Replies

Stuffed ballot boxes found as Mugabe begins stealing poll--[Excerpt] THE discovery of ballot boxes stuffed with votes for Robert Mugabe spilling out of a police car involved in a crash gave the last day of campaigning in Zimbabwe's presidential election an almost comic air.

But few of the country's 5,607,812 registered voters were laughing as they prepared to go to the polls today after an election campaign that will be remembered as one of Africa's most murderous and turbulent.

Forty polling agents for the opposition have been arrested, electoral rules favourable to the government have been re-imposed - despite being deemed unconstitutional by the courts - and a shambolic voters' roll was found to place up to half of the electorate outside their districts.

The number of polling stations has been halved in urban areas, which support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and increased in rural areas where the ruling Zanu-PF is supported. Tens of thousands will be unable to vote.

So cruel were the mobs unleashed by Mr Mugabe to bring voters in line that one man was beaten to death by supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party simply because his house had decorative mud hand-prints on the walls.

An open hand is the emblem of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and this was enough to cost James Sibanda his life. The mob never stopped to ask his political affiliation. He was a lifelong supporter of Mr Mugabe. [End Excerpt]

__________________________________________________________________

South Africa: Mbeki attacks 'racist' Blair--[Excerpt] PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki of South Africa made a veiled but unprecedented racial attack on Tony Blair yesterday, inviting "white supremacists" to leave the Commonwealth if they disagreed with its decision to delay sanctions against Zimbabwe.

His comments, on the eve of Zimbabwe's presidential elections, will be seen as the equivalent of South Africa casting its vote in favour of Robert Mugabe. This is despite wholesale intimidation and the rigging of the election by Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party.

Mr Mbeki stopped short of naming names. But his words amounted to an implicit denunciation of Mr Blair and New Zealand's prime minister, Helen Clark.

Both criticised the Commonwealth's refusal to suspend Zimbabwe immediately at the organisation's summit in Australia last week. Mr Mbeki said the outcry reflected "a stubborn and arrogant mindset [that] at all times the white world must lead".

His views are particularly important because of South Africa's influence on its neighbour and Mr Mbeki's central role in the trio of Commonwealth leaders who will decide what action to take against Zimbabwe after the elections. [End Excerpt]

___________________________________________________________________

After two decades of Mugabe domination, a presidential challenger for Zimbabwe [Excerpt] "We can't feed our children on history. Mugabe is buried in history. Tsvangirai is for future hope," she said.

But opposition politics can be dangerous in Zimbabwe. In 1999, attackers suspected of being ruling party militants assaulted Tsvangirai and tried to hurl him out of a 10th floor window. But the screams of loyal staff forced the assailants to flee, said Gwiyo. Tsvangirai now rides in an armor-plated car.

The trade union federation, which represents 90 percent of organized labor, was closely aligned to black nationalist forces fighting white domination in the colonial era, and remained in alliance with Mugabe's party after independence.

Tsvangirai broke that alliance, and "Once that was achieved, the labor movement had to redefine itself and concentrate on improving workers' lives and conditions," said Gibson Sibanda, former head of the railroad workers union, now an opposition lawmaker.

The federation under Tsvangirai became increasingly hostile to the government over economic policies and corruption that led to record unemployment, inflation and an aid and investment freeze. "We were fighting to work, to earn a living and bring up our families," Sibanda said.

Tsvangirai spent six weeks in jail in 1989 on allegations he spied for apartheid-ruled South Africa against Mugabe's government.

Violent farm seizures and factory occupations by Mugabe loyalists that began after the defeat of the referendum drove thousands of people from homes and jobs, sealing the labor movement's schism with the government, Sibanda said.

Tsvangirai, who turns 50 on Sunday, began working as a laborer in a textile factory at age 20. Two years later he joined a nickel mine, rising to general foreman and branch chairman of the Associated Mine workers union, the nation's largest labor group of which he became deputy head in 1985 before his election as federation secretary general in 1988. He is married to his wife of 24 years, Susan, and has six children [End Excerpt]