ZINASU reports the following . . .

There was mayhem in Bindura yesterday the 22nd of April 2008 when Bindura University of Science Education BUSE students joined other students at tertiary institutions countrywide in protesting against the illegal regime’s efforts to cling onto power despite losing the March 29 harmonised elections. The angry students stormed the streets at around 10am and marched from the new  to the old campus site chanting protest songs. The march was disrupted by ruthless and brutal armed soldiers who forced the students to stop the protest and assaulted several students in the melee. This led to the arrest of three student leaders who were quickly whisked away and are to appear in court today charged under the notorious Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

Last week saw the opening of tertiary institutions nationwide mounted by massive protests by aggrieved students who could not take lightly the exorbitant fee hikes and the illegal delay in releasing the just ended Presidential poll results. The students vowed to continue protesting until the illegal Government of Robert Mugabe swallows its pride, accept defeat and leave office. It is the hope of the Union that if there is to be a change of Government to one that is people centered that is only when the goal of “Education to all” becomes a reality.

Meanwhile…

Great Zimbabwe University students  peacefully demonstrated on Monday 21 April 2008 against the continued illegal stay in office by military junta Robert Mugabe, and the exorbitant tuition fees being charged by the University. The peaceful protest started in the college dining hall where students were chanting “PLEASE GO, YOU ARE FINISHED” prompting the security personnel on campus with the help of riot police officers to violently thwart the peaceful demonstration. ZINASU secretary for Legal Affairs Courage Ngwarai was arrested and is due to appear in Masvingo Magistrate Courts today. Students vowed not to rest until the country retains to its legitimate leaders elected by the people, that is, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.

Jamela posted an impassioned comment on Amanda’s recent blog. Jamela makes a really good point and then falls short on a couple of others. First, and most importantly, Radox can do wonders to keep one’s activism at a high level. If you’re in Zimbabwe Jamela, maybe you’d like to have a Radox bath with me and we can talk this through? Clearly you have no understanding of the degree of advocacy and activism in Zimbabwe at this time.

Bubble up your nose on that one Jamela.

Zimbabweans are described as cowards on many discussion forums. This is where I also disagree with Jamela. There are a variety of expressions of bravery, and Zimbabweans are well versed in just about all of them. If your measurement of brave is a protest in Unity Square, well then you need to think again.

As far as expecting Kirsty Coventry to make a stand and boycott the Olympic Games . . . I’d give her great kudos for having the fins to do that. It would be a very powerful statement. But I disagree with the writer Amanda’s quotes when she says that “every other Zimbabwean has taken a stand“. Not true, especially within the business community.

On relying on international support to sort our crisis out, I’m with Jamela. It’s unfathomable to me that we don’t see the need for a multi-faceted approach to dealing with this dictatorship. Elections and the international community need to be complemented with strong internal pressure.

There’s more than one way to pluck a jongwe.

As I’ve mentioned before one of the most invigorating aspects of working in an organization like Kubatana.net is getting to hear and read the remarkable information and ideas created by our subscribers.

We are also privileged to be able to receive information from far flung corners of the country, and share it further.

A farmer down in Chiredzi sent this through yesterday:

Dangerously unhappy – I am getting many SMS messages from the MDC youth now desperately looking for guns, saying that they are tired of been chased and beaten by Mugabe’s youth, obviously I do not have arms to give them and so tell them that Morgan wants all his people to stay calm and peaceful. My and many others question is, when the people have obviously won an election but the losers do not intend to hand over, how do the people force the losers out peacefully? If somebody has an answer to this question, please let me know so that I can pass it on and so give hope to our people and help to prevent a blood bath.

Some people have responded to our various blogs saying that we must be patient and that Morgan’s diplomatic shuffle, and the international community, will put the situation right in Zimbabwe. But like all complicated issues, there is never just one solution, and right now people in Zimbabwe are crying out for leadership. With Tsvangirai and Biti out of the country, who do we look to for direction and strategy?

Many of us are looking inwards and invoking our individual leadership and helping others. But there is a need for the MDC to get active again.

Here are some useful tips sent to us by a passionate man committed to Zimbabwe’s restoration. More than take note – take some of them on!

We need to counter Zanu PF tactics

Communication
Fliers, newspapers, rallies, SMS, emails, international media

Violence and Intimidation
Build while they burn
Support teams of activists to stand up to the bullies
We must document the violence, get it into the media and expose the perpetrators

Civil Disobedience
Create doubt among Zanu PF
Name and Shame
Expose them, assets, deals etc.

In the event of a Run-off
Pre-election Strategies
Election Day Strategies

The ordinary person can – at no personal exposure

* Forward SMS messages of encouragement to friends and colleagues every day
* Drive with their headlights on and encourage others to do the same
* Give people lifts – especially the police and army personnel – let them do the talking
* Talk to friends about the situation – keeping positive, encouraging and creating awareness

The next steps (as people become braver) could be:

* Open palm salutes to everyone throughout the day
* More open discussion and encouragement
* The distribution of newspaper articles and fliers

From most of you we expect a lot more – we expect you to take charge, LEAD

A Kubatana subscriber made some good points recently in the “should politics and sports mix” debate:

In the midst of all the negative news coming out of Zimbabwe of late, many may have missed the positive news of the legendary Kirsty Coventry, who having already won various medals in many an international swimming arena, continues to swim her way to the top of the world swimming rankings. Coventry broke the world’s oldest short-course record at the World Short Course Championships, recently held in Manchester England on April 12th. Kirsty also won a gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley. During her celebratory interviews, Kirsty Coventry excitedly spoke of her wins, and expressed how much she was looking forward to heading to Beijing China, to represent Zimbabwe at the Olympics in August.

Personally, I support Kirsty’s ascent to fame and swimming stardom, and have felt proud as a Zimbabwean as she has won medal after medal, and broken record after record over the years. However, I have to say I found myself pausing in some degree of disbelief at Ms. Coventry’s expressed anticipation of a visit to Beijing. Ms. Coventry was also asked a question about the crisis that was engulfing Zimbabwe as she, on the other end of the world, painted a positive image of the country. Ms. Coventry reportedly replied that she tries to “stay out of politics”. I do too ….. for the most part! But honestly, what Zimbabwean in this day and age has the luxury to “stay out of politics” !!!?

I think it would be wrong and almost hypocritical for Kirsty Coventry to go to China if she does qualify to go to the upcoming Olympics. Doing so would demonstrate, in my opinion, that she represents her own personal ambitions and interests, and not Zimbabwe’s. Her claim of efforts to “stay out of politics” though understandable are not realistic, and would in this instance be a betrayal of her claim at representing Zimbabwe as she swims her way to the top. Ms. Coventry instead, holds a unique position to represent Zimbabwe in a more meaningful and unselfish manner. As a world renowned Zimbabwean star athlete, she should either speak out against the atrocities going on in Zimbabwe, or quietly boycott China to show her solidarity with the ordinary Zimbabweans who have absolutely nothing to celebrate or look forward to at this particular time, except survival. Reports are coming out that as the ship carrying a consignment of weapons from China now stands to be recalled back to China, China on the other hand, is preparing another consignment of reportedly “more sophisticated” weapons to be flown directly from China to Harare within the coming week!!!

I am no politician, but I consider myself a fairly intelligent being. China’s disregard for the significance of its arms sales to Zimbabwe, demonstrates at best, an utter disregard and disinterest for the value of the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans who will certainly be massacred by these weapons, and at worst, demonstrates what many have said all along. China has no respect for human rights, and in Zimbabwe’s case, like in Rwanda, is seeking to facilitate, aid and enable genocide by the Mugabe regime. Even the pursuit for economic supremacy has its bounds, and no Zimbabwean should stand aside while China massacres our people as a stepping stone to economic supremacy. No Zimbabwean blood should aid China’s economic rise. As Mugabe cries foul to perceived new attempts at colonization of Zimbabwe by the West, he is willing to shed our blood as he hands over the country to those from the East. Even the apolitical Kirsty Coventry needs to look beyond the potential gold medals and the prospects of enhanced fame, and take a stand on one side or the other on this issue. I will be damned to find any Zimbabwean, a true Zimbabwean, anywhere in this world, who is truly “staying out of politics” today. Kirsty should certainly continue swimming her way to the top, but certainly not to China. She can still prove herself the best on other venues that will certainly present themselves in the future after China, but China is no venue for any Zimbabwean to be competing under any guise of any form of a positive spirit as is supposedly embodied by the Olympics. In my view, they might as well extinguish the Olympics torch when it gets to China, and carry on with the games instead of trying to pull a veil over the rest of us. There is nothing positive-spirited about China from an ordinary Zimbabwean’s perspective today, unless you are looking out for the personal gains that come from such an association with China. Currently, the only Zimbabweans I know of who are benefiting in any way from China are Mugabe and his cronies. Which side does Ms. Coventry stand, on this issue, in which EVERY other Zimbabweans has taken a stand?

Please share your views directly with Kirsty and also congratulate her on her wins on her blog (You’ll need to register to leave a comment).

Philip Barclay from the British Embassy has been blogging again – he’s recommended reading. Here’s an excerpt, and if you want the full blog click here

There’s a right way and a wrong way to approach a cordon of Zimbabwean riot police. It’s not clever for example to don an MDC t-shirt and ask the plod for the results of the Presidential election.

I usually try and carry it off with a self-confident swagger, as if a line of big cops in crash helmets and heavy boots carrying nasty sticks is an everyday hurdle. I try to look like a man who has proper business in Zimbabwe’s High Court, rather than what the state media portrays me as: a colonialist who is sabotaging Zimbabwe’s economy because he wants to restore white supremacism. As I reach the thick blue line I manage a cheerful:

“Good morning! How are you sirs?”,

in the Zimbabwean style.

While the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission drags its heels, and the MDC turns to the courts and the international community, a headline caught my eye: Only mass mobilisation can defeat the Mugabe dictatorship.

At last, I thought to myself.

In it, the International Socialist Organisation makes a few important points:

1) Zanu PF will remain in power by hook or by crook, unless otherwise compelled by mass mobilisation.

2) The people’s power route is only possible if there is “the urgent establishment of a united and democratic front of the commons and democrats, including organised labour, residents, informal traders, youths, students, women, progressive civic groups, socialists and other radicals.

3) The behaviour of the regime in refusing to announce the election results has more than vindicated the position of those who said that without a democratic constitution and mass mobilisation, the March election would not deliver change.

4) The MDC’s boycotting of the run-off, would be commendable, but is suspect in the circumstances. Instead of mobilising the masses who have overwhelmingly voted for it, … the MDC(T) has focused on calling for so-called “international community” intervention – code words for the Western countries – and sending its leaders on futile regional/international “diplomatic offensives”. Most damning, it is pacifying its members and civic groups by calling for restraint and not doing anything to provoke the regime. The MDC(T) is again going to Mugabe’s courts for relief, giving the regime cover to draw out the dispute and consolidate its positions.

The ISO recommends the mobilisation of mass resistance to electoral fraud, “starting with less confrontational methods that build confidence, such as pressure on the ZEC members to resign, especially those seconded by the opposition, regular mass prayer meetings, cascading into stayaways and general strikes and demonstrations.”

Now we’re talking.