Apr
7
Mugabe is losing battle against Citizen Journalist
April 7, 2008 | | 1 Comment
By Penny (8)
While Robert Mugabe continues to ban and arrest the media and intimidate members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition party, there’s another growing force of dissension and opposition that he cannot control - Zimbabwe’s Citizen Journalists.
With no foreign journalists allowed to enter the country, Citizen Journalists are helping to fill in the gap, reporting on Zimbabwe’s “daily grind” and the outcry over delays in releasing the results of Zimbabwe’s elections. Most bloggers seem to agree that the delay in releasing the results is a tactic for Mugabe to rig the results or in the case of a run-off election, gather his forces to intimidate Zimbabweans into voting for him.
The BBC have claimed Zimbabweans are so adamantly opposed to another Mugabe term of office that they were unable to find even a single pro-Mugabe blogger or Internet forum online.
The main Zimbabwean bloggers helping the foreign press in their news coverage are Sokwanele, a Zimbabwean blog run by the Sokwanele Civic Action Support Group, Zimbabwe Today, which is providing detailed and highly personal coverage of a nation in flux, Kubatana.net, a web site dedicated to improving the accessibility of human rights and civic information in Zimbabwe, the Botswana-based news website Zimbabwe Metro, Comrade Fatso and Cry Beloved Zimbabwe rub by blogger Izzy Mutanhaurwa, a Zimbabwean born writer, entrepreneur and political activist and Vice Secretary of MDC United Kingdom and Ireland.
A Sunday 6th April blog posting on Sokwanele reports that Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) officials have been arrested. The blog says: “It is also outrageous that ZEC officials are being arrested (read harassed, and since this is Zanu PF we’re talking about, possibly intimidated and beaten and threatened) before the final results come out. They need to announce the results publicly, and then we can all deal with the anomalies (or non-anomalies) in a transparent fashion. I have to confess that there is a part of me that believes that senior ZEC people are in bed with Zanu PF despite the fact that they are supposed to be an independent body. This is because they gave the opposition parties and civil society such a hard time leading up to the elections: for example, not releasing a version of the voters’ roll that the opposition parties could check. It appeared then that ZEC was impeding normal democratic processes, and in Zimbabwe that always looks like an effort to bias the playing field towards Zanu PF. Regardless, say a prayer for those ZEC officials who have been arrested. They’re going to need them.”
Commenting on Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party wanting a vote recount because of “errors and miscalculations”, Zimbabwe Today says: “Observers in Harare are pointing out that if Mugabe wants a recount, this must mean two things: one, that he is aware of the count as it stands at present, and two, that he’s lost.”
On Kubatana.net, an anonymous blogger who claimed to be a polling officer in capital city Harare said: “Massive rigging can actually take place through those postal ballots. All the votes were for Zanu-PF. There were no names for us to cross out in the voters roll in case the voters would have voted already. Many ballot papers could not be accounted for.”
Contributing to Kubatana.net Bev Clark writes on Sunday 6 April: “The only (election) run off we want is for Mugabe to run off. Is this an election or an erection because everything seems to be standing still? These are the words on Harare’s lips and in its text messages. Our joy is agony. So close but yet so far. We are tired. We can’t take this anymore. Everyone I talk to wants the old man to go. If he doesn’t they will. Some say they will take to the streets. Others will leave the country. Everyone has a plan in Zimbabwe. Most of us plan to be here. But many will leave if Bob doesn’t.”
Comrade Fatso writes on his site: “If only kids could vote then Mugabe would have been really beaten,” says my partner’s 11 year old child. “They should let us vote because there are more kids than adults. All my friends at schools want MDC to win”, she continues. Asked why her and her school mates don’t like the old man she replies “He’s boring and old. He needs to go.” Radical common sense has now become common currency in Zimbabwe. Even amongst teacher-less school.”
Cry Beloved Zimbabwe draws a parallel between Mugabe and Ian Smith, the former white prime minister of Rhodesia, before the country was renamed Zimbabwe. Blogger Izzy Mutanhaurwa writes: “Mugabe, The Herald, Chiwenga, Chihuri did not see this coming just like Ian Smith during his “in my lifetime” phase for only to see a black majority rule before his death. How history repeats itself as Mugabe proclaimed time after time that MDC will never rule Zimbabwe what a climb down for the dictator. He usually banged the podium with his fist, foaming at the mouth whenever he spoke saying that MDC will never rule Zimbabwe for only MDC to rule before his death.”
And it’s not only bloggers who are having their say in cyberspace. On the Sky News website there are more than eight pages of comments from people around the world.
Sandra from Zimbabwe emailed Sky News with this comment: “This is an incredible moment, I cannot remember a time in Zim any more when people have not been starving and desperate for change… They have suffered for so long and there is finally an end in sight.”
Tammy Sears from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, asked Sky: “Could somebody please explain why Britain and the rest of the world are dragging their heels on this one? We are desperate for help. Please!”
Detailing how Zimbabwe’s economy is in tatters, Jennifer Carter emailed Sky from Harare: “Inflation is more like 250 000%. My husband paid Z$11m for a beer after nine holes of golf the other week. When he came off the course after the final nine, the price was Z$40m! An egg cost Z$3m 10 days ago and is now Z$6.5m.” And VA Virimai from Zimbabwe emailed Sky saying: “I am a civil servant earning Z$1.4bn and my transport cost per day to work is Z$60m. Therefore my salary is not enough for me to go to work before I even talk about my rent, other bills and food.”
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You should check out the Zimbabwe newspapers (except the Herald which is government owned)- they are doing a great job, especially the Zimbabwe Independent.