HOW many readers have heard of the “Cuban Five”? It would be surprising if you haven’t because the state media in Zimbabwe has given them an inordinate amount of publicity.
The five were arrested in Miami in 1998 and charged with espionage. The five claim they were helpful to the US authorities. Whatever the case, they remain incarcerated in Miami.
According to the Cuban government: “In September 1998 five Cubans were arrested in Miami by FBI agents. Their mission in the US was to monitor activities of groups and organisations responsible for terrorist activities against Cuba.”
The Herald, which carried a sympathetic account of their ordeal last month, reminds us of Cuba’s contribution to Zimbabwe’s “revolutionary principles” and the assistance rendered at the time of Independence in the field of education and medicine.
We will not controvert any of this. Cuba has been generous in its assistance to Southern Africa over the years since the 1960s. But what strikes us as extraordinary is the way states like Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique have done nothing to express solidarity with journalists, writers and civic activists who have been incarcerated in Cuba and left to rot.
There was a brief episode when a handful of writers were released following Pope John Paul’s visit to the island, but the beneficiaries were obliged to seek exile in Spain.
Meanwhile, the Cuban Five’s supporters here complain bitterly that if the five are released they will have to remain in Miami.
The other dimension to this is that supporters of the Cuban Five have never bothered to tell us what they think of activists held in Zimbabwe’s jails. What about the MDC officials who were accused of involvement in killing Cain Nkala, who was suspected of kidnapping David Coltart’s election agent, Patrick Nabanyama.
President Mugabe went to Bulawayo and branded them terrorists. They were subsequently locked up for 21 months after Justice George Chiweshe reversed an order by Justice Lawrence Kamocha who had ruled that the accused could not be indicted for trial. They were, after a marathon trial, acquitted by Justice Sandra Mungwira in August 2004. Fletcher Dulini-Ncube lost the sight of an eye during his detention.
Surely the supporters of the Cuban Five have something to say about this lest the world thinks them hypocrites.
It was amusing to witness the turn of events in Zambia last week. Zanu PF was celebrating what they considered a great victory. This was a kick in the teeth for imperialism. Acres of forests were being chopped down to produce the pulp necessary to send the word that Michael Sata was a friend of Mugabe and an enemy of the MDC. Columnists like Reason Wafawarova were ecstatic.
“Closer home, Michael Sata of Zambia just won an election against the West’s favourite MMD and the win is an emphatic message that indeed imperialism is not invincible,” he crowed.
Life isn’t that simple. One of Sata’s first moves was to tell the Chinese they could do business in Zambia on the same terms as everybody else. They would not receive any favoured treatment from his government, he made clear. And let’s hope the appointment of veteran nationalist Guy Scott as VP sends a clear message to Zimbabwe’s delinquent nationalists that you don’t have to be a racist to be a good patriot!
Meanwhile, we were interested to note that cabinet had given a directive that Finance minister Tendai Biti release $40 million to buy inputs and recapitalise the GMB to pay farmers for grain delivered. Cabinet made the directive at its weekly meeting, we were told, on September 29.
This is all very interesting. Don’t we recall Webster Shamu warning newspapers not so long ago it was a grave sin for them to disclose matters arising from cabinet meetings? Perhaps we misheard him. And we thought we heard George say something similar!
By the way, what is the status of some well-known outstanding issues? In addition to Charamba, there is the matter of Gideon Gono, Johannes Tomana, and Roy Bennett.
Have they all slipped off the radar? And how could that happen without any of us being told?
On this topic, how does New Africa editor Baffour Ankomah find his way to Zimbabwe as soon as he gets wind of an election?
Baffour is a dedicated disciple of the Mugabe regime. They can be sure of indulgent coverage when he returns to his home in London. Like other columnists, Baffour evidently prefers the comfort of Britain to his homeland, Ghana.
In the interests of transparency could Baffour tell us who sponsors his regular visits to Zimbabwe. We are sure it’s not a secret.
Here’s a clue: “I live in London but I yield to Nathaniel Manheru for the great depth in which he treated the subject (of the August UK riots) in the Saturday Herald. If you missed Manheru’s column please get the Saturday Herald (August 13). It deserves to be framed and put on the living room wall.”
So there you have it! But sadly there will be few takers. The column is hardly a “must-read”! And we always have a chuckle when it goes missing whenever the president is in New York.
We were interested in an article in the Herald on the collapse of irrigation systems in Manicaland. Just as the president was telling an audience in New York that agriculture had recovered, a report in the Herald said villagers in the province were facing acute food shortages as dams lie idle. Thousands of households were facing critical food shortages as irrigation schemes had been vandalised.
“There is the 30ha Murambinda scheme that is not operating to capacity while the situation is even worse at Bonda where there is no pump and farmers are doing nothing,” the acting DA said.
“In Honde Valley there are projects that were left at the piping stage by the EU when it pulled out at the height of the land reform programme,” we are told.
All very sad. But who’s the one?
Elsewhere, Mashonaland Central governor Martin Dinha has “rapped” the MDC for denigrating senior Defence Forces officers who sacrificed to liberate Zimbabwe.
“It is disheartening that the traitors are now spitting in the faces of those that liberated them,” Dinha said. “We should not allow them to do that.
“They now have the temerity and audacity to call for security sector reform and pour scorn on the service chiefs and talk about human rights.”
He was speaking at the reburial of former freedom fighters in Chibondo.
Who is pouring scorn on the service chiefs? Certainly not the MDC. Don’t we recall a cable recently quoting senior officers pouring scorn on one particular colleague?
Dinha should tread carefully where there are political landmines lying around. And why does he think that constitutional change including the security sector amounts to “spitting” in people’s faces?
Dinha wants to know where human rights groups were when our people were being massacred. We should ask him where he was when 20 000 people were killed in Matabeleland. Dinha said the Europeans and British had no moral standing to teach Zimbabwe about human rights and democracy. Zimbabwe owes its freedom to those lying in Chibondo he said.
Indeed it does. And it is shocking that demagogues should hijack such ceremonies to seek votes. The next time Dinha mentions Chibondo we should all be sure to mention Bhalagwe, Antelope Mine, and Sun Yat Sen –– as loudly as possible.
‘A bruising legal fight is looming between Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU),” the Sunday Mail reports, over the latter’s imposition of “illegal” sanctions. This is amid revelations that the Attorney-General’s Office has assembled a team of the country’s best legal minds to file papers against the bloc.
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana confirmed that his office was drafting court documents that will be used in the “unprecedented” fight against the sanctions.
Tomana saidpapers were being prepared for the resumption of the “historic” legal battles in the General Court of the European Court of Justice for the annulment of the embargo.
Tomana and his colleagues doggedly ignore the EU’s clear call for parties to finalise the election roadmap. Zanu PF has continued to throw spanners into the GNU roadmap works with President Mugabe now intent on elections even without consummating the Global Political Agreement in full.
Zanu PF want the sanctions to go without addressing the issues that brought them in the first place. They should be reminded that they cannot have their cake and eat it too.
And is it seriously suggested that the country’s “best legal minds” are at the service of Zanu PF? Hardly likely!
Meanwhile the Zimbabwe Youth Council (ZYC) and other representatives of youth organisations have expressed concern over Finance minister Tendai Biti’s attitude towards addressing challenges they are facing.
ZBC reports that the youths, who had booked a meeting with the minister, expressed disappointment after he allegedly snubbed them, resulting in the meeting failing to materialise.
The youths say they are now losing patience with Biti, who is allegedly “refusing to release funds to spearhead youth development projects”.
This indigenisation craze has created a leech culture whose full extent is yet to be felt. These “youth” organisations are now demanding an arm and a leg from corporates for “development projects”. This is political blackmail.
Old Mutual was compelled to grant a 2,5% stake valued at US$10 million to the Youth Development Fund. An additional US$1 million will be made available from the Old Mutual Fund.
The fund, to be disbursed through CABS, will be jointly administered by the Indigenisation ministry and Old Mutual.
“Every province will benefit from the US$11 million fund,” the Herald claims.
This is said in the context of utterances by Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere to the effect that the indigenisation programme will benefit mostly Zanu PF supporters because other political parties are against it.
“They have said they are not interested in taking companies from their white owners, so they won’t benefit from the indigenisation drive. So our people, our Zanu PF supporters will benefit and become empowered through this programme,” Kasukuwere said.
In the circumstances it would be a grave dereliction of duty for any Finance minister to give public funds to dubious outfits of this sort sponsored by senior party hacks.
Don’t we recall some months ago a Reserve Bank report on all the benefits new farmers and others received saying there was no prospect of recovering these “loans”? And what does Old Mutual think it is doing collaborating with the Indigenisation ministry in handing out investors’ funds?
Those who have warned that we have new colonisers on the continent in the form of the Chinese will have been borne out by the pressure brought to bear by Beijing on the South African government not to grant the Dalai Lama a visa to attend Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday party.
Pretoria has ducked and dived over the matter of the visa. China is now one of South Africa’s biggest trading partners and has made it clear it will be displeased if the visa is granted. The Dalai Lama has had to withdraw his application because he will now miss the event.
It would be different if Tutu was Julius Malema or some other rabble-rouser. But he is a decent and thoughtful elder statesman who has made an enormous contribution to his country. China’s behaviour is that of a bully while the best that can be said of South Africa is that it has demonstrated cowardice where courage is required.
China was unlikely to have withdrawn its investments in the event that the visa was granted. And it would have provided a good example to Africa if it stood up to the new colonial power as Sata is doing.
