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Wolpe Lecture Panel: Zimbabwe Solidarity Today! |
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Tendai Biti (Movement for Democratic Change) and Bishop Rubin Phillip (Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum) 30 October 2008
Audio from the lecture
On Thursday, 30 October, the Centre for Civil Society and the Zimbabwe
Solidarity Forum present the Harold Wolpe Lecture, by Tendai Biti with
commentary by Bishop Rubin Phillip
Presenters: Tendai Biti (Movement for Democratic Change) and Bishop
Rubin Phillip (Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum)
Date: Thursday, 30 October 2008
Time: 5-7pm
Venue: Howard College Auditorium, UKZN Howard College Campus
That Zimbabwe's moment of truth has arrived in late 2008 partly reflects
the durability of civil society, especially grassroots and labour
advocates for democracy and socio-economic justice. These organisations
are attempting to make the transition both thorough-going in political
terms, and as free of imperialist influence as possible. But will
negotiations deliver a political deal? Is the deal dependent upon aid
and credit from the 'international community', including SA? What would
be asked in return? How can civil society safeguard Zimbabweans' civil,
political and socio-economic rights in the turbulence still ahead?
Answering these questions are two of the most qualified actors in the
Zimbabwe drama: the opposition's lead negotiator, and SA civil society's
leading church advocate for democracy and justice in Zimbabwe.
Tendai Biti is the Secretary-General of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC-Tsvangirai) in Zimbabwe and its lead political negotiator.
In 1988-89 as Secretary General of the University of Zimbabwe Student
Union, Biti led student protests against government censorship in
academia and against the early forms of Mugabe's IMF-inspired Economic
Structural Adjustment Programme. He served as a lawyer during the 1990s,
and was active defending many civil society groups. In 1999 he helped
found the MDC and in June 2000 was elected Member of Parliament for
Harare East. He has been arrested and beaten by police while advocating
democracy on numerous occasions.
Bishop Rubin Phillip is Anglican Bishop of KwaZulu-Natal. He is
chairperson of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum and Co-Chair of the
Solidarity Peace Trust, and is a board member of the SA Liaison Office,
a policy research group for Zimbabwe. He also chairs the KZN Council of
Churches. In April he and transport workers turned back a Chinese ship
aiming to unload military equipment destined for Mugabe, from the Durban
harbour and other Southern African ports.
Pictures
.JPG)
Tendai Biti
Patrick Bond
The povo (and Dennis Brutus)
Faith ka Manzi
Molefi Ndlovu
Bishop Rubin Phillip
Poet Shepherd
Resisting Tyranny During a Total Economic Meltdown: A review of Tendai Biti’s talk at UKZN on October 30th 2008
By Mandisa Mbali
The world media has been transfixed by the closing salvos of the
American Presidential election campaigns. In the last few weeks, the
world media has also been awash with reports the sub-prime mortgages
crisis, popularly dubbed the ‘credit crunch’ and the recession which is
following it. From afar I have observed that the mood in the global
North appears to be swinging between highs of Obama’s optimistic
messages of hope and change and fears associated with an economic downturn.
For all the failings of the Bush administration and the negative
economic indicators, very few in the North have any idea of what it is
like to live under- let alone resist- real political tyranny. Or what is
entailed by the daily struggle to survive during a total economic
collapse. Yet this situation is happening in real time in Zimbabwe as I
write this e-mail.
I went to a really inspiring lecture on Thursday night by Tendai Biti,
the Secretary-General (second-in- command) of the Tsivangirai faction of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T). I wanted to share some of it
with you because I think it sheds some light on the courage required to
lead political opposition in these types of circumstances.
The Economic Collapse: “Like maggots feasting on a dead body”
According to Biti, the economic situation in Zimbabwe is as grave as it
gets. Quite simply the people of Zimbabwe are starving- four million
people are dependent on food aid. In the last few months there has been
no water in many urban centres- this has resulted in cholera outbreaks
in the last few months. Thirty people died at one clinic in the outbreak
(120 have died nationwide since mid-September). It is worth noting that
the last time there was a cholera epidemic in the country was apparently
in 1932!
The nation’s graves are multiplying with 4000 people are dying per week.
This is apparently a higher weekly mortality figure than in the
country’s war of liberation. Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe rivals that of Weimar Germany with inflation at an eye-watering 18 trillion percent. At the moment there is a shadow, informal economy in illegal currency trade, illegal fuel trade and black market goods. He compared the profiting of the elite off this illicit activity “like maggots feasting on a dead body”. He argues that the body (economy) is now totally destroyed.
Unsurprisingly, for a leader of the opposition, Biti blamed this squarely on the Mugabe dictatorship.
The March 2007 Negotiations
Biti argued that the MDC-T was forced into dialogue with the ruling Zanu
PF “to allow Zimbabweans to live” and to democratize the state. He
argued that the March 2007 dialogue came after the infamous brutal
attack on Tsivangirai (the leader of the opposition) on his way to a
prayer rally at a township outside the Highfield township.
The Secretary-General argued that former President Thabo Mbeki feared
that the radicalization of the opposition would pose danger to the
state. From the MDC-T’s standpoint, the aim of that round of talks was for a new constitution to be adopted before the next election would be held. A constitution was apparently then agreed to but Mugabe refused for it to be finalized.
The Stolen Elections and the Subsequent Blood-bath
Can you imagine the disappointment following winning a Presidential
election campaign only to be robbed of victory? This has happened in
Zimbabwe.
In the opposition’s view, hasty elections were called to throw them off
balance. The MDC-T nevertheless put together an election campaign under
difficult and dangerous circumstances. For instance, with 90%
unemployment it was difficult for the party to organize in workplaces.
Towards the end of the campaign they sensed that they would win the
election because of the massive crowds they started to get at rallies.
Also, they had wrung some concessions from Zanu-PF at the earlier talks.
One of these was that there would be an audit of ballot papers at voting
stations before and after counting. The other was that results would be
posted outside polling stations. The opposition then appointed 66 000
election agents, who had mobile phones with cameras, who photographed
the results.
On March 30th 2008, the MDC-T declared victory. However, Biti argued
that “they did not win the state” on that day or in the weeks and months
that followed.
This was because it was then that the vote rigging really started. The
election commission took *five weeks* to announce the results! According
to MDC-T, 400 of its activists were killed by the government or people
acting in its name up to June 27th 2008, when the current round of talks
began. Then there were the 100 000 people who were displaced.
Although Biti did not mention it (probably in the interests of time), it
is worth mentioning that Zanu-PF won the second round of election.
However, it is worth noting that the second round of elections- the
Presidential run-off- were a violent sham. Therefore, Tsivangirai
withdrew from these elections. These second Presidential elections can
in no sense have been called ‘free and fair’ against the backdrop of the
campaign of orchestrated state-sponsored violence.
The Total Collapse of the Recent Global Provisional Agreement (GPA)
It is clear that the September 15th agreement is for all intents and
purposes a corpse. Biti blamed the collapse of the agreement on Zanu PF.
He said that the party was at the table but was not ready to engage with
the MDC-T as equals. Mugabe and his allies in the party engaged in the
negotiations primarily to obtain international legitimacy- this is
evidenced by the fact that he swanned off to a UN conference shortly
thereafter. The MDC-T felt that they were coerced into signing the
agreement by Mbeki, who was given a mandate by SADC and the blessings of the AU and UN to assist in the mediation.
The allocation of ministerial posts is what has caused the talks to
collapse. This is apparently based on a refusal to acknowledge that the
MDC-T won the elections. The MDC-T has conceded that Mugabe can be a
ceremonial president but they are not interested in being junior
(subordinate) partners.
Zimbabwe is being run by a military dictatorship
Biti also pointed to something that is not said often enough: Zimbabwe
is currently being run by a military junta. In this system, the national
security council oversees the work of the dreaded intelligence agency.
As Anglican Bishop Ruben Philip argued in a discussion session, it
should not be Southern African Development Community’s (a regional
intergovernmental body’s) role to rubber-stamp rigged blood-stained
elections. Mugabe was not democratically elected, yet SADC treats him
like a legitimate head of state. This is despite the fact that he
violated SADC’s own principles on free and fair elections.
Until Zanu-PF returns to negotiations in good faith, the government it
leads lacks any shred of legitimacy and should be treated as such. This
may sound like strong language, but what kind of government denies civil
society organizations access to its citizens to distribute food aid? Or
locks up women activists (such as those from Women Of Zimbabwe
Arise-WOZA) for peacefully demonstrating for humanitarian aid to be
freely delivered to those in need?
The fact of the matter is that as Biti argued, there has been no
paradigm shift on the part of Zanu PF. The denial of a passport to
Tsivangirai to attend a SADC meeting indicates this. The sad fact is
that from MDC-T’s perspective “the dialogue is dead” and it’s seen by
MDC-Tas being Zanu-PF’s fault. South Africans may be interested to note
that Biti referred to Mbeki as being a ‘card-carrying Zanu-PF member’.
Any trust which may have once existed appeared to have eroded to the
extent that Mbeki lacks credibility in this role for the opposition (see
more on this below).
Stepping up the resistance
MDC-T is returning to re-engaging the masses. I was amazed by Biti’s
optimism in this regard. He managed to focus on the positives in a
pretty dire situation. He argued that the opposition had time, whereas
Mugabe did not. He mentioned the importance of international solidarity
(more on this later). Lastly, the economic collapse meant that Zanu-PF
would eventually be forced to return to the negotiating table, more
willing to offer concessions.
For Biti, the regime’s violence was a sign of desperation. He saved the
most poignant part of the speech for the end. “Every struggle has its
Chris Hani” (a South African anti-apartheid activist killed by
right-wing forces in 1993), he argued. The question is will Biti be that
martyr to the cause of democracy? Or can South Africa and other
influential countries force Mugabe to start offering real concessions to
resuscitate the negotiations?
Ideas on international solidarity from the Bishop who Stopped the Bullets
Bishop Rubin Philip led the successful dockworkers’ blockade of a Chinese shipment of arms to Zimbabwe from Durban.
He gave a short talk after Biti’s suggesting next steps in terms of international solidarity:
1) Mbeki should be relieved of his role as facilitator in future talks.
This is because Zimbabweans lack confidence in him as a mediator.
2) The GPA is a recipe for sustained conflict because it is not based on
an acceptance of the will of the Zimbabwean people as expressed in the
March election. Instead a Batswana proposal must be dusted off, which
would involve a transitional government being constructed which would
rule for two years, which would focus on making a new constitution and
on holding elections for a Government of National Unity.
3) South Africa must hold the government to account: this is because our
government has played a mediation role and because we host the majority
of Zimabwean immigrants.
4) South Africa needs to protect Zimbabwean refugees, it remains unsafe
for them to return to Zimbabwe. 5) People everywhere must demand that
food distribution be allowed in Zimbabwe without hindrance: this is a
humanitarian issue, which must be resolved.
The event was organized by the UKZN's Centre for Civil Society under the
auspices of the South African Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum (ZSF), a civil
society coalition aimed at showing solidarity for Zimbabwean’s struggle
for democracy:
They have a google group:
http://groups.google.com/group/zimbabwe-solidarity-forum?hl=en
They also accept articles on the Zimbabwean crisis for their monthly
newsletter: philani@actionsupport.co.za
A PROFILE OF TENDAI BITI
Sunday Independent, 1 June 2008
MDC’s dynamic second-in-command by Maureen Isaacson
If Tendai Biti has many faces, it is because he is versatile as well as changeable. He says his is “a story of struggle”. As the secretary-general of Zimbabwe’s oppostion Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), he has a date with destiny.
Last week he dazzled an audience at a Wits Public Conversations forum with his chilling run-down of a country facing a run-off for the election in which the MDC beat Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party.
The bizarre upshot of Zimbabwe’s rocketing inflation is that a packet of sausages costs ZIM$1,8-billion; a loaf of bread costs ZIM$300-million and Mazoe (a powdered orange drink) costs ZIM$2,5-billion for a 5kg bag. He recalled that when he was at boarding school it cost 20 cents for three months’ supply of Mazoe.
It is a long time since he was a boy in Form 1 who knew he would not lead “an ordinary life” as an adult. But he is no rich man’s son. He was born on August 6 1966, in the working class suburb of Dzivarasekwa in Harare. He was lucky enough to come into the world laden with gifts - of intellect and of oratory. He is also a champion chess player, a singer, a great reader and, according to his peers, an excellent strategist.
‘I am frustrated, I want to go home’ When I interview him at a Sandton hotel, Biti is not the same man I met at the Wits forum. To begin with, he is wearing a cap that renders him barely recognisable, and his charisma is on hold. Either way, this lawyer makes a compelling argument for the world to heed the call to stop “the madness”.
Evidence of his own nervous condition lies in a tic in one of his hands. “I am frustrated, I want to go home,” he says. “But the [MDC] leadership insists that I stay here.”
Augustine Chihuri, Zimbabwe’s Police Commissioner, has threatened Biti with unspecified action when he returns to Zimbabwe. Chihuri accused him of illegally declaring the results of the March 29 elections and “urging and abetting political violence”.
In a menacing letter to Biti, which was published in The Herald newspaper, Zanu-PF’s mouthpiece, Chihuri wrote: “What is very conspicuous in the Zimbabwean political arena today is your prominent role in urging and abetting political violence through unbridled rhetoric of incitement.
“You know for sure, your violation of the country’s laws by declaring presidential results which was, in deed, in contravention of Section 110 of the Electoral Act, Chapter 2:13 and is still to be attended to by the police.” Chihuri has warned that “the swift arm of the law will always catch up with the evil doer”.
Biti says Zimbabwean prisons are desperately overcrowded. He has been detained “every year since 2000”. His gruelling report, on behalf of the Zimbabwean Human Rights Lawyers, of the March 11 beatings and torture at Machipisa Prison, where 40 leaders of opposition parties and civil society activists were arrested en route to the Save Zimbabwe Campaign prayer meeting at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare, is deeply affecting.
“When we were being beaten on 11 March they [the policemen] were enjoying it and competing to beat Morgan [Tsvangirai, the MDC leader],” he said at Wits.
He mentioned that Grace Kwinjeh, a member of the MDC’s national executive committee, took the brunt of the beatings in that room.
Kwinjeh, who lost part of an ear during a beating with a metal rod, says Biti’s bravery is not in question. “Just being the secretary-general of the MDC over the past five years requires bravery, and it takes great leadership courage to deliver the kind of result we did in the election - as well as a great deal of work and administration.”
Biti says Zanu-PF’s military intelligence is targeting key players in the MDC structures - such as Tonderai Ndira, a young MDC leader who was recently killed.
Since the March 29 election, more than 50 people have been killed. Harvest House, the MDC’s headquarters in Harare, is flooded with refugees, including women and babies, who are fleeing Mugabe’s war. Biti is Gandhian in his approach: the MDC’s principled non-violence is symbolised by the open hand of the logo, as opposed to the closed fist of revolution.
“There will be retribution. And when it comes, the MDC, a democratic movement, will become irrelevant. The youths are radical. Please do something before there is a catastrophe”, is his appeal to the international community.
“There cannot be a run-off because we won this election. And therefore by agreeing to participate in the run-off we are supporting the kleptocracy. But there has to be a political solution. We have to create conditions for the rehabilitation of our country.
“But the fact the MDC has defeated the tyrant; the perpetrator of genocide, is remarkable. Especially since Mugabe has instilled the idea in the psyche of the nation that we [the MDC] are not people; we are “sellouts”, we are like the cockroaches, the name the Hutus gave to the Tutsis [in Rwanda].”
Last week, Biti warned, presciently, that the “xenophobic violence” in South Africa would destabilise the borders of neighbouring countries as it has done in South Africa.
“You mark my words. We know the cause of xenophobia, it is President [Robert] Mugabe. People are being killed in Zimbabwe.”
Critics of the MDC, who believe the movement is indeed in the pockets of “the West”, are watching Biti. It is widely believed that if Tsvangirai does not become Zimbabwe’s president, Biti will. Would he like this? “Absolutely not,” he says.
“I love the law. I may stay for three years in the party, sorting out the mess.” At Wits, he said: “When we craft a solution there will have to be a transitional national healing. There has to be transitional justice. You cannot have a Kenyan solution which subordinates the victor.
“You have to be careful. Mugabe must be promoted upstairs. Give him guarantees of personal safety and tell him, if you want to play golf with Kenneth Kaunda, by all means do so. There can be no vindictiveness. The people of Zimbabwe cannot have an elite pact.
“The core of our struggle has been the issue of constitution: we demand a people-driven constitution - by the people for the people. You have to give the same guarantees for everyone. You cannot tell people to forgive. We need to write a constitution based on mistrust.
“We are going to put a limit on the terms of office. Zimbabwe is at a crossroads. The issue of land is critical, the issue of compensation must be dealt with. We have to look at the farms that have been nationalised then deal with the demand side of land reform. Are you going to give back the white farmers their land? We will have to rationalise this on the principle of need and ability: do you need it? Can you farm it? We cannot have multiple ownership. There will be voluntary surrender, the return of the land market.”
Biti admits that the MDC is “not a perfect movement”, that it has had to root out corruption and that the split between Tsvangirai supporters and supporters of Arthur Mutambara was “tragic”.
Yes, there has been violence, but the split was not caused by this. Zanu-PF’s ugliness has contaminated everything in Zimbabwe.
Biti says it is well known that Tsvangirai “listens too much” to what others say.
How well does Biti listen?
Kwinjeh says when he disagrees with what you are saying, he does not listen. “Tendai has to improve on gender equality. We, the women, think he can do more. Let’s deal with patriarchy, I think.” She also says he is a brilliant lawyer and a principled leader who has stood by Tsvangirai when many have not done so.
Rehad Desai, a film-maker who knew Biti when he was a student leader in the 1980s, says Biti’s hardcore Marxist-Leninist line was modified and adapted to the Zimbabwean situation when they met.
His leadership qualities were already on show. He was the leader of the study group, the International Socialists of Zimbabwe.
“When the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions was flexing its muscles, we began to form links and joined the MDC.”
Patrick Bond, director of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, who was completing a PhD on Zimbabwe in the late 1980s, says: “You could see that Tendai could one day become the president.”
Biti’s old leftie comrades from the heady 1980s worry that the United States and United Kingdom will turn Zimbabwe into a neoliberal enclave. He insists that he has received not a bean from either country.
Many remember him as a firebrand: “I threw stones at Mugabe,” Biti himself recalls. Bond says that “Zanu-PF was brilliantly outfoxed during Thabo Mbeki’s mediation in the run-up to the election. Some activists - like National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madhuku - called the talks a ‘sell-out’, and yet the trick of immediately transmitting cellphone photos of official results from polling stations was the neatest bit of political jujitsu I’ve ever seen, and may make the crucial difference in Zimbabwe’s democratisation.”
Biti is willing to defend himself against accusations that he himself has sold out. How could the country’s promising young human rights lawyer be bought by a top-drawer commercial law firm, ask those who decry his partnership in Honey & Blackenberg.
He shrugs off the idea that “the real turning point came in 1997” when he defended the Standard Bank in a labour case. “The Standard bank is a client of my law firm and as such I was obliged to defend it. I am the lawyer who represents more trade unions than any other lawyer in Zimbabwe.
“Very few people are using the courts and the law as I have done in favour of workers. I specialise in constitutional law and labour law, but I end up doing everything that has to be done. I am a lawyer’s lawyer, a kind of advocate. Law is my passion,” he says. “I have been fortunate that everything I have been doing as a lawyer, [including human rights cases] highlights Zimbabwean history.”
Miles Larmer, an academic at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, remembers Biti’s determination at university to make a difference and his impatience with those far lefties “who stayed up talking all night, achieving nothing”.
Biti’s appointment to the presidency would be welcomed by Themba Nolotshungu, of the conservative Free Market Foundation, who says: “I would expect them [the MDC] to be more centrist and more inclined towards free market and to understand to what extent the state would be involved in terms of economic policy. They are pragmatic, rather than ideologically driven.”
But those on the other side of the fence accuse Biti of selling his socialism down the river. He responds emphatically: “I am still a socialist. I have not changed. Socialism is not an ideology of poverty, but of maximum production and equitable distribution.”
Desai says: “Tendai is still with Morgan because he still believes in socialism and the working class and the peasantry of Zimbabwe as a social force as it was before.”
Biti refers me to the MDC manifesto, in which he had a hand, and which he says is no neoliberal document. He refers me in particular to the MDC’s economic doctrine “… which says let us cross our own destiny so that the imperialists do not have a say in our life; our economy is so vulnerable. Let us look to outsiders on our own terms. We will pay back debt owed by Zimbabwe. The manifesto is very clear that we carry out an audit and we will repute all the odious debt”.
He is referring to the debt carried over from Zanu-PF, and to the international moral principle that has established that this need not be paid by a new democracy.
Despite Chihuri’s menacing, Biti will continue to speak to an international audience, as well as to an African audience, about assisting his country.
He says: “We will allow dual citizenship. We have shown we can defeat a dictator and one of the biggest challenges of these struggles is that it is easy to mirror that which one is trying to remove.”
Desai describes Biti as a loner. He says Biti’s dedication to the struggle has cost him his relationship with the mother of his child.
He is moody, saddened, yet he allows himself to be humoured as he gears up for his date with fate. He says: “I am ready to face what is waiting for me.”
The Zimbabwe Political Deal:
A commentary by Bishop Rubin Phillip, presented at the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum, Centre for Civil Society, SALO supported Harold Wolpe lecture at the
University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 30 October 2008
Progress so far
On the 15th of September 2008, 3 political parties in Zimbabwe (ZANU
PF, MDC –T and MDC Mutambara) signed the Global Political Agreement
which was to move Zimbabwe from a state of paralysis to a new
beginning. The signing of this agreement came after a series of talks
brokered by former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, acting on
behalf of SADC with a Reference Group that included the AU and the
UN.
The signing of the GPA gave rise to expectations both in Zimbabwe and
outside that the parties involved would urgently get down to the
serious business of implementing the agreement and moving the country
from a state of paralysis to the new beginning. Regrettably, the
situation in Zimbabwe at the moment is worse off than it was on 15
September when the GPA was signed, and indeed worse off than it was
when the MoU that set the framework for the talks that led to 15
September.
4 weeks after the signing of the GPA, 2 civil society leaders – Jenni
Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu are languishing in prison. They were
incarcerated on 16 October up to today, denied bail for expressing the
view that there is a national disaster in Zimbabwe and that food must
be given to all the people.
120 people are reported to have died of cholera in Zimbabwe between
February and October 2008; at least 25% of these died since the GPA
was signed.
The food situation in the country has been deteriorating further since
the signing of the agreement.
The signing of the agreement has not had a positive impact on the
people of Zimbabwe; it has not enabled Zimbabwe to be restored to
normalcy at the polical, social and economic levels. The single most
important expectation from the signing of the agreement had been the
restoration of normalcy in Zimbabwe’s political arena. The
restoration of normalcy in the political arena is seen as the key to
resolving all the other aspects of the crisis bedevilling Zimbabwe.
What we have had instead since the agreement was signed has been talks
and talks about the agreement. On Monday 27 October, the world learnt
that the talks on the implementation of the agreement had collapsed.
Collapse of the talks
The collapse of the talks has been a result of failed Regional and
Continental leadership on Zimbabwe. The consequences of resolving the
Zimbabwe crisis outside of talks and dialogue are too ghastly to
contemplate. Indeed, dialogue is critical for any process that seeks
to create a democratic dispensation.
However, that dialogue needs to be guided and underpinned by
democratic values, and this is what has been lacking from all sides in
the talks in Zimbabwe. The facilitators and the guarantors of the
agreement such as the SADC and the AU, have demonstrated a lack of
principled stand on Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe, particularly their
ambivalence on the election of Mugabe in the sham elections of 27
June. In fact, from as far back as the March 29 elections, Regional
and Continental leaders have been reluctant to invoke the democratic
principles and values espoused by our own continent when the ZEC
refused to announce the results and violence was unleashed on MDC and
civil society activists. Even in the face of condemnation of the
Zimbabwe government by African institutions, no sanctions were taken
by the African leaders to bring Robert Mugabe, his government and
party to account.
While SADC adopted the principles and guidelines for democratic
elections, the position conferred upon Robert Mugabe as President of
Zimbabwe, and accepted at the various forums of the SADC, AU, and UN –
means that at whatever level of engagement, Mugabe is regarded as a
legitimate head of state besides the fact he has grossly disrespected
the principles of democratic elections as espoused by SADC.
The point we are making here is that talks that should bring about a
democratic dispensation need to be underpinned by democratic values.
It is our view then that whoever engages with Robert Mugabe needs to
know and acknowledge that they are dealing with a rebel. And all
forms of pressure that are exerted on rebels to engage must be applied
on Robert Mugabe.
It is sad and ironic that throughout these talks, the MDC T is keen to
present itself as an equal to ZANU PF – a situation where the
oppressed see themselves in the image of the oppressor. There is no
way the MDC can be equal to ZANU PF given that over 100 of its
supporters were killed since 29 March; thousands others were
internally and externally displaced; MPs were arrested while attending
Parliamentary business etc. The MDC, and the mediators as well as
those guarantors, need to see the MDC as an alternative to ZANU PF,
and as a legitimate force ZANU PF and the region need to reckon with.
The question of imperialist interest
Throughout this presentation, we have projected the failed
responsibility of African leadership in solving the Zimbabwe crisis as
an African problem. This failure has led to a severe deterioration of
the living conditions in Zimbabwe. We have a situation right now in
Zimbabwe where the state has no relevance to the well being of its
people. The state is no longer a reference point for health,
education, protection, housing etc. Citizens from all walks of life
will hook on to anything that would make them survive – be it ethical
or not, legal or otherwise. You have people living in a state of
despair, but with a resolution to live on. This makes the people as
individuals and as a nation susceptible and vulnerable to any forms of
exploitation that present a dangling carrot.
Thus Zimbabwe, and indeed the region as a whole, has become vulnerable
to imperial interests of all sorts – be they western, eastern southern
or northern. It is against this background that South Africa and her
citizens must strengthen their solidarity with Zimbabwe in its
struggle for a just society.
Here are a few thoughts from some of us which we present as practical
proposals at least for South African and South Africans in showing
solidarity with Zimbabweans in the current situation.
Review of South African Policy on Zimbabwe
There is an urgent need for South Africa to review its policy on
Zimbabwe particularly around the issues of the facilitator, former
President Mbeki. There is clear lack of confidence by Zimbabweans and
other stakeholders in Mbeki as a mediator, and if South Africa wants
to be taken seriously in the role it is playing on Zimbabwe, there
must be a shift in its approach.
Support the Proposal by Botswana
Notwithstanding the spirit of the Global Political Agreement (GPA),
whatever that spirit was, events to date testify that the GPA is a
recipe for sustained conflict and tension in Zimbabwe. At the core of
the problem is the refusal to accept the will of the people of
Zimbabwe to choose a leader of their own choice. And this refusal is
supported by the processes that have so far been followed by SADC and
the AU. South Africa, in a policy shift that recognises the democratic
rights of the people of Zimbabwe, needs to support the proposal from
Botswana of putting in place a transitional government for 2 years to
deal with the issues of the new constitution and elections in
Zimbabwe, rather than a Government of National Unity as is the case
presently.
South Africans must hold their government accountable
South African civil society, faith based organisations and etc need to
hold South Africa accountable for what is happening in Zimbabwe for 2
reasons:
1.South Africa is playing the role of mediator in the ongoing peace
process
2.South Africa is host to the majority of Zimbabwean immigrants coming
out of Zimbabwe because of the crisis in that country
Protection of Zimbabwean immigrants who are in South Africa
South African civil society and faith based organisations need to be
at the fore front of defending the rights of and protecting Zimbabwean
immigrants who end up in South Africa. This is particularly important
because of the way Zimbabweans are being treated by public or state
officials in the wake of the Global Political Agreement which raised
expectations of both Zimbabweans and South Africans that it is now
safe to go back to Zimbabwe. A false sense of security was created as
the GPA means nothing to the ordinary Zimbabweans be they inside or
outside the country.
Food Security for Zimbabwe
Whether the GPA comes to fruition or not, South Africans from across
the board, be they state actors or non state actors, must demand that
food distribution be allowed in Zimbabwe without any hindrance. We
need to hear the South African High Commissioner to Zimbabwe speaking
into these issues, we need to hear our government speaking with
clarity on the humanitarian crisis, and we need civil society and
faith based organisations to be part of the national and regional
efforts in addressing the humanitarian crisis, especially as it has to
do with food.
Build support and understanding of the Zimbabwe crisis in South Africa
and the Region
For a long time, South African civil society, faith based
organisations and the media have been building support and
understanding of the Zimbabwe crisis as neighbours in need of help.
This must continue, as part of the tradition of hospitality and the
fight against xenophobia, but also as part of reclaiming our humanity
– ubuntu – in Africa and world over.
Finally, as a Christian and a Bishop, I think we must all pray for
Zimbabwe.
The Right Revd Rubin Phillip
Bishop of Natal (Anglican)
Co-Chairperson: Solidarity Peace Trust
Tel: +27 31 308 9302
bishop@dionatal.org.za
Free Markets Root Of Global Financial Crisis
By Tendai Biti (Zimbabwe Independent) 20 October 2008
IN 1992, Francis Fukuyama published his taunting classic: The End of
History and the Last Man. The central theme of the book was simple; it
was that liberal democracy and the unfettered market represented man's
highest form of development and more importantly, that the fall of the
Berlin Wall three years earlier was proof of this triumphalism.
History, as defined in the movement of society from different phases,
that is primitive communalism, feudalism and capitalism, had come to an
end. Long live the market.
Fukuyama's construction was taken up by a new breed of high priests of
the market, the neo-conservatives (the neo-cons) who included, among
others, Adair Turner and the pocket of over-educated scholars at Yale
University.
The ascendancy of liberal democracy went on to create, among other
things, the uncritical and unbridled champions of private property
rights, the market and globalisation.
In the developed world, this translated into a hegemonic iron rule of
unregulated finance capital. That philosophy was then imposed in the
majority of countries in Africa and the third world through structural
adjustment programmes (Saps) that preached the orthodoxy of
non-intervention in the market and extremely small governments.
The net result was the celebration of a new era of neo-liberalisation
and the neo-fascism of the market. In short, predatory globalisation and
infectious accumulation. In that period, the Left, bewildered by the
fall of state capitalism in Eastern capitalism, took a retreat and
hibernated in university bars and nationalist ideologies.
The terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 should have woken the
neo-cons to the false victory of liberal democracy. The crisis in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Mexico (1994), East and South East Asia
(1997), Russia (1998), Argentina (2001), North Korea and Iran and the
continued collapse of economies in the third world should have removed
any illusions but unfortunately didn't.
However, many who were watching global markets knew that it was only a
question of time before the world could witness the hurricane of the
massive global financial crisis that would question the market fascism
of the neo-cons.
Signs of decay in the financial markets as a result of predatory greed
were there for all to see. Many of us will recall the fall of Enron,
young Nick Leeson of Barings, John Meriwether of Longterm Capital
Management and Robert Citron.
However, it is the present day global financial crisis that has brought
the chickens home to roost. The world is currently experiencing the
biggest financial crisis since the Wall Street crash of 1929.
The crisis has seen the crash of investment banks, mortgage lenders in
America and Europe and a massive nationalisation of the banks by the
state. The current edition of The Economist reports that the worldwide
losses on debt connected to America's sub-prime lending will reach
US$1,4 trillion with banks, insurance companies and hedge funds writing
down US$750 billion.
Across the globe, banks on their own have suffered US$600 billion
credit-related losses. Only a week ago, the US Congress approved US$700
billion to be put into a troubled asset relief programme in respect of
where US treasury will buy huge amounts of distressed debts in return
for equity in the troubled institutions.
On the other hand, Gordon Brown has a three-pronged plan that will
include the injection of 50 billion pounds to be given to banks in
return for shares, secondly the provision of a 200 billion pound special
liquidity scheme, and thirdly the availing of 250 billion of wholesale
commercial paper to banks.
Despite these measures, markets across the globe have tumbled. Major
economies are clearly now in recession and the simple question is
whether that recession will graduate into a Depression.
The irony of the response of governments from Washington to Brussels has
been to provide more debt where there is debt or, as others have put it,
to reward greed with more toys for the boys.
This shoring up of the market with large-scale state intervention may in
fact succeed. After all, as Karl Marx wrote many years ago, this is a
system that is continuously arrested by cycles of booms and slumps but
is capable of reproducing itself through massive devaluation.
However, for us in the third world, we find it ironic that so much money
can be spent and yet the amount of money that has been given as aid to
us is a pittance. The meagre sum of US$20 billion can virtually wipe out
malaria as a killer disease on the African continent. Malaria, unlike
Aids, is the biggest killer disease on the continent. A meagre sum of
US$20 billion can virtually solve the budgetary constraints of Zimbabwe,
Tanzania and Mozambique. But of course, the skewed system will not
produce this.
However, this is not the point of this article. The point of this
article is that history has had its revenge and the unbridled hegemony
of the market has been exposed. Bonapartism, Keynesianism, market
regulations and welfarism will from now onwards be critical and
essential instruments in the management of any economy. In short,
neo-liberalism is dead.
What should also die but will not die is greed. At the core of the
current financial crisis has been the falling profits which global
capital experienced since the end of the 1960s.
Although there was some recovery the rates of profits in the late 1980s
and 1990s, that was not good enough. To prevent falling profits, the US
Federal Reserve Board in the late 1990s flattered America and the world
with cheap credit.
The era of vampire credit saw loans being dished out to a gullible
working class that found itself living way beyond its means. Thus,
America's national debt, which stood at US$3 trillion, had almost
doubled to US$5,75 trillion by 2000 and currently stands at US$10,2
trillion.
However, it is elementary that you reap what you sow. As Fareed Zakaria
argues in the latest edition of Newsweek: "There is no free lunch. If
you want something, you have to pay for it."
Things came to a head when interest rates were raised and workers
defaulted on their mortgage bonds. One after the other, investment banks
and mortgage houses began to collapse.
The neo-cons clearly have to go back to the drawing board. This is not a
temporary convulsion as argued by Allan Greenspan. This is a fundamental
challenge to the market and to the capitalist mode of production itself.
In short, history has not ended. It has just hit back!
By Tendai Biti : MDC secretary-general.
COURT ORDER PREVENTS TRANSIT OF ARMS FOR ZIMBABWE
When Bishop Rubin Phillip of the Anglican Diocese of Natal and Paddy
Kearney, a consultant to the KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council (KZNCC)
became aware on 17 April that the Chinese ship, An Yue Jiang, was
anchored outside Durban harbour awaiting clearance to dock and discharge
six containers of weapons destined for the Zimbabwe Defence Force, they
began to explore what could be done about this situation.
Given the post-election crisis in Zimbabwe, it appeared highly
irresponsible for the South African authorities to permit these weapons
to be transported through South Africa and delivered to Zimbabwe, thus
adding to the conflict and violence already taking place in that
country. There is widespread awareness that the Zanu-PF regime is doing
everything possible to subvert the election results which show that it
lost the election. They have embarked on a campaign of
military-sponsored violence against the opposition, in order to
intimidate people to vote for Mugabe in a run-off election.
It was agreed between Bishop Rubin Phillip and Paddy Kearney that an
application should be made to the High Court for an urgent interdict to
prevent the weapons from reaching Zimbabwe. Bishop Rubin Phillip agreed
to lend his name to such an application. Advocate Malcolm Wallis SC, a
leading expert in maritime law, instructed by Attorney JP Purshotam,
with extensive experience of human rights law, agreed to bring the
application, assisted by Advocates Angus Stewart and Max du Plessis.
A founding affidavit was drawn up by this legal team together with
supporting documents about the situation in Zimbabwe. At the request of
JP Purshotam, Paddy Kearney agreed to be the Second Applicant, with
Bishop Rubin Phillip as First Applicant.
The seven respondents identified were:
National Conventional Arms Control Committee Minister of Defence
Secretary of Defence Minister of Foreign Affairs AB Logistics Port
Captain, Durban Harbour Transnet National Ports Authority.
By the early afternoon of 18 April, the legal team had finalized the
application and it was signed by Bishop Rubin. Notification was given to
the Registrar’s Office of the High Court, of the urgent application and
the Registrar was asked to arrange for a judge to be in attendance. The
matter was set down for hearing before Madam Justice Kate Pillay for
5.00pm on 18 April. Both applicants were present for the hearing.
Appearing for the applicants was Advocate Malcolm Wallis SC, instructed
by Attorney JP Purshotam and assisted by Advocates A Stewart and M du
Plessis. Appearing for the first two respondents, was Attorney Krish
Govender of the State Attorney’s office, assisted by Mr Hennie Smal.
During the hearing, Mr Govender expressed concern that it had not been
possible for himself or the respondents to study the papers at such
short notice, and that he was therefore not in a position to obtain full
and proper instructions from them. It was therefore agreed that a rule
nisi should be issued returnable on 25 April when they would have a full
opportunity to present their response.
After an hour of deliberations, an interim order was issued by Justice
Pillay in the following terms:
a. “Suspending the operation of the conveyance permit issued by the
Third Respondent on or about 14 April 2008 to the Fifth Respondent under
the National Conventional Arms Control Act 41 of 2002 as read with the
Regulations promulgated thereunder on 28 May 2004 in Government Gazette
No R 634, authorizing the conveyance of six containers of arms
discharged from the MV “An Yue Jiang” pending the final determination of
the relief sought in Part B of the Notice of Motion; and
b. “Ordering that the Fifth Respondent is prohibited from in any manner
whatsoever taking delivery of and/or conveying the consignment of goods
contained aboard the MV “An Yue Jiang” and described in the Arrival
Notification dated 10 April 2008 under the description “3080 CASES …
ARMS”, pending the final determination of the relief sought in Part B of
the Notice of Motion; and
c. Ordering that the Sixth and Seventh Respondents are prohibited from
in any manner whatsoever permitting the consignment of goods described
in paragraph 3 above from being removed from the precincts of Durban
Harbour, pending the final determination of the relief sought in Part B
of the Notice of Motion.”
Approximately an hour later, the An Yue Jiang weighed anchor and began
to move in an easterly direction, apparently to get out of South African
territorial waters so that the Court Order could not be served on it.
As the applicants in this matter, we would like to thank our legal team
who did a superb job at short notice. We are most grateful for the
energy and brilliance with which they argued our case, and for doing so
pro deo.
http://www.anglicanchurchsa.org
Bishop Rubin Phillip Paddy Kearney
Durban
23 April 2008
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