The events in Kenya are being widely covered on the BBC in the UK. It should be noted that Kenya prior to these events was one of the most stable African countries and that it is a popular holiday destination .The conflict arising in Kenya has nothing to with Islam, but corrupt politicians and vote rigging.( something the US should know about)
more vote rigging and corrupt politicians in Africa - home grown
http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/feb4_2008.html#Z7
Zimbabwe: an election whose outcome is predetermined
Zim Online
by Mutumwa Mawere Monday 04 February 2008
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe finds itself at the crossroads and the bank created
at independence in 1980 of justice, freedom and equality seems to be
bankrupt and it is evident that the promissory note that was given to
citizens at independence will not be honored on March 29.
A central bank should ordinarily represent a repository of trust and
integrity but the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has been reduced to a
theatre of games and machinations while the nation is at its knees groping
for solutions and desperate for direction and answers.
At last week’s announcement of the monetary policy statement, Dr Gideon Gono
had this to say: "We have chosen a low-key presentation of this monetary
policy statement for strategic reasons while we prepare for a comprehensive
post-elections policy program.’’
He also made a startling revelation that the RBZ would come up with a
post-elections monetary policy blueprint that will cover a 24-month recovery
programme stretching from May 2008 through to April 2010.
It appears that Gono already knows the outcome of the general elections
otherwise he would have been cautious instead of preempting the actions of a
new administration particularly given that this landmark election will
involve presidential, parliamentary and local choices.
It appears that Gono has already discounted the possibility of any other
outcome than the victory of ZANU-PF.
In line with his belief that ZANU-PF will win the election, Gono said that
the post election programme will focus on, among other things, the removal
of pricing distortions in such areas as fuel, agricultural inputs and
outputs, multiple interest and exchange rates, electricity, water and other
municipal and parastatal service charges.
Does this not sound familiar? Is it not the same Gono who said failure was
not an option?
Why would citizens of Zimbabwe place their trust on him after the elections?
If these policies make sense now, why defer them to the post-election
period? Is it the change that Zimbabweans should vote for on 29 March 2008?
He also said that the government will also look at the subsidies policy with
a view to scrapping untargeted general subsidies, amend investment laws, and
boost productivity through incentives for key sectors — agriculture, mining,
tourism and manufacturing.
The governor who is increasingly assuming the role of an unelected President
had no kind words for government ministries, local authorities, parastatals
and some sections of the business community which he alleged have over the
years failed to take heed of policy advice and warnings from the central
bank as if to suggest that these state institutions are now accountable to
him.
Under what constitutional order would a governor of the central bank make
such statements? It can only be when a democratic order has been
irretrievably broken. It is important for citizens to record all the words
of Gono because they help in exposing the extent of the breakdown of the
rule of law and the collapse of the state.
As is now characteristic of Gono, he spared no effort to lament the impact
of the sanctions imposed on the country by the European Union, the United
States and their allies, saying there were "considerable attempts being made
to dismantle Zimbabwe’s economic fabric through a combination of armory".
He was also reported to have said: "The subtle nature of some of these
sanctions has regrettably escaped the eyes of some stakeholders here at home
and many others in the world community who, instead, are interpreting
Zimbabwe’s current difficulties as a product of domestic policy imbalances.’’
With respect to the impact of sanctions, he was of the view that the
freezing of donor-supported programmes, withdrawal of external lines of
credit and balance of payments support and the denial of Zimbabwe’s access
to the Global Fund for health-related programmes had combined to create the
economic crisis.
He then attempted to justify his questionable and possibly corrupt
quasi-fiscal activities by saying that the RBZ had been forced to carry
extraordinary responsibilities outside its core business to ensure that the
country was fed and had fuel, among other things.
Gono was supposed to appear before the Budget and Finance Committee of the
recently dissolved parliament to expose the so-called cash barons but it was
reported that the meeting was now postponed and will only take place after
the elections by which time there may be new players in parliament.
Gono is firmly in control of economic actors who are reduced to beggars for
this or that dispensation on the false premise that the RBZ has an existence
outside the control of citizens.
While it is universally accepted that no state can exist on its own it is
clearly evident in the Gono construction that with or without elections,
ZANU-PF will be in charge and by deductive logic he will be in power as well
to continue to play tactical games with people’s resources and steal their
future through manipulative actions.
* Mutumwa Mawere is a Zimbabwean-born South African businessman based in
and theres more
Supporters of pro-Mugabe bishop blockade cathedral, locking out worshippers
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: February 3, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Supporters of an Anglican bishop who is a staunch
supporter of Zimbabwe's ruling party blockaded Harare's cathedral Sunday,
preventing the swearing-in ceremony of his elected successor. Police ignored
a court order and did not intervene.
Gangs of supporters of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga locked the doors and gates to
the cloisters of St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral in downtown Harare and at
least two worshippers who tried to enter were assaulted, witnesses said.
The High Court on Thursday ruled that the swearing-in of Bishop Sebastian
Bakare, voted bishop of the Harare Anglican province by local churches to
replace Kunonga, should go ahead and Bakare's followers should be allowed to
worship in the cathedral.
But from early Sunday, Kunonga's supporters circled the cathedral entrances
and barred entry to churchgoers showing up for Sunday services.
A few police, watched by witnesses and reporters, did not intervene.
Bakare was later installed in an "investiture" ceremony as the new caretaker
Anglican bishop of Harare at a service attended by several thousand
worshippers at a sports arena across the city.
The standoff was the latest incident in a bitter dispute that has racked the
Anglican Church in Zimbabwe since Kunonga last year refused to hand over the
cathedral, its administrative offices, its check accounts and vehicles to
church elders after losing the election for bishop.
In January, Kunonga declared he was breaking away from the Church of the
Province of Central Africa, the regional Anglican governing body, and
declared the formation of an independent Anglican Harare diocese that
retained him as its leader.
But in his court ruling Thursday, Judge Charles Hungwe ruled that
declaration invalid, saying church elders across the region had not accepted
the schism and it violated longstanding constitutional rules of the Anglican
church in central and southern Africa.
He dismissed an appeal by Kunonga to bar Bakare from using church property
for worship and said "men of the cloth ought to resolve their differences in
a God-fearing manner."
In an earlier ruling last month, the High Court permitted both Kunonga's and
Bakare's followers to hold services in the cathedral at separate times while
the issue of the bishop's post was resolved. Scuffles occurred at those
services, watched over by armed police, and in one incident Kunonga snatched
Bakare's bible from his grasp and threw it across the cathedral nave.
In 2004, Kunonga faced a regional church court on allegations of incitement
to murder, fostering ruling party politics, ethnic hatred and incitement
from the pulpit during the often-violent seizures ordered by Mugabe and the
ruling party of thousands of white-owned farms since 2000, and using
intimidation against his opponents.
That court adjourned in confusion and rancor before it could make a ruling
on the behavior of Kunonga, a former lecturer in liberation theology in the
United States.
Soon after becoming Harare bishop, Kunonga ordered the removal of memorial
plaques and insignia honoring the country's dead before independence in
1980, including those of black soldiers who fought alongside the forces of
Britain, the former colonial ruler, in World War II.
Last month, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, head of the
worldwide Anglican Church, said he unequivocally condemned the use of armed
police and state machinery to intimidate Kunonga's opponents.
"Kunonga's position has become increasingly untenable within the Anglican
Church over the last year, as he has consistently refused to maintain
appropriate levels of independence from the Zimbabwean Government," Williams
said.
Johannesburg.
Chaos mars ZANU PF primary elections in Bulawayo
Zim Online
by Lizwe Sebatha Monday 04 February 2008
BULAWAYO – ZANU PF party primary elections to choose the party’s
parliamentary and council election candidates in Bulawayo for next March’s
polls had to be postponed last weekend following violent clashes between
party supporters over the selection process.
The police had to be called in to quell the violent disturbances at Davies
Hall after candidates aligned to controversial war veterans’ leader,
Jabulani Sibanda, accused the party’s provincial leadership of attempting to
sideline them in the selection of candidates.
Sibanda is leading a rival faction of ZANU PF that is bitterly opposed to
the party’s ‘old guard’ of politburo member, Dumiso Dabengwa, ZANU PF
national chairman, John Nkomo and Vice-President Joseph Msika.
ZANU PF spokesman for Bulawayo province, Effort Nkomo, confirmed the
disturbances yesterday adding that the party had since agreed to move the
primary elections to a later date.
“We called off the primary elections because of the disturbances by some
party members on Friday. The selection of candidates would be held at a
later date which would be announced soon,” Nkomo said.
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party is currently conducting
primary elections around the country to choose candidates to run for the
party in the March 29 elections.
Zimbabweans go to the polls next March to choose a new president,
parliamentarians and councilors in the elections that analysts say are a
prerequisite to plucking the country out of an eight-year political crisis.
Contacted for comment yesterday over the disturbances in Bulawayo, Sibanda
said: “There is a lot of rubbish happening in that province. I was not there
but I received reports that the elections were postponed because of attempts
to impose candidates by sidelining other aspiring candidates.”
Sibanda, who was fired from ZANU PF in 2004 after he allegedly sought to
block the rise of Vice-President Joice Mujuru, has been a constant thorn in
the flesh of the ZANU PF ‘old guard’ in Matabeleland.
The ZANU PF old guard in Matabeleland insists that Sibanda, who organised
controversial marches in support of Mugabe last year, should be barred from
conducting any party business until his matter has been comprehensively
dealt with by the party’s disciplinary committee. - ZimOnline
Supporters of pro-Mugabe bishop blockade cathedral, locking out worshippers
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: February 3, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Supporters of an Anglican bishop who is a staunch
supporter of Zimbabwe's ruling party blockaded Harare's cathedral Sunday,
preventing the swearing-in ceremony of his elected successor. Police ignored
a court order and did not intervene.
Gangs of supporters of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga locked the doors and gates to
the cloisters of St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral in downtown Harare and at
least two worshippers who tried to enter were assaulted, witnesses said.
The High Court on Thursday ruled that the swearing-in of Bishop Sebastian
Bakare, voted bishop of the Harare Anglican province by local churches to
replace Kunonga, should go ahead and Bakare's followers should be allowed to
worship in the cathedral.
But from early Sunday, Kunonga's supporters circled the cathedral entrances
and barred entry to churchgoers showing up for Sunday services.
A few police, watched by witnesses and reporters, did not intervene.
Bakare was later installed in an "investiture" ceremony as the new caretaker
Anglican bishop of Harare at a service attended by several thousand
worshippers at a sports arena across the city.
The standoff was the latest incident in a bitter dispute that has racked the
Anglican Church in Zimbabwe since Kunonga last year refused to hand over the
cathedral, its administrative offices, its check accounts and vehicles to
church elders after losing the election for bishop.
In January, Kunonga declared he was breaking away from the Church of the
Province of Central Africa, the regional Anglican governing body, and
declared the formation of an independent Anglican Harare diocese that
retained him as its leader.
But in his court ruling Thursday, Judge Charles Hungwe ruled that
declaration invalid, saying church elders across the region had not accepted
the schism and it violated longstanding constitutional rules of the Anglican
church in central and southern Africa.
He dismissed an appeal by Kunonga to bar Bakare from using church property
for worship and said "men of the cloth ought to resolve their differences in
a God-fearing manner."
In an earlier ruling last month, the High Court permitted both Kunonga's and
Bakare's followers to hold services in the cathedral at separate times while
the issue of the bishop's post was resolved. Scuffles occurred at those
services, watched over by armed police, and in one incident Kunonga snatched
Bakare's bible from his grasp and threw it across the cathedral nave.
In 2004, Kunonga faced a regional church court on allegations of incitement
to murder, fostering ruling party politics, ethnic hatred and incitement
from the pulpit during the often-violent seizures ordered by Mugabe and the
ruling party of thousands of white-owned farms since 2000, and using
intimidation against his opponents.
That court adjourned in confusion and rancor before it could make a ruling
on the behavior of Kunonga, a former lecturer in liberation theology in the
United States.
Soon after becoming Harare bishop, Kunonga ordered the removal of memorial
plaques and insignia honoring the country's dead before independence in
1980, including those of black soldiers who fought alongside the forces of
Britain, the former colonial ruler, in World War II.
Last month, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, head of the
worldwide Anglican Church, said he unequivocally condemned the use of armed
police and state machinery to intimidate Kunonga's opponents.
"Kunonga's position has become increasingly untenable within the Anglican
Church over the last year, as he has consistently refused to maintain
appropriate levels of independence from the Zimbabwean Government," Williams
said.
. Hard to keep a secret once the internet gets ahold of it.
