Two pastors travelling to the rural areas to pay school fees for internally displaced people were arrested yesterday for carrying “too much money”.

They are still in detention.

Sekai Holland is a member of the MDC’s National Executive Committee. Here’s her account of how events unfolded at the opening ceremony of the second session of the sixth parliament of Zimbabwe. Via: The Zimbabwe Situation

Two weeks ago the MDC Women’s Assembly Chairperson, Mrs lucia Matibenga invited women across all the divides, that keep women apart, to meet at Africa Unity Square, at the opening of Parliament today, to launch the programme to promote the Peace and Tolerance agenda in Zimbabwe. We were told not to wear our party regalia, not to sing our songs as it was a public function, and that we were to respond politely to all forms of provocation, if it arose.

Zimbabwe’s Formidable Security Services in Full Force

MDC women were the first to arrive at the venue by 10.00 am. We were searched by the Police as we entered the Africa Unity Square, a park facing Parliament House. After being cleared, we were told by the Police who searched us, that we were not to leave the park, until the end of the opening of Parliament ceremony.

We were all shocked when we entered Harare, by the large numbers of security services surrounding the city. There were ZR Police placed everywhere, blocking off streets around the Parliament, army personnel, the riot squad, prison police, and airforce. It was an act of courage for all of the women who came to attend the opening of Parliament in this environment of the signs of repression, the instruments of violence.

It was an act of great conviction by the women to approach the ZR Police personnel surrounding the Africa Unity square, with this consentration of armed personnel to see whether we would be allowed to enter the square. It bacame a test of how far any of us would go this morning, to get into the square, stay in the park, before we were stopped by some force, one of the many in our country today! We walked in one by one. Many were terrified, but even they, simply took courage, and all of us eventually were inside Africa Unity Square.

The Park Bench

Once inside we were advised by a uniformed Police-woman officer where to go to observe the opening of Parliament. We found a bench, the first one as one walks on Nelson Mandela Avenue side, immediately after crossing Sam Nujoma street, along Africa Unity Square, and we sat on that, while the rest preferred to stand around the bench, as we waited for both the others to join us, and also for the ceremony to begin..

Ruling Party Districts March into Africa Unity Square

By 11.30 am the zanu/pf groups from the districts began to assemble inside the square, singing their songs, all of which were aimed at the MDC. We sat on our bench unabashed, and the singers in their district formations began to come into the square, along the route where we sat. They turned into the lawns to the end of the park by Third Avenue. The songs were loud and meant to provoke us, but we sat on. We awaited for the arrival of the Mugabe entourage into the Parliament.

Types of Zanu/Pf songs sung Today

Call: Musha unechinja ndewani, tibombe !
Umuzi ka guqula ngokabani, sibhombe !
The home of the one who wants change, whose is it, so that we can bomb it !

Response: Musha unechinja ndewani !
Umuzi ka guqula ngokabani !
The home of the one who wants change, whose is it !

The songs were in that mode.

Ruling Party Women Greet Women by the Bench

With this prevailing hostile environment generated by the militia, we were pleasantly surprised when some of the Zanu/Pf women, dressed in their party regalia, recognised us as they arrived, walked to us at our bench, greeted us before they moved on to join their own colleagues, and all of them who came, shook our hands, all of us on the bench, and those standing around it. They even afforded us not just the handshake, but a smile, as we exchanged that traditional greeting.

Provocation of Those by the Bench by Militia and Provincial Leader

As soon as the ruling party districts took their places, some of those plainclothes who had shown us where to sit, came to tell us ‘to join the others’. We asked them who the ‘others’ were. Another of the same group who had shown us where to sit, again came to ask us to stand up from our bench, to ‘join the others’, this time pointing to the crowd of zanu/pf districts. We asked why we needed to relocate to the other side of the path when the rope on our side had no one. We were the only ones where we were sitting down on the bench on the other side of the path.

When we asked them who gave them the instruction that we be moved they went away and came back with junior ruling party youth to give us the reply to our question.

A well known ruling party harraser of MDC members in Mbare, a woman, called Oripa, came towards us playing to the gallery of her colleagues around her, which was made up of the assembled Zanu/Pf districts. She shook her fists at us, and angrilly shouted at us:

ngavabve pano tisati tavarakasha !
kabasuke singakabamukuli !
let them get out of here before we beat them up !

When she got to where we sat, she instructed us to get out of the park or else, and she did not complete that sentence, but she went into a frenzy, throwing her fists at us, and in the air. The women asked her who gave her the instruction that we leave the square, she was even more angry this time, and replied, facing us:

ma chef
ngama chef
it is the chefs

The women asked her which particular chef gave her the instruction that we leave the park, and Oripa left. Meanwhile William Nhara, the Zanu/Pf Harare Province Publicity Secretary, came hurriedly to where we sat, and his instruction was made directly to me. He instructed me and the women on the bench, and those standing around it, to leave the park, before they did something to us. He got more and more worked up as he spoke to me. Before we could put our questions to him, he looked at me and addressed me by my name:

“Sekai Holland, this is not Tony Blair’s place, go back to America, get out of here, quickly, before we beat you up.”

The Zanu/Pf youth who had been listening to this interraction by now began to converge around us, sitting on the bench, and looking at those standing around the bench, with anger. They now also talked loudly at us, most of them, at the same time, demanding that we vacate the park, or else they would deal with us.

Hapasi penyu ka, apa, ito bvai pano, izvozvi tisati taku……..
Kasindawo yenu le phela, wohlani lisuke lapha khathesi nje, singangakali…..
this is not your place, just get out of here right now, before we…..

Hapasi pa Tony Blair apa, harisi benji ra Tony Blair iri, ibvai pano !
Kasi ndawo ka Tony Blair le, kasi bentshi lika Tony Blair leli, sukani !
This is not Tony Blair’s place, this is not Tony Blair’s bench, get out !

Decision to Avoid Violence Against Us by Militia - by Leaving Bench

There was a barrage of insults aimed at all of us sitting and standing around the bench, from all sides of where we sat and stood, from the gathering motley crowd of Zanu/Pf militia. As that crowd began to swell and converge around us, I stood up, looked at them directly, and told them to open the way for us to leave the bench. We wanted to see what to do next, to ensure that we saw the opening of the Parliament ceremony to the end. As we walked away from the baying crowd, we bumped into a uniformed Police officer, walking towards the crowd. We explained to him what had happened to us, as we sat quietly on a park bench, to witness the opening of the Parliament.

Search for Police Protection in the Park

The friendly Police officer directed us to the superitendant in charge of the occassion, at the end of Africa Unity Square, on Third Avenue side. When we got there, we were directed to another uniformed officer who called a uniformed woman Policer officer, who then went to get us the plainclothes Police officer, who told us to stand there while he organised his next step. The remaining officers wanted us to move to the area where the cannons for the gun salute were located, and actually firing. We refused their persistant advice that it was a safe area, to which they were guiding us to stand.

Plainclothes Take us to Harare Central Police Station to Lay Our Complaint

After repeated questions from other Police officers who wanted to know why we were standing there, the plainclothes officer eventually returned, to take the 9 of us to Harare Central Police Station to have our statements recorded. A docket was opened, based on our complaint.

Family Experience at Harare Central Police Station

Meanwhile we rang my husband at home to tell him that we were at Harare Central Police Station, on a borrowed cell phone, whose battery was on its last bar. Jim assumed that we were arrested, put out the call to that effect, made lots of sandwiches for the group, and with our neighbour and friend, hurried to the Police station.

The Police took Jim and Dr Val Ingham Thorpe to the cells where they assured them that they were not holding any white women. Jim was agitated by what to him were ridiculous assumptions, and to their question whether his wife was black or white, he insisted on that detail by giving them my name. Eventually it cliqued on the Police that it was our group my husband was after. Val also had called the Zimbabwe Human Rights Lawyers to attend to our demise before she drove to the Police station. The lawyer arrived and immediately interracted with the Police officers who were interviewing us, to get the sense of what our complaint was. He assured us that he would chase up the case into court.
(more…)

Zimbabwe: The Interception of Communications Bill is having a pronounced toll on the Zimbabwean blogosphere. Posts from domestic bloggers have slowed down noticably over the last two weeks. Despite this tragic reality, several cyberactivists continue to chronicle the largely unheard Zimbabwean story.

The unceremonious death of Tichaona Jokonya, the minister of information is the biggest news out of Zimbabwe this weekend. Jokonya died in his hotel room Saturday morning. Describing Jokonya’s death Zimpundit expresses reservations about late minister regarding his role with the Interception of Communications Bill,

Jokonya’s tenure at the helm of the ministry was clearly marked by a softening of the government’s stance on independent media practitioners. Jokonya was even rumoured to have been making benign attempts at “defrosting” relations between his ministry and the independent media establishment.

Lately, he appeared to have buckled down and had began singing along to ZANU-PF’s abuses of independent media. Addressing a press conference earlier last week, Jokonya described locally based correspondents of foreign media as “traitors” saying,

“You know what the end of a traitor is? The end of a traitor is always death. The unfortunate thing about a traitor is that you are killed by both your own people and the person whom you are serving,”

Further, even though it is yet unclear what role he played in instituting it, the repressive Interception of Communications Bill came into effect during Jokonya’s reign.

Still on the subject of death, the father of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC died this past week too. Zimbabwe’s overenthusiastic police brazenly distrupted funeral proceedings calling on MDC supporters at the funeral to remove party regalia they had on. Said The Bearded Man

The police have overstepped the mark and I am horrified at the actions. A death in the family is hard enough, without Mugabe’s heavy-handed tactics making it any harder. Morgan, I am so sorry for your loss. My sympathies to you and you family. May your father rest in peace.

The Bearded Man continues to do daily news roundups. (more…)

Zimbabwe: Announcing AI’s irrepressible.info and explaining why Zimbabwe badly needs the project, Accoustic Motorbike illustrates the impending fate Zimbabwe’s bloggers face owing to the new Interception of Communications Bill;

So it all works something like this:

1) The army, police, or intelligence service decides that Jane Bloggs is a dubious character, and applies for a warrant to intercept her communications. These could include her text messages, cell phone and land line calls, emails to her known email address(es), communications sent electronically via her ISP, and post arriving at her house.

2) She is not told by any authority that an interception warrant has been issued in her name. The friendly technician at her ISP might want to give her a heads up that she is now being monitored, but given the threat of a three year prison term, is unlikely to do so. Similarly the ISP, phone company and postal workers also face a fine and/or three years jail time for not assisting the “MICC” – Monitoring and Interception of Communications Centre—with whatever information it requests.

3) Knowing the risk of her emails being watched, Jane might choose to use some kind of encryption device. But even if she did, she could at any time be instructed to hand over these passwords—or risk a fine and/or five years imprisonment.

4) With all of Jane’s text messages, emails, internet searches, etc, the state is sure to find something dubious with which they can charge her under any one of Zimbabwe’s other draconian laws—the Public Order and Security Act, the Miscellaneous Offences Act, the Foreign Exchange Controls Act, or the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for starters. And, since it will have collected this evidence in a nicely “legal” manner, it will be able admissible in court, to strengthen whatever case the state might wish to make against her.

(More…)

Due to unforeseen circumstances, regular updates to this site will be interrupted until the end of the week.

Check back on Monday for regular updates!

A few years ago I spent a marvelous time on the Chobe River flood plains on the boundary between Namibia and Botswana. For those of you who do not know the area, the Zambezi River runs down the western border of Zambia for several hundred kilometers and then hits a basalt ridge where it backs up and spills over into the flood plains on either side of the river creating huge seasonal wetlands.

In the south, these wet lands drain into the Chobe River and then back into the Zambezi River at Kazungula. This gives the river its May flood that makes a visit to the Victoria Falls so spectacular. When this process is underway from April to July, the waters of the flood plains drain into deep gullies that are kept open by Hippos and these run for up to 30 to 40 kilometers into the Chobe River.

We spent a wonderful day on the flood plains with a local guide armed with light fishing gear. We went up to the head of a system of drainage channels and then drifted down with the current. As we did so our guide showed us how to cast our lures into spots on the edge of the channels where a swirl indicated the presence of Tiger fish. These were hunting the smaller fish emerging from the reed beds where they had lived for the past few months.

The results were spectacular – about every third cast saw a fish rise and strike and of these we landed about one in three. We fished all day in wonderful surroundings, lush swampland as far as you could see, beautiful clear blue skies and a temperature of about 25 c. Not much game but we had to watch for Hippo and Crocodiles.

Swirls In the water. That is what we have seen all week in southern Africa. Brief statements from South African leaders about the crisis in Zimbabwe, statements from the UN in Geneva and New York. Tantalizing stuff, but what does it all mean? It probably points to political Tiger fish hunting smaller prey in Zimbabwean waters.
(more…)

Zimbabwe: The first anniversary of Zimbabwe’s notorious “cleanup” operation, Operation Murambatsvina passed recently. There was a marked reticence among Zimbabwean bloggers towards organized commerations. Accoustic Motorbike explains her reasons;

Marking the “one year” anniversary of this destruction ignores the fact that Murambatsvina is on going. It’s become a verb, a noun, and a state of being for both the people and the government of Zimbabwe. In the past four weeks alone, Murambatsvina-style evictions have been carried out in cities like Masvingo and Ruwa. Operation Round Up has seen police in Harare “sweep up” over 10,000 homeless people and dump them on a farm outside Harare.

…The government isn’t pursuing any long-term development or assistance project here. But sadly, by not integrating an element of resistance and defiance into the “commemorations,” civil society also will not move towards the long term programme it needs to see genuine democratic change in Zimbabwe. It seems like Zimbabweans are more and more trapped in our own victimhood. We say that things will change when the old man dies. Or that God is watching, and won’t let our suffering continue forever. But there is not the spirit of defiance that is essential if things like collective non violent action are ever to succeed here. As a friend of mine said the other day, “we’re missing the belief that we deserve better. And that we have the right to demand it.”

Over at This is Zimbabwe, the commemoration events were cast acts of defiance in themselves. This post, replete with pictures, honors those who did take a moment to remember the Murambatsvina’s hapless victims and explains that the few people that did turn out for the march did so in the face assured police action;

Church leaders in Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, achieved a remarkable victory today in keeping to their original plan to stage a peaceful protest march and hold public prayers, despite the most severe intimidation from Mugabe’s security forces. Many similar events planned by churches and civic groups in other parts of the country to commemorate the anniversary of the regime’s infamous Operation Murambatsvina were either called off or postponed in the face of massive police intimidation. But the steely resolve of the pastors leading an informal group called Churches in Bulawayo, and the courage of several hundred church members who turned out in support enabled the Bulawayo protest to go ahead notwithstanding.

Zimpundit, at Enough is Enough expresses reservations about commemorating Murambatsvina now,

We’re still reeling from the problem of Murambatsvina, you still hear reports of police inadvertently raiding markets, and we still have the same brute leadership. We’re trying to work on this here problem, we haven’t given up yet. We’re not quite ready to even think of giving up yet.

In sense, there’s still too much pain everywhere for us to take time to mourn right now.

The Bearded Man has several news roundups and a couple of podcasts to update you on the latest headlines out of Zimbabwe.

Burundi: Agathon Rwasa cites a report which details how Tutsi activist were arrested for arranging commeration of their brethren massacred by the Buranda government.

He also blogs about the arrest of Térence Nahimana, a former parliamentarian turned activist who was incarcerated after questioning why the government had not started peace negotions with the FNL. (more…)

Deposed information minister and political turncoat Jonathan Moyo is out courting ire of Zimbabweans again. This time, he used a long diatribe titled Beyond Budiriro in which assumes a lofty position of wisdom and attempts to dish advice to the MDC. Roundly castigated for his oppressive role in crafting AIPPA (Zimbabwe’s unliked media regulation law), Moyo, now Zimbabwe’s lone independent parliamenterian is seemingly desperate to rejuvinate his political career.

In the piece, Moyo asserts among other things that Tsvangirai is myopically obsessed with the idea of asserting his faction of the MDC as the “real MDC.” In so doing Moyo counters, Tsvangirayi is foolishing extrapolating his popularity within the MDC to reach across to all other Zimbabweans. Like the long slumbering Rip Van Winkel, Moyo seems oblivious to what has been going on around him; Tsvangirayi has been going around the country courting all Zimbabweans to respond to a national agenda for progress and the end of tyranny. This idea that his travels are intended solely for flexing his political muscle is far fetched at best.

Building on the fallacy that Tsvangirayi is operating from the throes of self aggrandizing ambition, Moyo “challenges” Tsvangirai to pursue the building of a “coalition of the willing” of sorts. It is clear Moyo writes from the deluded assumption that politics in Zimbabwe remains an esoteric confine accesible and malleable only to the elite and the educated. Alas, those days are long gone in Zimbabwe. Fortunately, the new generation of politicians on the rise in Zimbabwe (which include Tsvangirayi and Mutambara but not Moyo) have latched onto this already. This is why they are travelling so extensively and are reaching out to ordinary Zimbabweans.
(more…)

A student protest at the Bindura University College of Science (BUCS) has gradually taken a twist for the worse as the week has progressed. After a peaceful start, things have turned ugly in Bindura as the students set fire to a computer lab on the campus in retaliation for police brutality.

Violet Gonda of SW Radio reports that a peaceful student protest against tuition increases led to the arrest of 19 student leaders. According to a spokesman for ZINASU, the Zimbabwe National Students Union police assaulted student leaders and denied them access to health and lawyers.

Bindura, is the capitol of the Mashonaland Central Province a ZANU-PF stronghold.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Human Rights, Student Protest

Please check out some of Zimbabwe’s other bloggers. Click on this link for storiesfrom Zimbabwean bloggers. Enjoy!