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No one in their right mind believes that a Ramaphosa government, whose own credibility is increasingly threadbare because of its bungled response to the coronavirus epidemic, its corruption and its economic incompetence, has the stomach to bring this about. We can expect fine words and promises and raised hopes, but lamentably little action until the next crisis comes around, when the charade will start all over again.

Repression in Zimbabwe exposes South Africa’s weakness

August 17, 2020 admin2South Africa, Violence, Zimbabwe0 comment

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s despatch of envoys to Zimbabwe in a bid to defuse the latest crisis, in which the government has engaged in a vicious crackdown on opponents, journalists and the freedoms of speech, association and protest, has been widely welcomed. Such has been the brutality of the latest assault on human rights by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime that something had to be done. And, as the big brother neighbour next door, South Africa is the obvious actor to do it. It may be guaranteed that Ramaphosa’s…

Public Policy

Mediating South African delegation to Zimbabwe crisis snubs opposition

August 11, 2020August 11, 2020 admin2South Africa, Violence, Zimbabwe0 comment

Cape Town — A delegation consisting of South African officials Baleka Mbete, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, and Sydney Mufamadi failed to attend a meeting with Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance, upsetting the opposition’s leaders, BBC reports. The envoys did, however, meet President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Sunday shortly after arriving in the country. Information Secretary Nick Mnangagwa tweeted images of the meeting. Former parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete, senior African National Congress member Ngoako Ramatlhodi and former minister of safety and security Sydney Mufamadi. then left Harare on Monday without meeting the…

“Mnangagwa’s government has used the cover of Covid-19 to unleash an unprecedented attack on individual freedoms by arresting journalists like Hopewell Chinono, whose only crime was exposing corruption, and using force to stop citizens from exercising their right to protest. “What Zimbabweans do not need at the moment is Ramaphosa using the ANC’s solidarity with ZANU-PF to engineer an international cover-up of Zimbabwe’s escalating political and economic crisis. ‘Quiet diplomacy’ should never be allowed to turn into ‘Cover-up Diplomacy’.” Culled/James Richardson/The South African

Public Policy

South African President Ramaphosa accused of sending biased envoys to Zimbabwe

August 7, 2020August 7, 2020 admin2Pres. Ramaphosa, Violence, Zimbabwe0 comment

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to withdraw his appointment of Baleka Mbete and Sydney Mufamadi as Special envoys to Zimbabwe. The DA’s Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Darren Bergman has accused Mbete and Mufamadi of holding a political bias towards the ZANU-PF-led regime in Zimbabwe. DA CALLS FOR A RECALL OF ‘BIASED’ ZIMBABWE ENVOYS Bergman says that the two special envoys will be achieve little in their roles except to assist the regime in Zimbabwe in covering up atrocities. “Failure to withdraw these…

Mabhena said many union leaders remained in hiding, including the Amalgamated Rural Teacher’s Union president Obert Masaraure, and Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Peter Mutasa. Two weeks ago, men down the doors of Masaraure’s home, kidnapped his wife, and threatened her with death if she refused to reveal her husband’s whereabouts.

Public Policy

Dictator Emmerson Mnangagwa, calls the Zimbabwe political opposition “terrorists”

August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 admin2Dictator, Emmerson, Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe0 comment

When governments label their critics terrorists we usually think of Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro, Egypt under President Fattah al-Sisi, Nicaragua under President Daniel Ortega or Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Zimbabwe might have long been part of the club of authoritarian states that rule with an iron fist, violate human rights, and jail journalists and political opponents, but President Emmerson Mnangagwa has finally crossed the Rubicon by publicly calling his political opponents terrorists. In a televised speech on Tuesday, Mnangagwa referred to the “destructive terrorist opposition groupings”, and…

Editor's Desk

The Naked Political Violence In The Streets Of Zimbabwe Must Stop!

August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 admin2Violence, Zanupf, Zimbabwe0 comment

Editorial ________ The Liberian Listener condemns in no uncertain terms the brutality that is being meted against the peaceful peoples of Zimbabwe under the iron claw government of the ZANU-PF government led by dictator Mr. Emmerson Mnangagwa, alias the crocodile, a man known for his reckless bloody fist! A foot soldier of the last ruler and dictator, Robert Mugabe, Emmerson was instrumental in carrying out the “Gukurahundi massacres against dissidents in Ndebele dominated regions which were carried out by the Zimbabwe National Army from early 1983 to late 1987”…

In different tweets on Monday, former leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance Mmusi Maimane, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) kingpin Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Thuli Madosela and musicians AKA and Casper Nyovest, suggested that the South African government and other nations should intervene to stop the arrest and human rights violations.

News

EFF Malema calls for the removal of Zimbabwe Embassy in SA over violence

August 5, 2020 admin2South Africa, Violence, Zimbabwe0 comment

Some opposition leaders, top musicians and other South Africans have urged the Zimbabwean government to stop arresting civic society activists and opponents suspected to have organized an anti-corruption protest last Friday. In different tweets on Monday, former leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance Mmusi Maimane, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) kingpin Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Thuli Madosela and musicians AKA and Casper Nyovest, suggested that the South African government and other nations should intervene to stop the arrest and human rights violations. In his tweet, EFF leader Julius Sello Matema said,…

31 July was supposed to be a day of civilian-led protest against corruption and violations of the Constitution and human rights law. Peaceful protest is a legitimate part of democratic action. Voting is how you hold a government to account at the ballot, at election time, but democracy doesn’t happen every five years. Protesting is one of the ways you hold them to account as citizens in the interim period.

Op-ed

Time For SADC To Break With Zimbabwe

August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 admin2SADC, Zanupf, Zimbabwe0 comment

By Jamie Mighti It is time to stop turning a blind eye to what is going on in Zimbabwe, where the government has shown over and over that it is violent and willing to do anything to stay in power, writes Jamie Mighti. Am I my brother’s keeper? This moral question is one that often confronts most people at some point in their lives. Young black professionals have to confront it in the form of black tax. We all have to consider it in some form when we encounter beggars on…

Her first novel Nervous Conditions won the African section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1989. Other award-winning credits include Neria, Zimbabwe's most successful film released in 1993. Her latest book, This Mournable Body, is on the Booker Prize longlist, which was unveiled earlier this week. It is a sequel to Nervous Conditions, and "channels the hope and potential of one young girl and a fledgling nation to lead us on a journey to discover where lives go after hope has departed", the Booker Prize website says.***

News

Famed Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga released on bail

August 2, 2020 admin2corruption, Writer, Zimbabwe0 comment

Tsitsi Dangarembga, an award-winning Zimbabwean author and Booker Prize nominee, has been released on bail after her arrest during an anti-government protest. Eleven other people detained on Friday – including Fadzayi Mahere, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change-Alliance party – were also freed on Saturday. They were ordered to return to court on September 18. Dangarembga was charged with incitement to commit violence and breaching anti-coronavirus health regulations after staging a two-woman demonstration in the capital on Friday, the day of planned protests against corruption…

Public Policy

Who is Tsitsi Dangarembga?

August 1, 2020 admin2Detained, Writer, Zimbabwe0 comment

BBC—Award-winning Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, a nominee for this year’s Booker Prize, has been arrested in the country’s capital, Harare, during an anti-government protest. Dangarembga, 61, and another protester were bundled into a police lorry while carrying placards. The government has warned that participation in Friday’s demonstration is regarded as insurrection. Police and soldiers are patrolling cities where streets are mainly empty. BBC Africa Live: Updates from across the continent**** Seven babies die in one night at Zimbabwe hospital*** ‘Our only radiotherapy machine broke during my treatment’*** Opposition parties…

“Do you want me to punch you to the floor to realize I am still there?” Mugabe told an interviewer from state television who asked him in early 2016 about retirement plans.mAfter the fighting between black guerrillas and the white rulers of Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was then known, ended, Mugabe reached out to whites. The self-declared Marxist stressed the need for education and built new schools. Tourism and mining flourished, and Zimbabwe was a regional breadbasket.

Tributes

Former President Robert Mugabe Dies at age 95

September 7, 2019 admin2Africa, Mugabe, Zimbabwe0 comment

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, an ex-guerrilla chief who took power when the African country shook off white minority rule and presided for decades while economic turmoil and human rights violations eroded its early promise, has died in Singapore. He was 95. Mugabe enjoyed strong support from Zimbabwe’s people soon after he became the first post-colonial leader of what had been British-controlled Rhodesia. Often violent farm seizures from whites who owned huge tracts of land made him a hated figure in the West and…