Flame Lily News and Views

The concert last night was a great success!

With over 250 people present, the hall was full almost to capacity.  I greeted everyone arriving and gave them a pamphlet explaining very briefly that proceeds would go to supporting aged Zim pensioners, and giving our contact details.  Many told me they already knew about FLF.

Jean Bowen-Davies arranged the presence of a number of old ladies and gents as special guests, and one whose 90th birthday is today was congratulated from the stage by Dermod Gloster.

There were three singers, a pianist and a violinist.  All are either former or current professionals, and most have Rhodesian connections. 

At the end of the concert I thanked the performers and the audience for their support of FLF’s project, and this was well received.

All our Committee members gave a great deal of assistance in publicity, personal contact, and helping at the concert - including the bar arrangements we provided.

Lewis Walter
Chairman
Cape Peninsula Branch

24 May 2008

The Committee was elected en-bloc for another year.
 
Printed out 40 Long and Loyal Membership Certificates [for continuous annual membership of 15 years or more].  Inserted the individual names and date and awarded most of them today.
 
I awarded Sheila [Gibson] the Meritorious Service Certificate [for serving in an official capacity on the Managing Committee for a continuos period of more than 15 years]. Sheila was quite overcome!!
 
We had a terrific bring and share lunch afterwards. Sheila made a huge pot of soup, as she has done for the last three AGMs, and it went down a treat, many coming back for seconds (me too, I love Mama’s Yuckky Soup).

Quentin Gibson
Chairman
Pietermaritzburg and Districts

The Pretoria Branch’s AGM took place on Sunday 25 May 2008.

The following members were elected to the Committee:

Pam Darkins, David Donkin (Chairman), Ann Jones, Liz Little, Barry Mee, Clive Reid, Mary Redfern (Secretary), Seonaid Robbie-Milne.

A Certificate of Appreciation was presented to Professor Gerrit Viljoen, for his 21 years of service to the FLF at National level as Honorary Auditor since 1987.

After the meeting, John Redfern gave an interest talk: “A strategic overview of the Rhodesian War”, comparing it with the current crisis situation in Zimbabwe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The “Bush War” 1965-1979: A Strategic Review

John Redfern previously presented the review to the East Rand Military History Society on 27 February 1980.

From Eddie Cross 

While we often discuss the human costs of the Mugabe regime, we neglect the costs in material terms.  For this country the price of his tyranny has been huge.  Our GDP is now hovering about US4 billion, exports around US$1,5 billion and our national debt has soared to over US$8 billion.  Despite our pariah state the international community still pours in over US$600 million a year in aid - all of it in grant form.

If we add up the total losses to Zimbabwe over the past 10 years they would exceed US$100 billion - a big price to pay for the ego of one man and his gang of thieves.  On the issue of the corrupt diversion of state resources, the magnitude of the costs we have borne are equally enormous.

People in the west have little idea of the sums that are stolen from countries like Zimbabwe and the extent of the wealth being accumulated by the privileged few in power.  In many countries control of the Reserve Bank and the State simply signals an opportunity to plunder both for the benefit of a tiny minority.  So Mabuto accumulated wealth equal at one time to the total debt of the Congo.  The corrupt Marxist regime in Angola is known to be taking a cut on virtually all business transactions and a large slice of all oil revenues - now running at several billion dollars a month.

The various military and civilian leaders of Nigeria in the past have stolen up to a billion US dollars a month from their countries.  You cannot spend such sums and stories of Nigerians arriving in foreign cities with suitcases of money abound.  When these crime magnates die, the secrets of their wealth dies with them and much of the illicit gains go into the hidden balance sheets of global business.  A Swedish businessman told me once that he loved doing business with the “socialists” of Africa - nowhere else could you make the margins that were available in those countries.  He was complaining at the time about the private sector driven economy here in the 80’s.

Just to drive this point home in recent weeks and months, this regime has been plundering the resources that are left here - especially those that can be moved abroad.  When we finally get into the vaults at the Reserve Bank we will find them empty.

As far as the region is concerned the cost of tyranny in Zimbabwe is more difficult to estimate.  Some time ago Tony Blair visited South Africa and at UNISA he made a speech in which he estimated that the contagion effects of the Zimbabwe crisis was costing South Africa 2 per cent of its GDP per annum.  It may in fact be more.

If we just take tourism - we are turning away about 2 million visitors each year from regional tourism centers.  That is worth several billion dollars a year in foreign earnings to the region and at least 250 000 jobs.  The total cost of the crisis at, say.  2 per cent of regional GDP is now at least US$8 billion a year - twice the actual GDP of Zimbabwe.

But there is another cost - shown vividly on television in the past few days, as South Africa has seen xenophobic violence break out in the townships of Gauteng.  Mobs of axe and panga wielding people are attacking foreigners whom they perceive (probably correctly) as robbing them of jobs and other opportunities in South Africa.  This was a further crisis that was just waiting to happen.

With over 3 million Zimbabweans in South Africa already, the flood tide of refugees from Zimbabwe in the past year has been a step too far.  The South African government is worried and astonished at the extent and degree of violence.  Dire threats and allegations that someone sinister must be behind the outbreaks are being made.

But in fact the truth is that their social systems can only take so much pressure before they break down and we may well be seeing such an event right now.  Not good news for Mbeki who was meeting with the international business council in Durban yesterday.  He faced the key investors in South Africa with images of the violence and mayhem on the Rand fresh in everyone’ s minds, with his own problems at home and abroad and the threat of a messy transition in 2009 to a new leadership, it was not an easy gathering.

I have argued for years that the greatest threat of the crisis in Zimbabwe was not here, but in South Africa where despite the disparity in size, we are capable of destabilizing that country very effectively.  Both for Africa and the world community, that is a much bigger problem and one that merits close attention and speedy action.  Mbeki is responsible for the failure in both respects and now reaps the whirlwind.

We launched our run off campaign yesterday in Bulawayo with 20 000 people in the White City Stadium.  Although it was cold and windy and we had only got one day to organise, the turnout was massive and very pleasing.  We eventually got a High Court Judge to rule on Friday at 15.30 hrs, that we could go ahead and in fact it turned out to be the right decision.  The police had cited three reasons for not granting us permission - personnel, the sensitive situation and the threat of violence.  In all three respects the police were wrong - we had 5 policemen outside the stadium at a roadblock, there was no violence and the mood was festive.

Chamisa mocked the threat that Zanu would “go back to war” if they lost - he asked just whom would they fight?  Who was the enemy?  He drew lots of laughs from the crowd and explained that Morgan could not be present for of a number of reasons.  The acting President, Ms.  Khupe spoke at length about the run off and said that this was the burial service for Zanu PF.  She said Zanu had died on the 29th March and all that was left was to bury them in a deep hole with a concrete slab over the top to ensure they did not resurrect.

The MDC then fed all 20 000 people with lunch and afterwards they departed for their homes.  Quite an achievement in a country that is starving and a testimony to the organisations capacity.  The next six weeks are going to be busy as we campaign and then vote yet again.  But this is our kind of fight and on this territory we have the advantage and the right weapons.

A group from the intelligence and police raided my sons Church yesterday.
They searched for “weapons of war”.  He gave them each a Bible and said - “this is our only weapon and it brings life, not death”.  On the 27th June we in southern Africa are going to discover the same truth about our votes - used wisely and protected, they will bring new life to Zimbabwe and the entire region.

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo 19th May 2008

From The Zimbabwean
Friday, 9 May 2008

STATEMENT MADE BY WILLIAM BRUCE ROGERS AND ANNETTE MARY ROGERS

On the day of the 6th May, 2008 at approximately 1300 hours I was visited by three men at our farm, Chigwell Extension Farm.

They told me that I had two minutes to vacate my property otherwise they will send the mob there and the house is not worth sacrificing my life for. Because we would lose our lives. They said they were like hungry lions.

My wife made a report to the Chegutu Police Station about this incident, naming the people involved. At that stage I asked them if they would react to any incident that my occur and they informed my wife that they would speak to the Assistant Inspector. My wife also saw him before making the report and informed him of the visit and he told her to go and make a report at the charge office.

At about 1700 hours on the same day a vehicle – a white Datsun 1800 pickup arrived at the gate with approximately 10-12 people. They demanded that I opened the gate because they wanted to talk to me. I refused and went into the house together with my wife. We locked ourselves into the house. They came to the house and wanted me to go outside to speak to them which I refused to do. They started smashing windows and the front door was smashed open. One of them pointed a single barrel shotgun inside the house at us – we were by then upstairs. He fired a shot directly at us which went just over my head and close to my wifes’ head. He obviously intended to kill us. After he fired the shot he went out and it went quiet for a while and then we heard three shots coming from the workers housing area. They returned with all the workers and fired another shot whilst outside.

I managed to get through to the Assistant Inspector and the Chegutu Police Station to ask for assistance before there were dead bodies in the house. He said that I must phone him back in half and hour. Throughout all of this my wife was on the phone to numerous friends who were at the Chegutu Police Station trying to get assistance from them with absolutely no result whatsoever. My wife and I also made many phone calls to the Member in Charge on his cell phone and he refused to answer.

By this time it was dark and the power went off so we were left completely in darkness and unable to identify our own employees.

They then used the workers as a shield so that they could all come inside the house and then were downstairs chanting and singing and making threats.

They sent one of the workers upstairs to demand the shotgun from me to take back to them. I refused and this employee stayed upstairs with us. They then grabbed the son of this employee who was downstairs and from what I could gather they threatened to either kill or injure him if he didn’t go back downstairs with the weapon. He went back downstairs without the weapon. After about five minutes they told all the singing workers to go upstairs using them as a shield once more. We tried to identify the workers one by one as they came up the stairs, as my wife was standing at the top of the stairs with a can of mace. After about 15 workers came through, she could not identify a person and used the mace and sprayed them. After this they ran back downstairs and out of the house.

This incensed the thugs who then proceeded to break down the back door and started a building a fire in the downstairs lounge directly below us. As we have a wooden floor upstairs this posed a great threat and we thought we would be burnt alive which is when I said that we would come out and asked if they would let us leave peacefully which they agreed to do. We asked the ring-leader to identify himself. We came downstairs and they demanded the shotgun from me which was loaded and off safety and I refused. They then insisted that I give it to them and I tried to start unloading it and they attacked me. They then grabbed my wife around the throat and she started screaming. While they were trying to take the shotgun from me three shots went off outside the house into the ground as it is a semi-automatic shotgun. They then took the shotgun from me and wrestled me to the ground and started beating me with what I assume was sticks, or pipes and kicking me with their boots. They dragged my wife outside and they were trying to strangle her. At this stage she managed to bite the hand of the man who was grabbing her round the throat. Whereupon he started to beat her. At one time there were at least four men beating and kicking her.

They then tied me up with rope and threw me into the back of their pickup. At this stage my wife was still being beaten. When they had finished beating her, one of them grabbed her by her feet and dragged her over to the vehicle. They then demanded that she stand up and get into the back of the truck which she was unable to do. One of them grabbed her by the hair, pulled her into a standing position and pushed her up against the back of the truck and told her to get in. She did climb in. They searched my wife and found the car-keys in her pocket and demanded she show them what vehicle the keys were for. They couldn’t find the keys to the other truck. They drove my vehicle onto the lawn, parked near the truck where I was tied up. The immobiliser for the vehicle went off. They demanded that my wife show them where the immobiliser switch was situated which she did do. One of them drove off with the vehicle which we never saw again. They still had all the employees on the lawn around a fire that had been lit by the front door and they were still forced to sing.

There were about four or five of them around the vehicle watching the two of us, all the time they were shouting verbal abuse and racist comments and threatening to kill either one or both of us and also stating the manner in which they should kill us. This must have gone on for almost an hour. They were burning my feet with cigarettes and then we saw vehicle lights shining towards us and then my wife was told to get out of the vehicle and was dragged towards the headlights of the vehicle that had arrived. When she got to the vehicle she saw there were four armed policeman from Kadoma Police Station who asked what had happened. She told them briefly what had happened and demanded that they fetch me immediately from the vehicle as she feared for my life. One of the thugs came and untied me and told me to get out of the vehicle and made me walk towards the headlights of the parked vehicle. I noticed that they were armed policeman. The incident was described in more detail to them and they accompanied us into the house to get some warm clothing. Once we were in the house we saw that the gun cabinet had been opened and ransacked and that my weapons were missing. I informed the police that the weapons were missing. They then took us out of the house and told us to get in their vehicle as we were going to Chegutu Police Station to make a report.

We got to Chegutu Police Station and they had to call some superior officer to take a statement and he only arrived as were were leaving to go to Harare to get urgent medical attention. No police personal of any authority seemed to show any interest in taking our statement.

We were attended to by medical staff at the Avenues Clinic where numerous x-rays and CT scans were taken.

My injuries are two cracked verterbrae in my lower back. Fractured cheekbone, fractured nose there was copious bleeding into my sinuses and extensive lacerations and deep-tissue bruising to my face and back and a bite to my right earlobe.

My wifes injuries are fractured cheekbones, fractures around her orbital socket round her eye, perforated eardrum, cracked ribs and extensive bruising to her face and back and throat.

W.B. ROGERS

A.M. ROGERS

From Eddie Cross 

The BBC got it right the other day; in news broadcasts they described the Zimbabwe elections and the aftermath as “bizarre”.  The elections took place - after a vigorous campaign by all parties and voting was peaceful - as it always is on polling day.  Funny how violence is switched on and off in this country!  2,4 million people went to vote - a high turnout by my estimate and the results were determined in the polling stations by thousands of returning officers watched by polling agents - in some polling stations as many as 20 or 30 individuals representing the different parties.

By early morning on the following day (Sunday) nearly all stations had recorded their final tally and declared the winners and losers.  By midday an early result for the whole country was known.  The JOC and Mr.  Mugabe were given the news in the early afternoon and then the wheels came off the whole process.  Mr.  Mugabe just refused to accept that he had been beaten.

An elaborate plan was then hatched and the team charged with running the elections did everything they could to fudge the results.  To gain time they drew out the announcement of the result and then declared that 25 constituencies were to be “recounted”.  A messy and clumsy exercise then got under way and eventually came up with a result that few expected - they were simply not able, with any credibility, to alter the figures.  Three weeks went by, still no swearing in of new MP’s, no inductions of new urban councils and no presidential ballot results.

After the so-called “recount” was concluded, finally ZEC announced that the verification and count of the presidential ballot would take place - a month had gone by and already the Zanu PF campaign for a run off was under way.  On May the 1st the Chief Election Agents for the four candidates were called in at 14.00 hrs and told that the final result was 48 per cent Tsvangirai, 43 per cent Mugabe, 9 per cent Makoni and 0,6 per cent for the also ran.  Mugabe had finally conceded what he had known on the 30th March, he had been beaten, fair and square by the despised MDC.

We immediately rejected the results and stated that they bore no resemblance to any of the data at our disposal - and we had a great deal of data.  We had our own figures from poling agents, we had a comprehensive police report on the results as supplied to the JOC and we had the results of ZESN and a parallel vote count carried out by the same organisation.  By all accounts, Mugabe never got 43 per cent of the vote - they simply took votes from both Makoni and Tsvangirai and crudely decided that that was the result they would declare.  It had taken them a month to do what had been decided virtually on Sunday night after the poll on Saturday.

We then demanded a full verification of every polling station and every district.  We wanted to see where these mysterious votes had been recorded. With the whole world watching they were nervous but agreed to allow verification of the raw data on the following day.  At 09.00 hrs our team presented themselves at the venue and an hour later they were given access to the original returns from the polling stations and constituencies.  After two hours the process was abruptly halted, the Agents of the parties excluded from the room and they announced that they were going ahead with a press conference at which they would announce the final results of the elections.  This took place in the early afternoon with a room full of smiling Zanu PF leaders and a number of totally dissatisfied representatives of the opposition.

The world was told, Mugabe had been beaten, both in the House of Assembly and in the presidential contest but that a run off was now required as neither of the two front runners had the required 50 per cent plus one vote. What a travesty!  There was no way they could hide the evidence of what was so blatantly a case of simply announcing a false result - even if it gave the MDC what everybody had known for a month, a victory.

Now, in keeping with the strategy they have followed for a month, they are still creating space and time for the people running the Zanu PF “Campaign” to do their dirty business.  They are delaying the announcement of the date of the run off even though by law it must take place within 21 days of the announcement of the results of the presidential ballot.  For weeks we have had intelligence that said that they wanted the poll on the 26th May - the day after Africa Day, which is a Monday, and a public holiday.

The Zanu PF campaign?  Quite a simple formula really, they have mounted a nation wide campaign of violence and intimidation against the MDC and its supporters.  This campaign is designed to terrify the local population into voting for Zanu PF “or else”.  MDC leaders and opinion makers in all districts have been targeted and are being burnt out of the their villages, beaten and driven into the towns where they will not be able to influence rural voters or in fact vote themselves.

Remember these are the monsters who during a two month period, in front of the whole world, destroyed the homes and livelihoods of 1,4 million people during Murambatsvina in 2005, these are the same people who destroyed Zapu in a savage campaign that lasted 6 years and might have taken 40 000 lives in the 80’s.  We are dealing with hundreds of severely injured people, dozens of deaths, thousands of displaced people.  Every Church has become a place of refuge and MDC offices are simply swamped every day by ordinary people fleeing the violence.

They are revamping the actual voting process itself, trying the close the loopholes that allowed an MDC victory in the first elections.  They are changing returning officers and replacing them with people who will be “more co-operative”.  They will ban the ZESN and stop any parallel vote count.  They have banned rallies and meetings until the campaign actually gets under way after the formal announcement of the run off.  Threats against the lives of key leaders have been made and a number have left the country and gone into hiding.  Virtually every member of the team that ran the successful elections on the 29th March is in jail or in hiding and unable to function.

We are saying that unless the playing field is leveled and the violence stopped we will not participate.  Well we have little hope of the former. South Africa and our neighbors have watched the whole farce in silence.  Not a word of condemnation.  Our hospitals are full of the MDC injured and not one UN official has been to see for themselves.  At the UN South Africa and China - to their shame, blocked a UN attempt to send someone to see what is going on and to try and get Zanu PF to behave by some sort of internationally recognised code.

So once again, as so often in the past 8 years, we are on our own, few resources apart from our courageous and tenacious supporters, very little in the way of equipment (I think we have 27 motor vehicles nation wide) and no outside help to speak off.  We are on the edge of the Jesse facing that mad bull buffalo and waiting for him to stop shaking the trees and shrubs in the thickets and come out and face his adversary again.  Unequal as the contest is, we are ready and even eager to get this over with.  More determined than ever with the violence being perpetrated against us and feeling that after this, we will give Zanu PF no quarter, no amnesty, only justice for what the have done to our country and its people.

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 6th May 2008

Never the same again.

By Cathy Buckle

It took the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission almost five weeks to verify less than two and a half million votes that were cast in our Presidential ballot.  In a country where junior school children have learnt to count, add, subtract and even multiply in millions and now billions in order to survive our collapsed economy, five weeks is insulting and highly suspicious to say the least.
 
After five weeks the ZEC declared the following results:

As I write it is not yet known if Morgan Tsvangirai will take part in a second election.  Whatever the MDC decide, the ordinary people of Zimbabwe know one thing: the MDC won the 2008 elections; they won a parliamentary majority and their candidate got more votes than Mr Mugabe in the presidential count.  For the first time in 28 years Zimbabweans have begun freeing themselves from the clenched fist of Zanu PF.  Real courage, real bravery and a decade of intolerable hardship has finally guided their hands in the ballot boxes.  Zimbabwe will never be the same again.

Assistance to Zimbabwe Pensioners

Because of the wonderful generosity of our members, some of whom are making regular monthly donations towards Project Grateful Gran, the FLF is now able to make small grants to a few of our most seriously disadvantaged pensioners in South Africa. National paid out over R32,000 in December, including grants from the Overseas Service Pensioners Benevolent Society (OSPBS). In addition to National’s payments, each branch provided Christmas gifts for selected members whom we know are struggling. Some of these may receive grants from Project Grateful Gran during the year, once Pensions Survey forms have been completed and returned to National.
Some pensioners on the ZPA (Zimbabwe Pensioners Association, a division of the FLF) database have completed Pension Survey forms, which will enable National to determine if they are eligible for grants under Project Grateful Gran. With the continued support of our members, National hopes to sustain grant payments, and even increase them subject to availability of funds.We are appealing to all who are able to assist in sponsoring a Rhodesian/Zimbabwean pensioner residing in South Africa, on a monthly basis for one year.  

If you donate more than a R1000.00, either as a one-off amount or by installments within the current financial year (ending 28 February 2009), a special receipt will be provided enabling you to claim a rebate on your South African income tax.

Anyone can donate. You do not have to be a member of FLF.

Please contact John Redfern at rasa@iafrica.com for banking details, or one of the following if you need further information:
Jill de Beer - edebeer@iafrica.com
Liz Archibald - elizabetha@mweb.co.za