The Homepage of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda: Zanu PF Sets Up Terror Bases In Harare

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Zanu PF Sets Up Terror Bases In Harare

By Vusumuzi Sifile and Sandra Mandizvidza

PEOPLE claiming to be Zanu PF supporters have set up bases in Harare’s high- density suburbs, raising fears that the reign of terror so far limited to villages has spread to cities.

Harare residents reported the terror campaigns in Dzivarasekwa, Mbare, Sunningdale, Epworth, Mabvuku-Tafara and Chitungwiza.

The MDC last week alleged there were at least two bases in every constituency in Harare and Chitungwiza. Zanu PF has denied the allegation.

The party said it had set up what it called "information centres". But The Standard was told by independent sources in some cases, the "base commanders" had usurped the powers of the police and local authorities.

On Thursday, Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman, Amos Midzi claimed they had set up "information centres, not bases".

"Anybody is free to visit those information centres," said Midzi, who nevertheless failed to clarify what takes place at the so-called information centres.

Although some of the reports could not be immediately confirmed, the MDC and civil society organisations said in some cases "there appears to be some camaraderie between the police and the militia at the bases".

Over a week ago, a group of students from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) came across one such base while conducting an assignment in Mbare.

"We were interrogated and when we told them that we were students," said one of the students, who asked not to be named, "and that we had permission from the police and the council, they told us they were more powerful than the police and the council.

"Some of them wanted to beat us up and confiscate all our research material, but we pleaded with them and in the end, they sympathised with us."

After their plea for mercy, and having convinced "the commander" they were on a genuine study mission, the students were given another letter, allowing them to proceed with the assignment.

MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the existence of the bases was "not politics but war".

Chamisa said: "Every constituency has at least two bases. We are not in a war but they are setting up military bases. This is out of the ordinary. What shocks us is that the police are not doing anything about them. It now appears there is some form of camaraderie between the police and the militia at the bases."

Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena could not be reached for comment. Zanu PF Political Commissar Elliot Manyika refused to talk to The Standard.

The existence of the bases emerged at a time when Zanu PF militias have embarked on a door-to-door campaign in some Harare suburbs, intimidating people and instructing them to vote for President Robert Mugabe on 27 June in the presidential election run-off.

On a number of occasions, militias have been seen leading Zanu PF supporters on a door-to-door campaign, mostly in high-density suburbs.

In Mbare on Thursday, they moved from door-to-door at houses near Tsiga grounds, carrying sticks and ordering people to attend Zanu PF meetings.

Similar groups of people were seen in other suburbs.

"I was at home last week when some people claiming to be war veterans came to my house and asked for my name and that of my husband. They said we should vote for Mugabe only," said a woman from Glen View, who requested anonymity.

In the upmarket Chisipite suburb, the militias are said to be going from house to house calling all housemaids and gardeners to their meetings. This has also been the pattern in Chitungwiza.

"My housemaid went to these so-called meetings when I was at work," said Dorcas Munyoro, whose maid was summoned last week. "On top of being told to vote for Mugabe they were also told to demand a minimum monthly salary of $100 billion and if they got fired to report back to these war vets."

Munyoro said after attending the meeting, her maid had become "big-headed".

"How can I pay her a salary more than mine?" she said.

Mugabe has threatened to go to war if Tsvangirai wins the run-off, saying he would not let the MDC take over power, which he said would be "tantamount to giving back the country to the former colonial master and insulting the virtues of the liberation struggle".

An Epworth resident, who spoke to The Standard on condition he was not identified, said Zanu PF supporters had not eased up on their terror campaign since Sunday. He estimated as many as 100 houses belonging to suspected MDC supporters had been destroyed.

While previously the destruction had been at night, this was now taking place during the day.

Road blocks had been set up on roads into Epworth, where residents were asked to chant a Zanu PF slogan – "100% empowerment", "Pamberi nehondo, izvozvi, Pasi naMorgan" — failure of which got one into real trouble.

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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

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Zanu PF Sets Up Terror Bases In Harare

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