It was announced yesterday (Monday) by South Africa Home Affairs minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, that Zimbabwe citizens can now travel to South Africa and obtain a free 90-day visitor’s permit and apply to do casual work during their stay. The new regulations came into effect May 1, but Mapisa-Nqakula acknowledged bureaucratic hurdles could slow implementation.
South African officials have been overwhelmed by Zimbabweans, who apply for asylum at a rate of more than 8,000 a day, and they believe many will now opt for the visitor’s permit. Most asylum seekers are denied because South African officials believe most Zimbabweans are not fleeing out of fear or persecution, but to find work as their economy collapses.
This decision is going to cause a lot of controversy, I am sure of that. Not too long ago, we had a serious problem of xenophobia in South Africa with a driving reason behind it being that there are too many foreigners in South Africa who are taking jobs away from the South Africans. Now with this ruling, there will be even more Zimbabweans coming into South Africa. It will not surprise me at all if we see another wave of xenophobia attacks caused by this visa ruling. Watch this space.
On Friday, 6 March, Zimbabwe lost one of its greatest mothers, Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. The couple were involved in a car accident when they were traveling to their rural home. The Tsvangirai’s together with their driver and body guard were in a Land Cruiser which was clipped by a Nissan UD truck which forced the Land Cruiser to overturn and subsequently took the life of Susan Tsvangirai. The moment news of the accident broke, many people suspected foul play. This was not a surprise as many high ranking people in Zimbabwe have been killed in car ‘accidents’.
What raised even more suspicion this time around is that the international press were quick to come out and say that Mrs. Tsvangirai has passed away in a car accident whilst the local Zimbabwe media was saying she was in intensive care. Usually the local media would want to hold back such news before the public knows, but in this case the public new already what had happened. Mrs. Tsvangirai never made it to intensive care as she was declared dead on arrival at Beatrice Hospital which was the closest hospital to the scene of the accident.
This situation in Zimbabwe is getting worse by the hour. The recent outbreak of cholera in the country has left hundreds dead and there seems not to be a solution anytime soon. The capital, Harare, has had its water supply turned off as they can no longer afford the chemicals needed to purify the water. Lives are being lost simply due to the mismanagement of the country. One could say it is the governments fault, but who is the government in Zimbabwe right now? For months now they have failed to agree on a government of national unity and as a result people or dying every hour.
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The whole country has to continue to suffer just because of a passport! This is the situation Zimbabwe is facing. There was meant to be a meeting in Swaziland yesterday with Heads of State from SADC together with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara from the political parties in Zimbabwe. The meeting was also meant to be attended by mediator, Thabo Mbeki as all parties involved look to find a solution to the political crisis in Zimbabwe. The meeting and talks yesterday were meant to hopefully reach an agreement between the parties in Zimbabwe as to who will govern which ministries. But alas, that meeting did not take place all because of a passport!
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Barely has Thabo Mbeki had time to take a break after leaving his office as President of South Africa, he is being called upon already to do somemore work. No, it is not work for the ANC but he needs to head back to Zimbabwe and try sort out this power sharing deal that he thought he had concluded. I bet you Mbeki had thought that once the deal was signed between the parties in Zimbabwe so that they share power, his job would be done. But guess again Mr. Mbeki, Zimbabwe still needs you!
The problem in Zimbabwe is that Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims that Mugabe’s ruling party wants to retain key posts - believed to be the defence, home affairs, state security and finance ministries. Apparently this is in violation of the deal that was agreed. It is thought that these key ministries were meant to be shared i.e. defence and state security to Mugabe and home affairs and finance to Tsvangirai but it looks like Mugabe wants all of them! These issues should have been included in the signed deal but I guess that is why it took forever for the deal to be signed as I am sure the decision about who would govern which ministries was a sticking point. Probably Mbeki just decided to leave the ‘who gets which ministries’ part out of the deal and just get the parties to sign the deal so that he (Mbeki) comes out and looks like the hero for brokering the deal.
With all the political drama taking place in South Africa, the spotlight had been taken off Zimbabwe. So with that said, let us take a look at what the latest scenario in Zimbabwe is. Well as we know, a deal between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara was signed thanks to Thabo Mbeki but still there have not agreed on who is in charge of which ministry in the new government. The parties are still busy fighting about who will be incharge of which ministry as everyone wants to be incharge of the ‘power seats’, namely Finance, Agricultre and Home Affairs. Mugabe’s Zanu-PF obviously wants these posts but Tsvangirai knows that for the country to move forward, the MDC needs to be incharge of these seats and govern them well so that international aid can come into Zimbabwe. Read the rest of this entry »
We had the opportunity to hear from a political commentator with regards to what they thought about the Zimababwe deal signed yesterday. This is what they had to say:
“To me, there’s not much substance to this agreement. For one thing it almost seems like ZANU-PF were more concerned about getting the other parties to admit to their “faults” in writing for the world to see and for the other parties to agree that ZANU-PF was right all along…..it’s all the fault of the west and whites. Secondly, a lot of it is going to be based on good faith between the parties because it’s written in very broad terms and in a lot of instances, how this power sharing is actually meant to work practically is left to the parties to decide at some unspecified future point. For example the split in executive power between the President and the Prime Minister is not made clear at all, who is actually in charge of what here? Read the rest of this entry »
The historic power sharing deal in Zimbabwe has finally been signed now between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara. This is the beginning of what many hope will be a positive change for Zimbabwe. The country has been going through a really tough time for the last 8 years or so and now the beginning of a new era starts today. Some would go as far as saying that this is Zimbabwe’s second independence day.
There are millions of Zimbabweans who had fled the country over the last 8 years and a large number of them had come here to South Africa. Now the question most of them are now asking themselves is; to go back home or not to go home? Read the rest of this entry »
Could this finally be it? I hope so! Talks in Zimbabwe last night between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara seemed to be headed in the right direction due to the mediation efforts of Mbeki. President Mbeki flew out to Zimbabwe this week (It seems like he has been spending more time in Zimbabwe than in South Africa!) to get the political parties in Zimababwe to talk again and hopefully reach an agreement. It is believed that Mbeki went to Zimbabwe with a brand new deal for the parties to consider. And judging by the news coming out of Zimbabwe last night, this new deal maybe signed as early as today. Read the rest of this entry »
And after all of it, still there is no resolution in the crisis in Zimbabwe. The political parties in Zimbabwe were meant to sit down and reach an agreement with South Africa’s President, Thabo Mbeki, mediating the talks. They sat, they talked, they took a break and then talked some more, and after all that, there was still no agreement! So what actually were they talking about and why have they not signed an agreement? Well, your guess is as good as mine as no one has officially come out and said what the ’sticky’ points are. So all we can do now is speculate on what actually did take place over the last couple of days at the Rainbow Towers in Harare where the talks were being held. Read the rest of this entry »