I’ve been reading Padraig O’Malley’s Shades of Difference. It uses the life of Mac Maharaj, who according to Nelson Mandela, “ran the ANC’s underground in South Africa,” as a lens through which to discuss the anti-apartheid struggle. O’Malley introduces each chapter to set the historic or political context of that section of the narrative, and then Maharaj recounts a few years of his own autobiography. It’s clear, well written, and I’ve been so grateful for the insights that a story of that struggle can lend to Zimbabwe during ours.

I’m currently in the early 1980’s. Mac has served his 12 year sentence on Robben Island, after his conviction in the Little Rivonia Trial. And he’s escaped South Africa to rejoin the struggle outside the country. Meanwhile, the ANC’s progress has been slow. Frustrated by the pace of reform, and forced ever-deeper underground by the apartheid regime’s policies, the ANC is increasingly attracted to the strategy of armed struggle – despite its failures. In his introduction to Chapter 10, O’Malley credits the United Democratic Front (UDF)’s civil disobedience campaign with greater effectiveness than the armed struggle organised by Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) (Spear of the Nation). This despite the fact that it was 11 years from the formation of UDF to South Africa’s first democratic election.

Here are some excerpts:

The opposition to the tricameral parliament led to the creation in 1983 of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front (UDF), a broad, non-racial grouping of about 650 affiliates with a total membership of more than 2.5 million who collectively put the emphasis on mass mobilisation and protest politics.

Meanwhile, the ANC had become addicted to the idea of armed struggle. The more it failed, the more the ANC pinned its hopes on guerrilla warfare and armed insurrection. The ANC’s armed struggle failed by almost every yardstick.

The post-1963 generation grew comfortable in exile. With no secure base from which to launch attacks on South Africa or to infiltrate operatives, getting MK cadres into the country was a disheartening process. There was no existing political underground in South Africa with which the exiled ANC could easily communicate. One estimate put the number of formal structures inside the country at fifty, the number of members at two hundred – hardly the makings of an adequate network.

As we start a new year – and thinking about Bev’s blog yesterday about the MDC’s need to rethink its strategy – I’ve been reflecting on O’Malley’s comments on the ANC in the 1980s – and what lessons we can learn for our situation today. If we replace the ANC with the MDC, South Africa with Zimbabwe and armed struggle with elections and negotiations, the paragraphs above sound eerily similar to what we are experiencing today.

The more elections and negotiations fail, the more the MDC wants to try them. The MDC’s structures are weak, and constantly under assault from the ruling party. Not exactly a recipe for success.

But discussing things with some colleagues yesterday, we realised – the objective of the MDC isn’t to oust the regime. The objective of the MDC, as a political party, is to win elections, get elected to power democratically, and to govern the country with the majority it has won. So, then, why are we surprised that they focus on elections and negotiations. I may think that’s a naively narrow strategy – since when is that small dicktator gonna share power equally just because we’ve politely requested that he play nice? – but it’s the strategy they’ve chosen. It’s even more naïve of me to expect otherwise from them.

Rather, thinking of Maharaj and O’Malley again, it’s time to take Natasha’s advice. Instead of looking for the MDC to restrategise, let’s look at how civil society can restrategise. The MDC wants to lead Zimbabwe’s democratic transition. But it’s not willing to lead the campaign to make the country ungovernable, so that the regime has no choice but to transition. If South Africa is anything to go by, it’s time for Zimbabwe’s UDF.

On this Christmas Eve in Harare I walked through a dirty and gray Harare city centre to go to a press conference organized by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). They had information that they wanted to share about the recent enforced abductions of activists in Zimbabwe.

The press conference was held in the Quill Club in the Ambassador Hotel. The Quill Club is a popular watering hole for journalists in Zimbabwe.

There was a group of about 30 of us gathered around a pool table with the head of a large buffalo glaring down at us from a wall. A small TV, with the sound turned down, was screening some African soap. Standing around waiting for the conference to start I felt various emotions running through me: fear, outrage, pride. To name a few. Fear because we have to spend so much time watching our back, outrage because the Mugabe regime behaves so despicably and with such impunity and pride because Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has been working so hard to find the activists who have been abducted.

Irene Petras and Otto Saki from ZLHR were joined by kick arse lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa and they told the gathering the length and breadth of the shocking collusion of the Zimbabwe Republic Police in keeping the whereabouts of the abducted activists unknown for so long.

Jestina Mukoko one of the forcibly abducted has been moved from police station to police for the last several days. Attempts by lawyers to get to talk with her and establish her well being have been denied.

Below is the most recent statement issued by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. Give it a read and you’ll be left in no doubt that the rule of law does not exist in Zimbabwe.

And that Mugabe must go now.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)

PRESS STATEMENT
24 December 2008

Recent developments relating to individuals subjected to enforced disappearances

At around 1400 hours on Tuesday 23 December 2008, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) began to receive piecemeal information that various individuals, including civil society activists and members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who had been abducted over the last 7 weeks, were believed to be held in various police stations around Harare.

Lawyers responded with a comprehensive but non-exhaustive search of a number of police stations, including Mabelreign, Marlborough, Avondale, Borrowdale, Mbare, Stodart, Matapi, Harare Central, Braeside, Rhodesville and Highlands police stations. By speaking to various police officials, examining Detention Books and requesting cell head counts, it was established that at least fourteen (14) individuals of the total number subjected to enforced disappearances, twelve (12) of whom appeared on the list of confirmed abductees, were being detained in custody at Mabelreign, Marlborough, Mbare, Stodart, Matapi, Braeside, Rhodesville and Highlands police stations. These individuals include Jestina Mukoko and her two (2) colleagues from the Zimbabwe Peace Project, who are being held at different police stations.

It is our strong belief that more individuals than those disclosed to lawyers are being held in those police stations, as well as others which have not yet been visited. It is also our belief that there may be more abducted persons than those currently confirmed and on the full list with which lawyers are currently working, as confirmed by the discovery of two (2) individuals in custody who had not been previously known to be abducted.

In contravention of constitutional protective provisions relating to detained persons, lawyers were, in all cases, denied access to their clients. They were not permitted to establish the wellbeing of the individuals, in all but one case they were not permitted to provide food to their clients, they were not permitted to provide medical assistance and treatment to the individuals, and were advised that a directive had been circulated to ensure that all individuals were not to have access to their lawyers, or to food and medication.

Most of these individuals, including those whose whereabouts are yet to be confirmed, are subjects of High Court orders which enjoin the police, including the Commissioner-General of Police and his subordinates, to do “all things necessary to determine [their] whereabouts” and to “dispatch a team of detectives to work closely and in conjunction with lawyers appointed by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, to search [for all people] at such places as may be within their jurisdiction in terms of the Police Act [Chapter 11:10] and the Constitution of Zimbabwe”.

It has transpired from investigations made by lawyers yesterday at various police stations that at least some of these individuals now confirmed to be in police custody have been held at police stations, have been booked in and out, moved from one police station to another, and made to carry out indications and other actions, for at least the past two to three days. There has also been at least one search of a private property (the home of Jestina Mukoko) on the night of Tuesday 23 December 2008, in the absence of her lawyers, and during which time some items were removed by the police. It is yet to be established whether police were acting in terms of a lawful and specific search warrant. The operation has been led by Chief Superintendent Magwenzi, together with other known individuals from the Law and Order section. Chief Superintendent Magwenzi himself confirmed to senior lawyers who spoke with him yesterday that he is the investigating officer in these cases, and has all the missing persons in his custody in direct contravention of the various court orders.

ZLHR is extremely concerned by the following:-

• The continuing trend, as experienced in previous cases, of separating out detained and accused persons in various police stations around the city to ensure that lawyers face challenges in accessing their clients and providing legal support and other protective services;

• The contempt by the police of at least six (6) High Court orders by failing or refusing to work with lawyers, as ordered by the judiciary, to ensure that the missing persons are urgently located and brought before a court of law or released forthwith;

• The unlawful search and seizure of property without search warrants;

• The now commonplace feature of denying lawyers access to their clients, as well as denying the detained persons food and medical attention, which puts them at physical and psychological risk despite clear constitutional protective provisions and in contravention of regional and international protective provisions which the state has willingly ratified and is expected to implement;

• The failure or refusal by the investigating officer and other police officials to disclose the charges against the individuals and barring lawyers from taking proper instructions before individuals are brought to court to be charged, especially where the charges are believed to be extremely serious and bear heavy penalties upon conviction;

• The continued breach of various provisions of the Global Political Agreement signed on 15 September 2008, in which all political parties undertook to protect the security of persons and to ensure that fundamental rights and freedoms would be respected.

These individuals, both those located and those still unaccounted for, have fundamental rights and freedoms which are being violated with complete impunity. They have been detained in unknown locations at which time they may or may not have been subjected to torture and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment in order to unlawfully extract false confessions. It is our strong belief that any charges preferred against any of these individuals will be unlawful as a result of the treatment to which they have been subjected.

Today lawyers will be filing an urgent High Court application to have all detained persons produced before a court of law, seeking access to the individuals by their lawyers and medical practitioners, and to have them released as a result of the unlawful treatment to which they have been subjected. We hope that the courts will act with the urgency these cases deserve, and that law enforcement agents will comply with orders and act professionally in order to restore the rule of law immediately.

-Ends-

List of confirmed detentions

Jestina Mukoko    Matapi

Concilia Chinhanzvana    Highlands

Emmanuel Chinhanzvana    Marlborough

Pieta Kaseke    Marlborough

Ghandi Mudzingwa    Highlands

Zacharia Nkomo    Stodart

Mapfumo Garutsa    Mbare

Regis Mujeyi    Matapi

Pascal Gonzo    Rhodesville

Broderick Takawira    Braeside

Nigel Mutemagawu (2 year old minor)    Mabelreign

Tawanda Bvumo    Rhodesville

Violet Mupfuranhehwe    Mabelreign

Mr Makwezadzimba    Braeside

Whereabouts still unconfirmed

Andrison Shadreck Manyere

Chinoto Zulu

Agrippa Kakonda

Chris Dhlamini

Gwenzi Kahiya

Lovemore Machokota

Charles Muza

Ephraim Mabeka

Edmore Vangirayi

Peter Munyanyi

Graham Matehwa

Here’s another contribution from Sophie Zvapera, a Kubatana subscriber . . . it seems like women are tired of men talking, talking, too much.

Today I thought I should give you some of the quotations from Zimbabwean women who had gathered for a women’s weekly church fellowship meeting (Ruwadzano):

“These men (Mugabe, Tsvangirai & Mutambara) have totally killed us and our families

Do you think these men care at all? But these men think we care who is controlling Home Affairs or not? Not at the moment! It doesn’t provide food on my table!

Do these men have a conscience at all? Next time I won’t vote because the vote has no value at all in Zimbabwe

Do these men Mugabe, Tsvangirai & Muatmbara have wives? What are their wives saying about all this?

Men are the same they don’t care about our suffering all they want is power, power & power”

These exchanges went on for a while as we waited for the start of the meeting during which time I started thinking of all the women and children who are unsung, unrecorded and unknown heroines of the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe.

There are many women whose names have never been mentioned anywhere who are suffering the brunt of the failure of leadership at all levels. These women are responsible for looking for food where there is none, caring for the sick where there is no hospital, no medication; they are the ones that are experiencing both social and psychological burn out because of the situation that is presenting in Zimbabwe. They see their children, husbands, relatives and friends dying because of cholera, HIV/AIDS, starvation and still have to attend the funerals and do all the traditional rites. The question that kept on coming to my mind as these women talked is do these political leaders care at all? I recognized that the feeling amongst these women as they expressed it here was that political leaders do not care about all the suffering that is going on except to gain political mileage at the expense of the suffering masses.

Someone might say this is an unkind analysis but I am sure I am not the only one who gets this feeling when you talk to small groups of women going about their daily chores. All they want now is a solution that brings respite to the people of Zimbabwe. In my discussions with women that I meet on a daily basis in my life none of them wants fresh elections, none of them wants a coup. All they want is going back to normal where they do not wake up in the morning to the news that a woman like Jestina Mukoko or Violet Mupfuranhewe and her two year old child disappeared, for instance. If women had their way they would have stopped the suffering long back through finding a workable solution than ‘to stick it out to the wire’ as these men are doing whilst people are dying daily.

My request therefore to these leaders is for them to talk to the suffering women and find out what they think about the ongoing impasse. If they think they are going to get some ululation for a job well done then they are so far away from reality. Women want this impasse resolved immediately. They want to take care of their families and move on with their lives where there is no senseless dying from cholera, where there is enough food for their families on the table, where children can go back to school and get a decent education, where the employed earn respectable salaries and not all this political rigmarole.

How many people have to die before these three men realise it is time for all of them to compromise in one way or the other. It is political doublespeak for any of the three leaders to say they have compromised enough because from where the women stand they have not since we have not moved forward as a country.

As desperation and lawlessness take hold in Zimbabwe we are beginning to eat one another. Here’s some citizen reporting illustrating what life is like on the ground. If you hear about, or experience these kinds of incidents please contact Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. Speak out, make a complaint, don’t let them get away with it.

I had an unfortunate experience last night.  I was travelling down Glenara Avenue and was stopped by two policemen who asked for my drivers’ license and my ID which I of course gave them.  They then would not give back my documents until I ‘gave them something’.  They got into my car and would not get out .  I gave the one $100 and then they went through my handbag for more.  They took $200 which for me is a lot of money.  It was a very ugly event.  I went and made a charge at Highlands police station but no doubt won’t hear anything nor get my money back. – Emma

I like to call them “uninformed uniformed forces.” Some are so incorrigibly daft you wonder whether that is how they are vetted for recruitment. Yes, those cops who will fleece and extort your measly dollars, and have become so brazen about demanding bribes they even do it when literally the whole world is watching.

You see them at roadblocks where they stop commuter omnibuses and never bat an eyelid as they accept bribes right under the gaze of passengers. Some think they know the finer details of the law, and I heard the other day one rookie cop with cheeks that clearly have never known a shaving machine or razor blade actually citing sections of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act to a bewildered young man. The cop was going on about the police have the right under Zimbabwean law to stop and search him or anyone for whatever reason the cops deem fit. But the cop knew and the man knew and I also knew that what the cop wanted was a bribe for him to stop wasting that man’s time.

But then some Zimbabweans being Zimbabweans will pee in their pants once these once revered keepers of the peace start speaking that gibberish. And though you know damn well you did not commit any offence, they will still drag you to the holding cells hoping that along the way before you get to the filthy cells you would have made them an offer they cannot refuse. And these days it is strictly forex so woe betide him who walks around with empty pockets. And it’s so true.

I watched appalled the other day as a baton stick-wielding cop threatened bank clients with a good clubbing. “Hofisi yedu ihombe,” the cop said, apparently bragging about being above the law. This was after someone had grumbled that the cop’s behaviour was uncalled for. And guess what, these threats were being done right inside the bank. It was obvious the cops were itching to crash some skulls and break some bones. Imagine a gun in the hands of such people. They would fit those types who live by the dictum: “I only carry a gun when I intend to shoot something (or someone).” And the crime the cash-strapped people had committed: they wanted to know if the bank had any cash. But the irascible cops – apparently on high alert (or simply high on something else) as this was the day the ZCTU had called on the people to bum-rush the banks and demand their hard earned cash – would have none of it as if they themselves had loaded pockets.

But then they are now in the habit of taking out their frustrations on law abiding citizens. I always laugh surreptitiously when I see them in their civilians loitering outside pubs expecting largess from anybody who can buy them beer. “It’s a thankless and dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it,” I have heard that line a hundred times, but when we reach a point where virtually everyone no longer holds these uniformed chaps in awe like during the country’s nascent years, then you know the country is off the rails.

I heard a commuter omnibus tout demanding that a uniformed cop pay his fare like everyone else as these folks are for some reason always in the habit of expecting – and getting – free rides. I wondered what it is that that has changed for a policeman to be dressed down and humiliated like that in front of amused members of the public. “No fare, no ride,” the tout said. Boy was the cop stunned! And pay he did. I could sense that the mortified chap was silently vowing that he would have his day when he is assigned as a traffic cop and then he would demand more than a pound of the tout’s flesh. I thought I saw steam hissing through cop’s ears. But what could he do, threaten the tout with arrest? In any case, it wasn’t the cop’s car so he had to pay like everyone else, I heard an emboldened passenger say.

That is the society we have been forced to live in as young men and women living or working outside the country vow they won’t make the annual Christmas holiday trip because of all this crap they hear about what is happening to their mothers and fathers as scripted by other mothers and fathers (of the Revolution?). For some of us, well, we are right in the thick of things and this Bad Santa has once again stolen our Christmas.

After all, we are living in the age where cops refuse to respond to distress calls and instead expect you to bribe them to arrest a known housebreaker! And many thought it was the burglar who bribes cops to escape arrest, but now these amoral roles have been reversed: now it is the victim who bribes cops so that the bad guy is arrested.

Crap, I say.

George Bush, Desmond Tutu and many others are calling for the removal of Mugabe. But Sophie Zvapera, a Kubatana subscriber suggests another approach altogether.

I realise that there is always joy when another leader or renowned person calls for the removal of Mugabe from office given the untold suffering that the people of Zimbabwe are going through. I also realise that it is seen as piling more pressure on Mugabe if there are widespread calls for him to be removed/toppled. However, I just want to say that the more the West calls for Mugabe to be removed from power the more hardened Mugabe becomes. So in my opinion this international groundswell is working in reverse by hardening Mugabe’s stance even further. This means the more the West goes over the fact that Tsvangirai should be given the Ministry of Defence for instance the more Mugabe sticks onto his guns and the more he refuses to make concessions. This is my understanding of Mugabe’s psyche that the more the West speaks the more he enjoys spiting them and the more ruthless he becomes to prove a point.

I am saying this so that people realise that even now with all these deaths and the crises let us not assume for one moment that Mugabe will raise his hands up in surrender. The Gukurahundi deaths are said to be 20 000 or more but did Mugabe care then? Did he stop because the numbers were alarming? No! It is therefore not in Mugabe’s make-up to think that the people of Zimbabwe have suffered enough through cholera, starvation, HIV/AIDS etc so he should step down. He will continue to hang on as long as he can.

I doubt that there is going to be any UN intervention any time soon which means people are continuing to die in large numbers, abductions and disappearances will continue and suffering will continue. I believe that it is only dialogue that can bring an end to this suffering and my suggestion is that since it is only Tsvangirai whom we can appeal to and not Mugabe, why does he not consider going into the inclusive government for the people’s sake to avert the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding in full view of the whole world with no solution in sight so far, except to talk and talk and even talk louder?