Makoni tips scales

Having been away from home for a long time, attending Simba Makoni’s rally was something to look forward to. It was the best way to celebrate Good Friday.

My intention was to see for myself whether he had indeed tipped the scales, cut the sacred cow, and provided the community with the hope for a better morrow.

The atmosphere was exuberant at Kamunhu shopping center. Always the hive of agitated activity; the little space behind the gigantic Spar shops provided the community with yet another opportunity to ponder on whom they will vote for.

Makoni piped the tunes of a new beginning and the crowd hummed in time with him. A new beginning means distancing himself from Zanu PF.

“When a couple exchanges the vows of marriage, the congregation is called upon to be witness to the event” he began in the vernacular, “Today, I am calling on the people of Mabvuku to bear witness to my disengagement from ZANU PF. I declared myself independent of ZANU PF on 5 February 2008.” With this Makoni dispelled rumors that he was being fronted by Mugabe in the hopes of luring the young and disenchanted back into the fold.

‘ZANU PF has failed to meet the needs of its people. It is found wanting on solutions to end the current political and economic malaise’ said Makoni. He sighted the debacle with the diesel n’anga; who took entire Ministries for a ride with her ‘promise of diesel flowing from a flat rock-bed in Chinhoyi some months ago.

Makoni did not need to remind people about the travails in Zimbabwe. Earlier in the rally, school children sung dirges on the failing education system, the appalling health delivery, the current political malaise, and indeed, the need for power in the mold of Simba.

His insistence is that the problems will be solved together with the community. Every individual counts. Whether we are to read this as a call to participatory democracy is an issue for another day. Suffice to say that it is a call that is different from the “Morgan is More!” provided by Morgan Tsvangirai and the “Rule by the Fist” as propounded by Mugabe.

It must set Mugabe’s heart thudding to imagine how his own cabinet minister can turn on him the way Simba has. Simba is not the first, and neither will he be the last. The elections may very well be the death knell on ZANU PF as a regime.

Interesting that children should recite heart wrenching poetry at Makoni’s rally. Young girls and boys decried the lack of teachers, the economic hurdles; the pain of living in a country where the leader holds on to power with an iron fist. One little girl fought back tears as she narrated a poem on what life has become for her and kin…The rally captured hearts and minds.

The MDC Mutambara faction made a good show of support with Trudy Stevenson in attendance. Democratic processes can only have true meaning in Zimbabwe if they are to be united.

Winds of change are upon Zimbabwe, and people are getting ready.

One gets a sense that there will be a lot more tolerance this time. The television station is flighting adverts from all contesting parties, and attempts are being made to provide adequate space for discussion through the same.

A Decade of Suffering in Zimbabwe: Economic Collapse and Political Repression under Robert Mugabe

[This is a message from the David Coltart Mailing List] __ Executive Summary On March 29, 2008, Zimbabwe will hold presidential and parliamentary elections. Few people believe that they will be free and fair or that Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union– Patriotic Front party will fail to return to office. That is a tragedy, because Mugabe and his cronies are chiefly responsible for an economic meltdown that has turned one of Africa’s most prosperous countries into a country with one of the lowest life expectancies in the world. Since 1994, the average life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen from 57 years to 34 years for women and from 54 years to 37 years for men. Some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and malnutrition. Half a million Zimbabweans may have died already. There is no freedom of speech or assembly in Zimbabwe, and the state has used violence to intimidate and murder its opponents. At the root of Zimbabwe’s problems is a corrupt political elite that has, with considerable international support, behaved with utter impunity for some two decades. This elite is determined to hang on to power no matter what the consequences, lest it be held to account for the genocide in Matabeleland in the early 1980s and the wholesale looting of Zimbabwe that followed the mismanaged land reform in 2000. When change comes to Zimbabwe, the nation will have to rediscover the rule of law and the sanctity of persons and property. The public discourse and the economy will have to be reopened. The new government will have to embrace a more limited idea of government and rescind legislation that makes the operation of the private sector next to impossible. Moreover, the new government will have to find a way for the people of Zimbabwe to heal the wounds caused by decades of political violence. The full article, published by the Cato Institute, is available for reading and downloading in pdf format from my website: Link to post: http://davidcoltart.com/archive/2008/385 Link to .pdf: http://davidcoltart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/dpa5.pdf

Elections

Everjoice Win

I've had it with elections. Zimbabwe has been in election mode since 1999. No fundamental change seems to come from any of it. So I am changing tactics. I have looked at everyone's manifesto for 2008 and it's all same old hot air. I am tired. But I am still going home to vote: this time for the man who will rev my engine. Yes, I am voting for a presidential candidate who I can bear to look at for five years. We have three presidential candidates, Bob, Morgan and Simba. This whole nonsense in Zimbabwe of calling the leader of a two-person party "the President" is what gets to their heads. Three years ago I parked my car outside Harvest House (MDC HQ), only to be shooed frantically away by a rather aggressive pimply youth: "Get away, that's the president's parking spot." I wondered why Bob needed yet another parking spot, but I discovered this is what they call Morgan. Similarly, Arthur Mutambara had barely led his MDC faction for five seconds when I heard a friend in his party say: "Let me talk to the president first." As another friend put it in utter frustration, when a country has three presidents and none of them can end this mess you know you are f*$%*d! But I digress, back to the line-up.

Bob

Bob is just too ancient. Despite guzzling Lucozade and obsessive exercising, he has become terribly unattractive to look at. Not that he ever was, with that little Hitlerite moustache. Saville Row suits - or is it now Shanghai flea-market row? - won't make him look better. As they often do on terribly old men who can't behave their age, the suits look oversized and ostentatious in the middle of such poverty. Around election time though, Bob dons those awful Mobutu-style shirts with his mug all over them. I will never forgive Bob for foisting this style of dress on women in his party. Somehow the tailors who make those clothes always manage to get his picture smack in the middle of a woman's ample bosom, or worse, on equally ample buttocks. Though it must be said there is something quite satisfying about squashing that face as one sits down after being forced to attend a long rally in the 37-degree heat of Muzarabani. Failed governance aside, Bob as a man is quite frightening. His tendency to bang tables like Nikita Krushchev doesn't say "come closer". Neither does his foul mouth. Seven university degrees just haven't bought him good manners. The most important reason I am not voting for Bob is the way he never acknowledges his wife in public. Notice how he often leaves Grace a few steps behind. Granted Bob was born in the days when men had to walk in front of their wives so they could protect them from lions, but now?

Morgan

Let's look at Morgan. A president should dress well, so Morgan please lose the ugly cowboy hat. Morgan just hasn't got the message that those hats are so … thuggish, so tacky. They don't do anything for us girls. They make short men look like ducks with a disability. By the time the man emerges from under that hat - after talking interminably on his cellphone - I, for one, will have lost any inclination to listen to his economic plan. Those hats breed cowboyish unilateralism; we saw it with George W, Jonathan Moyo and now Morgan. Coupled with the Papa Doc routine that Morgan and his security men have now adopted, my heart just sinks. He will arrive at a rally in a convoy of 4x4 vehicles - a statement of the party's values if ever there was one - with a dozen or so young men hanging out from open doors, wearing dark flea-market shades. Dreadfully unattractive.

These same tontons macoute will proceed to shoo the poor working masses out of the way. Even some of us who still regard him as our "Comrade Boycott", former chair of the NCA (National Constitutional Assembly), are too scared to come anywhere near the tontons. Morgan has an equally foul mouth, especially at his rallies, and in Shona. There is something quite crass about a president "shouting," as we say at home, like that. Thankfully some of Morgan's rough edges have been smoothed by a glammed-up wife. Susan looks ever so refined thanks to facial treatments from Theresa Makone, Morgan's mate's upwardly mobile wife. But, like Bob, Morgan always forgets that Susan is right beside him. Not a touch. Not a smile.

One who got away

I am so sorry Arthur dropped out of the presidential race. If nothing else the fellow knows his Pierre Cardin from his Yves St Laurent. I am sure he took the grooming and sartorial elegance module at university. Oh, and our prof can use power point! I don't think Bob can turn on a computer. Can he? Every time he goes to donate computers to schools he always stands a safe distance from the critters. Arthur so loves his laptop. Takes it everywhere. His presentations might lack substance, but they are so well accessorised his audience is always agog. Sadly there is not much electricity in Zim these days, so he has to resort to his student politics ways of shouting - too stridently. Perhaps it is a good thing Arthur has dropped out, he needs to grow up a bit. The last thing Zimbabwe needs is a Thabo Mbeki. Too much book is not good. Look at where Bob got us having "eaten so much book".

Simba

The man of the moment is Simba. I for one don't care how many gallons of Zanu PF milk he was reared on. I will ignore that his manifesto barely talks about women's rights. I just want his picture hanging in my office for the next five years. Who doesn't want to walk into a government office and be greeted by that smile? Those funky little glasses just do it for me. Arthur, please pass on to Simba the power-point skills, and I am sold. And he ate just the right amount of book. Simba speaks calmly. Diplomatically. As a president should. He acknowledges his wife, Chipo. Since that day he lovingly held her hand as he went into Parliament to present his first budget as minister of finance, I just knew this man was going to go far. At his campaign launch the message I got was, this is my partner and we share a life.

My big problem with Simba is his so-called backers, who love the Morgan-like big hats. Their looks and their politics just scare us girls off. Lose the men with the hats and big tummies, they are bad for your image and your future, Simba. On the plus side Simba has so far eschewed the convoys and the insignia with his visage and other undesirable paraphernalia on women's anatomy. Long may it stay this way. Ideologically, the men on that ballot paper are interchangeable. So technically, Bob has nothing to be afraid of. There is no regime change in the offing, just a photo change. I am voting for the man whose looks and habits I can live with for the next five years. At least when he messes up, I have set the political bar so low it won't matter. After 27 years of the ugly and ancient one, give me a younger and better-looking man, in a PINK shirt. Got ticket, will vot

POLICE BLOCK: CHRA”MEET THE CANDIDATE SERIES”

POLICE BLOCK: CHRA”MEET THE CANDIDATE SERIES”

 

19 March 2008

 

The Combined Harare Residents wishes to advise residents in the southern part of Harare that the Officer commanding Southerton Police district has denied them clearances to hold the “meet the candidate public meetings”. The Association has thus been incapacitated and unlawfully prevented from affording residents a platform to meet their potential leaders and engage them on manifestos. The refusal to grant clearances is a direct assault to democracy and the association’s right to freedom of assembly, freedom of association and expression.

 

The Police allege that CHRA intends to use these platforms to motivate residents to be violent should the opposition loose the elections. They also allege that they do not have sufficient manpower for political rallies and civic programs. They urged the Association to motivate its members to attend party political platforms if they want to listen to manifestoes. CHRA maintains its non-partisan stance and would like to engage contesting candidates on their manifestos in neutral platforms.

 

The refusal by the police to grant clearance is thus an assault to our civic duty to enhance resident’s participations in matters of local governance. It is abuse of power by the police bent on creating chaos in the elections and subverting the will of the people. The new delimitations have created a lot of uncertainty and the Zimbabwe Election Commission has not done enough voter educations. The Association thus uses these platforms to educate residents on how to vote and address questions on ward boundaries.

                       

The Association has been invited to the inter-party political dialogue to negotiate on the holding of rallies and political meetings. It is hoped that the Association will be allowed to continue with its series. We are aware of the political allegiance of the police and note their evident timid ness and fear in affording residents platforms to meet other candidates from various political parties.  The Association however commends other officers of the police who have granted clearances for public meetings in other areas.

 

Public meetings have been held in Mount Pleasant , Mabvuku and other northern parts of Harare . Residents in these areas have welcomed these meetings and have found them educative especially on matters to do with ward boundaries. This years Municipal elections are different form the past. The Mayor is not chosen directly by the people but by the college of councilors instead. It is important for residents to vote councilors with integrity and a proven track record of community development as these are potential Mayoral candidates for the City.  

 

We demand our Civic space

Remember your councilor is a potential Mayor

 

“CHRA for enhanced civic participation in local governance”

 

Farai Barnabas Mangodza

Chief Executive Officer

Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)

145 Robert Mugabe Way

Exploration House, Third Floor

Harare

ceo@chra.co.zw

www.chra.co.zw

 Landline: 00263- 4- 705114

 

Contacts: Mobile : 0912638401, 011443578, 011862012 or email info@chra.co.zw, programs@chra.co.zw andadmin@chra.co.zw

Rule them for life - Gadaffi urges Museveni

Riding in a taxi from Entebbe to Kampala, I was surprised to see us pulling to the side to allow three sets of motorcades to pass. It was not like seeing Mugabe's motorcade back home; people in the streets did not freeze, the taxi driver certainly did not stop talking, nor did the patrol car just in front of us blare out "get out of the road, voetsak!" 

Gaddafi is in town, and the city is abuzz. He has shown his pechant for longevity and struggle by encouraging Museveni to rule for life if people still want him. He has also urged the West to leave Mugabe to run elections the way he wants. 

There is a disease in Africa that sees old horses backing each other right to the finish line. The finish line is not the boiling pot where they will be churned into glue to bind the nations together; no. The finish line is a long trail of trials for brutal murders, hangings, rapes, thievery and corruption. Their finish line is a hoard of disgrace where, like the old donkey which dies by the road side, their shame will be strewn out in the road for people to decry. 

If and when people in Uganda want a new leader, they should be able to choose one. Museveni should leave the office for another to take up. But will he, a fourth term is in sight. The prospects are too high. 

Zimbabwe faces the same element. Mugabe looks at the end of march as a reivigoration of his ageing campaign. Strike fear and spread trauma in the hearts of the electorate, and you are guaranteed another term in office. 

I shudder to think what will happen to Africa.

Legitimisation and Politics; Tsvangirai Speaks

Violet Gonda held an interview with Presidential hopeful, Morgan Tsvangirai, and the main question was why MDC Tsvangirai was participating in a "flawed" election in the first place. 

When we backtrack on this issue, we go to the time that the MDC split on whether to participate in Senatorial elections, or not. The view from him then was that the voting public did not want to legitimize the current regime by acceding to a political manipulation of the country's legislative procedures. 

Zimdaily quotes Morgan as saying, 

""Well we are past the debate against participation and I want to say that, in our view we are in a struggle. We are in a democratic struggle and any struggle has various fazes and various events and this election is just one of those events in the democratic struggle.""

Shall we read this as the proverbial Damascan experience for a faction that should realize that the best way to make any recognizable effort might just be through the electoral and parliamentary processes? I wonder if things could not have turned for the better if this realization was made early on, and the "struggle" for what it is worth, was carried out right there when people were baying for the regime's blood. 

Perhaps a coalition of all the democratic forces currently vying for an end to the present regime would have sounded a stronger knell to the ZANU PF infrastructure than claims of growth coming in at the end of time. 

I feel there is need for his party to say more about the other areas of the country's bleeding economy. 

Sweeping statements on how to curb an inflation running havoc at 150000% will not cut it. In the interview, he claims that there are going to be a series of measures put in place to ensure that people benefit. He states that no subsidies will be provided, because they benefit the rich at the expense of the poor; that corruption will not be easy to follow up on, because statistically a former government's misdeeds are difficult to ascertin, and in this regard, we might as well 'forget" these misdeeds and start on a fresh page...

he says 

Unfortunately it's not something that you can outline as a general policy to say those who have benefited from the system in a corrupt way should pay for it because you don't know how much and you don't know the amount, the extent to which the country has been compromised. I think that unless you have got the facts, you cannot make a general policy because you might find that this might just be rumours and at the end of the day when you make an analysis you are not be able to establish how far the country has been compromised.

Statements like these make me afraid. In fact, I am very afraid at the thought of how the marginalized will feel when put a "clean" slate on the table and begin to talk of change. No chance can come without a proper acknowledgement of the problems people are facing, at whose hands they have come, and what impact this has had on our community. Tell all this to the teacher attempting to make an honest living in Dottito! 

There are other issues Morgan raises, but I have to leave you now and work. I can tell you now that no regime living will be legitimized by staying aloof, boycotting and crying foul. When Man eats dog, he goes for the most virulent! 

Click here for the full ZimDaily story and comments

Revolution ,or Rebellion?

The show of a clenched fist by ZANU PF is a strong signal of fight and strife. Potent during the days of he liberation struggle, the clenched fist showed rabid defance to a rogue regime which threatened the very social and moral fabric of the people in the country. 

Upon gaining independence the clenched fist has remained very much a strong signal. Intolerant to divergent views, hard and crushing on public policy, determined as ever to define who the enemy is and what the people should never dare support. 

It has been the same clenched fist that has bred a harsh state media that uses filthy imagery to denigrate any opposition memeber. In fact, a state media that goes to the extent of showing explicit images of a clergyman in order to defile not only his standing, but his ideals and his church's standing. 

We have been in a rebellion, not a revolution, against the west and its efforts at establishing control on Zimbabwe since Independence. In all this time, government has not recognised the need to establish social freedom and to evolve the way we regard opposition, state vs. govt functions, and on and on. 

We need to look at an electoral process that knowledges the power of the rebellion and the fruits it brought, while emphasizing the need for a revolution to change mindsets of the same. 

People should be voting for a new outlook in Zimbabwean politics, an outlook that seeks to make harmony with the forces that surround the country, not one that assumes that citizens will never hace a say in all they do. 

Confronting the real challenges in Zimbabwean Politics

The weekend saw important campaigns being carried out in Bulawayo and Gweru. New Zimbabwe reports that Tsvangirai had "30000" supporters in Bulawayo, and has pictures to prove it.

 

Simba Makoni amassed at least 8000 supporters in Gweru, and according to eyewitness accounts, the visit was well worth the effort on his part. 

Two parties coming out in full force for the people to choose. Two ideologies offering change to the Zimbabwean public. 

People are brought once again to the selection platform, where they should decide whether they sink or swim. Morgan Tsvangirai came atop the raging horse of people's discontent in 2000. Apart from preying on the anger and despair of the multitudes, it appears little else has been solved. 

Many will say they were better off in 2000 than they are now, as equally others would attest they were much more liberal before 1980. Do we need to be constantly reminded of our anger and despair so that we vote with our tummies, and not with reason? 

One feels the greed inherent in MDC's campaign through the way it wants to keep on hogging the limelight. Tsvangirai is creating a breed of supporters who will not be tolerant to other forces that may be essential in the growth and development of the country. Tis this, this greed, this cry and hunger for control, that we need to check before all is lost. 

Simba Makoni is and will continue to be touted as what the doctor ordered. His acknowledgement of the existence of other forces of good will is a realization that Zimbabwe will not go it alone. 

Election campaigners need to wake up to the fact that the electorate is going to play a deciding role. Gone are the days when we were cowered into showing support. The time for growth, freedom, development, is now! 

Zimbabwe Gears For Elections

The dates are coming closer and closer as Zimbabwe prepares for its elections. Will we follow expected rules and regulations governing elections? 

I don't know. Having observed elections in Highfield in 2004, ( should be, I forget now) ZANU PF has a way with intimidation that makes many people cower. Who would want to be seen at the queue when it is pretty obvious that you are not going to vote for ZANU PF and that the rest of the people in the queue are aware of the fact. 

Below, MP T Stevenson reminds voters about provisions in the Electoral Act for a free and fair electoral Process. 

...............................................................................

It is useful for the general public to know what is not allowed during an election campaign and election.  If you become aware of any such conduct, please contact your candidate or lawyer or ZEC, or all three.  It sounds like some candidates and campaign teams are already guilty - check it out!

Please pass this information on to others, far and wide. Thank you.

Trudy Stevenson MP

_____________________________________________________

 

PROHIBITED CONDUCT - ELECTORAL ACT

 

133B Intimidation

This involves force or threat – fine up to level 14 or 2 years imprisonment or both.

 

133C  Preventing political party or candidate from campaigning

Fine up to level 10 or 5 years prison or both.

 

133D Theft or destruction of voter identification

Fine up to level 6 or 1 year imprisonment or both.

 

136 Bribery

Vote-buying: fine up to level 7 or 2 years imprisonment or both.

 

137 Personation

Voting twice, or in place of another person or when not entitled: Fine up to level 7 or 2 years prison or both.

 

138 Additional Penalties for corrupt practices

Any person convicted of corrupt practice is also declared incapable of voting or filling public office for 5 years.

 

 .................................

Code of Conduct - Fourth Schedule

 

No political party, candidate, member or supporter may –

a)      Harm or threaten to harm others participating in an election;

b)      Use language or act in a way that may provoke violence or intimidation;

c)      Publish false or defamatory allegations about a party, its candidates, representatives or members;

d)      Discriminate on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, class or religion in connection with an election or political party;

e)      Damage or deface property, including the election posters, placards, banners and other election material of another party or candidate;

f)        Bar or inhibit access to meetings or to voters for the purpose of election campaigning;

g)      Carry or display weapons at political meetings or at matches, demonstrations, rallies or other public political events;

h)      Bribe or threaten a voter to vote for a particular candidate;

i)        Force a voter to reveal the identity of the candidate voted for;

j)        Disrupt the work of election officials at a polling or counting centre;

k)      Campaign or display campaign material within 300 m of a polling station or counting centre.

MDC Bennett Slams Makoni

The question of Simba Makoni coming onto the playing field has raised a lot of debate. In this three part presentation, we look at two articles from the MDC factions over what his role in bringing change in Zimbabwe. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: The Cape Argus

Attention: The Editor Mr. C. Whitfield

MDC Bennett: Slam Makoni

Sirs,

Unfortunately when Peta Thornycroft allows her personal animosity towards my political party and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai to completely distort objective comment, the valued integrity of the Independent Group of Newspapers is jeopardized.

On Sunday 10th February, this lack of objectivity was there for all to see. Pointedly in the Sunday Times a sober, unemotional assessment of the current crisis in Zimbabwe was presented in a brilliantly balanced article written by a brave group of Zimbabwean non-aligned activists.

Independent Paper Group by contrast, thrust forward the discredited notion that our party should throw in the towel in favour of Simba Makoni and abdicate our responsibility to our supporters.

By your own admission Makoni has been a loyal, long standing member of Zanu-PF's politburo. His record is there for all who care to see. He was silent at the time of Gukurahundi and his overall backers are all the key perpetrators of that massacre. He was complicit and silent at the time rampaging mobs ran through our High Court rendering the rule of law obsolete. He was silent when the Daily News was shut down and the owners and employees were hounded and humiliated. Makoni even sat in on political discussions and never once raised his voice when defenceless Zimbabweans were rendered homeless, in that shameless act of cruelty Operation Murambatsvina. He was silent when business leaders were assaulted and small businesses bankrupted through price controls.

The time for opportunism is not now. The MDC and their people have suffered the brunt of the same regime that through a defend power project of which Makoni was part of, have made the environment ripe for the pickings, as every man and his dog wants change. Makoni and his own are seeking a soft landing for ill gotten gains and human rights abuses, and are now attempting to believe in a need for change.

Our party have one message for Zimbabweans. They know very well which political party's leaders have suffered with the people in our quest to rid Zimbabwe of Zanu-PF. They have full knowledge of the marginalisation and victimisation and the need for a national integration where one day we can all say an Ndebele can be president. The MDC and its leaders have been murdered, tortured and imprisoned and yet would still win the support of the majority of Zimbabweans in a genuinely free vote. If that is not self evident, and Zanu-PF/ Makoni are confident of victory why do they refuse to implement the SADC, Mauritian declaration, of norms and standards?

Why do Zanu-PF/ Makoni refuse to allow me to return to Zimbabwe, when everyone knows that a prerequisite for the resolution of the South African political crisis was amnesty for a range of politicians such as the late Joe Slovo, Chris Hani etc? Rigged elections remain rigged elections. The Zimbabwe crisis will only be resolved when genuinely free and fair elections Rigged elections remain rigged elections. The Zimbabwe crisis will only be resolved when genuinely free and fair elections are held and are confirmed as such by a credible body of international observers.

Yours sincerely,

Roy Bennett

David Coltart On Simba Makoni

[This is a message from the David Coltart Mailing List] __ 

The Editor

Cape Argus,

Attention: Mr Chris Whitfield

Dear Sir,

I have read the letter published in the Cape Argus on the 17th February 2008 written by my friend and colleague Roy Bennett in which he accused Zimbabwean Presidential candidate Simba Makoni of complicity in various crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Mugabe regime because of his association with Zanu PF.

Both Roy Bennett and I served in the BSAP, the Rhodesian Police force, in the 1970s during the civil war fought by ZANLA and ZIPRA against the Rhodesian Front government. Whilst there were undoubtedly atrocities committed by the guerrilla armies, the BSAP played a major role in maintaining white minority rule and during the course of the war torture was also systematically used by the BSAP against captured guerrillas and their supporters.

Despite the fact that we served in the BSAP, we were both elected to Parliament in 2000 by an overwhelmingly black electorate who were prepared to forgive us for the fact that we were members of an institution which had prolonged white minority rule and the oppression of black people. I have always been humbled by the deep reservoir of forgiveness and goodwill shown towards me by black Zimbabweans, who were prepared to look beyond my past and who were prepared to judge me on my more recent record.

Likewise the miracle that unfolded in South Africa in the early 1990s occurred because Nelson Mandela and the ANC were prepared to forgive the National Party and leaders like F.W. De Klerk for their role in apartheid. Much of that spirit of forgiveness stemmed from the fact that Mr de Klerk was prepared to humble himself by giving up the trappings of power and to turn away from the evil past of apartheid. The combination of the spirit of forgiveness, on the one hand, and the turning away from evil, on the other, contributed greatly to the healing that took place in South Africa in the 1990s.

Zimbabwe is in a similar place of distress as South Africa was in 1990. Our problems are so grave and seemingly intractable that we will not be able to save our land unless all responsible and patriotic Zimbabweans display a similar spirit of forgiveness and turning away from evil.

It is in that context that Roy Bennett's attack on Simba Makoni is so unfortunate. He accuses Makoni of being complicit in the Gukurahundi genocide, the Murambatsvina atrocity and other human rights violations, through his silence. He blames Makoni for the fact that he is unable to return from exile and for the fact that SADC norms and conditions have not been implemented in Zimbabwe.

What is undeniable is that Simba Makoni has been in Zanu PF since independence but that alone does not make him complicit. In my capacity as Director of the Bulawayo Legal Projects Centre in the 1980s and 1990s I played a leading role in the investigation and reporting of the Gukurahundi genocide which culminated in the publication in 1997 of the report "Breaking the Silence" by our parent organisation the Legal Resources Foundation. Simba Makoni was never implicated in the Gukurahundi. Indeed our investigations revealed that it was perpetrated by a relatively small cabal around Robert Mugabe. Many even in the military itself did not know exactly what was planned and what happened.

As regards Murambatsvina the facts are that Makoni resigned, in an unprecedented and brave act, from cabinet in 2002, well before Murambatsvina took place. We also know that the reason he resigned was because he disagreed with a host of Zanu PF policies. We also know that he has fought a lone battle within the Politburo trying to reform Zanu PF from within. In the past year he has spoken out publicly against Zanu PF's abuses including the shocking torture of Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders in March last year.

We may criticise him for staying within Zanu PF for so long but it is an unjustified cut to say that he has agreed with all that has happened in Zimbabwe since independence. Even if I am wrong in my assessment of Makoni's past, what we know for certain now is that he has broken from Zanu PF in an astonishingly brave move. His manifesto indicates that he stands for the right things, including national reconciliation and a new democratic constitution.

In my view this courageous move should be supported, not criticised. Now is the time for us all to display the same degree of forgiveness afforded Roy Bennett and me by black Zimbabweans. The quid pro quo is that Simba Makoni must show that this is a genuine turning away from Zanu PF's evil past - but I think he has already demonstrated that through his actions and words of the last few weeks.

Now is also the time for all patriotic Zimbabweans to work together to bring Robert Mugabe's ruinous and brutal dictatorship to an end.

Yours sincerely,

David Coltart MP

MDC

Bulawayo

Zimbabwe

-- 

If you would like to leave a public response to this mailing, please visit my website and leave a comment. I greatly appreciate getting your feedback, even when it is critical, as it helps me understand the issues I need to confront.

Email: list@davidcoltart.com Website (with images): www.davidcoltart.com RSS feed: http://davidcoltart.com/feed/

You may AUTOMATICALLY unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following link:

http://www.davidcoltart.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/u/dclist/

If the above web address doesn't work by simply clicking on it, then make sure that you have copied the entire address and pasted it into your web browser. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism.

If you're still having trouble, or would like me to manage your subscription manualy, please contact the list administrator at: list@davidcoltart.com

Why I did not write

There are many winds that blow across the pale blue skies. Winds of hope, winds of change, winds of disillusion; winds of heightened expectation. 

The latter wind ferretted my enclave and made me wait. I had to wait and see how things were happening in Zimbabwe. This to give Simba Makoni enough time to make sense to the Zimbabwean community, Mugabe to start insulting kith and kin, and Morgan to begin drumming the same tune as the aged leader. 

In my quietness I have appreciated the move by AGO Mutambara and his faction, and I continue to rally behind the call for a truly democratic dispensation to this day.  Expressions of solidarity in a trying environment, particularly challenging how things are, make for greater reading and concern. 

Roy Bennett was in the news the other day,  vying to put as much mud in Makoni's campaign. Glad for the response by David Coltart. We do not need to rewrite history in order to demonise people...

Oh I am writing again!