The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe has just issued the following statement:

VMCZ WORKERS DAY SOLIDARITY STATEMENT

29 April 2011

The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) joins the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and all Zimbabweans in commemorating Workers Day on May 1 2011.  This year’s commemorations which are to be held under the theme, ‘Respect our Rights, Save the Economy, Save Our Jobs,’ are significant in that they reflect the continued commitment to the pursuit of better livelihoods by all workers in Zimbabwe. This is despite the fact that the majority of workers are still surviving under difficult circumstances due to the high cost of living as well as the lack of adequate provision of social services.

In tandem with its mandate and mission, the VMCZ also takes this opportunity to express gratitude to the workers through their national union, the ZCTU, for their principled belief in the necessity of freedom of expression and freedom of information for the realization of better working and living conditions for all in Zimbabwe. Indeed, the VMCZ, as an organization with a mandate to ensure self regulation of the media, derives strength not only from the media fraternity but also from the working people of Zimbabwe who are keen on seeing a fair, balanced and accountable media.

Indeed as stated by the ZCTU in the May Day celebrations of 2009 and 2010, it may be dawn, but workers must continue the struggle. The VMCZ urges the ZCTU to continue with the same understanding over and about the struggle for media freedom in the country. This is because although the print media has expanded, there are still no changes to the electronic broadcast media, with ZBC enjoying a patently biased monopoly of our airwaves.

Once again, the VMCZ congratulates the ZCTU and the working people of Zimbabwe on this occasion of the 2011 May Day celebrations.

I came across an article in Newsday titled ‘Cde. Mugabe it’s time to rest’, the article cites several political analysts who examine the President’s legacy and what the last decade has done to it. The article cites University of Zimbabwe lecturer Eldred Masunungure as saying that while President Mugabe would know best when he should retire, his continued hold on power was eroding his legacy. All the analysts agreed that Mugabe is a committed nationalist and a patriot.

I must confess that I too have some mixed feelings about Our Dear Leader. On the one hand I think some of the policies and acts of his government(s) whether official or unofficial have been at best misguided, and at worst evil. I cannot stomach violence and murder. But on the other hand I appreciate his point of view, and have some admiration for his dogged resolve in the face of so much criticism and resistance. Much like Winston Churchill during the Second World War, Mugabe is a man who knows how to stay the course.

On the issue of his legacy, only time will tell. Was land reform just a political manoeuvre to quell rebellion from war veterans? Or was it part of a grander scheme to restore dignity to the dispossessed black majority? Knowing several war vets of his generation, I am well acquainted with their mistrust of white people. How could they not when they grew up in a world where black people were classified as being of less value than livestock? But does that mean that he and his generation can no longer operate in a time in which race is an increasingly outmoded basis for discrimination? More importantly are his ideas less relevant today than they were when the nationalist movement began? I believe he is one of the last great southern African nationalists, so when his time comes what is the future of the nationalist movement? Does it have a future at all, or will it give way to the homogeneity offered by globalisation?

Reaction to the article was emotional with two comments being moderate and the remaining containing hate speech from people who do not understand that Zimbabwe is greater than the sum of the last ten years, as is Mugabe. A man who can inspire such language must surely have a place somewhere in the chronicles of our country. How will history judge the Commander-In-Chief and what will his place in the history of Zimbabwe be?

Read Ethan Zuckerman:

We need to recognize activists who don’t use technology. He offers the story of Alaa Abdel Fatteh, a celebrated young activist who’s active both online and offline. Evgeny notes that his parents are seasoned Egyptian dissidents. “Alaa spent five weeks in jail, his father spent five years,” but Alaa got more attention because he’s a blogger. “This doesn’t mean that cyberactivism is not important, but that we tend to fetishize it.” More

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) in their Daily Catalyst newsletter reported that:

Senior Criminal Intelligence Organization (CIO) and Criminal Investigation department (CID) officials in Mutare, together with the Manicaland Provincial Governor, Christopher Mushowe today, 19 April 2011, issued a joint order to the Mutare Municipality demanding that they pull down a 3×12 billboard in Mutare which was erected by CiZC. The billboard was erected under the Abasha POSA campaign aimed at supporting the POSA Amendment Bill, which sailed through the Lower House late last year and is currently stuck in the House of Senate.

According to Senior Town Planner for Mutare, Mr Simbi, these officials made it clear that the billboard was “too political” for their liking and as such had to be pulled down. They further argued that the advertising company, Ad Industries, which erected the billboard, did not follow the required process of seeking approval from the town council, which is the norm when a new message is to be posted.

The Catholic priest and National Healing Minister who were arrested last week appeared in court yesterday – in leg irons. They were granted bail, but have been charged with contravening the Public Order and Security Act and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly convening a healing service at Silwane Primary School in Lupane, Matabeleland North, without notifying the police.

Read more from this statement from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights:

Father Mkandla, Minister granted bail as lawyers protest against denial of food to pastor

Hwange Magistrate Peter Tomupei Madiba on Tuesday 19 April 2011 granted bail to Catholic Priest Father Marko Mabutho Mkandla and  Hon. Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, the co-Minister of the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation and Integration after they spend six and five nights in detention respectively for allegedly violating the country’s obnoxious security laws.

Magistrate Madiba ordered Father Mkandla and Hon. Mzila-Ndlovu to pay bail amounting to $500 and to surrender their passports with the clerk of court. Father Mkandla and Hon. Mzila-Ndlovu were also ordered not to interfere with State witnesses.

The lawyers, Lizwe Jamela, Nosimilo Chanayiwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) Nikiwe Ncube of Webb, Low and Barry Legal Practitioners and Gugulethu Simango of Dube and Associates, who are all members of ZLHR raised complaints in court against the police for denying Father Mkandla food since his detention at Tsholotsho Police Station. Mkandla’s lawyers told Magistrate Madiba that the police denied their client food and only gave him water during his period in detention.

The lawyers also complained about the police behaviour in denying them access to their clients and refusing to disclose the details pertaining to his detention as they moved him from one police station to another.

Lawyers also protested against the police who brought their clients while in leg irons. Police also deployed their heavily armed anti riot unit at court.

Earlier on police in Hwange on Tuesday 19 April 2011 blocked Jamela, Chanayiwa and Ncube from reaching Hwange Magistrates in Matabeleland North province to represent Mzila-Ndlovu and Father Mkandla, who were set to appear in court in the morning.

The police blocked the lawyers Jamela, Chanayiwa and Ncube from reaching Hwange Magistrates Court after they surprising set up a road block as lawyers entered into the coal mining town to attend court proceedings for Father Mkandla and Mzila Ndlovu, who have been languishing in police detention since their arrest last week.

It appears that the police roadblock had been mounted specifically to target the lawyers for yet unknown reasons.

Eight MDC supporters who were on their way to Hwange Magistrates Court were also detained with the lawyers from 10:30 am to around 17:00 hours.

When stopped at the road block, one police officer quickly jumped into the lawyers’ vehicle and ordered them to drive towards Hwange Police Station. The police interrogated the lawyers about the registration of their vehicle before they were released and managed to represent their clients.

Father Mkandla and Bulilima West Member of Parliament Hon. Mzila Ndlovu were arrested on Wednesday 13 April 2011 and Friday 15 April 2011 respectively and charged with contravening the country’s tough security laws such as the Public Order and Security Act and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly convening a healing service at Silwane Primary School in Lupane, Matabeleland North, without notifying the police.

Here’s something from BOOK Southern Africa:

At the recent launch of Lloyd Sachikonye’s When a State Turns Against its Citizens at Lobby Books, the author spoke with passion about the changes he hopes to see in his home country, Zimbabwe.

Here is the full text of his address:

I am enormously grateful to be here today to share in the launch of this book, When a State Turns Against its Citizens. I am really happy to meet many friends, guests, compatriots who have come to grace this occasion. My profound thanks go to the organizers of this event, SALO and Lobby Books, and to the publishers who have made the publication process possible within two months from the initial submission of the manuscript…The turn-around of the process and the publicity have been superb and professional, thank you.

This is a publication about Political Violence in my country, Zimbabwe. A country of enormous contradictions: on the one hand, it has one of the highest rates of literacy on this Continent, and one of the largest proportions of educated and skilled professionals. A country that showed great promise three decades ago, that was described variously as ‘a jewel’ and ‘breadbasket’.

But as the narrative of this book chronicles, it is now a country deeply mired in political violence and moral crisis. The roots of Political Violence go back not only to 2000 as some analysts assume, but to the 1950s and 1960s, half a century ago. The roots are to be found in:

* The ruthless suppression of moderate African nationalism by the colonial state; they used beatings, dogs and guns for example.

* Violence by nationalists between their parties in the early 1960s, the original ZAPU and ZANU in 1963-64; they employed stones, sticks and petrol bombs, for instance.

* Violence against civilians by colonial regime forces but also by liberation forces during the 1970s, and Use of violence to settle differences within liberation armies themselves.

After Independence in 1980, the post-colonial state inherited the apparatus and techniques of violence against those who criticized it. As years went by, that arsenal was used against rival parties such as ZAPU till 1987, against ZUM in 1990 and the MDC since 2000.

This culture and practice of violence were celebrated by leaders of Zanu PF who openly boasted of having ‘degrees in violence’. As the country witnessed, these were not empty boasts.

The book observes that the consequences of the culture of violence reached a peak in 2008 when the citizens’ bid for political change was blocked like in Kenya, and now Cote d’Ivoire. The incumbent party and the state used their apparatuses to frustrate a free and fair run-off election.

Subsequent chapters of the book show that the consequences of Political Violence include widespread trauma, scars, fear, stress and apathy. The full magnitude of these psychological and physical conditions is not known. It is partly because Zimbabwe is a society under trauma that it has experienced an exodus of up to 3 million, or a quarter of its population.

This situation of Political Violence needs to change because the consequences are terrible. Other countries that experienced large-scale Political Violence have demonstrated great political will to stop it. Take this country, South Africa. In the 1994 election, about 1 000 people were killed in Political Violence, many were maimed. In the last several elections, like in 2009, no single person died in Political Violence.

Why should Zimbabwe be exceptional? Why should its elections be marred always be marred by Political Violence? Why should impunity be tolerated? These are some of the questions raised in this book.

The book concludes with a few recommendations. Zimbabwe has great human resources but also resilient moral resources, and potential for civic values and democratic change. Let them be harnessed against Political Violence and the authoritarianism which sponsors it. Let them be harnessed for a credible process of transitional justice, and reform of security sector institutions. Let our knowledge of the history of Political Violence and various negative effects propel us to do something about it.

Book details

* When a State Turns Against its Citizens: Institutionalized Violence and Political Culture by Lloyd Sachikonye
EAN: 9781431401116