African civic leaders call for regional action on Zimbabwe

By Violet Gonda
5 December 2006

Pressure is mounting on regional leaders to act on Zimbabwe. The latest comes from a group of African civic leaders who have called for renewed pressure on Zimbabwe by African states and civil society. Representatives from seven African countries went on a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe last week and expressed serious concern at the ongoing crackdown on freedoms of expression, association and assembly.

Brought together by CIVICUS, the world alliance for citizen participation, an international organisation with members in over 100 countries, dedicated to strengthening civil society around the world.

The group said in a statement; “We are concerned, shocked and alarmed at the impact of repressive laws and at the severe human rights abuses by the state machinery that have resulted in deepening poverty, torture and rape, especially amongst women and children.”

The statement went on to say; “Despite the frequent human rights abuses by the Government of Zimbabwe on its people, there has been insignificant intervention from governments and civil society in the region and beyond.”

Group member Dr Don Mattera, a South African writer and community activist said, “Africans have a responsibility to speak out against the suffering of our brothers and sisters.”

Another member of the team, Luckson Chipare, who is a former regional director of the Media Institute of South Africa told Newsreel that there is a strong need for dialogue because of the high level of intolerance of opposing views, even among the civil society. He said; “We found that people are generally intolerant of opposing views to their own, and this is something that was of major concern to us. That people are really not engaging each other or talking to each other… even among the civic society and we found it disturbing.”

They met government officials, churches, trade unions, students, local NGOs and the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) during their brief tour of Zimbabwe.

They also visited families affected by Operation Murambatsvina, the clean up exercise that displaced thousands of people from their homes, although they were denied access into Hopely Farm just outside Harare where scores of victims of Murambatsvina are languishing without proper shelter, food or access to clean water.

The Mugabe regime was urged to heed the recommendations of the 2005 UN Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe regarding Operation Murambatsvina, to ensure that housing promised to those whose homes were destroyed was made available.

Other members of the team were Don Deya, the executive director of the East African Law Society based in Tanzania; Jeremias Langa, news director of SOICO the only independent broadcaster in Mozambique; Hannah Forster executive director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in the Gambia; Fatoumata Toure of the Global Pan African Movement based in Kampala and John Kapito a commissioner at the Malawian Human Rights Commission.

A brief summary of the visit’s observations is expected to be published on 10 December, with the full report to follow in January 2007.

Meanwhile CHRA chairperson Mike Davies said these initiatives help to build solidarity between people in different regions. He said; “We have been locked into a nationalist paradigm that treats Zimbabweans as somehow different to people in South Africa and this is a major hindrance to building a genuine Pan African solidarity that helps us to address our problems and break out of these little boxes that our rulers seek to keep us in.”

CHRA says it has been actively reaching out to make links with residents in South Africa and the region to overcome the lack of communication and to educate them on the similarities of the struggles.

Davies was himself speaking from Durban South Africa where the Social Movement Indaba (SMI) conference is taking place. This grouping of various movements in South Africa is meeting to create a common platform to challenge the policies of their government.

Many have said that South Africa – as Zimbabwe’s neighbour and biggest trading partner should be doing more to put pressure on the Zimbabwean government to address the crisis in Zimbabwe. Several Zimbabwean groups that belong to the Zimbabwe Social Forum, like CHRA, The Uhuru Network and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition are at the SMI conference to present the Zimbabwe crisis for consideration.

Davies said the problems of the shack dweller in Soweto are pretty much identical to the daily struggles of somebody trying to survive in Mbare or elsewhere.