One of the practical considerations will be how will Zimbabwe manage to attend meetings in the EU given the number of travel restrictions against Mugabe’s government because of his government’s disregard for human rights. And how did Zimbabwe’s UN ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku respond to this problem? Like this: “What has sustainable development to do with human rights?”

Frustrated that the Australian cricket team has succumbed to political pressure and cancelled their September trip to Zimbabwe Bev at Kubatana contemplates the good that could have come out of the tour:

Australians might not care about this, but it’s important to review what is the best overall strategy rather than fall back on the knee-jerk call for a boycott.

So then, what to do?

If the Australian cricket team is considering a boycott, then they have agreed that politics and sport can and do mix. So perhaps it would be more worthwhile for the Australian cricket team to tour Zimbabwe: and Do Good whilst they are here rather than their usual cricket, huntin’ and fishin’ fun.

Maybe individual players can meet with activists who have been abused as a show of support and respect? Or they can visit Harare’s government hospitals and check out the conditions that Zimbabweans seeking medical treatment have to experience. Or they can deliver a petition to the Minister of Sport & Culture asking for the rights of Zimbabweans to be respected.

Meanwhile The Bearded Man is furious about the hardly surprising reality that while the rest of the country goes with out electricity due to recently introduced loadshedding, the president and other high ranking officials in government never have to go without electricity.

The sooner that politicians realise that they were selected by the voting public and therefore are servants of the people, and not the other way around - the better.

Why should Mugabe live in a false environment? Why not endure the daily problems that the normal people of Zimbabwe have to face? Why be given the special treatment?

If he doesn't have to go through the same experiences, how can he relate to his people?

Oh. Sorry. That's right - he cares not one iota for his people, preferring to live in luxury and have people falling over themselves to sate him. He is a self-obsessed, egoist with some serious paranoia coupled together with a self-importance that is absurd in its manifestation.

Finally, Zimbabwe: Outpost of Tyranny in a post titled “Western Journalists, Whether Traveling Undercover, or Observing from their Johannesburg Perches, Are Missing the Story in Zimbabwe, as they Perpetuate Myths, and Carry Water for Mugabe. (Sub-title: ‘Majoring on the Minors and Minoring on the Majors.')” offers this sharp critique of Western journalist's pseudo reporting on Zimbabwe from the comfort of South Africa:

these reporters are missing the big story, that of the Mugabe regime's meticulously calculated and brutally (and sadistically) executed campaign, underway since March 11th, to wipe out the pro-democracy civil society and political movement, they are also contributing to perpetuating the myth–a myth promulgated by Mugabe and the ZANU-PF thugs themselves–that the “real story” is the supposed disunion within the opposition MDC, and their supposed propensity for violence.

In his last missive from Zimbabwe, on which we did not blog last week, the illicit reporter from the Economist carries Mugabe's water for him when he subtitles his series “our online reporter finds the opposition in disarray,” without pointing out that that opposition has been the object since March 11th of a savage Mugabe-orchestrated reign of terror that has resulted in thousands of persons being beaten, hundreds being arrested and hospitalized following torture, and at least 2 being killed.

Remember Snuki Zakalala, the Managing Director of SABC News and Current Affairs? The guy who has a problem with voices critical of Mugabe and Zanu PF policies..? Snuki Zakalala is the man who implemented an informal policy at the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) to blacklist several highly credible commentators on the crisis in Zimbabwe, including Archbishop Pius Ncube, Moeletsi Mbeki, Trevor Ncube and Elinor Sisulu. This was an action that would have resulted in South Africans being deprived of full coverage of events in our country.

Well, this same man announced last week that the SABC would be opening a bureau in Zimbabwe. He commented, “We felt that it is important to have a presence here so that we cover the true Zimbabwean story”. Note the inclusion of the word ‘true‘, which in itself implies that the news currently coming out of Zimbabwe is a lie.

SW Radio Africa's transmission into Zimbabwe are currently being interfered with by the Zimbabwean government. Apparently, progressive South Africa deems it fit to follow in the repressive footsteps of their neighbors to the north. So much for press freedom in South Africa.

Power to the people protest

The famous Women of Zimbabwe Arize (WOZA) held an unannounced “Power to the people” sit in protest at the local offices of power utility Zimbabwe Electric Supply Authority (ZESA):

WOZA members assembled at eight different ZESA offices - Pumula, Mpopoma, Entumbane, Tshabalala, Magwegwe, Nkulumane, Nketa 6 and Luveve – holding simultaneous ‘tough love’ protests. Over 500 members from 16 different areas of Bulawayo took part in the community-level protests.

The protests at Magwegwe, Entumbane, Nketa 6 and Mpopoma took place without incident and the participants were able to disperse before police arrived. At Pumula, approximately 70 members as they were dispersing (the police station is next door to the ZESA office.) They were taken to Pumula Police Station before being transferred to Bulawayo Central Station.

At Luveve, members had protested and were beginning to disperse when police arrested people some distance away from the ZESA office, as they were catching transport back to their homes. Approximately 20 people are being held at Luveve Police Station.

At Nkulumane, nine people were arrested at the ZESA offices and are being held at Tshabalala Police station. Lawyers have been called and are trying to get access to those arrested.

The protests signify the launch of the ‘power to the people’ by March 2008 campaign. Today’s protests began with members queuing up as the offices made to open. They then marched in and handed over protest notes and either sat or stood inside and outside the offices until addressed.

In Luveve and Entumbane, officials attempted to divert the protesters by saying someone was coming to address them whilst making hasty calls to the police station. In Nkulumane, nine members were loaded into a cream Nissan pick-up, registration 846-101 Z by plain-clothed officers.

Those who were arrested, some of them with babies, were tortured and denied access to their lawyers while in police custody:

Three of the 56 members arrested in Harare on Monday have been hospitalised following the beatings they received in custody by Law and Order officers in Harare Central Police Station. Almost all of the 56 required medical treatment. The baby received medical attention but was not hospitalised. It also appears that some injuries were received when one of officers involved walked all over the members as they were lying face down on the floor.

Don't come back to Zimbabwe, traveling on a “chicken bus”

Taurai Maduna at Kubatana relates the pressure that Zimbabwean young professionals face to leave the country:

I’ve just received a reply to an email I sent to a friend informing them that I had been offered a fellowship to study at the prestigious Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC).

All he said was good luck in your studies and don’t come back until there is CHANGE. He added ‘find something else to do there to kill time’.

I just laughed off his suggestion and I wondered how do you kill time in Amsterdam after you have over stayed?

In June last year, I spent a week in Amsterdam where I was taking part in a seminar called Expression Under Repression organised by Hivos. Before my return home, I took a stroll in the city famous for it’s ‘red light district’. I met a guy from Sierra Leone, at first I thought he wanted to con me, but then I realised he was just trying to be friendly.

He told me about his wife and three kids and how he was struggling to get his asylum papers in order. He said his main challenge was the Dutch language as he was supposed to be fluent if he was to pass the integration test. This guy had been there for over four years.

My ‘guide’ then asked me if I was planning to return to Zimbabwe. I told him yes, I’m going back. He was dejected probably wondering how stupid I was not to stay.

Meanwhile Natasha, who took an urgent trip on a “chicken bus”, describes the experience:

From the back of the bus a loud, desperate voice started singing something that sounded gospel. The voice belonged to a disheveled blind woman being led by a similar looking girl most certainly less than 10 years old. The two were struggling to make their way to the front of the bus, begging each passenger for money.

When the pair got to me, I heard the young girl whisper to her mother, “apa pane murungu, ndotaura sei?”- translated loosely - “here is a white person, how do I communicate with her?” I got offended not at being called white, but at her failure to realize I was just a light skinned person who is one of them. While I’m better dressed, the fact that I was also in this bus that’s cheap indicates that I’m also struggling, just like them.

Slowly I began to subconsciously direct my anger elsewhere: towards the forces that have reduced most of our people to dirty beggars; towards the egotistical few that have enriched themselves and destroyed our economy making sure everyone else lives below the poverty datum line. I looked around the bus and thought - these are the real Zimbabweans, and among them were the real freedom fighters who ought to be the ones crying out - “We fought for this country!” Yet they are the very ones who occupy the bottom rung of society.

Threats by Western Universities under scrutiny

In “Mugabe, the West, and 'servile' Zimbabweans,” Zimpundit scrutinizes the integrity of threats by western universities to rescind Mugabe's honorary degrees:

What doesn't make sense is for people, you know who you are, who now claim to have always seen through Mugabe's facade yet they said nothing when he was celebrated as Africa's greatest statesman through the 80's and 90's, to now want to distance themselves from any indication that they too, where once enamored by him.

It will always remain a mystery to me exactly what grounds these pseudo-critics of Mugabe base their attacks on him, and even worse on people like myself who are only exercising our prerogative when we say this: Fact; the quality of life of many of my countrymen improved drastically immediately after independence in 1980. Besides if they were really about democracy and freedom of expression, who are they to deny the opinion held my many Zimbabweans? Isn't that what democracy is all about; “E Pluribus Unum.”

Therefore, all of the rich people, government officials, and banks are putting their money into stocks so that it doesn't lose value. Demand is high, so the price is too.

The everyday people of Zimbabwe don't see any benefit to this, though. Their masters may not see it for much longer either. Stock prices on the index are obviously inflated and unsustainable. It's only a matter of time before it comes crashing down, taking down many in its spiral.

Still on the subject of the select few in Zimbabwe, Zimpundit is conflicted about whether Zimbabweans in the diaspora should support calls for the deportation of the children of government officials who are living affluent lives on college campuses and in cities in the west. It goes without saying that most if not all of these children are direct or indirect beneficiaries of the torrid situation faced by struggling tax paying Zimbabweans. The fact that the Zimbabwean government has been openly public with their anti-west rhetoric doesn't help the situation much. Zimpundit wants to know:

Should this be thing that we as Zimbabweans be working at? Or do we have better things invest our energies into?

Just weeks after one of the bloodiest weekends in the history of Zimbabwe, the Save Zimbabwe coalition shifted their attention to Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, this last weekend. Save Zimbabwe, the umbrella body of civic organizations in Zimbabwe, is the same group that was behind the fateful Highfield prayer meeting which was brutally quashed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police. This is Zimbabwe has been following developments surrounding the prayer meeting. Ever the skeptic, The Bearded Man comments thus on relative tranquility surrounding the Bulawayo prayer meeting,

Wonders will never cease!

It makes such a difference to hear that a prayer meeting was allowed to proceed and that the situation did not deteriorate into violence, beating, arrests and a repeat of the orgy of oppression we saw last month.

This does not mean that the ruling party have done with the beatings etc, but that for some reason they saw reason and long may that continue

Finally, Dennis Nyandoro at Kubatana Blogs chronicles how some opportunists are exploiting the hyper inflationary environment to gauge people who are suspected to have money

Yesterday I went to the shops together with my wife, and when we were checking in different shops and comparing prices I met my young brother with his wife also doing the same thing. Most people think we are twins but we are not, the only difference is that I wear spectacles and my young brother doesn’t.

Anyway the four of us holding our plastic bags walked around the shop buildings rubbing shoulders with vendors displaying their wares of tomatoes, onions, potatoes etc.

My young brother had bought a packet of Chimombe fresh milk for Z$5,000 from a vendor who had packs under his little table - one that is easy to carry when being chased by the police. As I approached the vendor he greeted me with a loud voice: “Aah murungu auya” meaning someone with money. All because of the spectacles.

Then I asked how much a packet of Chimombe was, and guess what? “Only Z$6,000!” he said smiling. But before I handed over the money my young brother quickly asked the vendor why he was charging me more than what he had sold it to him for. The vendor looked at my young brother with bloodshot eyes trying to stop him from telling me the right price.

All of last week, popular group blog This is Zimbabwe was the guest blog featured on Sky News‘ Insider Blog. In their introduction to the week long feature, Sky News explains why Zimbabwean bloggers are a critical source of information thus;

What is life is like in a country where any sign of dissent or defiance to the Government can result in beatings or jail? Where media is either state-owned or regulated? And where blogging is dangerous.

All this week the Sky News Insider Blog comes from inside Zimbabwe - where activists hoping for democracy are beaten or killed; where HIV/AIDS is rife; where life expectancy is low.

Many of Zimbabwe's bloggers are living the experience that the rest of the world only hears about.

In this article titled Bloggers turn up heat on Zimbabwe, the BBC takes notice of a variety of perspectives on the Zimbabwean crisis coming from the country's bloggers. Another Zimbabwean blogger, Zimpundit was interviewed by the BBC, and made several appearances on their World update program.

Angry about South Africa's complicit role in the prevailing crisis in the country, the aforementioned This is Zimbabwe have posted this telling cartoon following the appointment of Thabo Mbeki as the mediator of Zimbabwe crisis.

At Kubatana blogs, this post titled “Under the cover of darkness,” describes the reality on the ground in Zimbabwe yesterday

Zimbabweans who ventured out of home this Sunday morning will have been greeted by the front page news in The Standard of more officially sanctioned violence by members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP).

What they wouldn’t know at this juncture is that all 9 detainees bludgeoned whilst in police custody and ordered off to hospital by the presiding magistrate, were last night abducted around 11pm from their hospital beds. An army doctor and a clutch of men in the ubiquitous blue uniforms of youth militia forced the injured into prison garb and dragged them off to destinations not known at this stage. Why? Under what authority were they acting?

Ostensibly our law enforcement agents are trying to bring the perpetrators of a series of petrol bombing incidents to book. They must do this at 11pm at night?

In a normal democracy, there is a separation of powers to ensure that no single arm of governance overreaches its authority. In a normal democracy the police would be out of line. But here they have been given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to beat Zimbabwe’s citizens into submission.

Now, according to the public face presented by SADC’s leaders, Zimbabwe’s democracy is functioning within the norms set by the region.

Zimbabwe:Outpost of Tyranny has a post about a motion introduced in the U.S. congress condemning Zimbabwe.

The bearded man posts multiple updates everyday.

Zimbabwe's state owned media only gave the violence and police brutality cursory mention all the while blaming the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Frustrated by this, Kubatana Blogs wondered:

The media in Zimbabwe is owned and operated by the Mugabe regime. So Sunday’s aftermath, aka how the events are being portrayed, is in the hands of the State. Zimbabweans, since last night, are being force fed a diet of MDC thuggery, non-attendance and opposition violence.

This makes me wonder when the pro-democracy movement will get its act together in terms of creating its own robust media and information response unit. The majority of Zimbabweans don’t get satellite tv so Zimbabwe’s prominence on the BBC last night is neither here nor there for those who want to get the real story.

This man, Gift Tandare, was killed by Zimbabwe's police during skirmishes before the rally. On top of that, mourners were shot at his funeral a few days later. Now there are reports that Gift's family has been forced to exhume his body as the police took it away from them. In her ode to Gift posted on Black Looks, Isabella Matambanadzo observes:

He was on his way to a prayer meeting. He was committed to joining other Christians in collective worship for some respite from the political and economic problems facing his country. His crime: being an activist for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC. Rest in Peace Gift Tandare. Zorora Murugare.

For the first time since the formation of the MDC seven years ago, Morgan Tsvangirai, the party's founding leader was the victim of brutal attempt on his life. Quoting an eyewitness account of Tsvangirai's beating, Zimpundit described the beating thus;

A crack Commando unit based at the army’s Cranborne Barracks in Harare was responsible for the brutal torture of Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders on Sunday, according to a police officer who witnessed the assault.

The police officer, who is based at Machipisa Police Station in Highfield suburb, said Tsvangirai and the other opposition leaders were tortured for close to two hours by drugged soldiers disguised as police officers.

In an interview with ZimOnline on Tuesday, the police officer who cannot be named for security reasons, said: “I have been in the police force for three years, and I have been involved in the assault of suspects.

“But what I saw on Sunday was not assault. It was attempted murder, especially on Tsvangirai, Madhuku and Kwinjeh (Grace, the MDC deputy secretary for international affairs)”

Tsvangirai fainted three times during the murderous assault.

Nearly a week later, a frail Tsvangirai was discharged from hospital and is recuperating at home. Another first was seen in the aftermath of the arrest and torture of the MDC leadership; leaders of the splintered party's two factions were seen for the first time since the party's split in 2005 showing overtures of opposing the Mugabe regime as a united front,

It appeared most of the opposition supporters wished the solidarity and the unity of their leaders in court yesterday could be transferred outside the courtroom and the prison walls. They appeared to say the two would do the nation a lot of good if they could forge a formidable unit outside the courtroom by making sure there is one united MDC.

Twice, Tsvangirai failed to sit up. Twice, Mutambara, who appeared not to have been seriously assaulted, helped him, patting his shoulder for encouragement.

More than twice, the two exchanged whispers and ended up smiling and shaking hands.

If only it could be more than a courtroom gesture, the smiles from onlookers in the courtroom seemed to suggest.

In the ancillary discussion that has developed in the blogosphere Mugabe has not only been villified for his inhumane treatment of his subjects, legitimate questions about Mugabe's place in history and legitimacy of post colonial Africa have been posed in posts like this one by Chippla,

Zimbabwe could rightly be viewed as a textbook case of all that could possibly go wrong when a freedom fighter mutates into a despot. While this Wikipedia article states that the Zimbabwean economy shrunk by 4.7% in 2006, a newsclip on Al Jazeera English television indicates that the Zimbabwean economy could expect to shrink by roughly 7.7% this year. Amidst the turmoil of political and economic uncertainty, Robert Mugabe sits tight in Harare clearing himself of any blame for what is currently going on.

Mugabe, it seems, couldn't give a damn about Zimbabweans. He is only interested in power. A onetime hero, it appears, will in all likelihood be confined to the pages of history befitting of tyrants and malevolent dictators. Yet the ultimate tragedy is this: why does Mugabe, in falling from grace to despondency, take the entire Zimbabwean nation down with him. Why?

For much more on Zimbabwean police brutality visit This is Zimbabwe, Kubatana blogs. and SW Radio Africa.

The situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated sharply in the past few days. The government has imposed a ban on public meetings, the strikes are continuing with the State run hospitals now completely paralysed, Doctors and Nurses refuse to go back to work. The Universities are due to open on Monday but staff is on strike and there are no signs of compromise. Students plan to join the strike on Monday in support of their lecturers and demanding attention to the stark conditions under which they are living. The ZCTU has announced a national strike in a month’s time and the State Security Minister has threatened them with dire action.

Now a form of curfew is being imposed on the high-density townships across the country in an effort to bring the situation under control. These are clearly signs of panic in the realms of government.

Tomorrow should be the start of a 4-month freeze on prices and wages - however I understand the proposal has been abandoned as being simply unworkable. No statements are forthcoming from the authorities and to say the least, there is considerable confusion in business and Union circles. The Governor of the Reserve Bank speaks of a ‘Social Contract' but none exists.

However, the most serious indicator of collapse is in the open market price of foreign exchange. Driven by the frantic efforts of people to buy foreign exchange in any form for a variety of needs from education fees to water chemicals for the Cities and those who want to externalize or even protect their assets. No one wants to hold local money - and the options are the stock market, foreign exchange and assets such as property or simply business stocks.

The ruling party, ZANU-PF, is not in a much better state than the country they have pillaged for so long as This is Zimbabwe finds in their analysis of ZANU-PF since their last congress late last year,

In reality, for Zanu PF and for Robert Mugabe in particular, this was a political defeat of the same magnitude as the result of the referendum on the new constitution in the year 2000, when the electorate served notice that the days of an effective one party state were over and henceforth the MDC was a force to be reckoned with in the land.

Mugabe himself knows that he is at the helm of a seriously fractured party; he also knows - and it must provide precious little consolation - that he is in some ways the only glue that holds it together. Indeed he could well say with the famed Madame de Pompadour (favourite of Louis XV of France) “apres nous le deluge” (”after us the deluge”). From the country’s perspective, the aging dictator is at the centre of the ultimate Catch 22: He himself is the main obstacle in the way of resolving the severe economic crisis, but because of the lack of consensus on who will succeed him, he is still needed by his party.

The only thing left to happen that hasn't happened yet, is the melding of all the discontent into one insurmountable tidal wave. Bev Clark at Kubatana Blogs wonders,

We’ve had so many strikes recently, I’m left wondering why there hasn’t been a convergence of all this discontent? Something like the mother of all strikes - a National People’s Strike.

My answer? Maybe as more and more of ZANU-PF's rotteness is exposed for all to see, Zimbabweans will direct their mutual discontent at the true source. If this is a sign of things to come, we are not too far from the “mother of strikes.”

Right on cue, Zimbabwe's longsuffering people took their disapproval of the new cabinet and hyperinflation to the streets during valentine's week. First it was the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and their male counterparts that took Zimbabwe's baton happy police by surprise with a demonstration on the eve of Valentine's. The last four times they held their Valentine's day march, it has been on the 14th of February. This was the first time that men joined WOZA in the march.

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, around a thousand people turned out for the demonstration which went uninterrupted until the end when the police pounced on the demonstrators with their usual brutality. In Harare, where the crowd was twice as large, there was a little more drama.

The peaceful demonstration then moved on to Parliament, singing in Shona, ‘your term is up – you have stayed too long’. As the group neared the entrance, riot police fired tear gas canisters into the crowd. Initially the crowd retreated but then bravely regrouped, stood their ground and threw back the tear gas canisters; hitting the Parliament walls and sending those watching from the parliament balcony scurrying back into the building.

Almost 250 people were arrested as a result. Most of these have since been released without any charges.

Just two days later, a loose coalition of MDC supporters and members of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) were back out on Harare's streets. These last two demonstrations are unique in that in both cases demonstrators retaliated against police violence,

One of the demonstrators said: “What happened was as we were approaching XIMEX Mall near the main Post Office, the police pounced on MP Madzimure and then as we were trying to rescue him the police tried to resist and we had no option but to inflict a bit of pain so that they would release him.”

He elaborated; “What they had done to the MP is exactly what we did to them. Unfortunately, maybe they felt more pain than our MP.”

This is the second time this week that angry protestors have retaliated against police brutality. On Tuesday the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) staged mass protests in Harare and Bulawayo marking their 5 th Valentines Day and distributing the People’ Charter. WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams, who was with the protestors in Harare said they were confronted by riot police who fired teargas canisters at them but the activists threw the tear gas canisters back in defiance.

People in Zimbabwe are not happy about the status quo. Mugabe's government is dealing with a nation in which doctors, nurses, teachers, college students, and the opposition have either been on strike or have staged street demonstrations in the last weeks. The tide is certainly turning.

All this culminated in an on again-off again rally by Morgan Tsvangirai and his faction fo the MDC on Sunday afternoon in Harare's Highfield suburb. Certainty on whether the rally was going to happen was up in the air until the last minute as the MDC wrangled with the police over whether they could have the rally. Under the oppressive Publice Order and Security Act (POSA), it is an offense to hold a public gathering without prior police sanction. The lastest information on hand is unclear as to whether rally went on or not.

As if his problems at home are not enough, Robert Mugabe also endured two incidences that confirmed his increasing isolation among the world's diplomats. First was the Chinese premier who skipped Zimbabwe on his whirlwind tour of Africa meant to solidify China's business relations with the continent. This despite Mugabe's touted “look east policy” which has seen Mugabe seek to economic help from the far east after western nations cut off much of their aid to his government. As if that was not enough, it emerged late last week that France did not invite Mugabe to the France-Africa summit in Cannes.

This government is in dire straits.

A clearly unimpressed Zimpundit surmized the policy statement thus:

Here’s what Gono did, or didin’t do in his policy. Lending rates; stagnant at 500%. Exchange rate; shunted at long outdated paltry rates, and nothing else. Correct me if I’m wrong, but last time checked the sum of nothing is, well, nothing. If anything, this last statement was notable because it was Gono’s thinly disguised concession to Zimbabwe free (sometimes called black) market.

What’s maddening about this is that common Zimbabweans already took fifty punches in their long famished stomachs as prices rocketed in anticipation of Gono’s nil statement. Zimbabwe has a jittery economy which overcorrects for any anticipated shocks. So while Gono, continues to protect his glass house legacy, millions are enduring untold suffering in Zimbabwe. On the streets, where Gono better not go, prices are up, hopelessness is rampant, and there are no jobs.

Indeed, the Zimbabwean situation from Sokwanele's vantage point is firmly in dire straits,

For the human face of things, consider the family torn apart by emigration: the father who has crossed the border illegally to try to earn an honest wage in Johannesburg, living in a crowded room that he is forced to share with too many others, constantly watching his back for police and immigration officials, and hampered in his bid to secure a reasonably paid job by his illegal status.

Or consider the grandmother, looking after her grandchildren whose parents - her own children - have died of AIDS. She is in her seventies, and has had her own time of child-rearing, when she was younger and more able to cope with the demands it inevitably brings. She is a widow herself, but now has four grandchildren living with her, aged from 12 years down to 18 months.

This is the real tragedy, and statistics and the few independent news reports reveal only inadequately the depth of personal suffering involved for the majority of Zimbabweans. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is being looted and pillaged by its rulers. They access fuel at the official price of $400-odd per litre, and run thriving businesses selling the same fuel back to the public or the industrial sector at five or six or seven times that amount.

Taurai at Kubatana has a fascinating post on the budding musical career of Raymond Majongwe, an outspoken critic of the Mugabe regime.

In the song “Of Passports & Visas” on Majongwe’s new music album called I Speak What I Like, the activist musician said he was trying to make sense of the Zimbabwe and British governments. They are opposed to one another but together they, “connive and agree” in denying him an opportunity to travel.

The title of Majongwe’s new album is clear enough to scare some Zimbabwean musicians who have censored themselves from being the voice of the voiceless. Some say that musicians in Zimbabwe do not generally sing what they like because they want to make sure that they stay on the “right side” of the regime. However, he praised musicians like Leonard Zhakata who, despite the current political challenges, have not minced their words and continued to record songs that reflect the views of the people. Some of Zhakata’s songs have allegedly been banned on state radio.

The increasingly isolated leader of the main opposition held a publicized press confrence announcing that Mugabe's efforts to hang on to power would be rebuffed. Unsurprisingly, this event, which early 1998 galvanized the nation's workers to a work stoppage that ground the nation to standstill was hardly noticed by ordinary Zimbwabeans. People are not happy with state of the nation, neither are they happy with Tsvangirai.

Bev Clark at Kubatanablogs epitomizes the deep frustration felt by many Zimbabweans at the arbotive opposition:

Tsvangirai believes that elections are the way to go, either in 2008 or whenever. Never mind that we’ve had the last several elections stolen from under our noses. Yes of course we agree that the conditions need to be rectified in order to hold accountable and transparent elections but we also know that this is the very last thing that Mugabe will allow because it would be shooting himself in his own small foot.

So therefore we have the two dominant political parties in Zimbabwe playing the same old games. Zanu PF is bound to win, and the MDC is bound to lose - unless the MDC stops ploughing the same old barren fields of thought and action.

Using the judiciary as a political weapon

Meanwhile David Coltart, the MDC's shadow Justice minister penned a sharp rebuke of the government's priorities after a prominent judge publicly denounced government's poor regard of the judiciary on his blog:

However the reason why this deleterious situation has been allowed to arise is because the Zanu PF regime does not care about justice and only tolerates the Judiciary in so far as it serves its purposes. Since 2000 law, and the justice system in general, has been used as a weapon against legitimate democratic opposition. Spurious charges have been brought against opposition leaders, activists and supporters; equally spurious trials have been held. Judges have delayed politically sensitive matters such as electoral petitions and applications for the release of activists, including MPs, causing serious miscarriages of justice. Many Judges have seriously compromised their independence by taking and occupying farms often unlawfully seized from commercial farmers.

Still on the judiciary, The Bearded Man has a report about some white farmers who are making a last ditch effort at keeping their land by opposing impending redistribution of their land in court. He fatalistically opines, “Rest assured, Mugabe will make sure that even if the courts were to order the government to back down, they will ignore it, taking the farm by force if necessary.”

New blogger on the block

Be sure to check the newest Zimbabwean Blog: Zimbabwe:Outpost of Tyranny.

Apparently, Gideon Gono the central bank governor initiated the order, but has of late, shifted blame for order on agriculture ministry officials. Simon Pazvakavambwa, the secretary in the agriculture ministry, facing the axe over the scandal is now threatening to spill the beans on the scandal if he's let go of. The bearded man comments on this latest wrinkle:

Here we have one of ZANU PF's own playing the party at their own game. Now to that, you have to be prepared to reap the consequences (forgive the pun). In years gone by, when members of Mugabe's government got overly cocky and started running off at the mouth, they were ‘tragically' killed in road accidents or found floating in swimming pools (there was another one found this last week!).

On another front, the government's threats to place CIO operatives inside the nation's popular internet cafes so they can ferret “unpatriotic” agents who are spreading malicious rumors about Zimbabwe came under further scrutiny this past week. Kubatana blogs finds this excerpt from a letter in one of Zimbabwe's papers

The writer tells us two things:

- that freelance journalists wouldn’t actually be that daft to use a public space to publish their articles, instead they’d more likely use a friend’s computer and Internet connection

- its rumoured that online news sites like Zimonline actually receive their stories from state scribes who write their articles on state time and using the state’s resources like computers and connectivity

Of course there’s also the issue of goonpower - are there enough of them to trawl all the Internet Cafes of the country on the lookout for wanna be cyber-agitators? We think not.

Needless to say, this issue will be discussed for a long time.

Finally, just as we're ready to forget about it and push it to the back of our minds, the presidential succession issue is back on the horizons again. This time, NewZimbabwe is reporting that John Nkomo ZANU-PF's national chairman has officially thrown his in name in the hat for consideration for the nation's top post.

The major headline out of Zimbabwe over the last two weeks was the submission to President Mugabe of a vision document drawn up by Zimbabwe's churchleaders titled “The Zimbabwe We Want: Towards A National Vision for Zimbabwe“. Kubatana Blogs has a round up of the different responses to the document.

For his part, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC responded thus to the document,

We believe the latest initiative from the Church, like previous efforts by both local and international political players to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis, shall lead us to a cul-de-sac as long as Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF remain stuck in a state of denial. The absence of a political will to attend to our bleeding nation has become the single biggest obstacle to progress.

A national consensus and a national vision shall remain elusive for as long as the dictatorship defines, in its own terms, what constitutes people’s freedoms, people’s choices and a people’s way of life.

We believe it is important for our nation to heal its wounds and re-build for the future, recognising that what binds us is far greater than what divides us, celebrating our diversity and differences as individuals and as communities, and with a common resolve to institute safeguards to ensure that never again will our dignity be undermined by any one person or political party.

While the church effort is a well intentioned and a noble attempt to reaffirm what the rest of the country has been aware of for the past 26 years, a speedy breakthrough to this national crisis hinges on the behaviour of Mugabe and Zanu PF. The urgency of the matter cannot be over-emphasized. We believe Mugabe and Zanu PF must embrace the reality and allow the nation to express itself out of the crisis.

The crisis is essentially political; we need to work together and create an enabling political environment for a national vision to be realized. We are ready to make an unconditional contribution through open and principled dialogue towards a new Zimbabwe in the national interest.

In our national executive meeting we noted that Zimbabwe needs a stable political environment to allow for a new Constitution; open the way for a free and fair election; and enable us to embark on a reconstruction agenda, national healing and a stabilization programme.

Kubatana is also highlighting news of unsung conservationist, Zephaniah Maseko Phiri,

Early this week Zephaniah Maseko Phiri, a 79 year old Zimbabwean peasant farmer made news worldwide by being the first African to win the prestigious National Geographic Society/Buffett Award for Leadership in Conservation.

Sadly, Maseko’s great achievement has not been reported in the local Zimbabwean media. The farmer is one of the many dedicated Zimbabweans who have put this country onto the international map but have received little recognition for their hard work at home.

Maseko who jointly won the award with Nicaraguan environmentalist Jaime Incer will receive a cash prize of US$25,000.

According to the National Geographic Society, Maseko founded the Zvishavane Water Project in 1986. It is said to have been one of Zimbabwe’s first indigenous NGOs.

The water project’s objectives are to educate others about water harvesting and conservation, promote sustainable farming and increase farm income.

While Zimbabwe's repressive Interceptions of Communications Bill (ICB) has been withdrawn following reservations expressed by the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC), Ethan Zuckerman blogs at My Heart's in Accra that Zimbabwe's spy agency, the CIO, will in fact spy on people accessing the web in internet cafes,

There’s two ways to read this development. One is that the government is already monitoring net communications and realizes that cybercafe usage is a weak link in their surveillance system. I think this is pretty unlikely - the tests I ran in Zimbabwe showed no overt net filtering and no blockage of proxies, Tor or other circumvention tools. That means that cybercafes are hardly the biggest security hole from the government’s perspective. More likely, I think, is that this is part of the overall Zimbabwean strategy to encourage self-censorship through intimidation. If CIO and PISI officers could be in any cybercafe, you might think twice about sending information to friends outside the country. It doesn’t matter if the officers are actually there or not - if you think they might be, you’re likely to self-censor.

(Furthermore, if the Zim government were really watching the Internet closely, they’d be able to intercept unencrypted communications with journalists outside the country and trace them to an individual cybercafe. By requiring cybercafe patrons to register and show ID before using computers, they could keep close track of where this information was coming from. Putting intelligence officers in cybercafes is basically an admission that the government doesn’t have the expertise or resources to monitor the network, and therefore needs to try the more inexact process of monitoring people’s posting of information…)

David Coltart, an MDC Legislator from Bulawayo, is decrying the fact that most of the country's cemetries are nearing capacity as Zimbabwe now has the world's lowest life expectancy.

As if the economic fracas and the frequent power cuts aren't enough, This is Zimbabwe chronicles the shoddy treatment custmers get at ZESA Zimbabwe's main power utility,

Boy, is my neighbour steamed up! He is the kind of guy who regularly pays his bills on time, and always used to get that little note printed on his electricity bill “Thank you for keeping your account up to date”. However, loyalty to customers seems to be slipping into obscurity as far as ZESA (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) are concerned, as they try desperately to rake in every cent they can to save it from financial (zanupf - caused) ruin.

On 20th of October he got a phonecall from home, to say that ZESA had paid a visit and left a disconnection notice. Now that is something you don’t ignore in Zim. If they say you are going to be disconnected, you jump around – it can take many days to get re-connected. When he got home, he examined the document and found that in fact , he hadn’t paid his bill, so they were going to charge him not only what he owed - Z$5,300.00 - but a penalty of Z$3,000.00, and just for good measure, a re-connection fee of about Z$8,000.00! The trouble was - he had not received a bill from them for the outstanding amount.

Just to add insult to injury, he received his bill in yesterday’s post. The date of the bill was the 22nd September and the due date was 6th October. But the date on which the bill was posted? – 1st November - over 3 weeks AFTER it was due for payment!

Zimbabwe's lead in condom use and condom sale worldwide has produced mixed reactions, with some sections of society welcoming the development, while others see it as a sign of “moral decay”.

Zimbabwe is the leading country in Africa in male condom use and sales — selling over 163 million male condoms and 3,8 million female condoms over the past five years. The 163 million male condoms sold represent the highest figure in Africa, while the 3,8 million female condoms figure sold represents the highest number of female condoms sold in the world.

A total of 900 000 female condoms were sold in 2005 alone, representing the highest per capita in any programme in the world so far.

But in an entry decrying the absence of service by the Harare City Council, Taurai at Kubatana illustrates how deeply mired the the pro-condom message can sometimes be,

There are some garbage bins in Harare that display colorful adverts for Protector Plus condoms. Part of the advert reads, “What the smart guys are wearing”: a great message but what a pity that most of the bins are overflowing with garbage that hasn’t been collected for days.

This is Zimbabwe chronicles the dressing down of South Africa's foreign affairs minister by Zimbabwean democracy activists in London last week.

The Bearded Man reports on a new contest that was launched in the UK which seeks to reward Africa's best leader sarcastically noting that, ” Zimbabwe will not be amongst the forerunners.”

Over at Harare Diary the writer is “Tearing off the clothes of resignation.”

While walking down the stairs yesterday, a woman who works on the same floor as me said “so what’s news?” And I replied, well it depends. She went on to say “when is he going?”. Of course “he” = Mugabe. All I could think of replying was, soon, I hope.

Eddie Cross, writing at Enough Zimbabwe, recounts the plight of Zimbabwean business people who have been arbitrarily arrested,

During the past week many hundreds of businessmen and women have been arrested and detained for short periods by the Police and other StateAgents. In addition literally thousands of businesses have been raided –some on a daily basis, in an effort to intimidate and force wholesalers and retailers to reduce prices and margins.

One business that I know personally has had individuals from State agencies literally camped on the premises for more than 10 days. They issue tickets and when managers have gone to the local Police Station to pay “Admission of guilt” fines they have been confronted with a wide range of arbitrary charges.

Three such charges that I have seen read: -

Docket number 3627023 “Wrongfully and unlawfully offering for sale”

Docket number 3625426 “Failure to furnish information”

Docket number 3625427 “ Failure to display prices”

In each case a fine was paid of Z$10 000.00 – much cheaper to pay the fine than go to Court with all that that involves. The authorities are trying to enforce a maximum retail mark up on a wide range of goods of 10 per cent. What they are demanding at wholesale level is anyone’s guess – perhaps 5 per cent?

Debate surrounding a new law, the Domestic Violence Bill, became the context for a much criticized misogynistic outburst in Zimbabwe's parliament last week. Timothy Mubhawu, a controversial Zimbabwe's Member of Parliament, attracted the ire of women worldwide when he, purpoting “to represent God”, expressed his views on the proposed bill,

“I stand here representing God Almighty. Women are not equal to men. It is a dangerous Bill and let it be known in Zimbabwe that the right, privilege and status of men is gone. I stand here alone and say this bill should not be passed in this House. It is a diabolic Bill. Our powers are being usurped in daylight in this House.”

This outburst, wouldn't nearly be as appalling had it been uttered by any other legislator save for Mubhawo. Zimbabwean women were on the streets the day after Mubhawo's infamous statement. Mubhawo is the chief suspect in the brutal assault of Trudy Stevenson, a white female parliamentarian.

Refuting Mubhawo's outdated mindset, Zimpundit highlights the respect given to women in traditional Zimbabwean culture.

Zimbabwean culture places a premium on the role women play. According to Shona oral tradition, the most heinious offense a child can commit is assaulting their mother. The whole concept in the Shona language of “kutanda botso” or high filial treason, is built around protecting the mother figure. There is no such measure advocating for the protection of paternal figures yet this idea is reinforced among children over and over again as they grow up. The sense of unquestioning respect that our cultures heaps upon a mother is so high, I can clearly remember feeling guilty of this filial high treason for mere anger at my own mother. What's worse is the consequences of “kutanda botso” are assured psychiatric rages as payment from the ancestors, it can be very scary growing up a Zimbabwean child.

The Zimbabwean civic group, Kubatana, has comprehensive coverage of developments surrounding the bill here.

In other news, the Reserve Bank Govenor, Gideon Gono, issued another monetary policy statement. The Bearded Man comments on the terms of the new statement,

With my limited understanding of the fiscal sector, I still think that this is rather like cutting off their nose to spite their face. Slowly we see Zimbabwe putting up the shutters and closing out the world at large. Just how do people outside the country get money to their families inside the country? So now Gono is dictating to people outside the country! And he's only the Reserve Bank Governor! This tells us something about the power the powers that be believe they hold. Dillusions of grandeur I fear…

You can read the statement in its entirety here.

Finally, with all this going on in the country, it is hardly surprising that Zimbabwe cricket is in tatters.

So what else is new in Zimbabwe - Mugabe continues to bully the population, the government continues to chase white commercial farmers off their land, while the Zimbabwean economy is in a permanent nosedive with the local currency not faring very well against all other currencies

The government has passed a new law extending them greater liberty regarding how much leverage they can put on commercial farmers who own land the government wants to annex. What is surprising about these new invasions is that the government has announced the end of farm invasions several times over the past year. In fact, there has even speculation that the government was offering land back to farmers who'd lost it during the redistribution excercise. So much for that.

After its members where deported upon arrival at the Harare airport, AFL-CIO blog is shining the spotlight on the Zimbabwe government. First, documentation of police brutality:

“Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) President Lovemore Matombo and First Vice President Lucia Matibenga were among trade unionists badly injured during the government’s Sept. 13 attack on a peaceful demonstration by the nation’s unionists. AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy, who traveled to Zimbabwe says “the police just went crazy” in their attack in the capital Harare.

Lucy described his experience today during a meeting with union members at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C., where he showed a 12-minute video of the Sept. 13 assault given to him on their trip. (Note: The date of the attack is incorrect on the video. The attack occurred Sept. 13.)

Watch the video here.

After that, the AFL-CIO blog blasts Mugabe for endorsing police brutality of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions members for attempting to hold a protest march.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has joined the ranks of the worst anti-union goons by saying Zimbabwe’s union leaders who were severely beaten by police at a Sept. 13 demonstration deserved the beating.

Mugabe’s comments followed his country’s refusal Friday to allow a delegation of U.S. trade unionists, led by AFL-CIO Vice President William Lucy, into Zimbabwe to meet with injured leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

Despite the gloomy reality in Zimbabwe, Zimpundit manages to find a silver lining in the hope that Zimbabweans will one day rise up fearlessly like the Civil Rights marchers:

We cannot forget the plain reality here; at just 7 years of age, the MDC has attained heights scaled by no other opposition party in Zimbabwe. And despite Mugabe's constant belittling, the NCA and ZCTU are still out there for the people. Don't forget the other civic activists braving assured police torture on a daily basis either.

As for the Bull Conner like government, their time is fast approaching. They too, like their infamous predecessor will realize that the most violent beatings, the most inhumane punishment, and the most demeaning things they can do and say will not take away from the people of Zimbabwe that which the government didn't give; our God-given right to freedom and dignity. Pretty soon, the people will have nothing left to fear anymore.

Puzzled to find that Mugabe is able to enter the U.S. to attend the opening of the 61st session of UN's General Assembly, This is Zimbabwe wants to know “Why is Mugabe allowed to go to America?”

Finally, GVO's own Ethan Zuckerman recently took a vacation in Zimbabwe. Ethan has posted several insights on his blog, My Heart is in Accra from his experiences in Zimbabwe. Here's my favorite excerpt on why Zimbabweans haven't poured out on the the streets en masse,

But Zimbabweans may also be avoiding the demonstrations because it’s just so hard to keep their families sheltered and fed. Operation Murambatsvina may have displaced as many as 2.4 million families from their homes; bread shortages are forcing the government to release hard currency to import wheat; petrol shortages make transport so expensive that some people can’t commute to work any more. These privations might inspire revolution in some countries. In Zimbabwe, it inspires people to “make a plan”.

The phrase is said as a single word - “makeaplan” - and reflects the incredible resilience of the Zimbabwean people. Power cuts mean the kids cannot study their books? Send the kids over to one house and light lamps, conserving expensive lamp oil. Can’t afford transport to your village? Trucks leaving Harare stop and load passengers on top of their loads, taking money to help with petrol costs. People who can’t afford prescription medicines - in short supply because of the currency crisis - make friends with people who travel to South Africa, who can smuggle medicines over the border.

Walking into town one morning, trying to find a taxi, I find myself in step with two young men walking to work. They tell me the taxis don’t come by here any more - it uses too much petrol to cruise for passengers - and encourage me to walk for another half an hour, into downtown, where I might find a cab. “It’s good exercise,” they tell me. “Look how strong we’ve become,” they say, laughing.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish by making a plan. My friend Kennedy Mavhumashava talks about a story she recently wrote for a Panos website. Despite AIDS donors deciding to cut programs in Zimbabwe, HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe is falling, both in the adult population and in mother to child transmission. What’s astonishing about this is that Zimbabwe spends much, much less on HIV care than other countries. Well-funded nations like Botswana spend $74 per patient per year - Zimbabwe spends $4.

You can read Ethan's posts here, here, here, here, here and here.

After an acrimonious split, Zimbabwe's opposition MDC is steeped in further controversy after a ghastly attack on Gertrude (Trudy) Stevenson. Stevenson, who has aligned herself with Arthur Mutambara's “pro-senate” faction, is the MP for the Harare North constituency on an MDC ticket. Zimpundit is sickened by the attack.

The Bearded Man posts and discusses headlines on Zimbabwe every day.

D.R.C>:Carl at Because we're here boy no one else; just us shares his version of election-related developments. These include; increased patrols by the airforce, the arrival of EU troops, a war threat by a presidential candiate if the elections don't go well, and relief organizations cutting back their operations in the country.

Meanwhile Fleurdafrique contempletes whether the elections will be just another historical event or if they will be democratic at all:

Should I sit here and say “well at least we’re having elections”? What’s the point of having them if it’s clear who’s running the show?

Somebody is clearly taking a piss.

Malawi: Mike, the techblogger at Hacktivate makes an erudite yet succint point for the advantage of wireless in this post.

Uganda:Dadennism at Country Boyi celebrates Ghana's final performance at the World Cup,

That out of Angola, Togo, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, the Black Stars reached this far was a truly outstanding achievement. This was Ghana’s first World Cup appearance as opposed to Brazil’s18th. And how can we be sure that the Samba boys didn’t invoke some Amazonian witch doctor to help out?

It cannot be denied that the Black Stars provided some of the most spectacular moments. We left an impression though we lacked a clinical finisher that would have made those instant turns in the box and incredible finishes.

We lost but we went down fighting. It never is too late to learn from mistakes. Step by step we shall get to the top, just watch out in 2010.

Jay's Idle Notes is irate at president Museveni for

how he micromanages everything and the way he is running the country like a personal homestead. He is convinced(actually tries to convince everyone) that nobody else has the the good of the country at heart and therefore he has to perform the thankless task of being in charge of everything-setting university tuition fees, deciding who builds where, offering land to investors (99 year leases and all) et cetera. What hubris!!

Inktus contemplates the prospects of e-governance for Uganda.

Lovely Amphibian has a few things to ponder in this post.