Zanu PF Intimidation ahead of election re-emerges?

Reports starting to show up in the Zimbabwe news media, as below

MBARE’s renowned terror groups linked to Zanu PF have re-emerged with reports of harassment of residents ahead of make-or-break general elections expected in the second half of 2018.

BY Phyllis Mbanje

There are reports of violent door-to-door campaigns by hordes of rogue Zanu PF mobs with residents expressing concern at the wanton disregard for human liberties.

Meetings, rallies and late night vigils have begun amid reports that some overzealous party youths were now forcing people to attend and participate in the meetings.

A Mbare resident said the youths were now walking from house to house demanding that people attend their rallies which are designed to ensure that Zanu PF leader President Robert Mugabe retains his post in next year’s elections.

“The youths are moving from door to door recording people’s names and ID numbers. As a citizen, I feel that this is against an individual’s freedom of association,” the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said.

Residents were scared of violent follow-ups if they do not attend the meetings.

Another one argued Zanu PF’s harassment of residents was not synonymous with that democratic ethos that Mugabe has consistently preached.

But contacted for comment, Zanu PF youth league Harare provincial chairperson Edson Takataka dismissed the allegations.

“As a party, we call for meetings at our offices and no one is forced to come,” he said.

Takataka said it was actually MDC-T youths who were conducting the door-to-door campaigns.

“We are not conducting any door-to-door campaigns. The MDC youths are the ones causing confusion,” he said.
Takataka claimed that Zanu PF had no need to use coercion for people to attend its events.

Mbare remains a hotbed of Zanu PF terror groups with the biggest then known as Chipangano having been disbanded following the internal convulsions that rocked the ruling party in 2014.

Prior to the 2013 elections Zanu PF set up militia groups to force residents to vote for Mugabe and his party candidates across the country.

Mugabe's Bribe to the War Veterans 2018 Corruption Continues

Harare – Njabulo Ncube.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is promising to give more land to the country's former freedom fighters, telling those who have not yet benefitted from his land programme to "indicate" which farms they prefer, ahead of next year's elections.

War collaborators, former political detainees and restrictees are also set to benefit.
Critics are adamant the Zanu-PF strong-man faces his most defining moment next year, as his party is ravaged by factionalism over uncertainty on who will succeed him.

Land Offers clearly breach Electorial Protocols

Zimbabwe polls are tentatively due in July 2018 but information obtained by News24 suggests Mugabe is already “oiling” his election campaign machinations amid concerns by the opposition the nonagenarian intends “stealing” yet another vote, as he seeks a fifth term at the helm of the republic.
In seeking to curry favour with the grumbling veterans of the country's war of liberation from colonial Britain, Mugabe's ministry in charge of the freedom fighters has written a notice alerting them he is addressing their grievances - top among them parceling out farms at provinces of their choice for those who have not benefitted from his controversial land redistribution programme.

Epic meetings

Mugabe, who turned 93 last month, met the veterans last year amid complaints some of their lot failed to benefit from his controversial land reforms. They also complained they were being discriminated against in the allocation of residential and commercial plots.

"During their epic meetings with His Excellency the President, veterans generally complained of being dispossessed of their allocated lands, be they agricultural, urban or peri-urban, under various unjustifiable pretexts," reads part of the notice to the veterans dispatched on 11 March 2017 by Tshinga Dube, the Minster responsible for war veterans.

"Some have initiated housing co-operatives which are seriously under attack from various cunning land barons. Due to the above circumstances, the veterans of the liberation struggle have pleaded with His Excellency to intervene at the highest level to stop the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlements or any other authorities involved in these dastardly activities from countenancing or approving such dispossession and displacements," said the notice, calling on the veterans to approach the ministry for redress.

The veterans who had been offered farms but failed to settle on the properties are required to name the farms, and bring copies of offer letters. Those threatened off the land or issued with withdrawal notices or court action or if court action is under way, must submit supporting documents to that effect. These stated requirements, officials say, would aid Mugabe to reverse such actions or ensure they get the farms.

"Veterans of the liberation struggle who have not yet been allocated are urged to submit their names, indicating their provinces," added Dube in the notice to the veterans.

Election sweeteners

But critics say these are election sweetners as Mugabe moves to placate the veterans who have been his mainstay in power since the advent of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) ahead of polls.

Opposition politician and human rights lawyer David Coltart believes Mugabe maybe “activating” the war veterans ahead of the crunch polls in which he is likely to face a grand opposition coalition. Coltart says, however, that another possibility is that Mugabe is trying to head off Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa's threat by ingratiating himself with war veterans.

"One of Mugabe's biggest headaches as he moves towards the 2018 elections is that the majority of war veterans no longer support his candidacy. He is desperate to rectify that - hence this advertisement," says Coltart.

Political analyst Rick Mukonza concurs, adding that Mugabe knows he has the odds stuck against him in the upcoming 2018 elections.

"He knows the economic situation of the country continues to deteriorate and there is no solution in sight. Substantially, therefore, he has nothing to campaign with, the indigenisation and land redistribution mantra has passed its sell-by date and people want food on the table. Mugabe has lost some important and key allies such as the war vets, add to that the splits within Zanu-PF. As if that is not enough, there is the prospective coalition between Tsvangirai, Mujuru and others. All these militate against his victory in 2018," said Mukonza.

Significant influence

In wooing the war vets and war collaborators with promises and addressing their greviances, he is bringing back an important part of the machinery that has kept him in power for all these years.
Critics note the war vets are particularly important in that they have significant influence in the military, police and intelligence, a province that Mugabe doesn’t want to be tempered with.
Mukonza adds that the war veterans also have strong connections in the rural base, which is Mugabe's stronghold. More importantly for him, they can be easily used as tools for violence when the need arises, he says.

"It would, therefore, not be a farfetched idea that Mugabe may be thinking of employing violence towards the 2018 elections. In fact violence is always part of Mugabe's power retention strategy, either as the main or backup strategy."

But Reason Wafawarova, a Zanu-PF sympathiser who trained the militant youth brigades, argues the war veterans have genuine grievances.

Mugabe's politics of patronage

"The timing could simply be a tactic by those pushing for the benefits to put them forward at a time they can hardly be brushed aside or ignored. What better time to arm twist the executive than during an election eve era," he says.

Reward Mushayabasa, another political analyst points out that Mugabe's politics of patronage is the reason why Zimbabwe is in a mess, economical and political.

"The cornerstone of Mugabe's dictatorship is a system of patronage. He uses it when he sees it fit to perpetuate his rule," says Mushayabasa.

"We saw it happening with the war veterans' $50 000 pay offs in the 1990s when Mugabe found himself under siege. Each time his grip on power is threatened, he uses the 'carrot' to seduce his impressionable supporters. Now he knows that the endgame is nigh," he says.

This Flag - Citizens Persecuted by a sick State

ZIM AUTHORITIES STEP UP PERSECUTION OF CITIZENS FOR “INSULTING” AND “DISRESPECTING” NATIONAL FLAG

A 25 year-old Zimbabwean man is scheduled to stand trial on Monday 13 March 2017 after he was arrested last week and charged with insulting and disrespecting the country’s national flag.

Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers in Kariba on Wednesday 08 March 2017 arrested 25 year-old Courage Mushunje and charged him with contravening Section 6 of the Flag of Zimbabwe Act Chapter 10:10 after he allegedly insulted and disrespected the flag by keeping on walking when the national flag was being hoisted down at Kariba Border Post.

Mushunje was arrested as he was processing the “clearing” of his two vehicles at Kariba Border Post, which he had brought from Tanzania.
Prosecutors claimed that Mushunje failed to respect the national flag as he kept moving while the national flag was being hoisted down by Liberty Kahiya, a security guard employed by Sencire Security and despite being given signs to stop and stand at attention as other citizens were doing.
When confronted by an unidentified Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative on why he was disrespecting the national flag, Mushunje reportedly told the state security agent not to bother him as the national flag doesn’t belong to him.

Mushunje’s response prompted the complainants who include Kahiya to report the matter at a police station in Kariba resulting in the arrest of the unemployed Zvishavane resident whom they accused of acting unlawfully.

The 25 year-old Mushunje was granted free bail by Kariba Magistrate Toendepi Zhou after his lawyer Unite Saizi of Saizi Law Chambers, who is a member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, sought his release from custody.

Magistrate Zhou also ordered the State to furnish the court with a report after investigating some complaints of ill-treatment raised against some ZRP officers by Mushunje.

Mushunje complained that he was harassed, assaulted and kidnapped by some CIO operatives at Kariba Border Post on Tuesday 07 March 2017 and dumped at a nearby bush before he was subsequently arrested on Wednesday 08 March 2017 on allegations of disrespecting the national flag.
The State has lined up two witnesses, Kahiya and Edmore Chiduku, a ZRP officer to testify against Mushunje during trial.

Mushunje becomes the third person to be rescued by ZLHR after being arrested and charged with insulting and disrespecting the national flag after Remnant Pentecostal Church leader Pastor Phillip Mugadza and Pastor Evan Mawarire of the His Generation Church, who were arrested on Friday 18 November 2016 and on Wednesday 01 February 2017.

Prosecutors charged that the two clergymen insulted, showed disrespect and brought the flag into disrepute after they draped themselves with the country’s national flag while protesting against President Robert Mugabe’s government, without first seeking permission from the country’s authorities.

ENDS
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
6th Floor, Beverley Court
100 Nelson Mandela Avenue Harare, Zimbabwe
Phone+263 4 764085/705370/708118
Email: info@zlhr.org.zw
www.zlhr.org.zw
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Gukurahundi Must Never be Forgotten

New documents have come to light that implicate Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe in mass killings of Ndebele people in western Zimbabwe in January 1983.

Thousands of recently declassified documents that appear to expose the perpetrators are now becoming available in a raft of foreign archival collections. The documents are wide-ranging and include, among others, diplomatic correspondence, intelligence assessments and raw intelligence garnered by spies recruited from within the Zimbabwean government. These papers — augmented by the testimony of Zimbabwean witnesses finding courage in old age — appear to substantiate what survivors and scholars have always suspected but never been able to validate: Mugabe, then prime minister, was the prime architect of killings that were well-planned and systematically executed.

Psychopath-in-Chief, Mugabe's quest for absolute Power

The documents appear to show that the massacres were closely associated with an effort by Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party to eliminate opposition groups in the aftermath of Zimbabwe’s independence. Zapu, a party led by nationalist rival Joshua Nkomo, represented the main obstacle to that objective. Given that Zapu enjoyed overwhelming support among Ndebele, the Ndebele as a whole came to be seen as an impediment. In the words of Mugabe, the people of Matabeleland needed to be “re-educated”.
The little that Mugabe has said since the 1980s on this taboo subject has been a mixture of obfuscation and denial. The closest he has come to admitting any form of official responsibility was at the death of Nkomo (1999), when he remarked that the early 1980s was a “moment of madness” — an ambivalent statement that perhaps reflected a fear of Ngozi (avenging spirits) more than anything else and one he has not repeated. More recently, he blamed the killings on armed bandits who were allegedly co-ordinated by Zapu (the original smokescreen) along with occasional indiscipline among soldiers of the army’s North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade.

In the documents, his alleged co-conspirators tell a different story. In doing so, they controvert theories that Mugabe was poorly informed about the activities of errant subordinates. By March 1983, when news of the atrocities had leaked, prompting Western ambassadors and others to ask awkward questions, government ministers who were overseeing the operation quickly pointed to Mugabe, documents allege. Sydney Sekeramayi, the minister in Mugabe’s office with responsibility for defence, was one. In a conversation with Cephas Msipa, one of the few remaining Zapu ministers of what had been a government of national unity, Sekeramayi, said that “not only was Mugabe fully aware of what was going on — what the Fifth Brigade was doing was under Mugabe’s explicit orders”. Msipa later relayed this discussion to the Australian High Commission, which in turn reported it to headquarters in Canberra.


’Crisis of conscience’
 
Msipa appears to be a credible witness in view of his amicable relationship with Mugabe. He had, for instance, shared a room with Mugabe for two years during their earlier career as teachers. Msipa had also welcomed Mugabe into his home when the latter returned from Ghana in 1960 and joined the struggle against white rule. Between 1980 and 1982, when tensions were rising between Zapu and Zanu, Msipa had served as a regular go-between and had spoken to Mugabe often. He continued to do so during the killings. Within Zapu, Msipa, a Shona-speaker, had consistently advocated amalgamation with Zanu, a line that had attracted the ire of Ndebele-speaking colleagues. He was, therefore, considerably more sympathetic to Zanu and its leader than most in Zapu. And yet, after speaking to Sekeramayi and others in Zanu, he was convinced (as he told the Australians) that “the prime minister was right behind what had been happening in Matabeleland”. He added that he had never before had such a “crisis of my conscience” about remaining in government.

Sekeramayi was more circumspect in direct discussions with Western representatives, but nevertheless made clear that the massacres were no accident. The “army had had to act ‘hard’”, he told the British defence attaché, “but … the situation was now under control”. Later, Sekeramayi admitted to the British high commissioner that “there had been atrocities”.

The documents also record that Msipa talked to other members of Zanu who revealed that the killings were not simply the whim of a small coterie, but the result of a formal and broad-based decision by the leadership of Zanu-PF. Eddison Zvobgo, a member of Zanu’s 20-member policy-making body, spoke of a “decision of the central committee that there had to be a ‘massacre’ of Ndebeles”. That statement squared precisely with Fifth Brigade’s ethnocentric modus operandi. Mugabe’s heir apparent, the current first vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was a member of the central committee. But so, too, were others who have subsequently developed a reputation for moderation, not least because of their latter-day rivalry with Mnangagwa. Former vice-president Joice Mujuru heads that list.

The army commanders who directed the killings, many of whom still retain key positions in a security sector that underwrites the regime, are also shown in the documents to have been eager accomplices. Zvobgo commented that the first commander of Fifth Brigade, Perence Shiri, had said the “politicians should leave it to us” with regard to “settling things in Matabeleland”. Shiri is now the head of Zimbabwe’s air force.

Testimony from witnesses provides evidence that Shiri worked closely with many former members of Mugabe’s guerilla army, Zanla, notwithstanding a myth that Fifth Brigade operated separately from the rest of the army. Those who assisted Shiri allegedly included the now chief of Zimbabwe’s defence forces, Constantine Chiwenga, who was this month awarded a doctorate in ethics by the University of KwaZulu–Natal. During the killings, Shiri frequently consulted with Chiwenga, who was then using the nom de guerre Dominic Chinenge and was head of First Brigade based in Bulawayo. Chiwenga’s unit also provided a range of practical assistance, including logistical support for Fifth Brigade and a base from which Shiri’s men operated when they made punitive raids on Bulawayo’s townships.

The first six weeks of Fifth Brigade’s attacks were massive in their intensity, but the documentary record shows that an order was given to curtail this phase after news of the massacres began to leak to the outside world. However, the killing did not end, but was instead scaled back and conducted in a more covert manner. Estimates of the death toll are frequently put at 20 000, a figure first mooted by Nkomo when the campaign was still under way. But on-the-ground surveys have been piecemeal and vast areas of Matabeleland remain under-researched. Fear and the death of many witnesses provide further challenges. A forensically-accurate number will never be possible, yet it seems possible that the standard estimate is too conservative. Oral testimony from Zimbabweans who were in key government positions during the 1980s disinters a host of killings that were previously unknown. Cumulatively, this testimony suggests that the breadth of the violence and the extent of official involvement could have been significantly underestimated.

Polite questions
 
Observers have always wondered how much of this was known to Western governments — and what they did about it. It is clear from the documents that they knew a great deal, even if some of the detail remained obscure. It is also clear that the polite questions asked by diplomats were — along with courageous representations by churchmen and their allies in Zimbabwe — pivotal to the government’s decision to reduce the violence. Up to that point, there was no indication that the brutal force of the massacres would be curtailed. Nevertheless, Western governments did little once the massacres were brought down to a lower, but still savage, intensity. Perhaps as a sign that Western censure had its limits, the campaign in Matabeleland North continued during the remainder of 1983; Fifth Brigade was redeployed further south in 1984.

It is a fact that the Western response to violence toward black countrymen in the 1980s was a pale shadow of the reaction to his attack on white farmers in 2000. Many Ndebele remain bitter about this inconsistency. While historians debate the dimensions of Zanu’s violence, for Western policy-makers and the domestic constituencies that are meant to hold them to account there’s a need to reflect again on the price of inconsistency in the developing world. Aside from the human cost, Western advocacy of democracy and international justice will continue to be viewed with skepticism while such glaring contradictions remain.

At the same time, an inordinate focus on the international dimensions of the Matabeleland massacres is to miss the point. Mugabe has instinctively sought to racialise and internationalise internal controversies of which he is the principal author or to invoke the spectre of neocolonialism in the hope of support from fellow African leaders.

Zimbabwe’s Second Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko recently made the claim that the Matabeleland massacres were a “conspiracy of the West” and that Mugabe had nothing to do with them. Yet the new documentary material appears to underline once more that post-independence Zimbabwe’s greatest crimes and deepest wounds lie squarely at the feet of Mugabe and Zanu-PF. The documents appear to show that the killings were an internal affair, neither provoked nor sustained by outsiders, and that the atrocities were driven from the top by Zanu-PF in pursuit of specific political objectives. Viewed across a period of several years and hundreds of files, the documents appear to provide evidence that — far from being a “moment of madness” in which supporters of rival parties went at each other — the massacres were but one component of a sustained and strategic effort to remove all political opposition within five years of independence, as Zanu leaders were determined to secure a “victory” against nonexistent opposition in elections scheduled for 1985, after which there would be a “mandate” from the people to impose a one-party state. — Daily Maverick

• Dr Stuart Doran is an independent historian and author of a forthcoming book based on the new documentary material — Kingdom, power, glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the quest for supremacy, 1960–87.

ZANU PF cannot be defeated by ZANU level thinking

When the liberator becomes the oppressor!

by Rick Matsokotere

This one is for my fellow Zimbabweans. I seldom write or speak politics from my home country. This is because I live in the United Kingdom and have for a looong time. At first I thought I should be quiet about the Zimbabwe situation. After all, what stake do I have in that nation? I don't live there anymore.

But I had to rethink this hasty assertion. I am a son of that soil between the mighty rivers Zambezi and Limpopo and I have a right to speak in the only way in know how. With logic, reason and exposing the base level thinking of our leaders and by extension, our people. In fact, as an economically displaced Zimbabwean it is my duty to speak against the mob that runs Zimbabwe.

If you look carefully you will notice a few things about how our leaders think. ZANU thinks like a man motivated only by food and reproduction. The most basic of needs are what keep these men and women clinging to power in the most barbaric of manners. The way I see it, ZANU and Zimbabwean leaders cannot think beyond the motivations of an animalistic nature. They are like babies in old men bodies. The stimuli they respond to are only rudimentary.

Mugabe, complete with bib for his food: Tyrant in Chief

ZANU thinks in a lazy manner that cannot see the diamond in the rough which is our country. Let us consider the massive wealth of our country in terms of natural resources. Countries like China are buzzing around like vultures waiting to strip us clean because they understand the value of untapped resources.

They are creating high value jobs for their citizens, creating other industries back in their home countries, all by offering our government some cash and finished products. And these Neanderthals accept the bribes because they are too lazy to do the difficult mental work of developing our people so that they are able to mine for themselves.

Zimbabwe strikes me as a 37 year old woman who stopped developing mentally in her teen years. Her mental development was stopped in the 90s if you ask me. This is when we stopped thinking generationally about the children of the whole nation and ZANU began to rule with a mentality that only sought to protect its own.

Compare and contrast that to the older civilisations like Europe and America. Obviously these people have their own issues, after all what adult has it all figured out. But we want our children to grow up and become responsible adults nonetheless. George Washington, America's first president, was so loved by the people that they wanted him to extend his term. He however, argued that the whole point that they fought against the British for their independence was so that they would not be run as a fiefdom. Coincidentally he also raised the same argument when they wanted his son to rule in his stead.

While ZANU is still at the helm, things will continue to be in an immature state!

People need to rise who can put their minds to work to find solutions to our national problems that work. When enterprising minds are chased into exile or threatened into submission then the Zimbabwean system is failing to serve those it was designed to work for.

Only God can save Zimbabwe is a myth. God has already given us the tools to change our nation. We have minds and ingenuity. Spiritual experiences have to be channeled into services and products that provide real answers. Zimbabwe is one of the most churched nations in the world. But a "churchy" message is not enough.

Take a look at the example of Adam and Eve who had 2 kids. Cain killed Abel then Seth was given as the child of prophecy. Cain, the picture of the heathen went out and built a city for his son. His kids went on and discovered how to make tools, to mine, engineering, music and craft. All this time the church boy Seth and kids did not make significant breakthroughs.

Until Noah rose up as a church boy who could read detailed construction plans. He understood architecture and technical language. These are the types of Christians Zimbabwe needs to raise up!
Leaders must rise up who want to achieve things that go past political gain. The rule of law needs to come back to Zimbabwe so that investors and tourists come back. A business sector that operates in a free market once again. A legislature that is unbiased politically.

There are answers in us that need to be extracted through hard work and the dignity of labour. Someone needs to get into the laboratory and figure out how to fix up Kariba dam and our other reservoirs. ZESA issues can be solved by the brilliance in Zimbabweans mind. A viable political alternative can rise that will keep leaders honest.

Our population needs to grow up too. If we continue to be occupied by gossip and petty feuds, sexual escapades of the rich and famous, then we will be captivated by silly words spoken at rallies and some little scraps thrown our way.

Start to reason in a more mature way. Ask questions of your leaders. Question the motive behind everything.

Will Zanu PF allow Political Opposition, Or a New 5th Brigade?

Fadzayi Mahere is asking if the opposition is doing enough.The question should be, will opposition be ALLOWED to mobilize?

Please note that;

• Opposition has begun door to door campaigns but find that they are being arrested.
• Opposition launched radio advertisements for voter education on Star FM who were contracted to come and live-stream voter education nationwide. Star FM abruptly stopped broadcasting stating, allegedly, that the police told them to stop. So the paid for nationwide live broadcast never happened.
• After the voter launch event buses carrying citizens from the launch where stopped, impounded and citizens had to walk home from Marimba Park to Dzivarasekwa. 
• The bus drivers were then questioned for hours.Furthermore, there are numerous other incidents in which ZANU PF has opposition followed. 
• Not only that, I have it on good authority that they are stalking opposition kids at school and opposition has said nothing about many of these incidences because they don't want to seem petty or be accused of making up stories or exaggerating.

So the question we should be asking is will Opposition be allowed to campaign or will they be attacked?

Recently a NERA team was followed by an UN marked car as they were conducting the mapping process. TZ youth where attacked by ZANU PF youth while cleaning in Chitungwiza. I guess they're not even allowed to clean now.

Tortured for Questioning Zanu PF and Mugabe

So when Fadzayi Mahere asks if opposition is doing enough to campaign maybe she can ask her father Stephen Mahere ZANU PF chef if Opposition WILL be allowed to practice their constitutional rights and be allowed to campaign and have freedom of press.

It's doubtful that she would ask THAT question as that will not fit in with her agenda.

What is worrisome about people like Mahere is the fact that they spend so much time critiquing Opposition and NEVER acknowledging the work Opposition is actually doing OR appreciating the difficult terrain SETUP by ZANU PF that makes opposition politics difficult in Zimbabwe. Opposition is not perfect but let us at the very least acknowledge the hard work some of them are putting in and the difficult hurdles ZANU PF puts in their way.

When your Father is a CIO and huge ZANU PF benefactor this does not necessarily mean that one follows the doctrine. However in this case the evidence is affirmative. Let's add the fact that just a few months ago Mahere was defending Zim papers owned by ZANU PF and a well known ZANU PF mouth-piece which is used to oppress people. Perhaps she was just doing her job - being morally corrupt would be the only crime here... Perhaps. Asked about her defense of Zim papers Mahere said it was her turn to take a case and after all she was doing her job. Anyone who knows anything about Zimbabwe knows you don't get to defend a ZANU PF entity unless you're vetted and acknowledged to be okay and after all she was paid by Zim papers so she was a direct benefactor of ZANU PF. Is it not hypocritical to benefit directly from a system you claim to be fighting whilst criticizing Opposition for not fighting that system enough?

There is more to come on Mahere and all you ZANU babies out there and it won't be pretty....so stay tuned.

Nothing personal here, we are at war and there is no more time for pussy footing around dangerous personalities.

Besides, it's incumbent upon ZHRO, CZI, ROHR Zimbabwe, Zim Solutions [and all other groups] to furnish it's members with all the relevant information in order to truly find the political and practical response to our predicament.
Article thanks to Albie Matarutse

Activism ls Not A Crime

The arrest, imprisonment, many court appearances and subsequent community service sentencing of *Linda Masarira* on 7 March 2017 is illegal and unacceptable.

Zimbabwe Activists Alliance condemns the Government of Zimbabwe for criminalising our constitutional rights to demonstrate, assemble and expression. It is outrageous that real criminals who abuse state funds serve this government and walk freely.

As Activists, we are aware of the usual and evil plan of the regime to target, harass and silence patriots who demand accountability from the rogue regime.

We want to remind the regime that they are now worse than lan Smith. People can only take so much brutality and injustice. Your response to our peaceful protests encourages more protests. What do we have to lose?

*#WhyDidYouGoToWar?* 
To become the post 'Independence' black Smith? To make Zimbabwe a colony where some animals are more equal than others?

To all the activists within and without Zimbabwean borders, let not this injustice we are suffering at the hands of the Zanu(PF) regime deter you. Let us continue demanding good governance from this regime using all peaceful means enshrined in the Constitution. The courts and government are not on our side but the Constitution will never abandon us.

Activists are not enemies of the State but those who abuse the Constitution are enemies of the State.

*United ln Our Diversity for the love of Zimbabwe*

ZAA National Coordinator
Tendayi Lynnette Mudehwe

Life for immigrant communities is not always a 'bed of roses'

A personal take on life in the UK as an Immigrant; rather gloomy, and we are sure others are happy here, but read on:

LIFE for immigrant communities in the UK remains 'gloomy', but many put on brave faces when they talk to those back home. All is not rosy abroad. In January this year, a Zimbabwean woman’s body was found in an abandoned house in Manchester after a cold-blooded murder. She had previously survived a suicide attempt as a result of unbearable family disputes over money sent to relatives in Zimbabwe without her man’s consent.  No doubt the zeal to please those at home has destroyed the lives of many Zimbabweans abroad.

Late last year, in Manchester, a 29-year-old Zimbabwean woman, a mother of three, was stabbed to death by her lover in their apartment. The man who had been cohabiting with this lady later confessed to the police that they had been having ‘relationship issues’ because of money sent to relatives in Zimbabwe without the other party knowing. He conceded to killing the girlfriend, saying he felt he was a victim of theft. The couple’s children’s custody was taken over by the children’s welfare services, putting the children into an untenable situation.

These problems and deaths are the result of the desire by Diasporans to please people back home, projecting a false image that all is well. There is another example involving an ex-Zimbabwean, who had become a British citizen. Four years ago, a 38-year-old businesswoman killed herself because of ‘pressure from Zimbabwe’. Everybody asked for money from her, but the husband was not amused.
The woman, a nursing manager, an expatriate from Zimbabwe who lived in Manchester, was a high achiever working for NHS Trust. She had claimed to be ‘feeling pressurised’ by the family back home. The family wanted to be financed for everything but clearly some partners do not understand the need to help extended families. Requests from home became problems and eventually she killed herself.

What makes matters worse is, the visitors’ visas that most Zimbabweans apply for to enable immigration to the UK expire within six months. Authorisation through other programmes like education, youth mobility, voluntary work and exchange programmes, among others, also come with extension or switch issues once they expire or are withdrawn. In these cases, most Zimbabweans become illegal immigrants in the UK and the going gets tough. Preferring to remain behind after the deadline of the validity of these visas often leads immigrants to situations like mandatory marriages, seeking asylum or illegal stays. These are some of the complications that accelerate homicidal relationships and ruthless submissions.

The Zimbabwean abroad faces two sharp sides of the sword; pressure from home and brutality in the UK. Ways in which immigrants are abused in the Diaspora are nerve-racking. It starts from inflated rents by fellow Zimbabweans who will be subletting. On the other hand, the brutality on foreigners in the UK defies logic. Under the new immigration laws, an illegal immigrant cannot open a bank account, have a driver’s licence, rent a house or even marry. Every human right, as we know it, is removed from an illegal immigrant in the UK. An illegal immigrant is not allowed to get medical treatment even if he/she has the money. The irony of it all is that the hospital staff comprise more Zimbabweans than locals.

Also note that in the UK, abuse is not only defined by physical violence. Emotional torture is the most common among immigrants in England. We have a huge number of professionals who left Zimbabwe while they were well up. They have now been reduced to beggars in the UK.
Their qualifications are not recognised. We have senior lawyers who have become industrial cleaners; headmasters who have been reduced to ‘care work’. Care work is normally a nice name for those who look after the old and clean after their ‘mess’.

But then, life is so demanding in the Diaspora. There are bills to settle in the UK and family to take care of in Zimbabwe. The most painful thing is that sometimes those back home are never satisfied, moneywise. They financially strip one naked, putting so much pressure until one thinks death is the only way out. Sisters fleece their brothers while fathers demand a millionaire’s life on the pocket of the poor bottom-scraping Diasporans.

In the UK, what is most painful is that some abusers are fellow Zimbabweans. So you are abused from home by your blood and abused abroad by your countryman. The idea of going back home without anything is repugnant and repulsive. The fear of being ridiculed by those left at home gives one the ‘courage’ to stay in such stinky horrific relations in order to get something. There is no good reception if you go home empty-handed, they say. At the end of the day, such a quandary only leads to rampage and suicides.

The ‘pressure’ people back home put on those in the Diaspora has certainly created many graves.
No doubt some people have actually become mentally disturbed. It is important to note that being in the Diaspora doesn’t necessarily mean one is ‘loaded’ (rich). Actually coming home for a holiday is sometimes painful and distressing. Everyone expects something, but no one gives you even a wild fruit to take back to the UK. In that regard, people back home must always remember that their ‘pressure’ can sometimes be fatal.

Leadership, Narcissism, And Parental Income An Explanation of Zanu PF Leadership

Study which casts some light on the psychological issues associated with the very poor leadership qualities of most of the Zanu PF hierarchy. 

Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D

An exceptional new study on the link between narcissism and leadership was recently published in one of our top academic journals. The study of 229 recent graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, all lieutenants and captains at the time of the study, showed a strong negative relationship between narcissism, leadership behaviors, and subsequent follower effectiveness.

If you click on the picture above, you will can view the enlarged figure 1 of findings from the study.

 The twist is the study also showed that increased narcissism was associated with higher parental income. If you click on the photo at the bottom of this article, you can view an enlarged citation for the study.

In other words, the study suggests that if you grew up rich, you are likely to be a less effective leader because you are also probably a bigger narcissist. 

I think the link between parental income and narcissism is interesting, but it has very little practical implications. We aren’t going to ask people how much money their parents made before we consider either hiring them or assigning them to positions of leadership.

We do need to be increasingly aware of the strong narcissists in our organizations, and the damage they can do if we give them authority and power over others. The authors remind us of the following tendencies of narcissistic leaders:

•    Derogate others in order to exploit their weaknesses and rate themselves more favourably
•    Arrogant and aggressive, they tend to show little concern for their followers
•    Favour behaviors that provide temporary gratification of their desires for recognition
•    Impulsivity may cause them to deviate from established plans and protocols, causing confusion among followers
•    Aggressive communication style encourages less innovative thinking and sharing of perspectives
•    Resistant to and defensive about feedback on need for improvement

The authors of the study offer the following conclusion about their study:

    “Increasing income disparity can influence organizational life by altering the traits and behaviors of those entering the workplace. As economic inequality rises, we may expect to see an increasing number of leaders who had wealthy parents, are more narcissistic, and do not rely on classic leadership behaviors to lead. We may also come to see less narcissistic leaders from lower-income backgrounds in a different light, recognizing that their leadership behaviors and style, if given the opportunity, may be well suited to some contexts” p. 2172

This study provides interesting food for thought. I think we are going to see a lot more high quality empirical research on narcissistic leadership in the next decade. There will be some mixed results, but I think we should expect to see a growing body of high quality evidence showing the negative effects of narcissistic leadership. Narcissism has been exposed, but what will we do with this knowledge?

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Related Posts:

Narcissistic Leadership: A Review Of The Most Recent Evidence
CEO Servant Leadership, Narcissism, And Company Financial Performance
Is A Narcissistic Leader Good For Your Organization? 

Mujuru Machine arrives in the UK

The article below is reprinted from the Standard in Zimbabwe. It overlooks so much and is such an insult to the diaspora and those free thinking Zimbabweans trapped in their own country by the Zanu PF terrorists. The mere fact that the [completely misguided] British Civil Service and Government wish to sponsor this criminal is beyond reason. 

From a Government which is now disregarding torture as a [sole] reason for Asylum, what can we expect? Are they now condoning Zanu PF and all its derivatives [ZPF and now NPP] - are they truly happy with genocide, abductions, torture [OK with this according to the MP Robert Goodwill], rape, theft, extortion, intimidation, and corruption? The answer appears to be "yes", with this second invitation to Mujuru.

We trust that the British people and the invited MP's will see through this charade and stop the further rape of Zimbabwe.

JCB

Article: 5th March 2017

Former vice-president Joice Mujuru’s profile as a major opposition leader is set for a great leap this week when she addresses British legislators in London.

By Everson Mushava

Joyce Mujuru, now NPP, Was ZPF, previously Zanu PF

The National People’s Party (NPP) leader is expected to address British MPs, African ambassadors, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and think tanks.

She was in London last October at the invitation of Chatham House — a British-based international think-tank, where she was given an opportunity to explain to the world her vision for Zimbabwe.

Mujuru was leader of a newly-born opposition political party, ZimPF, which she abandoned last week for a new name, NPP, after squabbles with some of the party’s founding stalwarts Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa.

This time, the NPP leader will be visiting London at the invitation of Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa, Institute for Global Affairs, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

She will be expected to put aside her problems back home to be one of the panellists at the event to be graced by British MPs.

She will speak at the LSE on the topic, Women leaders on the Global Stage, Lessons for Africa, but will also have an opportunity to interact with British MPs at the meeting to be held in Portcullis House, part of the House of Parliament, according to the programme of events seen by The Standard.

“I am writing to invite you to participate in a public event to be held at LSE on March 7 2017 to celebrate International Women’s Day,” part of the invitation by Tim Allen, Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa director dated October 16 2016 read.

“If you accept this invitation, you will be part of the panel, which includes another female politician from the African continent and a member of civil society organisation working to increase female political representation.”

The event will examine the barriers confronting women political leaders in different countries across Africa and how they can be overcome and what lessons can be taken from women leaders across the globe.

The event will be hosted by Maria Miller MP, the chairperson of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, and Mujuru will have an opportunity to network with invited guests, who include MPs, African ambassadors, academics, LSE African students, as well as representatives of Africa-focused, London-based NGOs and think tanks.

The presentations will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

NPP spokesperson, Jealousy Mawarire confirmed Mujuru’s London engagements, saying it was an honour for the former VP to interface with some British MPs and other revered African female politicians.

“We are excited that the sterling job that Dr Mujuru has done, and is doing, is being recognised, not only in the country but yonder,” Mawarire said.

“Dr Mujuru is passionate about her work and the uplifting of the girl child, hence, she organised women’s groups in the country to meet and brainstorm on her presentation, sharing ideas on the different experiences that women have in our country.

“She is also excited that the presentation in London, which is going to be attended by a lot of Zimbabwean women in Britain, gives her an opportunity to share with the world and her Zimbabwean counterparts, the section 56 campaign launched by Women’s Coalition, which promotes gender equality and non-discrimination.”

Mujuru is expected to leave the country today and her advance team is already in London ahead of the event.

The loud silence

I can still hear Julius Malema’s voice echoing loud as he reminded him that his time is up. “Fellow South Africans,  we need each other, there is no country that can survive in isolation, we need each other south Africans, let us not kill fellow Africans, let us refuse the artificial borders imposed on us by colonisers that has led to the division of Africa, Africa we are one.” This was at the height of xenophobic attacks that was perpetrated by a bunch of degenerates who have no place in the 21st century.  In those few minutes Malema managed to espouse the core values of an Africa any progressive youth wants. A borderless Africa, where we are united in our diversity!

Almost exactly the same time last year, hapless women, men and children were fleeing for their lives with a band of blood lust savages running behind them armed with all sorts of weapons, their crime, being citizens of another country. Now hold it right there. This is the 21st century and South Africa strikes me as a country with an efficient justice system.  Are we saying that we have failed to resolve any grievances we have improper channels and we are going back to the mfecane era?  Except maybe the khoi-san, who exactly has always been in the country they now reside? We have all migrated from different parts of the country and ended up where we are now for various reasons. I refuse to see the sense in murdering people from other countries on perceived grievances.

Till when as Africans shall we continue playing into the hands of naysayers by being the savages from the Dark Continent they say we are? African civilisation is older than Europe or America but surely our conduct particularly xenophobia puts such assertions to shame.  Such bloodthirsty as displayed by our fellow brothers and sisters throws spanners in the wheels moving towards the Africa we want as young people. Perhaps before we speak about the Africa we want a very brief reminder of what happened prior to 1994. What stance was taken by African countries like Zimbabwe and Nigeria as far as apartheid going on in South Africa was concerned? They condemned it in the strongest terms and assisted fellow brothers and sisters to fight it! When the great Chris Hani was assassinated, wasn’t it Harare, Zimbabwe he had been offered refuge?  Are we so gripped by amnesia that we forget what happened barely two decades ago?

And in all this chaos and pandemonium, burnings, stabbings, stoning where is the South African government? Of course it has its head firmly stuck in the sand. Its silence is so loud that it can be heard across the world. It’s as if the problem is nonexistent to them, which makes one wonder whether they too have the same amnesia as the actual murderers prowling the street. Isn’t it Bishop Tutu who said “if you are neutral in situations of injustice you are siding with the oppressor, if an elephant has its foot on the tail of a tortoise and you are silent, the mouse will not appreciate your silence.”?  As far as the vision of the Africa we want as young people is concerned, they are doing nothing.  So, what exactly are they busy doing that they cannot address the evil of xenophobia.

There is a Ghananian proverb which says, “The shea butter that laughs at the salt mound during a heavy downpour, should not forget that with morning will come the burning sun.” All the people of different nations in South Africa did not leave their homes out of choice, they fled from different situations, just as Chris Hani, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo did during the Apartheid era. The dismal failure by the South African government to reign in the people killing other Africans will go down in history as a colossal failure by a government, which no one really knows what it is doing apart from facilitating building of amphitheatres and fire emergency swimming pools.  The Africa we want as young people has no room for violence of any kind, tribalism or any form of discrimination. Africa we are one, a single finger can be broken but a fist is invincible. Africans we need each other, and together the Africa we want is a reality!

By Linda Tsungirirai Masarira