MDC UK WOMEN’S ASSEMBLY MEETING FUNDRAISING OF THE YEAR

CHAIRPERSON ADELLA 01189583541/ 07823332004
V.CHAIRPERSON Fadzanai 01908694460’
ACT.ORG.SECT BUHLE, 07796434482

MDC UK WOMEN’S ASSEMBLY MEETING FUNDRAISING OF THE YEAR
DATE: 2 JUNE 2007
TIME: 12 30PM TO 3 PM Women Assembly Meeting: Agenda to follow
3pm to 12midnight fundraising
VENUE: CENTENARY HALL, 104 BEDFORD RD KEMPSTON
MK42 8BG
There will be plenty of exciting activities/action packed
Africa attire modelling competition open to all age group: come and show them that age is just but a number!!!!!!!!! Come and advertise your attire
DANCE!!! DANCE!! DANCE!!! DANCE!! MUSIC BY REKNOWN DJ
Raffle tickets with Amazing prizes
PLENTY FOOD AND DRINKS
MANY MORE SURPRISES TO KEEP YOU ON THE ADGE OF YOUR CHAIRS
ALL MDC MEN AND WOMEN OF INTERGRITY COME AND SUPPORT US.
Remember all proceeds to help are brothers and sisters being brutalised by Mugabes’ regime
COME 2 JUNE ALL ROADS WILL BE LEADING TO BEDFORD
FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT THE ABOVE AND BELOW
BEDFORD TEAM: Branch Chairperson- Jane 07765125146/ women’s chairperson Sihle 07852942215

FREE THEM NOW

Since February more than 600 MDC activists have been abducted, arrested, beaten and tortured by state agents. 150 of them amongst them President Tsvangirai, Mai Sekai Holland, Grace Kwinjeh, Nelson Chamisa, Lovemore Madhuku..... just to name a few, have sustained serious injuries as a result of this state orchestrated campaign to cripple MDC ahead of the elections. We have at least 32 key members currently incarcerated at Harare Remand Prison, facing totally fabricated and trumped-up charges designed to paralyse the party," Tendai Biti (MDC Secretary General) said at the launch of Free Them Now Campaign. Among those arrested is the MDC's elections chief, he said. "With the elections technically six months away, how do you expect the party to organize its campaign when its elections director is detained? We are institutionally crippled," Biti said.

The MDC plans to take the Free Them Now campaign to the African Commission for Human and People's Rights, now sitting in Ghana, and to the Southern African Development Community's Parliamentary Forum. He vowed the party would defy Mugabe's government, which has banned all rallies and protests in central Harare as well as opposition strongholds in the townships. "If they think they will cow us, they will not. The choice for Mugabe is simple: either you give us freedom or we fill all the prisons with our activists. We are prepared to pay the ultimate price until we get our freedom," Biti said.

While MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti admits progress on negotiations being brokered by the South African President Thabo Mbeki. Its difficult to see how we can have meaningful negotiations with Zanu Pf when they continue to abduct and arrest key party figures on trumped up charges in order to weaken our position.

The Dead Are No Loonger Respected in Zimbabwe

My apologies for not posting regularly as my blog had been locked by Google after a spammer tried to spam-link my blog to others with no connection to the issues discussed here. I could not access this blog myself for the purposes of posting as I was also locked out while Google investigated. I am back and a lot has been happening in Zimbabwe like abuses of Human Rights further degradation of MDC and its structures are so numerous to account for such that one feels as if a day has 25 hours not 24 as normal for others.

I managed to post about Mr Matongo's death, after the lockout you might have heard that Zimbabwe's armed police disrupted his funeral asking mourners to disperse as they were affecting the free flow of traffic. There is no dignity offered even at death for MDC leaders, its a trend which is ongoing in Zimbabwe. You can take cue from the death of Gift Tandare murdered by the police on March 11 2003, whose body was snatched by the CIO as mourners gathered at his wake and was subsequently buried by the state to prevent the ordinary people of Zimbabwe using his death as a focal point of insurrection against the dictatorship. In our culture the dead are revered, the dead are respected, there are things that cannot be done, like burying someone whom you have no biological relations to is considered taboo. That is a microscopic view of how low the thugs employed by the dictator purporting to be policeman they have stooped. How can police turn up with guns at someone's funeral.

The violence against ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe continues unabated, thousands continue to be abducted, arrested on trumped up charges to prevent day to day running of their affairs. At the same time Thabo Mbeki feels that he can swat the Zimbabwean problem like a fly. He feels by declaring elections free and fair he would solve the problem in my country he does not see the inherent problem like the atmosphere preceding the aforesaid elections and the constitution under which the election are to be contested. I see the same line of thought from political leaders and pundits alike its a matter of an election to be contested to them but is it just an election in a country where 90% of the population is unemployed, inflation at 4000% a world record, a country where for 20 hours there is no power, 1 person is infected by HIV every three minutes 564 a day, a country where almost 6 million people face starvation. These are not just numbers to alarm and cause despondency, its real people affected by these situations. So Mr Thabo Mbeki will have to look deeper beyond getting Zanu PF to talk to MDC and then a political election. What the people of Zimbabwe need now is a break from state sponsored violence, like the hunting down of opposition members and beating them up.

Mugabe A Martyr

The pan-African movement was an important movement in the continent’s recent history. The idea that Africans, not only in Africa but world-wide, would unite to wrest away the continent’s fortunes from European imperialists or Cold War-era superpowers in order to usher in a new, united Africa that acts on its own accord and benefits from its own actions is a truly noble thing.

MDC National Chairman Isaac Matongo Dies

A veteran trade unionist, recently MDC's National Chair, Isaac Matongo one of the founding fathers of the party, has died at the age of 60 from suspected heart failure at his home in Chisipite, Harare . He had a history of diabetes and blood pressure problems. Matongo is survived by his wife, eight children and 13 grandchildren. Mourners are gathered at No. 27-22 Crescent, Warren Park 1 in Harare. Burial arrangements released late Wednesday said he would be buried on Saturday at his farm near Renko mine in Masvingo. His body will lie in state at his Warren Park home on Thursday. The funeral cottage will then move on to Masvingo on Friday where his body will lie overnight at his farm.

MDC has lost a charismatic leader, its not only MDC's loss but Zimbabwe's, a burly and straight talking leader. One of the most popular leaders of MDC who was never afraid to mix and exchange views with everyone a truly reachable politician. He started his career in trade unionism as Vice-President of the National Engineering Workers’ Union (NEWU) and he went on to become Vice-President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), with Morgan Tsvangirai as Secretary-General and Gibson Sibanda as President. He also played a pivotal role in the formation of MDC at The Worker's Convention in 1999. Matongo will be remembered by activists in UK who conversed with him when he came officiate in the UK external assembly elections in August 2006. MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai was scheduled to visit UK on the 12th of May has had to postpone his visit because of the untimely death of Isaac Matongo.

Rest In Peace Isaac Matongo