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07:12Last update on: 13 Aug 2013
The Namibian
Tue 13 Aug 2013
SMS Of The Day * MINISTRY of Gender and Child Welfare, TEARS are rolling down as I write this SMS. The killing of women in Namibia is now like reciting a poem. Are we really getting the protection we deserve while women not being treated as part of this c Food For Thought * SO the Zimbabwe elections were free and peaceful and not free and fair? Bouquets And Brickbats * NURSES at Katutura Hospital must stop wearing those big plastic sandals at work because they are not the official working shoes. We want to see you looking smart and beautiful with your full uniform. SMS Of The Day * THIS nation is in dire need of a massive conference on housing. When we experienced a crisis in the education sector a crisis-control brain-storming conference was organised which resulted in the best deal ever for the Namibian child, nam Food For Thought * BOURGEOISIE has become a daily occupation if not the order of the day of the upper-echelons, President Hifikepunye Pohamba we urge you to revisit this unpatriotic geocentricism among your staff and the well-connected, for everybody to r Bouquets And Brickbats * COMMISSIONER of Prisons, can you please explain the strategies you use to appoint officers to certain positions? It is my observation that you are being fed with wrong information then you just promote individuals without making p SMS Of The Day * I THINK Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda lost his belt because of this promoter and trainer. How can a world champion still be training at the Katutura Youth Complex where there is not enough equipment. I think they must follow the example of Ha Food For Thought * NAMIBIA Dairies are unable to match low prices of imported milk and this ultimately means the consumer will have to pay more for local milk. Look at the prices of the local chicken. All these profits are going in the pockets of a few in Bouquets And Brickbats * I AM pleased to hear that Cabinet has responded positively to the proposal of Namibia Dairies to support the industry. The restrictions which support the industry by reducing competition to ensure the survival of the industry is a SMS Of The Day * CEO’s golden handshakes. Somewhere on our statute books there must be a provision that if a board of directors suspends/dismisses a CEO without due regard to legal provision (substantive/procedural law) such board must carry the costs for Food For Thought * JACKY Asheeke was so right with her last column- why are the fathers of the dead children not being prosecuted? (Reference to the children who died in shack fires last week) Our justice system still protects men over women. In this cont Bouquets And Brickbats * ALEXACTUS Kaure, your column in Friday’s newspaper opened my eyes. One hardly finds impartial case study analysers in Namibia. Let’s not destroy the Polytechnic’s strong foundation (Tjivikua) as yet. At least wait until the transf
POLL
What do you think of the renaming and addition of regions and constituencies?
Results so far:
Older Polls
NEWS - AFRICA
| 2013-07-25
Zimbabwe diaspora doubtful over polls
President Barack Obama
JOHANNESBURG - Many of the millions of Zimbabweans living abroad won’t return home for key general elections next week, sceptical of a fair outcome after years of election violence.
President Robert Mugabe has vowed to extend his 33-year-rule and beat bitter rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the polls on 31 July.
The vote will choose a successor to the pair’s tense unity government, but those who fled the nation’s downward spiral into political and economic crisis doubt the prospect of a new beginning.
“This is a make or break election for Zimbabwe, but as important as it is, in my opinion, I can’t help but feel that it’s a futile exercise,” said Justice Chikodzera, an immigrant in South Africa.
An unemployed teacher, Chikodzera counts among around two million Zimbabwean immigrants living in their neighbouring country. Here some of Zimbabwe’s brightest young minds work for a pittance as restaurant waiters or car guards, drawn by South Africa’s economic clout after fleeing election violence in their nation.
Zimbabwean laws do not allow people residing outside the country to vote, so the masses of eligible voters who live abroad have to travel home to draw their cross.
Except many won’t.
Chikodzera said he was discouraged by his country’s history of “vote-rigging to suit certain parties”. Despite closely following the political events back home, he won’t return to vote, but still urged his countrymen to choose wisely.
“This time we need to prove to the world that we can determine our future,” he said.
Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in previous polls in 2008, but pulled out of run-off elections after around 200 opposition activists were killed in violent clashes.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai were forced to share power a year later, but their unity government has failed to reform the security forces and media despite a new constitution approved in a referendum in March this year.
Emigrants doubt that polls this time round will be fair, said Abius Makadho, a representative of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in South Africa.
People feared being singled out for attacks by supporters of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, said Makadho.
“So far nothing suggests that the vote will be fair,” he said from Diepsloot, a densely-populated slum north of Johannesburg. He echoed concerns that ZANU-PF may have tampered with the voters’ roll to stuff ballot boxes later.
“Many people have told us that they aren’t registered. Others registered but their names don’t appear on the voters roll,” he said. “So they have lost interest.” Rights groups have raised the alarm because the register of voters still counts names of people who have already died.
There are increasing fears that supporters of Mugabe, 89, who eyes another decade in power, won’t accept defeat. - Nampa-AFP
The vote will choose a successor to the pair’s tense unity government, but those who fled the nation’s downward spiral into political and economic crisis doubt the prospect of a new beginning.
“This is a make or break election for Zimbabwe, but as important as it is, in my opinion, I can’t help but feel that it’s a futile exercise,” said Justice Chikodzera, an immigrant in South Africa.
An unemployed teacher, Chikodzera counts among around two million Zimbabwean immigrants living in their neighbouring country. Here some of Zimbabwe’s brightest young minds work for a pittance as restaurant waiters or car guards, drawn by South Africa’s economic clout after fleeing election violence in their nation.
Zimbabwean laws do not allow people residing outside the country to vote, so the masses of eligible voters who live abroad have to travel home to draw their cross.
Except many won’t.
Chikodzera said he was discouraged by his country’s history of “vote-rigging to suit certain parties”. Despite closely following the political events back home, he won’t return to vote, but still urged his countrymen to choose wisely.
“This time we need to prove to the world that we can determine our future,” he said.
Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in previous polls in 2008, but pulled out of run-off elections after around 200 opposition activists were killed in violent clashes.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai were forced to share power a year later, but their unity government has failed to reform the security forces and media despite a new constitution approved in a referendum in March this year.
Emigrants doubt that polls this time round will be fair, said Abius Makadho, a representative of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in South Africa.
People feared being singled out for attacks by supporters of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, said Makadho.
“So far nothing suggests that the vote will be fair,” he said from Diepsloot, a densely-populated slum north of Johannesburg. He echoed concerns that ZANU-PF may have tampered with the voters’ roll to stuff ballot boxes later.
“Many people have told us that they aren’t registered. Others registered but their names don’t appear on the voters roll,” he said. “So they have lost interest.” Rights groups have raised the alarm because the register of voters still counts names of people who have already died.
There are increasing fears that supporters of Mugabe, 89, who eyes another decade in power, won’t accept defeat. - Nampa-AFP
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