In Friday’s Zimbabwe Independent, co-Minster of Home Affairs, the MDC’s Theresa Makone, boldly claims that the police have “turned over a new leaf.”

The article quotes her as saying:

“As I speak right now everything is being effected – all court orders are being implemented, work is being done as the country moves forward. We are doing our job.”

Makone went further to say that: “The ZRP (Zimbabwe Republic Police) is doing what it was mandated to do.”

Among those disputing that is W. Ferguson, Managing Director of Denlynian game ranch in Beitbridge, as noted in the below letter to Minister Makone. If a leopard can’t change its spots, are the police’s new leaves likely to still be rotten?

To: Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone

Dear Madam,

RE: Police have turned over a new leaf. Article in Independent 3rd Sept.2010

I wish to respond to certain claims you made as reported in the Independent of the 3rd September 2010 that “all court orders are being implemented” and the assurance that the “Zimbabwe Republic Police are now carrying out what they were mandated to do”.

Further, that, and I quote “the ZRP is now doing its job and we intervene where the Messenger of court is afraid and we go and assist”.

Lastly I would comment on your reported statement that, and I quote “there is no more hiding behind a finger of someone powerful”.

With all due respect, and although I can’t comment on what is happening in other areas of Zimbabwe, what is happening in the Beit Bridge District, is in direct contradiction and worse, than the claims in the quotes in the three paragraphs above.

Certain Officers of the ZRP Beit Bridge Rural and District Office have refused to provide the Messenger of the High Court any assistance to carry out a High Court Order and even worse have pursued a policy of arrests and harassment in defiance of the order granted by the High Court.

These same Officers have refused to accept reports and provide RRB numbers for serious criminal acts of theft of company assets, poaching and assault of company staff as they claim it is political.

Details, including, the Officers names is provided below for your perusal.

In regard to the statement of hiding behind someone powerful, certain members of our staff were told by Police and National Parks Officers and numerous Communal Farmers that there is a Senior Govt. Minister behind the Police behaviour and responsible for the crusade over the past 10 years to remove the Companies from the Wildlife Conservation Farm.

Assistant Inspector Michael Mamunye (spelling) the Police Officer in Charge Beit Bridge Rural.      This man is the fourth Respondent in the order and was served with a copy of the High Court Order personally as confirmed in the Deputy Messenger of the High Court’ in his return of service.

• This man has pursued a policy of arrest and incarcerating the Company Staff in Police Cells over night on trumpet up charges and for poaching which is all tantamount to deliberate harassment.
• This Officer is in deliberate breach of the order contained in paragraph two which directs quote “determined the applicants and all those who occupy the properties through them are entitled to continue their safari and hunting operations on the property”.      The arrest for poaching is in breach of this order.
• This man is also in breach of the order in paragraph four as he refused to provide an escort to the Deputy Messenger of the High Court who was to enforce the High Court Order.

Superintendent Manai (spelling) who was served with a copy of the High Court Order and as Acting District Police Officer refused to provide the Deputy Messenger of the High Court with any assistance or escort in breach of paragraph 4 and quote “to enforce the terms of the order the fourth Respondent (Police) is ordered to render to the appropriate officer of court all such assistance as may be necessary to execute his duties.”The arrests and harassment has increased and being pursued with greater vigour, this in spite of certain Police Officers being warned, that they are acting in serious contempt of the Gwanda Magistrates Court Judgement, “dismissing” the States Application for an “Eviction Order against the Company’s”, as well as the “Spoliation Order” granted by the High Court in Bulawayo in our favour.

The Final Spoliation Order was granted by The High Court, (“AFTER” the Judgement was handed down by the Provincial Magistrates Court in Gwanda), which in law.

The Judgement grants the eviction of all occupants other than Company Staff from the properties, and interdicts the Police to assist in the removal of all illegal occupants and to further to assure that the Company’s Safari’s and General and Trophy Hunting operations are not interfered with by any one.

It would seem that these Police Officers and National Parks, don’t, or don’t want, to understand the true legal position which lays out clearly that the Company’s are in law the Legal Occupants and the Appropriate Authority in terms of the Wildlife Act.

The Company Staff were instructed to arrest a War Vet. Who is one of the main and most arrogant and troublesome illegal invaders, one Julias Siziba (alias Julias Maramani) for severely assaulting two of our Game Scouts Wives and for illegally netting fish in the Mazunga pools.

The man threw a shovel at the Scouts and ran away and went to Beit Bridge and made a report to the Police that he had been threatened with violence by my staff.

The next day Sunday the 15th August, all our staff were arrested by the Police on the instructions of the same Police Officer mentioned above and carted off to Beit Bridge and charged with public violence.     There being no Public Prosecutor present the case was remanded to the 6th of September.

No sooner were the staff back on the Properties when the total company staff, were rounded up on the 18th.August by the police and transported to the Beit Bridge Police Station and charged with poaching.     The charge, apparently for a Wildebeest, that had been shot by a friend of ours for Biltong and rations, for our Staff.

Once again the arrests were made by the Police Officer in Charge, and disappointingly the Officer in Charge of National Parks, who should know better, one Ranger or Warden Ngapawe.

The charge, being for poaching on, “in name only”, the so called Zhove Conservancy, sic., whose members are subject to a High Court eviction order and have previously asset stripped and vandalised the properties and slaughtered the Wildlife.

In spite of it being pointed out to Inspector Mamunye that he could be charged for contempt if he pursued this line of harassment, by certain CID Officers, and our Lawyer Mr Tchakalisa, he apparently said he couldn’t care.

He is in fact in contempt of the Gwanda Provincial Magistrates Court Judgement, dismissing the States Application for an Eviction Order against the Company’s, as well as the Spoliation Order granted by the High Court in Bulawayo in our favour,

The next afternoon the Staff were taken to court with their wrists tied with “shoe laces” and there being no Public Prosecutor present were remanded by the Police Prosecutor to the 28th of September.

On the advice of Legal Council it is our intention to have this man charged for contempt in his personal capacity, and it is our intention to institute civil proceedings against him and a number of others, as well as the illegal invaders in their personal capacity.

Apparently this Officer in Charge told one of my staff that the judgement by the magistrate in Gwanda only dismissed the case against my Son only and that when I returned to Zimbabwe, I would be arrested by him immediately.

The actual judgement dismissed the case against my Son, as well as the Company and denied the application for the eviction order.

This is disgusting and uncivilised behaviour and a serious infringement of ones Legal and Civil rights with distinct racial overtones, and it’s about time action is taken to rein in this culture of belligerent behaviour by the Police.

The Lawyer said he spent over an hour arguing with the Police, pointing out that they were in contempt of the Court Rulings. But they just brushed him off.

Yours Faithfully.

W.A.I.Ferguson
Managing Director

The Union for Sustainable Democracy recently released this statement:

Prime Minister Tsvangirai must order Chombo’s investigation

The Union for Sustainable Democracy urges Zimbabwean Prime Minister Tsvangirai to act decisively by ordering a swift probe into minister Chombo’s alleged corruption and misconduct.

Yesterday the MDC issued a Press Release calling upon ‘… the inclusive government to urgently investigate Local Government, Rural and Urban Development minister, Ignatius Chombo.’

While USD shares the view that Chombo has become nothing short of a menace to local governance as he continually disrupts the free flow of competent services, we bemoan the fact that, despite being the majority party in the unity government, all the MDC does is call upon the unity government to investigate Chombo.

Of course Chombo should be arrested, tried and, if convicted, sacked. However, if the MDC itself does not move to implement the investigation of Chombo, who the hell will? Why Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai does not simply go ahead and order an investigation is baffling to everyone who has put their trust in the MDC.

It is this kind of timidity and stunning lack of clout that enables ZANU PF – supposedly the junior partner in the inclusive government – to trample on the MDC with arrogance and impunity. Progress has stalled on many fronts because of this seemingly political ineptitude on the part of the MDC.

It is a facile to suggest that the MDC as a party and the MDC as a partner in the inclusive government are two separate entities. Of course they are one and the same.

If instituting a mere investigation is too daunting a task, how much more frightening must it be for the MDC to approach President Mugabe on more fundamental political reforms? And what is the prospect of doing so successfully?

USD calls on the MDC to rethink its approach to dealing with issues in the so-called inclusive government.

Issued by the Information & Publicity Department Union for Sustainable Democracy www.usd.org.zw

This is what happens to our votes in Zimbabwe.

The artist, Owen Maseko, is currently challenging Mugabe’s ban on his exhibition depicting Gukurahundi, the 1980s Matabeleland massacres.

Everyone knows by now that Zimbabwe’s education has deteriorated to levels that will be tough to reverse without any radical policy changes. Other commentators have however opined that until there is a new political dispensation, we cannot expect any real change for the better, which could in effect rather ominously mean these woes will be with us indefinitely – of course with the post-September 2008 political power games being read as pointers to predict the country’s future. Others have pointed at the diamond windfall as just what the doctor ordered to fix the abject education and health services, but inveterate pessimists who know gemstones in the hands of an African politician are not holding their breath.

There still is unabated brains flight in the country’s once awed institutions of higher learning as academics apply for or are offered staff development programmes outside the country but never return to their varsities. And with good reason, some would say. Meanwhile, students who graduate with what have been mocked as unbaked degrees return as teaching assistants, something that would be frowned upon by serious academics. But then this can be found all over the whole education sector here where unqualified teachers are taking children for their O’ and A’ level classes and straight to university!

As we speak, for the umpteenth time the opening of some varsities has been pushed further and some students are already saying they are imagining the academic year may well begin in December when classes should have begun this month. I know a number of National University of Science and Technology students who have left for South Africa as they say they cannot just sit and wait for the unknown. While they have said they will be coming as soon as they are informed that classes have started, such stories have been heard before with many abandoning their studies altogether after having found jobs during their sojourn. All this despite the fact that once upon a time getting an opportunity to study at university was literally embraced with both hands as it was a guarantee that one was set for life. Now students abandon their studies without any second thoughts, after all they are failing to pay their fees, so why pay the exorbitant fees only to have lecturers absent from their posts? It makes sense then to exchange one’s academic cap for hustling in the mean streets of Johannesburg when a degree ought to provide one with a middle class lifestyle – at least in a normal economy.

Zimbabwean students themselves attending university here are witnessing how standards have gone down and one quipped that while some are quitting their studies and complain that they is no learning going on to give weight and meaning to “degree”, she will stick it out as long as in the end she gets that piece of paper that says she went to university and has “qualifications.” But the circumstances of young people who have university education become heart-rending when other countries we always thought viewed our education with awe become “suspicious” of these university degrees and have second thoughts about employing a Zimbabwean graduate.

A young man told a sad story recently about how his “degree” failed to get him a job in South Africa. You see, he got a degree from one of the “state universities” that were once teacher training institutions, but prospective employers in South Africa told him they did not recognise his institution and therefore his degree. He reports he was told the only Zimbabwean degree these people would accept would be from the University of Zimbabwe, but also with reservations. And their reasons? There is no meaningful education going on in Zimbabwe’s universities! How’s that coming from a bunch of people whose education standards is something people here have always mocked?  Now the young man is back in the country clueless about what to do with his future despite having invested four years of his life studying toward his now useless degree. The superiority of Zimbabwean education is no doubt under scrutiny not just among Zimbabweans themselves, but also in the region if not across the globe and the unfortunate part is that young people who enter university and those who acquire other tertiary qualifications have their sights set on regional and overseas job markets as there are no employment opportunities here to match their “qualifications.” So where does that leave them? Skills development is no doubt every nation’s richest investment that overlaps generations but Zimbabwe’s circumstances raise the spectre of diminished returns, after all students are already virtually teaching each other and graduates being produced out of those “interactions.”  The list of top 500 universities in the world was released recently and some watchers did not even bother to check where ours are placed.

On Zimbabwe’s Heroes’ Day two weeks ago, I had the great embarrassment to be among some South African friends. As the news on SABC – South Africa’s national broadcaster – came on with a report on the event, everyone in the TV room hushed down and turned up the volume. Anyone who was still talking was given a glowering eye which meant, “Shut up!”

And so the report came on. And there he was – our 86-year-old president – telling everyone in the west to go to hell in a speech delivered at the hallowed Heroes’ Acre where all the ‘patriotic’ sons and daughters of the soil are laid to rest. There was even a shot of a few ardent supporters holding up a banner that read, “To hell, hell, hell, hell!”

I cringed.

My South African friends laughed.

And then the sadness came over me.

Zimbabwe is the joke of southern Africa – if not even the world! People everywhere tune up the volume on their televisions and radios to listen to the rantings of a man so uniquely obsessed with Britain and the US that it makes for what I can only describe as verbal masturbation. After all, he did once tell Tony Blair to keep his England while he kept his Zimbabwe!

Now, the reason I am writing about this all is because a good friend of mine, Delta Milayo Ndou, recently posted a quite fascinating commentary on her blog about the role that Zimbabwe’s youth has to play in rebuilding our woeful democracy.

Because, so often, Zimbabwe’s young people are excluded from discourse around reform, we remain clueless and disinterested. We flock to other nations with better infrastructure and opportunities for self-actualisation, thereby leaving our own nation barren and desolate. I remember quite vividly a television jingle – shot around 2003 when the land reform was still in its strength – that showed a group of young people in a twin cab  dancing and singing about their future being “this land of ours, our Zimbabwe”. I was 19 years old then and believe me, no amount of propaganda could have ever made me interested in picking up a hoe and planting anything!

So as Delta questions, how can we ensure that Zimbabwe’s youth indentify with this nation’s future?

Well, since I began with the example of Heroes’ Day, let me continue with it. For as long as I can remember, Heroes’ Day has always been an event about honouring people who died in the liberation struggle; about guts and gore and guns and corpses.

Heroes Day has never been about ordinary people. Instead, it’s almost always been a guilt trip with people being made to feel like they should be eternally grateful because the ‘freedom’ that they now enjoy is founded upon the death of someone who heeded the liberation maxim that stated Tora pfuti uzvitonge (Take a gun and rule yourself).

Now, that was more than 30 years ago. And appreciative we are. But progressive we also are. When a hazy picture of some liberation hero competes with the hazy idea of success for a young person, trust me that the latter will win out.

You can’t keep Zimbabwe’s youth interested through guilt and propaganda that doesn’t speak to any of their aspirations! It will not work.

Why, I ask, is the definition of a hero so narrowly defined anyway? Should one have died for their nation to be defined as such? Should one get the 21 gun salute to simply qualify?

Heroes abound among us – living and dead. My heroes include people like Oliver Mutukudzi who have put Zimbabwe’s music on the global map; Haru Mutasa who has shown other young black female Zimbabwean journalists that they can make it onto the international media platform; sporting legends like Kirsty Coventry, Peter Ndlovu and Benjani Mwaruwaru who have dazzled the world – all the while making us proud to say “Vana vedu ivavo!” (Those are our children!)

Other heroes are entrepreneurs like Strive Masiyiwa, Nigel Chinakire and the late Peter Pamire who have all shown that age should never be a deterrent to being financially successful and prosperous.

But Heroes’ Day doesn’t appreciate that. Its symbolism is too deeply entrenched in war and victory and what ZANU PF has done for Zimbabwe.

It is too much engrossed in the past to resonate with our youth who are flooding out of Zimbabwe’s border posts because of their disenchantment and disillusionment with the way this amazing nation called Zimbabwe is treating them, as well as everyone else.

Thirty years is a very long time to continue to laud past efforts.

And don’t get me wrong – the British and Americans still remember their war heroes too. But they also provide space for emerging leaders in different fields – look at the way living legends get knighted by the Queen of England or how getting a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame is such a prestigious thing for Americans.

Do we have anything similar? Do we have well-recognised national accolades or awards that are instantly recognisable?

Of course not. If your remains aren’t interred into the Heroes’ Acre, you just aren’t really a hero of any kind.

New heroes have been born since 1980. And while we remember the old, let’s also celebrate the current ones.

If we don’t get Zimbabwe’s young people excited about Zimbabwe, then who will rebuild our stumbling nation?

The solution I offer is to do as a popular South African song instructs – make the circle bigger. Only by applauding the good works of heroes that our young people can actually identify with can we ever hope to get them interested in building on the legacies of so many great Zimbabweans.

I am not saying do away completely with the old. Absolutely not! I am just saying we need to increase the options – across all sectors and within all fields.

Zimbabwe urgently needs a redefinition of what a hero is. And for me – and many others – the real heroes of my time aren’t the people who lived and died before I was born. They are the people I see myself in; the people I stencil my future against because of their singular focus on an unsubstantiated dream that could only become real through self-belief and faith in the elements.

I therefore call loudly – and without inhibition – on the establishment to take the time to seriously ponder celebrating Zimbabwe’s new heroes.

There is lingering talk about forgiveness, healing, truth and reconciliation, all centred around the violent nature of politics that has defined Zimbabwe’s elections especially in the past decade. This politically-motivated violence has been widely documented with people whose homes were burnt, their families killed during orgies of violence rightly complaining that the perpetrators are still walking the length and breadth of the scorched as free men.

As the country approaches another election within the next two years, the violence that has come to characterise political campaigns is already being reported, this time inspired by the constitution outreach programme, and this without any efforts having made to “make peace” with aggrieved victims of past political violence. It is within that scope that this country has placed itself on the path of cyclical violence with perpetrators rightly knowing that nothing will happen to them. After all it is quite straight forward: if you go unpunished for a perceived crime, what will stop you from repeating it? Talk about literally getting away with murder, Zimbabwe presents scholars with innumerable case examples! And we have seen it since 1980 anyway with the Gukurahundi massacres as known architects and the foot soldiers f the troubles have never been taken to task about their role.

Issues around forgiveness and healing are likely to elude us as long as there is no political commitment on the part the leaders who presided over the killing and torture of innocents, and we are guaranteed that angry emotions will be part of our individual and collective psyche for a long time to come. I listened to a man who all along had been enjoying his beer until someone muttered something about the futility of a truth and reconciliation commission and something about how the dead must be left to bury the dead. The man literally wept, saying he never knew his father as he was killed during Gukurahundi and – while he had been enjoying the beer among them – said how much he hated the Shona. Everyone went silent, for how would anyone pacify a man who has so much anger in him? This is a guy who walks and talks each day as if everything is normal but deep there hidden from the rest of us, he harbours and carries such hate and hurt.

This becomes a strong case for the open discussion of what evil has been spawned by political violence and the need for a truth and reconciliation commission so people can move on with their lives. Yet some people in their wisdom think the past can take care of itself by natural processes of time and have been arrogant to calls for a naming and shaming of people behind the raping and killing of wives and mothers since independence. The question for many is that what really can be expected from the people who are accused of heinous political crime and still control state apparatus that would in essence be in charge of letting the law take its course? So does the nation wait for that epoch when they are no longer in government and then they are tracked and shot down like rapid dogs?

But then some will argue that then this goes against the principles of restorative justice but conform to the dictates of vengeance instead, thus justice must be delivered in the here and now so that victims like the man cited above may know peace in their hearts. African politicians have tended to exhibit traits that seek to place them above the moral barometer of normal beings as they use both illiterates and literati to commit the basest crimes, but turn and say the charges are all conspiracies by political opponents: Charles Taylor, Mobutu, Idi Dada Amin, Baby Doc Duvalier – all their stories read the same and the tragedy is that even as we journey into the 21st century, we find ourselves having to make the same excuses made by these evil black brothers. It is invariably always someone else who is not power who is blamed for the atrocities! But with the nature of Zimbabwe’s politics whose popularity contests have largely been defined by clubs and cudgels as weapons of persuasion, we are no doubt in for another round of calls for national healing after lives have already been lost when all this can be averted by heeding the calls for restorative justice.