Compelling and thought-provoking, Amartya Sen’s latest offering, Development as Freedom, is Nobel Prize winner for Economic Science in 1998. Sen provides a comprehensive summary of his thoughts on a key issue that has in recent decades, become a global debate: development.

This week, many African bloggers focused on the twin elections in Zimbabwe, analyzing and commenting on the competing claims of victory, the rumors and sometimes outlandish allegations that have been coming from that country.

wonders whether the final election results will reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people:

“We now await the Zimbabwe election results to see if the election was fixed or fair -- or poorly fixed. Should the fix be in, will Zimbabweans accept the "result" as in past elections, or will Zimbabwe descend into the chaos Kenya faced?

Based upon the average Zimbabwean's aversion to more warfare, I doubt the Kenya chaos will result unless Mugabe loses and unleashes his thugs. But he does that after every election in order to secure the next one.

Will Zimbabweans be free? I don't know.”

Township Vibes shares the widespread impatience and suspicion at the snail’s pace in which the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is releasing the results:

“Is there something going on that we haven't been told? The whole nation waits, very anxiously for the results of probably the most important election in the life of the long suffering Zimbabweans since independence.

Is the rigging machine at work? I don't know how you see it! How can one be a player and referee in the same game. Let's be serious, everyone knows the election results.

Why play with people's emotions? The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should just give people the results. Morgan Tsvangirayi and MDC won the election period! People know the results, Zanu PF knows the results, MDC know the results, and nearly everyone knows the results. Some may want to argue, some are saying let's wait for the results being announced by the Zanu PF government! Give me a break!

Zanu PF lost and lost big time!”

the online forum for Zimbabwean activists argues that the MDC should mobilize its supporters to ensure that the MDC claim of victory becomes a reality:

“Sure there needs to be an election to expose - what is so clearly being exposed - the work of Rigger Mugabe. But it doesn’t end there. A stolen election needs to be backed up by strong civic resistance. And usually it’s a good idea to have civic resistance guided by strong leadership. This is where Plan B comes in - the elephant in the room as far as the political opposition and civil society is concerned…

There is absolutely no question that the MDC has worked hard and campaigned strongly, but this is not enough. The MDC must prepare their supporters for resistance and be willing to lead them. Clear leadership from the MDC will mitigate spontaneous and sporadic violence. Civil society organisations must ignite their memberships (if indeed they actually have them) and lead them in defense of their vote. The international community must be prepared to speak out and support democratic change in Zimbabwe.

We cannot continue to sub contract the response to electoral fraud in Zimbabwe to the international community. We cannot continue to shield the MDC from criticism for their lack of follow through.”

Yblog ZA describes how activists were able to inform the world of the possible MDC victory even before the Mugabe regime had the time to get its act together:

“In 2000, 2002 and 2005 we encouraged MDC members and supporters to go to the polls but we did not claim our victories. MDC made a mistake of not claiming their victory and ZEC doctored the figures to keep Mugabe in power. In 2008 a secretive group of compatriots may have gotten the jump on Mugabe they came prepared and knowing Zimbabwe's electoral law they knew results would be posted as bulletin outside every polling station. The group deployed trained polling agents, equipped with phones and cameras, throughout the country on election day Saturday, and they counted voters and took photographs of voting results pasted up at voting stations (a previously unobserved requirement of voting regulations). The information was sent via text messages or satellite phone to a call center in South Africa, where it was collated and posted at www.zimelectionresults.com for all to see. "These will be archived on this Web site later as forensic evidence," the site says. "A separate report on discrepancies will be filed on the site later."

Although official counts for Saturday's election have been delayed, the Independent Results Centre has already announced that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai have won in a landside. Given the country's history of electoral fraud, the clandestine group's findings are likely to be widely perceived as at least as plausible as the official ones.”

Thinking Aloud wonders whether it is a good idea for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to step into Mugabe’s shoes if his victory is confirmed:

“… this man is a hero, he has managed to mobilise Zimbwabweans around a single cause of defeating Mugabe … he has fought a good fight, he has kept the faith till the end!

All emotion dictates that he finally ascends the throne and wear the crown of victory. But let us be a little critical and ask this question for the sake of a better Zimbwabwe from the head? Is Morgan the right guy for the job? Will he be able to handle the broken machinery of the Zim government? I will be the first one to say I don’t know Morgan very well, except his heroics against Mugabe… I believe Morgan should rather take a political father role of the new government. I believe he is more suited to be the unifier, and seek to sell MDC to the Mugabe rural constituencies. He can then make sure that the best brains that MDC has can then ascend to rule the country while he becomes the symbol of freedom. He stands to then be the real father of Zimbwabwe and avoid the tricky task of governance… liberators do not always make good governors. I also hope that the other faction stays as opposition and Zanu-PF remains as opposition, just to keep MDC on its toes. In SA we have learnt that in the absence of credible opposition, the liberators quickly loose their way!”

* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

dirty, rusted, corroded
links of the iron chain
hung innocently around
the neck of a sculpture

afraid to touch the layers
of fossilized blood, sweat, agony and fear
Fear so soul deep that one can
smell it
touch it
intimately know it when you see it
so familiar that it cloaks you like a second skin

Microscopic bits of beautiful brown skin
Unnaturally scraped from the necks of the unfree
Embedded in the links
turned to salt deposits and rust
formed from tears of desolation

iron chain
silently guarding the memory of
shrieks of pain, sobs of inconsolable grief and whispered prayers
of death's release

Hanging from the neck of a sculpture
"In memory of the slaves"
It's stillness belies the memory of
disbelieving jerks and the desperate yanks
of the instantly insane
refusing to accept the reality
of human capitol

Its stillness remembers the
stoic, beaten into acceptance
who lay in their own shit
with the iron chain
which now hides the stench
of that shit mixed with urine, blood, dirt
and a bottomless dread

iron chain transporting, enslaving
beautiful brown bodies
beautiful black souls
each link forging the
supreme weapon of black death
destroying a mass of bodies, minds,
hearts and hope
ahead of time.

Now hanging from the neck of a
sculpture
harmless.

* Nafeesa T. Nichols, a performer and poet, is also a scholar of South African literature and music and a Pan African activist.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Rozaria Memorial Trust Board of Trustees ae grateful for the support and voice of kenyan civil society on the current crisis in Zimbabwe . Any further deterioration of the situation will have huge implications for human rights especially for women and children. At the moment the election commission has mised the legal deadline for announcing results, and we therefore have a potential constitutional crisis.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/359/47204maga.jpgThe Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions held a meeting this morning, Tuesday 8 April 2008, to receive a report from the ZCTU on the current political crisis in Zimbabwe.

The ZCTU salutes the people of Zimbabwe, especially in the rural areas, for overcoming all the obstacles to prevent them exercising their vote. These included the chaotic state of the voters' roll, restrictions on the media, the cancellation of some political meetings, the denial of access to opposition parties into certain rural areas, village headmen calling people to the polling stations brandishing the voters' roll in order to intimidate them, statements by Generals that they would not salute any opposition party leader, and by President Mugabe that he would not accept defeat. The arrest of the South African pilot had nothing to do with the trumped up charges but was a blatant attempt to stop the MDC from campaigning in the rural areas.

All these factors combined to make many people not to participate in the elections - the turnout was low. It was not a free and fair election, yet despite that the people defied all the odds and have spoken. The urban areas voted overwhelmingly for opposition parties and the rural votes swung dramatically against the ZANU-PF.

The ZCTU had hoped that all the results would have been announced by now. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is not obliged to announce the council, parliamentary and senate elections as they are counted at polling stations, with results posted at each of the polling stations and announced at constituency command centres. The ZEC is however compelled by law to announce the Presidential results.

It appears that when ZANU (PF) saw the results of the presidential vote, they leaned on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to only release the parliamentary and senate results first, in order to give them time to find a way to prove that Morgan Tsvangirai received less that 50%, so that a run-off would be necessary. The independent NGO, the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network has calculated that his vote was between 47% and 49%, with Robert Mugabe receiving 41%-43%. The MDC through the party agents that were observing at all polling stations put the poll at 50.3%.

The ZANU (PF) claim that no candidate has a majority and that they have been cheated of 4900 votes, through ZEC officials 'under-counting' their vote, though they have not revealed how they know that.

It should be noted that all political parties including the ZANU (PF) and the MDC had party agents in all polling stations. These party agents signed for the results before these were posted in the polling stations. In addition to this ZCTU and other NGOs had monitors who witnessed the counting and the signing in most polling stations.

In the face of the above fact it is very clear that the arrest of ZEC officials is an attempt to force some ZEC officials to change tune. The suspicion is that they will be tortured into "confessing" that they, and other agents, under-counted President Mugabe's votes as claimed by the ZANU (PF) Politburo, which has issued a statement that some of its party agents were bribed by the MDC. This is the reason behind the arrest of the ZEC officials. Yet no party agent and police officers who all signed the V11 and V23 forms which contained the results posted outside the stations were arrested.

The ZANU-PF is also challenging the results in 16 parliamentary wards, just enough, if they succeed, to reverse the results in their favour and give them a majority of seats. It is speculated that the reason why ZANU PF is so desperate to undermine the will of the majority is that Mugabe intended to resign in six months and make way for Emmerson Mnangagwa, which will be impossible if the ZANU-PF does not have a parliamentary majority.

ZANU - PF clearly knows it lost the vote, yet it is still illegal for anyone to say this in public. Even if Mugabe came second, for an incumbent president, that amounts to a defeat. The ZCTU and many other civil society formations are coming under intense pressure from their constituencies to initiate protest action in the face of the refusal of ZEC to announce the Presidential elections results.

The leadership is aware that such protest may be what President Mugabe is praying for, in that it would give him the excuse to declare a state of emergency and rule by decree. With the history of violence including, the massacre of 20 000 people in Matebeland between 1983 and 1987, this fear is not far fetched.

For that reason the ZCTU is urging all its members to remain calm, as the situation is a cliff-hanger and the popular mood is explosive. The ZCTU is however extremely concerned that in the context of divisions in the uniformed forces and even amongst the war veterans a possibility looms that people may lose patience. No one predicted the Rwanda and Kenya scenarios until they happened.

The ZCTU and COSATU demand that the results be announced. If there is a clear winner that winner must form a government. If there is no winner the election must be rerun, with an increased number of international and local observers.

The federations are preparing themselves for three scenarios. First is that a winner is declared and he forms a new government and begin a process of national unity. The second scenario is that there will be a run-off election. The third, more negative one, is that President Mugabe will rule by decree and in effect stage a coup.

The ZCTU, speaking for all progressive Zimbabweans who want a change to their plight, thanks COSATU and South African civil society for their constant support for the struggle for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe.

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/359/47201muga.jpgStatement of the GZF on the situation in Zimbabwe, issued after the Global Teleconference by all the regions present

Zimbabwe Global Forum (GFZ) condemns the actions by the Government of Zimbabwe for the arbitrary handling of the electoral process as well as the results of the presidential elections held on March 29, 2008.

The Government of President Robert Mugabe, and his ruling ZANUPF party have frustrated, not only the conduct of the elections but the timely release of the election results.

What is even more troubling is that President Mugabe’s ZANUPF are demanding a recount of the presidential votes, while at the same time preventing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission from releasing the presidential election results.

President Robert Mugabe and his subordinates have started arming the youth militia and war veterans to unleash retributive and coercive violence against opposition supporters, especially in rural areas. President Mugabe is embarking on a warpath to impose himself on Zimbabweans in the aftermath of his defeat in the elections. It is self evident that President Mugabe does not respect the democratic process of elections in accordance with the SADC Guidelines and the laws of Zimbabwe.

Well -confirmed results - even from the vote-counting officers of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission - show that the Movement for Democratic Change led by Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai won both the presidential and parliamentary elections. These results, which were posted outside the counting centers in accordance with the mandate of ZEC, also clearly show that Morgan Tsvangirai won by more than 50 percent.

Constitutionally, President Mugabe is by law obligated and required to concede defeat and hand over power to the MDC, according to the procedures provided for by the Constitution.

President Mugabe and ZANUPF have a proven history of political violence against members of the opposition parties. This is how he has maintained his rule over the years.

President Mugabe will now use all the barbaric and brutal force at his command to go after the Zimbabweans who voted against him and his party.

Already, reports are emerging of an assault on innocent civilians, aimed at forcing them to vote for Mugabe at the next run-off election and hence:

1. We call upon the international community to bring pressure to bear on the Mugabe regime to respect the people’s verdict and accept defeat. We quote from President Mugabe himself before the elections when he said if ZANUPF loses the elections he will concede defeat.

2. We demand that the countries of SADC insist that President Mugabe should follow the electoral procedures as laid out in the SADC guidelines and the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

3. We call upon, the Secretary General of the United Nations to begin consultations leading to the convening of the Security Council on the crisis in Zimbabwe.

4. We call upon the African Union, in consultation with SADC, to send a strong African delegation to mediate the crisis in Zimbabwe. The delegation should stay in Zimbabwe for as long as is necessary to resolve the crisis.

5. We call upon the countries of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Botswana which have expressed concern at the denial of human and civil rights in Zimbabwe to play a leading role in bringing pressure to bear on President Mugabe.

6. The Government of the Republic of South Africa has a unique geopolitical and historic influence on Zimbabwe. We call upon President Thabo Mbeki, whose country will be adversely affected by the ongoing crisis of governance and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, to initiate a shuttle diplomacy between President Mugabe and President-elect Tsvangirai in order to resolve peacefully the country’s electoral conflict.

7. Should a rerun of the presidential election become the only option to resolve the crisis, we call upon the United Nations to supervise the election with the active participation of SADC, AU and civil society in the country and region.

8. If President Mugabe and ZANUPF refuse to accept reasonable conditions for resolving the crisis, we call upon the international community not to recognize the Mugabe regime, especially, if the regime is fraudulently and by force of arms imposed on the people of Zimbabwe.

9. We also call upon the international community to impose more effective targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime if it refuses to comply with the democratic norms for elections and handing over power.

10. We call upon the industrialized countries of North American, the European Union, etc. to increase, expand and extend the scope of their humanitarian assistance programs to include Zimbabwean refugees, especially the traumatized victims of assault by the Mugabe regime.

11. We call upon the international community to continue to strengthen civic society in Zimbabwe, and to distribute aid through civic organizations rather than a disputed government to avert politicization and misappropriation of resources and ensure that aid reaches its intended beneficiaries.

12. We call upon the international community to stand ready to engage the new democratic Zimbabwean on the basis of the Zimbabwe Strategy paper.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Thank you for the excellent article Pitfalls of export processing zones by Herbert Jauch [http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/46932].

A copy of this article should be sent to every minister of finance and minister of trade in every African country. It should be printed and hung on the wall of every parliament building and every 'investment centre' and every university economics department in Africa. It relates to all the issues raised in Pambazuka: China/Africa, agrofuels, Chad/France, the future of Zimbabwe. This is the fundamental issue for developing Africa.

Instead of adopting an open-door policy towards foreign investment, Namibia (and Africa in general) need to adopt selective policies that channel investments into certain strategic sectors that will have a lasting developmental impact.

They require a very clear and strategic development agenda that is not based on blind faith in foreign investment as the panacea to our development problems.

The lack of alternative programmes for effective economic development and job creation places government in a weak position to negotiate adherence to labour, social and environmental standards with foreign investors."

How can this be distributed more widely? Can the AU hold a conference on this?

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/359/47178race.jpgBlessing-Miles Tendi argues that it is too early to rule out a Mugabe led Zimbabwe - he will find ways to remain in power.

I have been following Zimbabwe's 2008 elections closely. My emotions have mutated with alacrity, checking news sites more often than I should, and receiving calls and messages from family and political contacts in Zimbabwe. Since last week, I have gone from 'Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF will win' to 'it will be a landslide victory for the opposition' to 'Mugabe has already fled the country fearing retribution' to 'the army has ordered the electoral commission to declare Mugabe the winner' and now, my present mood and thinking is that a lot of people are going to be disappointed by the eventual outcome of the presidential poll because we are headed for a do or die run-off between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.

The two things that stand out about Mugabe's political pattern is his consistency, and that he is too wily and resolute in power to be swept away in a pseudo democratic election. Zimbabwe is better off without him at the helm but we must temper our emotions and stop our imagination from running wild. Mugabe has been in difficult situations before and wriggled out of them amazingly. 'Jesus rose from the dead once but I have come back from the dead several times', he once boasted. The probability is high that Mugabe can come back from the dead once again. I would not bet against it. This is my position now, after what has been a rollercoster week of miraculous flip-flopping on my part.

Sovereignty is a vehicle towards the good life for the ZANU PF political elite. The font of sovereignty is the powerful executive presidency through which ZANU PF has privatised the institution of the state as a means to authoritarian rule and personal aggrandisement: 'the desire to retain sovereignty and not to surrender it or even share it is a powerful motive perpetuating the ex-colonial status quo in Sub Saharan Africa. Sovereignty gives a relatively small number of people control of state positions which confer enormous palpable advantages and privileges. Ruling elites literally live off sovereignty and most live very well indeed - as long as they live. They fight to keep it and others fight to take it away from them'.

When Mugabe and ZANU PF play up sovereignty it is in order to protect their hold on power and its benefits. Their uses of sovereignty are less about protecting the country and its inhabitants' sovereignty but more about protecting the 'enormous palpable advantages and privileges' sovereignty affords them. In Zimbabwe it is not the governed who are sovereign – it is ZANU PF that is sovereign. ZANU PF elites live off sovereignty. Thus, sovereignty is one of the themes commanding broad consensus in ZANU PF and the party will strive – at all costs - to keep its hold on sovereignty by retaining the presidency in the looming run off.

A run off between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai may suit Mugabe better than facing Simba Makoni in a runoff because if there is anything many in ZANU PF and Zimbabwe's top security officials are united on, it is that Tsvangirai must not rule. Those comprising the status quo not only stand to lose their sovereignty but also fear prosecution for crimes committed in office if Tsvangirai prevails.

ZANU PF was divided in this election but expect it to put its differences aside and to rally behind Mugabe forcefully in a run off with Tsvangirai. Mugabe risked damaging defections if he had faced Makoni in a run off. A Mugabe-Makoni run off would have presented Makoni's secret and powerful backers in ZANU PF, such as Solomon Mujuru, with the opportune moment to abandon Mugabe in favour of Makoni. Mugabe will also find it easier to marshal ZANU PF's rank and file to campaign for him against Tsvangirai as opposed to Makoni who has many sympathisers in the ruling party. Indeed some will not need to be marshaled at all for retaining the presidency means guaranteeing their life of privilege.

ZANU PF will leave no stone unturned in a Mugabe-Tsvangirai face off. ZANU PF was complacent in the rural areas and some of its rural party structures were not as formidable as they normally are. It underestimated the extent to which Tsvangirai would make significant in roads into its rural strongholds. The free political space Tsvangirai enjoyed in the rural areas during this campaign will be gone in the run off. A run off in 3 weeks, or 90 days as has been suggested, also allows ZANU PF some time to tinker its rigging machinery. The war veterans have started making threats. There is a developing discourse proclaiming the return of white farmers and how the land revolution can only be defended by re-electing Mugabe. The military looks set to be more involved than ever before in guaranteeing Mugabe's re-election. We are about to be blitzed with everything ZANU PF has left.

* Blessing-Miles Tendi is a researcher at Oxford University.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/359/47176results.jpgIt is now more than a full week since the historic harmonised elections took place on 29 March 2008 but there has been near deafening silence about the outcome of the flagship election, the presidential contest. The results of the House of Assembly and Senate elections were also released at a painfully slow pace. This has understandably generated a hive of rumours, speculation, fears and nervousness among the stakeholders, and in the nation and international community. At the centre of the mystery is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), a constitutional body mandated to conduct elections and referendums “efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance with the law.” It is the CCJP’s understanding that this mandate includes but is not restricted to ensuring that the results of the elections are made public to the contesting parties and to the nation as a whole as expeditiously as possible, that is, within reasonable time.

The rumours and nervous speculation swirling around the presidential election results and the mystery surrounding ZEC’s reluctance to speedily release those results has the effect of producing unnecessary suspicions that ZEC is being manipulated to produce results at variance with the verdict of the people. This is unfortunate if only because there does not appear to be any compelling reason for the inordinate delay in releasing the results. This delay is stretching the patience of the people to the limit to the point where ZEC appears to be abusing the legendary patience of the Zimbabwe people.

We have previously noted with considerable satisfaction that ZEC managed to conduct what to many objective observers has been one of the most free and fair elections since independence though there were still many flaws and lapses. The integrity of the election body is now seriously under threat because of its disinclination to quickly make the results public and allay the fears and suspicions of the nation. If ZEC has the public interest and is not driven by partisan interests, then it surely should release the results without any further equivocation. The inordinate delay is a recipe for distrust, political tension and even instability. ZEC must not only act impartially and honestly, it must be seen to be respecting these cardinal values. So far, and with respect to the snail’s pace at which the results were announced and the apparent reluctance to release the presidential election results, ZEC is failing the test. The autonomy and professionalism of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission have been seriously eroded and deeply compromised, reinforcing accusations of embedded partisanship and bias. In the event of a re-run of the presidential election, Zimbabweans and the international community now have grave doubts about the fairness and impartiality of ZEC to conduct the poll.

The CCJP joins the domestic and international community in urging ZEC, in the interest of peace and the search for justice, to urgently release and publicise the results of the presidential election held on March 29, 2008. Many Zimbabweans are anxiously waiting for these results; and they deserve and have a right to know. CCJPZ will continue to observe the post election period countrywide and produce reports.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum salutes the Zimbabweans and their organisations who have courageously spoken out against the unacceptable shenanigans of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. The tension surrounding the announcement of the election results is only fuelling the deep suspicions that ZANU-PF is again involved in efforts to falsify the outcomes of an election. We have seen this before but this time it cannot and will not be accepted.

Already reports are coming in that the figures being reported have inflated the total individual votes received by ZANU, paving the way for efforts to announce a dishonest ZANU victory at Senate and Presidential levels. The corresponding increase in police and army presence on the streets of Harare and Bulawayo, the ransacking of the offices of the opposition MDC, the harassment and arrest of journalists and inflammatory statements from ZANU officials does not bode well for the democratic process.

Foreign observers are leaving the country before the process is over, media attention is already shifting to new fresher stories, but the ZANU machinery is only just preparing to unleash the full might of its violent capabilities.

The ZSF reminds key security force personnel in Zimbabwe of the statements made by the African National Congress those public pronouncements that refuse to accept the leadership of the MDC is unacceptable. As in any democracy the military in Zimbabwe must recognise that they are accountable to the state, and that the state is accountable to the electorate.

The ZSF calls on SADC and the African Union to intervene decisively in Zimbabwe. It must be made clear that violence and repression is not part of the solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis and that it will not be tolerated. South Africa must continue to engage the ZANU Politburo in dialogue aimed at preventing violence. The rigorous defence of democratic principles is critical not only to the future of Zimbabwe but for the whole of the Southern African region and the entire African continent.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Statement on World Health Day

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights calls to attention the state of the public health system. Zimbabwe?s healthcare system, in a known state of crisis, is in need of urgent attention. It is crippled by dilapidated infrastructure, drug shortages, equipment breakdowns, brain drain and costs of healthcare skyrocketing beyond the reach of the majority of Zimbabweans.

Average life expectancy, according to the WHO, has declined from 60 years to 37 years for men and 34 for women during the past decade. Maternal mortality is rising to a level which meets that of the world poorest countries.

ZADHR commends health professionals and health workers in Zimbabwe who have continued to deliver health services in very difficult circumstances and remain committed to the recovery and improvement of the public health system.

ZADHR notes the need for a comprehensive national health plan to replace some of the uncoordinated ad hoc measures that have been put in place to address the crisis in the short term. Such a plan must guarantee that Zimbabwean?s are able to enjoy their right to health. The responsibility for this lies with government in consultation with other stakeholders.

Marking World Health Day, ZADHR calls upon the newly elected Parliament of Zimbabwe, amidst a myriad of challenges ahead of it during its term in office, to prioritise policy interventions to address the public health crisis in Zimbabwe. In doing so ZADHR urges the new Parliament to attend to the following key areas:

- Formulating legislation that protects, respects and fulfils the right to health for all Zimbabweans.

- Providing adequate infrastructure needed for effective and equitable healthcare such as safe running water, adequate sanitation, electricity and transport.

- Taking measures to address shortages of drugs and medical equipment in the short, medium and long term.

- Creating conditions under which good training quality for health professionals is guaranteed and ensure that conditions in which these skills can be retained exist.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Violence was relatively low in the run-up to local elections on 29 March in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers State but with evidence emerging of massive voting irregularities in favour of the ruling party, human rights groups warn the worst may not be over.

Transparency International-Kenya (TI-K) would like to express its alarm at the apparent vacuum in the governance structures and practice brought about by the sluggish progress in the constitution of a new cabinet as stipulated in the Peace Accord. The delays are understood to be as an effort to accommodate disparate political interests with some proposing a hugely bloated cabinet.

As the world waits to see what will happen in Zimbabwe, Patrick Bond argues that lessons should be taught and retaught about the dangers of elite transition between a voracious, corrupt, violent and divisive set of rulers, and an incoming crew who might not withstand the blandishments of local power-sharing and global economic seduction.

Zimbabwe's opposition has filed a high court application to compel the electoral commission to release the results of the presidential election, the party's lawyers said. The move by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) comes as the ruling party of Robert Mugabe, the president, met on Friday to decide whether to contest a run-off vote.

Ahmed Abdalla Sambi, president of Comoros, has urged peaceful demonstrations against France after it moved the defeated president of Anjouan island to Reunion. Mohammed Bacar fled by speedboat to the nearby French-ruled island of Mayotte after an African Union backed military invasion.

Ivory Coast has slashed the taxes on imported staple foods after two days of violent protests in the commercial capital Abidjan over rising prices. At least one man died in the demonstrations during which police fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protesters blocking roads with burning tyres and barricades.

The UN Human Rights Committee has criticised Botswana’s government over its treatment of the Bushmen. The committee urged Botswana to ensure that ‘all persons who were relocated are granted the right to return to the CKGR (Central Kalahari Game Reserve)’. The government has so far only allowed those few Bushmen named in the Botswana High Court case, which the Bushmen won in 2006, to return to live in the CKGR; hundreds of others are forced to apply for permits.

RCD party chief Said Saadi has returned from an international tour to solicit observers for Algeria's presidential elections next spring. Some politicians view Saadi's move as an early indication of his likely candidacy. Others oppose the measure, arguing that foreign observers call Algeria's reputation and sovereignty into question.

Egyptian security forces detained 30 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Friday just days ahead of Egypt's local council elections, including a member of the group's governing Guidance Office, the group said. The detentions add to a growing crackdown that has seen more than 300 members of the country's most powerful opposition group picked up since Tuesday ahead of the April 8 vote, in which the Brotherhood is vying for seats against Egypt's ruling party.