In this article by Issa Sikiti da Silva for BizCommunity.com, Henry Maina, director of Article 19 talks about why African politicians ban media:

The fundamental reason that many African governments ban and harass the media has more to do with personal connotations than other issues, Kenya’s Henry Maina, director of Article 19 Eastern Africa, told delegates at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference last week in Johannesburg.

“If you look closely, you will see that politicians across the continent don’t want to be criticised,” Maina, a specialist in criminal justice, human rights, advocacy and governance, said.

In many African countries, where the head of the state, ministers and members of the ruling party have become the law themselves, and courts exist only to try cases of petty crimes and murder, any journalist who takes on the government will be promptly arrested, tried in a ‘kangaroo court’ for high treason and executed or jailed for life.

Prosecuted for insulting authorities

In other countries, however, where there is some sort of rule of law and social justice, criticism of the government usually end up in courts, with journalists being prosecuted for insulting high-profile authorities.

Maina described these laws as archaic and oppressive, saying Africa should repeal them. “More than 40 African countries still have these colonial laws, including official secret laws. Why? If you are going to keep secrets, you should do it in a progressive manner,” he said.

Maina fired a salvo at South Africa’s ruling party, the ANC, for proposing the creation of a media appeals tribunal and resuscitating colonial laws.

Critics believe the ANC, which brags to be the sole contributor of the restoration of freedom of expression and press liberties enjoyed today by all citizens, has turned from hero to villain by re-enacting some of apartheid’s legislation, including the National Key Points Act, the Film and Publication Amendment Act, and lately the much-hated Protection of Information Bill (aka Secrecy Bill).

It’s curious and pleasing to see The Herald, commonly referred to as the mouthpiece of mugabe, publishing comments criticizing their biased coverage of events in Zimbabwe:

We are not little children, Its ZANU PF youths who are attacking people and in this case looted while their victims are being arrested. You might lie but we are not stupid. Hope this time you will publish my comment

Its a shame really that your paper and the ZRP tries hard to apportion blame on unknown and unruly elements who looted shops when everyone knows it is the unruly Zanu Pf thugs who act with impunity that looted those shops. Shame on you Zimpapers. I challenge you to publish these comments in an objective manner. If you want evidence to prove it was Zanu Pf thugs…well the writing is on the wall for all to see BUT Zimpapers and ZRP.

Only the truth can set you free. Herald editorial, please dip deep inside you to find it. Humans should learn to work for their chocho.  Organisers of any demo must be organised first before they can try and organise anything. Even chaos requires organisation for it to be seen as it is.  We have too many Zimbabweans abroad than we have foreigners here. ” Hebrews 13:1-2 – Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers…” ***** Ex- 23:9 Don’t mistreat strangers.
**** Jeremiah 22:3 Defend the helpless and oppressed; don’t harm strangers, widows, orphans, or other innocent people.

Why is “The Herald” hell-bent on blaming ZANU violence on the MDC?? Are editors of this paper so incorrigible to the extent that they’ll sell their souls just to parrot ZANU lies??!! Its so sad – instead of correctly informing the nation that it was ZANU youths who looted other people’s hard earned resources this paper is just hell-bent on mis-informing the public in order to prop up a dying beast. Shameless yellow journalism at its worst!!!! I hope all comments condemning ZANU violence will be published here & not editorialized or denied coverage…

Here’s the Herald article:

Looters hit city shops

Herald Reporters

A DEMONSTRATION by Zanu-PF youths in Harare yester-day against what they said was slow implementation of indigenisation policies turned into a looting spree after being hijacked by rowdy elements. When the youths gathered at the Zanu-PF Harare provincial headquarters at around 8am for a demonstration that police had sanctioned, they cited among their grievances the Government’s alleged snail’s pace in implementing indigenisation policies. They were particularly incensed by Harare City Council’s decision last year to get into a joint venture with a South African firm to manage municipal parking, saying a local company could have also done the job. The youths said they were missing out on advancement opportunities because they could not compete with cash-rich foreigners who could rent expensive retail space in the city and pay large sums of money as “goodwill” to sell their wares. The toyi-toying youths marched into the city centre under police escort, but things turned nasty when another group joined them as they moved towards the Gulf Complex near Market Square, which houses numerous small retail shops. Many of these shops are understood to be run by non-indigenous people who have the advantage of paying higher rentals than locals and thus make it difficult for the indigenisation policy to take effect within that sector. The arrival of the other group resulted in a looting orgy at Gulf Complex and police say they are still investigating the matter. Shop owners hurriedly closed their shops and fled, fea-ring attacks similar to those seen recently in Mbare, Budi-riro and Epworth, after which several youths reportedly aligned to MDC-T were arrested. Harare Province police spokesman Inspector James Sa-bau said police arrested eight people for looting. “The original demonstration was supposed to take place from Zanu-PF Harare Province offices to Town House. The original demonstration was against the awarding of the parking tender to Easipark of South Africa. “We had deployed our personnel on that route. But when people were gathering, we heard there was another group at the Gulf Complex. We are still investigating the origins of that group,” he said. Insp Sabau said police arrested some known Mbare cri-minals who were on the police wanted list. He said police had since recovered some of the property looted yesterday. Chaos at the Gulf Complex saw people looting electrical appliances and household goods. The rowdy group ransacked shops and left many shelves bare. One of the looters jumped off the second floor of the complex when riot police cornered him and he reportedly broke both legs. Shop operators complained of huge losses, with some estimating them at up to US$20 000 each. Mr Moreblessing Muhamba said he lost goods worth US$10 000. “I sell original cellphones. They are all gone,” he lame-nted. Mr Derick Mawire said it would be difficult for many of them to resuscitate operations. “How do I come back? I’ve been wiped clean. I lost goods worth over US$5 000,” he said. Mr Nqobile Chidhobha said he lost laptops, television  sets, computer hard drives and four boxes of cell-phones. A survey showed that the complex — with close to 240 shops — has less than 30 Nigerians operating and a few Chinese. The rest of the operators are black Zimbabweans. The survey was prompted by allegations by some of the looters that foreigners had hijacked the complex. However, a Zimbabwean at the complex said: “If they need shops, they should follow procedure. “They should identify the shops operated by the Nigerians if it is what they want.” Mr Scott Sakupwanya, the president of Upfumi Kuvadiki — the organisers of the original demonstration — slammed the looting. “As youth we feel that the entry of Easipark from South Africa (to manage municipal parking) defeats indigeni-sation. “Youths should have been empowered to partner the city in the venture. “The demonstration was not partisan and included youths from all walks of life, but some hooligans hijacked the programme. “It is totally unacceptable and does not help our legitimate cause. “Indigenisation should benefit everyone regardless of political affiliation, but when people go and steal things then they hurt us when we are already hurting. “However, we will continue demonstrating until the ma-tter is resolved.” He said police should arrest everyone implicated in the looting. Their organisation will today deliver petitions to Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi, Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo and his Empowerment counterpart Saviour Kasukuwere dema-nding Easipark’s withdrawal from the city. By mid afternoon, Easipark marshals were not visible on the streets though it was not clear if they had been called off or had left of their own volition. It has been alleged that senior council officials have shareholding in Easipark and have employed their friends, girlfriends and party campaign managers. Zanu-PF Harare provincial youth league chairman Cde Jimu Kunaka said unruly elements hijacked the demonstration and they had then called their members            off. “We were infiltrated. Once we realised that, we called off the demonstration. We do not know who the looters are.” Sporadic demonstrations have been noted in Mbare, Bu-diriro and Epworth. These follow suggestions by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai that the kind of chaos seen in Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks was acceptable.

http://www.zimpapers.co.zw/news-categories/top-stories/1789-looters-hit-city-shops.html

Robert Nzara, a Zimbabwean living in South Africa, who had joined the rest of his fellow countrymen applying for passports, was assaulted last Thursday at the temporary Zimbabwe consulate at the Bellville Home Affairs office in Cape Town. Just when our neighbors in South Africa gave our fellow Zimbabweans a reprieve to regularize their stay to March 31, here we are busy fighting each other.  Read the story on the Sowetan website

From PlusNews:

Risky sex does not equal HIV risk – study

JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwean women reported significantly less risky sexual behaviour than their counterparts in Tanzania, despite being almost four times more likely to be HIV-infected, a comparative study has found.

Researchers from the Universities of Zimbabwe and Oslo in Norway disseminated data from pregnant women who visited antenatal clinics in Moshi, Tanzania, and in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, between 2002 and 2004. The women answered questions about their sexual behaviour, medical history and socio-demographic background and were tested for HIV and several other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

HIV prevalence among the Zimbabwean women was nearly 26 percent against about 7 percent among the Tanzanian women. Risk of infection rose with age for women in both countries up until the 25 to 29 age group, after which it started to decline for the Tanzanian women but continued to rise for the Zimbabweans. The Zimbabwean women also had somewhat higher rates of STIs, but this may have been the result of more of the women being HIV-positive and more susceptible to such infections.

In the Journal of the International AIDS Society, the researchers described the “unexpected phenomenon” revealed by the data gathered on the women’s sexual behaviour. On virtually every indicator, the Tanzanian women reported more risky behaviour from having had a casual sexual partner in the last 12 months to early sexual debut to being in a polygamous relationship. They also reported much higher levels of alcohol consumption, another behaviour that has been linked to increased sexual risk-taking.

The authors can only speculate about the explanation for this “paradox”. Perhaps by the time the survey was done, women in Zimbabwe had lowered their sexual risk-taking in response to an epidemic that had already claimed so many lives; or maybe they under-reported their sexual risk-taking because such behaviours by women are considered socially unacceptable in Zimbabwe.

Numerous studies have failed to provide definitive answers as to why HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa varies so widely, with some countries recording infection rates of less than 2 percent and others recording rates of more than 20 percent.

It has long been assumed that different norms relating to sexual risk-taking from one country to another played an important role, but the recent findings suggest that other factors may be more important. The result has implications for the design of HIV prevention programmes, especially those aimed at sexual behaviour change.

The male partners of the Tanzanian women were much more likely to be circumcised, but the effect of male circumcision was not apparent in the study findings.

One possible explanation for the severity of Zimbabwe’s HIV problem compared with Tanzania’s, write the authors, is the role that non-sexual transmission of HIV may have played in the early years of Zimbabwe’s epidemic. They cite a 1990s study which found a 2.1 percent HIV prevalence among 933 women with no reported sexual experience.

“Early in the epidemic, syringes weren’t sterilized properly,” said lead author of the study, Munyaradzi Mapingure, from the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe. “We’re not blaming anyone, because people probably weren’t aware of it, but people who grew up in Zimbabwe in the 1970s were put in a queue and vaccinated with one needle.”

The theory that large-scale non-sexual transmission of HIV can explain severe epidemics like Zimbabwe’s is “very controversial”, admitted Mapingure, but “something we have to bring into the discussion”.

“Most HIV prevention programmes are failing because they focus on sexual behaviour,” he told IRIN/PlusNews over the telephone from Harare. “We need to look at the whole sexualization of HIV.”

The question of the treatment of pregnant schoolgirls, and expectant young fathers, in schools in Zimbabwe raised a great deal of discussion earlier this year.

In South Africa, it seems, this is also an issue, as the Mail & Guardian pointed out in Pregnancy unWelkom. There, the Human Rights Commission stepped in, protesting that Welkom High School’s treatment of a grade nine pupil, suspended because she was pregnant, was a violation of her rights to dignity, privacy and education, among others.

I recently attended a press conference held in Grahamstown in which the topic was the proposed Protection of Information Bill and Media tribunal. The question being addressed “is  the media under siege?” There was a panel made up of various authorities including a member of the ANC  regional executive Mabhuti Matyunza.

Many people perceive that the ANC is putting a “squeeze on the media” and the introduction of the Protection of Information Bill would enable the government to prevent corruption from being exposed.

One of the panellists convincingly argued that that the things we want to keep secret are those things we are ashamed of, not the things we are proud of. He further argued that the government are in fact our employees. They are spending our money; they are elected by us to represent us. “I hope you like your ministers cars coz you pay for them!”

Many of the panellists agreed that the Protection of Information Bill would be taking South Africa back to the apartheid era. I completely agree with this argument as the Promotion of Information Act that was implemented post apartheid was put in place to prevent government from being corrupt. It was put in place in order to prevent and expose corruption. With the introduction of this Bill it will become almost impossible to expose corruption.

Another panellist commented that what you need for a “Healthy Public Sphere” is an opinionated society. We see the importance of this when we look at Zimbabwe where many ministers are able to get away with corruption because there is no freedom of expression. Does South Africa want to head down the same road as Zimbabwe where they will live under the complete control of government?

I was shocked at the attitudes of the ANC in response to the outcry against the proposed Protection Of Information Bill. President Jacob Zuma said something along the lines of we are the people who brought media freedom to this country you cannot tell us about media freedom. This statement sounds remarkably similar to the ideology Mugabe expresses when he argues that ZANU-PF liberated Zimbabwe and therefore they can do as they wish. Mabhuti Mtyunza the ANC regional executive seemed to avoid the issue being discussed and continued with his own agenda of how the ANC has done so much for the country. He argued that the media is “denting” and “destroying the country” and “working for the opposition” and as a result needs to be “monitored and guided”.

Does South Africa not realise that the platform of democracy is freedom of the press and freedom of expression. South Africa seems to have failed to learn from Zimbabwe’s mistakes, once there is no freedom of press corruption thrives and ministers are able to exploit resources as well as people.