Overview of todays News

From SW Radio Africa, 8 April: High Court postpones decision on MDC presidential vote case, again

By Lance Guma

High Court judge Tendai Uchena postponed to Wednesday a ruling on an application by the MDC demanding the release of presidential election results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Despite an earlier ruling that the matter was urgent, the judge demanded a second round of hearings ‘to deal with matters with full concentration.’ It remained unclear whether the judge was physically tired or just needed more time and arguments from the different legal teams. The case will begin again 10am on Wednseday. Opposition lawyer Alec Muchadehama told the court his clients ‘have a legitimate concern to have the results announced expeditiously.’ ZEC however had sought to block the High Court from intervening, by arguing it had no jurisdiction to order ZEC to announce the results. This argument was thrown out by Uchena and paved the way Tuesday for the actual court case to begin.....

From The Times (UK), 9 April

Zimbabwe faces starvation as mobs rampage through farms

Catherine Philp in Harare South

Just as Tommy Miller was milking his Friesian herd early yesterday morning, the mob stormed into Dunluce Farm. Armed with sticks, stones and a shotgun, they ordered him to stop. He refused. The cows had to be milked or they would become ill. "This is the law," replied their dreadlocked leader, brandishing his baton. "You must throw the milk on the ground." As they rampaged through Zimbabwe’s last productive farms, Robert Mugabe’s feared militiamen threatened to drive the country to starvation with a campaign not just to reclaim white-owned land but to destroy the farming system. Reports flooding into farmers’ unions in Harare yesterday told of the wilful destruction of farm equipment, produce and buildings as part of an alleged "popular uprising" by government-backed mobs in the name of getting the land back for the black population.

Agriculturalists fear that the country could run out of food within weeks as the farm invasions stop the maize harvest in mid-flow and threaten the future of wheat crops with only four weeks left for planting. As of yesterday, 60 commercial farmers – including two black farmers with opposition sympathies – had been evicted from their farms by mobs of so-called war veterans, the shock troops unleashed by Mr Mugabe in a desperate attempt to cling to power. Dozens more have fled their farms, unwilling to resist the increasingly violent mobs, which have set fire to farm labourers’ huts and beaten workers. Up to 300 veterans, in T-shirts of the ruling Zanu (PF) party, turned up at Mr Miller’s sprawling dairy farm south of Harare yesterday, closing down production when he refused to leave, and surrounding his heavily fortified house to try to flush him out.

Milk has become one of the scarcest commodities in Zimbabwe since the first invasions in early 2000, and long queues form from early morning in the rare places it can be found on sale. In a land of such desperate hunger, the wanton waste of milk seems unbelievable. But while millions of Zimbabweans spent their day in the exhausting search for food, Mugabe supporters spent theirs in a frenzied effort to destroy the supply chain. The militias, financed by trillions of Zimbabwean dollars printed since Mr Mugabe’s apparent election defeat 11 days ago – official results have still not been announced – are answering a call to arms to defend the land from a new white invasion and reclaim what is held by the country’s few hundred white farmers. Mr Mugabe has cast the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as the stooges of former British colonial rulers, claiming that it is seeking to hand back land to ousted whites.

When two white Times journalists drove to Dunluce Farm yesterday on the pretext of buying meat, the car was set upon by the chanting mob occupying the farm. They dragged a cart across the driveway to block an escape and gathered, chanting and mocking, round the car. "The butchery is closed, the farm is closed," their leader said. "This is the law." Similar tales were told by the white farmers fleeing to Harare for safety and congregating at the offices of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) to report attacks on their farms. "They are saying they have come to reeducate the people and repossess the land," one white farmer from Mashonaland Central said, refusing to give his name for fear of retribution. Too afraid to return to his farm, he was fretting over what would happen to his wheat crops, which must be planted within four weeks. Other farmers were evicted or fled in the middle of the maize harvest, raising fears over how long the country could last on its food stocks.

Zimbabwe needs 23,000 tonnes of maize a week to feed its population, half of which it imports. Its remaining stocks stand at just two thirds of that figure. Trevor Gifford, president of the CFU, calculated that more than 1,000 lorryloads of maize would have to be imported every week just to keep the country at subsistence level. The political limbo, meanwhile, shows no signs of ending. Yesterday a court postponed the opposition’s petition for the release of disputed election results, as news emerged that officials had been arrested for allegedly undercounting Mr Mugabe’s vote. There is no sign of the promised run-off between Mr Mugabe and his challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, but every sign of a violent campaign unfolding to intimidate opposition supporters. In Harare, the queues for basic food-stuffs stretched along the pavements into the evening. "We are suffering here," said one woman, holding her crying baby. "When will it end?"

From Zim Online (SA), 9 April

Soldiers beat up revellers and shoppers

By Own correspondent

Harare - Soldiers beat up revellers and late evening shoppers in the city of Gweru as punishment for not "voting correctly", a human rights group has reported as Zimbabwe’s election stalemate looks increasingly set to degenerate into violent clashes between rival political groups. The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said soldiers, some of them wearing face masks, on Sunday raided bars and a public market in Gweru’s Mkoba 6 surbub, assaulting people they accused of failing to vote correctly. Gweru, which is in Mdilands province, is a stronghold of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Morgan Tsvangirai which trounced President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party in the city in just ended elections. The ZPP said: "Soldiers descended on unsuspecting revellers in bars and late night shoppers beating them up. The soldiers were allegedly saying the people’s crime among other things was that they did not vote correctly." The soldiers, who allegedly used logs and broom sticks to assault their victims, were back on Monday morning but this time at a different shopping centre in Mkoba 14 suburb where they again beat up civilians, according to ZPP......

From The Star (SA), 9 April

Tsvangirai in Harare airport scare

Moshoeshoe Monare and Hans Pienaar

Harare - An SAA flight, whose passengers included MDC leader and potential Zimbabwean president Morgan Tsvangirai, battled to land at Harare airport because runway lights had been switched off. But SAA spokesperson Robyn Chalmers said the company "had no record" of such an event. Tsvangirai was on his way back after his brief visit in South Africa, where he met, among others, ANC president Jacob Zuma. He caught the 7pm flight (SA23) to Harare on Monday, which was supposed to land at around 9pm. According to a passenger, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, the plane had to fly around the airport because the pilot could not see the runway lights. "(The pilot) told us that we have passed the airport and there was still no word from the tower about switching on the lights. He said he was facing a dilemma either to return to Johannesburg or fly around the airport. But he raised the concern that he may run out of fuel if he did not land in the next hour," said the passenger. He confirmed that Tsvangirai was on the same flight and that the lights were finally switched on, to the relief of anxious passengers.

MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said he knew nothing about the flight problems. Chalmers said the Harare flight left OR Tambo Airport 14 minutes late, but arrived "five or six minutes early" at Harare Airport. Biti confirmed that Tsvangirai had met Zuma and Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, but refused to disclose any further details. "Those are the two that I am authorised to disclosed … But everyone is concerned about the situation in the country," was all that Biti was prepared to say. Meanwhile Biti has warned Southern African Development Community and African Union leaders not to wait for dead bodies, but to intervene urgently to broker the tense political impasse triggered by the failure to announce the presidential election result. "We are aware that Zanu-PF wants to … put us in a position where we are frustrated and we say we are demonstrating and protesting … They want to declare a state of emergency … We remain steadfast in our commitment to peaceful ways of resolving this dispute … We are keeping our members restrained … I say to my brothers and sisters across the continent, don't wait for dead bodies in the street of Harare. There is a constitutional and legal crisis in Zimbabwe," Biti said.

From AFP, 8 April

Mozambique ready for Zimbabwe refugees: president

Maputo - Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza has said his country was willing to house refugees from Zimbabwe, in the event of post-election violence in the country, local media said Tuesday. Speaking at an event to mark Women’s Day celebrations in Maputo, Guebuza said he was willing to accept refugees from Zimbabwe, where tension is rising over the unannounced outcome of a presidential poll ten days ago. "We are thinking of the good of the people of Zimbabwe," he said, in repsonse to questions from journalists on the possibility of an influx of refugees, should the tension spiral into violence. The independent online news service Canal de Mocambique quoted Guebuza as saying the outcome of a court case in which Zimbabwe’s opposition is attempting to force the release of results of the presidential poll should be awaited. "The election process in Zimbabwe is not in an impasse. It appears to me that there are issues before the courts," he said. "Let’s wait for the outcome of the court case. We have to respect the sovereignty of Zimbabwe and for that we have leave it up to them to decide their own fate without us pressurising them."....

Recount?

From The Times (UK), 6 April: Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF demands recount in Zimbabwe election

President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party today demanded a recount of the vote in last weekend's Zimbabwean presidential election, pushing the timetable for the results to be released ever further back. The move, reported in the state Sunday Mail newspaper, prompted outrage from the opposition party which claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential ballot outright. The Movement for Democratic Change said that it would not accept a recount, and did not want a runoff. Today it was pressing ahead with legal attempts to force the publication of the results. "How do you have a vote recount for a result that has not been announced? That is ridiculous," said Nelson Chamisa, an opposition spokesman. He accused the ruling Zanu PF party of vote fraud, claiming that police have told opposition leaders that the ruling party has been tampering with ballots ever since the election. "These claims are totally unfounded and they are only meant to justify Zanu PF's rigging," he said. The Sunday Mail quoted a letter from a lawyer representing Zanu PF calling for a recount because of "errors and miscalculations in the compilation of the poll result". The party also asked the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to defer announcement of the presidential election results because of the "anomalies", the paper reported. The report came a day after Mr Tsvangirai called on Mr Mugabe to step down, and accused the country’s longtime ruler of plotting a campaign of violence to bolster his chances of winning an expected runoff. Eight days after the election, the commission has yet to announce the results. Unofficial tallies by independent monitors show that Mr Tsvangirai won more votes than Mr Mugabe, but fewer than the 50 percent plus one vote required to avoid a runoff.

Opposition party lawyer Andrew Makoni said a high court judge was expected to rule at 2pm on an urgent petition demanding publication of the election results, but the time came and went with no news from the court. Mr Makoni said that the judge had only just received a submission from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission justifying the delay, and needed time to consider it. Armed police prevented opposition lawyers from entering the court yesterday but there was no police presence today. The Movement for Democratic Change maintained its resistance to a runoff. "We are not going to accept the so-called runoff. It is going to be a ’run-over’ of Zimbabwe. People are going to be killed," Mr Chamisa said. "We are not so naive a leadership to lead our people to slaughter." Yesterday Mr Tsvangirai stopped short of saying the party would boycott any runoff. But he voiced concerns that the state would mobilise the armed forces, feared youth brigades and war veterans to terrorise voters into supporting Mr Mugabe. He said Zanu PF was "preparing a war against the people". Mr Mugabe has been accused of winning previous elections through violence and intimidation. Scores of opponents were killed during the 2002 and 2005 campaigns. The law requires a runoff within 21 days of the initial election, but diplomats in Harare and at the United Nations say Mugabe may order a 90-day delay to give security forces time to clamp down. "Mugabe must accept that the country needs to move forward. He cannot hold the country to ransom. He is the problem not the solution," said Mr Tsvangirai, who appealed to African leaders and the UN to intervene to "prevent chaos and dislocation."

Bright Matonga, the Deputy Information Minister, dismissed fears of violence as "a lot of nonsense". Mr Mugabe, 84, has ruled since his guerrilla army helped overthrow white minority rule in 1980. His popularity has been battered by an economic collapse since 2000 following the forcible seizures of white-owned commercial farms. A third of the population has fled the country and 80 per cent are jobless. Inflation is raging at more than 100,000 percent. Official results for parliamentary elections held alongside the presidential race showed Zanu PF losing its majority in the 210-seat parliament for the first time in the country’s history. Final results for the 60 elected seats in the senate gave the ruling party and the opposition 30 seats each.

Zimbabwe: the terror is back as we wait for the return of a deranged, violent power

from the Times (UK)

"A couple of million Zimbabwe dollars, a meal, some beer and they will become a pack of murderous dogs for you"

Comment

Jan Raath in Harare

fIn Mbare township, almost exactly 28 years ago, I stood and trembled as an exultant, raucous mob surged down the road towards me. Minutes before, Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF had been announced the victors of 1980’s independence election. This week, as final results from parliamentary elections revealed defeat for Mr Mugabe and his party, I was in the same spot. This time there was no revelry. Women hurried past with buckets of water on their heads. A lunatic was declaiming passionately from a rubbish heap on the pavement. I wandered over to a banana-seller. “Are you happy now?” I asked. “Of course,” he replied softly. “Tiripanyanga” - Shona for “We are in control”. A car swept past, its hooter blaring in lone celebration. In the queue at the bakery, a man said: “Change was inevitable.” About six of us, complete strangers, shook hands warmly, but that was all.

The night before, some friends had been drinking in the townships. There was a police roadblock outside the hotel in Highfield. They took no notice of us, a group of whites. The bar was deserted except for two men playing pool and one drunk. “This is a Zanu PF bar,” said the drunk. Then he whispered: “But change is coming. Don’t say it loud.” Another dive in Warren Park was half full with people watching Liverpool play Arsenal on a TV screen so green that it was almost impossible to see anything. As I asked why no one was celebrating, a convoy of vehicles carrying riot police passed at the bottom of the street. “Because of them,” came the reply. “Also, we are waiting for the big one. Then we party big time.” People are still buttoned up. The parliamentary victory is satisfying, but “he” is still there, radiating menace. Only when it has been announced that he has lost the presidential vote will the mask slip, so deep is the mistrust and fear that he will suddenly declare himself the winner and wreak vengeance.

But the fear was evaporating. Every day that passed made the situation harder to reverse. Outside Harvest House, the MDC’s headquarters in the city centre, a crowd of 100 swaggering young men was lounging among cars parked three deep across the road - they have become a permanent feature of Nelson Mandela Avenue over the past three days. A week ago they would have been bludgeoned and scattered by a riot squad. On Wednesday night six uniformed policemen, a couple of them armed, came into the City Bowling Club, a scruffy bar frequented by white, mostly older, boozers. They sat down at the counter, bought beers and, as they warmed to the clientele, were bought more. “They don’t have the stomach to go into the streets and shoot people,” one drinker said. “Rather drink with the people than shoot them.”

Mr Mugabe’s ban on international media is failing: the BBC, supposedly out for the past six years, and Sky are here, and CNN and NBC are following. Bright Matonga, the blustery Deputy Information Minister, is turning into Zimbabwe’s Comical Ali. But by the end of a momentous week, the farce was turning into tragedy. On Thursday night armed riot police barged into a suburban tourist lodge, looking for “illegal journalists”. Two of them are still in custody. Yesterday morning several hundred men, aged between 20 and 40, marched through the centre of town, not demonstrators but men being mobilised. Desperate rural young men like this, you give a couple of million Zimbabwe dollars, a meal, some beer and they will become a pack of murderous dogs for you. Everything was back to where it was. The dread, the not knowing, the helplessness, the imminence of an unpredictable, violently deranged power. The people knew this could happen and they have kept their joy for another time.

Election results?

From Radio New Zealand, 2 April: Final results of Zimbabwe elections expected shortly

The final results of Zimbabwe's parliamentary election are set to be announced in a few hours, according to a source at the Electoral Commission. So far the opposition has a slight lead over President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF, with 90 seats to the incumbent's 85. The source says the results on the senate election will follow but the commission is refusing to commit to any timeline on the more crucial presidential contest. The hold-up to the presidential result has prompted intense speculation the delay is to either fix the outcome or find a dignified way for Mr Mugabe, who has been power for 28 years, to depart. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he is convinced he has beaten Mr Mugabe but has declined to claim victory formally, saying he will not do so until the Electoral Commission publishes the final count.

Meanwhile, Mr Tsvangirai and the Zimbabwean government both strongly denied on Tuesday they were in talks to arrange Mr Mugabe's resignation. "There is no discussion and this is just a speculative story," Mr Tsvangirai said in response to media reports that Mr Mugabe was about to step down in a deal with his Movement for Democratic Change party. Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga told the BBC: "There is no deal. There is no need for a deal … there are no negotiations whatsoever." Mr Mugabe, 84, has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist since independence from Britain in 1980. He is seeking a sixth term. He faced an unprecedented challenge in the elections because of a two-pronged opposition attack and the economic collapse of his once prosperous country, which has reduced much of the population to misery. Zimbabweans are suffering the world's highest inflation of more than 100,000%, food and fuel shortages, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy.

Zimbabwe Elections

http://www.zimelectionresults.com/