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07:04Last 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
| 2013-08-01
Zim Polls: Will the loser accept defeat?
HARARE – Zimbabweans voted yesterday in a fiercely contested election pitting President Robert Mugabe against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has vowed to push Africa’s oldest leader into retirement after 33 years in power.
With no reliable opinion polls, it is hard to say whether the 61-year-old Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to unseat the 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.
Both sides are forecasting landslide wins but, in a country with a history of election violence, the bigger question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll dogged by logistical problems and allegations of vote-rigging.
Polls opened on time at 05h00 across the country, with long queues of people braving a bout of unseasonably cold weather to stand in line from well before dawn.
In one polling station in the western province of Manicaland, a key swing region, the queue stretched for a kilometre.
“I got up at 4 but still couldn’t get the first position in the line,” said sawmill worker Clifford Chasakara. “My fingers are numb, but I’m sure I can mark the ballot all the same. I’m determined to vote and have my vote counted.”
In Harare, the epicentre of Tsvangirai support, the mood was excited and upbeat.
“We are here to vote and I’m convinced Harare will lead the way to change,” John Phiri, a domestic worker in his 30s, said in a polling station in the upmarket Mount Pleasant suburb.
Asked on the eve of the vote if he and his Zanu-PF party would accept defeat, Mugabe was unequivocal: “If you go into a process and join a competition where there are only two outcomes, win or lose, you can’t be both. You either win or lose. If you lose, you must surrender.”
A spokesperson for Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the party was prepared only to accept the results if the poll was “free and fair”.
Mugabe’s words were in marked contrast to the thrust of what he described as an “energy-sapping” campaign, and may ease fears of a repeat of the violence that broke out after he lost the first round of an election in 2008.
At least 200 Tsvangirai supporters were killed in the unrest before South Africa brokered a power-sharing deal that stopped the bloodshed and stabilised the economy, but established a government characterised as fractious and dysfunctional.
Western election observers have been barred from the elections, leaving the task of independent oversight to 500 regional and 7 000 domestic monitors.
Results are expected well within the five-day legal limit. Around 6.4 million people, or half the population, are registered to vote.
The verdict of observers is crucial to the future of Zimbabwe’s economy, which is still struggling with the aftermath of a decade-long slump and hyperinflation that ended in 2009 when the worthless Zimbabwe dollar was scrapped.
If it gets broad approval, there is a chance that Western sanctions may be eased, allowing Harare to normalise relations with the IMF and World Bank and access the huge amounts of investment needed to rebuild its dilapidated economy.
Despite this, Tsvangirai urged African monitors not to give the vote the thumbs-up simply because they do not witness bloodshed.- Nampa-Reuters
With no reliable opinion polls, it is hard to say whether the 61-year-old Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to unseat the 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.
Both sides are forecasting landslide wins but, in a country with a history of election violence, the bigger question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll dogged by logistical problems and allegations of vote-rigging.
Polls opened on time at 05h00 across the country, with long queues of people braving a bout of unseasonably cold weather to stand in line from well before dawn.
In one polling station in the western province of Manicaland, a key swing region, the queue stretched for a kilometre.
“I got up at 4 but still couldn’t get the first position in the line,” said sawmill worker Clifford Chasakara. “My fingers are numb, but I’m sure I can mark the ballot all the same. I’m determined to vote and have my vote counted.”
In Harare, the epicentre of Tsvangirai support, the mood was excited and upbeat.
“We are here to vote and I’m convinced Harare will lead the way to change,” John Phiri, a domestic worker in his 30s, said in a polling station in the upmarket Mount Pleasant suburb.
Asked on the eve of the vote if he and his Zanu-PF party would accept defeat, Mugabe was unequivocal: “If you go into a process and join a competition where there are only two outcomes, win or lose, you can’t be both. You either win or lose. If you lose, you must surrender.”
A spokesperson for Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the party was prepared only to accept the results if the poll was “free and fair”.
Mugabe’s words were in marked contrast to the thrust of what he described as an “energy-sapping” campaign, and may ease fears of a repeat of the violence that broke out after he lost the first round of an election in 2008.
At least 200 Tsvangirai supporters were killed in the unrest before South Africa brokered a power-sharing deal that stopped the bloodshed and stabilised the economy, but established a government characterised as fractious and dysfunctional.
Western election observers have been barred from the elections, leaving the task of independent oversight to 500 regional and 7 000 domestic monitors.
Results are expected well within the five-day legal limit. Around 6.4 million people, or half the population, are registered to vote.
The verdict of observers is crucial to the future of Zimbabwe’s economy, which is still struggling with the aftermath of a decade-long slump and hyperinflation that ended in 2009 when the worthless Zimbabwe dollar was scrapped.
If it gets broad approval, there is a chance that Western sanctions may be eased, allowing Harare to normalise relations with the IMF and World Bank and access the huge amounts of investment needed to rebuild its dilapidated economy.
Despite this, Tsvangirai urged African monitors not to give the vote the thumbs-up simply because they do not witness bloodshed.- Nampa-Reuters
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