GNU a fraud

If the Unity government works, good luck MDC. Many Zimbabweans consider
a unity government a fraud and a betrayal. It means the MDC has
capitulated. What is imperatively needed in Zimbabwe is the removal of
both Mugabe and his illegitimate Zanu (PF) government. Zanu (PF) is a
criminal enterprise responsible for massive corruption, genocide and
the deliberate starvation of Zimbabweans.

At this juncture Zimbabwe
needs justice. Justice means protecting suffering Zimbabweans and
punishing Zanu (PF) officials for corruption, genocide, torture and the
murder of innocent people. Zanu (PF) militias and the so-called War
Veterans must be brought before the courts for widespread murder, rape,
mutilating, torture, robbery, theft, looting and vandalism.

A Unity
government will protect Zanu (PF) criminals and they should be held
accountable for all the crimes against humanity which started as early
as 1983. Zanu (PF) was corrupt, murderous and oppressive from the
beginning. Without justice and the elimination of corruption Zimbabwe
will not heal.

The MDC has been telling Zimbabweans and the world
that Zanu (PF) is guilty of corruption and crimes against humanity. Now
they want to join these criminals and corrupt officials in a unity
government.

The European Union, America, Britain and other
countries must refuse to recognise such a travesty of justice. Any deal
that leaves Mugabe in power or Zanu (PF) officials in control must not
be recognised. Mugabe has lost presidential elections and it is only
through fraud, manipulation, propaganda and oppression that he is still
in power.

Calls to the UN Security Council should continue and the
Zimbabwean humanitarian crisis must not be left in the hands of SADC or
African Union (AU). These regional organisations and the ruling ANC
government in South Africa will use every means possible to prevent the
government that won elections to come to power in Zimbabwe.

There
is so much suffering in Zimbabwe. Thousands of people are dying every
week in  and now cholera has killed 3000. Please help us to stop this
massive suffering, put Zimbabwe on your prayer list, write to your
political leaders encouraging them to support us in our quest for
freedom, liberation, and human rights. – FOUNDATION OF RESEARCH AND
JUSTICE, by e-mail

Total division

EDITOR – Can the unity
government bring total togetherness? I was in Gutu recently and noticed
the degree of hatred between members of Zanu (PF) and the MDC. One
woman claimed that her eyes bloomed red if she saw a member of the
opposition. How is this going to change? – COLLEN MADZIVA, by e-mail

Pipe dreams

EDITOR
– There is never going to be a United States of Africa. The main
promoter, Gaddaffi, cannot even hold elections in his own country.
Several African leaders are similar, making it a non starter as they do
not want to give others a chance! – LLODZA, Glenview

Enlighten me

EDITOR – Can you please enlighten me on a few things that I have failed to grasp regarding the unity government?

When
the ministries are allocated to the three parties, does that mean that
the controlling party will have to nominate the key staff such as
Permanent Secretaries and, say, the RBZ governor, Registrar-General,
etc?

If this is the procedure, what is going to happen to the " all
important" ministry of Home Affairs? Are we going to have to have two
Registrar-Generals, Police Commissioner-Generals and permanent
secretaries and such staff?

Another issue I have not grasped clearly
is that of the type of this unity arrangement. Is it a temporary one as
is being said in certain quarters, or a five year thing? President
Motlanthe was not clear when asked on the sidelines of the AU summit.
He even spoke of there being harmonized elections if the Zimbabwean
parties see fit.

From what I know, I think the Parliamentary and
Senatorial elections are not in dispute so why does he want us to go
over them again?  What is the time limit for the transitional
arrangement? – ANALYST, Harare.

SA – think about it

EDITOR
– Mad Bob can’t last forever. When he heads off into the sunset there
will be an absolute bonanza of investment and aid flooding into
Zimbabwe, and a large chunk of that windfall will be via sunny SA….
Oh happy days. Who said there were no plusses to having a failed state
as a neighbour?

And have you noticed the cranes everywhere you look?
Seen the Gautrain progress? In Cape Town virtually the entire highway
is under construction. Durban has a new stadium; a bigger harbour AND a
new airport all finishing in the next 18 months. The unintended
consequence of the government procrastination on infrastructure
investment over the past 10 years is that now that it’s finally
underway – just in time to prop up our economy! Gotta love those
bureaucrats.

The Soccer World Cup is coming. If we get it right
we’ll be the hottest spot on the planet – and we’ll have a real shout
for hosting the Olympics in about 2020.

But don’t crack open the
champagne just yet, we still have our fair share of challenges. Your
average Yank may be swapping his house for a trailer, but at least he’s
not worried about being shot in the head on the way to his next job
interview. If any of you have a relative or friend in the government,
please pass on this message, "Crime is out of control and most of our
schools and hospitals are in disarray."

Don’t for a second fool
yourself that we can ignore these structural problems and live the rest
of our lives in blissful ignorance. We must constantly remind the
politicians to do their jobs, but we cannot absolve ourselves of our
responsibility to make individual contributions. It is our business to
make this land a success. Report crime, pick up litter, give to the
needy, create jobs, look after the children, practice safe sex (and
drink filter coffee).

We’ve all got a responsibility to make the
magic happen, otherwise you’ll just end up lying in bed in 50 years
time, looking back and saying: "What if?" The time of opportunity is
upon us, now it’s up to us to seize the day. I’ve said it before, I’ll
say it again: Life is not about waiting for storms to pass, it’s about
learning to dance in the rain. – ANON., by e-mail

Out-of-sight- out-of mind?

EDITOR
– Some days it really feels like the world has forgotten us white
farmers. No one seems to care that our farms and lives have been
snatched from us, heartlessly and illegally. Our beloved county,
Zimbabwe, demonizes and belittles us.  Zanu (PF) openly supports racism
and apartheid – "It's ok", they say, "to steal the land and
possessions  of the white man because he is white." We are judged by
what other people and foreign countries have done in the past and not
by our own actions. It’s not fair and nobody seems to say much about
it. I can’t answer for the actions of somebody else and why should I be
condemned for what I didn’t do?

Mugabe himself says we farmers are
due compensation for our possessions (not the actual land itself) yet
we receive nothing and no great nation or leader says a word. Is there
no light for us, no justice?  For those who weren’t on the spot, I can
tell you the "land grab’ was about possessions and not the land.
Undeveloped farms were not touched.

The "grabbers" don’t want
virgin land like so many of us whites purchased and steadily built up.
No, the demand is for our stuff, the big money we have ploughed in to
infrastructure, implements, chemicals, animals and produce.  It was all
unfairly and wrongly snatched from us.

To all those who took our
farms – I can tell you the farms will never truly be yours because deep
down inside you know that what you have is ill-gotten gain. This can
never bring peace and joy.  Every minute of every day my heart yearns
for my farm, my home.  

Is anybody on our side, does anybody still
care? It feels like we’re all alone longing for justice, restoration of
the rule of law, and to rightfully return to our beloved farms. Please
spare us a thought and speak out for us who can’t. Shout from the roof
tops and please don’t stop until justice is served. – ANON., by e-mail

Price monitoring

EDITOR
– The announcement by RBZ that prices will no longer be controlled
and/or fixed but monitored is a good thing. Price controls brought the
black market, which in turn brought high prices as products disappeared.

Business
has been clamouring for the removal of price controls telling us that
they brought scarcity as manufacturers and retailers were not able to
recoup their costs. That was fine because even we, the consumer, sang
the same song. We learnt the hardest way when the NIPC pounced on
businesses with only a few people having enjoyed the ridiculously
priced commodities, albeit for a few days. Business also advocated the
dollarization of the economy, citing various position papers from known
and unknown economists.

It would seem as if our business leaders want to milk us dry.

If
our businesses cannot serve us faithfully then it is better that the
informal trader be given the chance to bring these goods in duty-free
as was the case in December. Our one and only brewery is still licking
its wounds caused by the informal traders.

I would rather they monitor prices so that they conform to regional standards. ANON., Glenview

Our worry

EDITOR
– We do not have a problem with the GNU as we believe that this is just
a transitional authority to facilitate a free and fair election
environment. Our worry is that now that amendment 19 is a law, our
President is going to be sworn in even when the whereabouts of 11 MDC
activists is still not known. When is hate speech going to be abandoned
in our government controlled media? Are there plans to try and
reconcile the people at the grass roots level after others maimed or
murdered each other on the instructions of their political leaders?

We
want answers from our leaders because we, as leaders at lower levels of
the party, have to give answers. LOVEMORE CHIKANDIWA, Pretoria