This is a brilliant piece. Truly, the ordinary people's suffering in Zimbabwe is unbearable. Comrade Mugabe is right on the land question. But he needs to change tactics to ensure that Zimbabwe's people survive to enjoy the fruit of the land reform.Why should restoration of land necessarily lead to the continuing impoverishment of the people of Zimbabwe as though uncle Bob has already quit the stage? Comrade Mugabe, please deliver the people to the promised land of plenty.

I agree with Onyongo Oloo. The fuss in Kenya is similar to the one in my country, Zambia. Both countries look to the West in the anti-corruption crusade. In Zambia, the fight against corruption is personified by prosecuting former President Chiluba. Curiously, President Mwanawasa expects us to believe that his anti corruption crusade is serious and not a sham! It is shameful that Githongo is fighting corruption in Kenya from Britain. If he is too scared to do it from Nairobi, let him find a base in an African country.

Editor comment: This is rather an unfair, and rather one could suggest even naive, position to take. Githongo has been heroic in challenging corruption. It is naive to believe this can be done without threat to one's own and one's family's safety. We should not equate Githongo's position with the use that the the western media and governments might make use of his revelations.

What an apt characterisation! I couldn't agree more. As comrade Mugabe has said, colonialism is a crime against humanity. Reparations are in order. African leaders have to realise that paying back the so-called debt to the multi-lateral institutions of the West, is a perpetuation of slavery and subjugation. Africa will not develop for as long as it is led by imperialist lackeys who are falling over each other to reach the HIPC completion point as was the case in my country Zambia.These governments are there to meet the conditionality set by their Western bosses. Not once have they met any expectation of the hapless masses.

I disagree with Patrick Bond and David Moore's conclusions on the Zimbabwe elections. It is condescending to merely allege that the urban poor and working class were cheated while the rural poor were intimidated. Where is the evidence to support these assertions? If Morgan the beloved weren't an ignoble chancer, why did he participate in the elections which he all along dubbed unfree and unfair? Comrade Mugabe is right to have reclaimed our peoples birth right. Their land. Savagely stolen by the ancestors of Morgan's current financiers. Aluta continua!

Moyo is an impressive trinket (Pambazuka News 166). He's adept at making light the tribulations of the ordinary Zimbabwean. He denies there is starvation in his country only because that is not the reality in his dining room in his house.

ZANU PF is right on the land policy. But this is no excuse for the criminal excesses being perpetrated by government elements in the name of land redistribution.

Moyo, redeem yourself before the wrath of the people extinguishes you.

Sibanze Simuchoba, Zambia

NARC and the so-called New Deal MMD government in Zambia seem to be birds of a feather! (Pambazuka News 129: Issues in Democracy and Human Rights in Kenya) Zambia is still plagued with electoral malpractices and wanton violations of the Republican constitution. MMD causes parliamentary by-elections galore by wooing opposition MPs to defect to it. These by-elections are damn expensive. MMD dishes out money and other gifts in the affected constituencies to win the elections and they do. Also the buying of dubious Voters Cards including of the dead registered voters is rife. Fake voters are moved from other areas to guarantee votes. The litany of illegal manoeuvres is endless. Yet MMD as a party is known not to earn any money from any economic activity. The money must be plundered from the exchequer. And this is supposed to be a government of laws!

This government has an unconstitutionally appointed Vice President. The people were played a number. Shortly after he was appointed, a politician sued contesting the constitutionality of his nomination to the National Assembly and appointment as VP. The opposition in parliament moved a motion to impeach the President for unconstitutional acts. The VPs appointment was not debated because the matter was sub-judice. By and by a deal was struck whereby the seemingly vigilant lady MP was made to eat humble pie and withdraw her suit. Now the VP is sitting pretty without challenge to his unconstitutional holding of office.

I agree that corruption has been elevated to unjustified high heights (Pambazuka News 127: The Politics of Corruption). In Zambia that is all the government is talking about. In the meantime, the masses are wallowing in unmitigated poverty. The failure or omission by government to provide social services is blamed on the corruption of the government of Chiluba. Chiluba in turn had blamed it on the corruption in Kaunda's time. So much is being said by Mwanawasa's regime on its zero tolerance to corruption. But the so-called economic plunderers of yesterday are being acquitted by the courts daily due to lack of evidence. The so-called Task Force on corruption is clearly out of its depth. We are tired of the corruption menu being served to us daily.