Last week SW Radio Africa published the first in a six-part list of alleged CIO operatives. The original list contained names and addresses, while an amended list, published over the weekend only has names.

Responding to the public reaction to the list, SW Radio Africa Station Manager, Gerry Jackson wrote a statement saying: Experts say the CIO is the most powerful arm of ZANU PF’s security apparatus, the ‘brains behind the regime.’

According to the Council on Foreign Relations: ‘There is no public record of the CIO’s size, but it is thought to have thousands of operatives. Many Zimbabweans think the organization has a network of informers that extends into the Zimbabwean diaspora.

Jackson omits the part of the 2008 report, which states: Some analysts think the CIO’s ability to generate fear among Zimbabweans might exceed its true power.

Assuming the list is authentic, then what? How is releasing classified government information going to benefit the people of Zimbabwe?

In the article, SW Radio Africa discusses several people on the list and uses circumstantial and inconclusive evidence to link them to acts of violence and torture. Commenting on the article in NewZimbabwe Professor Tendi points out that the journalist concerned is hardly reliable: [he] once made an outlandish claim that UK-based public intellectual George Shire is Air Marshal Perrance Shiri’s brother. George suffered serious consequences, one of which was the desecration of his father’s grave, because of [his] fable.

I have several problems with SW Radio Africa publishing this list. First, it takes the CIO out of context. Gerry Jackson is right to assert that there is no legislative framework for the organization, but going by her statement one would be forgiven for thinking that the CIO was formed during the last decade to maintain ZANU PFs grip on power, but this is an institution that was inherited from the colonial government, and in fact Ian Smiths Chief of Intelligence, Ken Flower was retained by Our Dear Leader after Independence.  The CIOs lack of accountability, methodology and terror-tactics are characteristics of the Rhodesian era. In doing research for this blog I came across this quotation about the operations of the CIO:

“In the mid 1970′s, in the most closely guarded secret operation of the entire Rhodesian war, the CIO embarked on a programme of chemical and biological warfare. Doctors and chemists from the University of Rhodesia were recruited by the CIO and asked to identify and test a range of chemical and biological agents, which could be used in the war against the nationalist guerrillas. By 1975 clinical trials were performed on human guinea pigs at a remote Selous Scout camp at Mount Darwin in northeastern Rhodesia. The CIO provided victims from their detention centres, choosing little-known detainees who had been arrested on various security charges. In the secrecy of the camp, the doctors administered various chemical and biological agents to the prisoners, experimenting with delivery systems and dose levels. The local CIO Special Branch disposed of the bodies in local mine shafts.”

The bodies discovered earlier this year might very well be some of the victims of this brutal and inhumane programme.

My second problem is that publishing a questionable list of CIO operatives does nothing to address the deficiencies of the institution, and may contribute in exacerbating the situation for Zimbabweans who are being terrorized by CIO operatives. The fact of where the list is placed, online and outside Zimbabwe does nothing to help those people.

Finally, the list was published as a reactionary measure, rather than as a revolutionary one. It is conceivable that anyone in possession of that list in Zimbabwe, having taken the trouble to download and print it for local distribution, would be charged with treason. If Munyaradzi Gwisai and the 45 can be beaten, tortured and held for weeks without trial based on conjecture and rumour, then surely there are worse evils in store for anyone who actually has State Secrets on their person. It was done without thought as to objectives and consequences, as though placing information in the public domain is the end, rather than the means to it.

Lady Freedom urged to fight back as ANC push forward with “Secrecy” Bill – Zapiro

Journalists in South Africa are very much worried and are lobbying against the Protection of Information Bill which they feel seeks to strip journalists of their rights, and force them to reveal their sources which will seriously affect their work.

Rejoice Ngwenya, in XO2 this Wednesday, shares some thoughts on how “the people” are used in the political debate:

There are several things that National Constitutional Assembly’s Lovemore Madhuku and Paul Mangwana of COPAC inadvertently share.  Both men are chairpersons of constitutional research bodies, driven by a passion for constitutional law. They also have a sinister obsession with the phrase ‘people-driven’, albeit for different reasons. Their egos seem to thrive on incessant front page appearances.  In the quest to outdo each other for attention, the two lawmen insist that the current constitutional process is either people-driven [Mangwana] or not people-driven [Madhuku]. That leaves me and you, mere mortals, in a state of semantic quandary as to which people these learned men are grappling about.  As with literary tradition, I turn to Wikipedia that describes people as ‘a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood.’

My prognosis is that one of these ‘qualities’ referred to above is the ability to think or reason independently. But because constitutionalism is fought in the realm of politics, I would assume Madhuku is more comfortable with ‘civil’ people than the ‘political’ people that Mangwana is accustomed to dealing with. If one probes further, Madhuku is convinced that Mangwana’s ‘people’ are prone to manipulation, since they are selected on partisan preferences, hence, in his view, the ‘illegitimacy’ of the COPAC process. Mangwana on the other hand will argue that because all people have a degree of intelligence, it is inconceivable that one can manipulate [all of] them, thus the legitimacy of the COPAC process.  As far as these two learned lawyers are concerned, the ‘COPAC referendum’ will be a battleground to determine which ‘people’ really matter in defining the destiny of Zimbabwe. For me, I would like to raise the argument on who the ‘real’ people are and why long before the bi polar plebiscite.

Let me start off with the marital institution I am familiar with – mine. I have four children – all boys – who I call ‘mine’, for genetic and legal reasons. However, my ‘possession’ is limited, if not situational because when the two boys are in a kombi, the driver calls them ‘my passengers’. At school, they are labelled ‘my students’ by their teacher while our pastor refers to them as ‘my church members’. In other words, ‘personhood’ is situational. My point is that both Madhuku and Mangwana are in fact talking about the same people, the difference being these humans assume certain qualities in different scenarios.

During the COPAC outreach, I met many ‘people’ who enjoy simultaneously multiple membership in NGO youth groups, the NCA, their professions, Movement for Democratic Change [MDC], ZANU-PF and several other social groupings. Some attended my meetings while other abstained because they said to me “we do not trust the other ‘people’ are at your meetings”. Nonetheless, at any one time, even a typical NCA member assumes ‘dual personhood’ that can be civil, professional or for that matter political.

Madhuku’s rational argument is two-fold: first, ‘political people’ like Mangwana cannot preside over a constitutional reform process without resisting the temptation to ‘unfairly influence’ popular opinion. Second, he argues COPAC audience was ‘people’, but attended either under duress, or some stayed away in fear of what Mangwana’s ‘political people’ would do to them before, during and after these meetings. Therefore the Madhuku conclusion is that even if it is ‘people’ that drive the COPAC process, they are not from the ‘right civic category’ in order to legitimise the process.

Mangwana’s position is predictably different, if not outright divergent. He argues that every, or at least most ‘people’ came to the meetings voluntarily. His party, ZANU-PF, invested time and energy to ‘explain’ to these people what to expect and how to respond because in a democracy, one is allowed to teach ‘one’s people’ what is good for them. This means that he is saying to Madhuku: “It would have been better to [also] teach ‘your people’ what was good for them rather than saying: “don’t go there because you will meet the wrong Mangwana people”.

My conclusion is therefore tinged with Biblical annotation. There is none but God who can designate people as ‘the right people’ or ‘the wrong people’. Those who stayed out of the COPAC process exercised their intelligent choice, while those that participated [either voluntarily or otherwise] had an opportunity to refuse. Whether you are NCA, ZANU-PF, MDC or ‘civil’, you are the ‘right person’ because of your citizenship. If you feel you were ‘excluded’ from the COPAC process, you will have an opportunity to ‘participate’ in the referendum. That makes you important to me.  Thus, in the final analysis, it will be interesting to see which ‘people’ will have the last laugh – Madhuku’s ‘civil people’ or Mangwana’s ‘political people’. Either way, it is the people that will speak!

XO2 this Wednesday may be your Extreme Opinion too!

For an effective and efficient health service delivery to exist in any country, the human resources in the health sector need to be trained, skilled and motivated. In Zimbabwe in our endeavour to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, proper human resource management has to be done in the health sector for us to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC-Zimbabwe), through the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has made a donation of IT equipment and a generator to the Nurses Council of Zimbabwe to help them implement a national human resources information system (HRIS).

Speaking at the official handover ceremony, US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray, pointed out the importance of an HRIS, “A strong human resources information system helps health care leaders answer the key policy questions affecting health service, such as workforce planning, training, qualifications, service delivery and retention”. The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Henry Madzorera, added that an electronic information system would enable the regulation of nurses in the health sector.

Over the years the brain drain has adversely impacted Zimbabwe, and the health sector is one of the most affected sectors. Zimbabwe has lost professional nurses and doctors in search for greener pastures in neighbouring countries and abroad.

The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) under the programme, Temporary Return of Health Professionals to Zimbabwe, aim to bring back health professionals to Zimbabwe to work in the health sector in their area of specialization or as lecturers at local universities. Such projects are good initiatives as they enable knowledge sharing and address existing gaps within the health sector. However, for such programmes to function to their full potential and realise their set goals and objectives, good information systems are required. Thus the setting up of an HRIS will be a valuable collaboration between the Ministry of Health and civil society.

Makes you wonder why this doesn’t happen in Zimbabwe.

From Pambazuka News:

Protests have broken out in the Senegalese capital Dakar and in the southern city of Mbour over continuing power shortages. In Dakar, several government buildings were set on fire including the offices of the state electricity firm, Senelec. Security forces in Mbour fired tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators. The trouble over power cuts, which have lasted 48 hours in some areas, come just a week after rioting against the president.

People who attended a Harare Residents Trust meeting (HRT) were left terrified after ZANU PF youths gate crashed the event and beat up guests and members. The meeting was held on Saturday (25 June) at the Mbare Netball Complex, with the aim of discussing issues affecting residents, such as the problems with power shedding and refuse collection. However, a ZANU PF mob appeared and unleashed terror. Among those who were severely beaten was Precious Shumba, HRT co-ordinator and founder, who had to be taken to hospital. Although now discharged he is still too unwell to attend work. More