The Homepage of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda: Police intensify crackdown on dissent

Monday, May 12, 2008

Police intensify crackdown on dissent

By Vusumuzi Sifile and Jennifer Dube

THE police last week descended on civil society and the media, arresting two journalists, two trade unionists, a human rights lawyer and three student leaders in what civil society organisations say is as an intensifying crackdown on dissenting voices.

On Thursday, the police arrested the editor of The Standard, Davison Maruziva for allegedly "publishing falsehoods prejudicial to the state and for contempt of court".

He appeared before a Harare magistrate on Friday after spending a night in filthy police cells, and was released on $10 billion bail. His trial is set for 23 May.

The State argues that being an editor Maruziva undermined public confidence by publishing an opinion article by MDC faction leader Arthur Mutambara in the paper’s issue of 20-26 April.

In his article, Mutambara expressed concern shared by many Zimbabweans then, that of a delayed announcement of presidential election results.

He also bemoaned the irony of celebrating independence amid continued economic meltdown and escalating violence, among other ills bedevilling the country, observations which the State alleges are false.

Maruziva shared the cells with Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders, president Lovemore Matombo and secretary general Wellington Chibebe, who were also arrested on Thursday.

They were charged with "communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the state and inciting public violence". The allegations arose from speeches they made on May Day.

But the two remain in custody after their bail hearing was deferred to tomorrow. Their lawyer, Alec Muchadehama told The Standard that the State had indicated if the two were granted bail, it would be opposed.

Human rights lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, was arrested on Wednesday for "undermining the authority or insulting the president".

He was granted bail and will appear in court on 23 May. Nkomo is said to have told Harare prosecutor Michael Mugabe to tell "his father who has failed to run the country" to step down. The State says Nkomo insulted President Mugabe.

In his defence, Nkomo, represented by Beatrice Mtetwa, will argue that he did not insult the President since "he is not the biological father of the prosecutor".

He will say Michael Mugabe’s father is Donato, the late brother of the President.

Nkomo will also raise in his defence his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed in the Constitution. He will say his comments were fair in the circumstances.

Two Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) leaders, Faith Mutepfa and Privilege Matizanadzo, were arrested in Chinhoyi on Wednesday for inciting public violence.

A third student, Lothando Sibanda, was arrested on Friday, while ZINASU spokesperson, Blessing Vava, was allegedly abducted by militias and was said to be still missing at the time of going to press.

Another student leader, Courage Ngwarai, is said to have been arrested on Friday at Great Zimbabwe University.

ZINASU president, Clever Bere said they had been warned against "making subversive statements inciting students to rise up against the regime".

"From what we have got so far, Blessing was taken by the war veterans and we are yet to establish what could have happened to him. We are now very much worried about his security, and also about the dangers now facing almost all of us in the ZINASU leadership," Bere said.

Reports said police in Rusape were cracking down on vendors. The Standard was told yesterday they were rounding up newspaper vendors, accusing them of littering the streets with the papers.

Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president Matthew Takaona condemned Maruziva’s arrest as "unwarranted, misplaced and vindictive".

"The action is an ongoing ploy by the police to harass and intimidate journalists from carrying out their duties", Takaona said.

An official from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said the arrests were "typical behaviour by a regime that does not have respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms".

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said it would lead marches on Saturday in solidarity with their counterparts in Zimbabwe.

First published in The Standard on 11 May 2008.

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About Vusa

Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda is a Zimbabwean journalist currently working as editor of The Mirror, a weekly newspaper in Gaborone, Botswana.

He joined the Mirror in January 2009 having worked s a Staff Writer for The Standard, Zimbabwe’s only independent Sunday newspaper for close to four years. He also had stints with the now defunct Parade Magazine and The Weekly Times newspaper.

Born in 1981 in Mberengwa, a rural district in the south western parts of Zimbabwe, on the boundary of Midlands and Matabeleland South provinces, Vusumuzi did his primary and secondary education at Danangombe Primary and Matabo Secondary schools respectively.

In 2000, he was named the best student in the Gwanda High School Advanced Level class. A year later, he became the first student from Gwanda High School to enrol at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo when he became part of 19 pioneer students in the Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Journalism and Media Studies. He completed the programme in 2005.

While still studying at NUST in June 2003, Vusa joined Parade Magazine, then Zimbabwe’s leading monthly magazine for Industrial Attachment. The very day he joined the publicatioon, on June 2 2003, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) embarked on their "final push". This was a real rude awakening for a young, raw journalist.

In November 2003, when all indications were that Parade would not continue publishing, Vusa left to join the World Agroforestry Centre/International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) where he worked as an intern communications assistant for the organisation’s Southern Africa regional programme. At ICRAF, he worked as an assistant Editor of the organisation’s regional publications, Miombo Voices ans Living with Trees in Southern Africa, as well as the organisation’s website, www.icrafsa.org. He was also a regular contributor to the organisation’s international weekly, Transformations. He also collaborated with Livai Matarirano in establishing Agroforestry Forum, an agroforestry newsletter focusing mostly on the ICRAF Zimbabwe national programmes and its partners.

In addition to his Bachelor’s Degree, Vusa also has a number of other qualifications like Reporting Politics, Multimedia and Online Journalism, Population and Rural Development. During his stay at ICRAF, Vusa participated at a number of training programmes, with the two main ones being the Integration of Gender into Agroforestry Development (2003) and Teaching with Trees in Southern Africa (2004).

Towards the end of 2004, Vusa and nine other students from his class grouped themselves to form the editorial team of The Weekly Times newspaper. Despite being inexperienced, the team managed to produce a high quality weekly newspaper, which proved to be an alternative source of information for Zimbabweans. So serious was the newspaper that the authorities saw it as a threat, resulting in it being forced to shutdown in February 2005 after publishing just six issues.

During his at The Weekly Times, Vusa also contributed to Tariro/Ithemba Magazine, a publication focusing on orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The magazine was edited by Parkie Mbozi, his industrial attachment supervisor at ICRAF Southern Africa.

His experience as a communications assistant inspired Vusa to write a dissertation titled: “An assessment of the knowledge and understanding of agroforestry issues by newspaper journalists in Bulawayo”.

On completion of his studies, Vusa joined The Standard newspaper as a junior reporter and rose through the ranks to the position of a Senior Staff Writer. He is also a regular contributor for reputable international news agencies.

Vusa is a God fearing journalist. He is a born again member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe (ELCZ). Among other positions in the church, Vusa is the current chairperson of the Luther League (Youth) Fellowship in the Martin Luther Deanery of the ELCZ.

As part of his contribution towards the ministry of the Gospel of Christ, Vusumuzi is among the founders of Anointing Magazine, a fortnightly Christian magazine published in South Africa. He is the magazine’s deputy editor.

My Writings

Zimbabwe impedes Sadc intergration’

By Vusumuzi Sifile

THE continued economic and political meltdown in Zimbabwe is endangering any prospects of regional integration within the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), political analysts have said.
During a debate in Harare recently, the analysts were unanimous that the current situation in Zimbabwe was making it virtually impossible to integrate the region.
The debate focused on what role Zimbabwe could play in helping to integrate Sadc.
Among other factors was Zimbabwe’s inflation rate, estimated at more than 14 000% — more than 1 000 times the average across the region.
Weber Chinyadza of the MDC, who presented the argument, said although there had not been much effort in integrating the SADC region, Zimbabwe would “make the attainment of the integration objectives difficult”.
“The rest of the region is suffering as a result of Zanu PF’s misrule,” said Chinyadza. “Zimbabwe is short-changing the rest of the Sadc members. How can you integrate Zimbabwe, with an inflation of 14 000% with, say, Botswana, whose inflation rate is about seven percent?”
Chinyadza said the huge difference between the official and parallel market exchange rate was inconveniencing other countries.
The chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Dr Lovemore Madhuku said “the levels of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe are not found anywhere in Sadc”.
“The extent of human rights abuses on its own makes it difficult for Zimbabwe to fit into a community of nations with respect for human rights,” Madhuku said.
“Our political culture is clearly outside the framework that is necessary for integration. Zimbabwe is not so much in a class of its own in terms of creating problems for the SADC. For example, we have Angola which still wants to rerun the 1990 presidential elections, and Swaziland which is still run by a monarchy. But the difference between Zimbabwe and those countries is that in those places there is a genuine effort to implement the Sadc guidelines on the holding of free and fair elections.”
Madhuku said Zimbabwe had polarised regional and world politics, making it difficult to implement any form of integration. He said “each time the issue of Zimbabwe is raised, so many other irrelevant issues arise, diverting people’s attention” and as such, if the “Sadc were to be serious with any form of integration, they have to handle the Zimbabwean issue with openness”.
At the same time, said Professor John Makumbe, it was impossible for the rest of Sadc to integrate without Zimbabwe, as “the country is literally at the centre of the region”.
“The country’s position at the centre of the region forces every infrastructure to somehow touch Zimbabwe. Our position makes Zimbabwe key to any efforts to integrate the region,” Makumbe said.
The newly conferred Professor jokingly added that Zimbabwe was already implementing its own form of regional integration.
“The whole country is now a training centre where people are trained and exported into the region. Zimbabwe is exporting victims of human rights violations into the region and elsewhere, forcing neighbouring countries to spend lots of money on deporting Zimbabweans,” Makumbe said.

The Homepage of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda

Monday, May 12, 2008

Police intensify crackdown on dissent

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