Fascism Re-Visited

Yesterday the Zimbabwe High Court ruled against the SADC Tribunal judgement that ruled in favour of white farmers who were being subjected to the violent loss of their land and homes. Justice Bharat Patel, a good friend of mine from my squash playing days, said “enforcing the tribunal’s ruling would be against Zimbabwe’s domestic laws and agrarian policies”, noting that “the greater public good must prevail".

I am reminded of Hitler and his Nazi party’s attempts to exterminate the Jews. It was Nazi government policy to exterminate the Jews based on their misguided perception of “the greater public good”. Apartheid was also a government policy of a previous South African government. Hmmmmmm! The Zimbabwean judgement is not a good sign at all. Not for Zimbabwe and not for my friend Bharat when The End does come.

The trial of Roy Bennet continues. Peter Hitschmann, his alleged co conspirator and star state witness has made a total mockery of the state case. The state is now asking the court to admit ‘emails downloaded from Hitschmann’s computer’ to be admitted as evidence of direct communication between he and Bennet. To ‘prove’ that the e-mails were legitimately printed from Hitschmann’s laptop, a typist gave evidence that she printed them. But Hitschmann says he doesn’t own the laptop or the hard drive from which the emails were printed. Clearly the email ‘evidence’ is an attempted stitch up, not unlike the stitch up “evidence” presented at Morgan Tsvangirayi’s treason trial a few years ago. ZANU PF’s deviousness knows no bounds.

But the judge has suspended his ruling on the matter until next Wednesday, a whole week away. What more does poor Roy Bennet have to put up with? The continued delays in making various rulings are surely nothing more than attempts to delay the inevitable judgement that will have to be made eventually.

A Military Junta in Control of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is now being ‘governed’ by a Military Junta. Of that there is no doubt whatsoever. Whether Mugabe is in charge of the Junta is academic. A friend who lectures at the almost defunct University of Zimbabwe tells me that one of his MBA students told him last Saturday that “Most countries in the world have an army; In Zimbabwe the army has a country.” He could not have been more accurate in his description.

In recent weeks, starting just before Christmas, the ‘war’ against white farmers intensified and dozens of the 350 odd remaining farmers have been booted off the land.

In the meantime an NGO in South Africa, Africom, has initiated legal procedures to sue the Zimbabwe Government for the return of assets stripped from South African nationals (who are supposedly protected) by a Bi-lateral International Protection Agreement (BIPPA) between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Africom cite the SADC court ruling that Zimbabwe’s expropriation of farms was ‘racist and illegal’ and ordered the Zimbabwe Government to return ‘stolen’ farms and allow those farmers remaining on the land to remain. The response by the South African courts to Africom’s proceedings has been positive and it is today suggested that Zimbabwe’s assets in South Africa may be expropriated to help pay compensation.

The response to this from one Temba Mliswa – a notorious ZANU PF racist thug – is that the Zimbabwe Government intends to ‘kick all white farmers out of the country’ and to do this the military are enforcing the removal of the few remaining farmers from the land they are occupying. Court orders are ‘mere pieces of paper’ and nothing will prevent Zimbabwe from doing what it likes, says Mliswa and his ZANU PF cronies.

To add to this, we are recently told that a retired army general is seeking to quash a ruling that he be required to vacate Fangundu Farm which is occupied by an organisation whose shareholders are Malaysian and Dutch and equally ‘protected’ by a BIPPA between the respective governments. The retired general has in the meantime stripped the farm of bananas to his own account.

These acts are not supported by Prime Minister Tsvangirayi and his MDC counterparts and they have spoken out against them, but no-one is interested.

Ergo, Zimbabwe is run by a Military Junta.

Meanwhile SADC representatives, including Joseph Kabila, President of the DRC, are speaking up about ‘tremendous progress being made by the parties that makes up Zimbabwe’s government of National Unity’ towards finalising an agreement of their current disputes.

Utter rubbish! Who do they think they are fooling? Perhaps they are fooling themselves, just like ZANU PF has been doing for years.

But let’s not get excited. This is not new. It is largely how Africa governs Africa and is why Africans in general remain poor and get ever poorer while Africa’s rich elite get ever richer.

And it is unlikely to change for a long, long time.

Economic Collapse?

The saga of Nestlé has been amicably resolved. So says the Zimbabwe Government and Nestle but the problems are probably not yet over. A commentary in today’s Herald goes on and on about ‘illegal sanctions’, the wicked west and uses the Nestlé story as ‘evidence’ of the connivance of the wicked west and the MDC.

In the meantime three stories today suggest we have some serious economic problems looming large. The first is that the Redcliff Municipality has collapsed through unpaid rates and mismanagement of funds. Ziscosteel owes the Municipality millions while the Municipality in turn owes Ziscosteel millions for the supply of water while Ziscosteel owes the Kwekwe Municipality millions for the supply of the same water that it supplies to the Municipality of Redcliff. Other funds that have been paid to the Municipality are ‘missing’ and the municipal ‘workers’ – probably a misnomer – have not been paid for several months. ZESA and TelOne have disconnected supplies to the Municipality due to unpaid bills while companies operating in Redcliff have refused to pay their rates citing ‘viability problems’

The second story is that Zimbabwe’s 90,000 teachers are threatening not to return to work at the beginning of the school term unless the government agrees to pay each and every one of them $600 a month. This will translate to 50% of the Government’s entire monthly tax revenue.

And the third is that workers in the banking sector have won a 30% increases in salary backdated to the third quarter of 2009. The banking sector is already crippled. This will send them to the wall – not all of them but most of them.

How will Zimbabwe move forward, I wonder. All this while farm invasions continue on what is left of the agricultural sector, law and order remains dodgy and freedom of the press and electronic media is nowhere in sight.

Ah well, perhaps the auction today of diamonds from the Maranke fields, stolen by government a year or more ago, will pay all the bills.

Nestlé

Nestlé are in trouble again. Some months ago it was revealed to the world at large that Nestlé Zimbabwe was buying milk from ‘you-know-who’s wife, Grace. Nestlé’s head office is in Switzerland and Switzerland is a member of the EU so Nestlé was accused of breaking sanctions against the ZANU-PF regime. It wasn’t going to go away and Nestlé was required (legally required in terms of EU policies) to stop purchasing milk from Grace, a specified person on the EU sanctions list.

This should not really create a problem for Grace because Zimbabwe has their own Daribord which purchases milk from wherever it can. There is a shortage of milk countrywide due to the destruction of dairy farming – just like all other farming produce. So Grace can easily sell her milk to Daribord.

But you have to remember that this Zimbabwe.

Next event was for workers from Grace’s farm to dump their milk on Nestlé factory doorstep and demand payment. It didn’t happen so the police, last week, arrested the MD and FD. The FD is Farai Munetsi – I know him well as we used to do business together. They were released without charge but Nestlé believed that their operations and their staff had been threatened by the regime and their African head office in Kenya decided to ‘temporarily’ close the factory doors.

Now the ZANU PF politicians get involved and shout their usual abuse from the rooftops of Harare that Nestlé can ‘go to hell’ and the government will take over their factory.

What will happen next? Watch this space but expect it to be the African political will that will win. At the expense of course of some 200 Zimbabwean workers who work at Nestlé in Harare, and at the expense of the economy and at the expense of the Zimbabwean consumer.

The Lull Before the Storm?

I see that it is three weeks since I last appended to this blog. Apart from when I was away on holiday this must constitute a record. The main reason is that life – politically and economically has become almost as boring here as it is in the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. But for the record: -

Roy Bennet’s trial has been adjourned to the New Year – this after Peter Hitschmann was called to give evidence and surprisingly to the prosecutor, was not available. Not a surprise to anyone else of course. Conveniently, Bennet will not be a ‘free man’ until after the ZANU PF Congress and after the continuing negotiations with the MDC and now, the South African negotiating team.

Lawyer Mordecai Mahlangu who had the ‘nerve’ to write a letter to the AG telling him that Hitschmann had no evidence to give at Bennet’s trial is still, presumably, on remand. Hopefully out of custody.

The MDC driver accused of engineering the theft of rifles from the Army barracks is also still on remand, but he is definitely IN custody, the State having appealed against the High Court decision to grant him bail.

And the negotiations continue. Although this time the South Africans are said to be taking a harder line against Mugabe following their complete surprise that Mugabe has failed to implement several of the matters agreed to in January. Why oh why are they surprised? Nobody else is.

Is this the lull before the coming storm?

Where did this man go to Law School?

Events in the High Court yesterday read like something from the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Except that it is real and deadly serious.

Roy Bennet is on trial for his life – that’s the serious part of this. Bennet is charged with “possessing dangerous weapons for terrorism as well as inciting acts of insurgency”. The prosecutor is no less than the Attorney General, Johannes Tomana. Tomana is himself a target for change inasmuch as his appointment prior to the inception of the Government of National Unity is being challenged by the MDC as an act in breach of the agreement signed by Mugabe and Tsvangirayi. Tomana is alleged to be a ‘political appointee’ and this may well be the case for it seems he does not know some of the basic tenets of the law in Zimbabwe.

The entire case against Bennet, we have learned today, is hinged on the ‘confession’ of Peter Michael Hitschmann who was charged with terrorism some three years ago and ended up being gaoled for ‘illegal possession of firearms’ after the main charges would not stick when it was found by the court that his ‘confessions’ were made under duress. Hitschmann is now a free man and he has made it public that he was tortured in order for the police to extract a confession.

Notwithstanding, Tomana thinks he can get a conviction against Bennet by introducing Hitschmann’s confession before the court at Bennet’s trial.

In efforts to bring these ‘confessions’ before the court, Tomana used a policeman yesterday in an attempt to give hearsay evidence of Hitschmann’s confessions. Not surprisingly the judge disallowed the evidence to be presented.

In response Tomana told the court he could not immediately proceed with trial as he had prepared his case anticipating that Makone’s evidence would be accepted.

And this is the Attorney General! Where did he go to law school?

In the meantime a lawyer representing Hitschmann, Mordecai Mahlangu was arrested after writing a letter to Tomana, saying his client Peter Hitschmann had no evidence to offer in the treason trial against MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennett. This letter has been construed by Tomana as an attempt to defeat the course of justice! Mahlangu has since been in custody for over two weeks. How bizarre can things get?

Perhaps Tomana’s strategy was aimed at using the State Press who would dutifully report any hearsay evidence that he managed to get passed the judge and thus publicly ‘justify’ the arrest of Bennet. Once confessions are out in the public domain in Zimbabwe it matters not that the confession was obtained through torture. Like ‘Illegal Economic Sanctions’ the confessions would be reproduced ad infinitum – minus of course the ‘obtained under duress’ part – until the constant repetition would create a Zimbabwean ‘truth’.

Once again, ZANU PF is demonstrating it’s hold on power – and of course it’s total lack of sincerity.

Could this be the Penultimate Nail in the ZANU PF Coffin?

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report tabled in Parliament earlier this month is the most damning evidence ever publicly produced of the ongoing kleptocracy that is Zimbabwe today. The staggering theft of public funds by ZANU PF ministers, military leaders and senior bureaucrats is shaking the ordinary people to the core. The theft of public funds is said to be ‘unbelievable’ in its enormity but in the realty of what Zimbabwe has become it is very believable. It simply goes hand in hand with the enormous theft of land, land improvements, growing crops and stock – including very recently some 8,000 crocodiles raised by a Chiredzi farmer – that has taken place in Zimbabwe in recent years. That it is being exposed to public scrutiny is what I find to be ‘unbelievable’ but perhaps the arrival of the MDC to Parliament has enabled this exposure to take place.

The report tells us that 10,277 youths were employed in the Ministry of Youth Development as so-called Ward Officers without nay authority. They were employed in the run up to and during the 2008 elections. It is crystal clear they were employed to ‘ensure victory’ for the ruling party in the usual way they do these things – holding night pungwes, beating up the local people, threatening death for voting ‘the wrong way’ and committing other like criminal acts. Mugabe and his coterie of thugs have never been more exposed for what they are.

But then the report tells of the brazen thefts of public property – generally motor vehicles ‘donated’ by the Reserve Bank Governor, the notorious Gideon Gono, to various ministries during the year under review. Some have simply not been accounted for by the ministries and departments concerned, others have been taken away by the drivers – mostly ministers in government, senior civil servants and military personnel. Add to that the theft of fuel where these same people entrusted with governing the country have been ‘allocated’ as much as 5,000 litres a month for fuel.

Now at last – well just perhaps – the people who continually like to defend Mugabe as a ‘hero of the liberation struggle’ will come to realise just what kind of heroes he and his cronies are – and have been all along.

South Africa should take note before they suffer the same fate. If you allow corruption to survive because it is ‘not really significant’, it just grows more heads like Medusa until it suffocates an entire nation of ordinary people.

The End is nigh? In a normal society one would think so. Zimbabwe is not a normal society.