Category: News Feeds

* Bill Cosby is the latest high-profile figure asking for early release from prison because of COVID-19. [Newser]

* A Louisiana attorney, who represented a pastor that defiantly held church services recently, has tested positive for COVID-19. [New York Post]

* A law firm is suing the Small Business Administration for allegedly discriminatory practices in how Payroll Protection Program funds were disbursed. [Capital Gazette]

* A woman is accused of using an ax to break into a Brooklyn courthouse over the weekend. Sounds pretty medieval. [New York Post]

* The New York Attorney General is taking steps to ensure that stimulus checks cannot be seized by debt collectors. [CBS News]

* A Brazilian appellate judge appeared shirtless last week during court proceedings held via Zoom. You see? Judges are just like everyone else. [Daily Mail]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

As Zimbabwe turned 40 this weekend, I harked back to his soulful, disappointed, eyes on independence day, April 18,back in 1994, a few weeks after I had landed in Africa as a television journalist.

I will never forget Israel Mandere, who must be in his sixties now, yet clearly the internet – if ever it knew his name – has. I can still see him sweating in that field under the bright autumn sunshine as part of a struggling cooperative of war veterans scratching a living in the dust.

“No money, little food, tattered clothes,” says Mandere shaking his head in anger and stuttering with emotion.

“Ï am very embarrassed about that one.”

Two decades earlier, Mandere strapped an AK47 on his back to fight operations in eastern Zimbabwe from guerrilla camps, in the bush, across on the other side of the border in Mozambique as part of the ZANLA guerrilla forces that helped put President Mugabe in power. He joined, as a teenager and trained with thousands of comrades in Ethiopia to fight a small, yet tough, Rhodesian army bristling with modern weapons and vast firepower. The promise from his leaders – many of whom ended up in the cabinet – was a brighter tomorrow for the black majority.

In the early, euphoric, days this seemed so for many black Zimbabweans who found rights in a country where they had grown up feeling like foreigners. Black Zimbabweans took up top jobs in the land the commanding heights of the economy on a  secure bedrock of robust infrastructure. Investment and flowed in the wake of the first elections in and land with universal suffrage.. Politically Zimbabwe campaigned for change in Africa as part of the Non Aligned Movement in the former frontline states.

Yet the economy was mismanaged and struggled to increase the standard of living for the growing population. In the early 80s the government turned on its own people in Matabeleland and more than 20,000 people died – as a journalist, I saw some of the shallow graves with my own eyes. More than a decade on, it choked me that relatives knew where their loved ones were buried but were merely too afraid of authority to go and visit them.

I was so angry that the crew and I went to a church in Bulawayo to question one of the politicians who oversaw the killings, the late Enos Nkala, who has become a pastor.  Seriously, his people said the man himself was praying and couldn’t talk to us right now. We waited and Nkala slipped from the building and his accountability.  One of many examples I saw of how the people of  power in  Zimbabwe often had that air of impunity.

Then there was the ham fisted way productive farm land was taken over and often left in ruins. It is a shame that Mandere’s grandchildren can only hear stories about Zimbabwe being the bread basket of southern Africa. It is a bitter irony also that many children  and grandchildren of those who risked their lives fighting to free Zimbabwe were on the streets to howl President Mugabe out of power in November 2017.

I called one of my old friends and colleagues in Harare on independence day to see how it went. He admitted it hadn’t been a very celebratory 40^th birthday party with the economy down after 20 days of COVID-19 lockdown.

“Zimbabwe at 40?” says he,” It is like you have gone to school, grown up, got married, had children and then you wake up at 40 to find you are undernourished.”

Now, I worked in Zimbabwe, as a journalist, and for years I travelled to almost every corner, small town  and village to report stories and talk to people. I drank masese, danced in shebeens and met tens of thousands of Zimbabweans of all creeds and colours – good and bad,  For every bad person there were a hundred good.

“This one is free,” people used to say in the dance halls late at night when they were asked why I was there.

All I want is the best for Zimbabwe, but I fear how the country will be when it turns 50.

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The debt suspension package is understood to include all 77 countries that are either in the World Bank International Development Association (IDA) programme, or defined as low-income countries – and Zimbabwe is defined as a ‘partially eligible’ IDA country. However, due to technical conditions, Zimbabwe has been excluded from the agreement.

Christian Aid believes that Zimbabwe’s exclusion from an emergency package for the poorest countries is unjust, given the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact to the poorest and most vulnerable people.

In terms of workable solutions, there is in place an ongoing Staff Monitored Programme between Zimbabwe and IMF which is considered currently to be inactive. If the IMF programme can be established again with support of wider stakeholders, then Zimbabwe could also access debt payment cancellation for the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Investment Bank among other multilateral creditors as mentioned in the G20 statement.

The G20 statement makes clear the agreement remains open to changes social and economic conditions. So long as Zimbabwe commits to using the freed budget to increase social, health or economic spending in response to the international crisis, it must be included in the scheme. Zimbabwe as well as its creditors should also commit also to disclose all public sector debt to improve debt transparency.

Nicholas Shamano, Christian Aid’s Zimbabwe country manager, said:

“The lack of an IMF programme with Zimbabwe must not leave ordinary people exposed to further suffering because of the pandemic. There is a humanitarian imperative to ensure that the international community helps Zimbabweans to withstand the worst effects of coronavirus, and the global economic crisis.

Zimbabwe does not have debt with the IMF as it paid off its debt in 2019. However, the country still has debts with the World Bank (US$1.4billion), African Development Bank (US$687Million) and the European Investment Bank (US$322Milion) as well as other bilateral creditors.

“Settling the IMF debts by the Zimbabwe government in the past two years has come at a huge cost to the population through policies such as interfering with exchanges rates, introduction of additional taxes – such as 2% tax on mobile money transactions – along with price distortions, local currency depreciation and an inflationary environment which has eroded basic income and savings for the majority.

“We ask that the UK and other governments now help to fund civil society in partnerships with the private sector, assisting poor people directly when it comes to health infrastructure and services, including – crucially at this time – capacitating health workers, more decentralised and mobile testing and isolation facilities, and protective equipment, alongside social protection for the vulnerable. Some resources can be channelled towards businesses for recovery, but also to directly or indirectly support the Covid-19 response, such as more manufacturing of PPE and ventilators.

“Zimbabwe is still reeling from the effects of Cyclone Idai and a severe drought which will extend into the next year given the erratic rains this season.

“Unless Zimbabwe is also included in the current global UN appeal for Covid-19, once the cases reach a certain threshold, our weak health system will not cope.”

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A comment on the Zimbabwe Situation website made a similar point: ‘The Zanuvirus will continue to cause havoc just as it has done for 40 years since the infection took hold.’

Chamisa called for concerted efforts to remove Zanu PF from power, saying ‘let’s get the job done. Zimbabwe is too richly resourced to be this underdeveloped’. He urged Zimbabweans – wherever they are – to clap 40 times for change at 6 pm (see: https://bulawayo24.com/news/national/183384).

In the UK Zimbabweans have become accustomed to clapping at 8 pm on Thursdays to show their support for the National Health Service staff dealing with the coronavirus and some themselves dying from it. Among the victims this week was Rutendo Mukotsanjera, a single mother aged 45 who leaves a daughter Chichi, 12, orphaned with no family in the UK. Ms Mukotsanjera worshipped at the Renew Church in Utoxeter whose members are caring for Chichi and have raised more than £30,000 for her future.

Zimbabwe appears so far to have escaped lightly from the pandemic, although the future looks bleak despite President Mnangagwa repeating in his Independence Day message that Zimbabwe would be ‘an upper second’ economy’ by the end of the decade – laying himself open to a 20 year prison sentence he has threatened against anyone responsible for fake news!

What makes this aspiration even more unreal is a statement by the National Chamber of Commerce that a quarter of Zimbabwe’s formal jobs and three-quarters of informal ones would be wiped out by the impact of the infection. It predicted that the economy would contract by 9% this year (see: https://bulawayo24.com/news/national/183589).

The economy has not been helped by the government’s inept handling of bankrupt Air Zimbabwe which last week sent its employees on unpaid leave. Not surprising as a Boeing 777 acquired in January has only now taken its first flight for the airline – not a scheduled one but to Addis Ababa for maintenance . . . (See: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/news/air-zimbabwe-flies-boeing-777-to-maintenance-after-3-months-on-the-ground/).

While the Boeing sat on the ground in Harare. The government spent hundreds of millions of dollars over budget on foreign travel expenses. They included hiring a private jet from Dubai to fly to Zimbabwe to take Mnangagwa on a 40 minute local trip (see: https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/04/ed-foreign-trips-bleed-treasury/).

Other points

• A former judge, now in exile in New Zealand, paints a bleak picture of dashed hopes for Zimbabwe (see: https://bulawayo24.com/opinion/columnist/183647).
• Because of the coronavirus we can no longer physically meet outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London, so we have started a virtual Vigil. We asked our activists to put on Vigil / ROHR / Zimbabwe regalia and take a photo of themselves holding an appropriate poster reflecting our protest against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The photos are uploaded on our Flickr site (see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/albums/72157713953468088). Our virtual Vigil activist today was Jacob Mandipira who kindly contributed to Vigil funds. Jacob’s message on Independence Day was: ‘Zimbabwe independence what a shame! 40 years of hell under the Zanu PF rule. The mass is suffering big time’.
• For Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website.

NOTICES:

• The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents us.
• The Vigil’s book ‘Zimbabwe Emergency’ is based on our weekly diaries. It records how events in Zimbabwe have unfolded as seen by the diaspora in the UK. It chronicles the economic disintegration, violence, growing oppression and political manoeuvring – and the tragic human cost involved. It is available at the Vigil. All proceeds go to the Vigil and our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe’s work in Zimbabwe. The book is also available from Amazon.
• Facebook pages:
  Vigil: https://www.facebook.com/zimbabwevigil
  ROHR: https://www.facebook.com/Restoration-of-Human-Rights-ROHR-Zimbabwe-International-370825706588551/
  ZAF: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimbabwe-Action-Forum-ZAF/490257051027515

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Just before midnight 40 years ago on April 18 at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare (then called Salisbury), Robert Nesta Marley stepped on to the stage with his band The Wailers as culmination of the official Independence Day ceremonies for the new nation-state of Zimbabwe.

Tens of thousands of people paid to join dignitaries from Africa and around the world to watch the performance of this revolutionary pan-Africanist, then at the height of his status as a global music superstar and cultural ambassador. Many more thronged the streets around the stadium, heady in their jubilation and desperate to be a witness to this incredible moment.

That Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, was free was remarkable—that Bob Marley was there to mark the occasion made it all the more special. After decades of warfare, the revolutionary forces of the Zimbabwean people had prevailed over brutal white colonial rule and their supporters in the international community.

Led by prime minister Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe was one of the last African countries to shake off the yoke of colonialism and gain independence. In so doing, the country had become a potent symbolism for the greater African continent, a rallying point for pan-Africanism as well as a source of hope and renewal for the continent who were battling the insidiousness of neo-colonialism in its various guises.

April 18, 1980, prime minister Robert Mugabe takes the oath of allegiance to Zimbabwe. R-L: British governor Lord Christopher Soames; Zimbabwe president Canaan Banana, Prince Charles; British foreign secretary Lord Carrington.

Bob Marley had become the most powerful cultural representative of pan-Africanism through the uncompromising messages in his music that particularly in the previous 5 years had permeated popular culture to a point of ubiquity. Since the release of his first international album Catch A Fire in 1973, Bob Marley had penned songs such as War, One Love, Positive Vibrations from iconic albums Rastaman Vibration, Exodus and Kaya, which had burnished his credentials as a deeply committed revolutionary pan-Africanist who directly identified within the Black African struggle.

His music had become part of the soundtrack for Africans on the continent, from university campuses to street corners from Cape Town to Cairo, and all over the African diaspora. Indeed, it is reported that during the years of the Chimurenga (Shona for “uprising”), Marley’s music had been widely played by the revolutionary forces as motivating anthems alongside that of other local artists.

After the flag-raising, the first official words of the new nation of Zimbabwe were, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Marley and The Wailers!”

That an international superstar such as Marley identified with their struggle was validating of the power of their struggle and served to galvanize the masses. This became especially so with the release of the 1979 album Survival, probably the most defiant and politically charged in Marley’s catalog, which included the songs Africa Unite and Zimbabwe. Marley had specifically written Zimbabwe in support of the independence fighting rebels, which he debuted at the Amandla concert held in Boston, USA, to support the South African anti-apartheid struggle.

It was therefore no surprise that he was the only artist from outside Zimbabwe invited to perform. What many did not know was that Marley was so honored by the invitation and so committed was he to the cause, that despite the opposition of his management, Marley had paid his own way to Zimbabwe, including hiring a PA system in London, and staying in a small local hotel.

UK-based Musician Pax Nindi, then a journalist with Zimbabwe’s national newspaper The Herald, met Marley on the day before the concert, and described him as “a very humble man, simple in demeanor”. When the band was rehearsing in the stadium earlier in the day, Nindi recalls the noise of the PA system being unlike anything they had ever heard in the ghetto of Mbare, which neighbored the stadium, and this was the first inkling many had that Marley was in town. It was indeed ironic that Marley had been invited, as there had been a lot of contempt of Rastas by the local politicians at the time.

On the night, his performance slot was immediately after the official flag-raising—indeed, some of the first official words of the new nation of Zimbabwe were “Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Marley and The Wailers!”

There was a temporary break in the performance when security forces over-zealously quelled throngs of fans who were trying to force their way into the stadium with tear gas and batons. It was an incident Marley reportedly described as “Madness” in the acclaimed biography Catch A Fire, though subsequent interviews after his death with Rita Marley downplayed the level of disillusionment he apparently experienced as a result of this.

Marley recognized the Independence Day concert had not been accessible to the masses and typically, he therefore played a subsequent show the next day to an audience of over 100,000 almost exclusively black people.

Bob Marley

Bob Marley died of skin cancer just 13 months later on May 11, 1981. Forty years on from that iconic concert, it is difficult to know what he would have made of the show in the light of Zimbabwe’s later struggles. Subsequent events have demonstrated the older generation of Zimbabweans have auto-mythologized the event.  The internationally acclaimed Zimbabwean actor Lucian Msamati described this as a “misdirected nostalgia at odds with the current reality that somehow still has a grip on core policy and culture and is choking and stunting it”.

High quality footage of this remarkable musical apotheosis of pan-Africanism isn’t widely available though there are grainy videos with weak audio on YouTube. But even Zimbabweans born long afterwards have seen clips on national television.

It is evident that the fervor that was generated by Marley as part of the independence celebration propelled the revolutionary zeal of many Pan-Africanists at the time and since. Bob Marley’s performance in Harare 40 years ago is indicative of the hope of an Africa that was promised, and is hopefully, becoming.

As he hoped in the song, Zimbabwe.

No more internal power struggle
We come together to overcome the little trouble
Soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionary
‘Cause I don’t want my people to be contrary

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I am writing this letter on the 18^th April 2020, Zimbabwe’s 40^th   anniversary of Independence. At the time of writing, the official Covid 19 figures in Zimbabwe are: 24 positive/active cases and 3 fatalities. We are in day 20 of a 21 day lockdown.

Our only TV broadcaster in the country, ZBC TV, announced at 8am today that they would broadcast live the President’s address to the nation on the occasion of our 40^th Independence. At 9am I tuned in to ZBC to see President Mnangagwa walking down a red carpet at State House to a podium. About a dozen people, all wearing masks, were seated at a suitable social distance apart and the President began speaking. At 09.25 the screen suddenly froze with President Mnangagwa silenced in mid sentence; a Covid 19 advert sponsored by Coca Cola followed and then a portion of a film about the design of the Zimbabwean flag. No notice or apology for the loss of the live video was made by ZBCTV and at 09.31 the President’s speech reappeared on screen, again in mid sentence. It lasted one minute before freezing again in mid sentence and did not come back and so we were left hanging, searching internet sites for the remaining nine minutes of the speech (because you can say an awful lot of things in nine minutes).

We were sure that the President would have said something in his speech about the extension or not of the Coronavirus lockdown, now just one day from ending but he did not, and again we are left hanging. Do businesses, banks, shops and factories re-open on Monday? Do people go back to work? Have we wasted the gains we may have made during the last three weeks and, most importantly, what’s the plan going forward for getting food urgently to the 7.7 million people who the WFP say are ‘food insecure.’ Two food insecure households that I contacted in the last few days both replied to my question about food aid saying they’d received absolutely nothing from anybody.

In the last few days the warnings from medical professions have been frightening. The Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Professional Nurses Union said it would be “suicidal” to end the lockdown as the country was still “miles away from being in a solid position.” Health experts say that Zimbabwe has not met any of the World Health Organizations six general conditions that need to be met before a lockdown is lifted.

Day after day in the past twenty days we have seen crowds of desperate people clamouring for food, clearly unable to stay at home because their families are hungry. We’ve read numerous reports of people being beaten by soldiers and police for violating lockdown which culminated in Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights making an urgent application to the High Court to get the beatings stopped. The High Court ruled that: ”soldiers, police and other state security agents should respect human rights, the dignity of people and their fundamental freedoms and rights while enforcing the country’s national coronavirus lockdown regulations.” NewsDay reported one incident in their paper to highlight exactly what was going on while we were all blindfolded because we were staying at home: “In one case, a young man who had forgotten his official letter was asked to lie on the tarmac and was assaulted on his back with a sjambok,[whip] and given five strokes which the soldier in point said was equivalent to the  number of days left before the 21-day mark of the lockdown.”

In common with so many other horrific times in our country however, the worst has exposed the best: private companies and individuals in Zimbabwe have stepped forward to help get us ready to face Covid 19: refurbishing dilapidated hospital facilities, drilling boreholes, providing water pumps, solar systems, ventilators and so much more. We thank them all and we thank all our health professionals at the frontline. I end with a message of condolence to the families and friends of all our Zimbabwean health workers in the Diaspora who have died from Covid 19, far from home but in our hearts, may you go gently into the sunset.

Until next time, thanks for reading this Letter From Zimbabwe, now in its 20^th year, and my books about life in Zimbabwe, love cathy. 18^th April 2020. Copyright © Cathy Buckle.  http://cathybuckle.co.zw/  For information on my books about  Zimbabwe go to www.lulu.com/spotlight/ CathyBuckle2018  For archives of Letters From Zimbabwe, to see pictures that accompany these articles and to subscribe/unsubscribe or to contact me please visit my website http://cathybuckle.co.zw/<

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Members of Ukuthula Trust, a local NGO of pathologists and community workers, exhume the skeletal remains of Justin Tshuma and Thembi Ngwenya in Tsholotsho district [File: Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera[

As I wish you happy Uhuru Day,

I know and I understand that some of you might feel a tinge of some discomfort; because of the very difficult times that you are going through as individuals, families, organisations or communities in your endeavours to make ends meet to sustain your livelihoods.

I also am fully aware that your difficulties have been compounded by impact of the coronavirus pandemic which is threatening lives and livelihoods in our country in ways that, from public health point of view, have not been seen or experienced not perhaps since 1918 when the Spanish Flu attacked humanity resulting in untold loss of life.

Be this as it may, the 40 years of our nationhood is not a short period to be ignored; the attainment of 40 years as an independent nation is a milestone. Applied to an individual, 40 years mark the beginning of life; hence the saying that life beings at 40. But of course, the life of a nation cannot be compared to that of nation.

 It is worth recalling that the number 40 itself, is biblically and spiritually an important symbolic number; not as a judgment point or day as some are wont to see it, but as a period of trials and tribulations that enjoins all of us, as a people united as one nation, to retrospect, introspect and prospect together; in terms of where we have come from, where we are and where we should be going.

It is this opportunity of collective reflection that makes this day, the 40th anniversary of our Independence, an important day in our country’s history.

As such, it is with humility that I have the honour and privilege to extend to you my compatriots, Fortieth Independence Day felicitations to each and all of you in recognition of the milestone we have reached as nation.

It is such a treasurable honour and proud privilege that we have many who were willing to sacrifice all for all. For this, we owe a debt of gratitude and special tribute of adoration to our forebears for answering to the call of national duty.

All this for a new and independent Zimbabwe. Such sacrifice. Such dedication. Such patriotism. Such hope. And such a vision. For themselves and for future generations.

Over the last 40 years, our country has made remarkable strides to redress the injustices visited upon us by and under some one hundred years of brutal and dehumanising colonial rule.

The first two or so decades of our Independence inspired hope, raised national expectations and instilled broad-based confidence in our country; as the new national leadership from the heroic liberation struggle laid a promising foundation for radical transformation in the key areas of reconciliation, education, health and agriculture.

In the circumstances, Zimbabwe became a beacon of peace and stability in the region and our security forces were sought after by the United Nations as peacemakers and peace enforcers around the world; our exemplary primary education system saw the country recording the highest literacy rate in Africa; our healthcare system became second to none; while our agriculture transformed the country into Africa’s breadbasket.

 It is also a tragic truth that the same two decades of commendable success, witnessed the marginalisation parts of our country – notably in the Matabeleland region – where some 20,000 citizens were massacred with many more tortured, while thousands were internally or eternally displaced amid untold destruction of livelihoods in what has come to be known as the Gukurahundi atrocities.

Related to this, another tragic truth is that the last 20 years have witnessed wanton use of violence in our politics.

Cases in point are what happened in the implementation of the land reform programme, while a necessary fulfilment of a fundamental goal of the liberation struggle; its violent implementation, which bordered on racism, was unnecessary, unwarranted and unjustifiable.

 Other challenges of our heroic Independence over the last 20 years include Operation Murambatsvina; the shocking violence in the 2008 presidential runoff election; the 2017 political developments; the 1 August 2018 massacre of citizens in Harare which was repeated between 14 and 28 January 2019 across the country’s urban centres.

On balance, our country’s performance over the last 40 years can be assessed on the basis of key national grievances that were behind the national liberation struggle:

1. Addressing the land question to reclaim the people’s land rights.

2. Addressing the national question to unify the country.

3. Addressing the democratic question to ensure that every Zimbabwean has a right to vote and that the exercise of that right is respected and honoured.

4. Addressing the sovereignty question, which is the essence of National Independence, to ensure that sovereignty belongs the people, and not to a few individuals who call themselves the State.

The land reform programme is now irreversible, notwithstanding the fact that its implementation left a lot to be desired. Going forward, there’s a need for radical transformation by the next generation of leadership to rationalise land tenure issues and to give title deeds and promote productivity on the land.

On the national question, Zimbabweans are today more divided than they were at Independence in 1980. The liberation struggle generation has failed to address the national question. What is now needed is radical transformation by the next generation of leadership to create an enabling environment for an inclusive sense of belonging among Zimbabweans to build the kind of nation that Zimbabweans have always wanted to be.

And the hitherto elusive democratic question must resolved. There’s a need for the radical transformation of Zimbabwe’s electoral politics to put an end to the era of disputed elections. This is a challenge that the next generation of leadership must resolve.

Corruption

Lastly, while sovereignty, that is to say, Independence, has over the last 40 years been for the State; a new paradigm – through radical transformation consistent with our new Constitution – is needed to make clear that sovereignty belongs to the people, not to the State.

It’s the people who are free and who should define their sovereignty.

 Against this backdrop, when we look back over the last 40 years, and especially when we focus on the last two decades, the milestone we rightly commemorate today is a mixed bag: we have made some strides, but we have also failed ourselves in a big way. However, a New beginning is not only possible but is necessary and is coming.  For it to happen, we must each and all of us, play our part and be hold The New!

THE DEMOCRATIC TRANSFORMATION TASK –

As Zimbabwe turns 40 today. Indeed a new nation has to be born. The nation has just to be born again. The next generation has to kick in to rebuild our country.

As we approach the decade before us, we need a new consensus, the intergenerational consensus. This inter-generational consensus is an agreement on solutions to the challenges facing the broad masses of Zimbabwe, namely the struggle for social justice and prosperity. The old should work with the young. The young must take the lead.

We must to create a socially just democratic transformative state with a humble and empathetic God fearing and God Loving leadership in respect of which will adhere to the values of social justice, transparency, accountability and equality.

We also must fulfill the unfinished agenda of the liberation struggle, in particular, the economic emancipation of our people.

We must establish a sustainable, democratic Zimbabwe.

In short, we pledge to create a free New Zimbabwe in respect of which the citizen does not live in fear and is free to pursue her aspirations. A transformed NEW Zimbabwe in respect of which strong institutions, big ideas and a functional state prevails over tyranny, autocracy, big men syndrome and fear.

Let us all build a NEW nation and a NEW Zimbabwe built on pillars of forgiveness, peace, great ideas, progressive alternative policies, freedom, tolerance and patriotism.

We must make Zimbabwe the jewel of Africa and indeed the jewel of the world.

We must all take this moment to press a reset button so as to start promoting greater social cohesion and unity of purpose while discouraging the toxic levels of hostility and intolerance that sometimes characterise much of political discourse.

In building our nation, we must focus on building strong institutions to curtail the vices of the past. Strong institutions are inclusive in both their character and effect. Most countries that have made economic, social and political progress have usually done so on the back of strong institutions.

It is these strong institutions that form pillars of the nation. They provide the social and moral compass. These pillars are the referees that restrain men and women with or without power from indulging in excesses that harm society.

Even nations that have had strong personalities, such as South Korea, have developed strong institutions along the way, placing them in good stead for life long after the departure of the strong leader. Strong institutions must be able to survive governments, which are transient.

Strong institutions are able to resist the corrupting influence of personalities and political factions. Strong institutions stand firm in the face of demagogues and populists.

The first 40 years of our independence have shown us ample evidence of the danger of extractive institutions which benefit only a few elites and their associates. The catalogue of corruption fills many pages. We do not have to look far. The blessings of Chiadzwa diamonds turned out to be a curse for the local community and the nation at large because of extractive institutions.

In the next 40 years we have a generational challenge to build inclusive institutions and to dismantle extractive institutions. We must decisively deal with corruption. We must build strong and modern infrastructure for our great country. We need spaghetti roads, bullet trains, skyscrapers, SMART agriculture, new smart cities and towns, urbanized smart villages and world-class digital health facilities and digital government.

Going forward, we must rediscover and nurture our national values. Our home-grown constitution has a provision which outlines the founding values and principles of the nation. They include constitutional supremacy, the rule of law, good governance, gender equality and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.

There are many more values which derive from our culture as African people. They include Ubuntu, fairness, mutual respect, restraint and cooperation. These values which are present in our day to day lives must also inform how we conduct our politics at national level.

Nation-building and economic prosperity require a progressive national vision. All great nations of this world have been driven by a firm national vision. A national vision can outlive its authors. Some nations have continued to pursue visions crafted more than one hundred years ago. We need a collective effort to craft a national vision. Seven years ago, we achieved something outstanding: a national constitution. It was a product of collective effort, not unilateralism. We must use the same spirit to craft a national vision as an economic, political and social compass for our nation. Indeed, we are 10 years to our silver jubilee.

Our target should not be that we should still be here in 2030. Rather, it must be that our nation will be the jewel of the world. We have a limited time remaining to complete a jubilee with great successes.

Let us join hands and combine minds in a new amity, givenness and Oneness derived from our common essence and desire to build a great Zimbabwe that will be the pride of all Africa and the jewel of the world.

The beauty about our circumstances is that the best days of our lives haven’t happened and are yet to come!

This is the beginning of a new era. Let us embrace it. Let us cherish it. We dare not fail.
I would like to assure you again, that the new independence is here. It has arrived. Feel it.
Remember to wash your hands, keep good hygiene, maintain social distance and spread the message.

Remember to pray for our country and indeed the entire world.

Happy birthday Zimbabwe!

God bless you,
God bless Zimbabwe,
God bless AFRICA.

But for Zimbabwe, this comes within the context of protracted economic and political instability. Calls for reforms in the health and security sectors, among others, have long been echoed. Today, we come face to face with the consequences of a socio-economic and rule of law infrastructure that does not conduce to the best possible response to a disaster of COVID-19 proportions. The state of unpreparedness ravages our people in multi-faceted ways. The virus that threatens to infect thousands if not millions, faces a disarmed healthcare system. Socio-economic deterioration exposes many to the risk of infection and subdued capacity for survival in the wake of COVID-19 responses that include lockdowns, and the risk of encountering brutal security enforcement is all too real if one leaves home confinement in search for survival.

The right to health
COVID-19 tests our national preparedness to deal with significant disasters in an extraordinary way. Yet the test comes at a time when our health system finds itself in man-made crisis. For the past years, the crisis of mismanagement, under-resourcing and brain drain in the public health sector has been exacerbated by the industrial action of medical professionals fighting for a review of their conditions of service and the state of public health facilities that most of our people rely upon.

The Government’s consistent response has been to dismiss these realities, rightly raised by the health professionals, and instead threatening disciplinary action and dismissals. The disaster that faces us dictates that government commits resources to fight the pandemic, and take leadership. Government does not have to wait for court orders or external pressure for basic measures to be rolled out, as the High Court had to order in the case of Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights v Minister of Health & Others.

While Zimbabwe may benefit from external philanthropic gestures, government funding ought to sustain the national response.

Socio-economic security
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESR) aptly observes in General Comment No. 14 that the right to health is closely linked to and dependent upon the realisation of other human rights, including the right to water, food, housing and work. For a country where life and survival for the majority depends on the informal economy, confinement to the home and cessation of economic activity is a matter of life and death. Government’s foremost duty to its subjects is the preservation of life. Within our capacities as a nation, government should see to it that people are catered for in their survival needs.

The NTJWG welcomes the courts’ judgments ordering various local governments and central government to ensure provision of constant supply of water. Without water, hygiene is impossible, and so is life itself. The NTJWG points out that it needs not wait for courts for government to do the responsible, and ensure the provision of basics.

Security enforcement of measures
To date, human rights groups have recorded worrying figures of human rights violations, with the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum having verified and reported almost 170 arrests, 160 assaults, and 10 attacks on journalists. The government reports that arrests have reached the thousands. Since the dark days of Gukurahundi, the police and the army have been implicated in gross human rights violations. The NTJWG has observed remnants of this culture of impunity permeating the lockdown enforcement. State security forces continue to derogate from the freedom from torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment, and the rights to human dignity and personal security.

No doubt, states of disaster are extraordinary times calling for suspension of certain freedoms for the public good. Nonetheless, our Constitution, in letter and spirit, contemplates such situations, and calls for a fine balance such that basic rights, including human dignity, are not infringed. Thus government and its agents remain bound to be Constitution-compliant in enforcing the lockdown and other COVID-19 response measures. No person should have to fear for their life and security at the hands of State security, and journalists should carry out their lawful duties to capture and disseminate information, in pursuit of truth and truth-telling, free from unjustified interference. Access to information is a critical need in this crisis.

The unceasing calls for legal and security sector reform, and for implementation of the Constitution, are all the more urgent in this crisis. For example, the need to act on section 210 to create an independent complaints mechanism is evident, as this will allow the public to report security sector human rights violations and get redress. The call is amplified for government to provide leadership as is expected of it by its subjects.

A call for leadership
We are hard-pressed as a nation to ensure that our response to this dreadful pandemic, does not create an opportunity for further atrocities added to our catalogue of dark episodes in our past. Our national response to the pandemic must inspire hope.

For all intents and purposes, COVID-19, and how we respond to it, is not only a pressing health and humanitarian issue; it also is a human rights and a transitional justice issue, and the response should be accordingly attuned. Human rights should be at the centre of any public health measures, strategies and interventions. Institutions of government must uphold human rights and the rule of law, and not take occasion to subvert due process and constitutional standards. The NTJWG acknowledges to this end, the statement issued by the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, raising similar concerns and encouraging a human rights oriented approach in the national response.

Responsible leadership at this juncture, calls for depoliticising response action. The principles of good governance as captured in section 3(2) of our Constitution embody the kind of leadership required at this defining time. It is imperative for government to be candid about infections, both in the statistics it releases and the information of how cases are being managed. It is not the time to put up appearances and engage in politicking at the expense of health and lives.

The pandemic threatens lives. As such, government and its institutions and functionaries are reminded that government’s foremost charge is protect the lives of its subject, and wilful and negligent failure to do so will no doubt meet with the people’s demand for accountability, now and in the future.

As the nation demands accountability and leadership, we encourage citizens to be responsible and to exercise self-leadership to protect ourselves, our families and communities. Citizens need to follow the WHO guidelines and other international best practices to avoid, combat and prevent the spread of COVID-19. This is through maintaining physical distance, observing the best possible personal hygiene, and sharing responsible and accurate messaging.