The National Women's Coalition will be hosting an important conference on June 16th and 17th to discuss, among other issues:
- Deliberate on our successes
- Review our challenges in the last three years including funding and the NGO Bill
- Identify opportunities in the operating environment
- Design strategies to manage our diversity
- Work towards the creation of a mass movement of women
- Design strategies for working with donors to encourage fairer funding practices
- Designed strategies to make ourselves more effective and stronger
- Selection of an Steering Committee for the Women’s Coalition
- Brainstorm a broad agenda for the women’s movement in the next three years
If you'd like to attend and get involved please write to Netsai Mushonga at [email protected] for more information. (SOURCE: www.kubatana.net)

Although the recent appointment of a female vice-president is seen as a positive step, gender lobbyists in Zimbabwe continue to agitate for more women in public office. Since the legislative elections in March 2005, women now represent just 16 percent in parliament, up from 10.6 percent. However, the figure falls far short of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) declaration in 1997, which agreed to a 30 percent target for female representation in national political bodies by 2005. Gender rights groups said the ruling ZANU-PF party had reneged on a campaign promise to have a third of its seats in parliament filled by women.

A number of Zimbabwean NGOs released statements on the situation in the country to the 37th Session of the Africa Commission on Human and People's Rights in Banjul, Gambia on Wednesday. The statement from Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe highlights the fact that the Government of Zimbabwe amended the laws that restrict the free flow of information but the amendments actually worsen the environment in which media practitioners work in Zimbabwe. A ZimRights statement at the 37th Session particularly mentions the "relegation of fundamental elections principles into SADC guidelines of persuasive value". In 2002 the ACHPR appointed a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe which came up with recommendations as to how the Government of Zimbabwe could improve the human rights situation in the country.

The International Press Institute (IPI) has announced its decision to honour SW Radio Africa with its 2005 Free Media Pioneer Award. Gerry Jackson, founder and station manager of SW Radio Africa, will receive the prize at an award ceremony on 24 May, during the forthcoming IPI World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya (21-24 May). In Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe's autocratic regime controls both radio and television, and the only independent daily newspaper, the Daily News, has been shut down, the shortwave radio station SW Radio Africa remains a rare independent voice.

"We note with concern that EPA negotiations are being undertaken at a time when most African states are still reeling under the effects of the IMF-World Bank imposed Structural Adjustment Programmes leaving them with limited policy space and options to resist calls for further liberalization. Farmers in ESA countries who produce largely for domestic demand will be wiped out by import surges from the relatively cheap and subsidized EU products."

The Zvakwana newsletter reports that in Bob Helvey’s book 'Strategic Non-violent Conflict: The Fundamentals', he compared two elections in 2002 in Serbia and Zimbabwe. In regard to the Zimbabwean example Helvey said of the MDC: “Little attention was given to a “Plan B” that would go into effect should the elections be stolen by the incumbent, robert mugabe.” Helvey went on to say: “With no detailed plan or any capacity to enforce the mandate of the people’s vote, the MDC had no alternative but to limit its response to declaring the election neither fair nor free and to call for another election.” That was in 2002. Sound familiar? In the words of Sokwanele in the South, “the MDC needs to adapt or die”, says Zvakwana.

Contact between the South African government and Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has ceased. MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube, who was the main contact between the two, said at the weekend: "I am not available to the South Africans any longer." Paul Themba Nyathi, MDC spokesperson, said: "From his point of view, he acted in good faith, in seriousness, and he discovered he had been used, so one should imagine he is intractably angry."

South Africa has failed Zimbabweans. There were always positive, active things to be doing over the past four years of Zimbabwe's economic and human rights implosion beyond 'silent diplomacy'. By focussing on Robert Mugabe and his eccentric personal and party needs– itself wrong as he heads an illegal and massively corrupt and brutal regime – South Africa has denied itself and Zimbabweans a number of constructive measures of long term value. If that had, or soon does, happen, the good governance foundations of NEPAD would have been well served. So too, an understanding as to how best to rebuild failed states and economies could have been tried and demonstrated.

Two British journalists detained in Zimbabwe during parliamentary elections left the country this week after being acquitted of the criminal charge of reporting without accreditation from the government-controlled Media and Information Commission. Toby Harnden, chief foreign correspondent for the London-based Sunday Telegraph, and photographer Julian Simmonds boarded a plane and safely reached neighboring South Africa, a newspaper spokeswoman said. The journalists had spent two weeks in prison while standing trial.

This is an open letter to some of our colleagues in the African National Congress Youth League who show a lot of ignorance about the political situation in Zimbabwe and how the human agency factor is central to the multifaceted crisis that Zimbabweans are facing.

The ANC Youth League chief, Fikile Mbalula was quoted recently in the South African media attacking both the leadership of the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) saying that they are meddling in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe and that Zimbabweans have a right to their sovereignty and self-determination. He warned of unspecified action if the two bodies continued like this. This was not the first time that the ANC Youth League has demonstrated total ignorance about the situation in Zimbabwe and how this state of affairs is now cause for concern within Southern Africa and beyond.

The position that Mbalula states ignored a number of fundamental issues pertaining to the situation in Zimbabwe. There are high expectations both in Zimbabwe and from the international community that as long as the government of South Africa does not commit itself to help out in the situation in Zimbabwe the situation will continue to deteriorate.

At sub-regional level the emphasis is put on South Africa to intervene in Zimbabwe because of both historical reasons and the fact that within the framework of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the country plays a crucial role as Chair of the Organ on Politics Defence and Security. Historically, both the governing party in South Africa and Zimbabwe’s Zanu PF party led by President Robert Mugabe share a common history of the struggle against colonial rule.

I want to agree with Mbalula that Zimbabwe needs self-determination but this does not preclude the ANC and COSATU to intervene in Zimbabwe and assist with finding a solution to the political and economic crisis that the country is experiencing. Yes the ANC Youth League must show the revolutionary spirit and vibrancy with which youths the world over are known for but looking at the intricate nature of the Zimbabwean question it is an obvious blunder to preach empty rhetoric about self-determination, sovereignty and Pan–Africanism.

It is high time that the ANC Youth League and like-minded fellow South Africans start to discern between the situation that they are experiencing and that Zimbabweans are facing. As I write this note there are long winding fuel queues , food shortages and a public transport crisis in my country but we are continuously reminded that we need to be sovereign and that we should not seek any external intervention to this crisis. The reality is that in contemporary international relations there can be no country that can survive on its own with entering into bilateral and multilateral relations with other state and non state parties in order to improve governance systems.

The aborted COSATU fact-finding missions to Zimbabwe were meant to establish the facts on the ground regarding the human rights situation. Members of the ANC Youth League were invited to Zimbabwe by Zanu PF last year and were not deported.

Rather than depending on one-sided accounts of what is happening in Zimbabwe , Mbalula and his colleagues in the Youth League must make an effort to visit Zimbabwe so that they can meet all sectors such as the church, business, civil society and the opposition political party , Movement for Democratic Change rather than depending on Zanu PF.

I challenge Mbalula and state that the government of President Mugabe has outlived its relevance to the politics of the country because of an economy that is bleeding and one that he has no formulae to use to mend it. The Zimbabwe National Students Union has on numerous occasions invited both the South African Congress of Student Unions (SASCO) and the entire leadership of the Youth League to pay a visit to Zimbabwe and see for them how President Mugabe has run down the country.

Contrary to the thinking of the Youth League, both the ANC and COSATU must bury the petty differences they are showing on the Zimbabwean question and must increase pressure on the government of President Mugabe to be sensitive to the plight of the people.

* Phillip Pasirayi is Information Officer for the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and he is currently attached to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town as a research fellow.

It is disappointing to the people of the SADC region in particular and us South African people that the elections in Zimbabwe were so "manipulated", and leaves us almost helpless. The main concern is the picture this gives the world at large. Independent analysis of the elections clearly suggests that the elections were not free and fair, though it appeared as if they were due to the sophisticated nature of the system used.

The SADC Guidelines were flouted in a diplomatic manner this time around, making it look genuine! And this makes it difficult to boldly say that the elections were not "free and fair", as MDC now carries the label of "bad losers" because they willingly participated in a somewhat "peaceful" and less eventful voting day, and they were leading in the vote count of seats at the beginning (mainly the the cities, Harare, Bulawayo and Masvingo etc). They never complained as they were ahead with 31 seats against Zanu-PF's 8 initially - but when the final count produced a 2/3 majority for their opponents they cry foul with allegations of "vote-rigging on a massive scale". This is the risk everyone who now condemns the Zimbabwe elections takes!

Now the words used are that they were "skewed" and "tilted" away from MDC towards ZANU-PF. MDC must have known or suspected this was going to happen, yet chose to participate in the elections, the decision which was confirmed late! This proved to be a critical turning point! With hind-sight MDC now must be regretting ever allowing itself to participate in the elections.

The other flaw related to this late decision to participate is the fact that they could not have enough time to campaign, especially amongst the rural voters! Suddenly, two weeks or so prior to election day, there were no longer "no-go areas" or intimidation of the opposition, but open and free campaigning everywhere, no violence! But complaints of using food to buy votes in the rural areas by the ruling party persisted, as did complaints of lack of access to the voters' roll by the opposition, and a lack of media coverage with freedom of the press and association remaining severely restricted.

The position taken by the SA President and Observer missions are worrying factors - Mbeki's quiet diplomacy is well recorded, some observer mission leaders like Labour Minister Mdladlana proclaimed prematurely that there was "no reason for elections not to be free & fair!". Mbulelo Goniwe and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka denied any negative allegations about conditions, they are on record as having endorsed elections as "free and fair" from their observations! Predictable the DA has distanced itself from the proclamations" by the observer mission to Zimbabwe elections! As civil society how do we begin to help change the slide that Zimbabwe is taking?

We cannot do much about the colour of our skins or our ancestors but we are democratic socialists, a pre-requisite of which is freedom of expression and participation in the means of decision making regarding the conditions of material life. 'Free and fair' elections of representatives to parliamentary institutions reflecting popular consent are a necessary - but not sufficient - component of this process. On those grounds we could accept a 'liberal' label for now or temporary alliances with 'liberals.' Long-term ones would include 'workers' in the traditional Marxist sense and underprivileged people in countries like Zimbabwe, the analysis of which has perplexed Marxist analysts for a long time (including the 'agrarian question,' arguably at the root of the Zimbabwean experience).

The responses to our note on the recent Zimbabwean elections illustrate the complexities - 'confusions' might be too derogatory - of a 'progressive' take on this crisis-ridden society. Unreflective nationalism in defence of authoritarianism is not helpful, but does reflect the ideologies floating about in what Ibbo Mandaza has famously called the 'schizophrenic post-colonial state.'

In such situations maintaining the truth might be (more) important than class allegiances. Truth must be spoken both to power and to resistance against colonialism, racism, globalisation, patriarchy and the long, long list. Refuge in a dying nationalism's exhausted slogans does not help in this struggle.

Regarding the election's funding, we are condemned for neglecting the MDC's receipt of around three billion Zimbabwean dollars (less than $US 250,000 in 'real' terms that make people with access to official exchange rates billionaires over-night). True, the Parliamentary Finance Act allocates these funds to parties on the basis of their seats in the legislature. However, the President's Office receives unaccountable billions every year expended on everything from the Central Intelligence Organisation to helicopter rides to ZANU-PF rallies. Because they are invisible funds, only rough estimates get to the public: but we are told they approach 60 billion Zimbabwean dollars. Check that out against the heath and education budgets. The three billion covers about 90% of the MDC's legal fees for their challenges on the last elections' count, to take a small example and on top of that the party had to pay $2 million for each candidate's election deposit. Bourgeois democracy is not free: but for ZANU-PF, as long as it remains in control of the state - and the counting - it is seen as a free lunch.

Yes, we are in solidarity with "those who strive and persist in crafting new African social worlds," as Dr. McFadden has it. Not, though, if the 'new political traditions [crafted] after hundreds of years of vicious, colonial exclusionary politics' include intimidation, vote-rigging, and other forms of chicanery rivaling those of George W. Bush and family, in the cause of a new, 'post-colonial' bourgeoisie hiding under the cloaks of anti-colonial discourse.

Elections carried out with honesty and in peace - for more than a three week window to a carefully invited world - are part and parcel of the creation of new worlds. Free and fair elections can offer a moment of freedom on a long road towards self-determination going far beyond a 'sovereignty' that collapses dissent with puppetry and international solidarity with imperialism.

We stand by our comments in the hopes that they will contribute to larger truths shorn of rhetorical sleight of hand. We hope, too, that they will keep us far away from the sort of state to which we are accused of aspiring (McFadden claims we, or those we support in this instance, are 'squealing about the lack of democracy [because we] have not yet been able to reach the state and accumulate.')!

The latest editorial in your publication on the Zim elections lacks very important information and raises questions about the level of knowledge of the writers or establishes a very disturbing bias on their part.

To start with the government of Zimbabwe provided 3.1 billionZim dollars to the opposition to cover the costs of election campaigning, with the ruling part receiving 3.3bill. Why isn’t this mentioned anywhere? Shouldn’t this fact be made known to your readers so they can make up their own minds about the veracity and accuracy of the reporting on Zimbabwe? Either the writers are ignorant of this fact or deliberately concealing it from your readership.

I am no fan of Mugabe and never have been. Yet it is hard to swallow all the disinformation passed off as journalism on the matter. Your publication does your readers a disservice by failing to provide both sides of the matter.

I read the comments by Bond and Moore - who are obviously considered the 'gurus' on Zimbabwe and on southern Africa in many circles - how little things have changed, especially when it comes to knowledge production and dissemination in this region (and globally) - the white man always knows best!!!

I personally am sick and tired of the arrogant and dismissive manner in which mainly white liberals, who sometimes parade as leftist (since when has Jubilee become a leftist movement, by the way?) dismiss the attempts by millions of Africans to craft democratic practices and new political traditions after hundreds of years of vicious, colonial exclusionary politics - the colonial state everywhere was fascist and totalitarian - and that must be reiterated constantly because it is the fundamental context within which Africans struggle to change their lives.

The very first sentences of the article by Bond and Moore are steeped in derisory arrogance, and the attempts by Africans to become active citizens and to confront and engage with the neo-colonial state and entrenched white property relations in this region in particular, are consistently dismissed with the typical, supremacist disrespect - describing African working people as either stupid (and that coming from a Rhodesian with a brutal racist past - and dubious present from what I can surmise from his comments to Bond and Moore...he dares to call the South African Observer team 'stupid' - what a give away, we know this language even if too many people in this region have been cowed into silence about the persistence of racist presumptions in the media - or that we are easily cheated.

Have we digressed so far off from our liberation goals that arrogant white men can exchange insults on collectively owned internet spaces about our efforts to stabilise our societies, and we uncritically accept their 'analyses' of us and quietly acquiesce with this derogatory discourse? I do not accept it - never have and never will...

These are old, tired, racist tropes of African 'victimhood' that project African people as being without an agency or capacity to think politically and to use the ballot strategically - whether white liberals and their black counterparts like it or not - with a view to much longer terms goals; goals that are about African freedoms and sustainable political systems. Who said that every political event and process in this region and on this continent has to receive the approval of the so-called white gurus based in South Africa or in the white dominated North? Where are the contesting and reflective African voices on the ways in which we - the people who have survived hundreds of years of white terror and impunity- imagine and struggle to establish the tinniest steps forward in a world where every attempt we make at being free from imperialism is deftly crushed and vilified by those who are deeply embedded in the barely-changed systems of white privilege and identity? How dare they dismiss the tremendous courage and pride that Zimbabwean working people brought to the moment of election on the 31st of March, 2005 - which encapsulated their dreams and visions of a better, more equitable society. And these are the very great, grand sons of white fascists whose kin could not imagine us human, let alone establish the most basic infrastructure of a democratic social image - now pontificating on what and how democracy can become real for us. Please, people - take a step back from your colonial-inspired, 'high-moral ground' - and smell the coffee (or shall I be kind and propose the roses!!!).

The reality of southern Africa and the region is that there are still some Africans - few and thin on the ground, I will concede - but who are nonetheless fed-up with the arrogant dismissal and constant bemoaning of how useless Africans are. There is a steadily growing discourse and political energy in our societies that must be recognised and mobilised - because it reflects the key features of the future of our continent, now. The real African political landscape is one of millions of people - from various classes, etc - who are sincerely engaged in the crafting of debates, visions, discourses and practices that are directly related to the shaping of democracy on this continent - democracy as an ancient human longing for peace and prosperity in material and social terms.

Democracy is not, and has never been the preserve of whites (whether they call themselves Europeans or whatever) and gone are the days when a little bunch of frustrated colonials could dictate the nuances and core elements of what African democratic practices and ideas are or can become.

So, my advice to both Bond and Moore - who represent the most insidious version of a frustrated white propertied minority that cannot let go of its vile past - is to stop masquerading as proponents of "DEMOCRACY" as defined and approved by whites - and take a bite of humble pie - step back from the sound of your own interests and narrow white histories - and have the courage to keep quiet for a little while - let other voices and ideas on these matters also flow with the breeze in our region - and maybe you will realise that your criteria for what democracy is are warped by your privilege as white males, and that you need to deal with that too.

We - the Africans who live and struggle in this region - are making democracy in the ways best known and possible to us - and whether a clique of white males and other disgruntled elements - who have not yet been able to reach the state and accumulate and are therefore squealing about the lack of democracy - like it or not - it is the little steps that millions of working people and African progressives are taking in building democratic ideas and a consciousness of entitlement - by engaging with all manner and form of privilege in our midst - that are the most unstoppable phenomenon of our times.

You can either remain in the past (even if you imagine yourself in the future...) or you can join the ranks of those who strive and persist in crafting new African social worlds....it's your Choice!!!! Just stop vilifying our efforts to become post-the-colonial world within which you remain so defiantly grounded...

Zimbabwe's opposition released a dossier on Wednesday to back claims that last month's elections were rigged to hand victory to President Robert Mugabe's ruling party. "This document you have before you is the MDC report on how the elections were stolen and rigged," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general Welshman Ncube told journalists after releasing the 56-page report titled "Stolen - How the Elections were rigged."

South Africa has stopped short of giving its full blessing to the March 31 Zimbabwe election, steering clear of describing the poll as free and fair. Instead President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet described the poll as "a credible reflection of the will of the people of Zimbabwe" and pointed to several concerns about problems experienced by voters on the day as well as the vote-counting process.

The NGO Network Alliance Project, an online community for Zimbabwean activists, carries the story of a 74-year-old grandmother's experience of voting in the Zimbabwean elections. "I left Bulawayo after voting to go to Harare to pray for peace and for the elections not to be stolen. Nobody forced me to travel but my empty stomach forced me to join other WOZA women. When we arrived in Harare it was very late because the bus carrying us had to queue for fuel in Gweru. As we neared Africa Unity Square, some women told us that many women had already been arrested and that we should go away. Our leader took us to the railway station waiting room for refuge. After some time, police drove in at high speed and rushed in shouting, "Face down, lie down". We did this and they beat us with their baton sticks. Those that refused to lie down were beaten as they stood up. After this they then walked on us with their boots."

Journalist Ray Choto and the estate of the late Mark Chavunduka, have been paid a total of more than 20 million Zimbabwean dollars (approx.US$3,225 at the official rate) in damages and interest claims for the torture and unlawful arrest they suffered following the publication of an alleged abortive coup plot in 1999. The damages were awarded posthumously to Chavunduka, who was editor of the privately-owned weekly "The Standard" newspaper, together with Choto, who was his senior reporter at the time. Choto is now based in Washington, USA.

One of Zimbabwe's pre-eminent writers, Yvonne Vera, has died aged 40 of meningitis, her friends said Saturday. "It is with great sorrow that Yvonne Vera's family and friends would like to inform you of her death," they said in a statement. Renowned for her poetical novels dealing with issues her fellow writers would rather skirt, Vera is considered one of the most gifted writers to emerge from Zimbabwe. She published five novels, and a collection of short stories - translated into at least seven languages. She also edited several anthologies of short stories by African woman writers.

AFRODAD, a Pan African regional organization working on Debt and Development issues is looking for a self-starter to join its secretariat as a Programme Director for Lobby and Advocacy.  The position is based in Harare, Zimbabwe. Basic requirements include an advanced degree in social sciences; knowledge of and experience in research and advocacy for Debt Cancellation at both regional and international levels; analytical, creative, strategic and problem-solving skills; the ability to simplify, summarise and communicate complex information. Working knowledge and presentation skills in both English and French/Portuguese are added advantages. Good communications, interpersonal and networking skills, including the ability to work with a diverse range of people; project development, fundraising, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and report-writing skills are essential. Interested applicants can email their CVs in confidence with a covering letter to: [email protected]/ [email protected]