Political activist and commentator Rejoice Ngwenya recently sent this through to us. If you know someone who was killed during the Gukurahundi, email rngwenya [at] ymail [dot] com

In the 1980s, a decade of so-called ‘economic growth’, I and four million other Zimbabweans of Ndebele origin lost friends, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in an orgy of political madness that cost the lives of more than twenty thousand people of Matebeleland and the Midlands.  Repeated attempts by courageous Christians, progressive political parties, civic activists, sympathetic regional and international organisations to get the government of Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF to acknowledge the massacres have failed.

Now that the organ of national healing – whatever that means – has been accorded a status to pursue the Gukurahundi issue as a good case for ‘reconciliation’, I propose that everyone in Zimbabwe who knows someone whose life was wasted by the cruel bayonet of the notorious Fifth Brigade send names to the e-mail address below so that I can forwarded them to this ‘organ’ as a first step in seeking redress, with eventual incarceration and prosecution of all perpetrators. Contact rngwenya [at] ymail [dot] com

Hypothesising about Zimbabwe’s next elections, a colleague commented that Zanu PF wouldn’t have to engage in much violence at all, but still would be able to control much of the population through the threat of violence. The image she used seared my heart: Beat a dog badly enough, and eventually all you have to do is show it the stick and it will cower.

Several months ago, I was throwing steaming hot coffee grounds out in my garden, and accidentally splashed some on my dog, who came running past at the same moment. To this day, he runs away, tail between his legs, if he sees me pick up the coffee pot.

Yesterday I got a text message that fourMDC activists had fled their homes in Mazowe, following threats by “Zanu PF militia members.”

A recent meeting organised by the Organ on National Healing was disrupted by Zanu PF youth militia.

The headline of today’s statement from the Youth Agenda Trust caught my eye: Herding sheep with wolves.  How can Zimbabwe even begin to speak about national healing when harassmet, intimidation and violence persist? What hope is there for any future election if people continue to feel threatened – and therefore cower?

The recent disruption of a conference organized by the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation by ZANU PF youth militias and self proclaimed liberation war veterans in Harare on Saturday 22 May is a clear indicator of the dark cloud of political polarization and intolerance characterizing the Zimbabwean political terrain. The national healing, reconciliation and integration programme which came as a result of Article 7 of the Global Political Agreement signed between ZANU PF and the opposition MDC is yet to make any meaningful progress or impact on the ordinary Zimbabweans. The national healing process despite being led by three senior members of each of the three political parties in the GPA has frantically failed to achieve its intended objectives of reconciling the polarized communities and fostering cohesion and tolerance amongst people with different political and ideological orientations. This recent outbreak of violence at such a high level decision making conference should be strongly condemned in the strongest terms possible and should also be treated as a serious warning to the Zimbabwean political leadership over the implications of a snail pace reconciliation programme crafted by three political elites whose implementation plan is totally disconnected from the people who have been the victims of three decades of genocide, misrule and political conflict. It is sad to note that ZANU PF  through its Harare provincial leadership continues to abuse youths within their party structures to be agents of intolerance through their traditional busing and disruption of national events such as the Constitution All Stakeholders Conference and the National Healing Indaba.

The chaos also came in the wake of recent media reports highlighting the possibility of the nation going through an election in May next year. The Youth Agenda Trust would want to reiterate that free and fair elections are only feasible under a new, democratic and people driven constitution. The continued political bickering characterizing the constitution making process coupled with the lack of political will and insincerity in the implementation of the national healing programme as highlighted in the Global Political Agreement remain as the major setbacks towards a free, fair and democratic election in Zimbabwe. A partisan state media, compromised electoral commissions, a partisan security sector and the general unwillingness to respect the constitution by some elements of the executive are a few of the many indicators of the negative political environment for a free and fair election in May 2011.

In conclusion Youth Agenda Trust calls upon the leaders of the inclusive government to reconsider their strategy towards attaining national healing and reconciliation. In fact the commitment and capacity of those appointed to administer this important exercise should be urgently critiqued. A proper national healing framework based on the principles of  transitional and restorative justice which is adequately funded from the national fiscus and interested partners which employs a down to top approach remains a key recommendation by the Youth Agenda. The reported plans to re introduce the notorious and violent Border Gezi national youth training programme should be halted forthwith and the political leaders should collectively speak out against the abuse of young people for political expediency.

- Youth Agenda Trust

The Research and Advocacy Unit, in collaboration with IDASA (an African Democracy Institute), the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), and the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) recently launched a report titled Women, Politics and the Zimbabwe crisis.

The report was the first of a set of findings from a survey taken in November and December 2009. The poll was conducted throughout Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces, and included 2158 individuals. Most of the women interviewed were from Harare, Manicaland, Mashonaland East and West, with the average age of the women being 38. Some of the women polled were located in the Diaspora, which is Botswana and South Africa.

The purpose of the survey was to gauge the opinions of women regarding four issues, namely: what women thought about elections; what women thought about violence; what they thought about peace and finally their thoughts on the Inclusive Government.

In general women believe that they should participate in politics. In comparison with previous Afrobarometer reports, this report found that an increasing number of women are voting, however they are still fewer than the total number of women eligible to vote. A small percentage of women thought that women should be involved in politics at all, or that they should only be involved in politics with the permission of their husbands.

With regard to elections and violence, the majority of women believed that violence was caused by political intolerance and the struggle for power. 68% of women said that they did not feel safe during the 2008 election period; 52% reported having experienced violence. Surprisingly, 9% of women from across the political divide said that violence during elections was acceptable. It is distressing to note that a significant number of women believe that violence and elections are inseparable because of the violence they have personally experienced over the last decade.

The report state that, in general, there was a greater frequency of violations reported at the hands of non-state agents. This corroborates the findings of several human rights reports over the past decade. Violations at the hands of non-state agents were twice as frequent as those at the hands of state agents. 3% of women reported that they had been subjected to sexual violence. Interestingly, the witnessing of rape was much more frequently reported that the actual experience of rape. It may be concluded that women in Zimbabwe are reluctant to talk about their personal experiences of rape. Credence is lent to this theory by the fact that Zimbabwean women in the Diaspora were more willing to report incidences of personal rape during elections.

Women were asked for their views on the Inclusive Government. 71% stated that Zimbabweans should have been consulted about the formation of the Inclusive Government; 43% felt that the new government did not represent the interests of women. The results of the report suggest that Zimbabwean women have significantly declining faith in the Inclusive Government compared with a previous Afrobarometer report. Apart from food security, education and health, the majority of women sampled expressed distrust in the Inclusive Government’s ability to deliver change. Popular support as noted by previous Afrobarometer surveys has significantly declined over the last 20 years. This report found that only 9% of those sampled expressed support for ZANU PF as compared to the 51% that expressed support for MDC-T. A significant number of respondents did not want to say where their party affiliations lay, indicating conditions of fear and intimidation.

In the discussion following the presentation, a few members from the floor feel that more needs to be done to help alleviate the situation of women in the country. One woman pointed out that NGOs were not doing very much to bring justice to women, with the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation being largely felt to be redundant. It was also pointed out that very little research about the perpetrators of violence was being conducted by civic organisations, yet this information would be a necessary tool for addressing the root causes of violence. Among the criticisms of the report was that issues of patriarchy with regard to violence were not mentioned. It was noted that this is very critical in a culture that is buttressed by traditions that look at women as subordinate to men. Further, the report failed to identify the gender of the perpetrators, leading to the assumption that all the perpetrators were men. However, in some cases this was not so. It was reported during the discussion that women were also perpetrators of violence against women.

Students in tertiary institutions have faced a lot of challenges in their academic lives due to the governance crisis in Zimbabwe. Hence the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe has given them a platform to say out their anger and bitterness through the ‘I’ Stories Booklet, aimed at helping the students to heal, accept and forgive.

I spoke to the National Coordinator of the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe, Mr Innocent Kasiyano, and asked him why they put together the ‘I’ Stories Booklet. I also ask him what challenges were highlighted in the booklet that students are currently facing in tertiary institutions and what the vision of the Students Christian Movement of Zimbabwe is. Listen here

Recently a group of “experts” (whatever that means – what makes an expert?) held a meeting in Harare to discuss a wide range of current concerns in Zimbabwe, including whether the Interim Government (IG) is “working”. A report of the meeting has been published by the Research and Advocacy Unit and IDASA and we’ve just put it up on the Kubatana web site. You can check it out here.

The report gives us a lot of food for thought especially in regard to civil society and the general public getting sucked into the “make believe politics” of the IG. According to the report “It was suggested that the donors had contracted what was referred to as the MDC disease of “GNUitis”. The donors thus appeared to a large extent to be setting the agenda, and an agenda which was not one that was required. This went to the extent of organisations such as the UNDP duplicating, and, to some extent, thus commandeering projects already being undertaken by the civics. ”

Below is an extract from the report:

The group noted that the State media, MDC media releases, and politicians from all signatory parties to the GPA were at pains to emphasise that the IG “is working” albeit with “unsurprising” “teething problems”. There are various facets to these statements:

* “Working” could be merely existential in the sense that the IG is intact and has not dissolved in the face of the divergent objectives of, and acrimony between, the signatories.
* “Working” could mean that some governance is taking place which is responsible for bringing a modicum of economic, social and political stability to Zimbabwe after a period of extreme turbulence in all of these spheres.
* “Working” could mean that the MDC’s stated objective of returning Zimbabwe to the rule of law and democratic governance is being incrementally realised.
* “Working” could mean that ZANU PF’s stated objective of “removing illegal sanctions” is a work in progress and the, probably unstated, goal of achieving legitimacy after unrecognised 2008 elections with a consequent easing of international pressure had been achieved.

The group noted that very little power had accrued to the MDC through the GPA, and that the MDC appeared to be reluctant to exercise the little power that it had. This led to an unpacking of the MDC’s concept of a “working” IG. In particular, the MDC argument that, while it recognised that the GPA was highly flawed and left Mugabe’s powers almost completely intact, it had little choice other than to sign and enter the IG. Failure to do so would have resulted in a formal or de facto coup by the security sector and a continued and intolerable humanitarian crisis. This had been avoided by the GPA and the tactic had thus “worked” to this extent. A corollary of this tactic is for the MDC to demonstrate that it is not a threat to ZANU PF – achieved in part by not seeking to exercise power in any sphere which ZANU PF regards as its exclusive domain – to thereby ameliorate the acrimony between the parties, calm the political waters, and for there to be a mutual “re-humanising process” to reverse the dehumanisation that had preceded the accord. This approach was designed to gradually “change the mindset” of ZANU PF stalwarts, and the MDC, simply by virtue of being in the corridors of power, would increase its leverage and be able to open up democratic space sufficiently for free elections to be held under an improved constitution. The approach demanded that the MDC claim that the IG was “working”. The group gave this approach the moniker “make believe” politics.

The arrogance of African politicians is legendary, and one can only point to the powerlessness of “we the people” to do anything to determine the course of national politics. The ballot has already proven to be a useless vehicle for change anyway as unelected men and woman still find their way into the corridors of power, perhaps that’s what has bred this unmitigated arrogance. Perhaps.

These politicians open their loud mouths, say whatever they want when criticised and get away with it, with “we the people” only cursing why and how the hell we allowed ourselves to have these arrogant men as government officials. Examples are too numerous to mention, but it got me thinking the other day when I read about Welshman Ncube calling his coalition partners from the MDC-T idiots or something to that effect, at least according to a SW Radio interview with Violet Gonda.

The issues bordered on what others in the coalition and indeed in the public arena perceive as deliberate stalling and endless postponements of meetings of GPA negotiations. Justifiably, the MDC-T felt the frustration of having meetings postponed and with Ncube and his MDC-M colleagues endlessly engaged in “national business” visiting “world capitals” thereby forcing the postponements. And then Ncube says as far as he is concerned, SADC did not put a deadline on the resolution of outstanding issues but rather provided a framework (according to his dictionary, he said) for the negotiators. All these allegations being levelled against the MDC-M are “nonsensical and idiotic,” Ncube suggests. “That is a creation of those who grandstand and who are masters of deception. There never was a SADC deadline. Those who want to believe there was, is their problem not mine. SADC provided a framework.”

It says a million things about what is wrong with this marriage of inconvenience where a coalition partner addresses his counterparts –primarily the PM who has raised some of the issues – as such and get away with it. It paints a graphic – and horrific – picture about the progress or the lack thereof with this albatross around our neck when we all know that all this gamesmanship – or feeble attempt at it – is only being perpetuated at the miserable expense of the ordinary man, woman and child who at the turn of the century had imagined a Zimbabwe with one political party to steer it to the prosperity we all deserve.

It is interesting that during one of the delays, the MDC-M negotiators were out of town on government business with one of Zanu PF negotiators at Chirundu border post. Cynics will argue that there you already had a meeting of negotiators though not official! Does it then come as a surprise then that we have a guy like Ncube simply dismissing with an epithet-filled tirade that which would only be expected from Zanu PF?

It would increasingly appear that MDC-T is waging a battle for a better and new Zimbabwe with both Zanu PF and MDC-M on the opposite corner, otherwise how else would we read such disturbing attitudes to the coalition from the same people who we expect to make this beast (GNU) work?  It takes us back to the arrogance of African politicians. A guy thinks because he is minister he is above reproach, forgetting that he has no claim over representing any constituency. Yet if there remains an absence of sincerity and nation-centric rapport among these coalition partners then we can bet Jacob Zuma will just be winking in the dark with these latest efforts to resolve the so-called outstanding issues and rescue the coalition from what the doomsayers say is an inevitable…well doom.

It is also interesting however that Zuma would be expected to read the riot act to Ncube and others despite the family ties that bind Mr. Ncube and Mr. Zuma. Is it not all a travesty? In a court of law no doubt Zuma would be called to recuse himself as mediator as he cannot be expected to objectively preside over this circus because of the Ncube factor. But then, “we the people” apparently have once again resigned ourselves to a situation where we leave our fate to the gods only because the men who should be steering this ship to placid waters render it a waste of time putting the “we the people” first.

- When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle – edmund burke, political philosopher – 1770.