The Homepage of Vusumuzi Sifile Sibanda: Women petition SADC heads over Cabinet deadlock

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Women petition SADC heads over Cabinet deadlock

By Vusumuzi Sifile

WOMEN’S rights organisations have petitioned Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) heads of state "to encourage speedy resolution" of the current deadlock over the allocation of the Ministry of Home Affairs — and as it has now emerged — nine others between Zanu PF and the MDC formations.

Sadc leaders are expected to meet again soon in yet another bid to find a way of implementing a power-sharing agreement signed on September 15. Leaders of the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe and the Feminists Political Education Project (FePEP) confirmed to The Standard they have already prepared communiqués to be presented at the Sadc leaders' meeting. Gender activists have also mobilized women to picket at the venue of the talks, which is yet to be confirmed.

"In addition to the communiqué, we will also be sending a delegation of women," said WCoZ co-ordinator Netsai Mushonga. "We will also mobilize civil society wherever the talks would be held to help us in sending our message across. These politicians do not seem to care about what is going on. The consequences on the ground are deadly, especially for women. As women we are very disappointed, as they are clearly negotiating in bad faith."

One of the FePEP co-ordinators, Theresa Mugadza said what was worsening the situation was the secrecy in which the talks were being held.

"The truth is that nobody knows what is happening in this process," Mugadza said. For us, this is more of an information-seeking mission, to find out what is happening."

In their petition, FePEP members said "women are continuing to die of hunger while Sadc refers the matter back and forth; hesitant to make a decision that would save people’s lives".

Reads the petition: "Your Excellencies, it is our firm belief that final resolution of the Zimbabwe question, lies fully with Sadc and history will judge Sadc harshly should it fail to arrest the exploding humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Sadc has a responsibility and indeed a duty to help Zimbabwean leaders help themselves as they have clearly failed collectively, to resolve the issues affecting their electorate."

On Monday, over 300 WCoZ picketed outside the Rainbow Towers Hotel where members of the Sadc organ on politics, defence and security were meeting the facilitation and negotiating teams. The women, dressed in black and white, all had empty plates and pots "to display our hunger".

Their mission of getting an audience with the heads of state was however not accomplished as the police descended ruthlessly on the women. According to WCoZ, 47 women were arrested, while 11 others were injured.

Over the past month, WCoZ, FePEP and Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) have successfully mobilized women to demonstrate against the snail’s pace on the implementation of the agreement.

The women’s organisations argue "people are dying of hunger on a daily basis". They also want the incoming government to be clear on its commitment on gender parity, which according to the activists means a 50-50 allocation of roles.

Three weeks ago, the women successfully picketed at the Rainbow Towers, and were addressed by the three negotiating teams and their principals, and members of the facilitation team.

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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 6, 2008

Women petition SADC heads over Cabinet deadlock

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