The Homepage of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda: Talks in jeopardy

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Talks in jeopardy

By Vusumuzi Sifile and Kholwani Nyathi

ACCUSATIONS that the government is trying to sabotage today’s make-or-break Sadc summit on Zimbabwe in South Africa, cast a dark shadow over the deadlocked power-sharing deal, The Standard can report.

The MDC yesterday said several of its activists were arrested for allegedly "planning an insurgency", while Botswana dismissed Zimbabwe’s allegation that it had offered the insurgents bases as "false, baseless, and completely unfounded".

Botswana requested Zimbabwe to provide documented evidence on the allegations and invited the Sadc Organ Troika, together with Zimbabwe, to undertake a fact-finding mission to Botswana "at the earliest opportunity".

The Troika accepted the invitation.

Botswana said it was invited to an extra-ordinary meeting of the Sadc Inter-State Defence and Security Committee of the Organ Troika in Maputo, Mozambique on Wednesday last week.
At the meeting, Zimbabwe alleged that Botswana was interfering in its internal affairs and alleged that Botswana had been training MDC-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) youths to destabilise Zimbabwe since 2002.

Botswana requested that Harare provides documented evidence on the allegations.
The Troika requested Zimbabwe to provide it with documented evidence, which would be availed to Botswana.

At the Maputo meeting, Botswana re-affirmed its continued adherence to principles and policies of good neighbourliness, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, and the peaceful resolution of disputes.

But Botswana said it reminded Zimbabwe of the existence of mechanisms for the management of bilateral relations. For example, there have been 25 annual meetings of the Botswana-Zimbabwe Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security, during which no such allegations had ever been raised.The current membership of the Organ Troika is made up of Swaziland (Chair), Mozambique (Deputy Chair) and Angola (immediate past Chair) and Botswana assured the Organ Troika and Zimbabwe that a fact-finding Mission would receive Botswana’s "fullest co-operation".

The arrests of the 11 activists from Banket and Chinhoyi, the MDC said was allegedly a ploy by Zanu PF hardliners desperate to build a case for Zanu PF to hold on to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is in charge of the police.

The Sadc leaders meeting today to tackle the Zimbabwean crisis are expected to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to conclude the formation of the all-inclusive government.

Sources said Zanu PF planned to present "evidence" extracted from the MDC activists detained at various police stations in Harare in an attempt to buttress its claim that the MDC was training insurgents in Botswana.

This is to justify its demands to retain control of the police.

In High Court papers, lawyers said the arrests of the MDC supporters, Terry Musona, Fanny Tembo, Fidelis Chiramba, Pieta Kaseke, Mr Manyemwe, one Agrippa, Ernest Mudimu, Larry Gaka, Collen Mutemagau, Emmanuel and Concillia Chinanzwavana was politically-motivated.
"The applicants were rounded up in Banket and Chinhoyi by unknown people who claimed to be officers from Law and Order, who were moving in a convoy of six vehicles," reads an urgent chamber application by lawyer Andrew Makoni, seeking the release of the activists, whose whereabouts are unknown.

The victims were taken to Harare, where they were reportedly detained at Braeside, Rhodesville, Highlands, Avondale, Mabelreign and Borrowdale police stations. But lawyers who visited the police stations were told the activists were not being held at the stations. Makoni said they were able to get the detention book numbers for Tembo, Chiramba and Kaseke.
The application will be heard in Chambers on Tuesday before Justice Charles Hungwe.

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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

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Talks in jeopardy

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