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Last week the Daily Express ran an outraged story about a Palestinian who had a kidney transplant in Britain. Victoria Fletcher wrote that “an NHS hospital has sparked outrage for performing an organ transplant on the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s ambassador to Zimbabwe… St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust in London has given a kidney to a high-profile member of the Middle Eastern political and paramilitary organisation.”
The revelation has caused such “anger” that the Department of Health “ordered an immediate review of the system and has pledged to ban private transplants from dead donors”. Further down the story Fletcher writes that “the PLO ambassador to Zimbabwe received a kidney from a living donor in 1998.”
The funny and maddening fact about this story is that the living donor was the ambassador’s brother. He received the kidney more than 10 years ago and paid for the operation.
This is horrific. Two weeks ago 12 soldiers were tortured to death by military intelligence, The Zimbabwean newspaper reports. The soldiers were accused of stealing guns and bombs from Pomona barracks.
Today the Zimbabwe Times is reporting Major Maxwell Samudzi (48), another of the soldiers charged with the theft, “committed suicide under unclear circumstances while in army detention on Sunday night”.
The Herald newspaper, said yesterday that Samudzi, was found on Monday morning lying dead on the floor. “A black electrical code was tied around his neck while blood was coming out of his nose and mouth. Samudzi allegedly carried three packets containing cotrimohazole aspirin and nevirapine in his left trousers pocket.”
But The Zimbabwe Times says “It was, however, not clear who brought him both the cord he allegedly used to hang himself or the tablets.”
Last night I received this press release calling for UN intervention as 120 soldiers are being brutally tortured in barracks:
Brutal torture is being meted out to 120 Zimbabwean soldiers at KG V1 Barracks in Harare as members of the army’s military intelligence, the military police and the Central Intelligence Organisation intensify interrogation of personnel following the alleged theft of guns from the armoury two weeks ago.
According to news just in from reliable sources, shifts of militia are being transported into the barracks day and night to beat and torture the soldiers.
Today the state-owned newspaper, The Herald, reported that Major Maxwell Samudzi had committed suicide in the military cells. However, the sources warn that he was in fact beaten to death.
Colonel Garira, who is alleged to have master-minded the theft of the weapons, is believed at the time of writing to be close to death. Read More…
Ben Freeth who recently lost his farm to land invaders has written an open letter to Morgan Tsvangirai calling for him to act in a time of “Controlled Anarchy” where crimes against humanity are being committed in Zimbabwe:
10 November 2009
Dear Prime Minister Tsvangirai,
As a very concerned person I write to you, the Prime minister, an open letter asking that something be done about the continued destruction of Zimbabwe and the lives of its people that some of your Government employees are participating in.
Countrywide, elements within the police are assisting in the rule of law break down. I have asked for a full investigation into the nefarious activities of elements within the Chegutu police on a number of occasions but nothing is being done. Instead the Officer in Charge, Chief Inspector Manyika, appears to have been rewarded by being transferred to the UN as a peace keeper in Liberia. The man who appears to be behind most of the State inspired lawlessness in Chegutu, Assistant Inspector Bepura, is still in position. Read More…
I am struggling to get today’s news of the Kimberley Process meeting in Namibia. Anybody?
For the transcript of last week’s Special Assignment Zimbabwe Blood Diamonds, go to Sokwanele.
The following statement was agreed upon by the countries attending a meeting of the Friends of Zimbabwe held in Berlin on October 26, 2009.
Participants: U.S., Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, European Commission (EC), EU Presidency (Sweden), EU Council Secretariat, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations
The Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe has, since February 2009, taken a number of important and effective steps for the economic and social stabilization of the country. We welcome the progress that has resulted from these courageous measures and note that the lives of many Zimbabweans have since improved.
As friends and donors, we have closely followed and encouraged this process. We want the inclusive government to succeed in its determination to fully implement its programme as agreed in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) of 15 September 2008.
We have met in Berlin today against the background of the temporary suspension of the proceedings of the Inclusive Government, reflecting frustration about the slow pace of implementation of the Agreement. We urge all parties concerned to ensure that the current political crisis is resolved effectively without undue delay and in a manner consistent with the provisions of the GPA.
Zimbabwe has embarked on the road towards restoration of democracy and the rule of law. This is a process we hope will allow the country once again to realize its vast potential. In aligning ourselves with the broad national and regional consensus about the priorities of the current transitional period as laid down in the GPA, we reiterate our wish to see the Inclusive Government succeed in its task to build a framework for long term stabilization and recovery, better and more accountable governance, the re-establishment of the rule of law, and respect for human rights. We recognize the critical role of SADC as guarantor of the GPA and the organization’s stake in ensuring its full implementation. We stand ready to join forces with SADC in our joint endeavour to assist Zimbabwe on its road to full recovery.
Read More…
Remember to watch the documentary on Special Assignment tonight on SABC3.
In a statement released by the Presidency after a meeting between Zuma and Tsvangirai this afternoon Zuma said that “Zimbabwe should not be allowed to slide back into instability”.
Here is the full statement:
PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA MEETS ZIMBABWE PRIME MINISTER
President Jacob Zuma met with Zimbabwean Prime Minister and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), Morgan Tsvangirai, at Tuynhuys in Cape Town today (Wednesday 21 October 2009).
Prime Minister Tsvangirai requested the meeting to brief President Zuma on recent developments in Zimbabwe, and indicated he would be briefing other leaders in the region.
This follows a meeting Prime Minister Tsvangirai held with President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, who chairs the Troika of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai indicated that the Troika would be meeting in Zimbabwe next week.
President Zuma reiterated his government’s readiness to assist in the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in line with SADC processes. He expressed concern at the situation in Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe should not be allowed to slide back into instability,” President Zuma said.
ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENCY
I saw this film a few weeks ago in Johannesburg – see my post. Tonight and Friday night it will be screened at the London Film Festival. Tickets are sold out.
I came across this interesting blog post by a Zimbabwean journalist based in Leeds, UK. Gilbert Nyambabvu responded to Amanpour’s interview with Mugabe. “Outraged Zimbabweans rightly, if jokingly, dismissed the journalist as Aman-poor,” he says.
About land issues, he says that any ‘experienced’ and ‘intelligent’ journalist would know that trying to engage President Mugabe on the ‘land issue’ and the matter of ‘sanctions’ is a hopeless enterprise.
The President is at his most passionate and eloquent when talking about these issues; and as soon as Amanpour inexpertly raised them, the Zimbabwean leader quickly overcame his initial unease and seized control of the interview.
Roy Bennett, Morgan Tsvangirai’s aide, has just been granted bail in Zimbabwe’s High Court. He was arrested earlier this week on charges of terrorism. His trail starts on Monday.
Tsvangirai ealier said that “The … detention of our party treasurer Roy Bennett has brought home the fiction of the credibility and integrity of the transitional government. It has brought home the self-evident fact that ZANU-PF see us as a junior, fickle and unserious movement”.
Online at The Daily Dispatch there is a very interesting story. A scary one too. Students protest, and are politicalyl active. That’s what they do. Remember Soweto 1976, Paris 1968, Iranian Students in the 90′s and again in 2009, and what about our campuses in the 80′s?
Dr Abyssinia Mushunje, a Zimbabwean lecturer in the university’s agriculture economics department, allegedly wrote an email to a student’s mother saying, “I know she is passionate about MDC just the same as I’m passionate about baba. Their permit is for them to study and not to come here and oppose their own gvts… let her know she is being watched.”
The Daily Dispatch reports that:
MDC secretary-general at the Alice campus Vitalis Mubayira said 12 students have so far been cut from the Zimbabwean government Presidential Scholarship for being members of the MDC.
“We have been political victims since we made our position clear by supporting the MDC.
“There is not a single Zanu-PF aligned student that has lost their scholarship,” Mubayira said.
Is this happening on other South African campuses? Let me know. If you know.
