Matonga is at it again. There he was shooting his mouth in the government mouthpiece, the Herald of June 07 that “All NGOs have been ordered to apply for new registration permits as part of measures to clamp down on the incidences of civil society meddling in the country’s politics ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off.”

This in direct contradiction to what the former minister of Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare, Mr Nicholas Goche issued in a letter calling for the suspension of all ‘field work’ by PVOs. One can almost imagine Matonga confidently making his announcement with that annoyingly wide and pompous Cheshire-cat grin of his.

This is at a time when most Zimbabweans are in desperate need of food aid and ARV treatment, clean water and other services provided by NGOs. But some Minister just wakes up one day and decides all NGOs are banned from conducting humanitarian work, ironically at a time when the outgoing president is attending a summit discussing various food security issues including the fight against hunger. That thousands will probably die from hunger or needless lack of medication seems irrelevant. What is important is to thwart potential underground activities by NGOs to support the MDC under the banner of carrying out humanitarian aid.

NANGO (an association of Zimbabwean NGOs representing over 1000 members countrywide) convened an emergency meeting with PVOs to discuss implications and the way forward on June 09, 2008. A representative from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) gave a preliminary legal position that the letter is not legally valid, as the Private Voluntary Organizations Act does not empower the Minister to suspend an NGO’s operations.  Also, section 10 of the Act, cited in the letter, empowers the PVO Board, not the Minister, to take action to de-register an NGO. Whatever the legality of this instruction, it is a political reality.

There is also the question of whether Goche has any right at all to be issuing such statements. If cabinet was dissolved just before March 29, he and his colleagues must therefore be operating from the perspective that since their outgoing president is still operational; they too can continue to execute duties as before.

It is fast becoming a sad reality that the regime is refusing to go and will employ any means possible to ensure they stay in power. It is another sad reality that this is not the first time such careless, baseless announcements have been made each time the government feels threatened about something. Another sad reality is that we have a government in place that simply has this ‘thing’ against people helping other people, even when humanitarian assistance is non partisan and is inclusive of their Zanu-PF people. Never mind that humanitarian workers’ sole mission is to provide assistance to any people in need.

It appears that most members of civil society have chosen to distance themselves from solidarity with other directly affected PVOs, under the misconception that only humanitarian field workers in food distribution are being targeted. Some do not realize that the regime has a plethora of some uneducated overzealous agents who are prepared to start maiming and killing to enforce the directive, legal or not. Much as we find for instance that Mr Goche’s announcement is legally null and void, we are also confronted by the fact that there is no respect for the rule of law in this country.

I caught the words of one representative from ZLHR that it may be in the best interests of PVOs to just comply with the directives, even though this may imply that they concede that their existence is illegal. He gave the example of the Daily News and the fact that the paper lost its case against the MIC because it failed to comply with the law simply because they disagreed with it. The wise move was to first comply then later challenge whatever they disagreed with. The lawyer suggested the same for PVOs in the current situation.

So if this was a death sentence, first die then appeal?

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Whilst Mugabe fiddles about food in Rome, Zimbabwe is burning. With three weeks till the run off, the election violence continues. The images from a petrol bomb attack in Zaka support with the reports we received below, from an MDC supporter in Masvingo Province.

Zaka

Our Zaka command centre was attacked last night by ZANU PF militia who shot 7 of the MDC supporters there and went on to burn there bodies with the fuel that had been supplied them for campaigning purposes. The Zaka police are trying to down play this incident by saying that only three people have been killed.

Chirezi North

The secretary Nelson Mangwayana’s house at Mkwasine Estate was attacked by people brought there in 2 Mistabushi pick ups last night. He was not there and his wife managed to escape with her children, the militia broke windows and took some goods and radio equipment. The family is now homeless and he is unable to go back to work at Mkwasine Estate. Everyone including management of the Mkwasine estate are being forced to go to ZANU meetings where they have to keep pledging there allegiance.

Chiredzi South

At 2.30am I received a message that the chairman for ward 10 Satan who lives at Chilonga has been abducted with 2 youths. His son who saw the abduction said that 2 white pick ups came to the house and at gun point forced him into a vehicle. As they left he Satan managed to shout his farewells to his family. Suspect who directed this are Matemachani, Edson Chauke (otherwise Right Chimbere), Phillimon Magezani and David Knuka.

For another account of events in Zaka, visit this blog:

Six MDC officials, sleeping in their office, were woken by the arrival of an armed gang at 4am. The armed men forced the officials to lie down and shot three people immediately. (I pray to any available God that they were killed outright). Petrol was poured over them all and they were set alight. The man I am talking to managed to tear off his clothes, beat out the flames burning his body and escape. Two men are dead, their bodies unrecognisably burned, and another suspected dead but his body is missing. Two men have burns over large areas of their bodies. They will be lucky to live.

Yesterday the first flush of crimson appeared on the lucky bean trees
a promise of flowering yet to be

yesterday was a rough day

we have been without cash for a week so I went foraging . . .

As I wait at a traffic light
I see a man and woman make their way slowly across the road in front of me
on the mans back he carries a load
a human reduced to nothing but bones
the shaft of a shin bone hangs down at his side
a human, ageless, of unknown gender
reduced to this

I am consumed by pain, and the need to do something
try to get off the road to offer them a lift
am pushed forwards by impatient traffic
tears running
‘I’m, sorry, I’m sorry’ as I drive on

I go to the ATM (no cash available) to try and establish what money there is in our account
in my disarray, I manage to put in the wrong pin code and my card is taken
(at least something still works!)
I rush into the bank to try and regain my card
it is crammed with about 200 customers queuing to cash the maximum cheque they can
(5 billion – today this translates to US$ 5)

I queue along side 2 men in army uniform as an SMS comes through on my cell
‘the police and army are marching through the crowded streets of Mbare Musika
firing guns into the air.’
and find myself staring at their boots
looking for splatters of blood

Why do none of us say anything?
we are so compelled to behave properly

I am in the wrong queue, but am told that I will have to reapply for a card – it could take 2 weeks (in which time my money will be worth nothing)
into another queue (only 30 minutes) – and I persuade the wonderful, patient woman to try and get my card
20 minutes later it appears –with a big smile

Back to the ATM – I have 28 billion
there is an urgency to spend it before tomorrow
with 28 individual swipes on the cash machine I can buy US$ 28 worth of floor polish and some potatoes
BUT – the cash machines aren’t working today – and no one takes cheques
I go home empty handed

Mel has been out trying to sell onions and convert it to soap, oil, sugar and salt to pay workers
but there is no cash for the onions – only a cheque – a wait of 8 days (at which time it has halved and halved again)
Yesterday he worked out that our 1$ coins that used to be worth 1 US$ would now build a 3 metre high wall around the equator to make an equivalent amount.

The air above the vleis and hillsides are filled with prayers
I wonder if they are praying for deliverance
or for the strength and courage to endure?

We hear of someone who is being pursued by the police
the fear of death hangs over him
a sudden urgency to find a safe place, food to survive

News comes of Morgan being arrested for speaking to his electorate at Lupane

These are the early mornings when the shadows lean long on the earth
and at a slow shifting of the sun an unseen spider web is lit with rainbows
invisible magic hidden in the shadows
waiting for a shift in the light

Dance your anger and your joys,

Dance the military guns to silence,

Dance oppression and injustice to death,

Dance my people.

- Ken Saro-Wiwa

This morning four of us piled into a car and went to observe a Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) gathering in downtown Harare. They wanted to deliver a petition to the Zambian Embassy requesting SADC to get more energetically involved in helping to solve the crisis in Zimbabwe. I thought that WOZA’s tactic of getting people to witness their event in order to provide factual and independent accounts is a good one. WOZA initiated their march at the UNDP building and they had reached Julius Nyerere Way when a bakkie full of riot police arrived to “put them in order”. What interested me was the behaviour of the police; they didn’t seem terribly excited or keen on beating the WOZA women. One of the women taken away was Jenni Williams, WOZA’s tireless co-ordinator.

I’ve been reading various news reports and articles by Zimbabweans that emphasise the need for Zimbabweans to go and vote in huge numbers in the presidential run-off. Of course a very high turnout of opposition voters will make it more difficult for Mugabe to steal the election, but steal it he will. In which case I wonder if the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has a post election strategy in place this time. We are likely to see a re-run of the last election when the MDC claimed victory but failed to convert their win. As I’ve written before, the liberation of Zimbabwe will only happen when Zimbabweans and the leadership of the MDC realise that we have to do more than vote and hope that the international community will come to our rescue.

Working out a post election strategy is not easy in a dictatorship, but, whether we like it or not, we have to.

Public actions like WOZA’s today give me some hope. But their actions need to be multiplied and replicated all over Harare and other parts of Zimbabwe to create sustained pressure on the illegitimate Mugabe regime.

At this time the MDC should not be putting their efforts into printing yet another batch of election posters, or fliers. They should be:

- forming resistance cells and collaborating with a variety of pressure groups like WOZA and the NCA to create rolling actions when the election is stolen
- lobbying key business leaders to shut down the country once the election is stolen: banks, fuel providers, taxi operators, teachers, supermarket owners
- bringing the armed forces and police onto the side of justice

It is largely agreed that the majority of Zimbabweans (including members of Zanu PF) and personnel within the armed forces and the police want Mugabe to go. It is a minority that want him in power to further their own corrupt and power hungry agendas. Therefore we need to stretch the regime to bursting point, and burst it will. But only if we refuse to be complicit in our own oppression.

Some Zimbabweans, as well as the MDC leadership have said that they won’t organise protest marches because the army will fire upon civilians. This is already happening in the rural areas and the high density areas where people have been murdered, assaulted and made homeless. If the MDC and Zimbabweans continue to use this excuse for inaction, then it isn’t Mugabe who is oppressing us, it is ourselves.

Power itself is not derived solely through violence. Governmental power is frequently violent in nature, but it is primarily maintained through oppression and tacit compliance of the majority of the governed. Since silence and passivity is interpreted by the government as consent, any significant withdrawal of compliance will restrict or challenge governmental control. Struggle and conflict are often necessary to correct injustice. People’s apathy in the face of injustice implicates them in the moral responsibility for that injustice. (For more, click here)

The liberation of Zimbabwe will be achieved because of a variety of interventions, including:

- creative and courageous leadership in the opposition
- creative and courageous leadership in civil society organisations
- regional pressure
- international pressure
- internal pressure
- the withdrawal of co-operation by ordinary citizens
- the non-cooperation of the business community
- the withdrawal of support for Mugabe by the police and the armed forces

And I believe the most important of these is sustained internal pressure.