http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:31
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
CABINET is considering a policy that will see
supermarkets, shops and bottle
stores only being allowed to sell alcoholic
drinks between 6am and 7am,
while the selling of beer will be banned after
midday on Sunday.
The tough regulations contained in the National
Alcohol Policy that were
first unveiled last year by The Standard will have
far-reaching effects on
the sale of beer and the thriving leisure
industry.
Timothy Stamps, a health advisor to President Robert Mugabe
who is behind
the policy last week revealed that it was now closer to
becoming law after
it was forwarded to Cabinet.
But the former
Health and Child Welfare minister said the new regulations
were not new but
government wanted to ensure that they were properly
enforced.
“There is a misconception that government will
introduce a new law,” Stamps
said.
“The law has always been there
but was being loosely applied, mainly because
of lack of personnel in the
liquor department.Again, regarding times, we
will be controlling retail
licences and not people with proper liquor
licences.”
Among other
controls proposed under the National Alcoholic Policy being
spearheaded is
the confinement of the sale of alcoholic drinks to between
6am and 7pm and
the banning of beer selling after midday on Sundays.
Also to be
banned is the selling of alcoholic beverages to visibly pregnant
women,
people who are deemed to be already drunk and minors.
Proper
advertising is also to be encouraged, with Stamps saying a workshop
for
advertisers of alcoholic beverages was slated for the end of
September.
“We are simply bringing together all the laws that have
something to do with
alcohol so they can work properly to protect the young
and those who react
badly to alcohol,” Stamps said. “We involved
manufacturers at the ground
level and they are all agreeable to the new
measures because we all want to
protect the health of our
nation.”
The alcohol industry is important to Zimbabwe’s economy and
at one time it
was reported that taxes on beer and cigarettes were holding
up the economy.
Delta Beverages, the largest brewer in the country,
is one of Zimbabwe’s
biggest employers. nHowever, Stamps said the proposed
regulations were not
meant to punish industry players or make life difficult
for ordinary
Zimbabweans.
“As a doctor, I know that alcohol is no
ordinary food and taking it in
excess can have serious repercussions,” he
said. “Alcohol taken in excess
has caused deaths of people and many would
remember the story of former
South African Health minister Tshabalala
Msimang who died two years ago
because alcohol badly affected her
liver.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:40
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
EMBATTLED church leader Emmanuel Makandiwa (pictured)
yesterday got
temporary relief when a High Court Judge threw out a case
where he is being
sued for US$680 000 over his airtime communication
project.
Pascal Nyasha, a motivational speaker and entrepreneur, last week
made an
urgent High Court application where he also sought to bar
Makandiwa’s United
Family International (UFI) church agents and workers from
manufacturing,
producing, selling, dealing and distributing Christian
Spiritual Link cards.
But High Court Judge Justice Tedious Karwi
ruled that the case was not
urgent, giving Makandiwa some breathing
space.
The popular pastor is being investigated by the Postal and
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe over the airtime cards.
There were reports that Makandiwa had fled the country but his church said
he was on holiday.
In a High Court application last week through
his lawyer Wellington
Pasipanodya, Nyasha accused Makandiwa of hijacking his
airtime communication
project.
Nyasha, claims “Christian
Spiritual Link” system was his invention arguing
that Makandiwa and his
church only changed the name from the original
“Evangelicard.”
Makandiwa’s lawyer Nickiel Mushangwe from
Mushangwe and Company, said he was
happy with the ruling.
“We are
happy. I think it was frivolous for them to approach the courts,” he
said.
“They should stop bothering the man of God. However, they
are free to
negotiate with us but the concept of the cards was my
client’s.”
Pasipanodya said his client was willing to sit down with
Makandiwa and
negotiate an out of court settlement.
The
communication link requires church members to buy an airtime card
inscribed
“Christian Spiritual Link” which costs US$3.
Members scratch the card
and send the numbers to some cellphone numbers
depending on each member’s
network service.
Those with Econet lines send the secret numbers to
0773 341 040 to 59,
Telecel subscribers to 0714 768 502 to 11 while those
with NetOne lines send
to 0735 451 851 to 60.
After sending the
numbers and receiving confirmation a subscriber receives
devotional SMS
messages from Makandiwa for six consecutive days. Those
interested members
can recharge through buying more airtime.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:43
BY OUR
STAFF
INDUSTRY and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube has accused Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai of sinking to “despicability and emptiness” after
he
claimed that his smaller MDC faction is a regional
party.
Ncube was reacting to statements attributed to Tsvangirai in a
recent
interview with the France-based Africa Report where he ruled out an
election
pact with MDC saying it had become a regional party.
“I
do not know what seized the PM to cause him to accuse us of retreating
into
being a regional party,” Ncube said.
“Could he be suggesting that a
party becomes regional once its president
originates from outside
Mashonaland and his or her mother language is
Ndebele? I hope
not.”
Ncube said he hoped it was the last time “we have to sink to
this level of
shamelessness, despicability and emptiness”.
He
said Zimbabweans expected politicians to be discussing issues and
policies.
Tsvangirai was quoted saying: “Now they have retreated
to be a regional
party; so I don’t think that is healthy for uniting the
people.
“So we will have to put that into consideration, as to
whether they want to
be a national flag or (sic),” Tsvangirai was quoted as
saying.
But Ncube said his party was probably more representative of
the country’s
ethnic groupings than MDC-T.
Ncube is from the
Midlands, his deputy Edwin Mushoriwa is from Harare and
the party’s chairman
Goodrich Chimbaira hails from Chitungwiza.
“Just for the record, I
wish to assure the PM that we will contest his
party, himself, Zanu PF and
its leader, at the next election, in every ward,
every constituency and in
the presidential election,” he said.
“We will seek the vote of every
Zimbabwean in every village, every city,
every town and every compound where
ever found.
“We promise the PM that he will not only find us in the
region he presumes
our party is found in but in every other region of the
country.”
The charged exchange between Ncube and Tsvangirai will dash
any hopes that
the two MDC factions will unite to challenge Zanu PF in the
next elections.
Tsvangirai has also refused to support Ncube’s party
in its fight to remove
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara from his
post.
Mutambara refused to relinquish the post after he lost the MDC
presidency to
Ncube at the party’s congress early this year.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:45
BY SILAS
NKALA
BULAWAYO – MDC-T yesterday unveiled its own list of national
heroes and
dismissed some Zanu PF officials buried at the Heroes Acre as
murderers.
Bekithemba Nyathi, the party’s provincial youth chairperson said
the party
will boycott the Heroes Day celebrations tomorrow.
“We
remember those great men and women who fell for the cause of our freedom
and
salute the living heroes who continue to work and fight for a better
Zimbabwe for all,” Nyathi said.
He said the youth assembly would
conduct its parallel commemorations of the
heroes at the party offices where
relatives of the late MDC-T “heroes will
be issued with certificates of
appreciation”.
The family of the late Matabeleland North governor
Welshman Mabhena will be
among those to be honoured.
MDC-T’s list
of heroes includes the following: Learnmore Jongwe, Susan
Tsvangirai, Gibson
Sibanda, Mthokozisi Ncube, Nkosana Moyo, Remember Moyo,
Tonderai Ndira,
Kauzani Msoja, Isaac Matongo, Beta Chekururama, Talent
Chiminya, Shepherd
Jani, Patrick Kombai, Mufandayidze Hove, Ntombizodwa
Mbambo, Patrick
Nabanyama, Getrude Mthombeni, Joyce Mugova Sibanda, Zanele
Ncube, Freedom
Sibanda, Linda Mathuthuka, Gloria Olds, Martin Olds, Fanelo
Khupe, Catherine
Khupe and Thembelani Ndebele.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:46
BY
NUNURAYI JENA
Mashonaland West Affirmative Action Group (AAG)
chairman Clifford Hlupeko
(34) and six alleged accomplices were on Friday
charged with prospecting for
minerals without a licence and keeping
explosives.
They were remanded to September 6 for trail.
The seven
are being charged with contravening Section 368 of the Mines and
Minerals
Act Chapter 21: 05 and contravening Section 3 of the Explosives Act
Chapter
10.08.
It is the state case that on July 8, the seven: Hlupho and
Tongai Mujenge
(33), Philip Chirume (37), Ronald Dhabheni (36), Tendai
Musaka (31), Fanuel
Muzeza (27) and Takunda Chiparaushe (25) were caught
mining gold at an open
space in the Mzari extension in
Chinhoyi.
They were extracting gold ore from a mine channel using
horse power
generator and a submersible pump to draw water from the
hole.
The police were acting after a tip from members of the
public.
When they were searched, they were found in possession of 12
mega mites
detonators and 12 x 9mm capped detonator fuses about two metres
from the
channel hole. The accused were not licenced to possess the
explosives.
The seven, who were initially refused bail when they
first appeared in court
on July 20 were granted US$50 bail at the High Court
each.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:55
BY KHOLWANI
NYATHI
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) has put its
foot down on
Zimbabwe and declared that it will not tolerate rushed
elections.
Sadc also rejected calls by Zanu PF hardliners that South African
President
Jacob Zuma step down as a mediator in the inter-party
talks.
The Zanu PF hawks despise Zuma for insisting that the parties
must stick to
a roadmap that will ensure that Zimbabwe holds a free and fair
election.
Tomaz Salamao (pictured), the Sadc executive secretary,
told journalists in
Gaborone that calls for early polls by President Robert
Mugabe and Zanu PF
were just political grandstanding.
He was
speaking ahead of the Sadc heads of state summit on August 17-18
where
Zimbabwe is expected to feature prominently.
“The main objective of
establishing a government of national unity was to
pave the way for
elections,” Salamao said.
“So you cannot disconnect the GPA (Global
Political Agreement) and
elections.
“Elections in Zimbabwe are
part of the GPA because it was said elections in
2008 were not recognised as
free and fair, let’s put in place a mechanism to
prepare for a free and fair
election in Zimbabwe, hence the GPA.
“In a nutshell, when you speak
about elections you speak about the GPA and
that’s why we encourage all the
parties to fully implement the GPA.”
Zanu PF has tried to wriggle out
of the Sadc-sponsored roadmap claiming that
the timelines set for the
much-needed reforms were too long.
Mugabe has threatened to
unilaterally call for elections but Salamao said
this would not be accepted
by Sadc or the African Union (AU), the guarantors
of the power- sharing
agreement.
“The GPA states that the three political parties will
submit to Sadc and AU
the date of elections in Zimbabwe,” he
said.
“The date should come from the parties who signed the GPA and
it is binding.
“They have to sign on that paper that they agree to
the date of elections
and they have to do that via the Sadc facilitator
President Jacob Zuma.”
The roadmap drawn by negotiators from Zanu PF
and the two MDC formations
makes it almost impossible for elections to be
held this year.
It categorically states that the polls must be held
after the completion of
the constitution-making process and the
implementation of media and
electoral reforms.
Sadc is keen to
address the Zimbabwe crisis once and for all and elections
are seen as the
best route to settle the matter.
“What we want as a continent is for
the next election in Zimbabwe to be free
and fair so that they are
recognised by everybody and we can have Zimbabwe
back on track so that this
country can play its role in the socio-economic
development of our region,”
Salamao said.
At the Luanda summit, Zuma will take over as the
chairman of the troika and
this is likely to pile up pressure against Mugabe
and Zanu PF.
Sadc tired of Zimbabwe crisis
Analysts say Sadc
is now tired of Zimbabwe’s decade-long political crisis
and regional leaders
are eager to see it resolved.
The impatience became apparent in March
when the Sadc troika on peace and
security came hard on Mugabe and told him
to stop political violence and the
selective application of the
law.
Mugabe reacted angrily and accused Zuma of dictating instead of
facilitating
dialogue between the governing parties.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:47
BY TATENDA
CHITAGU
MASVINGO — MDC-T MP for Zaka West Festus Dumbu and the
party’s Triangle ward
28 party secretary Tawanda Chiriga Imbayago were
detained for three hours on
Friday for organising a funeral
procession.
The two were charged under the notorious Public Order and
Security Act
(Posa) for leading the funeral procession of a daughter of a
party member
last weekend.
Dumbu, an employee of sugar
conglomerate, Tongaat Hullet said he was
summoned to Triangle Police Station
where he was asked to answer to the
charges of violating Posa.
He
said they had ignored Zanu PF orders not to put on party regalia at the
funeral wake.
of the daughter of MDC-T deputy district organising
secretary for Chiredzi
West, Victor Nyahuma.
“I spent about three
hours at the police where they took a statement from me
and charged me with
violating POSA saying we had not notified them of the
procession we had
while burying the daughter of our party member last
Sunday,” Dumbu
said.
He said ZANU PF youths identified as David Chiwa, Peter Murambwa
and one
Hlatshwayo intimidated and scared away mourners, including the local
AFM
church members, from attending the funeral wake of Bliss Nyahuma, but
nothing has been done to them.
He said it was surprising that he and
Imbayago were arrested for not
notifying the police about the
funeral.
Police spokesperson, Inspector Tinaye Matake, could neither
confirm nor deny
the incident, but said he was yet to be briefed over the
arrest.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:47
BY
NUNURAYI JENA
CHINHOYI – Councillors last week endorsed the
suspension of the town clerk
Ezekiel Muringani by the mayor Claudius
Nyamhondoro over alleged fraud.
But as the full council meeting was endorsing
Muringani’s suspension,
Muringani was telling journalists at the Chinhoyi
press club that he is
still calling the shots at the council.
Councillors
say Muringani is getting backing from Local Government, Urban
and Rural
Development minister Ignatius Chombo, who is said to be backing
him while
his deputy Sessel Zvidzai is behind the mayor.
Nyamhondoro a
fortnight ago reported Muringani to the police after an audit
revealed
massive abuse of council funds.
Muringani has refused to be suspended
by the mayor while finance director
William Mandinde, who was also
implicated in the scam, was fired by council.
Nyamhondoro told The Standard
that he feared nothing would be done to
Muringani because of his alleged
political connections.
The mayor is also not happy with the
appointment of Chinhoyi district
administrator Webster Mandinde to lead a
resuscitation team for the local
authority because he recognises the
“suspended town clerk”.
On July 25, Tembo spoke against the
suspension of council employees fingered
in the audit report.
In
a letter to the chairman of the resuscitation team this week Nyamhondoro
complained that Tembo had interfered with his duties when he stopped the
recording of minutes during a meeting.
The mayor was also not
amused by Tembo’s interpretation of the Urban Council
Act to mean that the
mayor must not be involved in the signing of
authentication, authorisation
or execution of council documents which the
resuscitation team leader said
was the prerogative of the management
committee.
But Nyamhondoro
says it his responsibility and that of the council’s finance
committee
chairperson to sign such documents.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:50
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) on Monday introduced
40% import duty
on blankets, footwear, refrigerators and stoves, in a move
that has left
cross-border traders facing an uncertain future.
The
products were previously included in the traveller’s rebate where a
person
was allowed to bring in products duty- free once in a calendar
month.
Zimra said: “Travellers who wish to import blankets, footwear,
refrigerators
and stoves will continue to benefit from the reduced rates
that were
implement with effect from January 1 2011.”
But
hundreds of travellers were caught unawares by the changes and were
reportedly forced to leave their goods at border posts because they could
not raise money to pay duty.
Bus crews and taxis at Harare’s
Roadport said the move had hit their
business hard as people were no longer
bringing goods from South Africa and
Botswana.
“I was into buying
and selling blankets and I was doing very well but I left
my blankets in
South Africa after the driver told me I will be required to
pay US$40 for
each blanket as duty,” said Laina Mateko who had just arrived
from South
Africa.
“I ended up coming with just one and I paid R80 for
it.
“I also left some shoes which I intended to resale after being
informed that
I would have to pay duty for them.
“Some people I
travelled with were forced to leave their potatoes at the
border after
failing to pay the duty.”
Many people in the informal sector were
cashing in on the sale of blankets
and footwear, especially during
winter.
A Zimra official said the aim of the import duty was to
protect local
industries.
“People are still allowed to bring in
goods worth US$300 for free per month
but electronic goods, such as fridges
and stoves, and footwear and blankets
are no longer part of that list,” he
said.
Finance minister Tendai Biti announced in his mid-term policy
statement that
customs duty on rice, maize, maize-meal, flour, cooking oil
and salt would
be introduced from September 1.
He said the move
was meant to protect local industry from cheap imports.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:52
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
DEPUTY Labour and Social Welfare Minister Tracy
Mutinhiri was on Friday
cleared of charges of working against Zanu PF at an
internal hearing,
sources have revealed.
Mutinhiri, who is also the
Mashonaland East MP, was accused of working with
MDC-T and allegedly voting
for the party’s chairman Lovemore Moyo in the
March elections for Speaker of
Parliament.
Zanu PF had fielded its own chairman Simon Khaya-Moyo who
lost to the MDC-T
chairman.
According to sources, the
disciplinary committee chaired by vice-chairman
Stephen Chiurai agreed that
the allegations against Mutinhiri could not be
substantiated.
The
case allegedly crumbled after the witnesses who were called failed to
build
a case against the MP.
But Zanu PF Mashonaland East chairman Ray
Kaukonde yesterday said the case
had not been finalised.
“The
outcome is not yet out, check with me Friday next week,” he
said.
“However, the hearing will be fair and firm, it will be done
fairly. She
will be tried using a Zanu PF bible and this will be
fair.”
Mutinhiri could not be reached for comment.
Last month Zanu
PF activists invaded Mutinhiri’s farm in Marondera but they
were encouraged
to leave by party officials.
She claimed State Security minister
Sydney Sekeremayi was behind the
invasion because he wanted to replace her
with Zanu PF’s provincial
secretary for security Lawrence
Katsiru.
Sekeremayi is the senator for the area.
Kaukonde
said Zanu PF was not going to repossess her farm as she had
benefited from a
national programme.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:53
Our
Staff
A Zimbabwean murder suspect has appealed to the Botswana
High Court to
compel prison authorities to provide him with anti-retroviral
(ARV) drugs as
he is suffering from Aids.
Labson Nduna, who was arrested
last year for allegedly killing his Motswana
girlfriend, said he had
defaulted on treatment for the past seven months.
“After I was
arrested in November 2010 I stopped taking medication because
of my status
as a non-citizen of Botswana,” Nduna told the court.
“I have been
told that the government cannot provide this medication for
me.”
Botswana does not provide ARVs to foreign
prisoners.
Nduna was denied bail because he was allegedly found with
an expired
passport and is considered an illegal immigrant.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:54
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
The MDC-T youth assembly has resolved to disrupt
any election called by
President Robert Mugabe before the implementation of
an election roadmap to
guarantee free and fair polls.
The youths also
resolved to defend the party leadership against intimidation
and violence by
Zanu PF political activists.
“After intensive debates and
deliberations, the national council of the MDC
Youth Assembly resolved to
reaffirm our commitment to stop, through
disruption and other necessary
means, any attempt to conduct an illegal
election in Zimbabwe,” Promise
Mkhwananzi, the MDC-T youth assembly
secretary general said on Wednesday
after the assembly’s first national
council meeting.
“The
national council of the MDC-T youth assembly resolved to defend the
party,
its leadership, members and the people of Zimbabwe against violence
and all
forms of oppression.”
Mugabe has indicated that the country will go
for polls with or without a
new constitution this year to undo the unity
government between his Zanu PF
party and the former opposition MDC
factions.
But there have been calls for the postponement of polls
until after reforms
guaranteeing free and fair polls.
Analysts
say the country is not ready for fresh polls while the business
community
has called for their postponement to ensure the economy recovers
first after
years of collapse.
The MDC-T youth assembly also said it had launched
a campaign to mobilise
the country’s youths to register as voters during the
next elections.
“The national council of the MDC Youth Assembly
resolved to reaffirm our
commitment to engage in mass mobilisation of all
young people to register as
voters, to vote and most importantly to defend
the election outcome,”
Mkhwananzi said.
A report released
recently by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn),
noted that youths
are absent from the voters roll as “they have lost active
interest in
participating in national elections”.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011
09:57
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
The father of a Bulawayo man who
was shot dead by a senior police officer
for celebrating the dawn of the new
year in 2007 says they will demand
compensation following his death last
week.
Caleb Magagada, the father of the late Artwell said, although they felt
justice had been done following the death of Superintendent Milos Moyo, they
will not rest until they get compensation from the officer’s
family.
Artwell was shot by Supt Moyo, the then Officer Commanding
Bulawayo Police
Camps at the Tredgold food court in the city
centre.
Supt Moyo died on Saturday after an undisclosed short illness
and was buried
on Tuesday at the West Park Cemetery in
Bulawayo.
Artwell’s father told The Standard that God had listened to
the family’s
prayers for the senior cop to be punished.
“We have
been praying as a family for justice to be done, for Supt Moyo to
be
punished for killing my son,” he said.
“Our prayers have been
answered but as a family we are still hurt. We are
still mourning the death
of our son.
“We want compensation from Supt Moyo’s family and we will
continue demanding
it. My son cannot just go like that.
“Supt
Moyo never apologised and never compensated us. His family should
apologise
and compensate for the killing of our son.”
Supt Moyo was only fined
US$500 for the offence after being convicted of
culpable homicide by High
Court Judge, Justice Nicholas Mathonsi at the
Bulawayo High Court three
years after committing the offence.
In his ruling, Mathonsi lashed
out at Supt Moyo for being an irresponsible
senior police officer who failed
to conduct himself properly.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 09:58
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
LONG-suffering Zimbabweans, frustrated with President Robert
Mugabe’s
seemingly unending rule, have taken to cracking jokes about their
leader,
but these have seen many falling afoul of the law.
In a country
with harsh free speech laws, there is a thin line between a
joke about the
president and an insult undermining him and many have been
trapped in this
minefield.
As Mugabe strengthens his 31-year grip on power, the jokes
have increased
and proportionally, so have the cases of people arraigned for
insulting the
veteran ruler.
The cases vary from those that have
called Mugabe “old” to those that
allegedly have called him a liar and to
those that accuse him of overseeing
the collapse of what was arguably a
vibrant economy.
In recent weeks there has been an upsurge of people
being arrested for
insulting the president, but bizarrely, a prison warden
was fired for
allegedly insulting the president’s sister.
Joel
Ndlovu, a chief superintendent with the Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS)
was
last week fired after a disciplinary hearing, where he had been charged
with
insulting Sabina Mugabe, the president’s late sister.
Ndlovu, who was
based at Khami prison, allegedly described Sabina as a woman
of loose
morals, who did not deserve to be buried at Heroes Acre.
A security
guard is also facing the wrath of the law after he accused Mugabe
of
presiding over the collapse of the economy, while paying homage to the
MDC-T, which the guard claimed had healed the economy.
Another
strange case is that of Gift Mafuka, who was convicted for one year
after he
chided some children for wearing T-shirts of an “old and wrinkled”
Mugabe.
Mafuka appealed against the conviction and the matter is
yet to be
finalised.
In the initial ruling, two months were
suspended from the 12- month
sentence, on condition that Mafuka did not
commit a similar offence in the
next five years, by then Mugabe would be
91.
The most high-profile case, however, should be that of Jameson
Timba, a
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, who was accused
of calling
Mugabe a “liar” in a press release in the aftermath of the Sadc
summit in
South Africa that deliberated on Zimbabwe.
Hardliners
within Zanu PF, Mugabe’s party, claimed the statements undermined
the
president and Timba had to be brought to book for disrespecting the
president.
He was later released but not before lodging a High
Court appeal and
spending two nights behind bars.
Law meant
to intimidate people, says rights lawyer
Nyanga North legislator, Douglas
Mwonzora leads a host of MDC-T officials
who have been arraigned before the
courts for allegedly insulting Mugabe.
Mwonzora allegedly described the
president as a “goblin”, who would be
forced to flee.
As if that
was not enough, Mwonzora was again in the dock for denigrating
the
octogenarian leader after he allegedly pointed at Mugabe’s portrait and
chided “. . .how are you father, how is your health and how is your
eye?”
But human rights activists believe that the laws that make it
an offence to
insult the president are archaic and should be declared
unconstitutional.
“Such laws are kept in place to maintain a
repressive and closed environment
that does not promote freedom of speech
and hence tilt the political scale
in favour of the incumbent,” Dzimbabwe
Chimbga, a programmes officer at the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR), said.
Despite the laws being difficult to prosecute, Chimbga
said they served a
strategic purpose, as it muzzled criticism particularly
when it was directed
at the president.
“This is a futile attempt
to deny people the opportunity to publicly discuss
issues of governance and
more specifically issues concerning how the
executive is discharging its
duties or in any event failing to do so,” he
continued.
The
rights body said it had referred several cases to the Supreme Court and
a
number were pending at the constitutional court.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 10:02
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
SIX years ago, travellers along the Mutare-Masvingo highway
could not miss
the big “ZCC” letters implanted on a hilltop, just 50km east
of Masvingo
city.
The letters, made up of huge stones coated with white
paint, were a bold
sign for travellers that they were passing through the
famous Mbungo
Estates, the spiritual home of the Zion Christian
Church.
But now the unmistakable letters have been eclipsed by a
green and white
majestic conference centre with a capacity to accommodate
over 15 000 people
that is now the main spectacle in rural backwater,
Bikita.
So imposing is the church complex that it’s a game changer
for the faithful,
sending a message to outsiders that ZCC, whose roots can
be traced back to
1913, remains vibrant in the face of sprouting Pentecostal
churches led by
young charismatic preachers.
And indeed this is a
reality.
A team from The Standard that visited Mbungo last week was
amazed by the
transformation of the once dull headquarters of the ZCC into
modern church
headquarters, replete with a guest house, offices, library and
a
communications centre.
The big church complex constructed at an
estimated US$2 million, is a sign
of the rapidly changing fortunes of what
used to be a dusty compound dotted
with small huts that housed the church
faithful in the early 90s.
On Wednesday, Mbungo was brimming with
young and old people, some in
designer suits, and others with crude
home-made sandals.
They were the first to turn up for the annual ZCC
pilgrimage that has been
held at Defe for the past 34 years to commemorate
the death of founder
member, Bishop Samuel Mutendi.
This year,
the pilgrimage was moved to Mbungo for the consecration of the
new
conference centre in a jamboree that ended yesterday.
There was this mix of
rural and urban people, one church official remarked,
that made the ZCC such
a formidable force on the religious landscape, with
close to a million
active members.
Now the church has branches in Botswana, Lesotho, UK,
America and SA, among
other countries.
While it was impossible
for The Standard to meet ZCC leader Bishop Nehemiah
Mutendi who was locked
up in a dare (church meeting), officials described
developments at Mbungo as
exciting.
Sanctions Mutendi, who is the headmaster at Mutendi High
School and an
advisor to the Bishop, said it took them five years to
construct their
multi-purpose centre.
He said ZCC meetings were
never destined to be held under the trees.
“The ZCC built churches in
the colonial times starting with one at
Mutawarira,” he
said.
“Six of these churches were however destroyed by authorities
who associated
the rise in black independent church movements with
nationalism.”
He also talked about opposition by main line churches
against the founder of
ZCC, who was also building
schools.
The history of the Zion Christian
Church
According to church officials, the founder of ZCC, Bishop Samuel
Mutendi,
started speaking in tongues in 1913 while he was still a member of
the
British South African Police in Chegutu, then Hartley.
Some
in the Dutch church developed a dim view of him thinking he was
possessed by
multiple demons.
Mutendi had to go to South Africa where he
identified himself with the ZCC
in Transvaal. The former policeman came back
a powerful preacher armed with
a spiritual rod dubbed
mapumhangozi.
How the charismatic Mutendi acquired and used
mapumhangozi is steeped in
both mystery and controversy but what is
generally agreed is that the stick
was handy when he performed
miracles.
This, together with his powerful teachings, helped him grow
his church from
a small congregation in Bikita to one of the largest
religious organisations
with wings across the country and
beyond.
Bishop Mutendi was forced to relocate to Defe in Gokwe in the
60s. When he
died on July 20 1976 his son, Nehemiah, moved the church back
to Masvingo in
1981.
Nehemiah pursued his father’s dream by
building schools and modernising the
church.
Double storey
structures at Mbungo, dubbed “The Land of Peace”, bear
testimony to his
transformative agenda.
Nyasha Marufu, a telecommunications student,
travelled all the way from
Algeria for the pilgrimage.
“I wasn’t
born in ZCC, I was converted,” said Marufu beaming with pride.
“Some
people look down upon our church, but they do know that it is offering
the
community schools, values and shoko rowedenga (word of God) that is
helping
many people,” he said.
ZCC criticised for ‘exploiting’ the
faithful
But like other churches in Zimbabwe, ZCC, which is well-known
for faith
healing, has received its fair share of criticism for accepting
donations
from people who are too poor to part with their cash and
beasts.
Villagers also trek to Mbungo estates to plant church crops
and they are
involved in harvesting them.
However, a church
official, who preferred not to be named for protocol
related reasons, said
such criticisms by outsiders were unfounded.
“ZCC, unlike other
churches, has no donors. Party members fund whatever
costs that are
associated with running the church. They do it voluntarily,
knowing that if
they don’t do it, the church will collapse,” said the
official.
He pointed at the massive buildings at Mbungo as the
result of the work of
church members’ sacrifices.
He said ZCC was
also giving back to the community by running a number of
schools and
sponsoring more than 300 disadvantaged children to acquire an
education.
Between 61 to 100 students were being assisted with
university fees, he
added.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August 2011 10:09
By
Gumisani Nyoni
If a player of any game gets the blessings of
being included in a team by
his or her coach, but finds pride in spending
most of the time relaxed on
the bench as an inactive substitute, the most
viable option will be for that
person to resign and join the spectators
watching from the terraces.
The politics of Africa have largely been
inflicted by the plague whereby the
ruling parties believe in the leadership
system in which a single being is
granted unlimited, but dangerous
powers.
Party members, especially from parties that fought liberation
wars, stand
firm to support dictatorial tendencies, which provide them with
opportunities to loot from state coffers and at the same time according them
powers to justify policies that are detrimental to the welfare of the
majority. These politicians are undemocratic to an extent that even if a
leader deserves rest, they swiftly move in to thwart chances of succession
from among themselves. They are all power-greedy, but they lack the courage
to challenge their “charismatic king”.
The common result is the
creation of intra-party camps that will only unite
if the lion roars. Such
fragments within the party can hardly identify
appropriate solutions to
resuscitate the ailing economies of their nations,
nor do they have any
capacity to think beyond “lootocracy”.
Their core business as
government ministers or as parliamentarians is to
siphon mineral and other
resources for nothing more than
self-aggrandisement. Being a top government
official in most cases,
translates into being an instant millionaire. The
views of the masses are
regarded as irrelevant and incompetent. If through
the ballot, citizens
express their desire for fresh leadership and register
their dismay towards
parties that have failed to deliver since gaining power
from colonialists,
they get beaten up.
Jingles and slogans are
crafted to buttress the skewed notion that only one
leader is
perfect.
The demonstrations that swept across the Middle East and
North Africa and
are still infiltrating other parts of the world today, are
all products of
monolithic political tendencies that will eventually
degenerate into
dictatorship.
Ruling by intimidation serves to
curtail ambitions of succession from other
party officials. That disease is
worsened particularly by the militarisation
of the state.
This
scenario succinctly applies to Zimbabwe, whose volatile political
landscape
seeks to derail smooth transition of power from President Robert
Mugabe to
any other person within or outside Zanu PF. Mugabe has been
treated as a
supernatural being, whose power cannot be challenged. Thinking
of succeeding
him from within Zanu PF has been made impossible and those who
have tried it
have found themselves being labelled as outcasts.
All those who
participated in emancipating Zimbabwe but quit the ruling
party become
villains. Heroes speak, eat and dream Zanu PF! No wonder an
indoctrinated
member of Zanu PF, born 10 years after independence can become
a hero for
killing anti-Zanu PF activists during election campaigns.
Zanu-PF
thrives on docility, drunkenness and irrationality. This has been
proven by
the way it handles issues that relate to the holding of political
rallies,
whereby the police are instructed to arrest the innocent citizens
and in the
process violating their democratic right to support what they
believe
in.
By using coercion to streamline the masses, Zanu-PF suicidally chases
away
its sympathisers. Without a notable successor, the party is forced to
rely
on outdated policies, intolerance and the torture of those who seek
justice.
The party’s tight grip on the broadcast media and the
state-controlled press
is a clear testimony that it lacks innovation — an
ingredient that may allow
it to convince its already existing support base.
Jingles can become
senseless when listeners oppose the propagated ideology.
Excessive
propaganda in the press trying to sanitise Mugabe and Zanu-PF has
since
become an ineffective campaigning tool.
For lacking a clear
successor, Zanu PF in the end serves to propel its
rivals’ appeal. Despite
negative publicity against the MDC formations by
state-controlled media, the
masses, whose wishes have been thwarted since
the 2000 parliamentary poll,
will never be fooled into believing that a
decomposing dog will resurrect to
bite again.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 07 August
2011 10:13
In a White House meeting recently, President Barack Obama
praised four
recently elected heads of African states as “effective models”
for
democratisation who are “absolutely committed” to good governance and
human
rights. Yet, as the New York Times noted ambitious promises and lofty
rhetoric in Washington glossed over troubling, but all too familiar, reports
of coup plotting, an assassination attempt, and fresh human rights and press
freedom violations.
With the exception of President Boni Yayi of
Benin, three new African
leaders, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, Alassane
Ouattara of Ivory Coast, and
Alpha Condé of Guinea, have each been in office
for less than a year after
emerging from some of the most contested ballot
tussles on the continent.
Yet, in their short time in office, two of the
leaders Washington has most
embraced in “building strong democratic
institutions,” Ouattara and Condé,
have already been implicated in human
rights abuses.
Perhaps no one has spent more time in the opposition,
ironically, fighting
for democracy than Condé. Washington condemned a July
19 assassination
attempt on Condé, seven months after he took office
following an agonising
military transition. Ironically, the same week Condé
was in Washington
committing to building Guinean democracy, but a censorship
order had already
been issued that banned any broadcast programmes and
articles in Guinea
discussing the assassination attempt altogether because
it was deemed that
listeners’ questions about the circumstances of the
attack incited tensions.
Washington’s expectations of African
democracy have been disappointed before
by a previous generation of African
leaders once hailed by the West as
democratic reformers, including Meles
Zenawi of Ethiopia, Paul Kagame of
Rwanda and Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea.
Since assuming power, these leaders
have dropped the rhetoric of
democratisation while growing authoritarian.
“We do not follow the liberal
democratic principles which the Western
countries are pushing us to follow,”
declared Ethiopian Deputy Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in a 2010
interview with US government-funded
broadcaster Voice of
America.
Perhaps Washington’s highest expectations fall on Ouattara,
once a deputy
managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Strongly
backed by
Washington in his five-month power struggle against Gbagbo,
Ouattara
declared in a New York press conference at the United Nations last
week: “We
want to abide by human rights, this is very important for
us.”
Yet, while Ouattara has spoken a great deal about national
reconciliation
after an ethnically divisive and bloody post-election
conflict, his
government has sought to settle scores with members and
associates of the
deposed regime, detaining and prosecuting many, including
a journalist.
Ouattara told reporters last week that the scribe was “not in
prison,” but
simply “questioned” for hosting a programme that “really called
on hate,”
while issuing fresh accusations that the journalist had received
money to
buy arms for mercenaries. While abuses were committed by both sides
of the
Ivorian conflict, Ouattara has yet to hold to account fighters who
brought
him to power.
Of the four African leaders, perhaps it is
Issoufou who has taken the most
instant and significant step in building
democratic institutions. On his
100th day in office for example, Issoufou
held his first press conference
where he faced scores of probing
journalists. That was the first time in the
country’s history that
journalists were allowed to ask questions to the head
of state without
submitting them in advance for approval.
Mohamed Keita is Africa
advocacy coordinator for the Committee to Protect
Journalists.