Many of them had small babies which were subjected to the cold night air.

ends intro

The returnees, mostly deported from Botswana, were accommodated at a college in Bulawayo for an obligatory 21 quarantine against COVID 19.

When they were declared coronavirus-free, public busses were hired to transport them home.

Deputy Public Services Minister Lovemore Matuke says some of the returnees refused to board the busses, so they were given bus fare.

The returnees say they were ordered immediately to vacate the dormitories and the blankets they’d been given were taken.

Their pleas to be allowed to remain overnight until their busses arrived today were ignored.

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Jean-Jacques Cornish, who covered the Lancaster House Conference that secured him the Zimbabwe Presidency, recalls the man who’s early successes where overshadowed by the ruination caused by his clinging to power.

As president, Robert Mugabe liked to invite me to state house in Harare to recall the Lancaster House conference in London, where he stamped his authority to become Zimbabwe’s first democratically elected leader.

He was a great success for more than a decade  in this role – persuading some of South Africa’s apartheid leaders that a majority government in Africa could work.

But when he used  the land grab to stave off political opposition, he wrecked  his country’s agriculture and economy turning the region’s bread basket into a basket case.

From there it was all downhill for Zimbabwe. 

The post Robert Mugabe dies, leaving mixed legacy appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

There have been uniformly respectful official tributes from the neighbours of  ousted Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe who has died in Singapore  aged 95.

“South Africans join the people and government of Zimbabwe in mourning the passing of a liberation fighter and champion of Africa’s cause against colonialism,” says South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“Under President Mugabe’s leadership, Zimbabwe’s sustained and valiant struggle against colonialism  inspired our own struggle against apartheid and built in us the hope that one day South Africa too would be free.”

Namibian President Hage Geingob says: “ Comrade Mugabe was an outstanding revolutionary, a tenacious freedom fighter and a dedicated Pan Africanist.

“He made enormous sacrifices in the struggle against injustice and the liberation of Southern Africa from racial subjugation and colonial oppression.

“As Namibians we owe President Mugabe  deep sense of gratitude for his immense and selfless contribution to the liberation of our country. ”     

I first met Mugabe  in 1975 as a United Nations correspondent covering a conference in Maputo supporting the  liberation  movements in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.

His passionate call for the people of those countries to avoid the mistakes  that Mozambique had made in driving out white farmers and entrepreneurs made him one of the most impressive liberation leaders I had encountered.

Mugabe  took a tough line at the Lancaster House Conference three years later, repeatedly telling his British hosts that with power awaiting him, he did not need to be negotiating.

To no-one’s great surprise, Mugabe won a landslide victory in Zimbabwe’s first democratic election.

His first years in that job were a resounding success.

Apartheid ministers I  spoke to in Pretoria in  the  mid eighties said if Mugabe was the face of majority rule in the region, they could deal with it.

But then came the massacre of thousands of Joshua Nkomo’s supporters in Matabeleland backed by North Korean special forces.

When he lost a constitutional referendum and was  in danger of losing an election to the Movement For Democratic Change, Mugabe attempted to regain support by offering Zimbabweans land.

This he seized from whites farmers. He intimidated and even killed those resisting, driving at least 100 black workers off the land with every white farmer he dispossessed.

The policy lost him British government support and drove Zimbabwe into agricultural collapse and a downward economic spiral from which it has yet to emerge.

At one point inflation was 200 000 000 percent as the region’s bread basket, that once exported food to its neighbours, became the basket case dependent on emergency food aid.

Former anti-apartheid activist and British Foreign Office Minister Lord Peter Hain calls Mugabe a classical case of a liberation leader who betrayed the very values for which he was imprisoned and tortured.

“History will judge Robert Mugabe very harshly,” says Lord Hain.

“We were delighted when he came to power ending the white racist rebel government of Ian Smith. He talked of reconciliation and the values we had all be fighting for,” he says.

“Sadly he deteriorated into leading a corrupt regime that flouted human rights and the rule of law.”

Lord Hain advocated slapping sanctions on Mugabe’s Zanu PF government – which are still in placef- or stealing elections and violating human rights.  

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He calls the ousted Zimbabwe president a classical example of  a liberator who betrayed the values of the struggle he championed.

Lord Hain says he does not feel grief about Robert Mugabe’s death in Singapore at the age of 95.

“I can’t say that I’m sorry because he betrayed every one of those values of the freedom struggle of democracy, human rights and social justice and came to preside over a corrupt regime,” he said.

He recalls how during meeting in London in 1999, Mugabe patted him on the knee and called him “one of us” for his anti-apartheid activism.

The following day he viscously attacked then then British Minister blaming him for a gay rights activist making a citizen’s arrest on Mugabe for his notorious homophobia.

Lord Hain went on to advocate sanctions against Mugabe for his human rights abuses.

The post Lord Peter Hain says history will judge Robert Mugabe harshly appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The United States joined Zimbabwe, the world’s largest exporter of elephants,

in voting against the measure that will severely restrict trade in this endangered species.

Conservationists are disappointed that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES, has left a loophole for the sale of baby elephants by Zimbabwe and Botswana to approved destinations but only with international approval.

Zimbabwe’s sold more than 100 elephant calves in the past seven years mostly to Chinese zoos.

In the fierce debate lasting several days, Zimbabwean delegates unsuccessfully argued that the healthy state of their elephant population made any restrictions on their selling the animals unnecessary.

The post CITES bans capture of baby elephants for sale abroad appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

However Defense Minister Oppah Muchinguri, who received the cheque in Harare yesterday sent her visitor Minister  of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu home with a list of further requirements.

ends intro

Zimbabwe’s Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri says  cyclone Idai is a stark warning about the realities of climate change and urges SADC countries to beef up their early warning systems so as never to be caught out again.

She tells foreign minister Lindiwe Sisulu it is encouraging  to have big-hearted and generous friends.

(take in the Oppah clip here)

The minister lists water purification tablets, building material and temporary bridges as Zimbabwe’s immediate needs.

The post Zimbabwe says thanks, but we need more appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Their meeting in Harare today follows Washington’s  year-long extension of punitive measures against Mnangagwa and some of his party colleagues for posing a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

The communique at the end of the binational commission between Zimbabwe and South Africa  says the adverse effects of sanctions slapped on Robert Mugabe’s government for stealing elections and violating human rights has been far-reaching across Zimbabwe’s political and socio-economic spectrums.

The presidents agreed on the important of boosting trade and investment to driven the strategic relationship between the  Southern African neighbours. 

They expressed their condolences to the families of those who died in last Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash near Addis Ababa.

The post Presidents call for an end to sanctions against Zimbabwe appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The move by President Donald Trump is a setback for efforts by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the regional grouping SADC to lift the punitive measures they say are hamstringing Zimbabwe’s economic recovery.

Washington says Zimbabwe continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. foreign policy.

So the sanctions imposed 15 years ago on more than 100 individuals and instances for human rights abuses are extended for another year.

Ridiculous, counters President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is among those personally targeted by the sanctions.

Zimbabwe has no history of aggression.

He had expected his re-engagement with the West and other warm gestures from Harare, to be reciprocated.

The post Mnangagwa deplores extension of US sanctions against Zimbabwe appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The US President’s envoy to Harare has, meanwhile, spelled out how to end sanctions Washington slapped on Zimbabwe 16 years ago.

In New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Zimbabwe’s President  Emmerson Mnangagwa tells reporters he’s repeated his offer to his US counterpart Donald Trump of land at Victoria Falls to build a golf course.

He says he first made the offer at the Davos summit earlier this year.

Trump’s made no sign of taking it up.

However his ambassador to Harare Brian Nichols is adamant the new Zimbabwe administration is all talk and not action and US sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe for gross human rights violations and corruption  in 2002 will stay in place until there is a demonstrable change in in approach.  

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They’re stying the unexplained deaths of these iconic trees that appear to be growing upside down with their roots heading for the sky

ends intro

Baobabs are the oldest angiosperms or flowering plants

Alarm bells started ringing when the Zimbabwe tree named Panke, which was more than 2 400 year old, started dying eight years ago 

Scientists have been studying  baobabs in detail  since since 2005

Since then, nine of the 13 oldest baobabs and five of the six largest have died.

They see no indication of an epidemic such as that which killed Dutch elms in Europe 40 years ago.

They suspect global warming, but admit they will have to study this very carefully.

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