http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 20:02
THE High
Court is next month set to make a ruling in a case in which a
senior
official at the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development is suing
Minister
Obert Mpofu for US$30 000 as damages for criminal defamation. In a
matter
that is set to further bring Mpofu's Ministry under the spotlight,
Byl
Manyange, a mining commissioner is suing Mpofu and the state owned
Chronicle
newspaper over the publication of statements attributed to the
minister.
Mpofu reportedly accused Manyenge and other
commissioners of corruption.
He said the commissioners were being
transferred to other stations because
they were allegedly issuing mining
claims to undeserving people.
Manyange is based in Kadoma. Mpofu, who
is cited as the first respondent,
allegedly made the utterances during a
police pass-out parade in
Ntabazinduna early last year.
The
matter, recorded under HC2308/09 will be heard in chambers before High
Court
Judge Justice Samuel Kudya on May 10.
Among other things, Manyange
accuses Mpofu of uttering statements to the
effect that the commissioners
(including Manyange) "issued licences
corruptly and for speculative
purposes, and in the process turning away
genuine
investors".
Mpofu is also being accused of claiming that Manyange and
other
commissioners were refusing to be transferred.
"By reason
of the defamatory words aforesaid, plaintiff has been injured in
his name,
fame and reputation, prejudiced of advancement of professional
career and
employment prospects and has a consequent threat, suffered
damages in the
sum of US$30 000 for injuria and contumelia," reads Manyange's
submission.
But Mpofu dismisses the claims, saying he never made
those utterances, and
does not know Manyange in person.
The
minister is already fighting allegations that he parceled out mining
claims
owned by the British registered African Consolidated Resources in the
diamond rich Chiadzwa area to unscrupulous investors.
BY OUR
STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 19:52
THE
training of rapporteurs for the constitution-making outreach programme
ended
last week with participants failing to agree with organisers on the
contents
of a questionnaire to be used during the process. At least 210
rapporteurs
selected from the three political parties in the inclusive
government and
civil society received training in preparation for the actual
outreach
programme last week in Harare.
However The Standard understands that
the last day of the training, Friday,
was dogged by controversy after
participants expressed reservations about
the questions to be used during
the outreach.
Participants said they felt that some of the questions
were too political
and too complicated for a simple process of sourcing the
views of people on
the new constitution.
Others, they said, could
scare away people who would want their voices heard
in the new
constitution.
One of the questions that raised concern among the
participants was: "Should
the founding principles of the constitution
recognise the irreversibility of
the process of land reform having regards
to the vision of the liberation
struggle and provision of the
GPA?"
Another question was: "Should the founding principles of the
constitution
recognise the calling for patriotism and loyalty to
Zimbabwe."
One other contentious question was: "Should the right to
land ownership
and/or occupation by people be entrenched in the
constitution?"
A participant who spoke on condition of anonymity
said: "Some of the
questions are too political and this might hinder the
full participation of
the people. For example, some may not be comfortable
to say anything against
land reform because you don't know who will be there
and listening".
Sources said there was also disappointment over the
fact that organisers
refused to reveal the allowances they would get for
their work.
Representatives from the Constitutional Parliamentary
Committee (Copac) told
them the amounts would be revealed on the day of
deployment.
"I think they are afraid that people won't turn up on
deployment day if they
feel the allowances are too small but I think they
are setting themselves up
for trouble later," said one
participant.
Co-chairperson of Copac Edward Mukosi, who was present
at the training on
Friday, told participants their issues of concern would
be looked into
before their deployment.
Copac co-chairperson
Douglas Mwonzora said deployment would take place in
about three weeks as
the committee was still waiting for financial
commitments from
donors.
He said out of the US$8,5 million needed for the outreach,
US$4 million had
been received so far.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010
19:45
KIMBERLEY Process (KP) monitor for Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane has
slammed the
involvement of too many government agencies in the handling of
rough
diamonds from Chiadzwa. Government agencies currently involved in
Chiadzwa
include the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ),
Zimbabwe
Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), Zimbabwe Revenue Authority
(Zimra),
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and
the
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), among others.
But after a
fact-finding mission on the Marange diamonds carried out in
March, Chikane
has recommended the reduction of government agencies involved
in mining
Chiadzwa diamonds.
Among those agencies that are unnecessarily
involved in the diamonds is the
RBZ, which Chikane says should not handle
rough diamonds.
"Too many government agencies are involved in
monitoring and handling rough
diamonds. This poses the danger of diamonds
being swapped or stolen in the
process," noted Chikane.
"Only the
MMCZ, Zimra and ZRP should handle rough diamonds. Even with these
agencies,
movement of rough diamonds should be subjected to a monitoring and
security
mechanism that can detect the loss of diamonds."
In his 30-paged
report, Chikane noted that the RBZ "currently holds rough
diamonds for
safekeeping pending the court order and Appeal of the court
order by the
government of Zimbabwe".
To solve this challenge, Chikane recommended
that the RBZ should not keep
diamonds.
"(The) Reserve Bank be
encouraged to keep rough diamonds only under
extraordinary circumstances,
otherwise be discouraged from handling rough
diamonds."
To
achieve this, Chikane recommends some legislative changes "to reduce the
risk of diamond swap or loss".
"In the event that legislation
need not be amended, government may consider
the safe keeping of rough
diamonds at MMCZ (on confiscation and during court
proceedings) and only
release them when necessary," added Chikane.
According to Chikane's
report, the controversy-infested Marange diamond
fields have produced 4,4
million carats between October 2006 and February
2010.
Of this,
1,6 million carats have been sold and 2,77 million carats were held
in stock
by several stakeholders.
In addition to the reduction of government agencies
involved in Chiadzwa,
Chikane recommended that the two companies mining
diamonds in the
area -Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Mining - should operate in
line with KP
minimum requirements.
He said on paper, the
companies have good policies, processes and procedures
but these were not
being implemented.
The report also notes that Mbada and Canadile "do
not have adequate diamond
audit systems", and recommends that the companies
employ "a full time
qualified diamond audit to increase their chances of
complying fully with
industry self-regulating mechanism as agreed by the
global diamond industry
and KP participants".
There is also "no
visible paper trail to track the movement of rough
diamonds from the safe to
cubicles" at both companies, and recommends that
the system "should be
improved".
Chikane was again scheduled to tour Marange last
week.
A week before Chikane's latest visit, the Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee
on Mines and Energy was banned from touring the diamond
fields and holding
meetings with different stakeholders, including families
that are to be
displaced.
It is understood that the committee
would now meet on April 20 then tour the
diamond fields from April 21 to
23.
In a statement released on Friday, the committee said it had also
"made a
resolution not to probe the issue before the courts relating to
claims or
special grants ownership dispute between the ZMDC and
ACR".
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010
19:43
CONTROVERSIAL Zanu PF businessman Temba Mliswa was arrested last
week for
allegedly threatening a white businessman whose business he intends
to
acquire in line with the controversial Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act. The Act directs that all foreign-owned businesses should
cede 51% of their shareholding to local black
entrepreneurs.
Critics of the Act say that the legisltion is open to
abuse as it is likely
to benefit a few well-connected individuals who have
benefited from similar
programmes that aimed to empower previously
disadvantaged groups.
The Standard is reliably informed that Mliswa,
who is also the secretary for
lands in Mashonaland West, was detained for 24
hours at Harare Central
Police Station.
He was later
released.
Sources said Mliswa and his manager Godknows Murambiwa went
to Benbar, a
company dealing in car accessories in Msasa sometime in January
and informed
the directors that they were from the Affirmative Action Group.
They
allegedly demanded 51% of the company's shares in accordance with the
Act.
Mliswa is also alleged to have told the directors that according
to the Act,
he was entitled to take ownership of the company. He gave them a
week to
respond (sic).
After one week Mliswa allegedly sent the
company's operations director Paul
Westwood an SMS threatening that he would
expose "the skeletons in his
cupboard" if he did not comply with his
directive.
According to sources, part of the SMS read: "Listen Paul I was
very patient
with you I have given you an option which you are not willing
to respond.
"I am giving you 24 hours to respond to our offer. I have
got skeletons in
your cupboard and I wouldn't want to expose
them."
However Mliswa denied ever trying to invade Benbar Company or
threatening
Westwood.
He said he already owned 50% of the
company's shares.
"The company doesn't even fall under the
Indigenisation Act. I got into this
company after somebody failed to pay me
my money back (sic)," he said.
He said Westwood and some police
officers were trying to fabricate a story
about him.
"It was a
story manufactured by my own detractors. It is a major conspiracy
which I am
going to expose soon and I am even in the process of writing a
letter to the
President (Robert Mugabe) telling him what is going on," he
said.
He also claimed that he had suspended Westwood from work
because he had
allegedly defrauded the company of more than US$60
000.
Efforts to get a comment from Westwood were fruitless as his
lawyer Victor
Zvobgo of Mhiribidi, Ngarava and Moyo Legal Practitioners
refused to
comment.
"I can't comment, I will talk to my client
first and get back to you,"
Police spokesperson inspector James Sabau said
he was not aware of the case.
"I don't know about the case, there are
many sections at Harare Central and
I can't know every case unless if it's
for interest's sake."
There are fears that the recently enacted
empowerment regulations were going
to benefit Zanu-PF officials
only.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono who has openly
clashed with
Youth Development, Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere,
over the Act
said he was worried with the way it was going to be
implemented.
Speaking last week during a tour of his Donnington Farm
by visiting ANC
Youth League president Julius Malema, Gono said people
should "be on the
look out for those who would want to be greedy; those who
would use
connections to get into factories. Let's guard against vices that
might draw
us back. The process cannot benefit the same people who have
benefited over
the years."
Kasukuwere insists that the Act was
meant to empower the black majority.
BY SANDRA MANDIZVIDZA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April
2010 19:41
BULAWAYO - Zanu PF politburo member, Joshua Malinga on Friday
accused the
police of trying to destroy his political career after he was
dragged to
court for allegedly uttering inflammatory statements. Malinga
appeared
before Bulawayo magistrate Sithembiso Ncube facing charges of
insulting a
police officer.
The outspoken politician is accused
of verbally abusing the officer
identified as Raphael Somerai who was
guarding the Bulawayo High Court.
He is being charged with
contravening Section 177 of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act
Chapter 17.
It is the state's case that Malinga called Somerai a
"stupid, idiot police
officer who speaks Shona in
Matabeleland".
He allegedly made the remarks on February 11, 2009
after Somerai told him to
park his car properly as he was obstructing
traffic.
Malinga pleaded not guilty.
In his defence,
Malinga, through his lawyer, Job Sibanda of Sibanda and
Associates said he
believed the allegations were part of a ploy to
"caricature" him and portray
him as a tribalist.
The Zanu PF deputy secretary for disability
issues said he had politely told
the officer that he did not understand the
language he was using and wanted
him to speak in English.
The
case was adjourned to May 7 when more witnesses would be called.
BY OUR
STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 19:23
UPPER
Manyame Sub-Catchment Council is suing the Harare City Council for
allegedly
defaulting in paying close to a million dollars in levies for
water
abstracted from various supply dams. In papers filed at the High Court
in
January, the Catchment Council is demanding that Harare pays US$894
885.20
for water from various dams within the catchment area it manages.
The
dams include Chivero, Manyame, Seke and Harava.
The council says at
the time of drafting the summons, it had invoiced Harare
for US$944 885,20,
but only US$50 000 had been paid as at the date of the
summons.
Harare continues to fail to settle the debt despite
demand, Upper Manyame
alleges.
The council says the amount owed
is broken into three invoices for a total
of 410 820 megalitres of
water.
Upper Manyame also wants Harare to pay interest of 5% per
annum on the
figure from the day of service of the summons filed on January
7.
It also wants Harare to meet costs of the suit on an
attorney-client scale.
But in its opposing papers, Harare argues that
it owns the dams in question,
and as such, Upper Manyame erroneously
calculated the figure due.
It argues that Upper Manyame is using a
formula that makes it seem as if
Harare is abstracting water from the said
dams yet it is only storing its
water in those dams.
"The
defendant is, therefore, not obliged to pay for the abstraction or
utilisation of water from its water sources," Harare argues. "Instead, the
defendant is obliged to pay levies for storage of water in these
dams.."
The City Council also argues that the levying of storage of
water in dams is
a mischief aimed at discouraging dam owners, particularly
farmers, from
unnecessarily storing water in their dams at the expense of
downstream
users.
The measure was instituted before conclusion of
negotiations on the
appropriate levy and formula for calculating the same,
it argues.
Ratepayers will be prejudiced if a wrong formula is used,
argues Harare
which also denies owing the amount being claimed and
challenges Upper
Manyame to provide proof thereof.
The City
Council denies receiving the said invoices and argues that it
received four
invoices between June 4 2009 and January 15 2010, amounting to
a total of
$321 852,23.
It also strongly refutes an invoice covering February to
March 2009, which
totals US$47 24,84 saying the multicurrency regime was not
yet in place
then.
"The defendant cannot pay amounts that were
erroneously calculated," Harare
said. "The parties were negotiating on the
appropriate formula and the
amount that may be due, and the plaintiff
abandoned the negotiations and
approached the court.
"The
defendant will continue to pay what it considers reasonable rates .
until
the parties reach an agreement.."
Harare wants the claim dismissed
with costs.
The suit comes at a time when the City Council has said
it is owed about
US$60 million in unpaid water bills by residents,
government departments and
the Chitungwiza municipality, forcing it to
resort to disconnecting
defaulters.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 19:20
A
Roman Catholic choirmaster appeared in court last week on charges of
indecent assault. Joseph Chikove who attends a Roman Catholic Church in
Waterfalls was remanded in custody to tomorrow.
It is the state's
case that Chikove attempted to rape a house maid on two
different occasions
in February.
The court heard that Chikove went to fix electricity at
a house in
Waterfalls where the woman was employed.
The state
alleges that he proposed love to the woman identified as
Evangelista
Mverecha and asked her how she survived without sex. He then
allegedly
started fondling her private parts.
The woman said she tried to stop
Chikove but failed. She did not tell anyone
as she thought he was not going
to repeat it.
On Febraury 24, Chikove went to the house again and
attempted to rape her
for the second time.
The woman reported the matter
to her employer.
The employer who goes to the same church with
Chikove called other church
leaders and in an attempt to cover up the
offence they ordered the maid not
to report the case to anyone, as they
wanted to solve the issue in the
church.
However, the woman made
a report to the police a week later leading to
Chikove's
arrest.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 16:51
PAULINE
Siziba sits patiently at her market stall waiting for the odd
customer to
stop by.
Despite her husband being employed by the Zimbabwe Iron and
Steel Company
(Zisco), which was once one of the biggest steel makers in the
region, life
has become a nightmare for the mother of
four.
Pauline wakes up every day at around 5am to prepare for
her day at the
market stall where she sells second-hand clothes acquired
from Harare's
Mupedzanhamo fleamarket.
Most of the items she
sells range from US$1 for two to US$2. But she says it
is not uncommon for
her family to go to bed hungry.
"My husband Moses Siziba, is employed by the
once popular Zisco, which is
now failing to pay even a gardener a full
salary," she says dismissively.
Her husband also sounded resigned to
fate. He said it was now a common
perception among workers that the steel
giant would never rise again. "We
have been patient enough thinking that the
government was going to intervene
on time, but as it is, the crisis has
become worse.
"We used to get half of our salaries, which saw us
through the month as we
managed to pay for our rentals and other
bills.
"As I speak, the company is now paying people any time they feel like,
but
that's not because the management does not want. . .there's just no
money.
"We are now getting a wage of two weeks after working for 45 days
which is
too little for us".
Many workers have deserted the
company and have resorted to informal
business activity to
survive.
Pauline says she has already taken the responsibility to pay family
rentals
and other bills as the money that her husband brings home is no
longer
adequate for their needs.
Of their four children, the
eldest, Tendai, is doing form three while the
second born is in form one,
and the third child is in grade six. The last
born, a toddler of three
years, is always at the market with her mother.
Apart from selling
clothes at the deserted Torwood shopping centre, Pauline
has yet another
market stall where she sells firewood.
Her husband has since adopted
a routine of going out to the bush where he
fetches firewood for sale. "This
has proved to be good business as many
households in Torwood do not have
electricity since Zesa disconnected the
service long back after residents
failed to pay their bills".
The husband has to play cat-and-mouse
games with the police and municipal
guards who often raid them for
"poaching" firewood.
But who does not need money? The police always
accept bribes and the
business goes on.
Residents say they are forced to
pay a US$5 bribe for a single pushcart load
of firewood.
Pauline
leaves her market stall at around 5pm to return home to start
preparing the
family's evening meal.
She and other residents in the neighbourhood
have to travel a distance of 2
km to the nearest source of water since their
taps stopped running months
ago.
Another troubling issue is that
whenever Pauline's husband gets paid, he has
to travel to Kwekwe, 10 km
away, in order for him to access the money. There
are no banks in Torwood
and Rutendo with the exception of a CBZ banking hall
in
Redcliff.
Siziba like many others who do not hold accounts with CBZ,
has no choice but
to travel to Kwekwe parting with US$1 for a one way
trip.
Due to the low business activity, backyard "supermarkets" have
mushroomed in
Redcliff as there are no big retail shops such as TM, OK or
Spar. Residents
have to buy their groceries from these "supermarkets" that
tend to double
their prices as they take advantage of the
situation.
Parents say a number of children have since dropped out of
school in
Rutendo, Redcliff and Torwood as a direct result of Zisco's
dwindling
fortunes.
Asked if there was any hope, Redcliff town
clerk, Alfred Hunda, said that
they were trying hard as a council to lure
investors.
"Taking into consideration that we have Zisco,
Steelmakers, Zimchem and many
other small companies, we are looking forward
to investors coming to set up
businesses in our town, but as you can see,
there is nothing as of now", he
said.
Hopes that Zisco will be
revived soon are fading with reports that
negotiations with Indian and
Chinese steel firms have not borne any fruit.
Zisco has been
struggling for almost a decade as continued break downs have
led to the
closure of almost all the furnaces.
The recently introduced economic
empowerment regulations have made investors
who would have snapped the
potentially profitable company skeptical.
The legislation requires
all foreign owned companies to relinquish 51% of
their shareholding to
locals.
To Moses and others who used to earn a decent living from the giant
steel
manufacturing company, its revival is a dream that will never come
true.
BY BRIAN NKIWANE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 16:43
SEVEN
years ago 36-year-old Mary Pamire was allegedly raped by 10 soldiers
on the
outskirts of Chitungwiza town.
Recounting her ordeal at a recent public
meeting, Pamire said she had just
come back from a National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) mass action in
Chitungwiza when a car screeched to a halt
outside her Mbare home.
Before she knew what was happening
four soldiers had entered her home and
ordered her to follow them.
“My
house is by the roadside so when I heard the car approaching I didn’t
think
much about it. I thought it was my neighbour who had returned from
work,”
Pamire said.
“Although I fought back, the soldiers overpowered me and
dragged me out of
the house and pushed me into their car. Everything
happened so fast that
even when I screamed no one heard me,” she
said.
Outside Chitungwiza, Pamire says she was forced to lie down
blindfolded as
the soldiers took turns to rape her.
She passed
out during the ordeal but not before hearing the soldiers
threatening to
stuff hot chillies into her private parts.
As her small frame shook
and trembled in fits of despair and anger, Pamire
touched the hearts of many
who listened to her testimony at a function held
at a city
hotel.
After the rape Pamire said she was dumped by the roadside and
left for dead.
“I woke up at the side of the road and when I saw a
car approaching I
crawled towards the road and flagged it down,” she
continued with tears
streaming down her cheeks.
“I spent weeks
recovering at Avenues Clinic…each time I wanted to go to the
toilet I had to
be assisted…I was badly injured. Up to now my womanhood is
not the
same.”
Hers is just but one of numerous tales of women activists
captured in a
report recently launched by the NCA and the Research and
Advocacy Unit (RAU)
exposing how women activists fighting for democracy in
Zimbabwe have
suffered over the years.
The report titled:
“Fighting for a new constitution: human rights violations
experienced by
female members of the National Constitutional Assembly”
features the
experiences of 231 women from various parts of the country.
Among the
report’s key findings is that rape and sexual abuse were the most
common
forms of violations against female political and civil rights
activists in
post independence Zimbabwe.
It also notes that most of the violations
occurred during times of elections
or decisive events such as referendums
while perpetrators were usually
people with “strong links with the state,
without necessarily being part of
the state”.
But for the
delegates who attended the launch, the biggest worry was the
fact that the
affected women never got any counselling to help them cope
with the
trauma.
Pamire did not hide the fact that she was bitter that the NCA
and MDC were
not helping her despite the fact that she had sacrificed her
life for their
cause.
The only assistance she got was from Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s late
wife, Susan, she said.
“Watching Pamire
break down like this while telling her story is a sign that
she has not
received the necessary support and counselling services,” said
Petronella
Nyamapfene, the director of the Justice for Children Trust.
“It is
important for civil rights organisations to work with other
organisations to
counsel these women and help them move on after the abuse.”
HIV and
Aids activist and director of Women and Support Network (WASN) Mary
Sandasi
concurred saying it was important to help the survivors.
Kuda
Chitsike, a researcher with RAU, said she was pleased the report had
brought
out pertinent issues of victim support and the extent of the
violations in
the country.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 16:34
ABEL
Tendekayi Muzorewa, a former Methodist bishop and nationalist leader,
was
prime minister of the short-lived coalition government in what was
called
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia; he held office for only a few months in 1979.
In 1971
the British struck a deal with Ian Smith that provided for a
transition to
majority rule in exchange for an end to sanctions against the
government.
Muzorewa joined with an inexperienced cleric, Reverend Canaan
Banana, to
form the United African National Council (UANC) to oppose the
settlement
under the acronym NIBMAR: "No Independence Before Majority
Rule."
The proposed referendum was withdrawn; Muzorewa found
himself a national
leader and an international personality. The liberation
movements - the
Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) of Reverend
Ndabaningi Sithole and
the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (Zapu) of Joshua
Nkomo - both placed
themselves under the UANC umbrella even though they had
some doubts when
Muzorewa founded a national party.
After Zanu,
taken over by Robert Mugabe after disagreements with Sithole,
and ZAPU
undertook guerrilla warfare, the UANC was the only legal black
party in
Smith's Rhodesia since it rejected violence.
On the March 3 1978,
Muzorewa, Ndabaningi Sithole and other moderate leaders
signed an agreement
at Governors Lodge, Salisbury, which paved the way for
the interim
government, the leadership of which was an Executive Council
made up of
Muzorewa, Sithole and Chief Jeremiah Chirau, along with Ian
Smith.
This Executive Council would run the affairs of state prior to
elections
taking place. A new constitution was drafted and in a Whites-only
referendum
which took place in January 1979 there were seats reserved for
the white
minority, as were a quarter of the cabinet positions. An
overwhelming
majority of 85% voted Yes.
Elections were held, and
the UANC won. Josiah Zion Gumede was the first
president, Muzorewa became
prime minister and the country's name was changed
to Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. But
both Mugabe and Nkomo denounced the arrangement,
the war continued, and no
international recognition was forthcoming from the
US and Britain because
the external Marxist leaders had not been included in
the
elections.
The civil war that Ian Smith hoped to stem when he
worked out the "internal
settlement" continued unabated.
The
British government then asked all parties to come to London for
face-to-face
meetings, including Nkomo and Mugabe, and thrash out a final
settlement to
the Rhodesian question at the Lancaster House Agreement. For
the conference,
Nkomo joined with Mugabe as the Patriotic Front (PF). The
conference was
held from September 10 1979 until December 15 1979 under the
chairmanship of
Lord Carrington, Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs.
Muzorewa was persuaded to accept fresh elections, to
be held in early
1980.
The new elections took place at the end of February 1980, after
a campaign
filled with much intimidation on both sides. These new elections
resulted in
a resounding majority by Robert Mugabe and Zanu now renamed Zanu
PF, with
the UANC only having three out of 80 seats reserved for blacks in
the House
of Assembly. Muzorewa stood against Mugabe in the presidential
election of
1995, but was resoundingly defeated.
- www.spiritus-temporis.com
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 16:30
THE
National Aids Council (NAC) has taken the fight against the Aids
pandemic to
the workplace amid concerns that men are not playing their part
in
prevention initiatives.
NAC said its latest Aids prevention campaign
would also target the informal
sector which has absorbed the majority of
Zimbabwe's working population.
Adonija Muzondiona, the NAC
Harare province Aids coordinator said targeting
people at the workplace was
critical because three quarters of breadwinners
could easily be reached
there.
"The informal sector needs particular attention in the
programmes of
prevention of HIV and Aids as it has grown overwhelmingly in
the past few
years," he said.
He said last year, NAC reached 5
636 workers out of a target of 15 000 and
the programme would be expanded
this year.
NAC has 10 provincial offices with Harare metropolitan
province being the
biggest as it caters for areas such as Epworth,
Chitungwiza and Ruwa as well
as surrounding farms.
Although, the
council's main theme this year is prevention, it will also be
looking at
programmes such as support, advocacy, care and mitigation.
The main
focus under prevention is the Prevention of Mother to Child
Transmission
(PMTCT), Voluntary and Counselling Testing (VCT), condom
distribution and
youth programmes.
Zakaria Mwatia, a nurse at a Medicine Sans
Frontiers (MSF) health centre in
Epworth said most men only come to the
clinic when they are too sick to go
to work.
Mwatia said 70% of
the patients were women with men only coming up when they
are already
exhibiting advanced symptoms of Aids.
NAC has also encouraged
employers to recruit peer educators at work places
to educate fellow workers
on issues to do with HIV/Aids.
An estimated 1,7 million people are
living with HIV in Zimbabwe.
BY PERPETUA CHIKOLOLERE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010
16:05
BULAWAYO - "Like a true warrior, I will die with my sword. I will
use it to
deal with any dangers and die with it when I go down. I will not
be cowed
into submission."
Faced with the real prospect of
spending time in jail for allegedly
insulting President Robert Mugabe
through his Gukurahundi paintings, Owen
Maseko, a leading Bulawayo visual
artist says he is not going to be
silenced.
Maseko (35)
is out on bail after he was arrested on March 26, a day after
his exhibition
on the 1980s massacres by the North Korea trained 5 Brigade
opened at the
Bulawayo Art Gallery.
His trial on charges of "displaying certain
pieces of art that were
allegedly insulting to Mugabe or causing offence to
persons of a particular
race or religion" opens tomorrow at the magistrates'
courts.
If he is convicted under the draconian Sections 33 and 42 of
the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform) Act, he faces a maximum of one
year in jail or
a hefty fine.
But the prominent artist who spent
four nights in police cells says failure
to confront one of the darkest
periods in the country's history where more
than 20 000 civilians were
massacred is preventing the country from healing
itself.
"That
exhibition was an expression of what happened to the people in
Matabeleland,
of course through the eyes of an artist," Maseko said in an
interview last
week.
"There is no way people shall forget Gukurahundi. There is no
amount of
force that will erase that era in the history of this
country.
"And my arrest on these charges by the police will not erase
Gukurahundi
from the memories of the people.
"I did not create
Gukurahundi. I did not, through those pieces, insult
President Robert Mugabe
in any way. That was an interpretation of those that
came to arrest
me."
Mugabe has refused to apologise for the atrocities insisting
that the army
was deployed to deal with insurgents who were threatening
national security
but has described the massacres as "an act of
madness".
However, human rights activists and politicians from the
region say besides
being a ploy to destroy the support base of PF Zapu under
the late
Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Gukurahundi was an attempt at ethnic
cleansing.
Women were raped for allegedly giving birth to
"dissidents" and several
hundreds were also thrown into disused mines for
supporting PF Zapu.
Maseko says his family was also a victim of the
terror and this becomes
evident when he talks about the period, which he has
tried to reconstruct
through his exhibition Sibathontisele (Let's Drip On
Them).
"I witnessed Gukurahundi as a young boy because by then, I was
able to make
head or tail of the events. I and my family members suffered
emotional
distress during that period,' he says.
"My father is a
victim of Gukurahundi as he was tortured during that era.
"My mother and my
sisters also suffered the same stress. Given that
background, I will not
stop talking about this issue because it is an issue
that is haunting a lot
of people who suffer in silence," he said.
Although, his arrest by
armed police officers initially shook him, he says
he has emerged stronger
from the ordeal.
"I had never been arrested before. I was shaken for
a moment but later
realised that this was real and I would have to be a
guest of this place
(cells) for a few days.
"I was forced into a
cell with seven other people. The next morning, I
realised we were now 17 in
a cell meant for 10 people.
"I slept on the floor and it was very
cold. That cell was to become my home
for the next three days."
"It was
indeed an eye-opening experience as we managed through discussions
with my
cellmates to build a small family while being guests of the state.
"I
could not really sleep that night as I thought about a lot of things and
my
family," he boldly declared.
Born on August 25 1975 in Bulawayo, Maseko was
at the Mzilikazi Art and
Craft Centre between 1994 and 1996 where he
produced art pieces using water
colours, acrylics and oils.
His
paintings and sculptures have found a market in South Africa, Namibia,
the
US, England and Wales. He has also produced various exhibitions
capturing
the political and economic crisis in the country.
BY NKULULEKO
SIBANDA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010
15:09
WORKERS at David Whitehead Textiles (DWT) have gone for 10 months
without
pay as problems at the textile firm escalate. A new investor, Elgate
Holdings assumed a controlling stake at the textile firm in 2008 promising
to inject capital in the struggling firm.
But workers said over
the past months, management had failed to live up to
its
promises.
"This new investor is failing even to communicate with the
workers beyond
stating that the company is facing problems like any other
company," said an
employee at DWT.
"I doubt whether there is any
other company which has not paid its workers
for 10
months."
Workers said on some occasions they were given US$10 by the
textile firm for
their upkeep, an amount that is insufficient even for
basic household
needs.
DWT had not responded to questions sent to
their office by the time of going
to press.
However, information
gathered by Standardbusiness shows that the problems at
the Chegutu-based
firm are two-fold: under capitalisation and poor corporate
governance.
In terms of the agreement for the takeover of the
company, Elgate - led by
Andrew Toendepi - was supposed to inject US$5,4
million to recapitalise the
textile firm.
The Master of High
Court was supposed to appoint an independent evaluator to
investigate
whether the new investors had injected the amount as per the
High Court
order.
Impeccable sources said last week that the new investor was
making decisions
without getting input from key stakeholders such as
workers.
"If you do that, you face problems. When (Cecil) Madondo
came in, the
company had salary arrears for three months but he managed to
settle the
matter," one employee said.
Madondo is the former
judicial manager of DWT who was appointed in 2006
after labour unrest at the
textile firm.
Upon his appointment, Madondo prepared a report which
highlighted the
serious financial constraints at the company and the need to
raise
additional capital through a share issue.
The issuance of
additional shares saw a new investor, Elgate taking a 51%
stake valued at
US$5,4 million and in the process diluted the shareholding
of Guscole
Investment from 88,06% to a minority stake.
The investment was supposed to be
done within 90 days of the conclusion of
the deal.
By the time
the company was removed from judicial management in 2008, Elgate
had failed
to inject the US$5.4 million as per agreement.
This was more than
three months after the agreement of sale.
In an interview last week,
Madondo blamed the new investor for the state of
affairs at the textile
firm.
"When I was appointed judicial manager, the main task was to deal with
labour unrests where the company had not paid salaries for three months.
When I came in, I paid workers their salaries," Madondo said on
Friday.
This was also corroborated by workers who told
Standarbusiness that under
Madondo, DWT introduced long service awards where
the textile firm rewarded
employees for their loyalty to the
company.
Asked whether the new investors had injected the US$5.4
million as per
agreement, Madondo said: I cannot confirm that he invested
the US$5.4
million as required in terms of the agreement and the High Court
Order.
"There was supposed to be an independent person appointed to
check whether
the money was invested and I don't know whether that was
done."
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 15:05
WHEN
South Africa won the bid to host this year's Fifa World Cup tournament
in
May 2004 it was widely celebrated on the African continent. For regional
neighbours such as Zimbabwe, the soccer showpiece was seen as a boon for the
tourism industry. Tour operators rubbed their hands gleefully as they
savoured limitless opportunities to maximise on tourism
arrivals.
Grand plans were laid out against exaggerated estimates of
an expected
windfall.
But two months before the start of the
showpiece, the euphoria seems to have
died down on the local scene as
reality starts sinking in that the
spill-over from SA could be
minimal.
While at first Zimbabwe had hoped to attract five of the
participating teams
to be based here, a revision of the list has been
necessitated by hard facts
obtaining on the ground.
Even in South
Africa, forecasts of expected arrivals are being revised
downwards as the
world is still to find its feet after the global financial
crisis.
Was the hype premised on false
notions?
Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi
confessed on
Thursday Zimbabwe did not do its homework
properly.
"It was a false euphoria. I recall two to three years ago,
Zimbabwe was
talking of building stadiums in Beitbridge, Harare, Masvingo,
Victoria Falls
. . . top leadership of this country were going out to
inspect sites for the
new stadiums," he said.
"They were hoping
to build stadiums and if the understanding was that there
were going to be
matches played in this country, it means that those were
false premises or
probably we were misled."
Mzembi said Zimbabwe was working on
hosting at least two teams to practice
in Zimbabwe two weeks before the
finals kick off in South Africa.
He said Democratic People's Republic
Korea was already in the bag and
Zimbabwe is working on attracting African
countries.
But hosting teams, other than improving on branding does
not impact on the
bottom line.
Mzembi says salvation lies on
attracting tourists who can spend more other
than a team which can camp in
Zimbabwe for just two days.
Hosting 100 000 tourists for 45 days is
more economically beneficial than
hosting a team for two days, he
said.
"Camping a team yes but to me it's just a passing visit. It will leave
some
brand collateral at your destination but that is not sustainable,"
Mzembi
said.
Information obtained last week shows that a country
has to pay to host a
team and with the shoe-string budget in place, it would
have been "immoral"
to splurge scarce resources.
Players in the
tourism industry now see the World Cup benefits as a bonus
rather than put
them on their forecasts.
Rainbow Tourism Group CEO, Chipo Mtasa told
an analysts' briefing last week
the group had discounted the spill over from
the World Cup.
"To be realistic, the opportunity might be there but
we are not considering
it in our forecast," she said.
For locals who
cannot attend matches, Mzembi said government had secured
sponsorship for
fan parks to be dotted around the country.
A budget of US$25 million
had been set aside for World Cup preparations and
Mzembi said the Ministry
of Finance had met most of the obligation and it
was up to the line
ministries to deliver.
According to Fifa's rotational system, the
next World Cup would next be held
on African soils in
2034.
BY NDAMU SANDU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010
17:25
TWO bad things happened to our country over the Easter holidays.
First, we
sadly lost 44 people on our roads. Second, that infant terrible of
South
African politics, Julius Malema visited. The first could have been
ameliorated if our roads were in a decent condition and our drivers were
more careful to minimise human error. The second was a result of a wanton
error of judgement by those who invited Malema. The visit which some
sections of the media even went on to describe as a "state visit" although
the young man is not a head of state, left our battered international image
further bruised.
Not only did Malema's militancy seem to rub off
on some important people in
our government but it also reinforced our
nation's rogue status.
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
minister Saviour Kasukuwere who
hosted the young politician, is in the
middle of a war here at home over the
recently promulgated Indigenisation
regulations which have proved
universally unpopular and may have done more
damage to our economy in the
last three months than any quasi-fiscal
activities undertaken by Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono in the seven
years he has been at that post.
Kasukuwere himself has assumed a
militancy that should worry even the
staunchest supporters of the
indigenisation regulations which have seen
massive investor flight. Recently
he walked out of a seminar discussing how
the regulations could be moderated
citing racism.
Malema who is a self-confessed racist himself and who
is fond of singing
songs such as Shoot the Boer that call for the
extermination of Afrikaner
farmers only helped to reinforce Kasukuwere's
new-found militancy.
But what brought the folly of inviting Malema to
Zimbabwe poignantly into
focus were events back in his native South Africa.
These were the murder of
incorrigible white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche
and the racial tensions
that followed.
The events show how
fragile race relations are in a country and how one
careless undertaking by
an otherwise illiterate person can damage a country.
South Africa's Rainbow
nation status has been shredded. Zimbabwe has already
gone that same way.
Described at the dawn of Independence as the "Jewel of
Africa" by
no-less-a-person than the late revolutionary luminary Julius
Nyerere, now it
lies, its image mere shards, on the international floor.
People are
already beginning to question some people's fascination with
international
pariahs. Before the Malema fiasco is over the nation has
already been
assured that another character, who will not help enhance our
country's
image but further damage it, is coming to officially open what was
once our
premier trade showcase, the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair
(ZITF).
The main purpose of the ZITF is to market Zimbabwe as a
modern country where
all who wish, to can come and do business. In the past
10 years the
luminance of the trade show has dimmed; and as the new
dispensation in
government fights to redeem the country's status, it helps
little to make a
person, who an important section of the international
considers a rogue, the
face of ZITF.
Our "Look-East" policy has
not met much success although our leadership
would like to make claims to
the contrary. But the falsehood of its success
is betrayed by the now loud
calls for the lifting of sanctions imposed upon
a section of our leadership.
When the sanctions were first imposed the then
governing Zanu PF said they
would look to their friends in the East and let
their enemies in the West
keep their "filthy lucre".
But now it turns out, the preachers of
this doctrine want a share of the
West's dirty money.
But the
reasons that make Iran a pariah are not dissimilar from those that
make
Zimbabwe have the same shameful status. Presidents don't have to win
elections in Iran; they force themselves to continue ruling even against the
will of the people. The last election held in Iran was heavily disputed and
demonstrations against the result were violently put down. All this is very
familiar to Zimbabweans.
Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -
like our own President Robert Mugabe -
is vitriolic in his criticism of the
West which he calls racist. His
speeches - like those of our own leader -
have been described as "hateful".
Although Ahmadinejad points to
Western racism, his own denial of the
Holocaust is nothing but racist. He
has told his supporters that the
Holocaust was not a "real event" and called
it a pretext for the creation of
Israel. According to him the Jewish state
was founded on "a lie and a
mythical claim".
Like in the Malema
case where he wants to "Shoot the Boer" Ahmadinejad wants
the state of
Israel to be "wiped off the face of the earth". We have seen
how explosive
the race card is wherever it is used.
And Oh my God, for sometime, we
will be host to the North Korean national
football team which has chosen our
country as its acclimatising base for the
Fifa 2010 World Cup in South
Africa in June and July. Many Zimbabweans will
rightly find this development
quite offensive considering the "act of
madness" perpetrated in some parts
of the country by the North
Korean-trained Five Brigade in the 1980s. Indeed
some victims of the
massacres which reportedly left 20 000 civilians dead
are lining up protests
against the hosting of this team.
Like
Iran, North Korea is a pariah nation which is accused of dabbling in
the
creation of atomic bombs. What message are our leaders sending to the
rest
of the world?
BY NEVANJI MADANHIRE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010 17:25
THE
arrest of City of Harare councillors last week betrays a law enforcement
system that has gone topsy-turvy. The arrest follows the alleged leaking of
a damning document chronicling irregular acquisition of city land by certain
powerful individuals who include businessman Phillip Chiyangwa and Local
Government minister Ignatious Chombo.
It follows hard on the
heels of the visit to The Standard offices by the
police a week earlier over
the same issue. This paper broke the story of the
illegal and irregular
acquisitions of the land two weeks ago. The police
visited upon The Standard
newsroom and questioned editors and reporters on
the matter. They also
interrogated a reporter from another Sunday newspaper.
A special
committee investigating the irregular sale of the land had
recommended that
Chiyangwa be arrested for irregularly acquiring land in the
capital. Council
had appointed a special investigating committee chaired by
Ward 17
councillor Warship Dumba to probe the illegal and irregular sale of
land by
previous administrations.
In the report the investigations committee
observed that there was no
council approval for all land acquired by
Chiyangwa. The report notes
several cases where council procedures were
flouted.
Chiyangwa’s Kilima Investments allegedly entered land
swap deals with the
council in December 2007. The committee noted that the
land was exchanged
for salaries and two Land Rover vehicles.
In
its recommendations the committee said the land exchange deal involving
Kilima Investments and HCC should be reversed and the land repossessed.
Dumba’s committee said Chiyangwa and some council employees, in particular
finance director Cosmas Zvikaramba and director of urban planning services
Psychology Chiwanga, must be arrested for carrying out illegal
transfers.
But in an intriguing twist, the police instead of
investigating the
individuals mentioned in the probe, or even questioning
them, have arrested
the councillors who constituted the investigations
committee. It was
reported last week that eight councillors were arrested on
the instructions
of Chiyangwa.
Apparently Chiyangwa had
reportedly countered the report by accusing the
councillors of criminal
defamation.
What has raised eyebrows is why the police have not
instituted an
investigation into Chiyangwa to ascertain whether the
information in the
report is true of false. The evidence in the report looks
staggeringly
incriminating and it would not have taken the police more than
a few days to
verify it. The pieces of land involved are well
documented.
The police have always commended the public for its
assistance in
investigating criminal matters. Indeed without the help of the
public many
serious criminal offences would have gone unprosecuted. But in
the past,
where members of the public have whistle-blown on criminal
activities taking
place in their areas, the police have not arrested these
responsible
citizens but have seriously followed through the
leads.
The probe by the councillors, who represent the city’s
ratepayers, is a
legitimate way of safeguarding property that collectively
belongs to the
residents of Harare. The police ought to respect what the
councillors have
to say about graft in the running of the council,
especially by previous
councils which mostly did not represent the interests
of the people. Most
councillors in previous councils had been cherry-picked
to serve certain
selfish interests.
The police have not only got
to do the right thing but also have to be seen
to be doing the right thing.
In this case the right thing to do would have
been to follow the
recommendations of the city probe team and investigate
those its report says
should be arrested. Or, at the very least, the police
should have been seen
instituting their own investigation to prove right or
wrong the contents of
the report. To turn upon the journalists who reported
on the issue and the
councillors responsible for the report reeks of a
massive
cover-up.
What is important about the report is not that it was
leaked, as the arrest
of the councillors and harassment of journalists seems
to suggest, but that
it named individuals who allegedly committed criminal
acts. The police
should be seen to be acting accordingly.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 10 April 2010
17:18
BOTH the MDCs and Zanu PF have declared their interest in holding
another
plebiscite in 2011. To the politicians and the political parties,
this is a
gallant show of political bravado designed to show their readiness
to lead
and mislead the people of Zimbabwe.
An election is viewed
as a sign of progress, hope and continuity where
voters review and renew
candidates' credentials. The recent announcement for
new elections in 2011
was greeted with scepticism and fear. It sent a chill
down the spines of
many because, as Mutare Central MP Innocent Gonese
rightly said, in Zimbabwe
an election is a matter of life and death.
It's surprising that our
politicians are showing enthusiasm for a new
election yet they have done
nothing to lay the foundation for a free and
fair election. Government
should walk the talk on elections and stop
behaving like puppies always
whining for nothing.
How can we talk of a new election in 2011 when
the organ on national healing
and reconciliation lies dormant on the paper
which constituted it?
Can we really achieve national healing when the
process itself is driven by
politicians who are themselves interested
stakeholders whose integrity is
compromised? How do we achieve national
healing by conducting seminars at
Harare International Conference Centre
(HICC) close to daily conveniences
and far from the affected
people?
It's like inviting Sadc observers to our elections who come
to loiter in
hotel lobbies while people are being murdered in the
countryside then fly
back to their respective countries and declare "The
elections were free and
fair."
Has the Human Rights Commission
done anything on human rights abuses
perpetrated during past elections by
state agents and the Zanu PF militia?
Have the police been reformed to serve
the defenceless citizens and not
their political masters? What about the
army and intelligence service; are
they working for the security of the
nation and not individuals?
The pace at which the constitution-making
process is proceeding does not
inspire confidence. Many are wondering
whether a new constitution will be in
place in time for the proposed 2011
election. I do not think Zimbabweans are
ready for another election when
there is no constitution at all because the
Lancaster House one has proved
to be grossly flawed.
Our memories are still fresh on ZEC's conduct
in the 2008 election. Word is
already filtering that the next election will
be harmonised again. Will the
new electoral body be able to deliver
professionally on its constitutional
mandate without interference for the
benefit of Zimbabweans or are we going
to end up with another electoral
fiasco that will push Zimbabwe further into
electoral chaos?
Having
grown up in the rural areas, I still remember those days of being
force
marched to Zanu PF militia bases where we would spend the whole night
singing Zanu PF and Chimurenga songs as well as patrolling the neighbourhood
looking for MDC "sellouts".
In 2002 I was lucky that my uncle, in the
army back then, was the base
commander so I could sleep at home once in a
while. Most people in the
rural areas spend at least five days a week
attending rallies during
election time. They are not given time to tend
their vegetable gardens yet
that's where they derive their livelihood ..
What measures have been put in
place to curb such harassment against the
populace before the next election?
Traditional leaders; chiefs and
headmen also threaten people with expulsion
from their respective areas of
jurisdiction if they are suspected of
harbouring anti-Zanu PF sentiments.
Together with parliamentarians, these
traditional leaders behave like the
Taliban and Al-Qaeda who blow up their
own brothers and sisters yet claim to
have their interests at heart. That is
not the kind of environment that is
fit for an election.
In essence, post colonial Zimbabwe has never been
ready for any election
whatsoever and against such a background; government
should play its role if
Zimbabwe is ever to lose its pariah tag. Again that
tag can not be weaned
off by holding an election next year when the wounds
of previous elections
are yet to be diagnosed and properly
treated.
.
Instruments of terror and torture such as militia bases in the
rural areas
ought to be dismantled. Politicians should just campaign in the
media and
hold their rallies as other civilised societies do. We do not need
militia
in our villages.
Joachim Garikai
Midlands State
University
Gweru
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 10 April 2010 16:49
I have
never been too fond of radical feminism or any form of extremism for
that
matter; finding it to be an aggressive, usually narrow and unhelpful
approach to conflict resolution. Radicalism is often reactionary,
manifesting as a reaction to some undesired reality and is usually the
preserve of those who feel they have something to defend at all costs and
something to fight for against whatever odds.
As an activist, I
have found that radicalism has its place, its use and its
benefits in
pursuing the elusive goal of attaining social justice for
womankind.
Some months back, I read with glee, that Emilia
Muchawa and a group of women
had broken into song and dance protesting
against the negligible female
representation in the constitution-making
process's committees and even had
the gumption to threaten to derail the
process altogether.
Now I reckon there are those who found such
conduct distasteful, extreme and
even uncalled for - but every once in a
while, it is necessary for
discontent to erupt into something more than
passive resistance.
I do not know whether these women intended to
make such a vocal display of
their displeasure but I would like to think it
was neither premeditated nor
meant as a gesture of disrespect for the
process - I'd like to think it was
a spontaneous and extreme reaction to
long-suppressed frustrations that
women have felt at having to be side-lined
time and again in critical
decision-making processes.
And I
daresay, no one can argue that women's grievances are not legitimate
and
their frustration a natural consequence of ineffectual words never put
to
practice as our country has a great gender policy on paper and absolutely
nothing to back it up on the ground.
The transition from
theoretical gender policy frameworks to the
implementation and practice of
the same has yet to manifest; and while one
can appreciate that it is not
easy to reverse the thinking of years and that
gender equity will be a
process - one expects to see a degree of commitment
towards living up to the
words enshrined in the treaties, legislative
instruments and laws which
Zimbabwe has signed, ratified and enacted.
From the CEDAW to the Sadc
Protocol on Gender and Development, and other
treaties focusing on the need
for gender parity, Zimbabwe has made a
commitment on paper that is yet to
manifest in actuality; so with the
imminent crafting of a new Constitution,
women have every right to insist -
no - to demand equal
representation.
Article VI of the Global Political Agreement having
stated without
equivocation that the parties are: "Mindful of the need to
ensure that the
new Constitution deepens our democratic values and
principles and the
protection of the equality of all citizens, particularly
the enhancement of
full citizenship and equality of women," it is only
natural that a deviation
from these noble goals be met with resistance, and
if need be, outright
mutiny.
However, cognisance must be taken of
the fact that men- folk have deeply
internalised cultural values and have
often related to women on a
paternalistic level - an unfortunate consequence
of being born and raised in
a patriarchal society.
Having said
this, I found the gesture made by Muchawa and the other women
present at
that gathering to be a definitive act of kicking paternalism to
the
curb.
Emphatically, Zimbabwean women are making a statement they have
no use for
paternalistic gestures; men do not ever need to make decisions
(regardless
of how well-meaning the intention) on behalf of
women.
We can and we will speak for ourselves.
In this context, my
view is that paternalism is premised on two
considerations; the first being
that men adopt a benevolent and "fatherly"
attitude towards women and by
assuming this attitude they (men) then make
decisions ostensibly meant to
benefit women without the inclusion, consent
or will of the women
themselves.
So perhaps, it was with good intent that these men
gathered, figuring that
they would "know what was best for women" and go
ahead with the business of
crafting the constitution without the permission,
participation or
involvement of women.
Inexorably, the women's
movement in this country has over the years
consistently challenged and
resisted patriarchal and paternalistic
attitudes - suffice to say, the
constitution-making process presents the
most volatile battlefront yet. -
Kubatanablogs.net
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/11778
By Ecumenical News
International
11 Apr 2010
Poverty is so bad in Zimbabwe that students
sometimes resort to prostitution
to survive, says a new report by women in
the country's Student Christian
Movement.
A power-sharing government
formed in 2009 from Zimbabwe's two main political
rival parties and a small
splinter group, brought scant relief for young
people who battle to survive
economically, Christian students have
documented in a
booklet.
President Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, but his
ruling
Zanu-PF party lost parliamentary elections in 2008 to Morgan
Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change.
Mugabe also lost the
first round of a presidential poll, but later
convincingly won a second
round presidential election after Tsvangirai
refused to take part due to
intimidation of his supporters.
Under Mugabe, what was once a strong
African economy has descended into an
economic crisis, where many are
starving and millions are fleeing to South
Africa and other countries after
there was sky-rocketing inflation that hit
231 million percent at one
point.
Many say they are yet to enjoy the fruits of the government of
national
unity brokered by South Africa and other African
nations.
"The only thing I can say is that there is food on the shelves
and we can
have our workshops as the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe
without
being intimidated," says Matsiliso Moyo, who recently graduated from
teacher
training college.
"But to those students who are still at
college, things are not so rosy.
They are expected to pay tuition fees which
are six times their parents'
salaries," continues Moyo.
His testimony
is part of a collection published recently by the SCMZ.
The book,
entitled Students' Experiences in Times of Governance Crisis,
contains
descriptions of arrests by state security agents and stories of
students
struggling through their studies on a meagre budget.
Melissa Green
describes how she and her peers turned to sex-for-money with
older men in
order to supplement their money.
"It's quite a painful experience to see
beautiful girls selling their bodies
as a means of survival," Green laments
in her contribution. "That's the only
way we can survive because most of us
come from disadvantaged backgrounds. I
used to do it myself but thank God
for SCMZ and my Christian background, I
can't do that
anymore."
Another student describes how she was detained together with
her
five-month-old son after attending a workshop organised by the SCMZ,
while
another tells of her escape from her home after a raid by militant
members
of Mugabe's party.
ENI cannot use its Zimbabwe
correspondent's name due to restrictions that
remain against the
media.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is
jointly
sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World
Federation,
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of
European
Churches.]
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=16043
By: Gerald
Chateta
Posted: Sunday, April 11, 2010
Harare - The said
'Mnangagwa' detained attempted chief coup plotter,
Captain Albert Matapo,
after being tortured by state security agents on
Friday told the police and
prison officials that he failed to escape from
prison because he was
drunk.
Sources from the police's law and order section and the prison
service said
Matapo told them that if he was not drunk, he could have
escaped from prison
last weekend after he successfully broke his cell
burglar bars.
"He testified that he drank three 750ml of Mainstay spirits
undiluted. He
said after taking the alcohol he failed to find the way out of
the cell
after successfully breaking one of the burglar bars. The officer
involved
also admitted that he smuggled the alcohol," said the
sources.
Matapo was arrested in 2007 together with six other suspects
namely Nyasha
Zivuku, Oncemore Mazivahona, Emmanuel Marara, Patson Mupfure,
Shingirai
Mutemachani, and Rangarirai Maziofa, on allegations of plotting to
replace
President Mugabe with a senior ZANU-PF official Emerson Mnangagwa
(pictured).
A ZPS source said the attempted escapees are being
tortured by the police to
establish their relationship with Defence Minister
Emerson Mnangagwa.
"The police and CIO operatives on Thursday chased us
from the underground
Harare central cells where they are torturing the
inmates. They said our
presents were 'disturbing' them from torturing
the
inmates," said the source.
During the period between March 29 and
April 3, Prison Officer, Donald
Tapera Gwekwerere bought a hacksaw, seven
hacksaw blades, five glass
cutters, a pair of pliers, a claw hammer and a
10-metre long rope from Mbare
Musika.He was on Tuesday sentenced to an
effective 5 years imprisonment for
the commission of the offence.