ZBH TV Producer In Court

Report by the Herald.
Editor-in-chief Tazzin Mandizvidza appeared in the court last week, at the same time Chris Chivinge was fired for gross indiscipline. 200 employees, some of them journalists are set to be retrenched. Now the Herald carries another story, which shows the rot, confusion and corruption at Pockets Hill.
THE producer of Zimbabwe Television’s Sisonke Mix and Rhythms Unlimited, Blessed Mufandaedza, has appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts for allegedly soliciting for $50 000 bribe from an upcoming gospel musician.

Mufandaedza is being charged for contravening section 3 (1) (a) (i) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

He pleaded not guilty before magistrate Mr Robson Finsin on Friday and was remanded out of custody to December 4 this year on $12 000 bail. His trial opens on January 17 next year.

Appearing for the State, Mr Richard Masiyiwa alleges that on November 6 this year, Gorden Nzira — an upcoming gospel musician who became popular for his album Seiko — went to ZBH’s Pockets Hill studios where he was presenting a radio programme called "Simbi" with Arthur "Mr Rims" Marime.

After the programme, it is alleged Nzira asked Marime why his music was not being played on television programmes on their way to town.

It is the State’s case that Marime gave him Mufandaedza’s mobile number so that he could verify the issue.

The State further alleges that on November 15, Nzira phoned Mufandaedza and agreed to meet at Meikles Hotel and discuss the issue and to find ways of helping Nzira to market his music.

The two allegedly met on November 16 at Eastgate Shopping Mall where Mufandaedza allegedly demanded a $50 000 bribe to play Nzira’s videos more often on Sisonke Mix and Unlimited Rhythms.

Even The Zambians Are Deporting Zimbabweans!!!
Report by Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation
(Lusaka)
Over six hundred Zimbabweans have been repatriated for illegally staying in Zambia.
The Zimbabweans, mostly women, were rounded up in Lusaka Saturday and loaded onto buses which will leave them at Siavonga on the border between the two countries.

The arrests and deportation of the Zimbabweans who have in the recent past flooded the streets of Lusaka selling sweets, chocolates, peanut butter, biscuits, chillies, Mazoe drinks and duvets comes after a night operation.

Immigration department spokesperson, Mulako Mbangweta says some of the deportees engage themselves in illegal business deals.
Ms. Mbangweta said 15 Zimbabwean women were arrested at a named motel were they engaged in prostitution.
She said Zambia is a Christian nation and would not condone such acts.

But one of the Zimbabweans, Priscilla Mabasa said they were in Zambia to conduct business because their country is going through economic hardships.
Ms. Mabasa said the Zimbabweans need to make money to earn a living.
She however condemned her fellow women who engage in sex for cash.
Meanwhile China has cancelled Zambian debts to Beijing.
According to the ZNBC, China has offered to cancel all debts to Zambia on interest free loans that where due in 2005.
The 211 million US dollar loan to TAZARA railway has been written off and China will also set up a trade economic zone in Chambeshi on the copperbelt.
China will increase imports from Africa by zero rating tariffs on 450 items assist Zambia construct an ultra modern football stadium.

Does anyone know anything that Zimbabwe got from the recently ended China Africa Summit

Letter From Makusha Mugabe Editor of ChangeZimbabwe.Com
We decided, judging from your content, that you are genuine and we also perfectly understand your reasons for wanting to remain annonymous.
Our struggle is one and I hope to meet and carry on the struggle together in a free Zimbabwe.

Response From ZimJournalists Arise
Thank you Change Zimbabwe, our struggle is one for a free Zimbabwe and a better Zimbabwean journalist.

Hot News Item Of The Week

Chombo Caught With Pants Down On Tape by the Financial Gazette

ZimJournalists Arise Team, picks the Ignatius Chombo, story from the Financial Gazette as worthwhile mentioning. Although Chombo’s involvement in the ZUPCO corruption scandal is not new or breaking but the fresh evidence of Chombo on tape is something very interesting. It remains to see how the story will unfold.
The team would also like to give special mention to Zimbabwe Indepdent’s story by Dumisani Muleya on the exposure of Joyce Mujuru in ZISCOGATE

By Chris Muronzi
FRESH evidence implicating Local Government and Public Works Minister Ignatius Chombo in the bribes-for-buses scandal that has rocked the state-owned Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) over the past year has surfaced amid reports that the Attorney General’s office and the police are looking into the possibility of prosecuting the senior politician.

The new sensational evidence is in the form of a taped telephone conversation between Chombo and businessman Jayesh Shah in which Chombo is heard apparently asking for a US$68 000 bribe from the businessman, who has been at the centre of the corruption saga at ZUPCO.
In the recording, a copy of which was lodged with the AG’s office and the police — which The Financial Gazette obtained this week — Chombo appears to demand US$1 000 for every bus supplied to ZUPCO. The bus company was to procure 68 buses — 49 conventional coaches and 19 minibuses — from Shah.
This recording opens yet another intriguing chapter in the scandals that have rocked ZUPCO over the past year, particularly with respect to deals between the company and Shah. A politically well connected businessman and regular donor to the ruling party, Shah has frequently courted controversy. He was once at the centre of a storm when he riled competitors by importing buses already painted in ZUPCO colours in an apparent flaunting of confidence that the tender would be tailor-made for his company.
Below is a verbatim reproduction of what is heard on the tape: (the gaps represent sections of the recording where what is said is inaudible or garbled):
Shah: “No, first time how much do you want to add on top? Just add it. Because I do not want . . . one thing is that last time I was squeezed on the . . . very well. So it went . . . So last time I tried to talk to you and you know . . .
Chombo: “Just one will . . .
Shah: “Sorry?”
Chombo: “One.”
Shah: “1 000? So I can put 1000 on this . . .
Chombo:“Yah.
Shah: “No, I will squeeze it from my pocket.
Chombo: “Okay, just one?
Shah: Yah
Chombo: “. . . me one and . . . and you know, because if we . . . we can get
Further in the conversation, Chombo is heard apparently saying: “so let us . . . We will . . . one per big bus, this . . . and one for the small bus” To which Shah says, “it is fair.”
Chombo concurs, saying “I think it’s fair, . . . I am not a greedy person” to which Shah says “I had kept two on the previous one but unfortunately . . . it got mixed up” after interjecting Chombo.
Chombo says; “Yah. I think . . . Let us in terms of . . . capacity . . . . we . . . . Need really to . . . .”
Shah: “Because, you know, what I really felt was like, I don’t know you are dealing with . . . . but the way he was talking, the way he was talking, you know . . . . “
Chombo: “No it is . . . .”
Shah: “ . . . . and he took off his money.”
Chombo: “ You are talking to . . . . and also benefited from them in any way . . . .”
Shah: “ you see, this is what I am saying, you need to now look at the two options that are here, Simon . . . . . and Shah, Simon . . . . buses, look at the measurement of it. I only did 55 but can you really point a finger at anybody . . . . clean clear, above board.”
In a later conversation Shah says “ but Minister anything, let us a clear . . . . The opportunity is we have known each other but the thing is opportunities were not there” while Chombo agrees saying “Oh, Yah.”
Later in the conversation Shah is heard saying, “now, opportunities are there. It is, we need to . . . .” to which Chombo says “ No, I think we are clear, on the 40, one on the 96, one and then if we can get an increase on the others that are coming”
In the same dialogue Shah says, “Yes, others that are coming, but I told them to prepare 60 buses”
Chombo says “yes, go ahead, I know, you were not going to . . . . Actually we don’t want only 150 buses, we want further 150 buses.”
It is not clear however if Chombo received the money and how much it was but ZUPCO went on to float a special tender which resulted in Gift Investments supplying 69 buses — 24 minibuses and 45 conventional buses.
Chombo was not available to comment yesterday.
The ZUPCO bribes-for-buses saga erupted two years ago after Shah fell out with former chairman at the parastatal’s board, Charles Nherera. The scandal led to the arrest, sensational trial and jailing of Nherera for three years after a Harare magistrate convicted him of corruption.
Former ZUPCO chief executive, who is now deputy Information Minister, Bright Matonga, Nherera as well as Chombo, have been implicated in the scam by Shah’s production of recordings of conversations with all three officials. Shah has been granted immunity from prosecution by the Attorney General’s office. Nherera and Matonga, who are jointly charged in a separate case from the one for which Nherera is already serving a sentence, have claimed that the recordings were doctored in order to implicate them. Police are investigating Chombo’s role in the saga.
The minister was a state witness during the Nherera trial, but the magistrate questioned the credibility of his testimony, saying the police should probe deeper into the scandal.

ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Take Responsibility For The Content Of This Report

Journalism News From Around Africa


Congoles Media Criticised For Biased Coverage Of Elections.

Joseph Kabila one of Mugabe’s friends won the controversial DRC elections recently winning 50.08 percent of the Congolese votes.
However Journalists En Danger says that as the D.R. Congo was organizing its first "free, democratic and transparent" general elections since the country's independence, a propaganda press committed to defending the political interests of its own candidates and demonizing its political adversaries, to shamefully exploiting macabre images, to inciting revenge and accusations and to justifying crime was born, cementing political tensions around it throughout the elections.

Worst of all, state-owned radio and television stations took part in the general decline, by siding almost exclusively with their respective candidates.

JED believes this war of attrition between privately-owned and state-owned media outlets and between the two main political forces set the stage for the armed clashes which occurred in Kinshasa between 20 and 22 August 2006, following the announcement of the results of the first round of presidential elections.
Since that time, and in the face of these dangerous breaches of ethics, the press has been placed under tight surveillance, not only by the government's own services but by the international community gathered in the country under CIAT (Comité International de l'Accompagnement de la Transition), who have stepped up their response in the form of thinly-veiled threats, warnings and sanctions - justified or not - against the media.

In its report, entitled: "Press freedom during the election period", JED also notes that the struggle against incitement to hatred and violence, while noble in principle, has allowed the media regulator (Haute autorité des médias - HAM) to exercise systematic censorship on the privately-owned media, thereby restricting the democratic debate so greatly needed during election period, while the state-owned media has been usurped by the ruling party.
The stigmatization of the press, combined with a generalized atmosphere of political intolerance, has resulted in an increase in acts of violence targeting journalists and certain media outlets. In one instance, a station in Kisanga, a suburb of Lubumbashi, was attacked by gunfire causing at least one victim.
In light of this first electoral experience, JED offers the following recommendations to the government and to the newly-elected Parliament.

- Transform the state-owned radio and television stations into real public media outlets, in the service of the public interest rather than those of the government or a specific political party. Such a change must not be limited to the adoption of slogans such as "The People's Broadcaster". To do this, current by-laws governing the RTNC must be reformed to include rules for the designation of a managing committee, whose neutrality vis-à-vis political factions and government would be guaranteed and whose finances would be protected from government manipulation. The managing committee would be accountable to parliamentary representatives for its editorial and financial management;

- Adopt access to information legislation that would oblige public representatives at all the levels of management to be answerable to the public through maximum disclosure of information. The law should include sanctions for anyone failing to cooperate;

- Put an end to the dualistic system of media regulation currently in place (HAM and the Ministry of Press and Information), particularly concerning public media outlets;

- In order to put an end to the violence that has targeted media outlets and professionals, carry out thorough investigations into the attacks against media outlets in Kisanga, the CCTV and CKTV fire, the murder of journalist Franck Ngyke and his wife, and the murder of journalist Bapuwa Mwamba. Publish the results of these investigations and bring all suspects before the courts.

Meanwhile South African Based website NEWS24 reports that
Despite improvements in press freedom authorities in Angola are not ensuring press freedom ahead of the country's first elections in more than 10 years, says New York-based Human Rights Watch . A law passed by parliament last February had removed some limitations on the media, but the legislation still failed to protect freedom of expression.
The group's Africa director Peter Takirambudde said: "Unless the Angolan government brings its press law up to international standards, freedom of the press in the election period will be compromised."
Elections, the first since 1992, were expected before the end of next year. A two-decade civil war in Angola ended in 2002.
Govt ends state monopoly on TV
The new law scrapped an old provision that barred journalists from defending themselves in court if they were accused of defamation by the country's president, currently Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who had ruled the southwest African country since 1979.
It also ended the state monopoly on television broadcasts and agency news and outlawed censorship.
However, Human Rights Watch said licensing procedures for private broadcasters were "overly bureaucratic and largely subject to the discretion of government rather than independent bodies".
It said the circulation of private newspapers was restricted by high taxation on newsprint, among other limitations.

$1 000 For Investigative Journo’s

Nominations Sought For Global Shining Light Award For Investigative Journos (4th)

Deadline 16 February 2007

The Global Investigative Journalism Conference will present the "Global Shining Light Award" for investigative journalism in a developing country or country in transition.

The award will be granted to a journalist, journalism team or media outlet whose independent, investigative reporting was broadcast or published between 1 January and 31 December 2006, and which originated in and affected a developing or emerging country.

Eligible reporting must have uncovered an issue, wrong-doing or a system of corruption that gravely affected the common good, and did so in the face of arrest, imprisonment, violence, threats or intimidation.

Nominations can be made by independent investigative journalism organisations, associations of journalists, independent media outlets or an individual investigative journalist. Submissions should include a nomination letter listing the journalist's name (or names of team members) and the name of his/her media organisation with address, telephone number, fax and e-mail. The letter should provide a brief summary of the entry topic, explaining the importance of the story, the challenges faced in reporting it and the political or social impact it made upon broadcast or publication.

One copy of the published entry or broadcast material, with a copy of the script, should be included. Entries must be received no later than 16 February 2007. Send entries to: Sandra Bartlett, CBC National Radio News, Room 3B200C, P.O. Box 500, Station A, Toronto ON, M5W 1E6, Canada. The $1000 award will be presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, 24-27 May 2007 in Toronto.

For details, visit: http://www.caj.ca/events/conf-2007/The%20Global%20Shining%20Light%20Award.pdf

ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Take Responsibility For The Content Of This Report

Zimbabwean Journalists Exposed!

Report By ZimJournalists Arise
(Additional Reporting by the Chronicle)

This week Zimbabwean journalists made the headlines, not only as writers but also as newsmakers, albeit for the wrong reasons.

In same week he was appointed editor-in chief of the troubled ZBH, Tazzen Mandizvidza made the headlines, in the Chronicle, in a trial where he is facing allegations of producing a fake drivers license.

Mandizvdza appeared in court early this week.

The Chronicle says Mandizvida allegedly produced a drivers license belonging to one Gibson Boroma of Budiriro when he was stopped by police after being involved in an accident in Harare. His lawyer is arguing that the manner in which the matter was treated was unprocedural. The matter has been adjourned up till November 21.

Meanwhile former Standard Reporter and former chairman of the Harare Polytechnic Press club Cornelius Nduna is embroiled in British visa wrangle over his 15-month baby.

Nduna who until last year, working for international news organization as afreelance television producer and reporter attracted the attention of the local police, on suspicion of possessing "sensitive tapes" given to him by a ZBH employee.

The tapes were of "youth training camps" reportedly used to train pro-government militia blamed for attacks on government critics.
Unconfirmed reports, say this is what drove Nduna into exile.

The story of the baby who was denied a visa, first appeared in the Herald on Monday but Fridays Chronicle had some pretty startling revelations, which we are sure would make NewZimbabwe.com salivate.

The new twist are that the now South African-based father(Nduna) of the toddler abandoned his wife and two kids in Harare to live with his new wife in South Africa.

Diana Nduna said yesterday that she was shocked when she read in The Herald on Monday morning that her husband was married to another woman and they were battling to get a visa for their 15-month-old toddler to go to the UK.

She said her husband, Cornelius Nduna, a Zimbabwean journalist resident in South Africa, had dumped her and their children who were now living on charity while the father was now staying with another woman in South Africa.

However, Nduna, in a telephone interview yesterday, said he was never legally married to Diana.

According to Diana, Nduna left the country last year for South Africa where he later told her he was working on some sensitive projects and could not be contacted since this could lead to his arrest.
She said she was customarily married to Nduna in 1995 and they have two children Teresa and Tichaona.

Mrs Nduna alleged that in August, four months after her husband left the country, they were evicted from the house they were renting because she could not pay rent.

“No money was sent for the upkeep of the children since last year. I decided to ask for help from the River of Life Church because we were desperate,” said Mrs Nduna.

She said the church also offered to pay school fees for the children after they were chased from school a number of times.
Mrs Nduna said she has also offered some work at the church in return for food and a little bit of money.

“I did not understand where all this was coming from until when I read the story about his new family on Monday. I was really hurt and did not understand why a fellow woman who is supposed to protect vulnerable children would want mine to suffer like this.”

She said the last time her husband came to Zimbabwe was in January this year. “He claimed that he had enrolled to train as a soldier and that he should not be contacted.
“He also said this time he will be quiet for a long time until he finishes his training,” Mrs Nduna said.

The story that prompted Mrs Nduna to talk about her ordeal was about baby Matidashe Nduna who was denied a visa to be with its mother Ms Vongai Makamure-Nduna who wanted to attend a weeklong workshop in the UK.

Ms Makamure-Nduna, a former journalist works as an HIV communications advisor at World Vision South Africa.

World Vision is an international Christian relief, development and advocacy group working among children and families in poor communities.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Nduna alleged he was never legally married to Diana who is claiming to be his wife back in Zimbabwe.

“I never married her, never paid anything to her father. She has been making several calls to me since yesterday (Monday) saying she will launch a smear campaign against me and I can see she has already started,” he said.

Asked why the woman would call him if he never married her and never had children with her, Nduna alleged Diana was up to no good and had raided his home and taken all his educational certificates and identity cards to prove he was her husband.
“I was never married to that woman,”he said.

State Media Scribes Top The List In Freelancing For International Media???

ZimJournalists Arise stumbled on this article written to the Zimbabwe Independent alleging that the people who are being accused of working for international interests are actually state media journalists. We thought we would circulate this letter that was written in this week’s Zimbabwe Independent and maybe hear some of your opinions on this.

The Central Intelligence Organisation are so pathetic and desperate that I feel sorry for President Mugabe, especially after reading a story on ZimOnline which revealed that he had instructed the agency to spy on journalists who write negative stories about the government using Internet cafés.

Most freelance journalists I know use their friends’ computers and Internet services.

It is with much sadness that I have to inform these "intelligence" services that 90% of online stories are written not by desperate unemployed journalists, but by those journalists employed by the state media.

Yes, you heard me right!

They write from the comfort of their state newsrooms and even use their government contacts to get information.
A senior correspondent in the state media once boasted that his salary was his beer money!

He said he could make up to a million dollars on a good month just from selling stories to the international media.
He has access to the kind of information that a poor, unemployed journalist would kill for, and he is always first at a breaking news event.

One of the most prolific online contributors is an award-winning senior state media sports journalist.

By and large, there are others (senior correspondents) at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and regular sources for the international media are found at the Ministry of Information. Who is fooling who?

Most of these guys have bank accounts in neighbouring countries. Asingadi mari ndiani (Who doesn’t like money?)
If the CIO wants names, then they should be prepared to pay through the nose for the information — in foreign currency. Alternatively, they could go through all the hard drives of those overworked state media computers.

Even if they manage to arrest all the "unpatriotic" journalists who use Internet cafés, nothing will change.
Wake up and smell the coffee.

Mwana Wevhu,

ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Take Responsibility For The Content Of This Report

Hundreds Of ZBH Employees To Lose Jobs

A month after being appointed CEO, Muradzikwa, like his predessors, has had his presence felt. Firstly by firing editor-in-chief, Chris Chivinge, who was considered by most as untouchable.The late Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya died while trying to do his own restructuring, while Professor Moyo also left his mark at Pockets Hill. For some reason everyone wants to do their own thing at ZBH, while ZimPapers is left largely untouched. Maybe its the power of radio and television that make people feel they have to make an impact, nobody knows. Does anyone have any ideas on this???

Report by News 24
Additional Reporting By ZimJournalists Arise
At least 200 employees of Zimbabwe's state-run broadcaster are set to lose their jobs this month as the new chief executive officer complains that the company is overstaffed, say reports.

Henry Muradzikwa, who was appointed last month at ZBH, is reported by NEWSNET saying: "Speaking to journalists soon after being introduced, Mr Muradzikwa said it will not be business as usual as the company has to introduce new ways and methods of administration, including discipline if it is to survive.“We have to change as a condition for survival,’ he said.“ZBC has to set its position as the country’s number one. We want the nation to get the best from it,” he added.

The privately-owned Financial Gazette said that Henry Muradzikwa told a workers' meeting at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) that almost half of all employees would have to be retrenched in the next three weeks.
One worker said: "Muradzikwa said ZBH was seriously overstaffed and more than 200 of us would have to go home."
If confirmed, the news would come as a further blow to Zimbabwe's struggling media workers.

AL-Jazeera Television Hits The Waves
Step Aside CNN, BBC Here Comes An Eastern Media Influence

Report By Independent Online
(Doho)
Al-Jazeera TV hit Africa and Asia this week. According to the American-based Mecury News, its maiden telvised braodcast carried updates on Zimbabwe. ZimJournalists Arise was unable to establish whether Zimbabweans can watch Al-Jazeera. But the network made history in ZImbabwe by getting permission from Harare to set up a bureau last month, under a very hostile media environment.The channel is expected to challenge western dominance of the media. The news channel is targetting the world's 1 billion English speakers. What do you think of an easertn influence in media???

Al-Jazeera's English television news channel began broadcasting at 12.00 GMT on Wednesday, aiming to compete with Western global broadcasters.
Al-Jazeera English, sister channel of Qatar's Arabic channel Al-Jazeera, said its launch ushered in "a new era in international news", and began broadcasts with a news bulletin featuring reports from the Gaza Strip, Sudan's Darfur region and Tehran.

Anchors Shiulie Ghosh and Sami Zeidan stood in the ultra-sophisticated Doha studios as the channel flashed "breaking news" about a tsunami warning in Japan.

In an apparent attempt to immediately establish its credentials as a balanced network, Al-Jazeera English showed a snippet of an interview with Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal and said it would later air an interview with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Accept Responsibility For This Article

Letter From Nkululeko Sibanda

I am sorry I cannot be able to open your e-mails. It seems there is a problem. Can you try and look at the mails that you send through and see whether you can solve the problem.
Thanks

Response From ZimJournalists Arise

We are not sure, which part of the world you are writing from. But our readers in Zimbabwe in particular seem to have this problem. What we suggest is that we can send you our media picks in text form if you want. This offer applies to all our other readers. So just let us know and we will do
that right away This will be a stopgap measure until we release our new look project sometime early next year. Hopefully a new look ZimJournalists Arise Blog will take care of some of the problems that we are experiencing.
Thank you

MISA To Launch Book: Outside the Ballot Box - Preconditions for Elections in Southern Africa

By MISA

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) on behalf of the PEPSA Consortium: MISA, the Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa (NiZA), the Humanist Institute for Cooperation Development (HiVOS) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), announces the launch of the second edition of the publication, Outside the Ballot Box:
Preconditions for Elections in Southern Africa 2005/6. The book will be launched on today, in Johannesburg, South Africa, an event that forms part of the program for the sub-regional PEPSA conference on 'Consolidation of Democracy in Southern Africa' that will be held on the today and tomorrow at the Indaba Hotel in Johannesburg. Fourteen authors from nine African and two European countries discuss the state of democratisation in Southern Africa in this second edition of Outside the Ballot Box.
They focus on controversial subjects like strategies for change in Zimbabwe, the growth of poverty and shack dweller protest in South Africa and the disposition of liberation movements as governments. Others engage with the role, strengths and weaknesses of civil society as agents of democratic progress, and the broader or lesser extent of political and civil space in various countries.
Elections held over the last year and pending in the near future are critically dissected, including the current situation in Swaziland where the passage of a deliberately vague constitution does not pronounce on the legality of political parties. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a writer warns that it remains to be seen whether the historical 2006 elections and the uneasy peace between the 'warlords in government' is likely to last or translate into development of the country.
Another emphasises that in Africa the rules for elections need to be the same, they need to be understood and observers need to sing from the same hymn sheet. The lack of pan-African consensus and consolidation of election principles, norms and standards is an increasingly serious barrier to good practice and reputation in and of the continent.
An area of good news described in this edition is the positively developing state of play on women in governance, an issue that is making progress in this corner of the world, although huge disparities still need to be addressed. This book is being distributed non-commercially to
civil society organizations, governments and political parties in the belief that it will contribute to reflection and strategies on how to strengthen democratization in and across the countries that constitute the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Many of the authors will be present at the launch of the book and the sub-regional PEPSA conference. They are:
- Ms Jeanette Minnie, international Freedom of Expression and Media Consultant also known as Zambezi FoX. She wrote the introductory overview and critical discussion of the articles in this edition;
- Dr Henning Melber, the Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskj?ld Foundation in Sweden and the former Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute in Upssala, Sweden, and a scholar of liberation movements in Southern Africa;
- Ms Colleen Lowe Morna, the Executive Director of Gender Links, a Southern African media and gender NGO and an expert on the struggle for women in governance in the SADC region;
- Mr Tawanda Mutasah, the Executive Director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and a scholar/commentator on the problems of pan-African electoral design and practice;
- Dr Nuno Vidal, an Angolan researcher often involved in long and intensive field research periods throughout the country and in regular collaboration with international research teams;
- Ms Meike de Goede from The Netherlands who recently completed a Masters Degree thesis on political transformation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
- Mr Baudouin Hamuli Kabarhuza, the Director of the National Centre for People's Development in the DRC and the National Coordinator of the International Conference on Peace, Security, Democracy and Development of the Great Lakes Region;
- Mr Donat M'Baya Tshimanga, the President of "Journaliste en Danger"in the DRC, an award winning freedom of expression organisation;- Mr Boniface Dulani, the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Head of the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Malawi. As a scholar and researcher he focuses particularly on issues of democratisation;
- Mr Gill Lauriciano, a Social Anthropologist from the Higher Institute for International Relations in Maputo, Mozambique;
- Mr Ericino de Salema, a senior Mozambican journalist and foreign correspondent and an independent consultant in the fields of communication and social issues;
- Dr Dale T McKinley, an independent writer, researcher, lecturer and freelance journalist, with a particular focus on post-liberation politics, capitalist political economy and community struggles around basic services and issues of participatory democracy. He is also an activist within South African social movements;
- Ms Lomcebo Dlamini, a lawyer and human rights activist in Swaziland and the National Coordinator of the Swaziland office of the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Educational Trust (WLSA);
- Ms Lucy Muyoyeta, a women's rights activist and the Chairperson of the Non-Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) in Zambia; and
- Mr Tapiwa Zimudzi, a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.
The book is edited by Jeanette Minnie: an international Freedom of Expression and Media Consultant, also known by the name of her consultancy service - Zambezi FoX.
For more information on the publication, please contact Jeanette Minnie at Tel: (+2711) 782-8003; mobile +27 82 850 8351 (South Africa); email: jcmin@iafrica.com

ZBH Boss Chivinge To Finally Face The Boot???

Report By New Zimbabwe.Com
Additional Reporting By ZimOnline

A CIO probe was underway Monday night into how Newsnet Editor-In-Chief Chris Chivinge last week managed to "sneak" into a Presidential delegation to China without authority from Cabinet, as is the norm.

Meanwhile ZimOnline said:"An expected shake-up at national broadcaster ZBH Holdings started yesterday with the suspension pending dismissal of Newsnet editor-in-chief Chris Chivinge for going on an unsanctioned trip to China while sidelined Tarzan Mandizvidza was re-appointed head of the broadcaster’s news arm.

Up to 200 employees are expected to lose their jobs in yet another round of restructuring following the appointment of veteran state journalist Henry Muradzikwa as overall head of the struggling broadcaster.

President Robert Mugabe's official spokesman and Chivinge's close friend, George Charamba, is believed to have facilitated for the Newsnet boss to board the plane to China, when only chief correspondent Reuben Barwe and a cameraman were supposed to go and cover the trip for state television.

It is believed that several other people connected to presidential aides have been smuggled into the chartered Air Zimbabwe flights mainly to the Far East for shopping trips on free rides.

On returning to Zimbabwe, presidential delegations are not subjected to normal immigration and excise duty routines, making it possible for people to bring merchandise without paying any taxes.

Charamba has been accused of interfering in ZBH operations, even deciding who goes on which Presidential trips. Charamba's critics see this is an attempt to enrich his blue-eyed boys at ZBH.

Charamba also does the same at Zimpapers, where Innocent Gore and Itayi Musengeyi are the only ones allowed to cover Mugabe's numerous trips to Asia, the Pacific and Africa.
Reuben Barwe and Judith Makwanya are the "chosen ones" for ZBH.
There was a revolt recently at the state-run Herald newspaper when other journalists queried why Gore had no interest covering Mugabe's domestic engagements.

Adds ZimOnline:"There are other unsubstantiated allegations against Chvinge including abusing company property and having improper relationships with female colleagues.

Edited

Meanwhile ZimONLINE reports that deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga's corruption trial has been adjourned to next month.ZimOnline said that Harare Magistrate Sandra made the decision after defence lawyers argued, that Matonga's c-accused Charled Nherera could not be tried for the same crime twice.




ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Take Responsibility For The Content Of These Reports

Didymus Mutasa Hero Turned Villain

Part 11

Yesterday ZimJournalists Arise published Part One of an article by Trevor Grundy of the Zimbabwe Independent on Security Minister Didymus Mutasa.

Mitchell, a campaigner for Rhodesia's short-lived multiracial
Centre Party, said Mutasa was a beacon of hope half a century ago when he,
Clutton-Brock, Michael and Eileen Haddon, white liberals who donated their
land for the creation of Cold Comfort Farm, and two renowned blacks
nationalists, James Chikerema and George Nyandoro, worked together to
improve African farming methods and then form the African National Congress.
The ANC campaigned for an extension of the franchise, but was banned within
two years of its birth.

Mitchell said that in those days Mutasa was "a man of gentle
demeanor, distinguished and fine-chiselled in appearance" who sank his own
money into Cold Comfort Farm after receiving a "golden handshake" when he
quit his job as a civil servant.

While working in partnership with Clutton-Brock to teach black
people modern agricultural techniques on small-scale farm units around Cold
Comfort Farm, Mutasa also became deeply involved with the World Council of
Churches. His cleverness at fund-raising was recognised by various of the
emerging post-ANC nationalist parties.

In 1970, as racial tension grew and as the war against white
rule began, the Cold Comfort Farm Society was disbanded by the white
government. Mutasa was arrested and held for two years in solitary
confinement at Chinhoyi Prison before being transferred to Salisbury Remand
Prison where he rubbed shoulders with Mugabe and the fiery nationalist Edgar
Tekere.

After his release, Mutasa studied in the central England city of
Birmingham on a British Council scholarship and in 1976 joined Mugabe and
Tekere as a member of the Zanu liberation forces based in Mozambique.

He returned home shortly before Zimbabwe's Independence in 1980
to organise the February elections, which saw Mugabe come to power and
Mutasa's appointment as speaker in the new black-dominated parliament.

Though most Zanu ideologues will no longer admit it, Zionism
greatly influenced the nationalist movement during the 1960s and 1970s and
Israel provided the exiled Zanu with some funding.

Between 1980 and 1990, Mutasa maintained his reputation as a
fair man, full of charm and integrity as parliamentary speaker.

A major transformation was apparent by 2000 when Mugabe, furious
that white commercial farmers had funded the opposition MDC, incited his
supporters to invade farms and drive off their owners, triggering a
catastrophic and continuing economic collapse.

In that same year, Mutasa was appointed Anti-Corruption
minister. He stayed in the job for three years watching and doing little as
a wave of alleged corruption swept higher and higher through government and
the top reaches of the judiciary, defence forces, police and civil service.

Once profitable commercial farms confiscated from whites were
among the main prizes taken by the new elite. Mutasa appropriated one of
these farms in eastern Zimbabwe for himself and independent newspapers
documented extensively how he and other ministers looted other farms of
billions of Zimbabwe dollars worth of expensive equipment for resale or use
on their own properties.

In May 2004, this once "kind and gentle" man kicked opposition
MP Roy Bennett in parliament after Bennett was involved in a scuffle with
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa.

Bennett, who was loved by his black constituents in the Eastern
Highlands town of Chimanimani in much the same way as Clutton-Brock had been
loved half a century earlier, had seen workers on his coffee estate killed
and raped by soldiers and by supporters of Mugabe's ruling party.

He therefore became incensed when Chinamasa called his forebears
"thieves and murderers" and rushed across the floor of the house and knocked
the minister to the ground. The Zanu PF-dominated parliament sentenced
Bennett to 15 months imprisonment in prison, where he lost 27 kilogrammes in
weight before his eventual release.

Mutasa went unpunished for his counter-assault and less than a
year later he became the second most powerful man in the land when Mugabe
appointed him Minister of National Security and Land Affairs, positions that
made him chief of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and gave him
responsibility for the country's controversial, chaotic and violent land
reform programme.

In May 2005, in one of the earliest exercises of his new powers,
Mutasa launched Operation Murambatsvina, in which soldiers, police and
government militias used extreme violence to destroy the homes of hundreds
of thousands of poor people on the outer edges of the country's towns and
cities.

Mutasa presented Murambatsvina as a regeneration and renewal
scheme to "clean up" urban areas. But most people who lost their homes were
opposition supporters, and nearly a year-and-a-half later virtually nothing
has been done to provide new homes for the estimated 700 000 to a million
people who watched their houses being bulldozed, sledgehammered and set
ablaze.

Anna Tibaijuka, the special envoy of United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, lambasted Mutasa's operation as inhuman and a
breach of national and international human rights laws.

Emboldened by the "success" of Murambatsvina, Mutasa, with the
power of the much-feared and ubiquitous CIO as his weapon, began threatening
to "physically eliminate" government opponents. To this end, he was accused
by the remaining independent press in Zimbabwe of slapping a police officer
in his home constituency of Rusape and of assaulting a man who dared to
challenge his nomination as the Zanu candidate for Rusape.

When Walter Marwizi, a reporter for the independent weekly
Standard, investigated alleged corruption in the national security minister's
home province, Manicaland, Mutasa threatened the journalist: "I will deal
with you ruthlessly if you don't tell me your source (of the corruption
story). Make no mistake. I am sending my operatives and they will do a clean
job."

Quietly, in recent weeks, Mutasa has relaunched Operation
Murambatsvina, with yet more humble homes being torn down in urban suburbs
by powerful organs of state.

Mutasa, who had once worked with Clutton-Brock, the Haddons and
other devout white liberal Christians, to carve out an island of tolerance
in a sea of bigotry and and small-mindedness, regularly describes the handful of remaining white farmers as "filth" and recently vowed, "I will rid the country of remaining whites."
But when venting his ire he does not discriminate racially. Nobel Peace Prize winner and South African national icon, Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, accused the Zimbabwe government of "making a mockery of African democracy." The CIO chief spat back, "Tutu is a puppet of the West, a vassal of imperialism and a lost soul."
Mutasa dismissed as another lost soul the Zimbabwean most widely tipped to succeed Tutu as a Nobel Peace Prize winner - Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, who has said the greatest service Mugabe can perform for his country is to let "the Lord take him away".
When Archbishop Ncube protested against the government for neglecting families who were starving to death in and around Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, Mutasa replied, "A heathen man who lies through his teeth …The cleric has a psychological disease and needs to have his head examined because he is a liar."
Mutasa's most recent exploit was to launch his CIO and other security services against the country's trade union leaders as they prepared to demonstrate on the streets in September this year for living wages and proper anti-retroviral drug support for the millions of Zimbabweans facing death from AIDS. National trades union chief Wellington Chibebe and his top lieutenants sustained broken limbs when they were assaulted, without being charged, in a notorious police station and torture centre on the outskirts of Harare.
Terence Ranger, Emeritus Professor of History at Oxford, a close friend of both Clutton-Brock and Mutasa in Rhodesia in the 1950s and 1960s, recently appeared as an expert witness in a British appeal court hearing by an exiled Zimbabwean seeking not to be returned forcibly to his country. Professor Ranger, arguing against deportation, described Mutasa as "a ruthless and acquisitive politician who is notorious for using violence against political opponents".
Which all leaves open the question whether the spirit of Mutasa's old friend Guy Clutton-Brock rests easy any longer in Heroes Acre.

ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Take Responsibility For The Content Of This Report

Grants Available for Investigative Journalists In Africa
By IJ-NET
Region :Sub-Saharan Africa
Topic :Investigative Reporting, Fellowships and Awards

Investigative journalists working in Africa are eligible to apply for the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR) grants to carry out an investigative journalism project of their choice. Application deadline: January 15.
The Netherlands Institute on Southern Africa is funding the grants, which will award two winners EU€4,000 (about US$5,043).
Successful applicants must submit a proposed subject of a societal problem relevant to Africa that they wish to investigate. The proposed investigation must be realistic and newsworthy.
An editor or publisher must be interested in publishing the envisioned project, and applicants must show that their proposed investigation is time consuming to the extent that they could not do this without support.
For more information or to apply, email facilitator@fairreporters.org

or visit http://www.fairreporters.org/events_training?mode=content&id=27857&refto=3689.

Letter from Rev MS Hove
I sincerely appreciate the great work you are doing. Yours for a New and Balanced Zimbabwe.

Rev M S Hove.>

ZimJournalists Arise Response<
Thank you, looking forward to those out there working for a new and better Zimbabwe, which starts with a better Zimbabwean Journo.

Will The Old Mutasa Come Back Please


Didymus Mutasa has become the most feared man in the close circles that surround Mugabe.
• Minister of State for National Security Apr 2005 - Present
• Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Programme Minister 2003 - 2005
• Speaker - Parliament of Zimbabwe 1980 - 1990

Report By Zimbabwe Independent
By Trevor Grundy

FIFTY years ago he was a deeply Christian young man and black
nationalist working round-the-clock on a multi-racial farm that was famous
in liberation circles, and beyond, and hated by Rhodesia's white minority
government.

He became a living legend among liberal Christians by helping to
make Cold Comfort Farm into a first class agricultural training ground and a
psychological liberation centre that was an early staging post on the long
march from colonial oppression in Rhodesia to majority rule in Zimbabwe.

"A man of high integrity and Christian character," said Guy
Clutton-Brock, the Welsh-born champion of black freedom who became Zimbabwe's
first and only official white hero when President Robert Mugabe buried his
ashes at Harare's Heroes Acre in 1996.

"He never feared to speak his mind and he was always a sensitive
leader, a man of vision, an optimist with a profound belief in his fellow
man regardless of race, colour, creed."

The man of whom Clutton-Brock spoke so highly now holds high
rank in the government of President Mugabe. As minister of national security
and head of the secret police, Didymus Mutasa is one of the most feared and
ruthless men in Zimbabwe, second in power only to Mugabe.

Mutasa, praised by the devout Clutton-Brock as a Christian of
integrity, sensitivity, vision and love for all his fellow men, achieved
international notoriety in 2002 when he was asked how he felt about three
serious problems confronting Zimbabwe.

The first question concerned the fear in that year that severe
drought might result in the death of half of Zimbabwe's 12 million
population, many of them supporters of the then confident opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The second concerned the thousands of
Zimbabweans who die each week from Aids. And the third related to the mass
exodus from the country of skilled blacks and whites.

Mutasa replied: "We would be better off with only six million
people, with our own (ruling party) people who supported the liberation
struggle. We don't want all these extra people."

Thus spoke the man who had once been a byword as the kind face
of the new society to come and who was described by Diana Mitchell in her
book Nationalist Leaders in Zimbabwe as "an essentially gentle and
infinitely reasonable man".

British overseas development minister at the time, Clare Short,
said: "To welcome the death of nearly half the people in a country is
unforgivable. No one should forgive him (Mutasa)."

And leading Danish academic development expert Amanda Hammar
commented: "Mutasa's infamously stated desire to discard surplus populations
has resonance with historic precedents such as National Socialism in Germany
and its translation into routinised governmental annihilation."

It is little wonder that many Zimbabweans ask how the man their
history presented as a near-saint is now at the centre of a web of state
violence and alleged corruption. Who, they wonder, is the real Didymus Noel
Edwin Mutasa?

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Mutasa was the close friend of the
Anglican lay missionary Clutton-Brock, hated with his wife Molly by the
white farming community as "communist troublemakers". They worked together
at Cold Comfort Farm, a multi-racial cooperative where farming skills were
learned and political ideas discussed endlessly.

A young black intellectual, Robert Mugabe, also became a close
friend of Clutton-Brock, who was expelled from Rhodesia in 1971 for his
criticism of the country's de facto racial apartheid. Hundreds of Africans,
including Mutasa, wept at the airport as he left.

Supporters said of Clutton-Brock that his only offence was to
turn "yes men slaves" into independent human beings. When he died, Mugabe
attended the memorial service at the Church of St Martin's in the Field in
London and was given Clutton-Brock's ashes to be taken to Harare. With
Mutasa by his side, Mugabe supervised the burial of the ashes at the North
Korean-built Heroes Acre. Clutton-Brock is the only white person to have
been buried there.

Mutasa was born in the eastern Zimbabwe town of Rusape in July
1935, the sixth child of a devout Christian couple.

In her 1982 book, Diana Mitchell, now living in Britain, said
Mutasa suffered as a young man because he was appalled by the unfairness of
Rhodesia's land ownership system. "He attempted to evade the worst effects
of the Land Apportionment Act and African landlessness by starting up the
Cold Comfort Farm Society with the patronage of white landowners," she
wrote.

Mitchell, a campaigner for Rhodesia's short-lived multiracial
Centre Party, said Mutasa was a beacon of hope half a century ago when he,
Clutton-Brock, Michael and Eileen Haddon, white liberals who donated their
land for the creation of Cold Comfort Farm, and two renowned blacks
nationalists, James Chikerema and George Nyandoro, worked together to
improve African farming methods and then form the African National Congress.
The ANC campaigned for an extension of the franchise, but was banned within
two years of its birth.

Tomorrow ZimJournalists Arise Will Publish Part 11 This Interesting Article By Zimbabwe Independent’s Trevor Grundy on Didymus Mutasa.

Journalism Students To Do National Service
It never rains but pours, as the Mugabe regime tightens its grip on the media

Report by ZimOnline
(South Africa)

The Zimbabwe government has directed the country’s largest journalism training school to accept only students who have completed a controversial national youth service training programme, critics blame for brainwashing youths into zealots of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party.

Churches and human rights groups say graduates of the youth training programme that is run by former and serving military officers routinely hunt down supporters of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party beating, torturing and sometimes murdering them.

The government, which strongly denies that graduates of the youth programme victimise opposition supporters, had said in the past that state tertiary colleges should enroll only students holding national service certificates. The government had however not insisted on the state-owned Harare Polytechnic’s Division of Mass Communication to abide by this requirement.

But the government’s Media and Information Commission (MIC) on Monday last week issued a written directive, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline, that the journalism school should ensure all new students had “passed through (national youth service) training centres, have undertaken community work, and possess 5 Ordinary levels passes and 2 passes at Advanced level.”

The MIC - accused of forcibly closing down newspapers critical of Mugabe’s government and ordering the arrest of scores of independent journalists – also directed that a committee of selectors be set up to vet and approve applicants to the school of journalism.

The state media watchdog nominated Harare Polytechnic vice-principal Runyararo Magadzire to head the selectors panel which it said would also include two external members from local media houses nominated by itself.

A senior official from the department of National and Strategic Studies will also be appointed on the panel, according to the MIC.

The department of National and Strategic Studies runs political education courses at government tertiary institutions which are compulsory for all students and which mainly focus on the history of Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence from colonial rule and the roles played by Mugabe and ZANU PF in that struggle.

Harare Polytechnic Principal, Stephen Raza, was not immediately available for comment on the new recruitment criteria for students that observers say is an open attempt by Mugabe’s government to ensure the college that trains the bulk of journalists in the country produces pliable and uncritical journalists.

Sources at the college however said Raza and his administration had written to MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso questioning the new student enrolment requirements.

Mahoso - found by the Supreme Court to have shown bias against the banned Daily News newspaper when he rejected an application by the paper for a licence to resume publishing – was not reachable for comment on the matter.

Under the government’s tough Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Mahoso’s MIC is tasked to facilitate the training of journalists. But the controversial law does not stipulate that the commission should lay enrolment rules for prospective journalism students.

Apart from the Harare Polytechnic’s Division of Mass Communication there are about three other smaller and privately-owned journalism training schools in Zimbabwe.

The attempt by the MIC to control student enrolment at the largest school of journalism comes as the government is also in the process of enacting legislation to allow state agents to intercept internet and cell phone communications between private individuals and organisations in the country.
Edited

Media Forum Set Up For Zimbabweans

Report by CAJ
(South Africa)
The Friends of Zimbabwe Coalition has set up a media forum that will act as a media watch for all socio-economic and political developments taking place in Zimbabwe.
The Media Forum’s Organizing Secretary, Nowell Marufu, a Zimbabwean journalist living in exile in South Africa, said the new body had been necessitated by the need to create a space where all concerned friends of Zimbabwe could air their views with respect to redressing the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.
“We have set up the forum to facilitate public discourse on all matters that are affecting Zimbabwe, and it is our sincere hope that all Zimbabweans at home and in the Diaspora will make use of this platform on how best we can help Zimbabwe out of the many crises that are bedeviling the country,” said Marufu.
The Organizing Secretary indicated that they would liaise strongly with partners in the print media and some Zimbabwean websites.
“Zimbabweans have to make use of this forum if they intend to have their concerns heard, and we encourage all those who have some positive comments to help re-build the image of Zimbabwe to come forward and utilize this space,” said Marufu.
ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Take Responsibility For The Content Of This Report

Tsvangirai Addresses Rally


MDC Factions To Unify???

From this week, ZimJournalists Arise will pick at least one news item as the most important story of the week. However our picks, will be based on stories we think are not only important for journos to keep an eye on, but issues of national importance. We will make picks, loosely on the most controversial, most scandalous, and the most bizarre. Efforts will be made to keep track on publications that broke them or covered them extensively.
Opinions of course differ, especially in news judgment, and readers are welcome to send in their suggestions.

Last week we picked on Friday’s ZimOnline story,(posted on ZWNEWS) on plans by the MDC to unify. Although this is not a particularly a new story, having being covered by other news organizations over the past few months, Team members felt that ZimOnline covered the talks in great detail, mirroring the closed door goings on of these discussions. Readers have a chance to understand and know who stands where in the two factions. Of interest was the narration of emotion expressed, where former journalist Grace Kwenjeh broke down and cried. Or the powerful words used by Lucia Matibenga, against unity.
While on this issue, we hope there will be no further splits on unity talks.


As the factions of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party take the first steps towards re-unification ahead of a decisive presidential election in 2008, the goings-on behind the scenes point to tough and protracted negotiations between the two bickering sides on the nature and form of their re-marriage. Both the Morgan Tsvangirai-led group and their cousins led by Arthur Mutambara held two stormy and separate national executive meetings in Harare last Saturday, with the hawks within both camps dismissing unity overtures citing "irreconcilable differences." Insiders believe the hawks within both camps are the vital cogs that will decide whether these unity talks eventually succeed.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon last week at St Lucia Park, an exclusive conference venue in Harare where the Tsvangirai-led faction held its national executive retreat, there were tears as passionate and emotional speakers argued for and against the reintegration of the squabbling factions. When the issue of unity came up for discussion, there was explosive and heated debate that went on for close to four hours. The hawks among Tsvangirai’s group who spoke strongly against unity, citing irreconcilable differences, include national organising secretary Elias Mudzuri, the youth assembly chairperson Thamsanqa Mahlangu, national chairman Isaac Matongo, deputy secretary-general Tapiwa Mashakada and committee member Cephas Makuyana. Insiders told Zim Online that journalist and deputy secretary for international relations, Grace Kwinje, broke down and had to be calmed down by fellow national executive member Kerry Kay as she narrated the futility of re-unification, saying all the Tsvangirai group – the larger between the two opposition factions - needed to do was to work harder on the ground as it had proved to have majority support.

Women’s wing leader in the Tsvangirai-led MDC, Lucia Matibenga, spoke passionately as she accused the faction of seeking - by pushing for unity with the Mutambara-led MDC - to re-infect itself with the same cancer that had almost led to the collapse of the opposition. Matibenga argued that the factors that led to the split had not changed and as a representative of the women, there was no reason to reunite with those who almost failed a national dream. She said: "We are giving ourselves the same disease that led to the split. As women we believe that unity, without addressing the causes of the split will not help anyone." The hawks also argued how difficult it was going to be to work with former secretary-general Welshman Ncube who they accused of having stuffed the party’s Harvest House headquarters with people from his Ndebele tribe. Ncube who is now secretary general of the Mutambara faction denies favouring one group in making appointments to Harvest House. Yet others, such as Ian Makone, said it was better to "absorb" the other group rather than reunite with it. Others demanded to know the nature of the remarriage and asked whether there would be another extra-ordinary Congress to elect new office bearers.

Those who preferred to give unity a chance included former Daily News boss Sam Sipepa Nkomo, vice national chairman Lovemore Moyo and Tsvangirai himself. Tsvangirai told the meeting that he had traversed the country when he held over 60 rallies in the run-up to the district council elections and the feeling of the people on the ground was that the party should unite. He said the people had made an impassioned plea on him to make sure all the democratic forces are reunited to confront the common enemy: Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF. In a highly emotional narration, Tsvangirai said even though they had scored some political victories and won more seats in the council elections, unity was a bigger prize for the suffering people of Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai said: "I have travelled around the country and the people want the democratic forces to unite. I have suffered a lot personally due to the split and unity is the best prize we could give to the people of Zimbabwe." It appeared Tsvangirai’s intervention somewhat managed to calm tempers. After his speech, there was stunning silence as the delegates began to confer quietly among themselves. The Tsvangirai-faction eventually set up a five-member team led by Nkomo that was tasked with negotiating the modalities of unity. The committee also included Matongo, who demanded that he be included in the negotiating task force.

Across town, a similar debate was taking place in the Arthur Mutambara-led camp. Legislator for St Mary’s constituency Job Sikhala, deputy secretary general of the faction Priscilla Misiharabwi-Mushonga and Nkayi constituency Member of Parliament Abednigo Bhebhe argued vociferously against unity. They said the two factions had “irreconcilable differences”. Nevertheless, the faction agreed to set up a committee led by Ncube to negotiate the possibility of remarriage. Talks for unity are a result of shuttle diplomacy and secret meetings between Tsvangirai and Mutambara following their discussion and agreement to work together at the Christian Alliance meeting held on 29 July 2006. It is believed that Tsvangirai hopes to be elected the leader and presidential candidate for a united front while Mutambara hopes to use his proximity to Tsvangirai to garner grassroots support and poise himself as eventual successor to the former trade unionist turned opposition politician. Ncube is, however said to be “not too keen” about the re-unification moves but he remained silent during his faction’s meeting, sources said.

The hawks within both groups seem to be more worried that they could lose their positions if negotiations for re-marriage succeed. The Tsvangirai-led faction seemed to have moved towards consensus when a national standing committee on Wednesday night endorsed the need for reintegration. After that meeting, the larger faction of the opposition party immediately issued a statement saying unity was in line with a resolution at its Congress in March where they agreed to reintegrate and work with all the democratic forces. But the hawks are still holding sway. The youth in the Tsvangirai group, led by Mahlangu, are set to hold an emergency meeting this Saturday to block any overtures for unity. Talk of unity by Christmas by some in the opposition party is probably positive thinking but events on the ground suggest it might be long time yet – certainly well beyond December 25, 2006 - before unity is achieved.

Please note info reaching our desk is that Gabriel Chiabva, MDC Secretary of Information in the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara has issued a rather “contradictory” presser. Our sources tell us that he has shot down talks of unity. We guess the plot thickens.