April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

The Kimberley Process to identify “blood diamonds” remains chaotic and
corrupt, as self-interested South Africans and Israelis support diamond
exports controlled by Mugabe’s generals. Reports Harare journalist
Dumisani Muleya, “There are fears that the $300 million has either been
stolen or was being kept secretly somewhere by Zanu-PF ministers as a war
chest for anticipated elections.”
Rebutting wildly, Mugabe’s ally and chair of the Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation, Godwills Masimirembwa, claimed (without
proof) that Biti would not pay civil servants a promised pay rise in order to
prompt an “insurrection so that we have another Egypt or Tunisia in
Zimbabwe”.
Amnesty International representative Simeon Mawanza blames South
African President Jacob Zuma and other regional leaders: “Their silence
might be interpreted as being complicit in what we are seeing.”
Hopewell Gumbo, who contributed enormously to one of our Centre for
Civil Society political economy programs in Durban, was one of the
activists tortured after their arrest on February 19. He was recently
quoted on the radio: “I personally work for an organisation that has started
an initiative with the rural cotton farmers, in terms of pricing of their
commodities, that kind of strategy goes above political differences
because when ZANU-PF and MDC farmers meet they realise their problems
are common and political issues can only divide them at the end of the
day.”
More international solidarity for oppressed Zimbabweans is urgently
needed, and from 12:30-2 pm on March 1 in Durban, refugees Shepherd
Zvavanhu and Percy Nhau lead a Centre for Civil Society public discussion
on the situation in the University of KwaZulu Natal’s (UKZN) Memorial
Tower Building, and at 5:30 pm in Washington DC, a pro-democracy
demonstration will be held at Zimbabwe’s embassy on New Hampshire
Avenue near DuPont Circle.
From Durban to Wisconsin
Meanwhile, back home in Durban, city manager Michael Sutcliffe’s regime
appeared terminally wounded when his protector, provincial African
National Congress chairperson John Mchunu, died late last year. The
neoliberal-nationalist municipal order is now in much greater danger
because in recent days, the figurehead mayor, Obed Mlaba, broke with
Sutcliffe and his officials over a $500 million fast-track spending scandal.
The ruling party seems to be backing Mlaba.
Sutcliffe has repeatedly defended corrupt municipal deals with the
Mpisane family on ill-constructed black township housing and Remant Alton
on the failed privatisation of municipal buses. Sutcliffe is widely disliked
because of autocratic tendencies, including the repeated banning of
protest marches, a factor that community and environmental activists are
taking into consideration for the November-December 2011 UN world
climate summit.
The “mubaraking” of Libya’s Gaddafi, Iraq’s Maliki, Zimbabwe’s Mugabe
and Durban’s Sutcliffe is long overdue. But revolt is just as necessary in
the country that long propped up so many dictatorships, the United States.
On February 26, all 50 US state capitals witnessed demonstrations held in
solidarity with public sector workers in Wisconsin, who are under attack by
a hardline conservative governor. Even in the frigid weather and snow of