http://news.yahoo.com
Fri Apr 10, 7:00 am ET
HARARE (AFP) -
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has put a top ally in charge
of
telecommunications after a dispute over control of the key industry
involving a longtime opposition figure, state media said Friday.
The
Herald newspaper said the department would fall under the ministry of
transport, communications and infrastructure development headed by Nicholas
Goche, a top aide to Mugabe.
Goche was part of the negotiating team
to form a power-sharing government
with the main opposition.
The move
follows a dispute between information and communication technology
minister
Nelson Chamisa and information and publicity minister Webster Shamu
over
control of the telecommunications industry.
Chamisa has been spokesman
for the longtime opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), which has
formed a power-sharing government with
Mugabe's ZANU-PF.
Zimbabwe's
main political rivals formed a power-sharing government in
February to ease
tensions in the aftermath of disputed presidential polls
and tackle a deep
economic crisis.
Although the parties signed the agreement to form a
government in September
last year, its formation was delayed as the parties
haggled over the
allocation of key cabinet ministries including home affairs
and finance.
A week after their appointment, ministers Chamisa and Shamu
clashed over the
control of the key telecommunications industry.
http://www.nehandaradio.com
10 April 2009
By Denford
Magora
These are the two men who have been humiliated by Mugabe in the
last two
days. Day before yesterday, it Tendai Biti who was forced to eat
humble pie
and live with Gideon Gono. Yesterday, it was Nelson Chamisa who
was stripped
of all the most important elements of his
ministry.
There really is no other way to put it: Robert Mugabe today
essentially
disemboweled Nelson Chamisa, gutting his ministry into a shell
and hiving
off Telephone and cellphone companies and their regulatory bodies
to a ZANU
PF heavyweight minister.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
is being systematically cut down to size by
President Robert
Mugabe.
Mugabe quietly announced the "redefining" of the Ministry of
Information and
Communication Technology, which Nelson Chamisa is in charge
of. He sent the
Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Mugabe is in charge
of cabinet while
Tsvangirai is in charge of the Council of Ministers), to
tell the ministers
how their turfs were now defined.
You will recall
that Chamisa clashed with Webster Shamu, the ZANU PF
minister at the
Ministry of Information and Publicity when both men tried to
address workers
at the cellphone company owned by government, NetOne.
Immediately after
this, Permanent Secretaries were also announced.
Prime Minister
Tsvangirai called a press conference at which he declared the
appointments
null and void. He also announced at the same press conference
that he was
going to set out the areas of contention in the ministries of
communication.
Tsvangirai also expressly said the government-owned
parastatals would fall
under Chamisa.
In fact, Tsvangirai also announced that it was his job to
define the job
descriptions of cabinet ministers and said this is exactly
what he was going
to do.This, the Prime Minister has repeated on at least
three separate
occasions.
He did no such thing, obviously. Mugabe has
once again asserted his
authority over the Prime Minister. He himself
decided to take the Department
of Communications away from Nelson Chamisa,
the MDC minister of Information
and Communication Technology.
In
essence, by taking this bit away from him, Mugabe has taken TelOne, the
phone company, Netone, the cellphone company and the regulating bodies for
the communication industry out of the ambit of the MDC.
Which means
that Nelson Chamisa is now a minister in charge of shops that
sell
cellphones, phone shops and computer shops. Even the matter of the
Internet
has now been taken out of his hands.
And no, Mugabe has not given the
Department of Communications to Webster
Shamu, the ZANU PF communications
minister. It goes instead to a heavyweight
in ZANU PF, Nicholas Goche, who
was one of the ZANU PF negotiators in the
talks that led to the formation of
this government.
Goche is the minister of Transport, Communication and
Infrastructure
Development.
Do you now understand that we have three
ministers in charge of essentially
the one industry. Each of them gets a US
dollar salary, a Mercedes Benz,
unlimited fuel allocation, an office,
secretary and staff, all with their
own running costs.
Jobs were
indeed created for the boys. But we wander....
Back to this story, this
disemboweling of Nelson Chamisa. It goes back again
to the issue of control,
power. That is what this government is preoccupied
with while this country
burns, while no water flows through taps, while
cholera roams the
rubbish-strewn streets of our cities like The Grim Reaper,
while the health
system collapses.
Mugabe was never going to allow the instruments of
eavesdropping,
wiretapping and spying fall into the hands of the MDC. They
are a junior
partner and had to be put in their place.
And all of a
sudden, the Prime Minister is quiet. He did brief his
spokesman, James
Maridadi on the position of his office today, in case the
media asked. That
position is that, "there has to be give and take, in the
spirit of
inclusivity." You will almost exactly these words when the MDC
justifies its
capitulation yet again.
This disemboweling of Nelson Chamisa is only a
chapter in the book that is
being written now as it is lived. There is still
the little matter of
Permanent Secretaries to come. And then
some.
That score now reads: Robert Mugabe 2 Morgan Tsvangirai
0
With all this going on, the Prime Minister is satisfied enough with his
role
to want to make the arrangement permanent, making deals with Robert
Mugabe
to divide this country like their cake?
http://www.hararetribune.com
Friday, 10 April
2009 18:55 Thomas Shumba
Hours after it was revealed that his powers
as Minister of Information
Communication Technology have been handed over to
a ZANU-PF cadre Nicholas
Goche by Mugabe, the MDC-M's Nelson Chamisa has
said Mugabe doesn't have
the authority to strip of his ministerial
powers.
Chimasa said that "Mugabe does not have those powers, those
powers in the
inclusive government arrangement lie with the three
principals," referring
to Mugabe, Tsvangirai and the Prof. Mutambara who
jointly form the head of
the inclusive govt.
A shocked Chamisa also
said that the three principals "have not advised me
that I have been demoted
or that my ministry has been disbanded as I read in
The Herald." He
dismissed the Herald report that said he been demoted as a
joke.
"I
will not take things from The Herald, which is notorious for telling
lies,
so maybe its just a way of misleading people," Chamisa said.
Reports had
indicated that Mugabe had expanded the Ministry of Transport and
Infrastructure Development to include the Department of Communications and
that the new portfolio would now become the Ministry of Transport,
Communication and Infrastructural Development under Minister Nicholas
Goche.
The newly created ministry took over more than 90% of the
functions of
Chamisa's ministry, leading to observations by Zimbabweans that
Chamisa had
been effectively demoted.
ZANU-PF insiders have said that
Chamisa will now only be in charge of
government software
needs.
Chamisa said he will only hand over his ministerial functions to
Goche if
the other two inclusive govt. principals, Tsvangirai and the Prof.
Mutambara, told him to do so.
However, the Harare Tribune heard that
Tsvangirai was unlikely to agree to
Mugabe's demotion of Chamisa, setting
the stage for another round of
confusion in the inclusive govt. If
Tsvangirai were to agree to Chamisa's
demotion, the MDC would be cut off
from anything to do with information
dissemination as ZANU-PF will be in
charge of ZBC to telephones.
In handing over more powers to Goche, Mugabe
was responding to pressure from
ZANU-PF hardliners who told him that it was
a blunder to leave the MDC in
charge of communications in the country. In
order to safeguard ZANU-PF's
position in the 2011 elections, it was
necessary to stay in charge of the
information ministry but of the
commutations portfolio also, ZANU-PF cronies
led by George Charamba told
him.
http://www.zimtelegraph.com
By COLIN MADZIVA
Published:
Saturday, April 11, 2009
What is Chamisa's Ministry Again?I could be
wrong but this is what I see.
Honorable Chamisa you are fired! Sorry but
that's what Mugabe is about.
If they can not fire you they will keep you
but they will make sure that you
are irrelevant. MDC this is the time to
sit-down and pull out the drawing
board.
The GNU is already on life
support. I am still wondering why is it so hard
to see that the GNU does not
work.
Was the Prime Minister consulted in the firing of Mr Chamisa? So
what is
important is for MDC-T to loudly condemn the illegal sanctions while
they
are being sidelined left and right?
Every ministry that is
considered "USEFUL" or "INFLUENTIIAL" is under
ZANU-PF. We might want to
sugarcoat the truth but just look at it.
Mining, Defense and Security,
Information, Agriculture, Lands, Justice and
Transport are all under
ZANU-Pf. One could argue that MDC has Industry and
Commerce, Education but
don't forget Education is divided into two where
ZANU-Pf has the bigger
chunk.
Industry is ZANU-Pf by default everybody knows that. The one that
MDC-T can
claim their influence is Finance but do not forget the Doctor of
fuzzy Maths
is the man running the show.
So what is MDC doing in the
GNU? The answer is very simple, making sure that
Mugabe sees another day in
office.
If MDC-T is full of western puppets how in the hell does Mugabe
share the
same platform with them? Now we know why, he wants sanctions
lifted so he
and his cronies can go shopping in the western malls. So who is
a puppet?
It is not too late to dump this convenient marriage and do the
right thing.
What MDC really needed was two months and ZANU-Pf was done.
Elections were
going to be called early and the international community
including SADC were
going to monitor the elections not ZANU-Pf picked
observers.
Here we are MDC is doing the government work while ZANU-Pf is
enjoying the
benefits. Why is it so difficult to see that MDC is being used?
Please take
this move by Mugabe as a warning of things to come.
MDC
activists are still in police custody while the violence perpetrators
like
Joseph Chinotimba and the murderers like Mwale are free but all parties
are
claiming to have made some progress.
I thought one conditions of getting
into this deal was the release of all
political prisoners. If they are still
in prison doesn't that mean to say
the deal is not working?
One by
one MDC you are going to be sidelined and then find yourself
cornered,
that's how Mugabe and gang operates.
Was Roy Benett sworn into office?
The next we will hear is Biti is in police
custody facing death because he
failed to pay civil servants.
Don't forget he still has a case to answer.
MDC wake up!!
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/minister30.19667.html
By Msekiwa Makwanya
Posted to the
web 05/04/2009 23:03:28
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's attempt to divorce telecoms
from the Information
Communication Technology Ministry (read) has no
rationale, as much as it has
no precedent in the modern world.
The
debate over whether or not Nelson Chamisa, the ICT Minister, should be
in
charge of the telecoms sector is a sheer waste of time and energy, and
certainly one that does not require arbitration because the answer is in the
dictionary.
The issue requires President Mugabe's advisors to visit
the free
encyclopedia, Wikipedia, for the definition of Information
Communication
Technology (ICT).
Minister Chamisa can draw comfort
from the fact that one of his principals,
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara, is a rocket scientist who is more
than capable of educating
President Mugabe on ICT.
According to Wikipedia the term is sometimes
used in preference to
Information Technology (IT), particularly in two
communities: education and
government.
In the common usage it is
often assumed that ICT is synonymous with IT; ICT
in fact encompasses any
medium to record information (magnetic disk/tape,
optical disks (CD/DVD),
flash memory etc. and arguably also paper records);
technology for
broadcasting information - radio, television; and technology
for
communicating through voice and sound or images - microphone, camera,
loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones.
ICT includes the wide
variety of computing hardware (PCs, servers,
mainframes, networked storage),
the rapidly developing personal hardware
market comprising mobile phones,
personal devices, MP3 players, and much
more; the full gamut of application
software from the smallest
home-developed spreadsheet to the largest
enterprise packages and online
software services; and the hardware and
software needed to operate networks
for transmission of information, again
ranging from a home network to the
largest global private networks operated
by major commercial enterprises
and, of course, the internet. Thus, "ICT"
makes more explicit that
technologies such as broadcasting and wireless
mobile telecommunications are
included.
The above definition makes it
clear what ICT is and what it is not.
The current unnecessary dispute
over the ICT ministry gives credence to the
MDC's concerns that some of the
ministries were created to give the party
"useless" posts. For if Chamisa
loses a function that is at the heart of his
ministry, how can he be taken
seriously?
However, as the late Eddison Zvobgo once observed, you do not
reduce great
minds by giving them small or meaningless tasks.
The
controversy has some unintended consequences -- by drawing attention to
the
ICT Ministry, it will help to raise the profile of and a better
understanding of ICT.
The MDC must fight tooth and nail this brazen
attempt at a public castration
of a minister by President Robert
Mugabe.
http://www.voanews.com
By VOA
News
10 April 2009
Top aides to Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe are being blamed for a new
wave of violence, coinciding with the
formation of the country's
power-sharing government.
The New York
Times newspaper reported Friday some of Mr. Mugabe's aides are
behind recent
abductions of dozens of human rights and opposition activists
in a bid to
gain their own amnesty for crimes they committed during recent
election
campaigns.
The report quoted unnamed members of Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF
party as making
the allegations.
In a VOA interview Friday, the
ZANU-PF chief parliamentary whip Joram Gumbo
denied reports hardliners in
his party wanted to destabilize the unity
government. He said nobody forced
ZANU-PF to join the government, and that
the party is free to leave if it
wanted to.
The power-sharing government has been off to a shaky start
since being
formed in February after months of
negotiations.
Thursday, VOA's Zimbabwe service reported cabinet members
belonging to
ZANU-PF and top Mugabe aides had formed a group calling itself
the Social
Revolutionary Council. The hardline group is said to be behind
new invasions
of white-owned commercial farms.
President Mugabe has
repeatedly said farm takeovers should continue as part
of a massive land
redistribution program, but his new prime minister, Morgan
Tsvangirai,
opposes them, and says anyone seizing land should be arrested.
Another
new controversy is Mr. Mugabe's decision to put the
telecommunications
industry under the control of the ministry of transport,
communications and
infrastructure development.
That ministry is headed by a Mugabe ally
Nicholas Goche.
The move followed a dispute between Tsvangirai ally
Nelson Chamisa, who is
information and communication technology minister and
the ZANU-PF's
Information and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu, with both
insisting the
telecommunications sector was under their control.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=14958
April 10, 2009
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO- Digby Nesbit, a Chiredzi commercial farmer and
businessman whose
farm has been invaded in a fresh wave of invasions, has
demanded US$2,1
million from the state for developments he made on the
property.
Nesbit made the demand as his trial for failing to vacate the
property
continued at the Chiredzi magistrate courts on Thursday. He was
responding
to questions from the state during the trial.
Nesbit,
whose farm was invaded by senior Assistant Commissioner Edmore
Veterai, said
he was not resisting any moves to leave but would only do so
after being
paid US$2,1 million for the developments he made on the farm.
"I made
developments to the tune of US$2,1 million on the property and would
leave
the farm once the money is paid to me as compensation by the state,"
said
Nesbit.
"In addition to developments I made on the farm, if I am to leave
my
machinery, then the state has to pay me before I leave."
Chiredzi
magistrate Enias Magate postponed the case to next week as the
trial which
has attracted a lot of attention here continues.
Nesbit is represented by
Rodney Makausi of Chihambakwe, Makonese law firm
while chief law officer
Tendai Zvekare is leading the prosecution.
At least seven commercial
farmers based in the South Eastern Lowveld, the
sugar cane greenbelt of the
country, await prosecution after they allegedly
refused to vacate their
farms which have been acquired by the state.
The co-minister of Home
Affairs Giles Mutsekwa has been quoted as saying the
issue of fresh farm
invasions is complex as the invaders are reported to
have in their
possession letters written by the Ministry of Lands to offer
them the
farms.
"We are at the moment trying to establish the authenticity of
these letters
before we effect any arrest," said Mutsekwa.
"We are
working with the Ministry of Lands to verify these offer letters and
then we
will go on to arrest people who are on the land illegally."
The supreme
court of Zimbabwe last week ruled that the prosecution of white
farmers who
are refusing to vacate their acquired properties was lawful.
Meanwhile,
three senior Zanu-PF officials have been named as the main
culprits leading
the terror campaign aimed at evicting the remaining
commercial
farmers.
The president of the Council of Chiefs , Chief Fortune
Charumbira, former
Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial chairman retired major Alex
Mudavanhu and former
Masvingo provincial chairman of the war veterans Isaiah
Muzenda are said to
be leading the campaign.
Charumbira, who already
owns Acton Farm on the outskirts of Masvingo, is
bracing to take over
Mitchel Farm owned by Antony Mitchel, while Mudavanhu
chased away a farmer
named only as Sparrow and has already shared the
property with
Muzenda.
The property formerly owned by Sparrow is a conservancy with a
lot of wild
animals, among them lions.
Sources within the police said
they had received information linking the
three to the campaign.
"We
have received several reports about Charumbira , Mudavanhu and Muzenda
leading the terror campaign but we cannot arrest them since the whole issue
is political," said a senior police officer at Masvingo Central Police
Station .
"You know it very well."
Although Charumbira could
not be reached for comment Friday, Mudavanhu and
Muzenda confirmed their
occupation of Sparrow's property.
"The farm is now ours," said Mudavanhu
"What is now left is to take over the
farm house."
Sources within the
police said Muzenda and Mudavanhu were having problems
handling the lions on
the property and had since approached the Department
of National Parks and
wildlife for assistance.
JOHANNESBURG,
10 April 2009 (IRIN) - Almost a decade into the Zimbabwean crisis, South
Africa’s Department of Home Affairs is introducing a permit that could
regularize the status of thousands of undocumented migrants and put an end to
mass deportations as a first step to a long-awaited new policy on a thorny
issue.
Photo:
Taurai
Maduna/IRIN
Zimbabwean migrants outside the
Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg
The department has met with representatives from civil society
and international organizations such as the office of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) to discuss implementing a new temporary residence permit.
However, the need to secure additional funding, staff and information management
systems means no formal timeline has been set.
The permit will grant
thousands of Zimbabweans the right to live and work in South Africa, and access
healthcare and education for an initial period of at least six months. The mass
deportation of undocumented migrants may be halted.
South Africa has
never formally addressed the influx of tens of thousands Zimbabweans over its
northern border, and standard immigration measures left many undocumented, so
seeking asylum has often been the only way for them to regularize their status.
Zimbabwe’s economic collapse and political crisis is a decade old, but
until 2004 many Zimbabweans were barred from applying for asylum. According to
the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA), they form the
bulk of applications, creating a backlog of almost 90,000 in 2007.
“Up
to 80 percent of these applications are rejected on the basis that the
applicants do not meet the requirements of the Refugee Act,” Home Affairs
spokesperson Siobhan McCarthy told IRIN.
“As it currently stands, the
Immigration Act does not accommodate economic migrants. Given the economic
crisis in Zimbabwe, it was agreed that the government cannot continue to send
Zimbabweans who do not qualify for refugee status, or any other permit, back
home.”
A promising first step
The idea of such
a permit as a solution to the large number of asylum seekers is not new. Home
Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula first mentioned it in 2007, and civil
society and international organisations, including CoRMSA, UNHCR and the Forced
Migration Studies programme at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand
have been advocating it for years.
Section 31 of the Immigration Act
allows the minister to grant permanent residence to a category of foreigners for
a specified period, under special circumstances. According to the Organisation
for African Unity convention, similar provisions granting certain groups
temporary refugee status have been a common response to large-scale migration on
the continent.
“We are extremely pleased,” said Sanda
Kimbimbi, UNHCR’s representative for Southern Africa. “It is acknowledging the
fact that movement is taking place, and instead of using control measures, it is
better to try to manage it. It is the beginning of the migration management of a
large number of people coming into the country, and for good reason.”
In
some ways seems like exactly the wrong time … [but] my guess is that the
minister wants some kind of legacy around this issue, realizing that they
haven’t dealt with it in the past
There are widespread misperceptions in South Africa about foreigners’
contribution to crime and unemployment, and such a policy change could be a
political hot potato in an election year.
“We’re a little bemused by the
timing of it,” said Loren Landau, director of the Forced Migration Studies
Programme, which has long advocated the permit. “In some ways seems like exactly
the wrong time … [but] my guess is that the minister wants some kind of legacy
around this issue, realizing that they haven’t dealt with it in the past.”
The permits may usher in change that many think is long overdue.
“There’s not really been a specific policy on immigration from Zimbabwe, but I
think there’s been a realization that there are different needs among migrants,”
said CoRMSA spokesperson Duncan Breen.
“When you apply for asylum,
you’re technically were not supposed to go back to Zimbabwe, but I think people
have realized that people need to go back to Zimbabwe, either with goods or
money – remittances are largely what appear to be keeping the country afloat.”
“Arrest, detain, deport”
South Africa’s
approach has been largely one of “arrest, detain, deport”, in which undocumented
individuals were arrested by the police and detained in repatriation centres
before being deported at state expense.
A paper published in 2008 by the
Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) noted that the absence of an
official response to Zimbabwean migration stemmed partly from a lack of data on
the number of people entering the country, and partly from political
sensitivities over South Africa’s official stance on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, chief mediator between
Zimbabwe’s fiercely opposed political parties, drew sharp criticism when he
refused to admit there was a crisis in Zimbabwe, despite figures from the
International Organisation for Migration showing that 17,000 Zimbabweans were
being deported monthly by June 2007.
Local government has been left in
the awkward situation of having to deal with the fallout from migration – from
xenophobia to overcrowding at refuges like Johannesburg’s Central
Methodist Church – while waiting for national government to put an effective
policy in place.
The authorities in Gauteng, South Africa’s richest
province, have had to set up temporary shelters in response to the situation at
the church. Spokesman Daniel Ramarumo said it was a short-term solution to the
specific problem of overcrowding at the church, and the province was looking at
policy at national level to prevent the situation from arising again.
Some national departments, such as Health and Education, have formulated
specific responses to the influx by providing antiretroviral treatment to all
undocumented migrants, and employing Zimbabwean teachers to alleviate shortages
in South African schools.
Human rights and the right permit
NGOs said they hoped the permit would give undocumented
Zimbabweans some protection from the human rights abuses they often faced.
“[We’ve] outlined the problems of lack of documentation, and it starts at the
border, where migrants face armed gangs of men,” said Gerry Simpson, a refugee
researcher with Human Rights Watch, which called for the permits in their 2008
report.
“We’re looking at reports of rape, killings, trafficking, abuse
of women, but it continues. [The new permit is] a clear turning point in South
Africa, which up until now has had a line that there is no problem in Zimbabwe.”
CoRMSA’s Breen said the new permit could actually help guarantee the
human rights of both Zimbabweans and South Africans by protecting Zimbabweans
from exploitation while ensuring that skills shortages in South Africa did not
deny citizens access to health and education.
“It will have very
tangible effects for migrants themselves, but also for South Africa, which will
be able to better use the skills that many Zimbabweans can contribute,” said
Breen, who noted that South Africa’s emphasis on deportation had taken
Zimbabwean teachers out of classrooms and into repatriation centres, with a
one-way ticket home.
According to a 2007 study by the University of
South Africa, more than 60 percent of Zimbabweans in the country
had matriculated from secondary school.
The events of the last few hours
prompted me to share my frustration with
someone who might be sympathetic.
Perhaps the story could be a warning to
other folks who might end up in a
similar situation and perhaps you could
shed some light as to what the "Law
of Zimbabwe" really says about the
situation this story is
painting.
The background to the story is quite long but I am
trying to be brief.
I am an SA citizen who employs Nomsa (not her
real name), a Zimbabwe woman,
as a house maid. She has worked for me and my
wife for the past 10 years.
Last year she and her brother managed to scratch
enough cash together to
purchase a Toyota HiAce to be used as a taxi in
Bulawayo. The vehicle is a
Japanese import, purchased in Durban. When the
vehicle was delivered on the
Zim side of Beitbridge from Durban last year
beginning of December, a number
of items had been stripped from the vehicle
including the radio, spare wheel
even the radiator cap. But this is only a
side issue. Delivery was taken and
the vehicle driven to Bulawayo only to
find that the vehicle could not be
registered as there were no number plates
available. A few weeks ago finally
a number plate was available at the
exorbitant price of R2000.00.
Since Dec last year, a number of
mechanical problems surfaced which Nomsa
tried to have fixed with local
talent - also at premium prices - but in the
final analyses, more damage was
done to the vehicle in the process. I
finally suggested to Nomsa to bring
the vehicle to SA and have my motor car
mechanic try and fix all the
problems once and for all. This was done and
Nomsa's driver finally brought
the vehicle to SA about two weeks ago.
Now, at this stage it
needs to be mentioned that the Zim authorities
apparently can only issue a
permit for the vehicle and the driver to be in
SA for a period of two weeks
at any one time. This in itself is ludicrous as
the repair of the vehicle
might take and is taking more than two weeks to
complete. There are a number
of reasons for this but the main reason is that
spares for the Japanese
imports are very hard to find in SA.
Today, the two week permit
expired and the driver had to go back to renew
the permit. Since the vehicle
was not ready, I loaned Nomsa my Bantam
Utility van to drive back to Zim. As
it is Easter now, Nomsa decided to
accompany her driver and spend the
weekend with her family at the same time.
Purchases of groceries were made
and I organized an affidavit, stamped by a
commissioner of oath at the local
police station, to give the driver
permission to use my vehicle for the
purpose stated above. Off they went
early this morning.
An
hour ago I get a call from Nomsa saying that they had gone through the SA
border post without any problems. At the Zim border post they had to pay
again an exorbitant fee - not sure how much it was - to get permission to
take the vehicle to enter the "Despotic Republic of Zimbabwe" - actually it
is a contradiction of terms but, so be it. All duties etc were paid, the
permit for the driver and the HiAce to stay another two weeks in SA
issued.
When they tried to leave the border post, the
officials decided to tell them
that the driver would not be allowed, as a
Zimbabwe citizen, to drive an SA
owned car in Zimbabwe. The reason given for
this was that this would be
against the Law of Zimbabwe!!! I am totally
dumb struck. Can there be such
a law at all? The man has my permission to
used the vehicle after all!!!
They were also told that he had
only half an hour to return to SA otherwise
they run the risk of the vehicle
being impounded. On top of that, the moneys
paid for the vehicle to enter
Zim were not refunded. Nice people, the
Zimbabwean officials are!!! I would
call this kind of behavior
gangsterism!!!
Then end
result of all this is that Nomsa had to catch a taxi to take her to
Bulawayo, again at three times the price than she would normally pay using a
bus from SA to Bulawayo, and the driver is on his way back from Beitbridge
as I write.
I guess this is just another typical Zim
problem. I am no lawyer so I guess,
the authorities make up the law to the
uninitiated as they go. Compared to
the horror stories I have been reading
on your blog this is a benign one.
However, when something like this happens
so close to home, one gets a
different perspective of all the "stories" one
has read in the past.
If you have any advice or comment on
the "Law of Zimbabwe" pertaining to
this incident, it would be very much
appreciated if you have the time to
respond to this mail. Now I am
wondering, whether this whole permit problem
could not have been resolved at
the Zim embassy in Johannesburg or Pretoria.
To have to physically go all
the way to a border post that is 650km away
seems such a damn waste of
resources.
I dearly hope that the poor diver is not going to
be harassed by the SA
police (no further comment on that one but Carte
Blanch has uncovered lots
of shenanigans by SA police officers) on the way
back after all he has been
through in the past 24
hours.
From a very concerned and bewildered ......
Richard