Letters

EDITOR – I am worried by the fact that Western Union refuses to pay out transferred moneys. With valid proof that the money was paid in London and after the necessary time interval, Western Union was not in a position to pay out the transferred sums. I do suspect that the government is stealing the forex.
Please could you further investigate and publish immediately a warning to all people intending to make transfers.
ALEXANDER DITZE, by email

Shameful scholarship scheme
EDITOR – Shame on you, Robert Mugabe and your cronies, for sending children of your friends and cabinet ministers to go and study in South Africa at the expense of those who are poor and disadvantaged.
It seems Zanu (PF) has crafted another alternative for their children and cousins who were deported from Australian universities. Ninety-five per cent of the 481 students who recently went to South Africa under the presidential scholarship do not come  from disadvantaged families.
We condemn the flawed selection process of the students, which was done under the carpet. Why is that we only hear of these things when there is a sending off ceremony for the beneficiaries. Why was it not made public for everyone to apply.  
We are shocked that your Government has neglected the educational fraternity by their lack of seriousness in tackling issues that are bedevilling the students of Zimbabwe. Instead of improving the educational standards in the country, Mugabe has opted to send children of his friends to learn in better universities in South Africa.
They know very well that they have destroyed education and that is why they do not want their children to learn in Zimbabwean universities. Shame on you to those who clandestinely benefited from this scheme, and we warn you that your days are numbered.  
BLESSING VAVA, Information and Publicity Secretary, Zimbabwe National Students Union

Have you seen my uncle?
EDITOR – I am looking for my uncle by the name of David Katsande, also his sister Victoria. David is believed to be staying in Turffontein. Anyone with information can contact me on 073 372 6734 or at charlie.nyambuya@yahoo.com.
CHARLES NYAMBUYA, Yeoville

MDC rules in Harare
EDITOR – I was shocked last night when President Mugabe said that the leadership of Matabeleland is not doing much work, because most of the seats are with the opposition MDC. I blame the Zanu (PF) politburo for not telling the President the truth. Look at this list, all under an MDC MP: Zanu (PF) HQ, State House, Police HQ, Army HQ, Borrowdale House, High Court, RBZ, UZ, National Heroes Shrine, Harare Sunshine City, International Airport, Zimbabwe House, CIO HQ, ZESA head office, TelOne head office.
I may go on for days listing, but I now leave it for the politburo to add more to the above list. I feel sorry for Matabeleland Zanu (PF) leadership; surely Harare leadership should have done better.
BONGWI THE GREAT, by email

Help me create holistic tourism
EDITOR – As a member of ENABLIS and having entered my business plan for the extended section of Cartier’s Woman of Initiative competition last year, I need to find some like-minded business-folk to share the financial investment in a small base in Harare.
I want to extend both Enablis offices and my own section of the tourism market, which is holistic tourism; body, mind and spirit tourism.
Zim is my home. I am a nature-lover. Body, mind and spirit is the essence of our culture and order in nature on God’s earth must be restored….and tourists will return in their droves to our beloved Zimbabwe.
Those of us who know what Zim has to offer realise that it could be on a par with the Cape, eventually. And I want to make it happen, along with a lot of other people who see the potential for hard, rewarding work.
ANGELA TAYLOR, by email

Waiting…and waiting…and waiting
EDITOR – Having undergone major surgery last March, and still having immense problems with yet another operation upcoming, I applied last December 13th to the TelOne branch in Greendale for my phone to be transferred from my present residence to the new one we had bought. The phone there is to be transferred to another resident’s house.  
I have not been able to move prior to this being done, due to the above circumstances, which have been fully and comprehensively explained to the branch manager. The request resulted in my being given a reference number on a card, since when nothing has happened whatsoever.     
Subsequently, I have gone to the TelOne branch regularly, endeavouring to ascertain exactly when anything would be done. I was then asked for proof of residence at both my present and new residence – given! THEN for a guarantor to sign a form, standing suretyfor any telephone bills I might not pay – this, despite my being a telephone user since 1971 and never having incurred such or any other debt.     
On top of that, the guarantors were expected to furnish proof of their residence – acceptable. But when I was then told that they would have to give details of their incomes, I said that this was totally inadmissible and I advised that this could not be asked of them, especially as both hold extremely responsible positions.
All of this was complied with, the mound of paperwork grew, and I waited…and waited…and waited.
On the 18th of this month, the neurosurgeon who will perform the next operation (an eminent professor), wrote. I delivered this letter by hand to the branch manager. My phone number was requested (not for the first time) and I was told that “as they have managed to get fuel today, I will speak to them when they get back”.
The letter was placed in the basket, and I was informed I would be rung. It is now the 21st February. I must move into my new home and get it to rights before entering hospital. I am in immense pain after two days of packing and unpacking at the other end. And still we wait.
This is the Zimbabwe in which we now live, where, no matter how law-abiding, one simply does not exist as a tax/bill-paying citizen with basic rights. Financially, we haemorrhage hourly to pay for completely non-existent services.
If a change is about to occur, it is hoped that the non-functioning Government and quasi government ‘services’ (and I use the word tongue-in-cheek) will be swept out and we shall, as a nation sorely tried and neglected, obtain what we have every right to expect for our taxes and bills.
PATRICIA FRANCES HODGSON, Harare

Tsvangirai detractors eat humble pie
EDITOR – The entry of Dr Simba Makoni into the presidential race has been the most talked about political event of the year in Zimbabwe. Dr Makoni’s entry is indeed very welcome as expressed by many Zimbabweans, including another presidential aspirant, Morgan Tsvangirai. A perfect gentleman, Tsvangirai knows very well that we need numbers to fight Mugabe, and Makoni’s defection from Mugabe, although he still clings to Zanu (PF), adds to the numbers against Zanu (PF).
But each positive development has its own side-effects – some armchair critics who hero-worship Makoni immediately launched an assault on innocent Tsvangirai. They almost undressed him, vilified him, and denigrated him as if he was the country’s number one enemy.  
The good thing is that some of them seem to be gradually beginning to realise that the tide is against their evil intentions.  
Dr Alex Magaisa and Mutumwa Mawere, although they tried to justify their unwarranted attacks on Tsvangirai, have toned down their venom. Dr Magaisa’s own survey revealed that Tsvangirai still commands more support than Dr Makoni.  
Why, then, were the two gentlemen urging Tsvangirai, the party’s choice for presidential candidate, to pave the way for Dr. Makoni? Besides glorifying Dr Makoni’s academic qualifications, Dr Makoni’s praise-singers have failed to give any tangible achievements he has made in Government, in SADC, and in the various companies he has headed.  
Tsvangirai was chosen to represent the people by the people, so if anyone wants him to step down, they should go to the people who elected Tsvangirai to represent them and ask them to tell him to step aside for another candidate? Leave Tsvangirai alone.
I challenge Dr Magaisa, Mutumwa Mawere and others who have been very quick to ululate at Dr Makoni’s entry into the presidential race: if they genuinely think that the opposition must field a single candidate, to now persuade Dr Makoni to withdraw from the race and rally behind a candidate who, according to Dr Magaisa’s own survey, has an edge over the other in order not to split the votes against Mugabe.  
From the tone of their articles, Mutumwa Mawere and Dr Magaisa seem to be actively behind the Makoni project, hence can influence Makoni to withdraw and add their votes to Tsvangirai to ensure that Zanu (PF) and Mugabe are destroyed beyond recovery.
Whether they enter elections separately, the opposition in Zimbabwe must work together one way or the other to clip the rigging machinery and ensure free and fair elections. Mugabe will not survive a free and fair election, and the candidate who identifies more with the people’s struggle will carry the day.
And the duty of responsible critics should be to unify, rather than divide by wanting to decide for the people – praising some politicians in the opposition, while criticising others who are equally, if not more, opposed to the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe under Zanu (PF)’s misrule.  
BENJAMIN CHITATE, by email

EDITOR – The recent torture of leaders of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe by alleged Zanu (PF) vigilantes exposes the lawless nature of the Zimbabwean State and the unbridled appetite of the ruling party to use force and violence to deal with dissenting voices.
Leaders of the Progressive Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), including President Takavafira Zhou and Raymond Majongwe, were reportedly detained by Zanu (PF) militias as they distributed fliers in the streets of Harare. The fliers highlighted the collapse of the education system in the country. They were tortured at the Zanu (PF) offices near 4th Street.
The Students Solidarity Trust condemns, in the strongest of terms, these barbaric acts that have no place in a supposed democracy!
True, the education sector in Zimbabwe has collapsed. Teachers, students and pupils are faced with a plethora of problems that threaten the fabric of the education sector in Zimbabwe. Teachers and lecturers are grossly underpaid; the PTUZ estimates that 8,000 teachers left the country last year. Those who remain are hardly teaching, instead choosing to concentrate on daily tactics of survival as the population battles to find a way round an economy that is in the intensive care unit. In the process, pupils suffer and have to go for long periods without lessons.
Lecturers at institutions of higher learning in Zimbabwe have, more often than not, resorted to strikes to resolve their salary disputes with the government, leaving students without lecturers – at times for three months.
Students are under attack, and have always been under siege. The Government has long since ceased to support students financially; there are no proper accommodation facilities at colleges; libraries are empty, and student activists are always facing the wrath of torture, unlawful detention, suspensions and expulsions.
The whole education sector is under siege! And the attack on teachers, fighting for the improvement of the education sector in Zimbabwe, is indicative of the failure of the current Government to institute policies that will benefit education in Zimbabwe.
Even then, the torture of the teachers is a blatant violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 7), which states that no-one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The attacks also fly in the face of SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections in the region, which was adopted in Mauritius in 2004, which states that SADC member states shall adhere to the principles of full participation of the citizens in the political process, freedom of association and political tolerance amongst others.
These barbaric acts only make the holding of a free and fair election on March 29 a mirage!
THE STUDENTS SOLIDARITY TRUST, by email

Vote for the party that doesn’t bribe
EDITOR – Zimbabwe will be full of graffiti as this March will be ‘do or die” for Zimbabweans. My home is a thousand kilometres away but that doesn’t make me feel comfortable. I am also crying. All the opposition parties are battling to put up their posters and hold their rallies freely in each corner of Zimbabwe.
The people must go and vote for the party that is not involved in bribes. How in this world could people be bribed with ploughs? What are they going to do with such stupid things? Where are the oxen? Please, opposition parties don’t involve yourselves in such filthy practices.
Why doesn’t Zanu (PF) allow exiled people to cast their votes wherever they are? Mugabe knows that his days will be numbered if ever that comes into existence. I have never seen a coward like Mugabe, who has already seen that his Zimbabwe is a dying horse, but he doesn’t want to save it.
Let’s go and cast our votes right when 29th March comes and wipe away Zanu (PF). The battle and victory is in our hands.
AARON DUBE, South Africa

Mubvunzo
EDITOR – Ndinokumbirawo kuziva kubva kuvanhu vataivanavo muhondo yekusunungura nyika payakasungirirwa naMugabe nevatengesi vakadamari vakakanganwa vanhu, kunyange vamwevakafira rusununguko pakutanga vakafira mumaoko avo.
Nhai imi vanaWelshman , Gasela, Sibanda, Misihairambwi, Sikala, Mdlongwa, Coltat, Chaibva pamwenevamwevenyu:
Kokuzoita president weZanu (PF) zvakambouyasei? Kana makanga maonakuti hamuna munhu anokodzera kudivirenyu, chiichakaita kuti mufunge kupiwa munhu naMugabe? Makambotengwanei kusvika pakukanganwa hama dzakadai savana Talent Mabika, Tichaona Chiminya, Patrick Nabanyama, Elliot Bvepfe, Learnmore Jongwe, Mathew Makondo, Zhou brothers in mberengwa and many-more?
Ko vabereki, vana,vakadzi nehamadzose dzevanhu vakafira mumaokoenyu, vanitichinyi kana modzosera nyika yakafirwa nehama dzavo kumhandu? Munemoyo here? Kokanamunayo inombokuudzai kuti chii, nekuti moyo haunyengeri mwene wawo? Ko Ncube kuzopiwapurazi asi vamwe vakovachinyimwa kana kamunda kadiki, kana kutotorewrwa wavangavanawo kare, zvinorevei?
Saka Sikala usisacharohwe, asi iwe uri iwe wotorwisananevamwevako heya wakazotendeuka? Hakuziiko kutengesa base rechimoio here uku? Kana manga machine donzvorekubvisa Mugabe asi munepamwe pamunopesana, maka tadzanei kungo vhotera Tsvangirai, mozokakavadzana Mugabe aenda panokubva mapihwa munhu vanhu vose vachiona?
Chinzwai vana veZimbabwe, musanyengerwa nechiripachena. Munhu wose anechido chekubvisa Mugabe anovhotera Tsvangirai. Zanu (ndonga) ndiyo ineruvara rwe opposition yechokwadi. Vanoda kuti mugabe aende itai saizvozvo.
Ndatenda hangu.
NDUMUREYENGOZI SHUMBA, Zimbabwe

Zanu trash will be back in force
EDITOR – Simba Makoni is a serious spoiler himself. Robert Mugabe’s birthday has been going on like this for many years at the expense of our people. Let us not normalise the abnomal as our late activist Masiphula Sithole has said. 
Mugabe, Makoni, Mujuru, Chihuri, Mutasa, Mutambara, Welshman, Jonathan Moyo and many not mentioned here are the destroyers of the country. Makoni is to make a team out of this trash. He has given us a hint by secretly inviting Arthur Mutambara to help him strategise. Mutambara has dismally failed his breakaway MDC. He has let Welshman down.
Dear Zimbabweans, please focus on the prize. Zanu (PF) has let us down and there is no hope in it. Make a mistake of bringing Simba in, and all Zanu (PF) trash will be back in full force to wipe out our stupid economy.
NICHOLAS NICKSON MADA, by email

The joke’s on us
EDITOR – Well done Paul Tingay for introducing some upfront humour into the Zim situation instead of the ‘unintentional’ humour that we are increasingly getting in this paper. One laugh is Zimbos in RSA shouting about their “rights” in that country and urging regime change at home but how many will actually go home to vote even if they’re registered to vote.
Another source of hidden humour is the clowns overseas who urge us to get rid of the present Zanu (PF) bunch but come across as “I’ll hold your coat while you fight them”.
Some weeks ago an ex-minister and senator, Dennis the Menace, now in the UK was pontificating about how he was sure that if he talked to him nicely, Numero Uno would see the light! Wake up and smell the coffee: that guy has learnt over the years that he can do as he likes and ignore the world and its opinions because no-one has the guts to do anything about it. Ask Mbeki!
Then of course there’s the letter a few weeks ago from someone, which came across as the whites complaining because they’d now lost those “entitlements” from the past. He should be well aware that, if you have a stack of paper to pay for them, you can still get those “entitlements”, but those who don’t have enough to paper the walls of the whole house get aiziko. Race has nothing to do with it. I would have thought that the so-called “entitlements” were across the racial board, like good governance and the rest of the services that are in intensive care at the moment like health, education, adequate food, fuel, electricity, clean water, affordable transport, housing and all the other basic human rights.
So, read between the lines for a bit of ironic humour and keep laughing while I duck into the biggest pothole I can find to dodge the rockets!
BHERI, by email

Truth about Mujuru
EDITOR – I was totally surprised when I bought a copy of your Sunday paper to see that you are saying Mujuru is not under house arrest. 
I am a senior member of the army, and have actually been hoping to get hold of your reporters to give them more information. Mujuru is not only under house arrest but he survived an assassination attempt in January by CIOs sent by Bob.
I can also tell you that it is not only Mujuru who is under tight surveillance by Bob’s people but other senior people in his party including John Nkomo, Dumiso Dabengwa, Simba Makoni, Joice Mujuru and Sydney Sekeramai. 
Perhaps you do not understand these things. What is happening with Mujuru is all his movements are followed by CIO and army personnel assigned to him and they guard him at home 24-hours-a-day. That does not mean he is not able to move around but the aim is to have everything he does tracked.
I was aware of the assassination plan, which he knew about before the day and prevented. Mujuru has businesses all over the place and, for your own information, Bob has already started hitting him in that area. It is true Mujuru was questioned by police and CIO over corruption, especially in gold and diamonds. I am not sure, but I heard that he spent two nights in police custody at some time.
we used to rely on your newspaper for breaking such things, but it seems you are giving in to fear. I know Mujuru has threatened you for you to say the story was not true. You have disappointed me and many other people who were hoping that your paper would expose other things.
If you want I can give you more information about the late Gunda, who was connected to Mujuru, and many things about the coup plans and hundreds of innocent soldiers being killed, but I now doubt if you will publish it.
I am not on Mujuru’s side and do not even support the evil Bob, but wish to see a better Zimbabwe.
JS, by email