NewZimbabwe.com

By Addmore Zhou

19th August 2016

It has not been possible to download this article but the link is provided below.

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/opinion-30798-Zanu+PF+crumbles+as+the+MDC+re-emerges/opinion.aspx

The Tablet

18th August 2016

By Rose Gamble and Sean Smith

Task of ousting Mugabe is too big for one person, bishops conference says as Mawarire plans UN protest in New York

Catholic church seeks to kickstart Mugabe protests stalled by pastor’s departure
The pastor who fled to the US after becoming the focus of a campaign against Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has announced that he is organising the biggest protest by Zimbabweans abroad at next month’s United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Evan Mawarire believes he was forced to flee the country after being arrested last month in one of a series of protests against Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party. He also received a number of death threats before making the decision to travel to the US.

Speaking at an event in Washington DC set up by the think tank Atlantic Way, Mawarire spoke about his ethos for the peaceful protest movement his videos on social media gave birth to and how he only narrowly averted a charge of treason when he was arrested in July.

“My faith teaches us that violence only begets violence,” he told the audience of mostly Zimbabwean expatriates. “Whatever we obtain by violence, we would have to maintain by violence.”

In his absence the Catholic church in Zimbabwe have sought to widen the focus of the campaign – which is being called the #ThisFlag movement – saying that the current economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe is too great a task for just one person to remedy, in a statement this week.

“Pastor Mawarire initiated a popular project which, however, lacked a way forward,” Fr. Fradereck Chiromba, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference told The Tablet. “While we criticise or demonstrate we also need to be offering possible solutions. The task at hand is too big for an individual and cannot be left to individuals, he added. Chiromba called instead for leadership and unity in the country.

Pentecostal pastor, Mawarire’s #ThisFlag social media campaign galvanised ‘stay at home’ demonstrations in protest to the Mugabe government and the nation’s crumbling economy. Mawarire, as the face of the most coordinated affront to Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party in many years, became a national hero.

Following a public denouncement by President Mugabe in July, Muwarire fled to South Africa. Accusing Mawarire of being supported by foreign governments intent on destabilising Zimbabwe, Mugabe also said that the pastor was a fraud, during an address he made at the funeral of Charles Utete, the country’s first black cabinet secretary, last month.

Naming Mawarire for the first time, Mugabe added: “The Mawarires and those who believe in that way of living in our country, well, they are not part of us in thinking. They are not part of us as we try to live together.”

Earlier in the month, Mawarire was arrested and charged for ‘inciting public violence’. He was released on 13 July after a court ruled that the state’s efforts to increase the severity of the charges against him were unconstitutional. Thousands of Zimbabweans gathered outside of the Harare court in an expression of solidarity for the pastor. Mawarire announced that he was going to the US, “to think what my next move will be” in a video posted on Facebook on 12 August from South Africa.

The 39-year-old minister called on Zimbabweans to continue to stand up against “poor governance, corruption, theft of money and misgovernance” in the video. “Our power is in our unity, our power is in the fact that each Zimbabwean has decided to rise up,” he added.

The pastor is to apply for US citizenship, the South African national weekly newspaper Mail and Guardian Africa reported. #ThisFlag followers took to social media to express their disappointment in their campaign leader’s move. “You told people to risk their lives and protest against a dangerous government. You gave instructions and people followed. They did it because you, the leader of the movement, gave them the courage,” blogger and women’s rights activist, Jean Gasho, wrote in an open letter to the pastor.

Referring to activist Linda Musarira and 10 others whose trial date has been set to 25 August 2016 after they were arrested last month during the protests, Gasho said: “There are people out there who have risked their lives for Zimbabwe. And where are you as you make these offensive videos, jetting off to America for a better life…” she concluded.

“The absence of the pastor does not translate to the absence of the values that the movement he started represents. Ideas and values should never be tied to the face of a man. Values must be enough inspiration to fuel a genuine revolution,” Maynard Manyowa wrote on the South African news site, News 24, this week.

Zimbabwe remains in a season of discontent. Zimbabwe’s war veterans – a key supporter and a vital instrument in bringing Mugabe to power and keeping him there – have withdrawn their support for the president and boycotted National Heroes Day celebrations, which honour living and dead fighters of the 1970s liberation war against white minority rule.

This is the first time leaders of the group have failed to attend the celebrations since the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) was formed in 1990. The ZNLWVA, a prominent supporter of Mugabe for decades, said they will no longer back Zimbabwe’s nonagenarian president in the 2018 poll.

“We note, with concern, shock and dismay, the systematic entrenchment of dictatorial tendencies, personified by the president and his cohorts, which have slowly devoured the values of the liberation struggle,” and, “He [President Mugabe] has a lot to answer for the serious plight of the national economy,” the group said in a statement released last month.

“The war vet statement is one of the most significant events in recent Zimbabwean history. It was they who brought Mugabe to power in Mozambique in 1975 and without their support Mugabe will be deprived of a disciplined body of men who have been the backbone of Zanu PF for decades,” former Minister of Education, Sport, and Culture of Zimbabawe, David Coltart, told a South African news site.

Leaders of two opposition parties, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change –Tsvangirai (MDC-T) and former Vice-President, Dr Joice Mujuru of Zimbabwe People First, announced their decision to form a united front in a bid to unseat Mugabe in the 2018 elections, during a rally held at the weekend.

The Standard

By Obey Manayiti

7th August 2016

POLICE yesterday arrested at least 10 people during the Zimbabwe cricket team’s high-profile second Test match against New Zealand at Bulawayo’s Queens Sports Club as spectators sang the national anthem and waved flags in protest against the political and economic situation in the country.

There were anti-government protests inside and outside the ground, which saw prominent human rights activist Jenni Williams being arrested during the first session of the day.

Williams was denied entry into the ground in the morning and was bundled into a police truck. After a struggle, female police officers managed to handcuff her and took her to a police station in the city.

Inside the ground, fans waved the national flag and sang the national anthem during the 36th over to follow a video message posted by exiled Harare pastor Evan Mawarire encouraging Zimbabweans to join the protest.

Mawarire said the 36th over symbolised the number of lost years under President Robert Mugabe’s rule.

One of the coordinators of the unemployed graduates that took part in the protest, Samuel Meso said they were detained by police for several hours and only released following the intervention of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

“We went to Bulawayo with our gowns so that we would watch the cricket match. The place was so militarised and at 36 overs, we stood to sing the national anthem in our gowns as one of our creative protests,” he said.

“At that time ZRP officers came and shoved us out and took us to Bulawayo Central Police Station,” Meso said, adding they were released after about five hours.

ZLHR said Williams and other Woza members had been charged with criminal nuisance.

Meanwhile, former Education minister David Coltart said there were attempts to block him from entering Queens Sports Club.

“Sadly, a whole lot of unemployed graduates and Woza women did not make it as they were arrested for wanting to sing the national anthem,” he tweeted yesterday.

“Ironic that having persuaded New Zealand to play Test cricket against Zimbabwe again in 2010 as Minister of Sport, today a ZC [Zimbabwe Cricket] official and the police did their best to hinder me from entering the ground.”

Zimbabwe Star

Thursday 4th August, 2016

Harare, Aug 4 (IANS) Zimbabwe’s all-time record Olympic medallist and swimming sensation Kirsty Coventry is out to make history once again.

Having won seven of Zimbabwe’s eight Olympic medals since Independence in 1980, 32-year-old Coventry has once again set her eyes on winning medals at the forthcoming Rio Olympic Games, reports Xinhua.

The Olympic swimming champion has qualified for her 5th and final Olympic Games which begin in Rio de Janeiro on Friday to cap her incredible sporting journey that has inspired many young athletes in Africa and beyond.

Coventry was born and bred in Zimbabwe where she attended high school before moving to the US where she furthered her education while honing her swimming skills at the same time.

It has been said that the swimming career of Coventry benefited immensely from the state-of-the-art facilities provided at Auburn University in Alabama where she studied.
With a strong passion for the sport, Coventry made Olympic Games debut in Sydney in 2000 when she was just 17. In 2004, she won her first Olympic gold medal in Athens as well as silver and bronze. The moment marked the beginning of a record-breaking athletic career which has seen her ultimately becoming one of the world’s highest achieving female swimmers.

Coventry went on to win four more medals in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, including retaining the gold medal in her specialty event, the 200m backstroke.
After the 2008 Olympics performance, she was hailed as one of Zimbabwe’s greatest heroes, and called a national treasure by the head of the country’s Olympic Committee.
President Robert Mugabe also awarded her $100,000 cash for her Olympic medal wins, and called her a “golden girl”.
Coventry’s extraordinary performance has been acknowledged by many the world over, but more importantly in Africa and her native Zimbabwe where swimming as a sport still faces many hurdles.

Twice crowned Olympic champion, and with seven Olympic medals, Coventry has won more individual Olympic medals than any female swimmer in history.
She is also, without doubt, Africa’s most successful Olympic athlete,” reads a statement on the website of her “Kirsty Coventry Academy” that she established in 2015 to address drowning problems and empower individuals through sports training programs.

The now married Coventry has already made history but still aspires to break a new record at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
She shares the record of seven individual medals with Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi and she could possibly become one of the first female swimmers to win eight individual medals.

She is carrying the nation’s hopes at Rio de Janeiro, where she is billed to compete in the women’s 200m backstroke, women’s 100m backstroke and women’s 200m individual medley.

Coventry has been chosen as Zimbabwe’s flag bearer at the Olympics opening ceremony at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro this Friday.

Zimbabwe Aquatic Union president Mary Kloppers told Xinhua they hoped Coventry would do well despite the disadvantage of age. “We know her preparations have been tailor made for her because of the age and she has been working very hard and whatever the performance, it will be the best of what she can do,” she said.
Fans are also rallying behind her and hope she will once again lift Zimbabwe’s flag high.

“I so enjoyed being able to watch you swim in the 2012 Olympics; I was absolutely inspired by your dedication to Zimbabwe and your sport. All the very best — do Zimbabwe proud as I know you will,” said former education Minister David Coltart.

“Go be an icon of hope for our beloved country. My prayers are with you. You inspire our young people to work hard and succeed in all they do in life,” commented yet another fan on Facebook.

Border Telegraph

29th July 2016

By David Knox

THE line-up for the seventh international festival of literature and thought at Traquair House has been announced.

This year’s Beyond Borders Festival, which is titled The World in Scotland, and Scotland in the World, features a host of local and international writers, artists, politicians, and diplomats.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, historians and writers Alison Weir and Peter Frankopan, and emerging talents such as Isabel Buchanan will all appear at the weekend of discussions and talks.

Mark Muller Stuart, executive director of Beyond Borders told the Peeblesshire News: “Now more than ever, Scotland holds enormous potential to make a significant contribution in the realm of both domestic international affairs.

“In this year’s programme of panel discussions, visual and performing arts pieces, walks, and cycle rides, we are proud to harness the cultural heritage of Scotland and the Scottish Borders and to harness Scotland’s cultural heritage as a means to encourage local, international, and intercultural exchange.”

BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyce Doucet will chair a discussion between the First Minister and Staffan de Mistura as they explore the increasing role played by women in peace-making and politics.

They will also discuss Scotland’s support of initiatives such as a recent partnership between the Scottish Government and the United Nations, which brought ten members of the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board to Scotland.

The Special Envoy will also take to the stage with Scottish broadcaster Allan Little in a discussion of his life and work in some of the most volatile places on earth, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Syria.

Little, who is a BBC Special Correspondent, admits he enjoys Beyond Borders. He said: “[You’re] surrounded by people from all walks of life, but who have something in common, and they bring with them, from all the four corners of the earth, their own wisdom.”

Looking at the war in Iraq from a different angle, former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson tells the story of how she was outed as an agent, and veteran diplomat Sir Kieran Prendergast recounts the personal impact within the UN of Blair’s decision to go to war.

Exploring other international themes, Zimbabwean lawyer David Coltart and author Petina Gappah discuss their experiences of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe; President Clinton’s former advisor Tim Phillips examines Cuba- US relations; and the British Museum’s Jonathan Tubb, biographer of buildings James Crawford, Roger Michel from the Institute for Digital Archaeology explore the protection of cultural heritage.

On a more literary and historical note, author Alison Weir gives a talk on Mary, Queen of Scots and the murder of Lord Darnley – in the 450th Anniversary year of Mary, Queen of Scots’ visit to Traquair House – Jerry Brotton explains the connection between Elizabethan England and the Islamic World; Peter Frankopan tells tales of the Silk Roads; and William Dalrymple and Isabel Buchanan recount stories of their travels and experiences in Pakistan, India, and China.

Beyond Borders is staged at Traquair House on the weekend of August 27 & 28.

Weekend tickets, priced at £45, and day passes, which cost £24, are available from the festival website at www.beyondbordersscotland.com

Financial Gazette

By Ray Ndlovu

21st July 2016

A nation that is up to its nose in economic collapse demands that President Robert Mugabe’s government should act to the many voices that are speaking out against its failures; but can the voice of reason finally prevail; asks Ray Ndlovu.

A FORTNIGHT ago President Robert Mugabe’s government came face-to-face with an unusual enemy: Simmering anger of an entire nation.

For the first time in the country’s 36-year history, the majority of the country’s citizenry took a stand, after being called upon, through social media messages, to rally together and shut down the country.

That there was no direct involvement of political parties and that there was no clear leader should be giving the ruling elite sleepless nights.

Without the use of posters, radio or television to mobilise support #Tajamuka/Sesijikile and #ThisFlag outfits successfully convinced millions of people to boycott both formal and informal work through social media.

The punch line of their #ZimShutDown campaign was to try and compel President Mugabe’s administration to fix the broken economy it presides over.

The success of the campaign shook government and the ruling ZANU-PF to their foundations.

Officials from ZANU-PF and government have been all over the show, trying to frustrate a repeat of the same. All along, the ruling party has been brandishing the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) blueprint as the panacea to the country’s problems.

Through Zim-Asset, government has been promising 2,2 million jobs, among other things.

None of the promises have materialised.

Naturally, Zimbabweans have become angry with their government.

And the advent of social media has provided a platform for the voiceless through which they can mobilise and voice their concerns against those who lead them without necessarily looking up to media personnel, Members of Parliament or councillors to do it for them.

One thing most fascinating about President Mugabe’s latest challengers is that they drape the same national flag, which had been monopolised by ZANU-PF faithful.

Also, they pledge unwavering commitment to defending the very same national sovereignty that the ruling party passionately talks about at every opportune moment.

That alone, has meant that they cannot be faulted on account of being less patriotic to their country. It has also elevated them to some sort of vanguards of the new revolution.

The apprehension from government is understandable.

In power since 1980, ZANU-PF has remained in power by shrewdly routing political opponents that attempt to wrest the crown from it.

But this time, the ruling party is facing a new form of resistance — the ordinary people.

The power of the ordinary citizens has effectively reduced political parties, both the ruling party and opposition parties, to spectators.

Opposition political parties are currently playing second fiddle in latest pressure on the Zimbabwe government.

At the time of the shut down, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party, was receiving treatment from colon cancer in South Africa.

Tendai Biti of the People’s Democratic Party was also in London.

Even for those parties whose leaders were around at the time, they had no choice, but to join the bandwagon.

Joice Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First party threw their weight behind the movement at the eleventh hour and so did many other political outfits.

Lawyer and member of the smaller MDC party led by Welshman Ncube, David Coltart, said in the absence of opposition political party mobilisation, “people power” had won.

The country’s opposition parties have remained deeply fragmented.

In the absence of a strong opposition, President Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has simply enjoyed total political domination.

That political domination, however, has not extended over to the economy which is in disarray.

In fact, the current administration’s list of economic challenges keeps growing.

This is despite the post-election promises it made of economic prosperity and growth.

Government is currently grappling with persistent cash shortages, a struggle to service its wage bill for close to 500 000 civil servants, dwindling tax revenues, power outages, a hunger crisis, unemployment of over 90 percent and widespread company closures. The country is also indebted to the tune of US$10 billion.

Agreements made last October in Lima, Peru to pay US$1,8 billion of that amount by June, in order to access new funding from the West, have been pushed to September for fulfillment — a sign of the growing difficulties the country is facing in trying to raise the cash.

Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa was in Paris and London recently to seek new lines of credit.

He said the country had “nothing” in its coffers to navigate the maze of problems confronting it. Against that background, public anger is rising.

In the thick of things is a cleric called Evan Mawarire with his #ThisFlag campaign.

Just before his arrest last week Mawarire told the Financial Gazette that what he had started off as a way of highlighting his personal struggles could be the foundation for a citizen-led movement.

“It has taken a life of its own,” he said.

Political observers said this new phenomenon seems to have found resonance with the country’s youths, now fed up with being used and pushed around by politicians while they wallowed in poverty.

And the authorities’ spine-chilling warnings against the use of social media for subversive messages, as they attempt to cut the wind in the sails of the citizen’s movement, may only serve to brew more anger in the youths and general public.

Although the stay-away left a lasting impression on the country’s history, independent economist, John Robertson, said the level of economic activity was currently so low in the country that losses to businesses were most likely very minimal.

“The level of economic activity is so low, such that it was like an extra Sunday in the week. It is not going to be a very high cost (protest) to country; it would have if we had lots of factories, but we don’t… ,” Robertson observed.

Nevertheless, the toll on tourism could last long after images of violence in some places were splashed across the world by media outlets, blemishing the country’s already dented image. As the country continues to drift into even more uncertainty, the question is: Is Zimbabwe coming of age?

Will President Mugabe’s government even act on the people’s demands when denial of the evident rumblings seems to be completely blinding it at the moment?

News24

Correspondent

12th July 2016

Harare – “These charges are baseless.”

That was the reaction of one of Zimbabwe’s best-known human rights lawyers, David Coltart, on hearing that Evan Mawarire, the pastor who has led calls for peaceful stayaways in the troubled southern African country, had been charged on Tuesday with inciting public violence.

Though he had said he hoped he was reporting to the police for routine questioning, Mawarire, 39, knew all too well what was likely to happen.

In a video the father of two had prepared for release in the event of his arrest, Mawarire said: “No matter what has happened to me, you and I have done well… Hold this government to account.” The video was posted to his #ThisFlag organisation’s social media platforms after the charges against him were confirmed by state media.

Watch the video below.

Mawarire and others have called for another stay away across Zimbabwe on Wednesday and Thursday, following the success of a nationwide strike against government corruption and an import ban last week.

Pictures of the pastor in handcuffs were posted to Twitter by lunchtime, following reports that police had searched his home and office. The pictures show Mawarire with a flag and with a photo of his wife and children in the background.

A church mug with a cross on it is in the foreground.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights confirmed police had taken the pastor’s phone.

News of the charges against Mawarire sparked outrage online, fuelled no doubt by memories of what had happened to other critics of President Robert Mugabe’s government in the past 16 years.

Itai Dzamara, a former journalist who mounted lonely protests in central Harare calling on Mugabe, now 92, to step down, was abducted in March 2015 and has never been seen again.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, was beaten by police in 2007 when his party tried to circumvent a ban on demonstrations by holding a “prayer rally.”

Coltart, who served as education minister during Zimbabwe’s 2009-13 coalition government, said in tweets: “Everything Pastor Evan has said has been compliant with section 58 of the Constitution – these charges are baseless.”

“He has had a consistent message of non-violence.”

Shingi Munyeza, a prominent businessman and church leader who has also led efforts to try to engage Mugabe’s government amid mounting frustration in Zimbabwe said in a tweet: “As a fellow pastor I plead with the authorities to #freepastorevan.” Mawarire’s sister, Teldah Mawarire, retweeted calls for him to be freed.

Curfew

In other developments on Tuesday, pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) claimed police had imposed an unofficial 18:00 to 06:00 curfew in Bulawayo and were moving around with megaphones to inform residents of this.

Police spokesperson Charity Charamba told state media that there was a possibility that a leaked video showing Zimbabwe riot police hitting people on the soles of their feet might have been “manufactured by perpetrators of violence”.

The covertly-filmed clip, thought to date from recent protests, has sparked disgust on social media and Charamba’s comments were greeted with outrage on Tuesday. Media watchdog @ZimMediaReview said the claim was “incredible”.

Bulawayo 24 News

By Staff Reporter

13th July 2016

Former Education minister, David Coltart has said the the government has shot itself on the foot by arresting #ThisFlag Pastor.

Coltart said its no longer a stay away but “#FreePastorEvan.”

Coltart also said: “Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out, falls into the pit they have made. The trouble they cause recoils on them,” quoting the Bible (Psalm 7:15).