http://af.reuters.com/
Sat Apr 2, 2011 9:28am
GMT
* Mugabe says conflicts are common in third world
countries
* SADC hardens stance
* Mugabe still wants early
polls
HARARE, April 2 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has
hit back
at criticism from southern African leaders, saying they cannot tell
him how
to run his country, the state-owned Herald newspaper said on
Saturday.
At a regional summit this week in Lusaka, the leaders of
Zambia, South
Africa and Mozambique condemned events in Zimbabwe in
unusually strong
language and called for an end to a crackdown on the
opposition blamed on
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
"We are a sovereign
state and as a sovereign state we don't accept any
interference and even our
neighbours should not tell us what to do," the
paper quoted Mugabe as
telling a meeting of his party's central committee.
The Southern African
Development Community (SADC) has been criticised for
being too soft on
Mugabe but the tone of its leaders has been stiffening as
Zimbabwe lurches
from one crisis to another.
In recent weeks, Mugabe's security officials
have cancelled opposition
rallies and detained some rival figures,
heightening tension ahead of a
possible general election this
year.
Mugabe, 87 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980,
has been
pushing for early polls before agreed democratic reforms, accusing
his
opponents of wasting time on quarrels over appointments and delaying a
constitution re-writing process.
He was forced into a unity
government with rival Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change two years ago to try to ease an
economic crisis blamed on
his policies.
Tsvangirai last week appealed to regional leaders to
persuade Mugabe to
allow wide democratic reforms before elections, but
political analysts
believe he will only give ground if there is a threat of
regional isolation.
"Tsvangirai complained to SADC about elections and
violence," the Herald
quoted Mugabe as saying. "I asked them: which country
is free of that
conflict? Zambia? Here? We are the same. In any third world
or developing
country, there are always conflicts but you don't judge them
on that."
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Tobias Manyuchi Saturday 02 April
2011
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe on Friday warned South
African President
Jacob Zuma against attempts to prescribe a solution to
Zimbabwe’s problems,
in a sign of growing tension between the Zimbabwean
leader and his most
important neighbour and ally.
Speaking barely 24
hours after returning from a summit of the Southern
African Development
Community (SADC)’s security organ that discussed
Zimbabwe, Mugabe said
neither the regional bloc nor the African Union (AU)
could dictate solutions
to Harare.
Zuma, who is the SADC’s mediator between Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, briefed the organ that met Thursday in Zambia on
the political
deadlock in Zimbabwe.
While the organ in its communiqué
did not directly criticise Mugabe it
raised most of the concerns voiced by
Tsvangirai, who says Mugabe’s allies
in the security forces have intensified
a crackdown on his MDC party ahead
of new elections expected later this year
or early 2011.
“The MDC thinks SADC or the AU can prescribe to us how we
run our things,”
said Mugabe, who was addressing a meeting of the central
committee of his
ZANU PF party in Harare.
Using unusually strong
language towards African leaders whose support has
helped him to weather
international pressure, Mugabe said Zimbabwe is a
sovereign nation that did
not take orders from outsiders.
“We will not brook any dictation from any
source. We are a sovereign
country, even our neighbours cannot dictate to
us. We will resist that,” he
said.
Mugabe said he and his coalition
partners were yet to get the full details
of a report submitted by Zuma to
the SADC security organ or Troika, but
appeared to shoot down a roadmap to
free and fair elections that the South
African leader is said to be
drafting.
Under Zuma’s roadmap, elections will follow a referendum on a
new
constitution and will also set milestones such as electoral reforms, the
role of security forces and how to smoothly transfer power.
But
Mugabe, whose military allies are feared could block Tsvangirai from
taking
power should he win elections, said Zuma was merely a facilitator who
could
not prescribe solutions to Zimbabwe.
“The facilitator is the facilitator
and must facilitate dialogue, he cannot
prescribe anything,” he said. “We
prescribe what we should be doing in
accordance with our laws and our
agreement (that created unity government).”
Mugabe said Zimbabwe should
be able to go to polls once a new constitution
was in place.
“We do
not see any reason, if we fullfil the requirements of the
constitution
making process, why elections cannot be held,” he said.
Zimbabwe is in
the process of writing a new constitution to replace the
present charter
drafted by former colonial power, Britain. A referendum on
the proposed new
constitution is expected around September.
Mugabe, who has previously
said Zimbabwe could still hold elections even
without the new constitution,
yesterday said polls would also have to be
held under the present
Constitution should Zimbabweans reject the draft
charter in the planned
referendum.
Tsvangirai wants elections to take place only after a new
constitution is
enacted and in line with a Zuma-drafted roadmap to ensure no
repeat of the
2008 fiasco when he defeated Mugabe in the first round of the
presidential
poll but was forced to withdraw from the second round ballot
after the
military unleashed violence that killed at least 200 of his
supporters. --
ZimOnline
Written by Staff Reporter |
Saturday, 02 April 2011 13:49
|
In August last year President Jacob
Zuma presented to SADC a list of actions (see below) agreed to by the GPA
principles – MDC-T, MDC Mutambara and Zanu (PF). “If the agreement on the 24
items is implemented on schedule it would lay the basis for the conviction to
grow that Zimbabwe can reach her goal of reaching free and fair elections whose
results would be acceptable to all,” Zuma said in his report. He said the critical issues were to ensure a sustained focus on developments in Zimbabwe towards elections, the monitoring of the situation and timely intervention to deal with problems as and when they arise. This has not happened and once again Zimbabwe is in crisis. All 24 items on Zuma’s list are still outstanding and no timely intervention has taken place. |
http://www.radiovop.com
02/04/2011 10:39:00
Harare, April 02,
2011 – Zimbabwe’s magistrates will on Monday finally
embark on a countrywide
strike action for an indefinite period to press for
an increase in their
salaries.
In a statement issued Friday, the Magistrates Association of
Zimbabwe said
its members were disheartened by the lack of commitment by the
Ministry of
Finance to approve a salary increase that had been suggested in
January this
year by their employer Judicial Service Commission.
“Our
salary negotiations have reached a dead end. We exercised our elastic
patience until it snapped. We are completely disappointed and disillusioned.
The only choice that is left open to us is to withdraw our labour. There
would be no magistrate’s court sitting throughout the country starting on
Monday the 4th of April 2011 until all our demands are met,” read the
statement.
“The capitalist approach of giving us a wage which is just
enough to keep
body and soul together will not pacify us. We demand a living
wage and until
that is done we will not return to work.”
Munacho
Mutevedzi, secretary general of the magistrate’s trade union,
confirmed
magistrates were going on strike.
Zimbabwe's magistrates are demanding
monthly salaries of US$600 for trainee
magistrates, US$1000 for junior
magistrates, US$1500 for senior magistrates,
US$1700 for provincial
magistrates and US$2000 for senior provincial
magistrates.
They also
want a monthly US$2 500 for regional magistrates, US$3 000 for
senior
regional magistrates and deputy chief magistrates and US$3 300 for a
chief
magistrate.
http://www.voanews.com
Mr. Mugabe, who traveled on a special
Air Zimbabwe flight to Zambia this
week for a regional mini-summit, will
order the carrier's management to pay
part of the US$9 million in arrears on
staff compensation
Gibbs Dube | Washington 01 April
2011
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is expected to intervene in
an on-going
strike by Air Zimbabwe pilots and cabin crew that is now in its
second week,
sources said Friday.
Sources said Mr. Mugabe, who
traveled on a special Air Zimbabwe flight to
Zambia on Thursday, will order
management to pay part of the US$9 million
owed to staff.
Mr. Mugabe
intervened in a similar strike last year when pilots, engineers
and cabin
crew downed tools demanding payment of outstanding salaries and
allowances.
They were paid part of the arrears before going back to work -
but not all,
leading to the current action.
Economist Tony Hawkins said President
Mugabe’s intervention is a desperate
move to rescue the carrier, which is
losing millions of dollars a month.
“Even if he intervenes today, the
airline will still face similar problems
in the future and therefore the
best way forward is to privatize Air
Zimbabwe or let it collapse like Air
Zambia,” Hawkins told VOA Studio 7
reporter Gibbs Dube.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Chief
Reporter
Friday, 01 April 2011 07:37
HARARE - Three boisterous youths
showed up at the farmers market at Mbare
Musika last week with orders to
force-march SME entrepreneurs in this
bustling vegetable market to a Zanu
(PF) rally.
The youths noisily charged into the farmers market then peeled
off their
jackets to reveal identical T-shirts emblazoned with Robert
Mugabe's face.
Punching the air, they chanted Zanu (PF) slogans and jabbed
their boots at
vendors crouched behind their market stalls.
"Vharai
musika muende kumusangano (Close your stalls and go to the rally),"
shouted
one of the youths
For a few moments the hum of conversation was stilled. Then
an elderly man
who had been sitting on a brick wall stood up and shouted:
"Munpenga
stereki, your time is up, you are finished.We paid $10 to the city
council
and we are not coming to your rally.
Are you giving us a refund?
We are here to work not go to your rally."
The Zanu (PF) youths scanned the
faces of the crowd staring back at them.
Only days ago these people would
have run. Not any more. They stood their
ground and the Zanu (PF) youths
turned away.
"Heeeee," the crowd jeered as the snubbed youths retreated.
Ndugu Eddy, the
man who had confronted the youths, told how 31 years ago he
and Mugabe were
guerrillas in exile in Mozambique, fighting the "chimurenga"
as the war of
independence is called. Ask this father of six what he thinks
of his old
comrade now and he spits on the ground and says ‘traitor’.
"I
never thought I would see the day he would send filth like those boys to
come here and harass us to go to his rally," he said.
The scores of
people around him nodded and shook his hand. There is a sense
that the
months of intimidation have failed to dent most Zimbabweans desire
to rid
themselves of Mugabe’s regime.
"Havalume," shouted one of vendors, as the
youths disappeared. (Slang for:
they will not win.)
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com
Published Date:
02 April 2011
By Jane Fields
Zimbabwe's former opposition party is
ecstatic that its candidate has been
re-elected as parliamentary speaker,
but hopes this presages an easy victory
for Morgan Tsvangirai in elections
later this year are misplaced.
Lovemore Moyo of Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) won
re-election this week with 105 votes to
Zanu-PF's 93.
The MDC expansively congratulated the nation on its "robust
determination to
defend the gains of the democratic struggle"
. On
the streets, the mood was one of quiet excitement. "We rejoice," the
manager
of a department store whispered when the news finally filtered out
(the
pro-Zanu-PF state broadcaster had largely ignored it): a pavement
shoe-mender begged to borrow a copy of the official Herald, returning it
with a wry: "But now they'll arrest him." The authorities have already
indicated they want to detain Moyo, warning he faces arrest on contempt
charges for criticising a Supreme Court decision last month to nullify his
2008 election to the post. As of yesterday, Moyo was still
free.
President Robert Mugabe's party had fought tooth-and-nail to wrest
the
speakership from the MDC. That's mostly because of the power the
incumbent
will wield if the 25-month-old coalition deal collapses and the
87-year-old
president dies before elections are held. Legal experts say that
if he dies
while the coalition is still in place, Zanu-PF can nominate
someone from the
party to replace him. Zanu-PF cannot do this if Mugabe dies
after the
coalition has been dissolved: instead, the speaker will play a
vital role in
selecting MPs to make up an electoral college to pick an
interim leader. Mr
Mugabe's henchmen were not expecting an MDC
speaker.
Mr Moyo's re-election was largely due to an abrupt
change-of-heart from a
breakaway MDC faction, now led by law professor
Welshman Ncube.
Unfortunately for Tsvangirai, he cannot count on a continued
alliance
between the two MDCs as Zimbabwe hurtles to elections. The smaller
MDC
faction has already branded Mr Tsvangirai's MDC "ungrateful" for its
support
What Mr Tsvangirai's party can count on is Zanu-PF's
ruthlessness. Spokesman
Rugare Gumbo declared yesterday that Zanu-PF was now
"focused on a win" in
elections that Mr Mugabe wants held in August or
September.
His white company grab is to be launched in all provinces as
the party doles
out firms for votes. Whites and foreigners are braced for an
inevitable
onslaught. One newspaper reported all white companies worth less
than a
dollar were to be "indigenised", even though the original legislation
suggested companies worth less than $500,000 would not be affected.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
01/04/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
VICE President John Nkomo allegedly pays his farm hands a paltry
US$50 per
month, two ex-employees jailed for stealing from him have
claimed.
Qhawe Sibanda, 32, and Nhlanhla Siziba, 31, were jailed for nine
years when
they appeared before a Bulawayo magistrate accused of stock theft
after
admitting to stealing two beasts valued at US$1000 from Nkomo’s CSC
Winterblock Farm in Insuza.
The pair pleaded guilty to the charges
but claimed they were forced to steal
because they could live off the US$50
they claimed Nkomo paid them.
But the court dismissed this did not
qualify as extenuating circumstances
and sentenced them to nine years in
prison.
The court heard that sometime in November 2009, Sibanda and
Siziba overheard
Pretty Tshabangu say she wanted to exchange her ox for
heifers and that she
also had money to buy another heifer.
Sibanda
and Siziba then connived to steal one heifer and a steer from VP
Nkomo’s
farm so they could sell them to Tshabangu.
They took the beasts to one
Elister Sibanda’s homestead after failing to
locate Tshabangu but returned
after two weeks when they collected a R2 000
for the heifer.
The two
were then arrested and the beasts were recovered.
However, Tshabangu who
the state claims was in on the deal with the pair
pleaded not guilty and was
remanded in custody to 12 April.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Tony Saxon
Friday, 01 April 2011
13:39
CHIMANIMANI - In its desperate attempt to save its waning support
here, Zanu
(PF) has embarked on violent campaigns targeting MDC-T
supporters.
Last Sunday saw Zanu (PF) war veterans and overzealous youth
militia causing
mayhem in Cashel Valley and Kubvumbura areas after the
Anti-Sanction
Petition launch in Chimanimani became a major flop.
The
militia, led by Colonel Murecherwa of Zimbabwe National Army and Zanu
(PF)
deputy minister of Economic Planning and Development Samuel Udenge,
moved
door to door victimizing perceived MDC supporters who did not attend
the
anti-sanctions meeting, labelling them as unpatriotic.
Members of the
Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) in Chimanimani also
took part in the
orgy of violence as they beat up the defenceless MDC
supporters.
***The Zimbabwean visited the area last Monday and the
situation was tense
as MDC supporters suffered brutalization at the hands of
overzealous CIOs.
The MDC-T Manicaland spokesperson, Pishai Muchauraya,
said about 200 MDC
supporters had fled from Zanu (PF) sponsored
violence.
"At least 20 of our supporters are being sheltered at the MDC
head office in
Mutare, with others seeking medical treatment at local
clinics. The violent
assaults on our members started last Saturday after
Zanu (PF) anti-sanctions
rally flopped. Those who did not attend were hunted
down and many were
severely assaulted, causing them to
flee to
surrounding districts and across the border into Mozambique," said
Muchauraya.
Villagers interviewed by this paper said they were losing
their cattle to
the Zanu (PF) war veterans and CIOs who were threatening the
villagers with
death if they failed to comply.
"We are being ordered
to pay fines for not attending the Zanu (PF) rallies.
I have lost my ox and
a goat to the members of the CIO who accused me of
supporting MDC. Many
others are losing their chickens and other livestock as
fines, for not
attending. I have now decided to leave for Chipinge to stay
with my
relatives because the CIOs have threatened to come back and finish
me off,"
said a villager.
Muchauraya said Zanu (PF) had established a register
that villagers were
being made to sign in the morning and evening, as a way
of keeping track of
them.
"It is no longer safe here. We are living
in constant fear as we are being
tracked and our movements being monitored
by the CIOs. War veterans and the
youth militia are being paid by Udenge to
unleash terror," said Farai
Muusha, an MDC youth member.
The
villagers said that there was much concern that a repeat of the violence
unleashed on MDC-T during the March 2008 harmonized election, appeared to
have started again.
The Chimanimani violence comes shortly after the
Nyanga North violence
perpetrated by Hubert Nyanhongo saw hundreds of MDC
supporters being
assaulted while others fled into neighbouring Mozambique.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
02/04/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
A FORMER Bulawayo homicide detective is demanding US$443 600
in damages from
the country’s co-Home Affairs Ministers and ZRP bosses for
“malicious
arrest, detention and humiliation” following what he claims was a
botched-up
attempt by the police to cover up the deaths, in custody, of two
armed
robbery suspects.
Farayi Bazil Nyapokoto alleges that on March
10 last year, senior officers
instructed him and other officers to cover-up
a murder case which had
occurred at the CID Homicide section of Bulawayo
Central Police Station.
The court action cites co-Home Affairs Ministers,
Kembo Mohadi and Theresa
Makone, ZRP Commissioner General of Police
Augustine Chihuri, Superintendent
Milos Moyo, the Officer Commanding Camps,
Chief Superintendent Mavis Nkomo,
the Officer Commanding CID Bulawayo, and
one Jefias Sibanda.
Detective Assistant Inspector Sibanda, Detective
Constable Mugabe and
Detective Shoko are also included among the
defendants.
In his affidavit, Nyapokoto alleges that they were instructed
to
stage-manage a shoot-out with two suspected armed robbers, Andrew
Jabulani
Quinton Sibanda and Nehemiah Vumbunu, who had in fact died in
police
custody.
Nyapokoto says he then testified at an inquest into
the deaths which opened
at Tredgold Magistrates’ Courts on 9 July 2010 where
he gave his version of
events.
“Soon after giving evidence at around
11:15 am, I was approached by five
officers including Detective Constable
Mugabe and Detective Shoko who
assaulted me in public and instantly
handcuffed me. I was then taken into
police custody, no charge was
pronounced against me.
“I was detained in police custody from the day of
my arrest to 12 July. A
frivolous charge of perjury was preferred against me
on 12 July on which I
was taken to court for an initial remand. I was
remanded in custody for a
bail ruling as the police had opposed bail and was
only released on bail on
14 July,” Nyapokoto said.
He adds that a day
after his release on bail, and at the instance Chief
Superintendent Mavis
Nkomo and others, he was evicted from his official
residence at Ross Camp
without any notice or court order.
Nyapokoto says he had to approach the
High Court through his lawyers on an
urgent basis for an order restoring him
back to his official residence. An
order granted on 19 July restored him
back into the official residence.
“In the process of defending myself in
the malicious prosecution and in
getting back to my official residence, I
incurred legal costs to the tune of
US$6 400 to find justice.
“At all
material times, the defendants’ actions were wrongful and they were
aware
that their actions were illegal. The defendants were acting in the
course
and scope of their employment,” he wrote.
Charges laid against him were
all withdrawn before plea and it is his
contention that this because the
charges lacked evidence.
He aloso says he was discharged from service on
16 June 2010 and but has
since challenged the discharge adding the matter is
still pending on appeal
in the High Court.
http://www.financialgazette.co.zw
Friday, 01 April 2011 13:51
E-mail Print PDF
Njabulo
Ncube, Assistant Editor
AN embarrassing defeat for ZANU-PF’s candidate in
elections for the Speaker
of the House of Assembly on Tuesday has touched
off a potentially damaging
witch hunt to sniff out dissidents from the
stricken party, The Financial
Gazette can reveal. ZANU-PF’s national
chairman, Simon Khaya-Moyo was
hammered in the election by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC-T) national
chairman, Lovemore Moyo, who garnered 105
votes against Khaya-Moyo’s 93 in
an election that was marred by accusations
of bribery by both ZANU-PF and
the MDC- T.
ZANU-PF insiders said tempers flared, with accusations and
counter-accusations between party factions trying to extricate themselves
from possible censure by party leader, President Robert Mugabe, peeved by
the party’s poor and incoherent show.
Insiders said there had been
desperate efforts by ZANU-PF to reverse the
MDC-T’s gains in Parliament to
show critics that the party had been
rejuvenated in time for crunch general
elections, which President Mugabe has
indicated might be held before the end
of the year.
One insider said the party wanted to use Khaya-Moyo’s much
anticipated
victory to show Southern African Development Community (SADC)
leaders’
meeting in Livingstone, Zambia today that ZANU-PF was ready to rule
alone.
But the dramatic twist to what had been expected to be a ZANU-PF romp
has
shifted the pendulum, with party strategists said to have been in a
state of
shock and panic.
ZANU-PF insiders told The Financial Gazette
yesterday that there was a
general consensus within the party that some
legislators defied the whip
system and voted for MDC-T’s Moyo amid
speculation that some of the party
members could have been corrupted by
MDC-T officials to vote against their
own party candidate.
Accusing
fingers are said to have been pointed at politicians who were
vehemently
opposed to Khaya-Moyo’s candidature, especially senior party
members from
Mashonaland Central and Matabel-eland provinces.
Marondera East legislator,
Tracy Mutinhiri, the ZANU-PF Women’s League
political commissar, who is also
the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social
Welfare, is being looked at with
suspicion. Hence she is one of the
politicians targeted under the
witch-hunt, as well as Sithembiso Nyoni, a
politician from Matabeleland
North, whose daughter is married to the
speaker, Moyo.
Mutinhiri is said
to have recently become critical of her party and has
often been said to
have hysterically lambasted fellow party members.
Edward Chindori-Chininga,
the ZANU-PF Guruve South legislator, was said to
be another suspect owing to
his perceived sympathy of parliamentary agendas
from the two MDC formations
in the august House.
There were possibilities some factions within the party
could pile pressure
on the party’s politburo to rein-in legislators that
failed to make it to
parliament, specifically Cephas Sindi, the ZANU-PF
legislator for
Gokwe-Chireya.
ZANU-PF expected to gain advantage due to
the absence of incarcerated MDC-T
legislators Elton Mang-oma, the Minister
of Energy and Power Development who
is facing two separate charges of abuse
of public office, and Constin
Muguti, MDC-T Gokwe-Kabuyuni lawmaker who was
convicted of a criminal
offense.
Edgar Mbwembwe, the Chiko-mba-East
legislator was said to be another suspect
due to his association with MDC-T
secretary general Tendai Biti during his
student days at the University of
Zimbabwe (UZ).
Mbwembwe and Biti were both in the UZ Student Representative
Council in the
1990s.
In the run-up to Khaya-Moyo’s nomination, several
names had been mentioned
in connection with the election, among them ZANU-PF
Women’s League boss
Oppah Muchinguri, party chief whip Joram Gumbo and
Mberengwa West Mem-ber of
Parliament, Kudakwashe Basikiti.
However, the
politburo imposed Khaya-Moyo citing his seniority in the party.
Muchinguri
was placated with a parliamentary appointment just before the
election,
while Gumbo was calmed with the appointment of his brother Rugare
Gumbo to a
vacant position of Senator in the Upper House.
The position of Speaker in the
Lower House became vacant following a
landmark Supreme Court ruling on March
10, 2011 that set aside the 2008
election of Moyo on the grounds that the
election had not been conducted by
secret ballot as required by
parliamentary Standing Orders. The judgment
followed an appeal by ZANU-PF
legislator, Jonathan Moyo and three other
legislators from the MDC formation
led by Welshman Ncube, Moses
Mzila-Ndlovu, Siyabonga Ncube and Patrick
Dube.
In typical scorched earth policy, ZANU-PF hounded Moyo out of a
Parliament-rented house and asked him to surrender the two top of the range
Mercedes Benz and Range Rover official vehicles he had been using.
MDC-T
MPs were also hunted down under what some critics described as
frivolous
charges. At least six MPs were incarcerated before the vote, but
most had
won bail from the courts.
This persecution of MDC-T parliamentarians is said
to have won sympathy for
Moyo, while ZANU-PF, which had declared that it
would pursue a bottom-up
system in the selection of candidates for electoral
positions, undermined
itself when it denied parliamentarians the right to
nominate candidates of
their choice and instead imposed Khaya-Moyo through a
decision by its
politburo, largely packed by party bigwigs.
During the
election for the Speaker on Tuesday, there were 203 MPs eligible
to vote but
199 turned up for the poll, with both ZANU-PF and MDC-T having
96 MPs
each.
Seven MPs were from the Welshman Ncube-led MDC. Four MPs — two each
from
ZANU-PF and MDC-T — were absent for undisclosed reasons.
With 96
MDC-T legislators in Parliament, Moyo gained eleven votes, raising
strong
suspicions that at least two ZANU-PF MPs voted for a rival candidate.
ZANU-PF
spokesperson, Ru-gare Gumbo, said yesterday it was too early to
decipher
what transpired on Tuesday, adding that the politburo, which met
yesterday,
could deliberate on the issues.
“It is something that happened last night
(Tuesday). We have not had time to
discuss. Maybe at the politburo but as of
now we have not met to talk about
it,” said Gumbo.
The Financial Gazette
witnessed some ZANU-PF legislators shouting at each
other at Parliament
Building on Tuesday night, an indicator the party was
not taking the loss
lightly.
ZANU-PF insiders claimed there were already serious battles within
the
faction-riddled party which is widely thought to have two distinct
camps,
one aligned to retired army general Solomon Mujuru and another linked
to
Emmerson Mnangagwa, the party’s secretary for legal affairs and Minister
of
Defence.
There were fears of internal purging, especially the
replacement of MPs and
provincial leaders thought to have betrayed the party
cause.
Critics viewed Khaya-Moyo’s drubbing as an indicator of increasing
hostilities within ZANU-PF. These issues could create irreparable splits
should the succession of President Mugabe become a reality.
“Some members
do not want to be made pets of political projects currently
taking place in
the party,” said a ZANU-PF official, speaking strictly on
condition he is
not named.
Another insider said the ZANU-PF leadership was seething with
anger as
people felt they were stabbed in the back by the legislators who
voted with
the MDC-T.
Legal experts have suggested previously that there
could be a possibility of
the Speaker being given transitional powers in the
event of unforeseen
changes within the executive.
Khaya-Moyo was said to
be still smarting from his defeat by a man who comes
from his own
province.
There were moves to placate the ZANU-PF national chairman with a
Senatorial
seat left vacant through the death of Vice President Joseph
Msika.
Khaya-Moyo is further tipped to be appointed Minister of State in the
President’s Office in charge of National Healing alongside co-ministers
Sekai Holland (MDC-T) and Moses Mzila-Ndlovu (MDC).
Vice President John
Nkomo is set to relinquish the portfolio in that organ.
http://bulawayo24.com
by Byo24News
2011 April 02 16:17:39
Governor
of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr Gideon Gono on Friday said all
people
recently retrenched from the central bank would get their outstanding
payments Saturday.
This followed clashes at the bank's premises in
Harare yesterday between the
retrenchees and the police as the former
employees demanded immediate
payments.
In a statement, Dr Gono said
they could check their bank accounts on
saturday for the
balance.
"The Governor of The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would like to
advise all
retrenchees of the bank that payments have been done into their
accounts at
the same level as when they left the bank, via transfers into
their
accounts.
"Kindly check your accounts balances starting
Saturday the 2nd of April,
2011," reads the statement.
A group of
retrenchees besieged the central bank demanding their payments
and police
had to be called in to restore order.
Some of them scuffled with police as
they tried to enter the RBZ
headquarters.
In an interview one of them
said, "We are not here for violence and I am
wondering why the police are
here. All we want is our money nothing else."
The workers were among 1 450
employees retrenched last month as part of
cost-cutting measures as the
central bank has stopped quasi-fiscal
activities adopted at the height of
the illegal sanctions-induced economic
decline of the past decade.
http://www.voanews.com
Following the posting of a video showing Bob Parsons shooting a
"problem"
elephant, animal rights activists quickly launched a campaign to
boycott his
Web domain name-hosting business, GoDaddy.com
Sandra
Nyaira | Washington 01 April 2011
Competing US domain name providers
were offering promotions encouraging
potential customers to leave
GoDaddy.com
The chief executive of a US Internet company has come under
fire by animal
rights activists for shooting an elephant while on holiday
recently in
Zimbabwe.
Activists launched a campaign to boycott
GoDaddy.com, a Web domain name
hosting firm, after CEO Bob Parsons posted a
video of himself shooting what
he described as a ”problem
elephant.”
The video went viral as People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals
denounced the Web executive, describing him as “the scummiest CEO on
earth.”
Some objected in particular to the segment of the video clip in
which
villagers wearing GoDaddy.com baseball hats butchered the elephant for
meat.
Parsons has said that he stands by his actions, arguing that such
hunts feed
starving villagers. “These people have literally nothing and when
an
elephant is killed it's a big event for them, they are going to be able
to
eat some protein," Parsons wrote on his video blog. "This is no different
than you or I eating beef.”
Competing US domain name providers were
offering promotions encouraging
potential customers to leave GoDaddy.com.
Domain provider NameCheap offered
to donate a dollar to Save the Elephants
for every domain name switched from
GoDaddy.com
PETA spokeswoman
Ashley Gonzalez told VOA's Sandra Nyaira that Parsons
should use his money
to empower villagers and provide protected areas for
elephants.
Program Coordinator Sally Wynn of the Zambezi Society said
human-elephant
conflicts are a real problem in Zimbabwe as the two species
live in close
proximity. Wynn said the Zimbabwean government authorizes
hunting safaris in
certain areas.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Mxolisi Ncube
Friday, 01
April 2011 07:25
JOHANNESBURG - The South African government says that
over 150 000
applications from Zimbabweans are still being finalised and
will be
dispatched before the end of July.
Home Affairs
Director-general, Mkhuseli Apleni, told the media that 43
regional offices
set up by his department had managed to successfully clear
a backlog of over
50 000 permit applications, but these did not include
special dispensation
permit applications introduced last year.
The applications opened on
September 15 2010 and closed on January 31 this
year. Apleni said his
department has, in consultation with the Zimbabwean
government, agreed to
finalise this process by July 31 2011.
“We are pleased to report that the
department has, to date crossed a major
milestone in our adjudication
framework by finalising 119 009 applications
from Zimbabwean nationals,”
said Apleni.
“A further 156 753 applications remain to be adjudicated,
for which the
Department requires 53 working days at the rate of 3 000 per
day.”
He added that a system of text messaging would be implemented from
April 4
to inform applicants who need to come in for fingerprinting, those
still
requiring passports from the Zimbabwean Consulate and those who need
to
submit supporting documents for each of the three types of permits namely
business, study and work.
“We are currently in the process of
validating and finally confirming
amnesty applications, which amount to 6
243. We appeal to nationals to
respond timeously to sms requests to provide
further information to enable
us to finalise their applications.” he added
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Tobias Manyuchi Saturday 02 April
2011
SAVIOUR KASUKUWERE . . . Indigenisation Minister
HARARE – The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concern at
Zimbabwe’s
controversial drive to force foreign-owned mining firms to sell
majority
stake to local blacks, ZimOnline learnt on Friday.
Government officials
said an IMF team that left Harare on Thursday after a
three-week
consultation mission also expressed worry at plans by the
government to
raise salaries for public workers when state coffers were near
empty.
The IMF has during previous consultation missions to Zimbabwe
warned
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s unity
government to put a tight lid on rising wage demands in the public sector
and to ensure its economic empowerment programme does not scare away
badly-needed foreign investors to damage the nascent economic
recovery.
"They (IMF) appeared to have been rattled by the indigenisation
laws which
gave the mining firms up to September to comply with the law. The
gazetting
of the law was ill-timed and nobody saw it coming this fast,” a
ministry of
finance official, who declined to be named because he had not
been cleared
by his superiors to discuss the matter with the
Press.
“During their visit the delegation had also raised concerns about
the wage
bill as there appeared to be pressure to raise salaries yet the
fiscus
cannot afford," said the official.
The drastic economic
empowerment laws announced last Monday give
foreign-owned mining companies
45 days to submit to Indigenisation Minister
Saviour Kasukuwere details of
how they plan to transfer controlling stake to
locals by next
September.
Firms that fail to disclose their share-transfer plans within
the stipulated
period face prosecution, according to the regulations that
have thrown the
mining sector -- the economy’s largest – into
turmoil.
The empowerment plans are being pushed by Mugabe’s wing of the
coalition
government and opposed by Tsvangirai’s MDC party that favours a
gradual
approach, fearing that wholesale indigenisation could wreck a
fragile
economy.
Analysts say Mugabe maybe intent on putting pressure
on foreign miners to
pay more in taxes.
Miners will be torn between
pulling out and risk losing rights to the
massive platinum reserves and
other minerals to Mugabe's preferred investors
from China or negotiate
revised deals that will see the government getting
more from the country’s
resources.
The resource rich southern African nation boasts the world’s
second largest
reserves of platinum, has discovered alluvial diamonds which
experts say
could generate $2 billion a year and has large gold, chrome and
coal
deposits. -- ZimOnline
http://www.radiovop.com/
02/04/2011 15:34:00
HARARE,
April 2, 2011- Police are reported to have arrested MDC-T Chipinge
West
parliamentarian Sibonile Nyamudeza for allegedly stealing pre-cast
concrete
pipes belonging to the District Development Fund (DDF).
Nyamudeza was
arrested when he reported at Chipinge Rural Police Station in
the company of
his lawyer Langton Mhungu.Prosecutor Last Goredema alleged
that Nyamudeza
stole the pre-cast concrete pipes some time in
February.Goredema accused the
Chipinge West legislator of instructing “
certain ” people to steal and
ferry the concrete pipes from Bangwe to
Tanganda in Chipinge without the
authority of the state-run institution.
Mhungu, who is a member of
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said his
client denies the charges.
Nyamudeza was granted $100 bail by Chipinge
Magistrate Chrispen Ngweshiwa
who ordered him to report once a week on
Fridays to Chipinge Rural Police
Station. Ngweshiwa also ordered the
legislator to continue residing at his
given address and not to interfere
with witnesses.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Ngoni Chanakira
Friday, 01 April 2011
16:30
HARARE – Cases of gender based violence (GBV) have reached an
all-time high
with women increasingly likely to be the victims of violence,
murder and
rape.
More than 2,300 cases of GBV have been reported so far
this year – almost
double last year’s figures. Barbara Ngwenya, Chief
Inspector in the ZRP for
Harare, said five women have died from domestic
abuse already this year. She
told the meeting that there have been 2,379
cases of GBV reported so far
this year, up from 1,053 in 2010.
Addressing
more than 50 women, most of whom were from NGOs, she said: "In
February
alone there were 285 cases reported, up from 266 in January.” A
lack of
funding and high staff turnover meant police failed to deal with GBV
cases
quickly. Ngwenya said prison sentences were too lenient on abusers in
Zimbabwe.
"We do not get any funding and we desperately need it," she
said. "The
Domestic Violence Act is good, but it is difficult to implement
since most
victims do not understand it." She said there are no safe houses
to keep
abused women who sometimes go back to the very husbands who abused
them.
Ngwenya said the US$5 fee charged for a Protection Order Application
form is
"way too high and most poor women cannot afford it".
"It is very
easy to spend US$5, but it is also very hard to find it in
Zimbabwe today,"
she said. The Act was passed by Parliament in 2007. "We, as
women, are very
proud of it," said an official from The Musasa Project. "But
is it working
in our favour. Sorry ladies, but I do not think it is. It is
definitely not
working for us, women."
The GBV discussion was organised by the Musasa
Project begun by the late
Elizabeth Chanakira. The project protects women
who have been abused by
their husbands and who do not have any
accommodation. It provides them with
temporary shelter until they can get
back into mainstream society. There
were only four men among the
participants.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Zimbabwean
Friday, 01 April 2011
16:26
HARARE - Three women, allegedly raped by their husbands, told the
meeting
about their harrowing ordeals and the difficulty they had in getting
help.
Esther Hombarume, Agnes Munengami, and Everst Mukandiona, all from
Harare,
said they had been failed by the police and the court system and
struggled
to find help from NGOs. "My husband was a soldier," said Agnes as
she fought
back tears. "He went away for about three months and then took
leave and
came back to haunt me. He beat me up regularly and he raped me. I
was
terrified."
She said when she went to the courts, the police said she
had no case and
the affair was a civil matter between her and her husband.
"I have stitches
on my nose," she said, and showed participants her bruised
stomach. She also
told the meeting that her husband’s relatives demanded she
withdraw her case
against him as they feared it would tarnish their image in
the community.
She said she had been happily married between 1989 and 2004
but after that
her life was a "horror story too ghastly to contemplate".
Agnes shocked more
than 50 women bosses from virtually all NGOs dealing with
Gender Based
Violence (GBV) in Zimbabwe today by telling them: "We are
traumatised by all
of you. Please deal with our cases and do not send us
from NGO to NGO and
claim that you are helping us because you are
not."
Another victim, Esther, told the meeting: “I was kicked, beaten up and
told
to leave my house by my husband. He told me that if I reported the case
he
would kill me. He then haunted me until I ran away and sought shelter at
The
Musasa Project. They have helped me every day and I thank them for
everything that they have done for me."
The Musasa Project, based in
Harare, provides shelter for women who have
been abused by their spouses.
But the shelter is temporary. "We do not have
funds to give to our clients,"
Executive Director of Musasa project, Netty
Musanhu, told The
Zimbabwean.
"We desperately need money to help protect women who are raped
and tormented
everyday of their lives. The Ministry of Women Affairs and
Gender has no
money either to help the women. "We are struggling but we
cannot just leave
these women to suffer or even die." She said legislation
to protect women
must be taken seriously and added: “I was shocked that when
we went to Gweru
only six police officers out of a group of 30 said they
knew about the
Domestic Violence Act."
Inspector Ngwenya said officers
needed to receive training to deal with
domestic violence cases. The women
have decided to meet once a month to try
and pave the way forward and also
to ensure that the Domestic Violence Act
is "respected" by "everyone,
including ZRP Commissioner, Augustine
Chihuri's, cash-strapped officers”.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Zimbabwean
Friday, 01
April 2011 16:25
HARARE - Zimbabwe only has one medical doctor qualified
enough to confirm a
woman has been raped, a senior police officer told a
meeting on gender-based
violence last week.
Barbara Ngwenya, Chief
Inspector in the ZRP for Harare, said: "This causes
problems especially when
we have to go to court because we need a rape kit
to show the court. "In the
rape kit we have things such as the man's semen,
clothing materials from the
victim, as well as any other items that can be
used as evidence in
court.
"There is only one doctor, or scientist as you might want to call him,
who
can approve that the semen is from the perpetrator. Without him we
cannot
proceed with prosecution. In Zimbabwe we only have one doctor who can
do
this and this is a very big problem for rape victims."
Ngwenya said
some cases that had not been dealt with for more than six
months because the
rape kit had not been approved. "We are also facing a
serious shortage of
detergents which are used to test the semen to find out
whether or not it is
genuine and is from the man allegedly charged," she
said. "Semen testing
cannot be done without these detergents and we,
therefore, need cash
urgently to buy the detergents otherwise the process
will take even longer.”
http://www.radiovop.com/
02/04/2011 10:40:00
Harare, April
02,2011 - The British embassy in Harare has rejected claims by
former
Information minister, Jonathan Moyo who accused the embassy's deputy
ambassador, Tim Cole, of having links to bribery claims by the MDC towards
the elections of the Speaker of Parliament.
Moyo who has slapped the
Daily News newspaper with a US$60 000 damages in
publishing opinion pieces
that he criticised President Mugabe allegedly said
Cole was working in
cahoots with the MDC in lying that he was the chief
briber in the attempt by
Zanu (PF) to bribe MDC legislators into voting for
Simon Khaya Moyo the Zanu
PF candidate who later lost to MDC's Lovemore
Moyo.
"The British
Embassy totally rejects the absurd allegations made by Prof
Jonathan Moyo
linking Tim Cole, the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy in
Harare, to
bribery claims made public by MDC-Tsvangirai in advance of the
House of
Assembly vote for a new Speaker on 29 March," the embassy noted in
a
statement.
"Mr Cole’s role at the Embassy is to manage the mission and
represent the
Ambassador in his absence. It is unacceptable to have his role
deliberately
misrepresented in this way. The United Kingdom is a committed
friend of the
people of Zimbabwe."
The embassy said it remains
committed in helping the people of Zimbabwe. The
embassy said: "This year we
have provided over $110 million in aid – our
largest ever package of support
– to support the provision of essential
basic services, protect the
livelihoods of Zimbabwe’s poorest people and to
support economic
stabilisation."
Jonathan Moyo, a political turn-coat was named by the
MDC's top leadership
as the culprit behind the attempted bribery of US$ 50
000 handed over to the
MDC parliamentarians to sway them to support Zanu
(PF).
The MDC said it will keep the money as exhibit. Moyo has threatened
a legal
suit to MDC MPs and newspapers that published that he was behind the
botched
bribery attempt.
http://www.radiovop.com/
02/04/2011 15:36:00
JOHANNESBURG,
April 2, 2011- The two leaders of the secessionist Mthwakazi
Liberation
Front (MLF) John Gazi and Charles Thomas who were granted bail on
Thursday
will spend another weekend in remand prison after they failed to
raise bail
money on time for their release.
Justice Nicholas Ndou ordered
the release of the two secessionist leaders
but by Friday their families and
friends were still struggling to raise the
$4 000 for the two men.The judge
set bail at $2 000 for each accused person
but the other accused, Paul
Siwela will remain in custody after the judge
said he had another pending
case.
Siwela,s case will now be heard by the Supreme Court.The state
argued that
Siwela circulated a controversial document Ref -Regional Court
CRB No
71-2/04 and High Court Bulawayo No 3373/04 wherein he was advocating
for the
creation of the ‘province of Matabeleland’ by the Ndebele-speaking
people
fighting with spears and arrows against the government and the
Shona-speaking people. That it is not in the interest of justice and the
state security to admit them to bail.
However, lawyers for the three,
Sindiso Mazibisa, Robert Ndlovu, Matshobana
Ncube and Advocate Lucas Nkomo
shot down assertions by state lawyers and
said the ground for seeking leave
to appeal was devoid of merit and there
were no reasonable prospects of
success on appeal.According to MLF Legal
Affairs spokesman, Sabelo Ngwenya
the money to pay Gazi and Thomas bail was
raised on Friday and was
immediately sent to Bulawayo.Ngwenya told Radio Vop
that the money was
raised by “ Mthwakazians ” in the United Kingdom, South
Africa and Botswana.
By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, 02/04/11
Despite his own shortcomings as the
SADC facilitator for Zimbabwe, Jacob
Zuma seems to have touched a raw nerve
for the first time at the recent
Troika meeting in Zambia. Mugabe almost
said: ‘Zuma keep your South Africa
and let me keep my Zimbabwe’ when he
accused his ally of ‘overstretching his
mandate in the facilitation
process.’
Veiled attack
The veiled attack on Zuma and SADC is
reminiscent of Mugabe’s blistering
attack on the then British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and European
“interference” in African affairs in September 2002
when he declared: ‘Blair
keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe. Let
no one interfere with our
processes’ (Sky.com, 03/09/02).
Similarly,
Mugabe reportedly said the facilitator should stick to
facilitation and not
dictate what Zimbabweans should do. “The facilitator
should facilitate, he
cannot prescribe to us to do A, B, C and D. We give
ourselves the A, B,C, D,
in accordance with our agreement” Mugabe said
(Newsday,
01/04/11).
Although the SADC communiqué did not mention Robert Mugabe by
name, but did
raise many of the concerns voiced by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai in
recent weeks, it said: “There must be an immediate end of
violence,
intimidation, hate speech, harassment and any other form of action
that
contradicts the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement
(GPA)”
(Swradioafrica.com, 01/04/11). That was enough to make Mugabe see
red.
Implications of the Livingstone Communique
SADC plans to set
up a special group that would lay down a roadmap for
elections in Zimbabwe
have prompted Mugabe to resuscitate negotiations with
his coalition partners
which had been put on ice for a long time due to his
intransigence. From
nowhere, the tripartite negotiators of the GPA are set
to meet on Monday to
‘craft a roadmap for general elections and review the
arrangement that
created the inclusive government’ (Xinhuanet.com,
02/04/11). However, there
should be no complacency.
While SADC has been soft on Mugabe for too
long, however as the regional
leaders also realized their tails were on fire
due to pressure from civil
society organizations and the Prime Minister’s
regional tour, they had no
option but warn the GNU about the risk of an
uprising. It could also be
argued that the regional leaders are fully aware
of the possibility of any
Zimbabwe uprising spreading to their countries as
development in North
Africa and the Middle East seem to
show.
Furthermore, many questions remain unanswered in the wake of a
statement by
Zanu-pf negotiator Patrick Chinamasa after the Livingstone
meeting that ‘the
roadmap towards peaceful, free, fair and democratic
harmonized elections is
laid out in the GPA. The milestones are clearly laid
out and we will not
entertain any milestones that fall outside of the GPA”
(The Herald,
Negotiators set to craft poll roadmap, 01/04/11).
If the
roadmap is already there, why has Zanu-pf been quiet about it and/or
hindering it’s implementation? Why did Zanu-pf apply brakes to the roadmap
only to release the pedal after the Troika suggested a three-member panel to
assist the South African facilitation team? Why is the country sliding into
a military state when it should be addressing the milestones for free and
fair elections? Why is there political intimidation through the
anti-sanctions campaign, political violence e.g. in Chimanimani, selective
arrests of political opponents and denial of civil liberties such as the
right to demonstrate or hold rallies?
Conclusion
Chances are
that Monday’s meeting of the tripartite negotiators will be
deadlocked
before going anywhere on the issue of targeted sanctions being
advanced by
Zanu-pf as an unresolved ‘milestone’ or un-met pre-condition for
any
acceleration on the roadmap. This could also explain why Mugabe does not
want to lose control to what he calls ‘outsiders’ as they may not recognize
his myth of sanctions which are actually his own tactical brakes to any
progress in resolving the Zimbabwe crisis.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri,
Political Analyst, zimanalysis2009@gmail.com