Frustrated and looking for Something I could do to express my outrage, I shaved my head in solidarity with Munyaradzi Gwisai of the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe) and the 44 others who have been charged with treason for discussing recent events in Tunisia and Egypt.

Watch the video here and share your solidarity – email info [at] kubatana [dot] net

Sub-Saharan Africa Meeting on Freedom of Expression and the Internet
Johannesburg
15-18 February 2011

The Department of Media studies at the University of the Witwatersrand recently hosted a Sub-Saharan Africa Expert Meeting on Freedom of Expression and the Internet in Johannesburg. This was one of a series of consultations and training workshops, which are jointly organised by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr. Frank La Rue, and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Other meetings were held in Asia, Latin America and MENA.

The purpose of these meetings is to explore the most pressing issues according to region, within the general topic of Internet freedom. Delegates to the Sub-Saharan meeting were from all over the African continent including Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Namibia and Uganda.

The meeting was broken into eight sessions over three days. During these sessions issues such as the problems of access to the internet, legal instruments to protect Freedom of Expression as well as those used by governments to erode that freedom, the collusion of ISPs with governments and their liability as intermediaries and campaigning and advocacy were discussed.

Case studies from all parts of the African continent were presented. The direst instance in which Freedom of Expression was being violated by a government was Uganda, where according to Geoffrey Ssebagala, from the Human Rights Journalist Network, conditions for journalists and activists were perilous. He said the Ugandan government was very repressive and was targeting all methods of communication including mobile phones, the Internet and postal deliveries. He even cited instances of government agents breaking into the houses of private citizens to take their mobile phones and laptops in an effort to ascertain whom they were communicating with and what they were saying. Arrests of networks of journalists and activists usually followed these break-ins.

Points of interest during the meeting included Guy Berger’s presentation during the session on Censorship; Henry Maina in the session on Legal instruments relating to Freedom of Expression and the Internet and Claire Ulrich’s presentation during the session on campaigning and advocacy.

Guy Berger from Rhodes University presented his notes on hate speech and the Internet using the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa as an example. He questioned whether it was time to revise old restrictions, which had become outdated.

Henry Maina of Article 19 in Kenya began his presentation by indicating that there are three major instruments that are applicable in Africa with regard to Freedom of Expression. These are the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, the African union Convention on Prevention and Combating Corruption and Related Offences, and finally the African Charter on Democracy Elections and Governance. Mr. Maina also discussed the Declaration on Principles of Freedom of expression in Africa. He noted that while it is a declaration, it is the clearest available document on Internet freedom.

Editor of Global Voices’ in French Claire Ulrich presented a study of the use of the Internet for protest in Tunisia. She said the Tunisian uprising did not happen by chance. It was the result of the merging of cyber activism from exiled activists abroad and from an uprising in Tunisia. Despite great access to the Internet within Tunisia, the government was very repressive and censored the Internet through the use of filters that blocked words and sites on the Internet.

The meeting concluded with several recommendations being made regarding the thematic areas of each session. The information provided during this meeting will be included in Mr. Frank La Rue’s report to the UN Human Rights Council on Internet Freedom, and will also provide some specific advocacy plans for improving the situation of Internet freedom in the various Sub-Saharan regions.

In principle, I don’t have a problem with the idea of an anti-sanctions rally. Anyone who still clings to the myth of them being targeted or a grand illusion orchestrated by our Dear Leader, needs to face reality: sanctions are real, they are not targeted, and they are wrong.

As with most things, ZANU PF took the recent anti-sanctions rally much too far. Now what would have been a rallying point for all Zimbabweans, has been reduced to little more than an exercise in futility and the beginning of ZANU PFs campaign for debatable elections. By no stretch of the imagination can anyone claim that it was a legitimate expression of the peoples’ wishes. For one thing, the people were told to go. A friend called me in distress, after the technicians at a printing concern near downtown Harare were ordered (after an ID check) to attend the rally, and his indigenously owned and operated business lost time, money and customers.

Happily, there are reports the police walked out of the rally during the President’s speech, leaving members of the public with better things to do to do the same.

Forced attendance is nothing compared to the relentless assault on the intelligence of ordinary Zimbabweans. The injury is made worse when you recall that it is the same regime that in the early 80′s instituted a policy of education for all, punctuating the savanna with numerous schools and teachers’ colleges. Or that during Gore reNzara, the same regime bragged to anyone who would listen that even ana ambuya vekumusha understood economic concepts like the drivers of hyperinflation. Yet yesterday they saw fit to treat the assembled masses like drooling five year olds.  Zimbabwe supposedly has some of the most educated members of government in the world, and these same people chose to publicly offer moronic platitudes like comparing Our Dear Leader to Cremora – a bland white powder, or saying

“There is no president the world over who has degrees like President Mugabe. He is brainy and that’s why he is feared.”

I quite doubt that anyone could be in fear of an 87 year old man who didn’t command a vast army, no matter how ‘brainy’ he was.

Do they think we’re stupid? Yes.

While Our Dear Leader and his cohorts make an embarrassing spectacle of lamenting sanctions, they forget and distract us from realising that we are slowly becoming South Africa and China’s client state. Zimbabwe manufactures very little. Redistributing what pittance is left of foreign owned companies would not change that. It will not change China’s increasing ownership of the ‘people’s resources’ neither will it stop the influx of South African goods onto supermarket shelves.

From www.sapst.org

State Enterprises and Parastatals

The Committee received oral evidence from the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company, which was represented by Mr Chifamba. The major highlights of the presentation were as follows:

ZESA was not able to maintain a continuous power supply to the majority of customers due to a power shortfall. About 1300MW of power was available against a national demand of up to 2100MW. As a result customers were experiencing load shedding.

Some constraints in providing continuous power supply to customers are due to network faults caused by the aging of the electrical infrastructure, theft and vandalism of network components.

ZESA had scaled down on meter reading because it was expensive in terms of manpower and resources. Hence customers would receive estimated bills.

ZESA was experiencing challenges with the billing system in Harare and Western Regions resulting in erroneous bills.

ZESA was owed over $475 million by customers.

The following update from the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe) shares some of the challenges Munyaradzi Gwisai and the 44 others who have been charged with treason have faced during their prolonged detention:

We had been paying the rentals of the families of the detained and to give them some cash to meet their daily basic requirements. A Trust was set up called Fourty-Five Social Response Trust in order to ensure that the needs of the detained and their families are met. Currently all the funds we received are being administered by a law firm in town to ensure accountability. We are currently working on the issue of a bank account for the trust in order to ensure that all funds are deposited in one account.

Now back to the affairs of the detained: We visited them during the week and they were being examined by medical doctors of their choice to check on their health as per the court order and this was being facilitated by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. We were reliably informed that by Friday afternoon the doctors had finished examining everyone and the only pending issue was the medicines and further examination to some who needed special attention for example Antonetter Choto and a few others.

On Saturday morning we visited the male remand prison only to be told that half (17) of the prisoners had been moved to Harare Central Prison (a prison designed for convicted persons only) and the other
17 remained at the remand prison. Those who had been moved told us that they were moved on Friday evening and they were in solitary confinement, one in his own cell. They were allowed 30 minutes exercise in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening and the rest 23 hours they had to spend in a locked cell, each person by himself.

We could see frustration and distress on the faces of these 17 comrades. We asked in vain to get an explanation as to why these people who are not yet convicts were in a prison for the convicted. We however managed to give them food and drinks. We advised the lawyers on the matter and they said they will look into it. The comrades are however due to attend court on Monday 07/03/11.

It’s days like this that make me wish I could believe in something. Instead, my every eyelash and rainbow and first star wish, my deepest hope and greatest intention have all been going for the same thing for the past 17 days. I need this to be the day the International Socialist Organisation (Zimbabwe)’s Munyaradzi Gwisai, ZIMCODD’s Hopewell Gumbo, our colleague Lenard Kamwendo and the 42 others who have been charged with treason go home.