From Bulawayo Agenda:

Villagers in the remote area of Madlambuzi in Plumtree are being forced by their village heads to sign the anti sanctions petition. The petition is a ZANU PF project headed by the self proclaimed war veterans leader, Jabulani Sibanda. The party is targeting more than one million signatures on the petition, which shall be presented to the three principals in the inclusive government. The unsuspecting villagers are allegedly told to sign without questioning the contents of the petition.  Anti-sanction fliers are also being distributed by ZimPapers. Sunday Newspaper readers were surprised on Sunday morning to find anti-sanction fliers inside the newspaper, a clear indication that Zanu PF is not joking about the removal of sanctions.

This statement from the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) further discusses some of the violence experienced in Zimbabwe’s capital yesterday:

The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) condemns in the strongest terms reports that youths suspected to belong to a certain political party destroyed large copies of NewsDay and harassed newspaper vendors from the stable in and around the city of Harare today.

The VMCZ notes with serious concern that this unwarranted intimidation of Newsday vendors is undemocratic and inimical to freedom of expression. It is our considered view that where citizens are against contents of a publication, or a media house, they should seek recourse either through the Media Complaints Committee under the auspices of VMCZ.

VMCZ  therefore urges those that are behind today’s barbaric actions to refrain from destroying the newspapers and harassing vendors who are going about in their daily duties but should instead allow the free flow of information in the country.

This is particularly important given that Article 19 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) recognizes the importance of the right to freedom of expression and the role played by a free media in a multi-party democracy. It is therefore important that newspaper vendors, journalists and media publishing houses be allowed to continue their professional duties without any hindrance.

VMCZ strongly urges the Zimbabwe Republic Police to fully and impartially investigate the incidences of violence and bring the perpetrators to justice. We also call upon all political parties in the country to warn their supporters to refrain from attacking newspaper vendors and destroying newspapers as this infringes on freedom of expression and denies Zimbabweans an opportunity to have multiple sources of information.

The Zimbabwe police claim that they dispense their duties in a non-partisan manner but events on the ground prove them otherwise. It is even more surprising that one of the “half” Ministers of Home Affairs, representing the political party that is at the receiving end of this partisan way of conducting business by the police, can claim that the police are now non-partisan. Recent events fly straight in the face of Minister Makone’s reckless utterances as it is clear even to a blind man that the police are applying the law selectively. In a normal political environment, the Minister should withdraw her statements or even resign from the post, but the proud and greedy crop of politicians we entrust with our lives and beloved country will never do that.

From a statement by the Youth Forum

South Africans help Egyptians to cry out, “Bread! Jobs! Education! Dignity! Democracy! Freedom of Expression!”

Today Friday the 4th of February 2011 at 2:40pm at the Egyptian Embassy in South Africa, COSATU, with people from organisations and groups around Gauteng will protest outside the embassy to raise their voices in support of the demands of the Egyptian people.

Read the story here

Three Zimbabwean writers – Emmanuel Sigauke, Tinashe Mushakavanhu and Christopher Mlalazi – discuss the state of Zimbabwean literature, writing from the Diaspora, what is African literature among other literary issues. In this candid roundtable discussion, they question the direct nature of literature and its suitability in chronicling moments of unique political and social significance. In a country like Zimbabwe, which exists to the West as a flurry of news reports and political upheavals, literature attains an importance that it rarely enjoys in Britain or America: it becomes a necessary thing, essential to the survival of the self. A sobering set of first-hand accounts accompanied by revealing anecdotes about writing and reading experiences influenced by the three writers’ collusion with many cultures and worlds in their different journeys.

More from Sentinel Literary Quarterly

From Business-ethics.com:

When the Egyptian government created a partial communications blackout on Thursday, shutting Internet and cell-phone service, it asked for the cooperation of foreign mobile phone companies. UK-based Vodafone complied, saying it had no choice but to cut service.

In a statement issued Saturday, Vodafone said the Egyptian government would have been able to shut the network itself anyway, all within the bounds of Egyptian law. Mobinil, another major provider, which is owned in part by France Telecom, also complied.

Did they have any choice?

Read more