WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2001-08-29 Time: 05:15:20 Posted By: Jan
24/08/2001
The Zimbabwean government has threatened to punish journalists who “tarnish”
the image of its security forces. It offered no response to Wednesday’s
stinging criticism by Tito Mboweni, the South African Reserve Bank Governor,
of the way it had been seizing farmland and silencing its opponents.
The warning to journalists came a day after an independent newspaper editor
was briefly arrested for reproducing a story published by Britain’s Sunday
Times which claimed that Mugabe was being haunted by the ghost of the
commander of his 1970s independence war fighters, General Josiah Tongogara.
Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwean Vice-president, told a police parade that “errant
journalists”, especially those he accused of portraying the army, police and
secret service as “barbaric and morally decadent” would face the full wrath
of the law.
“The government is aware of the subtle strategies being perpetuated by
unpatriotic citizens and sell-outs to portray Zimbabwe as a society devoid of
law and order,” Muzenda said.
Mark Chavunduka, editor of the Sunday Standard, said he was briefly detained
by police on Wednesday over the ghost story, and said he may face defamation
charges.
No comment on Mboweni’s comments
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean officials who normally relish challenging Mugabe’s
critics were either unavailable or declined to comment on Wednesday’s damning
attack by Mboweni on Harare’s land reform programme.
Zimbabwe has been in crisis since February 2000, when militants began
invading white-owned farms, saying that more land should be turned over to
the black majority. The government has backed the militants, but farm output
has fallen steeply. South Africa’s rand currency dived to fresh lows on
Wednesday on worries of mounting instability in Zimbabwe, its largest African
trading partner.
Mboweni’s lashing ‘unexpected’
“The wheels have come off there,” Mboweni told an investment conference,
abandoning South Africa’s largely quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe.
“The situation has become untenable when it is seen that the highest office
in that land seems to support illegal means of land reform, land invasions,
the occupation of land, beating up of people, blood flowing everywhere,”
Mboweni said.
Political analysts in Zimbabwe said Mugabe’s government must have been
stunned by Mboweni’s tough remarks.
“It’s unexpected from South Africa and they must be quite surprised at the
hard tone of Mboweni’s statement,” said Masipula Sithole, a political
analyst.
“I think the temptation in this case would be to pretend nothing was said
because it undermines the government’s posture that it enjoys unquestioned
solidarity,” Sithole added.
Zimbabwe is grappling with an acute fuel shortage, a hard currency crisis and
looming food shortages, which threaten to spark street protests.
Pro-government militants occupying white-owned farms have stepped up the
pressure on farmers in the past few days after a Sunday newspaper quoted
Joseph Made, the Agriculture Minister, as saying owners must quit properties
targeted for resettlement by the end of August.
– Reuters