"President Mugabe and myself last week agreed that all political
detainees who have been formally charged with a crime should be
released on bail, and that those who have not been charged should be
released unconditionally," Tsvangirai said at a press briefing in the
capital, Harare, on 25 February.
"The Attorney General’s
office is wilfully obstructing the release of all detainees by abusing
the appeal process, and that must stop forthwith."
About 30
activists have been detained for allegedly receiving military training
in neighbouring Botswana, which has long been critical of Mugabe and
his Zanu (PF) government. The charge has been strongly denied by the
government of President Ian Khama.
The Zanu (PF) hardliners
are said to be security chiefs and central bank officials, who fear
that the emergence of a transparent government could reveal crimes they
have committed.
Roy Bennett, Zimbabwe’s deputy agriculture
minister designate and treasurer-general of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), remains incarcerated on charges of arms possession and
banditry, despite being granted US$2,000 bail by the High Court in
Harare on 24 February.
The judge also ordered the former white
commercial farmer to surrender travel documents and imposed stringent
reporting conditions, after receiving assurances from Tsvangirai that
he would ensure Bennett did not abscond from Zimbabwe.
The
progress of the unity government – which came into force with the
inauguration of Tsvangirai as prime minister on 11 February, after a
power-sharing agreement was signed on 15 September 2008 – has been far
from smooth.
At the press briefing Tsvangirai also called for
the continued farm invasions by Zanu (PF) supporters to cease, and
said Mugabe’s unilateral appointments of Gideon Gono as central bank
governor, and Gen Johannes Tomana as attorney-general, needed to be
revisited, as these were contrary to the power-sharing agreement.
The
re-appointment by Zanu (PF) of the majority of ministerial permanent
secretaries without consultation was also contrary to the terms of the
deal. "The announcement of permanent secretaries has no force of law,
and is therefore null and void," Tsvangirai said.
Civic groups set up committee to monitor unity government
HARARE
– Civic society groups have set up a committee to monitor
implementation of the power-sharing agreement between President Robert
Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party and the two MDC formations of Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai Zanu (PF) leader and his deputy Arthur Mutambara.
The
groups said the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism would focus on how
the political parties implement the agreement in five areas of the
economy and development, constitutional reforms, political transition
and justice, institutional transformation and upholding human rights.
Some
of the groups that formed the monitoring committee include Bulawayo
Agenda, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC), ZimRights, Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR), the National Association of Non Governmental
Organisations (NANGO), MISA Zimbabwe and the Progressive Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe (PTUZ).
The groups said they would also monitor reforms
at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) that critics have blamed for
fuelling inflation through the printing of money to fund Mugabe's
populist projects.
A spokesman for the groups Okay Machisa said:
This process, far from being an attempt to undermine political
processes and agreements, is one which (civil society) has a
responsibility to undertake as part of its independent watchdog role,
and one which it will not hesitate to carry out to the best of its
ability.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara last September agreed to
form a unity government to tackle Zimbabwe's deepening economic and
humanitarian crisis.
Fresh elections will be called after about two
years during which the unity government is supposed to have stabilised
the economy and produced a new and democratic constitution for
Zimbabwe. –
Top Zanu (PF) official implicated in farm invasion
HARARE
– A group of people allegedly acting on behalf of a senior Zanu (PF)
party official invaded a farm belonging to one of the white farmers who
took their case against President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme
to a regional court for arbitration, a close relative of the farmer
said yesterday.
The group arrived at Mike Campbell's Mount Carmel
farm in Chegutu and ordered that the owner leaves the property within
10 minutes, the farm manager and Campell's son-in-law Ben Freeth told
ZimOnline.
They were led by Peter Chamada, Nathan Shamuyarira’s
(Zanu PF spokesman) nephew, as well as others claiming to be from the
lands office and from Shamuyarira’s office, said Freeth.
They gave
my father-in-law, Mike Campbell, 10 minutes to pack all his belongings
and get out of his house. They said they did not care about the law or
the police saying they were taking over now."
No comment could be obtained from the police at the time of publication.
Campbell's
farm is one of the farms belonging to the group of 78 white farmers who
went to the SADC Tribunal and got full protection after the regional
court ruled that white Zimbabweans could keep their farms because
Mugabe's haphazard land reform programme discriminated against them.
Farm
invasions are continuing around Zimbabwe despite the formation of an
all-inclusive government earlier this month with the latest series of
occupations targeting a number of white farmers.
The Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) last week said at least 40 farms owned by the few
remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe have been invaded by top government
and party officials since the opposition MDC agreed to enter into an
inclusive government with Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party.
According to the
CFU the latest wave of invasions involved members of the Zimbabwe
Republic Police (ZRP), officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,
Members of Parliament (MPs), Senators and District Administrators.
Earlier
this month police arrested three white farmers – Chris Jarret, Godfrey
Goosen and Saul Rogers – in what appeared a campaign targeting farmers
who successfully challenged the government's controversial land reforms
at the SADC Tribunal.
The invasions, together with arrests and
continued detention of political prisoners and rights activists, cast
serious doubts on Zanu (PF)'s sincerity in the recently formed unity
government.
Analysts say the unity government headed by Mugabe with
MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai serving as Prime Minister offers
Zimbabwe its best chance in a decade to end its crisis and begin afresh
on the road to sustainable economic and social recovery.
But many
say major differences between Mugabe and Tsvangirai over fundamental
issues such as the highly contentious issue of land reform could yet
derail the unity government.
Both men agree on the need for land reform but differ on the way this should be carried out.
Mugabe's
chaotic land reforms that he says were necessary to correct a colonial
land ownership system that reserved the best land for whites and
banished blacks to poor soils, are blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into
food shortages after Harare failed to support black villagers resettled
on former white farms with inputs to maintain production.
Tsvangirai
has called for an audit to establish who owns which land in Zimbabwe
before an orderly land reform programme can be implemented but Mugabe
has in the past accused the MDC leader of wishing to return land to
former white owners.
Critics say Mugabe's cronies – and not ordinary
peasants – benefited the most from farm seizures with some of them
ending up with as many as six farms each against the government's
stated one-man-one-farm policy.
Poor performance in the mainstay
agricultural sector has also had far reaching consequences as hundreds
of thousands of workers have lost jobs while the manufacturing sector,
starved of inputs from the sector, is operating below 20 percent of
capacity.
ZimOnline
Post published in: News