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Business Day
By Michael Bleby - Writer at Large
Wednesday 14 May 2008

NEWS of a second Khampepe report, the analysis Judge Sisi Khampepe wrote with Judge Dikgang Moseneke for President Thabo Mbeki of the skewed 2002 Zimbabwean presidential election and which he has sat on since then, has got a number of people hot under the collar.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) is baying for Mbeki’s blood. And murmurs are growing among the African National Congress’ tripartite alliance partners for a more robust approach to dealing with Zimbabwe and President Robert Mugabe. They may be reassured, however, to know that the same report has also been a source of great frustration to Mbeki.

In 2004, Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) dropped a bid to force Mbeki to release the report under access to information legislation. While the party did not say at the time why it was giving up the chase, senior party member David Coltart now says it was under pressure from Mbeki.

“He quashed our attempts to use South African legislation to compel the production of the report. He was very angry about it. It was a warning that it would endanger their relationship.”

The report by Khampepe and Moseneke, now deputy chief justice, cited a range of problems with the 2002 poll that the MDC said allowed Mugabe to steal the election. These included a failure to properly constitute the Electoral Supervisory Commission; a change in the Electoral Act to give Mugabe, rather than parliament, authority to amend electoral law; and the change of wording in the Electoral Act to stymie challenges to election findings.

Leader in The Guardian
Tuesday May 13 2008

Morgan Tsvangirai was right to decide to return to Zimbabwe to contest the second round runoff. His departure, over a month ago, to lobby the governments of southern Africa was initially a shrewd move, and did much to undermine Thabo Mbeki’s attempts to shield his embattled friend Robert Mugabe. But staying away from his homeland, when his supporters were being killed, tortured and chased out of their homes, was a different matter. Had Mr Tsvangirai spent the time instead visiting the war veterans’ victims in their hospital beds, he would have been able to keep the region’s focus on what is happening in Zimbabwe.

The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change is not going back on his own terms. He has failed to achieve a halt to the violence, a new Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), unfettered access for international observers or a peacekeeping force manned by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). Indeed the justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said yesterday that his country would not allow in election monitors from western countries or the UN until sanctions were lifted.

However, Mr Tsvangirai’s principal handicap is that he has not yet got an assurance about the timing of the run-off. Since he lost control of parliament, Mr Mugabe and the rump of Zanu-PF have been playing for time. The delay allowed them to chase 40,000 farm workers from their homes, kill at least 22 people and torture 900 others, according to the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights.

The Nation (Nairobi)
5 May 2008
By Kitsepile Nyathi in Harare

Even if President Mugabe bludgeons his way into a victory in the runoff he will find governing during a sixth term untenable, warns Zimbabwean opposition legislator and legal expert, Mr David Coltart.

He spoke as it finally dawned on election weary Zimbabweans that a second round of voting was now necessary after the country’s electoral body on Friday announced the long awaited outcome of the March 29 presidential elections.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) released the results over a month after the polls were held giving opposition leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai the lead, but not the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff with Mr Mugabe, the second-place finisher.

Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejected those results as fraudulent and on Saturday held off a decision on its participation in the second round.
The opposition has threatened that it will not take part in the runoff because it believes that it won outright.

Legal experts say the MDC has no option but to contest the runoff, which must be held after 21 days as a decision not to take part would automatically hand victory to Mr Mugabe.
Analysts warn the run off will not be a run in the park for the opposition as evidenced by the current wave of political violence in rural areas that human rights groups and aid agencies say has killed several people and forced hundreds to flee their homes. Rights groups and the MDC say the violence is mainly aimed at opposition activists or people who voted for the opposition and is designed to intimidate them into voting for Mr Mugabe in a second round.

The Telegraph
By Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg
5 May 2008

Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, came under growing pressure yesterday to take part in a second round of the country’s presidential election.

His party, the Movement for Democratic Change, insists that Mr Tsvangirai won the vote in March outright and that no run-off is necessary. It is threatening to boycott the second round called by the Zimbabwe Election Commission, which claims that Mr Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe but fell short of an absolute majority.

A boycott would automatically hand victory, and a sixth term in office, to Mr Mugabe, 84.

David Coltart, a senior MDC figure and a newly-elected senator for Bulawayo, said: “I have spoken to individual leaders and supporters and some are adamant that they should not participate.

“I think we all have no choice but to participate although the brutality is just shocking.”

Armed gangs of Mr Mugabe’s supporters have been attacking opposition activists for several weeks in a campaign of intimidation designed to boost the president’s chances of re-election. The two factions of the MDC have agreed to campaign in the second round for Mr Tsvangirai, who has stayed outside Zimbabwe in the weeks following the poll.

John Mattison, a political commentator, said: “He’s got to participate because otherwise Mugabe just becomes president. Having come this far, I don’t see that he has any other choice.
“It’s a terrible double bind. You know people are going to die. You know there’s going to be corruption and rigging and he’s at risk from that.”

As leaders of the MDC met to decide on their next move, an insider said it was considering what conditions to demand for its participation.

Sunday Independent (SA)
By Maureen Isaacson
May 04 2008

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is not Tom Cruise. Tendai Biti, the MDC secretary-general and one of Zimbabwe’s top lawyers, says Tsvangirai, the former mineworker who looks set to rule Zimbabwe, is no actor, nor is he manipulative in the way that politicians often are.

When the MDC split because of Tsvangirai’s decision to vote against the introduction of the senate to the houses of parliament in October 2003, Biti was forced to choose between the leadership of Tsvangirai and the leader of the faction, Arthur Mutambara.

“I chose Morgan because he is a human being with very strong points and weak points also. If he makes mistakes you know they are bona fide and this draws loyalty out of people. What you see is what you get,” says Biti.
Our political proclivities determine what we see and Mugabe’s people did a good job of discrediting Tsvangirai. But even as the crisis over the March election rages, (despite the MDC’s clear win), we are undoubtedly looking at a winner.

Tsvangirai has brought 99 seats to parliament, while Mutambara’s faction gained 10. Together this makes a majority and it means that Mugabe has no power to vote for a national budget, no small feat; certainly a vindication for Tsvangirai.

This week after the two MDC factions united against the repressive regime, Mutambara said in an interview: “…given the attempts by [Robert] Mugabe to sabotage the votes of the people, we are closing ranks and saying we are going to work together in defending the people’s vote. On March 27, we voted for change. Morgan Tsvangirai is the embodiment of that change.”

The Independent on Sunday
By Raymond Whitaker
Sunday, 4 May 2008

Taking part would allow Mugabe to steal election, opposition leaders fear

Zimbabwe’s opposition leaders face an agonising dilemma today as they meet to decide whether to contest the second round of the presidential election against President Robert Mugabe.

On Friday, nearly five weeks after Zimbabweans went to the polls, the country’s nominally independent election committee finally announced that Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had beaten Mr Mugabe. The margin of victory, 47.9 per cent to 43.2 per cent, contrasted with independent counts which put Mr Tsvangirai much closer to an overall majority and the MDC’s claim that he had won 50.3 per cent of the vote, giving him outright victory.

Since the poll, on 29 March, MDC spokesmen have insisted that to take part in a run-off would amount to allowing Mr Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party to steal the election. The long delay in releasing the results, and the wave of violence that has engulfed former Zanu-PF strongholds, heightened suspicions that the government wanted to manipulate the first-round results and ensure victory the next time. “They needed to narrow the gap, so that they can justify a ‘win’ for Mugabe in the second round,” said David Coltart, an opposition senator.

No date has yet been announced for any run-off. But the decision now facing Mr Tsvangirai and his colleagues is whether to refuse to take part, which would immediately hand victory to Mr Mugabe, or to go ahead, knowing that thousands of MDC supporters have already been assaulted, burned out of their homes, and in some cases killed. Since the poll, the MDC leader and his deputy, Tendai Biti, have remained outside the country, mainly in South Africa, for fear of arrest or attack. Mr Tsvangirai, who was badly beaten a year ago during a “prayer rally”, has hinted that he fears for his life.

The Zimbabwe Guardian
By Dyke Sithole
Sunday, 04 May 2008

THE newly elected MDC Senator for Khumalo constituency, David Coltart says there is need for the transformation of both the public and private media into critical and analytical institutions of the government of the day and opposition political parties.

Addressing journalists in Bulawayo during the eve of this year’s world Press Freedom celebration, Coltart said the MDC if elected into power during the forthcoming presidential run–offs will allow the public media to criticize its shortcomings.

“If the MDC forms the next government, we will create enabling conditions for the independence of both the public and private media. Allowing the media to be in the hands of government or the ruling party is an unhealthy situation for democracy,” said Coltart who is a lawyer.

Coltart said in the post Mugabe era there is a need for the private media to critically probe opposition parties and the government unlike the present situation where the private media is seen as a mouthpiece for the opposition.

Coltart said the MDC government will push for the amendments of media laws in the country—in view of creating freedom of the press and more players in the industry— which is presently dominated by state controlled media.

The Senator said he strongly believes that foreigners should not be allowed to control the press, but funding of newspapers and radio stations from foreigners should not be restricted.

If elected, Coltart said, the MDC government will put more resources into the training of journalists as well as promote investigative journalism.

Meanwhile the Minister of Information and Publicity Sihkanyiso Ndlovu is expected today to address the journalists on World Press Freedom day.

The Observer,
Sunday May 4 2008
By Tracy McVeigh and Parker Khesani in Bulawayo

MDC members fail to make a decision as their leader Morgan Tsvangirai remains abroad amid fears for his safety

After a day of top level meetings, Zimbabwe’s main opposition party yesterday failed to make a decision on whether it will take part in presidential run-off elections scheduled for next month.

Observers now fear that there is a fierce dispute within the Movement for Democratic Change - whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai is staying out of the country for his safety - over whether to boycott the second round of voting that was announced on Friday by Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission.

Tsvangirai claimed an outright majority after the polls and the MDC says the results released this weekend were doctored. Election officials announced on Friday that Tsvangirai had beaten Mugabe in the 29 March presidential poll but failed to win the absolute majority necessary to avoid a second ballot.

The MDC has accused the officials of rigging the results, which showed Tsvangirai won 47.9 per cent of the vote to Mugabe’s 43.2 per cent - falling short of the 50 per cent needed to avoid a runoff. The party says Tsvangirai won the election outright with 50.3 per cent of the vote and that Mugabe’s rule is over.

But the MDC has not signalled how it will handle the run-off. Many believe that participating would legitimise Mugabe’s rigging and worsen a volatile situation in the country where 20 of its supporters have been killed, thousands displaced and hundreds are in hiding from marauding ruling party militias.

The Standard,
4th May 2008

Information and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu last week disrupted a function for journalists celebrating World Press Freedom Day when he took issue with the organisers after they asked him to respond to a keynote address by Senator David Coltart.

Ndlovu, who arrived shortly before the meeting at the Bulawayo Press Club ended, claimed he had been invited as guest speaker and accused the organisers of “disregarding protocol”.

He dashed to the high table, where the speakers were sitting, drawing boos from journalists who had been given the opportunity to ask questions after Coltart of the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC addressed them on the prospects of press freedom in the new political dispensation.

Coltart is the Senator for Khumalo in the city.

‘You cannot invite the government and expect me to just come here and respond to an address by someone else,” Ndlovu protested. “It now looks like I am gate-crashing… the government does not gate-crash. Others gatecrash into government.”
After about 10 minutes, Ndlovu appeared to calm down but only to protest for another five minutes, when he was asked to address the journalists as the patron of the press club.

He walked out after it was explained to him that he had confused the dates as the journalists had invited him to be the main speaker at a function organised by the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, scheduled for yesterday evening.

Later in the evening, Ndlovu was involved in more drama when a ZBC news crew from Bulawayo was accused of stealing his cellphone during a press conference he held at a hotel.

The phone was reportedly recovered stashed in the wheel of the news crew’s car and the journalists were still being questioned by the police yesterday morning.

Chicago Tribune
Apr 30, 2008

Suspiciously delayed poll results, army trucks fanning out through villages, police ransacking opposition party offices, and reports of torched huts and broken-limbed civilians _ such has been the ugly face of democracy for nearly a decade in Zimbabwe, and by now most political experts have given up asking whether millions of Zimbabweans will ever reach a violent breaking point.

Indeed, even as fresh reports of government brutality seep out of Zimbabwe in the wake of the still-unresolved March presidential election, there are virtually no reports of unrest on the streets.

A call for a mass protest two weeks ago by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which claims it won the vote, fizzled as usual. Hungry citizens queued obediently for bread in the capital, Harare, last week even as cops rounded up hundreds of opposition activists. And the lone report of a violent backlash _ an alleged attack by opposition members on a rural army barracks on Tuesday _ remains unconfirmed. Human rights activists suspect it may have been planted by the regime of strongman Robert Mugabe to justify further arrests.

This deep well of stoicism _ or, as some critics sneer, passivity _ in Zimbabwe’s victimized population has for years been a source of puzzlement to many Africa analysts, humanitarian workers and foreign journalists, who contrast Zimbabweans’ seemingly inexhaustible acceptance of suffering with deadly explosions of electoral fury elsewhere in Africa, most recently in Kenya.

“This is the single greatest mystery of Zimbabwe,” marveled a Western diplomat in Harare who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “In most other countries there would’ve been riots and violence years ago. But not here. These people are just too nice.”