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.

Leaders of civil society and two MPs have criticised the forced resignation of Transparency International executive director Gladwell Otieno. Reacting to the resignation at the weekend, Kenya Human Rights Commission chairman Prof Makau Mutua described Ms Otieno's resignation as a shocking development saying it "opens a new chapter by the Narc government in its war against those civil society organisations that dare to be critical of it."

I think it is a shame that a progressive and feminist such as Patricia McFadden PhD should descend to the level of arguments that she used against Messrs Bond and Moore (Pambazuka news 202: 14 April 2005). Bond and Moore offer a critical analysis of the Zimbabwe elections, backing up their argument with empirical evidence. Fine, we may not all necessarily agree with their analysis, but if so it is incumbent on us to provide an alternative interpretation of the facts or to supply alternative evidence to counter theirs.

But instead, McFadden's only argument is that as these gentlemen are white (and men?), that disenfranchises them from their right to comment. Is there not an irony here that under colonial (and apartheid) rule, race and ethnicity were caste as political identities, and were thereby used to disenfranchise the majority from having a legitimate voice. I thought we had learned to go beyond that.

To dismiss an analysis merely because of someone's race is to present the same argument that Mugabe uses to silence his critics. And what is the basis of Patricia's claim, herself born in Swaziland, to claim legitimacy to speak on Zimbabwe? Should we dismiss her many excellent contributions merely because we believe that her surname implies that her pure black African blood has somehow been tainted?

Name-calling is the last vestige of the desperate. We are used to such arguments from sycophants like Simon Hinds whose role in life, some would say, appears to be to eulogise Mugabe and Zanu-PF using similar arguments, but to hear the same from Patricia is sad. Is Patricia, a feminist, defending Mugabe's regime? Perhaps Pambazuka News should invite Patricia to present her thesis on why African feminists should defend the Zanu-PF regime.

With its focus on employment practices, business and skills development in Africa, this issue of Interim Developments reports on a recent London conference bringing together African employers and African professionals outside Africa, examines a skills development project in Kenya, interviews the Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority and highlights the work of Interims for Development in building the skills and capacity of Africa’s professional base. 

A United Nations panel in Liberia has uncovered details of a mining deal it says was signed in "extremely opaque" circumstances and which it says creates "a de facto monopoly over much of Liberia's diamond-producing regions" for 10 years, according to a panel member. A UN ban on trade in diamonds from Liberia has been enforced since 2001 and was last renewed in December for a further six months pending a review. The US has cautioned the UN Security Council against a premature lifting of sanctions.

On April 14, 1979, Liberians took to the streets in protest against a proposed increment in the price of rice. Twenty six years later, on April 14, 2005, the Supreme Court of Liberia issued a judgment removing the stay order on the investigation of alleged corruption within the National Transitional Government of Liberia. This is indeed a historic day, and a reminder that our country, the Republic of Liberia, the oldest independent Republic in Africa is on course in deepening democratic tendencies, supporting the rule of law and Courts decision in essence gives a ECOWAS Panel of Investigators the right to proceed and investigate the probable misapplication of natural resources, specifically public funds.

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.

* EDITORIAL: As the Global Week of Action kicks off and protests against International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington loom, Njoki Njehu discusses the state of the global justice movement, its aims, alliances and progress
* COMMENT AND ANALYSIS: Ndahiro Tom critically examines the role of the Catholic Church in the Rwandan genocide
- Chinua Akukwe spells out ten practical steps for African leaders to fight the impact of the HIV/AIDS virus on women
- UNHCR and the Government of Uganda should allow refugees freedom of movement and the choice to live where they feel most secure, argues Christina Clark
* LETTERS: Reader rage at last week’s editorial on Zimbabwe and a poetic battle over Pan-Africanism
* CONFLICTS AND EMERGENCIES: Billions needed for peace in Sudan, says Annan
* HUMAN RIGHTS: New research on community based organizations and human rights in Southern Africa
* ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Gertrude Mongella spells out the aims of the Pan African Parliament
* DEVELOPMENT: Press releases on the Global Week of Action on Trade; links to news on EPA’s, debt cancellation and the Hong Kong WTO meet
* EDUCATION: Corporal punishment vs constructive discipline

AND the latest in fundraising, jobs, courses and enewsletters…

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...

To make vital progress towards implementing internationally agreed development goals, it will be crucial to harness the potential created by the past decade's info-tech explosion, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in his message to a global forum on using new technologies to boost education. "One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)is achievement of universal primary education by 2015. We must ensure that information and communication technologies (ICT) are used to help unlock the door to education," the Secretary-General said in a message delivered by José Antonio Ocampo. He urged the Forum to use 2005 to explore ways to "think and act urgently and boldly to ensure that ICT is used to advance education and development…whether for young girls in Afghanistan, university students in Uganda, or workers in Brazil, so that we can fully seize economic opportunities, and live lives of dignity, free from want.

CHRISTINA CLARK argues that in order to fulfil the protection promises made under international legal instruments, UNHCR and the Government of Uganda should allow refugees freedom of movement and the choice to live where they feel most secure – whether in rural settlements, or urban centres.

UN agencies, NGOs and international legal documents often refer to unaccompanied young people displaced by conflict as “the most vulnerable category of an already vulnerable population". As such, they are often deemed to be in need of ‘special protection’. While assumptions of vulnerability should not necessarily be accepted at face value, it is the responsibility of refugee-hosting governments and the international community to fulfil their international protection commitments. However, unaccompanied Congolese young people in different refugee contexts in Uganda consistently report inadequate protection and assistance.

The Ugandan government’s refugee policy, condoned and upheld by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), is that refugees must be in designated rural refugee settlements in order to receive protection and assistance. This policy is based on administrative ease and the belief that refugees inherently pose security threats, rather than on the best interests or wishes of refugees themselves.

Upon arrival in a settlement, refugees are allocated a plot of land, some basic hand farming tools, initial food rations and domestic items. They are then told to construct their own mud hut and begin to farm for food. As part of the government’s self-reliance strategy, refugees’ rations are cut each month to encourage self-sufficiency in food. Refugees who decide for a variety of reasons to live outside of designated rural settlements are deemed ‘illegal aliens’ and subject to punitive action by Ugandan authorities. Some refugees in Kampala have been given exceptional leave to remain in the city, if they can prove their ability to sustain themselves or their families. This means that the legality of refugees' status in Kampala is based on an arbitrary determination of socio-economic status, rather than principles of freedom of movement or other rights.

Unaccompanied minors (UM) are designated as a particularly vulnerable category of refugees by the Ugandan government, UNHCR and NGOs. As such, they are fast-tracked through the refugee determination system and sent to rural settlements as soon as possible. Those who decide to remain in Kampala or ‘self-settle’ in border areas are left to their own devices.

UNHCR will not assist UM outside of settlements, even if they have very good reasons for choosing to live elsewhere (such as, psychological grief associated with massacres in camps and better employment prospects in the city). Seemingly because of fear of territoriality and turf wars, international organisations are also reluctant to get involved. Local organisations that help ‘vulnerable’ Ugandan young people, such as street children and girl mothers, do not feel they can provide assistance to refugee UM. Many think that specialised refugee organisations are/should be taking care of these children/young people.

This means that UM in Kampala often provide for themselves and their younger siblings, while some rely on adults, often Congolese refugees, to provide shelter. While many of the latter are described by the young people as ‘good people’ and in some cases young people congregate around such figures, even when they live elsewhere, there is a huge potential for economic and sexual exploitation. For example, one of my key informants had been taken in by a Congolese family and slept in the living room with about 10 other people. She was subject to unsolicited sexual advances by an adult member of the family and was afraid of being raped. When I reported her protection issues to UNHCR, the protection officer replied that UNHCR could not intervene because the young women had refused to go to a refugee settlement.

However, once UM arrive in refugee settlements, many feel that assistance and protection are no more than empty promises. Like other refugees, they are required to become self-sufficient, farming for food even if they have come from urban, pastoralist or fishing backgrounds. All of the over 100 young people I interviewed in Kyaka II refugee settlement in western Uganda reported that they had never received a visit from government and UNHCR staff. As a 16-year-old unaccompanied male said: "Those people there have no pity for refugees. Even when I came here, I was in very bad condition. They gave me the forest and told me to farm. If I hadn't found the family I am staying with, I don't know what would have happened."

A community services officer admitted that the three staff members allocated for follow-up on ‘vulnerable’ populations were inadequate for Kyaka II settlement, with a population of approximately 10,000 people spread out over hilly terrain. Refugee young people are also disappointed with the poor medical care and lack of educational facilities in the settlement. As one young man who had been living informally in the border area of Bundibugyo before being convinced to come to the settlement said, "When I arrived, I saw life was worse."

In order to fulfil the protection promises made under international legal instruments, UNHCR and the Government of Uganda should allow unaccompanied young people, as well as other refugees, freedom of movement and the choice to live where they feel most secure – whether in rural settlements, or urban centres. This would also contribute to their ability to provide for themselves, consistent with the self-reliance strategy. Unaccompanied refugee young people will also be better protected if they have more direct access to decision-making fora in which they can make their concerns heard. As one young woman eloquently argued, "Even if there isn't material assistance, at least they could talk to us. But they don't want to see us. They ignore people and make them wait for days. Sometimes we see that we are like animals. But, they should be treating us like people."

* Christina Clark is a Commonwealth Scholar at the Refugee Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University. She also volunteers with Fahamu. This article is based on 7 months’ field research in Uganda for her doctoral thesis on the political roles of displaced Congolese young people in Uganda.

* Please send comments to

Sub-Saharan Africa is in danger of not meeting global goals to reduce hunger, poverty and disease by 2015, according to a report issued by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday. African countries could also fail to achieve targets for cutting child and maternal mortality and achieving universal education if current trends continued, it added.

The chairman of the Great Lakes regional initiative on Burundi, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has expressed concern over a possible delay in the holding of general elections in Burundi, an official told IRIN on Wednesday. The transitional government in Burundi was set up following the signing of the Peace and Reconciliation Accord by Burundian parties in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 2000. A referendum was held on 28 February and general elections are due before the end of April.

Nigeria’s former senate president and sacked education minister have been charged with corruption as President Olusegun Obasanjo continues his crusade against officials who fail “to toe the line of honesty.” Adolphus Wabara, who as senate president was the country’s third-ranking official until his departure last week, was charged with five other lawmakers.

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."

Africa is on the right track. That's the message from Pan-African Parliament president Gertrude Mongella at the opening session of the Pan-African Parliament's 3rd session in South Africa. In her opening speech, she said: "The actions taken by AU and leaders of Africa to deal with conflicts is an indication of a new trend of Africa managing its own affairs. The situation in Togo is a case in point, where President Obasanjo of Nigeria effectively used his position as a Chairman of the AU to call to order the son of the late President Eyedema who was trying to make a short cut (to power), ignoring the constitutional requirements of that country, (that is) a thing which could not have happened in the past."