This cartoon, from The Herald 25 February, reminded me of Joram Nyathi’s comment about the “treacherous teachers.” It’s not the teachers who are holding education hostage, it’s the government, who won’t pay teachers a living wage, that is holding teachers, learners and Zimbabwe’s future hostage.

Why are teachers – who themselves have lives to lead, families to feed, and children to school – blamed for wanting to earn a living wage? They signed up to be teachers – not slaves. Let’s pressure the new Ministers to send their Mercedes limousines back (and donate their value to infrastructure projects), and Robert Mugabe to decline his next $250,000 birthday party (having chosen instead to invest the funds into national development), instead of trash-talking teachers.

Zimbabwe Peace Project Director Jestina Mukoko was granted bail yesterday, and released from police custody. She was abducted from her home on 3 December 2008, was missing for three weeks, and was later found in police custody. Mukoko has been in hospital, recovering from the police brutality she experienced. For the past three weeks she has been shackled to her hospital bed and under police guard. She will stay in hospital recovering, but no longer under police guard.

Eight MDC activists, who were also abducted in December, have also been granted bail, but six have not been released, because they cannot meet the challenging bail conditions. To be released they must show title deeds to USD 20,000 worth of property – but they have no property.

Roy Bennett, who was granted bail last week, remains in custody after the state invoked Section 121 to keep him inside. More than 20 other activists who were abducted last year remain missing or in police custody.

A recent comment by Veritas raises an important question about the prolonged detention of Jestina Mukoko and dozens of other political detainees.

There has been talk over the past two weeks that political detainees and civil rights activists will only be released as part of a general amnesty being demanded by ZANU-PF and the security force commanders. This would certainly explain the delays that that have dogged efforts to get them freed. The political detainees whose release is the subject of purported amnesty negotiations were picked up while a national unity government was being negotiated. So far the police have not produced enough evidence to bring them to trial. This raises the question whether they were picked up deliberately to be used as hostages in a subsequent amnesty deal. This would entail a lopsided trade of a few seemingly innocent people picked up specially for the purpose against all those involved in perhaps up to 30 years of State organised or condoned violence.

There needs to be public debate on the subject of a general amnesty and civil society could take the lead in facilitating this process and in making sure it includes victims of State violence and their families. It is hoped that politicians will listen to these voices before making any deals. A general amnesty would not only affect the present detainees, but all people and the families who have been subjected to political violence – murders, torture, beatings, rape, property destroyed, forced evictions, etc. In addition to those who are recorded, there are estimated to be many hundreds over the last thirty years who have never been accounted for and there, are the dead who have never been identified and buried. Read more

Other recent documents that are worth reading on the question of transitional justice include Transitional justice in Zimbabwe: A pilot survey of the views of activists and victims by the Research and Advocacy Unit, and Pondai Bamu’s comment in Pambazuka this week: Transitional justice without transition in Zimbabwe?

Meanwhile, we’ve had a few more replies to our question about Roy Bennett:

• Roy Bennet should put pressure to have others released. – EM
• Roy should put pressure and refuse to be released! I really advocate that  he better refuse because if he accepts its like a father who runs away from a hungry lion leaving behind his weak, defenseless son to be feasted instead of fighting the lion together. Remember that even the bible says two are better than one. – HC
• I think Roy must stick to his guns. For he will never enjoy freedom with the others still detained, if he has a conscience. – CM

After 12 days in detention, Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate Roy Bennett was granted bail on Tuesday. But he remains in custody as lawyers for the state are appealing his bail order. We just asked our SMS subscribers whether Bennett should put pressure on the state by refusing to be released while Jestina Mukoko and others languish in jail. We’ve had two replies so far, with two opposing points of view:

• roy shld if the wil pwr is there stay in fo others, this is a difficult decision but worth giving a try
• why do u want to use him as a bargaining chip?

Apparently Bennett previously refused to be released in exchange for blanket amnesty for human rights abuses since 2000. Principled position, or bargaining chip? If you were Bennett, could you resist the promise of freedom in solidarity with others in the struggle? info [at] kubatana [dot] org [dot] zw or +263 912 452201.

Like Leonard Matsa, I have my misgivings about this deal and its new government. One of the challenges will be how to measure the success or failure of a government where so much decision making may be based on mistrust and rivalry.

For example, last week Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai started asking for donor support to rebuild Zimbabwe. He estimates it may take USD 5 billion. On Monday, donors pledged USD 100 million / month for 6 months – largely to pay civil servants and to rebuild Zimbabwe’s sewage system.  On Tuesday, this story the same donor called this story as a fabrication.

So USD 600 million may or may not be pouring into Zimbabwe any time soon. But either way, this possibility alone raised several questions for me and my colleague when we were talking about accountability yesterday, such as:

1. What about the other USD 4.4 billion? Where will that come from?
2. If it doesn’t come, how do we judge the performance of ministries?
3. If a ministry is in part responsible for its own fundraising, will those whose Ministers are members of Zanu PF be penalised by some donors? If so, who is to blame if that Ministry performs poorly?
4. Into what accounts would that USD 600 million go? How would these accounts be monitored, and that spending tracked?
5. Will the new Finance Minister submit a new 2009 Budget to Parliament?
6. If a Minister fundraises for her own Ministry, is this money added to that Ministry’s budget allocation, or will the money budgeted to that Ministry instead be diverted to ministries that didn’t fund raise for themselves?

In Zimbabwe, we’ve become very used to a polarised analysis of “regime” and “opposition,” in which the two separate entities can be analysed and judged. Now that the two are working together, the task of monitoring government, and measuring its successes and failures in delivering on its promises to us is no less important – and even more challenging.

Either way you slice it, this new government has a big job ahead. On the one hand, there are thousands of civil servants, all of whom need to be earning a living (forex) wage. On the other hand, there’s an overstuffed 61-strong cabinet, and the various salaries, offices, allowances, vehicles and other perks that these ministers will expect – and, I fear, be given.

As a discussant on an email list I’m on put it recently, “Maybe the striking teachers are justified in declining the US$100 per month and demanding more, because with a cabinet this big, where on earth does the govt get the money to support all these shameless parasites?”

The government may try and tighten its belt and scrimp on salaries for the “treacherous teachers.” But somehow I suspect the Mercedes Ministers are going to get by okay.