Our President's Christmas and New Year Message!

 

MORGAN Tsvangirai . . . decision to extend Mugabe's tenure will be resisted HARARE - As we draw a close to what has been for many a very miserable year it gives me great pleasure to predict a glimmer of hope in an otherwise even more?murky prediction for 2007.  I am aware that the year 2006, like the previous seven years, was particularly difficult. But you remained resolute in the struggle to express yourselves out of the national crisis.  We endured long queues for basic commodities; suffered the indignity of shortages of transport, electricity and fuel; sacrificed our entire savings to enable children to attend schools and witnessed the loss of a loved one through HIV/Aids.    We all know that since independence in 1980, and in particular the last seven years, we have been subjected to the most trying circumstances. Many are without food.  We can’t afford to send our children to schools. Hospitals have been turned into avenues of death. An HIV/Aids pandemic is causing havoc, making Zimbabwe a nation with the highest number of orphans in the world.      The challenge facing us today is to devise an effective mechanism to save Zimbabwe from further haemorrhage. Wherever we are, let us commit ourselves in earnest to saving our nation.  What can we do individually and collectively to advance the struggle for change, for a new beginning, and for a new Zimbabwe?    As we approach 2007, let us look back and use our experiences to help the people to help themselves and to determine their own destiny, against the numerous odds imposed by Robert Mugabe and the Zanu PF dictatorship.      Safeguarding our freedom depends on what we are prepared to do, at home and in the Diaspora.   It is quite obvious that we are in for a rough ride into 2007, especially when faced with the consequences of a Zanu PF defend-power project, imposed onto the people after the February 2000 referendum and the June 2000 parliamentary election.      The brutal assault onto the people; declaration of war against the people; the flagrant display of dishonesty, the skewed policies and the propaganda we have been subjected to over the last seven years have hit us hard.         Only the dishonest and those politically connected to Zanu PF are surviving the onslaught.?Southern Africa faces a major challenge in 2010. We are hosting the World Cup.    International attention shall thus be focused on all of us as a region as we receive visitors, international business and attend to the needs of millions of soccer followers.    We cannot afford to be enmeshed in the political emotions associated with elections at a time when the entire focus of humanity shall be on the SADC region through sport.   Fellow Zimbabweans, it is clear that Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zanu PF elite have elevated themselves to the position of super-patriots and decided to extend their rule against the national sentiment    Mugabe and Zanu PF rig elections; usurp state institutions for political expediency; beat up Zimbabweans who disagree with the style of governance and destroy a country full of promise.   The decision to extend Mugabe’s term of office, already contested after the 2002 Presidential election, is major slap in the face for all Zimbabweans.    We are in a serious dilemma as we have experienced and continue to live with an unprecedented economic meltdown and political uncertainty, all authored by Mugabe and his cronies.   We desire a normal society where decisions that affect the entire nation cannot be a preserve of a political party.      All Zimbabweans must discuss and agree on the efficacy of any proposal whose political implications affect the nation at large. Zanu PF has no right to impose its will on all of us.   You are aware that I challenged Mugabe’s legitimacy in 2002 following your mandate. Despite his refusal to open up institutions of state to resolve pertinent concerns arising from the challenge, I wish to thank Zimbabweans for remaining steadfast and committed to the resolution of the national crisis.      What Mugabe and ZANU PF have now done is the final straw that breaks the camel’s back. We cannot continue to watch Mugabe and his cronies play dangerous games with our lives.  The decision to extend Mugabe’s already controversial tenure shall be resisted. Together with our civil society partners and all democratic forces, we pledge to provide the necessary leadership to deal with this tyranny.    We are not going to let this affront on the people’s destiny go unchallenged. We shall consult you and follow your guidance in this crucial matter.     As we enter in one of our bleakest festive seasons and into the New Year, may I assure you of my unwavering commitment to continue the fight for a lasting resolution of the national crisis.  What came out of the Zanu PF conference is a major blow to Zimbabwe’s quest for a new beginning and to an end to uncertainty around Zimbabwe’s future.     Morgan Tsvangirai, PRESIDENT

 

Mugabe term extension madness: Tekere

National Report
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2163   
       
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Reporter

FIREBRAND ZANU PF founder member and veteran nationalist Edgar Tekere has described as “madness” ZANU PF’s decision to extend President Robert Mugabe’s term to 2010.

Tekere, nicknamed “Twoboy,” said ZANU PF’s resolution at its conference in Goromonzi last weekend to combine the 2008 presidential and the 2010 parliamentary elections was a clear indication of President Mugabe’s insatiable appetite for power.
“Ndokupenga ikoko. Matricks okuda kufira pachigaro. (That’s madness. It’s a trick to stay in power for life.) He has already overstayed and the party and the country has suffered,” said Tekere in a telephone interview from his Mutare home.
Tekere was readmitted into ZANU PF at last weekend’s conference, but was barred from occupying any position in the party for five years.
Tekere, who became the first person within the ZANU PF leadership to publicly oppose President Mugabe’s one party state plan in the late 1980s, said he felt let down by his liberation war colleague. He claims to have struggled in his bid to woo President Mugabe into ZANU PF in the formative years of the party.
In an outburst likely to be seen as a case of sour grapes after being banned from elective office in ZANU PF for the next five years, Tekere said: “I sweated to form that party (ZANU PF) and to persuade him (Mugabe) to join it (ZANU PF) from Nkomo (Joshua).”
The former ZANU PF big-shot also scoffed at claims that the ZANU PF presidency had set strict conditions for him to meet before he could assume any office in the party.
“That party is more of my party than it is for Mugabe. Vamwe vacho ndiwana mafikizolo handimbozivi kuti vakabva nokupi (some of these people are Johnny-come-latelys, I don’t know where they came from),” Tekere said.
Pressed to explain his quest to rejoin ZANU PF considering that the party has not made any reforms since he quit it in 1988 to form his own party, the former Mutare Urban legislator said he will bare his soul on January 11 at the Harare launch of his memoirs, which he has titled A Lifetime of Struggle.
“I would prefer you talk to me on the 11th of January. But you can predict what I am going to say,” Tekere said.
But the political maverick’s dig at President Mugabe will baffle the ruling party’s senior leadership, especially supporters in Manicaland who laboured to back Tekere’s desperate bid to be re-admitted into the ruling party.
Tekere was sacked from ZANU PF in October 1988 because of his strong opposition to President Mugabe’s attempts to establish a one-party state. He formed the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), which made an impressive attempt to dislodge ZANU PF during the 1990 general elections.
       

"THE DREAM TEAM"...Journalists without borders!

"THE DREAM TEAM"...Journalists without borders!

Standing: Tich Sibanda, Violet Gonda, Lance Guma, Richard Allfrey, John Matinde, Gerry Jackson, Tererai Karimakwenda, Mandisa Mundawarara

Sitting: Keith Farquharson

 

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news231106/AIB_award211106.htm

OF SWRADIOAFRICA ( www.swradioafrica.com)

 

NDIMI MUNOITA ZVINONZI "INFORMATION IS POWER!"

 

TINOKUTENDAI!

 

YINI ENISITSHELA IQINISO ELINGAFUNWA YISIGEBENGU UROBART (SIC) MUGABE!

 

SIYANIBONGA KAKHULU!

 

---

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ZIMBABWEAN PETITIONS US PRESIDENT!

Here is the petition link
 
http://www.gopetition.com/online/10585.html

Here is the story that started it.
 
http://www.zimdaily.com/news/126/ARTICLE/1160/2006-12-11.html
 
Since then, I have spoken to two Congressmen who are willing to help us. But that is as far as my little mind has gone. I could use help.

 
Tambu Kahari.

<tapilicious@yahoo.com>

For the Attention of all Zimbabweans!

Please urgently study this Petition!

http://www.gopetition.com/online/10585.html

Rev M S Hove.

URGENT CALL FOR DIALOGUE!

 Ex www.newzimbabwe.com (FORUMS!)
http://newzim.proboards86.com/index.cgi?board=general
We dont have to agree or come from same political pursuasion!!,...but our fundamental mutual interest can only be solved through dialogue!!! please the petition and put the national agenda on the world stage. Dialogue is the right way to go whether you belong to mdc , zpf, and all the pretenders who run their parties like privated limited companies and form them only when fired by zpf!! meaning they realy zpf in disgruntled politicians skin!!

The west and its intelligencia are advocating for talks with Syria and Iran and have normalised and indeed expanded relations with Libya and enjoy cordial ones with rich Russia who like Zimbabwe have phenomenal natural resources!

IT IS IN OUR FUNDAMENTAL MUTUAL INTEREST FOR DIALOGUE NOT BLACKMAIL SANCTIONS TO TRIUMPH, THE TRIUMPH OF DIPLOMACY LEAVES EVERYBODY HAPPY AND HUMAN!!!

SIGN HERE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.petitiononline.com/ZIMBOS/petition.html

Posted by Rev M S Hove…The Radical Soldier.
Cell: 0791463039 RSA.

CIO warns of civil war!

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?linkcategoryid=27&linkid=35&id=2859
HARARE - Middle and junior-ranking officers of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) have recommended that President Robert Mugabe abandon the idea of postponing presidential elections from 2008 to 2010 saying these plans risk igniting civil war.

The details emerged as the feuding opposition MDC factions vowed to close ranks and fight Mugabe as a united front in a double effort to force him to abandon the “politically contentious plan.”

Intelligence officials interviewed this week said the CIO’s top directors who report directly to the President were buffering this message from reaching “Number 1”.

The CIO officers said several of their colleagues working on the “PP (presidential poll) assignment” had emphasised the need to rejuvenate the ruling party but still maintain the presidential election timetable, which must be held by March 2008.

“We are dyed-in-the-wool intelligence operatives and our mandate is to interact with the lowest members of society and provide feedback as frankly and accurately as possible to our principals,” said one junior officer. “Several of our officers have officially confirmed that there is anger out there over these plans to postpone the elections given the deepening hardships. Generally there is a strong feeling from voters that they will not support Zanu (PF) unless Mugabe retires. The President is however being badly advised by those who report to him directly,” he said, adding that this was the general sentiment among middle and junior ranking CIO officers, who constitute the majority of the 3,000-strong spy agency.

The officials said the “foot soldiers” - or junior and middle rank CIO officers deployed to mingle and interact with the ordinary people - had in the past few months conducted an “intelligence ballot” which supported the theory that “there is an urgent need to reconstitute Zanu (PF) through a new leadership” to enhance its electoral fortunes. They said most of the feedback suggested “Mugabe should be persuaded to go into dignified retirement.”

How much time is left??

 

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=84&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=2652&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1705&hn=talkzimbabwe&he=.com

 

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Testimony of Mr Gabriel Shumba (Zimbabwe) at Human Rights hearing in Washington DC

http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org/outcomes/details?contentId=1685
Mr. Gabriel Shumba is currently Director of the Accountability Commission – Zimbabwe, an organization based in South Africa which is accumulating evidence of the gross human rights violations of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF government. He was brutally tortured by the Mugabe regime in January 2003 when, as a working human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, he represented an opposition MP who had been arrested under false charges. He fled Zimbabwe shortly afterwards following state-sponsored death threats and harassment. Mr. Shumba currently works with Zimbabwean witnesses and victims of violence in Johannesburg gathering evidence of incidents of politically motivated murder, torture, rape and beatings with a view to opening dockets for prosecution.

United States Congress

House Committee on International Relations

Human Rights Practices Around the World: A Review of the State Department's 2003 Annual Report

Washington, Wednesday March 10, 2004

Testimony of Mr Gabriel Shumba (Zimbabwe)

(Human Rights Lawyer, Doctor of Laws Candidate, Legal Regional Director (Africa) for the Accountability Commission-Zimbabwe)

Mr Chair and Members of the Committee, I request that the entirety of my statement, along with the additional material, be submitted for the record. I thank you for the singular honor that you have accorded to me. To be given the opportunity to address this esteemed body at a time when my country, Zimbabwe, is facing an unprecedented social, economic and political crisis is a manifestation of the Free World’s concern with democracy and human rights the world over. Further testimony of this commitment is evident in the 2003 U.S. State Department Report on Human Rights Practices, which devotes significant space to the human rights issues affecting my country.

Mr Chair, I am a human rights lawyer from Zimbabwe who was last year condemned to live in exile in South Africa because of unrelenting persecution, death threats and torture at the hands of President Robert Mugabe’s regime. Allow me to narrate the ordeal that forced me into exile.

Pursuant to the call of my profession, on the 14^th of January 2003 I consented to represent an opposition Member of Parliament, Mr Job Sikhala. He had engaged me to represent him in a matter in which he alleged political harassment by members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). At that moment in time, the MP was hiding from the police.

My young brother, Bishop Shumba, accompanied me to take instructions. I found the MP in the company of one Taurai Magaya and Charles Mutama. I proceeded to take instructions and confer with Mr Sikhala. However, at or about 23:00 hrs, riot police accompanied by plain-clothes policemen, the army and personnel, who I later discovered were from the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), the spy agency of the government, stormed the room. They were armed with AK 47’s, tear gas canisters, grenades and vicious-looking dogs.

I identified myself as a lawyer and enquired as to the nature and purpose of the police actions. Thereupon, one of the officers confiscated my Lawyer’s Practicing Certificate and informed me that there was ‘no place for human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe’. Others grabbed my diary as well as files and documents. All of us were prodded with guns in the back and bundled into a police vehicle. Several acts of assault and violence were perpetrated upon my person. In particular, I was slapped several times and kicked with booted-feet by amongst others, a certain detective inspector Mbedzi, the officer in charge of Saint Mary’s Police Station. They also threatened to let the dogs maul us, and boasted that this had been done before.

Moments later, we were driven to Saint Mary’s Police Station but no charges were preferred. We were denied access to legal representation and were abused and insulted for allegedly working in cahoots with ‘western powers’ in an attempt ‘to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle’. Our mobile phones were also confiscated, and we were denied contact with our lawyers, relatives and friends.

Around 1:00am we were driven to Matapi Police Station some seven kilometers from the initial place of ‘arrest’. Here Mr Sikhala and Bishop were booked into the holding cells. I was taken to Mbare police holding cells, a further three kilometers away from Matapi, whilst, as I subsequently discovered, Mr Magaya and Mr Mutama were taken to Harare Central Police Station, which is about five kilometers away. The tactic of separating arrestees and taking them to locations removed from where they have been arrested is a favorite of the police in Zimbabwe. This is designed to prevent their relatives or lawyers access to them when they are tortured in torture chambers scattered all over the country.

I was only booked into the cells at around 3:00am. I was denied blankets and had to sleep on a concrete floor. The cell that was about 3m x 4m housed over 20 inmates. I had to spend the whole night squatting in a pool of urine and human waste. This revolting mixture had maggots and worms that irritated or bit at me the whole night. As if this was not enough, I had to endure the torment of other denizens of the cell, which included lice and bed bugs.

Around 12:00pm on the next day, personnel from the CID (Criminal Investigations Dept - Law and Order Section) of the Harare Central Police Station booked me out of Mbare holding cells. Even now I have not been told of the nature of the charges preferred against me, nor had any official entry been made to indicate that I was being held at Mbare, another notorious police tactic. The police were under the charge-ship of one Detective Inspector Garnet Sikhova. In spite of my bruises and the pain that I felt, I was dragged to a yellow mini-bus whose registration numbers I was prevented from looking at. My constant pleas for legal representation, food and water were in vain.

Mr Chair, the mini-bus that I was hauled into had no seats inside. Even more sinister was the fact that it had black curtains and a black carpet lining the windows and the floor. In the extreme end of the vehicle was a raised platform whereupon some of the Police Officers sat. I was nonetheless ordered to sit on the floor facing the back of the vehicle. A black hood was then slipped over my head. It was made of nylon and did not have any breathing-holes in it. In a short while I became claustrophobic, sweated heavily and had difficulties breathing. My requests that part of the hood be pulled slightly over my nose to allow me to breathe were rudely denied. Instead, I was asked to use ‘the mouth that you use to defend the MDC to breathe’.

After what appeared like an hour’s drive, the vehicle pulled over and my hands were handcuffed behind my back. I was bundled out of the car to find myself in a tunnel of some sort, judging by the echoes that our footsteps made. I was advised that ‘you are now a blind man and have to act like a blind person’. After several twists and turns, in what appeared a labyrinth of some sort, we descended about three floors of stairs underground.

Off to the right I could hear the sounds of horrible screaming. I was thrown against the wall and the hood was then removed. I was stripped utterly naked, then had my hands and feet handcuffed and bound so that I was in a foetal position. The police then thrust a thick plank between my legs and hands. Other planks lined the room and the light was dim. In a corner to my right side, there was a pool of what my tormentors told me was acid, into which I could be dissolved without a trace. I was also informed that I could be crucified on the planks against the wall, or have needles thrust into my urethra if ‘you are not co-operative’. In the middle of the room were a small table and a chair. About 15 or so interrogators stood over me and some of them began assaulting me with booted-feet and fists all over the body. I was then given the option of either ‘telling the truth or dying a slow and painful death’.

Several questions were asked about my background as a student activist, the political affiliation of judges, my scholarship to pursue a Masters degree in South Africa, my alleged involvement in the burning of a government bus, and my political ambitions. At some point I was hung upside down on the planks and assaulted beneath the feet with wooden and rubber truncheons, as well as some pieces of metal.

Running concurrently with the other assaults and ongoing interrogation, various electrical shocks were introduced to my body. A black contraption resembling a telephone was placed on the small table. It had several electric cables emanating from it. One cable was tied to the middle toe of my right foot, whilst another was tied to the second toe of the left foot. Another copper wire was wrapped tightly around my genitals. Again, another one was put into my mouth. Still in the foetal position, I was ordered to hold a metallic receiver in my bound right hand and I then forced to place this next to my right ear. A blast of electric shocks was then administered to my body for about eight to nine hours.

On several occasions, I lost consciousness only to be revived to face the same ordeal. A chemical substance was applied to my body. I also lost control of my bladder, vomited blood and was forced to drink my urine and lick my vomit. I was also urinated upon by several of my interrogators. Whilst the questioning was in process, several photographs were taken of me cringing and writhing in pain and in nakedness.

At the end of this ordeal, around 7:00 pm, I was unbound and then forced to write several documents under my torturers’ dictation. In the documents, I incriminated myself as well as senior MDC personnel in several subversive activities. Under pain of death, I was also forced to agree to work for the Central Intelligence Organization, the government spy agency. In addition, I was compelled to swear allegiance to President Robert Mugabe, as well as to promise that I would not disclose my ordeal, either to the independent press or the courts. I later did.

Around 19:30 pm, I was blindfolded and taken to Harare Central Police Station, where I was booked into a holding cell even more horrendously inhumane than that at Mbare Police Station. On the third day of my arrest, my lawyers, who had at that point obtained a High Court injunction ordering my release to court, were allowed access to me. I had not had food or water throughout the period of my detention, which was three days. I had also not been formally notified of the nature of the charge against me. Subsequently, however, I was charged under Section 5 of the Public Order and Security Act, which deals with organizing, planning or conspiring to overthrow the government through unconstitutional means. These charges were dismissed in a court of law after medical evidence established that we had been tortured. Subsequently, I was threatened with death and had to flee for my life.

I worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania for two months and was threatened by the High Commissioner of Zimbabwe to Tanzania. I then had to flee to South Africa. In spite of psychiatric and other medical treatment, I continue to experience nightmares, suffer depression as well extreme fatigue.

I am convinced that my torture and ill treatment was authorized and condoned at the highest level of the Zimbabwe state. It is inconceivable that President Mugabe is unaware that his police, army and intelligence officials are using torture. The President has been aware that torture is being used against human rights activists and those suspected to be linked to the MDC, as is exemplified by the case of journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto. The two were brutally tortured by the army and Chavunduka died later. Mugabe was however on TV gloating that those who write stories about the army should expect ‘army justice’.

I lodged a report of what transpired to me with the police, but up to now no action has been taken. I have also instructed my lawyer to institute civil proceedings, but am not hopeful, as the Executive has largely subverted the judicial system. Furthermore, the police in Zimbabwe are notorious for defying court orders.

Mr Chair, I should also point out that members of my family who are still in Zimbabwe are in mortal danger as I speak. I cannot afford to lose them as we are a very small family, having been orphaned early in life. I am the first born in a family of four. Both my parents are deceased. My father died of cancer of the liver when I was 10 years old. I became the sole breadwinner of the family after my mother passed away some years later. My mother succumbed to the AIDS virus in 1995, having spent many years trying to raise us.

Eventually, I struggled through education with the help of a kind white couple, Mary Austin and John Ayton. I mention this couple to dispel the myth that the crisis in Zimbabwe is a tug of war between black and white.

At the University of Zimbabwe where I obtained a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) degree I was a student activist. In 1995 I led demonstrations against police brutality. This culminated in my suspension from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) for a period of two years. Whilst on suspension, I wrote articles on student rights and addressed seminars on academic freedom in Zimbabwe. After readmission to the University in 1997, I mounted a one-person demonstration to protest the heavy handedness of the police in quelling student disturbances. For this I was abducted and tortured at a torture chamber situated in the basement of Harare Central Prison.

Mr Chair, to date I have been arrested and assaulted or tortured 14 times under the regime of President Robert Mugabe. At my graduation on the 18th of August 2000, I was again arrested and taken into police custody for attempting to hand over a petition protesting the breakdown of the rule of law in Zimbabwe, especially on the farms, to President Robert Mugabe. As I approached Mugabe, who is also Chancellor of the University, his bodyguards whisked me away. As a result, I could not graduate with my fellow students as I was in prison, complete in my academic regalia. This incident was reported in the press. Mr Chair, I submit that all that which transpired to me should be seen as a microcosm of the brutality visited upon human rights and opposition activists in Zimbabwe.

I thank you Honorable Members.
United States Congress

"MDC has surely run out of ideas" (M M Betera, UK)

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2058


EDITOR — The article, MDC in new season of politics of "chibanzi" made very interesting reading. It is intriguing how the MDC has been changing tactics in order to "rid Zimbabweans of the dictator". Well, as far as the tactics of getting rid of him are concerned, one wonders what next for MDC?
Zimbabwe has a very interesting and dynamic political terrain which allows political organisations to spring up rapidly and freely. It cannot happen in a repressive state. The other day I was perusing the background of some of the MDC stalwarts and current MPs. I noticed that one of them, of caucasian origin, states that Henry Kissinger, Lady Thatcher and De Klerk were instrumental, together with Ian Smith, in creating the environment for democratic change — and not Robert Mugabe.
"Ah, well", I said to myself,"this proves that the MDC will never come to power." So it was not Mugabe who brought about our independence?
Nevertheless, the fear of a back-door return of fascism in Zimbabwe is truly borne out in those remarks.The political clout of Arthur Mutambara is a non-issue. Student activism, correctly conceived, is not a futile activity. We left (silently) the University College of Rhodesia in the 1960s and worked at the Liberation Centre in Lusaka, Zambia in collaboration with the national leadership of ZANU far away from the close scrutiny of the regime and saw its downfall in the end. It all depends on what Mutambara stands for. If he comes to the UK and speaks against his own government as would Ian Smith on the same platform in Oxford — the English would never respect him (they do not understand people like that being patriotic themselves).

Mordecai Mutiswa Betera
United Kingdom

The Mayonnaise Jar!

A professor  stood before his philosophy class and had some items in
 front of him. When the  class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very
 large and empty mayonnaise jar and  proceeded to fill it with golf
 balls. He then asked the students if the jar  was full. They agreed
 that it was.

 The professor  then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into
 the jar.
 He shook the jar  lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas
 between the golf balls. He then  asked the students again if the jar
 was full.
 They agreed it was.
 The professor  next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the
 jar. Of course, the sand  filled up everything else. He asked once
 more if the jar was full. The students  responded with an infamous
 "yes." The professor  then produced two cups of coffee from under the
 table and poured the entire  contents into the jar, effectively
 filling the empty space between the sand. The  students laughed.

 "Now," said the  professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to
 recognize that this jar  represents your life. The golf balls  are the
 important things. Your family, your children, your faith, your health, 
 your friends, and your favourite passions. Things
 that if everything else was  lost and only they remained, your life would
 still be full. The pebbles are  the other things that matter. Your
 job, your house, and your car. The sand is  everything else. The small
 stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he  continued, "there
 is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes  for life.
 If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will 
 never have room for the things that are
 important to you. Pay attention to the  things that are critical to
 your happiness. Play with your children. Take time  to get medical
 checkups.

 Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There  will always be
 time to clean the house and fix the shed door. Take care of the  golf
 balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The
 rest  is just sand."

 One of the  students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee
 represented. The professor  smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes
 to show you that no matter how full  your life may seem, there's always room for a couple
 of cups of coffee with a  friend."

 Please share  this with someone nice.

 I Just  did.

Eng S Mangwengwende on Mutambara (MDC)!

From Eng Simbarashe Mangwengwende (mangwe@ecoweb.co.zw ) on "Mutambara -MDC lacks 'Agenda Setting.'

 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

You have hit the nail on the head. Leadership is all about agenda setting. By that definition we  really have no opposition leaders to talk of because all they do is react to the agendas of other people.

 

###########################################################################

What seems to be lost to Mutambara here is the concept of agenda setting. You can't be a leader who has to react to other people's initiatives without you taking the lead to set up an agenda everyone can follow. No matter how flawed these initiatives are, they still remain that! An initiative.

As long as the opposition does not set a tone and hence a national agenda they will keep responding to us via e-mail like this. 

Nyatsimba Mutota [nyatsimba_mutota@yahoo.com]

 

 

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Ko anokwana pobva "Gushungo" ndiani? Ngubani ongangena?

Madoda asihambe ku www.zimgossiper.blogspot.com !

Varume handeyi ku www.zimgossiper.blogspot.com !

 

Ndati, "VaTsvangirai vanokwana here?"

Ngiti, "U Professor Mutambara angabamba yini umsebenzi kaExecutive President?"

 

Lets talk now..........No editing....No names......Your posting will not show your name if you don't write it yourself!"

 

Rev Mufaro Stig Hove....The Radical Soldier...[Cell: 0791463039 RSA.

mufarostig@yahoo.co.uk .]

 

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Zuma says will not turn into another 'Mugabe monster'

 

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=522

JACOB Zuma . . . I am no Robert Mugabe JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s former deputy president Jacob Zuma has rejected charges that he is a new Robert Mugabe in the making branding the veteran Zimbabwean leader a “monster.”  Zuma, who is heavily tipped to succeed President Thabo Mbeki as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party in 2007 and possibly state president two years later, was speaking in an interview with a British newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph.  Political commentators have expressed fears that if Zuma wins the South African presidency, he will introduce populist economic policies reminiscent to what happened in Zimbabwe where Mugabe seized white farms for redistribution to landless blacks.  "As a member and a leader of the ANC all I do is carry out ANC policies," he said. "How could you have an individual who would become such a monster? The ANC system does not allow for that kind of thing."  The ANC, while acknowledging that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe, has in the past steadfastly refused to openly attack Mugabe who is still revered in Africa as a liberation war hero.  The criticism of Mugabe by Zuma ranks among the most forthright by a senior ANC official.  But Zuma defended Mugabe’s land seizures blaming the crisis on Britain which he said failed to honour its promises to fund land reforms in Zimbabwe. He also defended South Africa’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” towards Harare which his government has pursued over the past six years. "Other people have adopted the policy of criticising Mugabe from a distance, which only makes him more angry. We are the only ones who have engaged him on the issues," Zuma said. - ZimOnline

CONGRATULATIONS TO SWRADIOAFRICA!

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news231106/winners231106.htm

Association for International Broadcasting awards
In the catagory for
International station of the year - radio
The winner is............................................ SW Radio Africa

SW Radio Africa is delighted to announce that it has won the award for International Radio Station of the Year from the AIB, the Association for International Broadcasting.

We are also delighted that Mandisa Mundawarara was highly commended in the award category, International Radio Presenter of the Year.

These non commercial awards offer peer review of output, personalities and technology - they are the only awards that celebrate excellence in international cross-border broadcasting. The 2006 awards have been judged by an international panel of broadcasting experts, including professional TV and radio critics from leading newspapers.

Thank you AIB.

See links:

http://www.aib.org.uk/

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/221106/bbc_and_sky_win_broadcast_awards

 

Letter from Mr Robert Gabriel Mugabe!

Mr Tony Blair,

Did you really think we would not take back our land which was taken away from us without any compensation to our fore-fathers?

But please quickly contact me so we discuss the amount of money we need to put our country back on its feet.

Yours in anguish,

The Hon, His Excellency, The First Secretary and President of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front.)(ZANU-PF) and the Executive President of the People's Republic of Zimbabwe, Dr Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

P/S. Tony you are great! Where would I be were it not for the land issue? Came as a surprise straw to hold on to. Pheew!!