are aware of what Mugabe is doing but our own brothers are the ones which need to be worked with.Diaspora has the biggest role to play in exposing to our African counterparts the need to put pressure on SADC member states for them to help put more pressure on Mugabe and his colleagues. South Africa has the key for a new democratic Zimbabwe, lets take the advantage that civic societies in South Africa are with us. And lets all work with these civic groups so as to influence the South Africa government to criticise the Zanu PF regime.

Mbeki is now cornered home and abroad and will be forced to reform from his Zee diplomacy.It is now or never. We can’t wait and watch Mugabe postpone the presidential election to 2010. We the people of Zimbabwe need change like yesterday in our country. There is no way Zimbabweans can go to elections with the present Constitution with a corrupt electoral system that is not fit for purpose. The judiciary system is strongly biased towards Zanu PF. I think mass disobedience is the only way Mugabe can come to the negotiation table.

"And as we always say our criticism is liberty,why because the Mugabe regime has never done anything for us(Youth)with all our Zim nation being denied their civil rights"


Never tasted Independents

Zimbabwean Youths in UK meet South African officials over Zim crisis


Zimbabwean Youth in the UK had an opportunity to engage in a diplomatic dialogue with the South African Embassy per turning the escalating Zimbabwean crisis.

The 2 hour meeting was a platform for ordinary Zimbabweans to project and present our own analysis and a proposed draft resolution towards the 7 year old crisis our motherland is facing.The key notes of the agenda was to get South African foreign policy towards~,the deterioration of the human rights(the recent brutal attack on labour leaders),the plight of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa,Murambatsvina(and its aftermath),Press freedom,rule of law,the Land reform,economic prosperity,how the Govt systems are appointed(electoral system,judiciary system) all this against the SADC and AU Democratic elections and democratic protocols and principles.Efforts made before to ease the crisis by African leaders and the out-going UN secretary General Kofi Annan and its progress.Zimbabwe's influence in the region and problems Africa is facing war-torn areas(Darfur,Elections in DRC)


The meeting concluded with a submit ion of a proposed draft resolution detailing key steps South Africa and the region need to undertake in pushing for a democratic transition in Zimbabwe.But we would like to reinstate that the planned demonstration for Sat 14 October (1pm- 3) outside the South African Embassy(meeting at Zim Embassy at 1pm) will still go ahead to solidify our concerns to President Mbeki whilst we are waiting for a respond from the South African Govt.


Free-ZimYouth Komradz

Zimbabwean Youth group to meet South African Officials in London

Zimbabwean youth activists in UK are to meet South African Officials in London on Friday 22nd September.The purpose of the meeting is to create a mutual understanding between the two nations and to enlist the support of the South African Government at a time when the liberty and safety of youth activists inside Zimbabwe is under renewed threat.

The group, Free-ZimYouth, is seeking a statement of South African Government policy on Zimbabwe and a clear condemnation of the crackdown on trade unionists and youth activists.
Free-ZimYouth align themselves with the concerns with their African counterparts in other AU and SADC countries who have expressed solidarity with those engaged in the struggle for freedom in Zimbabwe.

Free-ZimYouth

Alois.P.Mbawara

07960333568

Wellington Chibanguza

077068686955

By Alois. P. Mbawara

PROFESSOR Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's former Information Minister who famously banned the BBC from the country and many other foreign journalists while on the other hand suffocating the local media has today become a hero in some circles with some he persecuted yesterday surprisingly giving him acres and acres of space.

As I write Moyo is appearing on the BBC’s HARDtalk programme this week in a two-part interview. As a young activist I have been and continue to be baffled by the way people in Zimbabwe can manage to forget so quickly, especially journalists. Anyone who cares knows Moyo caused untold suffering at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), Zimpapers, Zimbabwe Inter-Africa News Agency (Ziana) and did worse to terrorise and instil fear in journalists working in the independent media.

He was ruthless and frankly I think he did much worse as an information minister than any other minister has ever done in the country. Most of the problems we face today as a nation were out of Moyo’s own making. He came into Zanu PF when the party was running scared and it was him who crafted messages that revived the dying party – he demonised the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), founding president Morgan Tsvangirai and others.
The man has an imaginative mind, he is crafty and today Zimbabwe remains burdened by laws he crafted to tighten not only Robert Mugabe’s grip on power but also his own control over all levers of power and information as he became the de facto prime minister. I wonder why after destroying the lives of so many people, Jonathan Moyo is being given acres of space to rant and rave and teach us about democracy.


I think we should leave him alone and confine him to his constituency and parliament when it is sitting. I think it is a mockery for us to believe we can get salvation from the same man who helped destroy our innocence as he helped Mugabe to maintain a tight grip on power. The acerbic Moyo should be laughing all the way to the bank after realising how quick those he tormented for about five years quickly embraced him when he left Zanu PF to become an independent MP.


Allow me as a young Zimbabwean to express my own analysis on the fall of press freedom in our motherland. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think freedom of __expression is one of the fundamental rights we human beings cannot exist without. Moyo made sure he took away our freedoms and Mugabe will not give them back either. In the United Nations Universal Declaration of human rights it is stated in bold that it is a fundamental right for every human being to have the right of freedom of opinion and __expression, and this can be expressed in different views i.e. freedom to hold an opinion without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers. But unfortunately this has been taken away from us in Zimbabwe since 2000 when the Mugabe regime decided to put in place a number of controversial draconian pieces of legislation which were designed and moulded to kill and silence public opinion.

Till now I fail to understand why a government which claims to serve the will of the majority after fighting against minority white rule could put in place pieces of legislation like Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA). The Ministry of Information and Publicity, then under Moyo's experiments, spearheaded the enactment of these laws in a major bid to stop the media from continuing to write about what the government was doing against the will of the people and also to silent angry and hungry innocent civilians who at the constitutional referendum gave a big vote of no confidence in the Mugabe regime.


Before even AIPPA was forcibly legitimised there were critics within the regime who highlighted that it was calculated and determinate to be an assault on civil liberties. POSA and AIPPA remain a direct attack on the independent press and opposition parties seeking regime change in Zimbabwe. The laws make it impossible for people, the opposition especially to campaign for office, run a private publication or protest against human rights abuses. Moyo's AIPPA (even thought he denies it as usual) was his chemical reaction to close the Associated Newspaper of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the popular Daily news and its sister paper Daily news on Sunday. The Daily News was giving the state-controlled Herald newspaper a run for its money with a big drop in readership as people opted for a newspaper that told the other side of the story like it was. Things got worse for the media in Zimbabwe with the regime's appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC), chaired by Tafataona Mahoso, being designed to be the distillation instrument or system of information in Zimbabwe in the name of national security. Moyo and Mahoso since 2001 have been implicated in many media cases. They played a major role in destroying press freedom in the country, reversing all the gains that had been gained in the 1990s. Independent press journalists were harassed, intimidated and even thrown into cells with others having their licences withdrawn while others were deported at Moyo’s instructions. He would breathe fire on local television as he berated independent and foreign journalists.


It is the passion with which Moyo did this that causes me to ask today how soon we forget. Moyo believed in what he was doing and should stew in his own mess. Examples abound about what Moyo did to destroy the media in Zimbabwe, not only the independent media but the state media as well. He fired willy nilly and seasoned journalists soon became extinct from newsrooms as he sought to create a loyal team that would pander to his whims.

To us the Youth Jonathan Moyo will always be remembered as the former Minister of Misinformation and Wufflicity, an outcast, outlaw - we all remember how he, together with Joseph Made, used to mislead the nation that we did not need food aid yet the nation was starving. People should be wary of such people, even the opposition MDC as well as there have been claims that other political parties in Zimbabwe have been trying to lure him into their fold. I'm surprised with some in the independent media who have gone out of their way to give the former minister columns and space. Are were forgetting that these are the individuals who destroyed Press Freedom in Zimbabwe causing many journalists to leave the country. He was the Chief Architect of Mugabe's propaganda. Moyo was in control of all press, radio, and publishing in the country. We should not just let him come back into the pro-democracy groups so easily. This will make a mockery of our independent sites and newspapers. He should at least apologise for all he did – what pains me is that he remains unapologetic for what he did when he was working side by side with Mugabe. Please we have lost so many innocent Zimbabweans who fought and are fighting to restore democracy.

Let’s have respect for these fallen soldier's like Tichaona Chiminya and give Moyo and his colleagues what they really deserve. Let him be a victim of his own laboratory experiments which have seen the shrinking of media space in the country resulting in the death of independent __expression. As the youths here in the UK, we don't have any interest in his Tsholotsho constituency but we are just representing the Constrained Youth of Zimbabwe who for many years will suffer the consequences of Moyo and Zanu PF’s actions.

The repressive AIPPA and other such laws are unjustifiable under international law and have been widely condemned but its a shame again that these oppressive and suppressive pieces of legislation are still to be repealed or amended regardless of the spirited campaigns by those who love democracy. The laws even violate SADC laws. We Young Zimbabweans will express and expose these betrayals by the Mugabe regime to our African counterparts so as to pave way for transition in Zimbabwe.

I know Moyo has a right to air his opinions like everyone else but I will never defend his right to be given the same rights he took away from us when he was minister.

And as always we say our criticism is liberty, because the Mugabe regime have never done anything for us the Youth, with all our nation being denied their civil rights.


Alois .P. Mbawara

Free-ZimYouth

Zimbabwean Youth Attend GAC solidarity dinner for Zimbabwe

LONDON - As Zimbabwean Youth living in the UK, we had an unprecedented opportunity to attend a fund raising dinner hosted by Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) for the forthcoming Global Afrikan congress to be held in Harare from the 1st- 6th October 2006.

It was an opportunity to have a first insight and analysis on how the African Community perceives the Zimbabwean crisis. The GAC resolution is to "Break the Embargo Against Zimbabwe" – “repairing the damage, re-addressing the injustice and recognise Robert Gabriel Mugabe and the Government of Zimbabwe as the only structure mandated and committed in dealing with the land reform programme in Africa”.

The most insightful moment of the evening was that the solidarity event was a clear indication that Mugabe has successfully sold the current economic and political meltdown in Zimbabwe as being due to “illegal” sanctions imposed by EU and US because he has “returned” Zimbabwe's land to its “rightfully owners” and has provided a “promising future” to all African people worldwide.

It was painful to sit there and listen to all these people who were speaking in solidarity with a leader who has lost the mandate to rule the former breadbasket of southern Africa, a leader who unleashes riot police armed to the teeth and the army on poor workers crying to a better deal, a leader who has literally destroyed the country as he continues to maintain his stranglehold on power. If only they could all see the amount of suffering that is going on in Zimbabwe at the moment – of course they have been told that people are suffering because of the targeted sanctions because Mugabe has successfully sold his story to those willing to listen to him.

Global Afrikan Congress is a network of well-established African communities. These are true African moguls of Caribbean and Eastern African roots who been in the UK for more than 30 years and are working flat-out in keeping the African (Black) history alive.

The Congress is behind the fighting for enslavement and African Colonisation to be declared as a crime against Humanity and for reparations. The dinner was served with African food with some conchies reggae music, with the delegates Gee Bernard,Priestess Ifayoriju, Glenroy Watson, Kijanji Bangarah and guest speaker George Shire chanting and referring to the history of Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie and claiming fighting for the emancipation from mental slavery.

So the solidarity message was to condemn the targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe. The Council said “the Bush and Blair blockage has no legal foundation and no United Nations mandate”, and called on all Africans to be in the forefront of breaking what they called internationally illegal blockage against the southern African country.
It is sad that Mugabe has managed to penetrate these well-developed African communities in his quest to divert attention from his misrule and submitting "Agrarian land reform" as his idea of emancipation from colonial rule when infact only a few have benefited from the chaotic programme. It is a fact that people in Zimbabwe today are suffering because of Mugabe’s knee-jack policies, his iron-fisted rule, the stolen elections and related issues.

In their press statement, the GAC said it considered the current situation in Zimbabwe to be a “direct result of the betrayal of the Lancaster House Agreement by the United States of America and the United Kingdom and association supported from their fellow European family”. “The Global Afrikan Congress wishes to inform the world that it is holding its 3rd Biennial Family Gathering in Harare, Zimbabwe from the 1st – 6th October 2006 in solidarity with the people and Government of Zimbabwe.”

It continued: “GAC notes that the Western blockades against Zimbabwe are totally illegal and unjust and above all have no legitimate mandate or approval from the United Nations. The GAC by decree of its Congress at the historical Gathering of Afrikans/Descendants in Bridgetown Barbados 2002 fully supports the people and Government of Zimbabwe to break the British/US Western illegitimate blockade, and calls upon all Afrikans to be at the forefront of this struggle against this unjust act of blatant racist imperialist ploy.”

It was sad to note that such an articulated event did not have any representative from the Zimbabwean community except for Mugabe's visible Central Intelligence Officers (CIO) present which was a clear indication that our opinion as ordinary Zimbabweans on our crisis is not valid by our African counterparts standards.


This has given us young Zimbabweans and the Zimbabwean Community as a whole homework to revise our strategy on fighting the regime in Harare. It’s high time we respect and follow the fundamental principles of art of war, our attack formation has to change. For the past six years the deterioration of the political and social climate in Zimbabwe has proven that the only feasible resolution is in the hands of ordinary Zimbabweans (Pro-democracy forces) and the major influence of our African counterparts. It is high time we use Mugabe's tactics (not violence) to disintegrate Zanu PF rule which has become a culture and which needs to be eradicated at grass roots level.

We Zimbabweans need to penetrate within our fellow African communities and submit them with our own vivid analysis of the state of affairs in our motherland. We need to get involved in these African communities, civic societies and articulate with them and explain that land reform is very crucial but in 2000 it was used as another trick from Mugabe's propaganda book to avert a looming defeat at the hands of the popular MDC after massive defeat in the Constitutional referendum. A worthy cause was used to divert attention from his misrule and present the world with total lies and fabrications on the situation on the ground.

The real story of Zimbabwe is the police and army brutalities, oppressive laws such as AIPPA and POSA, the effects of operations Murambatsvina, Gukurahundi atrocities and the gross human rights abuses that continue in Zimbabwe today. There is an urgent need for the emancipation of the people of Zimbabwe from Mugabe’s terror rule. At this point in time it is very crucial for all pro-democracy forces to put their differences aside and use one attack formation to deal with Mugabe and his government.

One wonders whether Munyaradzi Gwisai was right on his Socialist ideology towards confronting Mugabe's tyranny?

Free Zim Youth can be contacted on http://mail.yahoo.com/config/login?/ym/Compose?To=freezim6@yahoo.co.uk