The new lords in town and my quest for the Authentic Africa- Rashweat Mukundu

As I continue my long and winding journey to attend an African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) NGO Forum meeting on freedom of expression in Banjul, The Gambia, my journey has taken me through Ghana, the venerable cradle of Africa’s nationalist movement and first African independent state. I last visited Ghana 6 years ago, then I was intrigued by the physical presence of the Institute of African Studies at Ghana University. It is right at the entrance of the University, and is the first thing you see. It is the enduring testimony of Kwame Nkrumah’s: “seek ye the political kingdom first and everything will be added unto you”, only that there are now new lords in town, and far from the situation Nkrumah would have dreamed of.

Having a whole day to seat and do nothing in Accra I tried my luck at a transit VISA to be freed from the prison that is Kotoko International airport. Kotoko international airport is right in the thick of things in Accra and a walkable distance to nearby shops. As I strolled into town, a familiar sound of sirens and blue lights became audible and later visible from a distance, increasingly getting closer. My thinking was these are the usual chiefs of the city, Hon Vice Presidents and Ministers. If it was the Chief of Chiefs himself, then I am sure to have seen a kilometer long line of mean-looking outriders, hovering helicopters and a whole battalion of soldiers. As the single police bike and three 4x4s got closer, the confusion increased so much that I had to jump out of the way into a ditch lest I was hit by a taxi that dangerously weaved its way out of the oncoming blue lights. Lo and behold sat two Chinese men in the Toyota Fortuner that was sandwiched in the middle by two blue lights cars and the motorbike in front. The Men were not dressed formally but wore T shirts and seemed to be scrutinizing the many new buildings sprouting in Accra. The link cannot be lost. Within minutes the spectacle was gone and I intently focused on which direction to take amid the irritating humid sun and noisy honing by taxis enticing me for a ride at a price. I finally settled for Chris, simply because he was alone. I wanted someone I could talk, ask abot Ghana, life and a favour to take me to a peoples market and possibly buy myself an authentic Ghanaian kente shirt. It was the quest for the authentic Africa, the fulfillment of the image of Ghana that I have always had and one that I always look for when in town. Hence started the debate and disappointment. First Chris was not that good at English, and as we struggled at what I really wanted, he had one thing in mind to showcase to me the latest mall in town. All my attempts to explain that I wanted to go to a peoples market fell on deaf ears, “It nice, Shoprite, Mr. Price, yu see der, all of dem, let gooo let gooo” he insisted. I relented and headed to Accra shopping mall, a gigantic South African modeled shopping mall, that exhibits the growing economic and cultural imperialism of South Africa beyond doubt.

Chris was so happy to share with me the new success stories of Ghana, the shopping mall and the new buildings that the China man in the Toyota Fortuner was intently looking at. The Accra I knew is no longer recognizable as the new developments take shape, new buildings are at every corner, the latest cars, and yet the same vendors I last saw years ago remain in their place. One gets a foreboding feeling that amidst the changes that are blinding Chris, my taxi driver; nothing really is changing in the lives of ordinary Ghanaians. The same poverty, the same daily struggles, elections, new leaders, life goes on and years mingle into history, into the past, like they were never separate. The new lords in town can now afford to move under tight security and possibly remind, more vividly, of how far Ghana has moved from Nkrumah into into the hands of a new master, the Chinese. This is not to say China has no right to invest where it wishes, but the nature of the investment seems not to have a people development approach. China’s relations exhibit this irony, of too much investment whose result are devoid of ending poverty. The workers building the new buildings are Chinese, the contractors Chinese and i am sure the money is going back to China. This and the disappointment of failing to buy a kente shirt led me to track back to my base.
“I told yu its good haaa” said Chris, I simply nodded my head, my mind drifting so far away.
//End//

‘ZANU PF: The unstoppable machine faces its final battle’- Rashweat Mukundu

When ZANU PF Chairman Simon Khaya Moyo declared in September that ZANU PF was an unstoppable machine, deriding the MDC parties as political upstarts who will never ascend to the throne, many would have taken such statements as the usual bluster that comes from ZANU PF from time to time. Events since then, especially when the constitutional consultative process finally reached the capital Harare, are telling in what the ZANU PF chairperson meant.
The meetings in Harare had been abandoned amid violence and disruptions. So intense was the violence that even ZANU PF representative in the process MP Paul Mangawana had to run away from marauding ZANU PF youths in the poor suburb of Mbare. The state owned The Herald newspaper struggled with words to capture the violence, only stating that some members of political parties chanted slogans and fought. The newspaper had no guts to name which party the perpetrators belong to, neither could it garner the guts to blame the MDC parties as usual, because the evidence against ZANU PF was overwhelming.

The violence was not spontaneous but appeared well organized, not by the party on its own but with help from the state security machinery especially the intelligence. The police stood by while MDC supporters and the COPAC teams were beaten up and meetings disrupted. It had to be so in urban areas because these are strongholds of the MDC parties and ZANU PF had to flex more muscle to disrupt the constitutional making process. Intimidation in the constitutional outreach process was much easier in rural areas were communities, coming out of the violence of June 2008 are so cowed that it only takes the shaking of a matchstick box to get subservient compliance. Urban areas present a problem for ZANU PF as threats are not easily heeded, hence the intense and well coordinated violence. To beef up numbers , perpetrators had to be bused in from rural areas. Some were barefoot, visibly drunk and could not name/recognize a single street in the vicinity.
The violence in Harare over the constitutional outreach is not an isolated event that should be dismissed but a critical moment for the people of Zimbabwe more so for the MDC parties in the Unity government. The talk of a free and fair election in 2011 is now under serious doubt in circumstances were ZANU PF has no shame in demonstrating that it still has no other strategy other than violence and intimidation to win an election. The violence is an indicator of what is to come in 2011, should the MDC parties decide to participate, in what is proving already, to be a deeply flawed process towards an election. For SADC, the message that South Africa President and SADC Mediator to Zimbabwe, Jacob Zuma, emphasized at the August SADC Heads of States summit in Windhoek, Namibia, that Zimbabwe must hold a free, fair and violence free election, must be put into practical steps by defining, speaking out and ensuring that the violence of 2008 and that of September/October is not repeated. SADC has an obligation, at least, to guarantee and put pressure on President Mugabe to put his dogs on a leash to ensure a peaceful election.
They are many dimensions that make the planned 2011 election dangerous for Zimbabwe. Despite his public pronouncements on his health and age which are becoming more desperate by the week, President Mugabe is visibly tired and slowing down. And the varying and contesting factions in ZANU PF are all aware of this fact of life. 2011 is the last chance for President Mugabe to find a solution to the dangerously delayed succession question in ZANU PF and possibly the leadership of the country should his party remain in power. Dangerously delayed because President Mugabe has demonstrated over the years his wish that this moment never comes. By the will of God and nature the question finally has come, whether he likes it or not. The danger that he faces is that the levers of the party are beginning to slip off his hands and control. His trusted lieutenants, the likes of Ignatius Chombo, his close relatives Leo Mugabe and others are nowhere near the centre of power. He is confused and unaware of the intentions of the two rival factions that he has played one against each other over the years, that is General Solomon Mujuru and Defence Minister Emmerson Munangagwa camps. While the Mujuru camp has gained ascendency with the appointment of Joice Mujuru as Vice President, Mugabe still does not trust this camp which he sees as cozying up too much to the MDC and western powers and possibly prepared to cut a deal with the MDC. The Munangagwa camp represents the shock-troops that Mugabe has relied on in times of need, but this camp has lost ground politically in Zimbabwe and ZANU PF. Its leader Munangagwa was trounced in his constituency of Kwekwe and had to seek a political home elsewhere. While Munangagwa was expected to give up in view of the ascendency of VP Mujuru, he is reported to have told his supporters that some people are seated at fireplaces with no fire (kudziya zvoto zvisina moto ), meaning they are placeholders , misled or misinformed. This rivalry, Mugabe will have a hard time resolving while maintaining control on the levers of the party and protecting his own legacy, relatives and empire. This coupled with the fact that ZANU PF itself does not understand what the powerful Military Generals are thinking and planning, apart from the fact that they would want to see ZANU PF in power. The Generals who are part of the generality of war veterans are known to refer to a pact that states that they should be given a chance after the political leaders or nationalists who joined them in the liberation struggle in Mozambique and Zambia have had their chance at the throne. The Generals might as well want a fulfillment of that ‘pact’. The violence being witnessed in Harare might as well be coming and being organized by one faction in ZANU PF with intentions of poisoning the status quo and disrupt any process that might lead or result in the MDC winning an election and/or another faction in ZANU PF winning control of the party and an election. Despite the seemingly unending flow of energy, President Mugabe is now a prisoner of a situation of his own making. The hyenas in his party are all circling and waiting to pounce. This situation is dangerous not only for those in ZANU PF but for the whole country. This is so because since independence ZANU PF has fused the party and the state to such as extent that there is no difference. The MDC parties in the GNU will testify to how a cleaner in their offices at Munhumutapa and security guard at the entrance to Munhumutapa building are not only civil servants but war veterans, branch or district leaders of the ZANU PF party and activists who can perpetrate violence against the same MDC Minister they probably serves tea at the office. At the top the linkages are even murky. This scenario means that should the factions in ZANU PF realize that the Emperor has lost control and go for each other, the Zimbabwe state, as we know it today, will collapse. At some moment, Zimbabwe has the possibility of reaching the post Siadi Barre, Somalia scenario. The unstoppable machine faces many challenges both within and without, and it is critical that all these issues be taken into consideration as the MDC parties decide on participation in an election in 2011. Civil society needs to pull its socks, possibly right to its neck, in seeking to avoid a total collapse of the Zimbabwe state and seek the protection of lives. What is at stake for Zimbabweans is not just a free and fair election but survival. SADC must be prepared for more tumultuous times to come. //End//
Rashweat Mukundu is Human rights activist and a journalist he can be reached on rashweatm@yahoo.com

Zimbabwe Indigenisation law, all about Mugabe’s power, after all- Rashweat Mukundu

Zimbabwe Indigenisation law, all about Mugabe’s power, after all- Rashweat Mukundu

Zimbabweans, weighed down by the decade long economic and political crisis, now face another challenge in the proposed Indigenisation and Empowerment Act. The new law came in the absence of clear national objectives of what it is meant to achieve nor an appreciation of Zimbabwe’s current economic crisis, where creating stability not scare-mongering are key. It still baffles many why now, and pointers are that this is another weapon in ZANU PF armoury to confuse the current political set up, trap and plunge the citizens and the country into another crisis and the abyss.

Post 2000 ZANU PF cannot survive without a crisis and an enemy. At every turn when the party’s power is on the decline, a crisis is invented and an enemy to fight is found. It is important to note that the Zimbabwe indigenisation discourse is not a new issue. It has been running since 1980 and was the basis upon which the chaotic land reform was initiated. On the positive side in the 1980’s and 1990’s and in the absence of any law, successful black businesses were set up in the banking and telecommunications sectors with government’s support. These were new business that created jobs and wealth, they was no takeover of non Zimbabwean businesses. On the contrary many non Zimbabweans were flooding the country, setting up their own industries. It is necessary to give this background to demarcate economic empowerment from politicking. Without it, it will appear that Zimbabwe has had no indigenous businesses until the promulgation of the controversial Indigenisation and Empowerment Act. It is also important to link and demonstrate a continuum in ZANU PF’s political strategy, guised as empowerment. The chaotic land reform was the first project of the so called empowerment process and succeeded it trapping the mostly rural community in a cycle of political violence from which many have still not recovered from. More importantly for ZANU PF, the party created a land owning oligarchy that is prepared to prop up the party. In the words of Zimbabwe’s Prisons Commissioner Retired General Paradzai Zimhondi, he is prepared top take up arms to defend his peace of land, and indeed to defend ZANU PF. ZANU PF assertion that the land reform was a success and benefited 500 000 families is far from the truth. On the contrary the land reform created over one million landless, unemployed, destitute Zimbabweans, mostly former farm workers. If the land reform was meant to be benefit Zimbabweans then surely the one million unemployed, destitute farm workers should have been resettled and supported to be productive farmers. 10 years down the line 5 million of Zimbabwe’s population still relies on food aid despite the ‘thousands’ of new farmers. It is important to give this background to the land reform as the indigenisation act follows this well known ZANU PF strategy of relying on a racial discourse to advance its political agenda. This discourse started with white farmers and was extended to include farm workers and in 2005 was extended to urban workers and dwellers ‘without totems’ or proper Zimbabwean identity when millions more were made homeless under a supposed urban clean-up operation, ‘Operation Restore Order’..

While ZANU PF always couches its so called economic empowerment programmes in language of anti-colonialism and black empowerment it must be noted that this is only a disguise for a politically self-serving, fierce and often violent reordering of society as part of what the ruling elite refers to as resolving injustices of the colonial era. This ideology is based on a belief that the nation state should be identified through one political culture as defined by ZANU PF. These projects from the land reform, to operation restore order and the indigenisation ac are therefore all linked to entrench ZSANU PF's hegemony and ward off any threats to its hold on power. The Indigenisation is he new strategy in preparation for a new election at the end of he Government of National Unity. What the land reform programme succeeded in doing was to create internal refuges that have no capacity to challenge the system or participate in many national processes such as elections. Indeed many of the farm workers lost not only their employment but citizenship. The indigenisation law is a therefore a second act of Zimbabwe’s political drama, again couched in the same language of anti- imperialism and black economic empowerment. This new law is an attempt to bribe the young generation, so that like the older generation trapped in the land reform discourse, the youth can equally be trapped in the language of indigenisation, thereby propping ZANU PF. The current struggle in the Zimbabwe Government of National Unity on the need to reform the law is centred on how to define an indigenise Zimbabwean. Hardliners within he ZANU PF establishment insist that this definition cannot be extended to include third or fourth generation Indians, Whites or other races. It becomes more than clear that a small group will emerge with more wealth, while millions more will emerge more poorer. With an estimated 90% unemployment, the 10% percent employed will be wiped off. ZANU PF and Youth and Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere have failed to explain his intentions beyond attacking his opponents with emotion and rhetoric. Kasukuwere has managed to bring to national debate a policy that in a normal country would easily have been thrown away. The problem with Zimbabwe is that so many capable people have been corrupted. These include that what should be decent minds in Industry and Commence and the academia. Many who will spend acres of media space defending a patently racist and retrogressive law.

The Indigenisation debate in Zimbabwe has largely remained a political debate, because that is precisely what ZANU PF intends to achieve with this law, political not social transformation ends. No n umbers or figures are being talked of because they are none. ZANU PF has failed to explain why thousands of families in the Marange are, where the Chiadzwa diamonds mines are located, are not benefiting form the minerals located right in their fields and ancestral land. The party has not explained how these communities, who are on the contrary being moved from their land will benefit from their diamonds. The law is an elitist and political enterprise that does not cater for the ordinary Zimbabwean, indigenisation therefore means ZANU PF loyal black person. ZANU PF has fails, so far, to explain who within the so called indigenous people will benefit from the company grabs. What we have witnessed so far are queues of petrified business owners, lining to see Kasukuwere to explain themselves and how they will indigenise. It is clear that this act, like the land reform programme will plunge Zimbabwe further into the abyss. The law is an attempt to muddy the political scene and emerge with solutions and as ‘champions of the people'

Recent concessions on the part of ZANU PF to reform he law remain far short on meeting concerns expressed by business and some within the ZANU Pf establishment like Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono that this law will result in another land grab like chaos. //End//

How Amanpour and CNN lost to Mugabe- By Rashweat Mukundu

How Amanpour and CNN lost to Mugabe- By Rashweat Mukundu

Mugabe stuck to his well known script, Amanpour and CNN fumbled all over. Thus after the highly expected interview of Mugabe by senior CNN Journalist, Christiane Amanpour, on Thursday 24 September, it came out, in my view, to a victory for Mugabe, if we take it as a contest. Amanpour failed to rise above the familiar frames of the western media’s analysis of Zimbabwe, dictatorship, hunger, land, and white farmers. These are part of the issues, but more of symptoms of a deeper problem which we hoped CNN would probe. We expected Amanpour to bring these issues to the interview but in a way that makes it impossible for Mugabe to waive them away so simply. We expected more facts, events and names. And they are many that Mugabe cannot run away from.

Yes, the Zimbabwe crisis is also about land among many other things, but this is more a symptom of a deficiency in democracy that Mugabe demonstrated very early in his rule. It is this failure to understand history and looking at Zimbabwe in compartments that has been the failure of the western media for so long and indeed the Achilles heel of Amanpour when she met Mugabe. Amanpour stated clearly that her Rhodesian journalists’ friends really enjoyed the first ten years of Mugabe’s rule. In those ten years Mugabe presided over the massacre of thousands of Ndebele’s who happened to support an opposition party and belong to an ethnic group other than his. It is therefore wrong for CNN to say Zimbabwe’s crisis is a year 2000 phenomenon and only so because Mugabe started grabbing farms from white farmers. Amanpour thus sunk into a familiar tune that Mugabe was well prepared for, giving a full lecture of history which Amanpour was, again, unprepared for. Statistics is there all over the internet on how Mugabe’s government abused donor funds and some resettled farmers sank more into poverty. Mugabe’s views were never seriously challenged.

In any case lets us talk of the crisis in Zimbabwe since 2000. The most affected and those who have suffered the most are the majority of poor Zimbabweans. If there are a people that Mugabe has failed the most and dehumanised the most it is his fellow black Zimbabweans. Any questioning and framing of the Zimbabwe crisis should, as a consequence, start from this stand point. Mugabe should have been asked about the many MDC supporters who were murdered, again their names are there, about Jestina Mukoko and others who were kidnapped in December 2008. Those who did this are still free, and Zimbabwe courts have been clear that this was wrong. Hundreds of cases of MDC supporters who lost their lives are recorded and should have been brought to Mugabe by CNN. Their killers are walking scot free and many are known by name. This should have been brought to Mugabe. The Daily News was bombed 3 times, 60 000 copies of the Zimbabwean newspapers were burnt in 2008, four newspaper were shut by decree and remain closed while Mugabe’s government is launching one daily paper after another, while denying others that space. These are double standards that should have been brought to Mugabe as undermining the unity government. There were many scenes of violence that were captured by the media in the 2008’s controversial June Presidential by-election that Amanpour should have pinned Mugabe on.

Mugabe is a dictator yes, but one who has created a very sophisticated dictatorship that is not only about power grabbing but distorts and deploys historical narratives for its benefit. It’s a dictatorship that sinisterly divides society along race, ethnicity and ideology. If the western media intends to report Zimbabwe they should not engage Mugabe in a turf of contested history but talk of the practicalities and realities of life in Zimbabwe, that story Mugabe cannot dismiss that easily. It is for this reason that the western media has to change its frames of analysing Zimbabwe and Mugabe, and see the majority of victims of Mugabe’s government not only a statistics but the real victims of this crisis. The violence on ordinary Zimbabweans is not a land issue, but has always existed well before 2000. A proper analysis needs to go beyond land reform, to look at what Mugabe has done to his own people, the cases of corruption that should have been brought out, the collapse of Kondozi farm, a classical case of the phoney arguments by Mugabe that land reform is about equality and prosperity, the diamonds fiasco in Manicaland.

A well respected journalist like Amanpour was expected to go deeper, bring out examples, the horror and scenes that Mugabe cannot deny. She should have avoided narratives of history that are not in dispute but give it to Mugabe in black and white from the perspectives of the majority of Zimbabweans. The interview turned to be a successful Public Relations exercise and godsend for Mugabe. This is because we have heard it all before and Mugabe reinforced his message at a world stage. But the real story of Zimbabwe’s majority rarely finds space and it is one that Mugabe cannot deny nor justify by whatever means or explanation. He can easily explain the land reform on the basis of history, but he cannot explain the kidnapping of Mukoko, the bombing of the Daily News among other many things. The international media will become relevant when it sees the Zimbabwe crisis from this holistic perspective. As for Amanpour we hope she can be better prepared next time.//End//

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My Dream Plans for US$500m- Rashweat Mukundu

My Dream Plans for US$500m


Thursday, 17 September 2009 16:40
SOMETIME back on a cold weekend day of June 1985, my mother gave me Z$35 to pay rent to our landlord in Cherima, Marondera. I knocked on the kitchen of Amai Munyaradzi, a big woman whose steps and breathing I could hear hundreds of metres away. Amai Munyaradzi was ensconced at the fireplace with her husband, Bitoni Silipa.

Silipa worked at the GMB in Marondera and was a devout Christian. He always sang loudly, every evening, calling the whole street to the saviour. On many occasions I had however seen him sneak into the wooden and almost collapsing cabin of Susan, who lived at the end of Rusvingo Street, but I never told anyone.

As I handed the money to Amai Munyaradzi , Silipa leapt with tremendous force to lift from his chair, almost falling into the fireplace as he attempted to grab the money. The Z$35 was consumed by the fire.

I was shocked and quietly left the room. I never told my mother or anyone until now.
This incident reminds me of Finance minister Tendai Biti and RBZ Governor Gideon Gono wrangling over the IMF US$500 million. The IMF loan, for me, came at the right time for Zimbabwe, more so for this unity government. Unfortunately as Zimbabweans, we are reminded daily that we are being governed by a very disunited family that is all to eager to show, at every opportunity, that they are in a forced marriage.

Under Sterp — the economic recovery programme of the unity government — the sourcing of resources for both public and private sector revival is mentioned as key. This document, despite its overtly private sector deterministic approach to economic recovery, nevertheless contains the main ingredients that have so far brought a semblance of stability and if continued, some hope for citizens.

What can be drawn from the arguments of the two men is that the two parties are still very much driven by self-interest. I don’t agree that Zimbabwe should decline the US$500 million simply because we are poor and cannot repay the money.
My understanding is that Zimbabwe has so far received more than US$1 billion in loans that will attract even higher interest rates than the IMF loan. Secondly I don’t agree that this money should be used to refinance another so called agricultural mechanisation programme, simply to give more farm machinery to some high-placed officials to abuse and use as campaign tools.
Those who are into commercial farming must now go to the banks and negotiate for loans. While they are producing for the country, they are foremostly creating personal wealth. If there is to be any support to them, let it be in areas that don’t hit the pocket of the taxpayer.
Zimbabweans, long left out of the management of their resources, are again left baffled as the IMF loan opens another battlefront — an unnecessary one. First Zimbabweans need power, water, affordable housing and functional hospitals.

If the IMF loan is to be repaid by the taxpayer, then the loan should simply go to those areas of concern to the taxpayer. This loan can pay off all of Zesa’s debts and finance the refurbishment of Hwange Thermal Power Station and support Hwange Colliery to increase its capacity.
Thousands of Zimbabweans died needlessly in 2008 and 2009 as a result of cholera. Cholera is a disease of poverty. Almost all cities and towns in Zimbabwe have a critical water shortage. Again I believe citizens are prepared to pay for clean water rather than die of cholera. The IMF loan can finance the refurbishment of water reticulation in cities and towns.
A few months ago, prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai toured Harare Central Hospital and was told the hospital needed nearly US$40 000 to repair a non-functional boiler, apart from shortages of drugs and staff. I would not mind if part of this loan goes to repairing that boiler and buying other critical equipment for hospitals in Zimbabwe.
Again as citizens, we will pay back the IMF loan rather than die from lack of drugs and health equipment. Hundreds of Zimbabweans have also died in the past few months in needless accidents, mostly as a result of bad roads.

As citizens we also would not mind paying toll fees to use better roads. Zimbabwean schools have no books, a dangerous scenario that is creating a generation on illiterates that will be of no use in the next few years apart from being criminals and loafers. Again let the IMF loan buy text books for schools and citizens will not mind paying for the future of their children.
Rather than abuse citizens with all the economic jargon of this and that, Biti and Gono can save us better by directing this loan to things that matter in our lives. And citizens will pay back the loan through their taxes.

I am reminded that as I left the kitchen of Amai Munyaradzi I heard her shout, “Yaa” followed by another “Yaa” from Silipa. The two of them were “happy” but neither had gained. I hope Biti and Gono don’t take us though this zero-sum scenario. Leadership and sensitivity are necessary for the sake of long suffering Zimbabweans.

Zero Duty Policy Opens up Avenues of Communication- Rashweat Mukundu

THE reaction of the state-owned media, especially the Herald, to Finance minister Tendai Biti’s midterm financial policy speech is hardly surprising. More so the reaction of the likes of former Information minister Jonathan Moyo. Moyo attacked Biti with all sorts of words, from accusations of the new policy as partisan to charges of abuse of the parliamentary floor and threatening national sovereignty and security by allowing the free movement and entry of foreign media content in Zimbabwe.

Despite its struggles to deal with so many problems, chief among which is that it is broke, the unity government through this policy has done something progressive where it matters most. And that is opening the avenues of access to information by as many of Zimbabwe’s citizens as possible and indeed the ability of the people to communicate without restrictions, be they of policy or poverty.

It is in the context of this that the attacks by Moyo have to be understood. It is not surprising that when it comes to the advancement of views that represent dissent, views other than their own, Moyo and the likes of former chairperson of the defunct Media and Information Commission Tafataona Mahoso become analysts of choice for the Herald.

It is also important to note that despite being an independent Member of Parliament, Moyo’s heart and spirit are still on board the Zanu PF gravy train. This is so because the ideological views of Zanu PF when it comes to media and the rights of citizens to access information, freely associate and speak their views, were shaped and are still influenced by the likes of Moyo and Mahoso.

Where Zanu PF would from time to time suppress dissent in the media in the 1980s, it had neither the confidence nor inclination to be so vicious until Moyo came onto the scene, presiding over the promulgation of laws that include Aippa and BSA.
It is the effect of these laws that Zimbabwe is struggling to reverse and the reason for Moyo’s anger.

In Moyo, Zanu PF found new energy and zeal that it never had to repress critical media voices.
So when he is quoted by the Herald attacking Biti for allowing duty–free entry of newspapers, computers and mobile phone handsets, his views have to be understood from a historical point of view of not only having nostalgia for his days in the former ruling party but also a warped ideological view based on the dominance of one view, his view, and the subjugation of the rest, to his narrow-minded thinking.

The attack on the free movement of media products as a threat to national sovereignty and security is a strange and unintelligent argument that should not be taken seriously nor have space in serious national discourse.
Of all things that have gone wrong in Zimbabwe, Moyo sees foreign newspapers and duty–free computers and mobile phones as a threat to national security and sovereignty. What of the fact that almost half of the population is being fed by foreigners because of the destructive policies of Zanu PF?

What of the fact that we are almost getting electricity which we are unable to pay for for free? What of the hordes of police and military service persons who have run away from duty because of paltry salaries? What of the abduction of innocent citizens, the torture and killing of civilians in Chiadzwa and other parts of the country?
For a very long time the likes of Moyo have abused terms such as national sovereignty and security to mean the protection of Zanu PF’s interest.

The citizens of Zimbabwe have enjoyed neither the benefits of sovereignty nor security as many have had to cross crocodile infested rivers to look for a better life in other peoples lands. Citizens have neither enjoyed security as they are daily harassed by security arms of the state.
The argument of sovereignty and national security has to be dismissed with contempt as an attempt to capture the national psyche in a historical trap. Sovereignty and security can only be guaranteed in a free society able to feed itself and sleep without fear of harassment by its own security arms and politicians.

Moyo and the Herald should take time to unpack the jargon they use, more so declare their own baggage and interests rather than pose as sober thinkers with the interest of the country at heart. It is not surprising that Moyo did not like what Biti said, more so because he is a lowly backbencher, whose voice is becoming fainter every time he opens his mouth.
This is indeed an unfamiliar position for Moyo who is used to strutting the national stage with gusto. The policy pronouncement by Biti might have its economic shortcomings but it is a major contribution to the freedoms that Zimbabweans are crying for.

It is also a major contribution to the development and usage of ICTs, be it in the mobile phone or computer sector. The more Zimbabweans can talk, access information, share ideas and concerns the more they can become liberated and play their rightful roles as citizens.
It is possible that an increase in mobile phone usage at reasonable charges can be a major contributor to state revenue as mobile phone companies increase their revenues, hence tax contributions. It is possible that the duty-free entry of computers is the panacea Zimbabwe needs to move into the ICT-driven knowledge age in all its sectors, and free us from the Stone Age that Moyo and others want to keep us in. All these aspects have a liberating feel and effect.
Zanu PF and the likes of Moyo would rather have people remain ignorant, submissive, read the Herald and listen and watch the ZBC, then go to sleep. We are not told how newspapers printed in London and distributed in Zimbabwe are a threat to national sovereignty. Why should Moyo or anyone else determine what people read. Why should the choice of what I read not be left to me if I can afford it?

This policy pronouncement is probably the most progressive and pro-poor as it enhances access to communication facilities. And with such facilities a communal farmer in Murehwa can easily communicate with his/her market at Mbare, negotiate prices, organise business and make a living. It is through communication and access to information that society can hope to move forward.

For those caught in the past, their attacks of this policy are not only shocking but another reminder of the threats of regression and myopia that lurks in the dark. Unfounded Zanu PF phobias fuelled by false prophecies of its oracles, in the form of Moyo and Mahoso, should not be allowed to stop Zimbabwe moving forward.

Gender as the lived experience: The controversy over the Zambian, ‘woman in birth’ Pictures- by Rashweat Mukundu

It is often too easy to say one understands gender equality issues, and I have said so, myself, many times. But a recent debate and discussion in the MISA office over the graphic pictures of a woman in birth, taken in Zambia a few weeks ago, apparently to demonstrate the collapse of the health delivery system as a result of a health workers strike, left me wondering whether there is more to the gender equality struggle and debate than what I know and would want to know. I am left wondering how deep does the gender debate arouse and prickle our cultural, religious and indeed manly sensitivities. I was shocked by what I saw in the pictures. This shock that I expressed in emails to colleagues, both mothers and seasoned activists in their own right, left me wondering whether when we talk about gender there are surface and deeper meanings that we all miss.

First, the two pictures taken in June in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, are indeed graphic and demonstrate the suffering the woman was going through and the fear on the faces friends and relatives who were trying to assist. The government in Zambia and the women’s movement are up in arms, accusing The Post newspaper of distributing pornography. On its part newspaper says it neither published nor took the pictures but simply forwarded them to select authorities with a note expressing concern on the state of health delivery in Zambia. The News editor was picked-up by the police and made to sign a warned and cautioned statement. She might still face trial.

My interaction with the images brought me to a world which I thought I knew, gender, women, equality. I talk and address these issues all the time. Our discussion on the pictures however brought a dimensions about the gender debate, that when we talk of gender and gender equality it is more than what one says and does but ‘THE LIVED’ experience and how as a man, despite all my good intentions, I can so easily miss the bigger picture.
I argued that maybe this woman was never consulted, did not consent to have the pictures taken and was to some extent used as a guinea pig and tool in a much bigger political game. The response from my two colleagues brought me to realise that maybe there is a cultural framing and societal structure and lenses that we men use to view women, and that there are many things about the women’s body, and role that we are not comfortable with. Women in birth, women in old age, women demonstrating masculinity and women in power are some of the things that came to mind. In the case of the Zambia pictures, President Rupiah Banda’s government leaped on this as an opportunity to reignite its fight with its nemesis The Post newspaper. The government leaped on this as an opportunity to divert attention from its failings on health delivery. The government lambasted the newspaper for distributing pornography. Cheering on the government corner, lo and behold, was the women’s movement in Zambia in all its shades and colours. The groups raised dust accusing the newspaper of disrespecting women’s bodies, dignity and all sorts. The political opportunism of the government is well understood, that is what politicians are like, quick at blaming and quick at diversion. What about the Zambia women’s movement?
We agreed in the short discussion that while we are all activist, still we are men and women, we belong to families, and we belong to a society. We belong to religious groups, we hold political views and opinions, and we carry our baggage wherever we go. This brings us back to the Zambia women’s movement. Which hat where they wearing when they attacked The Post newspaper and whose interests were they advancing between the suffering women and President Banda? Where they wearing their activism and gender equality hats or their cultural hat as submissive women who should be all fearing and in perpetual awe of the powerful men, or maybe they just decided to take a political stance against the newspaper?. It became clear in our discussion that the Women’s movement in Zambia and indeed a broad section of civic society did not take time to reflect and think deeper about these pictures. These pictures were not concocted, but ‘THE TRUTH’. The truth that women in Zambia, poor women who cannot afford private hospitals, doctors or even to be flown to Johannesburg are giving birth in the open, with no health care, traumatised and possibly dying. It was explained to me, that the baby that was being born as shown in the pictures, was in fact ‘breached’, that is coming out legs and body first, instead of head first. It was further explained to me by my colleagues that the baby would probably die and that should the mother have been receiving medical care, this situation would have been corrected. For me the birth was a messy affair that I could not comprehend. For our Zambian women movement it becomes clear that they missed the bigger picture that the Rupiah Banda government should be held accountable for putting the lives of women in serious danger. It is possible that the baby in those pictures died, it is possible also that the mother died or is seriously ill. Forget the privacy issues, lets us look at the bigger picture, the public good and interest issue, which is the lives and health of women. This is the message my colleagues emphasised on me. The concerned Minister of Health, in a democracy might have resigned and an official enquiry set up. In Africa life is cheap hence the Zambia government got away with a gross human rights violation. And those who are supposed to be the avant-garde fighting for women rights were sleeping. Again this raises another issues, how related are gender issues to politics and are women’s groups prepared to challenge politicians and get dirty in the process. I think not, women’s movements throughout Africa still have a long way to go. Gender equality is conducted as the neatest, most innocent, most unthreatening and apolitical process in the world. My experience with the Zambian pictures has taught me that gender equality is a messy business, highly political, about life and death. Women’s groups in Zambia and in Africa should be prepared to tackle these issues beyond rhetoric, hotel conferences, glossy newsletters and radio talk shows but tackle the root cause of the problem, which is political and cultural.

Key in this process are issues of access to information and how they are linked to the need for the public to know. If these picture had not been taken it is possible that the citizens of Zambia would imagine and indeed think that all is well, hence not challenge their government on its shortcomings. Access to information is therefore a critical element that either determined the life or death of the woman and the baby. It is access to information at various levels and in various stands that was shortcoming. Access to health information, i.e. did this woman have access to information on her condition, did she have access to information on alternatives, did she have acces to information on heath facilities and services available if any?. If not does the Zambia community have access to information on how much the government is spending on health, does society have access to information on the causes of the strike and government actions to resolve the crisis. These questions will never be answered, but are the cause why civic society should remain true to its calling, that is seek accountability, transparency and a better life for citizens. The woman and the baby in those pictures deserved better. The Zambia women’s movement needs to wake up, President Band and his government are politicians they can be voted out should Zambians decide so in 2011. // End//