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Home Front: Politix
Kamala Grew Up Around Terrorists - The untold story of Kamala's grandfather and her childhood in Africa.
2024-10-23
ZANU-PF.svg/200px-Flag_of_ZANU-PF.svg.png align="right" />[Front Page] On the last leg of her African tour, Vice President Kamala Harris paid a visit to an otherwise unremarkable office building in Zambia. Her staff and local embassy personnel had spent a great deal of time looking for it and everyone was hoping it was the right place.

Kamala, with her Jamaican and Indian roots, needed a tangible connection to Africa to win over African-American voters and convince them that she was one of them. And everyone settled on the office building as being the next best thing because it was the former spot of the building where she had once stayed as a little girl with her Indian mother on a visit to her grandfather.

President Hakainde Hichilema welcomed her as "a daughter of our own country, someone who spent time here in her early years."

Kamala responded by launching into a story about having visited "Zambia, Mr. President, as a young girl when my grandfather worked here" as "an advisor to Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda" to "serve as a director of relief measures and refugees."

The vice president then began singing the praises of Kaunda, a brutal socialist dictator allied with the Soviet Union, who had banned opposing political parties and ran as the only candidate for president until he was finally ousted, and praised Zambia’s "democracy". Kaunda, whom Kamala fondly recalled meeting with JFK and MLK "to discuss peaceful forms of protest" had demanded nuclear weapons from LBJ. Hichilema, who had narrowly survived being arrested by a previous regime, had nothing to say about Kamala’s fond memories of Zambian democracy.

Or the "peaceful forms of protest" carried on with nuclear missiles and terrorism.

But behind Kamala’s childhood time in Zambia and her grandfather’s work is a lot of blood, along with a horrifying and mostly forgotten story of terrorism, atrocities and mass murder.

P. V. Gopalan, Kamala’s grandfather, had been a member of India’s socialist Congress party which was aligned with the USSR. What "refugees" was he aiding in Zambia?

Gopalan was posted to Zambia from 1966 to 1969. Formerly known as Northern Rhodesia, Zambia played a key role in the genocidal terrorist campaign against what was known as Rhodesia before it fell to a brutal dictatorship and became known afterward as Zimbabwe.
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Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe's ruling party secures supermajority in Parliament
2024-02-07
Unexpectedly.
[AFRICANEWS] Zim-bob-we's ruling Zany-PF emerged winner of Saturday's (Feb.03) by-elections held in Mashonaland East province.

The party secured significant victories in several key constituencies, including Seke and Goromonzi South, and even achieved a clean sweep in the Marondera district.

When general elections were last held ZANU-PF was 10 seats short of the two-thirds majority in parliament, now after a series of disputed by-elections it has attained that goal.

Zanu PF now holds 190 seats in the National Assembly.

Securing this supermajority in the 280-member parliament, the party moves closer to changing the constitution if it wishes.

The election came amid a political crisis in the country which has been growing since the group of MPs with the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) had their seats declared vacant in October.

Just over two years at the helm of the Citizens Coalition for Change, opposition leader Nelson Chamisa announced on January 25 he was leaving the opposition party saying it has been "hijacked" by the ruling party.

Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe: Dozens of poll monitors arrested
2023-08-25
[AFRICANEWS] Zim-bob-we police said Thursday (Aug. 24) they'd arrested 41 workers for poll monitoring groups and seized their equipment including computers to tabulate the results of vote counting.

Votes are being collated after widespread delays in the southern African nation led to the extension of balloting to Thursday night at dozens of polling stations.

The arrested observers work with two accredited monitoring organizations — the Zim-bob-we Elections Support Network and the Election Resource Center — which deployed over 7,500 observers nationwide.

Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi accused the workers of being involved in "subversive and criminal activities" and "coordinating the alleged release of election results by some civic organizations."

The arrests, made during raids on various locations including a hotel, were criticized by the group Zim-bob-we Lawyers for Human Rights which said the workers were carrying out their mandate as accredited election observers.

The spokesperson for the main opposition party Citizens Coalition for Change, Charles Kwaramba, slammed a move aimed at barring observers from monitoring and broadcasting the truth about the election".

For democracy expert Nick Cheeseman, the arrests are intended "to prevent the parallel counting of votes" and the dissemination of "the clearest evidence to date that ZANU-PF thinks it has lost and has started to panick."

Zim-bob-we’s history of disputed elections has left many wary of official results. Nearly half of the respondents in a pre-election survey by Afrobarometer, a prominent research organization, said they feared "that the announced results will not reflect counted results."

Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe: Speculation grows about a 'Mnangagwa third term' ahead vote for second one
2023-08-22
[AFRICANEWS] Zim-bob-we's President Emmerson Mnangagwa is slated to pursue a second five-year term next week.**According to the constitution, this term should mark his final one.

However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach...
a portion of his supporters has already begun advocating for a constitutional change that would permit him to seek a third term—an idea to which he appears somewhat open.

In July, during a gathering of a Christian sect that supports him, Mnangagwa made a statement implying that continuous rule could be achieved through prayers at church.

This remark reinforced the perception that the transformation he promised when he took over from long-standing authoritarian leader Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win....
six years ago has not materialized.

Sections of the ruling ZANU-PF party, including the youth and women's wings, have also called for a constitutional amendment to extend his rule beyond the prescribed two terms.

This situation represents a significant shift for the 80-year-old leader.

After being considered a potential successor to Mugabe for years, Mnangagwa faced a period of exile when Mugabe appeared to be grooming his wife for succession in 2017.

Mnangagwa returned after a popular coup later that year, vowing to depart from Mugabe's repressive and isolationist rule.

Political analysts have noted that he is not so different from his predecessor.

"You have someone who has been a political understudy of Robert Mugabe so all the negative things you can talk about Zim-bob-wean politics, Mnagangwa has grown up with that system and so now that he is in power and he has the military behind him, he is going to use those bad, same tactics to hold onto and remain in power," said Edgar Githua, an International Relations, Conflict and Diplomacy expert at United States International University-Africa. "He will weaponize anything to remain in power," he added.

Dubbed "the Crocodile," Mnangagwa was previously associated with enforcing Mugabe's tough actions.

These actions included the North Korea
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
n-trained military brigade's 1980s massacre of around 20,000 Ndebele ethnic minority individuals in the Matabeleland region while Mnangagwa served as security minister.

He was also linked to a violent mostly peaceful crackdown on the opposition following Mugabe's loss to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008.

Despite this history, Mnangagwa initiated discussions about these past atrocities after becoming president and aimed to differentiate his administration from Mugabe's.

He made promises of compensating displaced white farmers, abolished a law mandating foreign business ownership be ceded to locals, and advocated for democracy.

He sought to restore relationships with Western countries, even applying for Zim-bob-we's reentry into the Commonwealth and engaging with international forums like the World Economic Forum.

Although some questioned whether Mnangagwa's rule would be different from the past, he managed to charm Western nations and investors.

Even the opposition, once critical of the ruling party showed some support by attending his inauguration.
Related:
Emmerson Mnangagwa: 2023-07-29 Putin offers Zimbabwe a presidential helicopter
Emmerson Mnangagwa: 2023-06-02 Zimbabwe: Freedoms threatened by 'terrible' new law
Emmerson Mnangagwa: 2021-06-06 Letter from Africa: How Zimbabwe is still haunted by Robert Mugabe
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe: Freedoms threatened by 'terrible' new law
2023-06-02

[AFRICANEWS] Zim-bob-we's parliament has barred criticism of the government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled in August.

According to reports, violations of the new law is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

The Criminal Law Code Amendment Bill, widely known as the "Patriotic Bill", contains a clause that criminalises "wilfully damaging the illusory sovereignty and national interest of Zim-bob-we", Rooters quoted in a report.

the law, passed late on Wednesday, was designed to punish citizens, civil society organizations and political adversaries of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

It has raised fears that the government could launch a crackdown on dissent ahead of the general election on Aug. 23, where President Emmerson Mnangagwa will be seeking a second term.

lawyer and pastor Nelson Chamisa, 45, who leads the newly formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) will be his main contender.

CCC spokesperson and lawyer, Fadzayi Mahere, described the law as "dangerous" and said it aimed at closing the democratic space ahead of elections.

"ZANU-PF has reduced our great nation into an outpost of tyranny," Mahere told Rooters.

Link


Home Front: Politix
Liz Cheney Aided in GOP Primary by Ad Agency Linked to Biden, BLM, Planned Parenthood
2022-05-09
[BREITBART] A left-wing political advertising agency has reportedly begun promoting Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) to Democrats in the Wyoming Republican primary.

The agency’s name is People First but was previously known as "Main Street One," according to the agency CEO’s LinkedIn page. The agency’s website indicates it is affiliated with far-left Democrat organizations, such as President Biden’s campaign arm, Planned Parenthood
...has received federal funding since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act. It is sometimes described as the gynecololgical wing of the Democratic party...
, and Black Lives Matter.

Under the agency’s former name, the pro-leftist group has received disbursements of hundreds of thousands of dollars from radical organizations, Federal Election Commission records show. Among those organizations are "Biden for President" and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Related:
Liz Cheney: 2022-05-07 Chuck Todd show gets demoted...
Liz Cheney: 2022-04-29 Swalwell: Republicans 'Tougher on Mickey Mouse than They Are on Russia'
Liz Cheney: 2022-04-24 Kiss of Death:Schiff sez Liz Cheney Is a 'Person of Great Courage and Conviction'
Related:
People First: 2016-09-12 Zimbabwe: Mugabe Dared to Kill Protesters
People First: 2016-03-02 Ex-VP Of Zimbabwe Launches Opposition Party Against ZANU-PF
People First: 2011-05-22 French protest upcoming G-8 summit
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe election violence: No closure for families two years on
2020-07-29
[Aljazeera] Harare, Zimbabwe - Allison Charles is still haunted by the image of her brother's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood.

"They just shot him like he was a dog and left his body on the street," she said.

Gavin Dean Charles, 48, was one of the six people killed in Zimbabwe's capital two years ago when soldiers opened fire on opposition supporters protesting against what they said was an attempt by the governing ZANU-PF party to steal tightly contested elections.

Many other demonstrators were wounded in the army clampdown in Harare's central business district on August 1, 2018, with some of the casualties shot from the back.

"I am still struggling to sleep at night and to come to terms with everything that has happened," said Charles. "I am taking anti-depressants now."

She is not the only one struggling to cope in the aftermath of the bloodshed.

"The death of my son still hurts, even now," said Maxwell Tauro, whose son, Challenge, was also killed on that day. "He was a good boy who was working in town and who was not politically active."
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe to be buried in 30 days, at new site
2019-09-14
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The burial of Zim-bob-we’s founding president, President Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win....
, will be delayed for a month until a special site can be built at the national Heroes’ Acre monument, a family front man said Friday, the latest turn in a dramatic tussle between his family and the country’s current leader, a once-trusted deputy who helped oust Mugabe from power.

The decision to build a new resting place for the ex-leader, who died at age 95 in Singapore last week, came after consultations with influential traditional chiefs, Mugabe’s nephew, Leo Mugabe, told news hounds. The announcement followed days of controversy over where he should be laid to rest, with Mugabe’s widow, Grace, insisting on a private burial rather than the elaborate state funeral planned by the government.

"The construction will take about 30 days to complete," Leo Mugabe said. "The burial will not take place until it is finished." He said Mugabe’s body would be preserved until then.

The Heroes’ Acre monument is reserved for brass hats of Zim-bob-we’s ruling ZANU-PF party who contributed to ending white colonial rule. Mugabe oversaw its construction with North Korea
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
n architects atop a prominent hill, featuring a towering sculpture of guerrilla fighters. There are about 130 national heroes buried there, each on a flat surface marked by simple black marble slabs. Mugabe’s first wife, Sally, is buried there and a space next to her had been reserved for Mugabe.

But Leo Mugabe said the dear departed leader will not be buried next to his first wife. The Mugabe family and the traditional chiefs have apparently decided that a special site, elevated above the other graves, should be created for the country’s founding leader.

The wrangle over the burial highlighted the lasting acrimony between President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who helped oust Mugabe in 2017, and Mugabe’s widow, Grace, and other family members. Mnangagwa met with them to try to resolve the burial dispute and on Thursday said his government would respect the family’s wishes, adding they have "the full support of the government."

Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Don Smilzo looked for an avenue of escape. The only window opened a hundred feet above the moat. The nearest of the hired assassins hold a bloody axe.
The window was looking better all the time....

Mugabe’s body was on view at Rufaro Stadium for a second day Friday. A stampede on Thursday injured several people trying to view it.

Government officials earlier said that Mugabe would be given a state burial Sunday at Heroes’ Acre accompanied by a 21-gun salute, but Leo Mugabe said that will not happen.

Related:
Robert Mugabe: 2019-09-06 Comrade Robert
Robert Mugabe: 2019-08-27 U.S. Increasingly Disappointed With Zimbabwe Government: U.S. Official
Robert Mugabe: 2019-05-03 Persecution of Christians is modern-day 'genocide', UK Foreign Secretary blames 'political correctness'
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Post-Mugabe euphoria fades with Zimbabwe’s elections
2018-08-07
[DAWN] When Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win....
’s brutal rule finally came to an end, millions in Zim-bob-we dreamed of a brighter future ‐ but many fear his freshly elected former ally Emmerson Mnangagwa will simply offer more of the same.

In a Harare store specialising in decorative copper products, manager Christine said many Zim-bob-weans "want to run away" after a deadly crackdown on protesters alleging rigging in the first elections since Mugabe’s ouster last year.

"It’s really hard having your friends, having your relatives being shot while they are minding their own business," she said.

Mnangagwa, chosen to lead the ruling ZANU-PF party after the military intervention that brought down Mugabe, was declared the winner Friday with 50.8 per cent of the vote. It was just enough to avoid a run-off round with opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, who has rejected the results as fraudulent and vowed a legal challenge.

Mnangagwa has hailed the election as a fresh start for Zim-bob-we after years of repression and economic mismanagement under Mugabe.

His promise to entice back investors is appealing in a country with wrecked public services, mass poverty and mass unemployment.

But while Mnangagwa has promised an investigation into the post-election killings, rights groups worry the crackdown was a sign of more Mugabe-style repression to come.

"The same soldiers who removed Mugabe and we celebrated are now being sent to kill people after we voted," said Douglas Kumire, whose brother Ishmael was one of the six people killed.

On the night after Mnangagwa’s victory, Christine said she saw troops beating civilians in Chitungwiza, a dormitory town south of Harare. "I don’t even know why they were beating those people ‐ they haven’t done anything wrong," she said.

"It was the soldiers, they are still out there. We are even scared of going out." A woman passing by the shop, who said one of her domestic staff lived in the town, was aghast at news of the beatings.

"It’s horrible. But I didn’t think this sort of thing would end when Mugabe went, no," said the pensioner, who declined to be named.

For Christine, Mnangagwa ‐ nicknamed "The Crocodile" ‐ is "the most dangerous one", perhaps more so than Mugabe.

"When he came, people knew it was the change of the bus driver ‐ but the bus was the same," she said.

Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe opposition in court over post-vote violence
2018-08-06
[DAWN] Members of Zimbabwe’s defeated opposition party appeared in court on Saturday on violence charges, a day after President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared winner of the historic first elections following the downfall of Robert Mugabe.
Bob was supporting MDC and Chamisa in this election.
Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe ally, has called for unity after presidential rival Nelson Chamisa rejected the results, insisting he was the real winner of an election marred by a deadly crackdown on opposition supporters.

At least six people died after troops in the capital Harare opened fire on demonstrators on Wednesday, sparking an international outcry and raising grim memories of post-election violence under Mugabe’s repressive rule.

Mnangagwa has accused Chamisa’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of fomenting the unrest, but said he would set up an independent commission to investigate the killings.

The 24 opposition members appearing in court were charged with “public violence” during the protests, accused of smashing windows at offices of the ruling ZANU-PF party and setting fire to vehicles.

Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe opposition angry with delay of poll results
2018-08-01
[PRESSTV] Zim-bob-we's opposition accused the election commission on Tuesday of deliberately delaying results of this week's vote to favor the ruling party, reporting irregularities in the first poll since the removal of Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win....
in a November coup.

Even though the election passed off peacefully, several water cannon trucks patrolled outside the central Harare headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as its red-shirted supporters danced in the streets.

Some local results from parallel parliamentary elections have been declared but the Zim-bob-we Electoral Commission (ZEC) has yet to produce any figures from Monday's presidential vote.

ZEC chief Priscilla Chigumba said the presidential election result may not be ready until Saturday.

Former MDC finance minister Tendai Biti and ZESN, the main domestic election monitor, said one in five polling stations - more than 2,000 in all - had not physically posted tallies on their doors, as required by law.

That omission gave room for the ZEC, which ZESN and the opposition have accused of bias, to manipulate the results in favor of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party, Biti said.

"There is a deliberate delay in formally announcing results," Biti told a news conference, characterizing it as "interference with the people's will."

ZESN and other civil society groups were preparing a legal challenge to force the results into the open, Biti said.

ZEC said there was no rigging or cheating in the vote, whose credibility is vital in Zim-bob-we's attempts to emerge from the pariah status and economic decay into which it sank in the latter half of Mugabe's nearly four decades in charge.

However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
ZEC did not explain the failure by the polling stations to post results.

The poll is a two-horse race between 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a long-serving security chief who took over after Mugabe's removal, and 40-year-old MDC leader Nelson Chamisa.

Link


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe elections: Mnangagwa and Chamisa hold final rallies
2018-07-29
[Al Jazeera] President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to build an "open" and "prosperous" Zim-bob-we on the last day of election campaigning, just as his closest challenger Nelson Chamisa told supporters that "victory was certain".

Zim-bob-weans will head to the polls on Monday in the first election in nearly four decades where the name of long-time leader Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win....
will not be on the ballot form.

A total of 23 presidential hopefuls are vying for Zim-bob-we's top seat. The results are expected to be released by August 4. If no candidate wins 50 percent plus one of the votes, a runoff will be held on September 8.

As campaigning drew to a close on Saturday, Mnangagwa, of the ruling ZANU-PF party, and Chamisa, of the main opposition MDC alliance, held rival rallies in front of enthusiastic crowds in the capital, Harare.

Link



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