- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- This Friday I did something I haven't done for a very
long time and bought a copy of the government owned and run Herald newspaper.
It is now three weeks since President Mugabe met with friends, neighbours
and African leaders in Mauritius and signified in writing that Zimbabwe
would abide by the SADC's new electoral principles and guidelines. I flipped
the pages of the Herald looking for signs of change.
-
- In Mauritius Zimbabwe signed up to "upholding civil
and political liberties". On page 3 of the Herald was the story of
how MDC MP Nelson Chamisa was arrested in a private home in his own constituency
together with 12 other people, detained in police custody for 2 nights
accused of holding a political meeting without police permission. The
spirit of Mauritius falters.
-
- On page 9 of the Business Herald is an election notice
which reads:
- "...Since only one candidate, Chiota Phineas Chavazve
of Zanu PF Party was nominated, he was accordingly, in terms of subsection
17(b) of Section 46 of the Electoral Act (Chapter 2) duly elected Member
of Parliament for Seke Constituency with effect from 25th September 2004."
No mention is made of the fact that the reason there was only one candidate
for the Seke by-election was because the MDC are not taking part in any
more elections until the Zimbabwe government abides by the electoral principles
they agreed to in Mauritius along with all the other members of the SADC.
-
- Sadly I didn't find any signs of improvement, change
or democracy in the Herald newspaper but then I did get a bit sidetracked
by those amazingly absurd adverts about land acquisition. Covering four
and a half pages were lists of 345 farms the government intends to seize.
The vast majority appear to be farms that have already been listed in
2000, relisted in 2001 and 2002 and 2003 and are now being listed all over
again. It is totally and utterly absurd. Reading the lists I see names
of farmer friends who were violently thrown off their farms over three
years ago; I see names of people who were evicted from their homes and
now live on other continents and I even see names of people for whom the
stress of losing their farms, homes and lives was so enormous that they
have passed away in the last three years. And yet the government keeps
on listing the same old farms, again and again in what is either mindless
propaganda or yet another attempt to try and legitimize what they have
done in the last 54 months.
-
- After ploughing through pages and pages and pages of
propaganda in this Fridays' Herald, I do not see a free press, signs of
civic or political liberties or even the slightest hint of equal access
to the media. I wonder if our mates from the Mauritius meeting know, or
even care.
-
- Until next week,
-
- with love, cathy.
-
- Copyright cathy buckle 11 September 2004.
- http://africantears.netfirms.com "African Tears"
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