Letters

Well over a million and a half died in the small country of Ireland as a result of Anglo settlement of Irish lands. The Irish rebelled many times and eventually won freedom in all parts of the country other than where the British had settled a loyal majority.

The Irish, while still part of Britain before World War 1, were active politically through land acts. The British paid the Irish farmers money to buy land back from the Anglo Irish. There is still a lot of land to this day owned by the descendants of Anglo settlers, but the result was overall a success.

I urge your country, which has such amazing potential, to encourage your leadership, whoever will be in control, to adopt a more patient and wise approach to the problem of land reform.

Taking the land from Anglo descendants by force has made your country many enemies and made you look like the bad guys in all this, when a different approach might have made the British look bad instead. Your leader is now a lampooned figure all around the world, as much as George Bush is for his bad leadership.

If your government had adopted a land reform program that included compensation of your fellow white citizens then their skills and goodwill might have help avoid the economic disaster that took place.

Don’t blame them. They were born in your land and love it and are as much a part of your nation now as you are. Punishing them for the sins of their forefathers has brought inflationary ruin on Zimbabwe.

I pray Zimbabwe does not fall further and that you will not live in fear, but will have a peaceful wise leadership from whoever wins.

SEAN FLYNN, by email

 

Impound stolen assets  

EDITOR, It occurs to me that one of the ways in which the UK Government could really put the screws on the tyrant of Zimbabwe (without hurting its people) would be to impound his ill-gotten assets.

I have a news report from 2004, if I remember correctly, which gave Mugabe’s net worth as $10 billion. It’s all looted and stolen, most of it from when he had troops in the Congo ostensibly fighting rebel forces whilst they were grabbing diamonds for their master.

If the UK and other states had to make a stand such as the one I am suggesting, I believe it would contribute significantly to terminating Mugabe’s attempts to hold onto power.

Through your paper and its connections this tactic needs to be propagated if it hasn’t been already.

D DU BOIS, Durban

Nightmares for Mugabe

EDITOR, Robert Mugabe on polling day made a statement, viewed on international television all around the world: “We do not rig elections, my conscience would not let me sleep at night.” Well Mr. Bald-Faced Liar, I hope you have nightmares every night!

Here is something to think about Mr. Mugabe and those who support and implement his evil policies and those who are terrorising people who simply voted for change. You may never be brought to justice in this world, but one day you will face Almighty God and you will be required to give an account for your deeds against the people of Zimbabwe.  

Your corruption and greed, genocide, destruction of people’s housing, theft of farms and the resulting starvation and death faced by the people of Zimbabwe and the grinding into the dirt of a once beautiful country.

God will pass judgment on those many crimes and you will wail and gnash your teeth in anguish and torment, every day and month and year after year without end in a place called Hell.  That is my dream and and I hope your nightmare.

CBC, by email

 

Mandate to rule expired

EDITOR, the state-controlled Herald has given another clear indication that Robert Mugabe lost the presidential election and that Zanu (PF) is now feeling the pressure from the MDC’s diplomatic engagement of African governments.

It is, however, interesting that the paper suggests that Robert Mugabe leads this government. How can the man who lost the election lead the government?

Everyone knows that Mugabe lost, so he should move over and allow Morgan Tsvangirai to lead whatever transitional government until such time as elections can be held.

I also suggest that we should start calling Robert Mugabe caretaker president rather than simply president because his mandate to rule expired on March 29 2008. We should make this point clear in all articles on independent news sites, newspapers and radios.

N GIDI, UK

Time to take drastic steps

EDITOR, Zanu (PF) has internalised and institutionalised thinking that they are the ones to rule forever. They also cheated each other by misleading the old man, who is no more knowledgeable of what is going on the ground. The Politiburo is made up of cheats, chancers and hungry looters, who only think of themselves and filling their pockets with all they can manage to loot.

Who were the referees of the 29, March, 2008 elections in Zimbabwe? The Chief referee was President Thabo Mbeki, who got the results on 30, March, 2008; other referees were SADC Observers, who got the results before they left for their countries; AU; COMESA, Diplomatic Missions in Zimbabwe, who got the results by 30, March, 2008; and the British and American Governments got the results on 30, March, 2008 as the elections had been fast tracked by the senile dementia suffering sick leader without proper consultations.        

Who does not know the results? The non-independent ZEC did its mandate as instructed by the mentally sick leader and produced a report, which went into the hands of Zanu (PF) before anybody else.

Recounting or re-run, there will be no difference. If defeated again Zanu (PF) will call for another recount and rerun, rigged to gain more seats.

All referees know the truth, and should take action before more military ware is smuggled into Zimbabwe to eliminate opponents and shut them up. Zimbabweans have never been free even after the liberation war. Only classes of individuals, who are well related, have enjoyed the fruits of liberation. The rural people have been conditioned to intense fear due to brutality torture and killings conducted in their faces since the liberation war. Enough is enough.

The old man does not talk of prosperity or stable economy; he talks of war, even in front of children. He can insult in front of children, who do not know what he is mad about.

More than 95% of local TV /Radio programmes are full of war and not peace and prosperity. Our children are exposed to military arsenals instead of agriculture tools. Robert Mugabe is conditioning people and the world to accept him as the President of Zimbabwe as he did in Mozambique and back home in 1980.

It is now time to take drastic steps to stop this lawlessness. The Government of National Unity can only be formed under the initial unity principles of the Patriotic Front. Only MDC-T and Simba Makoni and the veteran Cde Dumiso Dabengwa can form a transition Government of National Unity. The electorate will not want to see further madness of Zanu (PF). Forward with the forces of the referees. Zanu (PF) is now the opposition party. Aluta continua.

THE STREET KID, by email  

Thugs disrupt rural memorial service

EDITOR, Zanu (PF) victimisation continues unabated in rural areas as it gears the nation for a potential bloody run-off.

I witnessed intimidation of the rural electorate by Zanu militia and war veterans at the weekend in my rural home – Zaka Central won by the MDC candidate Harrison Mudzuri.

The incident that I wish to bring to your attention happened on Saturday when war veterans and soldiers interrupted a memorial service in Mutumwa village under Chief Nhema at the instigation of the local Zanu PF ward 13 (Tongogara), Rumikai Mawarire a.ka. Shanyu-shanyu or Shoti .

On arrival at the service the three guys, who identified themselves as a soldier and two war veterans, one by the name Mayoyo, disturbed the gathering by preaching hate language. They said that they had been deployed to deal with sellouts, who had sold the country through the ballot, and as such they would not sit back and let the country go. They would rather die for their land.

They have been doing this across the constituencies with the local administrator Nyasha Zindove as well as the blessings of the Chief Nhema. They also use two cars, a white Nissan Hardbody reg. no. AAX 3117 and a cream Mazda B1800 reg. no 4776.

All the headmen have been tasked to call for meetings where these thugs are addressing the people. This is saddening.

LC, by email

Junta destroying itself

EDITOR, I am watching with great interest the way that Zanu (PF) is embarking on a course of self-destruction. As others have said, their automatic recourse to violence to solve any challenge is destroying them. Consider where we are now:

Refusal to release presidential election results makes it glaringly obvious that Mugabe did not gather enough votes even to warrant a run-off.

The deployment of government forces (mainly army it seems) to punish those who “voted wrongly” is well documented.

The pictures of torture victims and displaced persons destroys any remaining credibility and strengthens those who call for intervention sooner rather than later.

The direct use of the armed forces and green bombers indicates very clearly the difference between Zimbabwe and Kenya. In Kenya the violence was basically tribal and political. In Zimbabwe it is clearly the Illegitimate Regime vs. The Majority.

The continuing violent attacks on the MDC are very counter productive as they cannot be hidden totally. The eyes of the world are on Zimbabwe and all information is eagerly sought.

With Jendayi Frazer in Africa, the ongoing violence is truly suicidal for Zanu (PF). Yet they seem not to understand.

The US has openly acknowledged that a military coup has taken place. It is hugely unlikely that this will be allowed to succeed because it would create a dangerous precedent.

The rest of Africa is also very wary of military coups, this further reducing any support for Zanu (PF).

The childish “calling names” by Mugabe and his henchmen only serves to underline their infantile outlook making them unfit for positions of authority.

However, it is the inability of Zanu (PF) to refrain from violence that is really destroying them. Many expect that they will soon turn on one another in an orgy of violence.

CHARLES, by email

Why didn’t war vets invest in the economy?

EDITOR, At first I thought it was a myth, but now I can agree with everyone that Zimbabwe has turned into ruins. The doldrums have appeared under the erratic leadership of Robert Mugabe.

At first it happened as a revival with all the glittering promises that were made to Zimbabweans. But everything that was promised turned into destruction. His cronies, war veterans, were favoured when they were radically and illegally involved in the agricultural sector.

On the one hand, it was as though economical stability was at its heights. Looking at the Zanu (PF) contingent, on the other hand, it became clear that they were spearheading the drastic collapse of the economy through the invasion of the white farms. Making more potholes in the agriculture sector, the war vets quickly wrecked well-managed economic backbone of the Zimbabwean economy.  

It is astounding that not even a single war veteran managed to field a simple suggestion against Mugabe’s amateur idea to grab commercial farms. Why I brought this idea up is because previously war veterans were given huge sums of money for their services in the liberation struggle. Where did they spend it? I’m quite convinced that with that amount of money, which the lowest was not less than $50 000, they should have invested in large sectors and to uplift the economy. The sharing of wealth to those who are affectionately known as the shining stars of Zimbabwe by Zanu (PF) happened in the early ’90s when Zimbabwe was at its best. They were paid and advised by one who claims he is the most intelligent leader the world has ever seen – Mugabe.

Now towards the new millennium the same corrugated war veterans groups are seen used by Zanu (PF) to stir up and attack white farmers with violence on their respective farms. This shows that it was a politically driven initiative to attack innocent white farmers.

Here we are in the aftermath of the March 2008 elections. Gallant people left their places to go and cast their votes for a change. Surprisingly, with all the intimidation they received from Zanu (PF) thugs, they managed to go ahead with a great courage to cast their votes in their respective polls.

The weekend of 29th March passed. Only the Parliamentary results were announced and it was a mountainous defeat for Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) members. The most anticipated time came for the announcement of Presidential results, but it was no avail. According to the Zimbabwean constitution the election results have been totally annulled after more than a week.

To all Zimbabweans I say: The time you have all been waiting for has come. The change is a mile away from us. Even though the killings and torturing is at its worst. We will vote Zanu (PF) out at any time or date.

AARON DUBE, South Africa