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HARARE -- President Robert Mugabe, his loyalists in ZANU-PF, cabinet ministers, senior army and government officials and judges now own nearly 5 million hectares of agricultural land, including wildlife conservancies and plantation land, seized from white commercial farmers since 2000, investigations by ZimOnline have revealed.
This means that a new well-connected black elite of about 2 200 people now control close to half of the most profitable land seized from about 4 100 commercial farmers.
Even though Mugabe has consistently maintained that his land reform programme is meant to benefit the poor black masses, it is him and his cronies who have got the most out of it, according to our three month long investigations.
ZimOnline can conclusively state that Mugabe and his second wife Grace, now own 14 farms, worth at least 16 000 hectares in size.
All ministers from Mugabe's ZANU PF in Zimbabwe's coalition government and ZANU PF deputy ministers are multiple farm owners. That probably explains why Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's determined push to have a new land audit done to uncover multiple farm owners has persistently hit a brickwall.
Mugabe's deputy Joyce Mujuru, alongside his influential husband, former army general Solomon Mujuru, and their relatives, own at least 25 farms with a combined hectarage of more than 105 000.
Critics who have consistently dismissed Zimbabwe's emotional land reforms as a political patronage programme by the octogenarian Mugabe to reward supporters who have kept him in power are right after all.
But the veteran leader insists the programme is meant to redress colonial imbalances and benefited the povo. Mugabe, whose agrarian reforms have been criticised by the West, says some 300,000 people have benefitted from the programme.
However, investigations by ZimOnline have shown that while at least 150,000 ordinary people may have had access to farms, the majority own between 10 and 50 hectares each after some of the huge farms were subdivided into small plots. But these ordinary people only accessed land on the strengths of their ZANU PF party membership cards.
With the notable exception of Welshman Ncube, the secretary-general of a small splinter faction of the MDC, no high profile civil society and MDC officials have benefited from the land seizures.
But some 2,200 well connected people – Mugabe, his wife Grace, their top allies, friends and relatives -- have parcelled among themselves choice farms spanning from 250 hectares to as much as 4,000 hectares in the most fertile farming regions in the country, in clear violation of the government’s own policy of capping farm sizes.
Land the size of Slovakia
Government documents and investigations show that Mugabe and his top allies control nearly 40 percent of the 14 million hectares of land seized from whites, which if put together are the size of Slovakia, with a population of 5.4 million people.
Before 2000, the 4,500 members of the largely white Commercial Farmers’ Union and another 1,500 unaffiliated white farmers owned close to 15 million hectares of Zimbabwe’s most arable land and wildlife conservancies.
A decade later, less than 400 white farmers remain on the land, with the rest expelled and their properties handed over to politically correct blacks.
And research, including examination of various government documents and audit reports show that the biggest beneficiaries of the land reform programme remain ZANU-PF members and supporters, security service chiefs and officers and traditional chiefs who have openly sided with Mugabe and senior government officials and judges.
Some top government officials have been fingered in three official audits as multiple farm owners, clearly thumping their noses at the government’s own failed policy of “one man one farm”.
The 86-year-old Mugabe and his young second wife, Grace, are the chief multiple farm owners, with 14 farms in total, including seven in his home province of Mashonaland West and in the agriculture rich district of Mazowe in Mashonaland Central.
The farms measure over 16,000 hectares – enough to build 160,000 medium density houses – and include a five-in-one 4,046-hectare property named Gushungo Estate in Darwendale near Mugabe's rural Zvimba home.
“This is a political programme camouflaged as land reform because it is clear that land has been transferred to high profile people and not the landless,” John Worsley-Worswick from the vocal Justice For Agriculture (JAG) farmers pressure group said.
Another of Mugabe's deputies, John Nkomo is also a multiple farm owner. He now controls the lucrative Jijima wildlife sanctuary in north-west Zimbabwe after he muscled out a fellow black farmer.
Nkomo, who already owned another farm in Matabeleland, seized the Jijima lodge wildlife conservancy (size unkonwn) in north western Zimbabwe in defiance of a High Court order against him.
Asset stripping
Mugabe has not acted on the multiple farm owners, despite three government land audits which fingered top ZANU-PF officials and recommended that they return the farms.
Investigations show that for example Edna Madzongwe, Senate Speaker and a Mugabe relative has since 2000 seized six productive commercial farms in Chegutu district, Mashonaland West province, farms which she has all but run down.
These are Aitape, Cobun Estates, Bourne, Mpofu Farm, Reyden and Stockdale Farm, which she seized from an elderly white couple last year. The farms, which span 5,200 hectares in total, are all in Chegutu, some 100 kilometres west of capital Harare.
“Some of this can only be described as asset stripping because if you look at the farms now they are now in a derelict state and Madzongwe keeps hoping from one farm to another,” said a white commercial farmer who lost his farm but declined to be named fearing victimisation.
Investigations also showed that top politicians have in the past years moved from one farm to another, stripping them of equipment and selling off the produce, which has seen some of them rich overnight.
But Madzongwe is only one of several high-ranking ZANU-PF officials who have more than one farm.
Governor’s five farms
The president of the Chiefs’ Council Fortune Charumbira has seized more than four farms in Masvingo measuring 6,600 hectares in total and Information Minister Webster Shamu owns Lambourne farm and Selous Tobacco Estates in Mashonaland West measuring 1,660 hectares.
A government audit carried in 2002 showed that former Mashonaland West provincial governor Peter Chanetsa at one point had five farms spanning 4,000 hectares, former Mines Minister and legislator Chindori Chininga, Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo own or have owned multiple farms at some point.
“It is incumbent on the government and … ZANU-PF to quickly re-align the land reform programme implementation to the national land policy in order to reassert its credibility as a just and democratic programme to equitably redistribute the land in Zimbabwe and empower the indigenous people through land ownership,” the audit report said.
Agriculture remains the mainstay of Zimbabwe’s economy but production in the sector has plunged by 60 percent since 2000 when government-backed land invasions started.
Exports from the sector have fallen from $1.4 billion – 41percent of exports – in 2000 to nearly $700 million last year, after falling below $500 million in 2007, blamed largely on poorly equipped new black farmers and lack of farming inputs like seed and fertiliser.
But the downfall in agricultural output is also attributed in part to the fact that a huge chunk of some of the most productive and largest former white-owned commercial farms hoarded by senior Mugabe political allies are lying fallow either because the new owners are not that keen on farming or they simply abandoned the properties for new farms.
Gov’t to seize excess land
Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Hebert Murerwa said while there were some people with multiple farms, these were very few and would be forced to give them up.
“The fact that a handful of people may have more than one farm does not detract from the overwhelming success of the land reform where the government has created 300,000 new farmers over the last ten years” Murerwa said.
While much has been said bout the failure of black villagers resettled on former white farms to feed Zimbabwe chiefly because they lack financial resources, little is said about the fact that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe went to great lengths -- including employing rather questionable methods such as printing money -- to try to fund the new farmers.
The central bank had between 2003 and 2008 pumped in $3 billion in the agriculture sector alone by printing money and raiding accounts of NGOs and exporters, to buy subsidised farming equipment, fuel, seed and fertiliser. But this has mostly benefitted influential Mugabe allies, some who are accused of selling inputs on the black market.
Malawi in comparison, which spend half the amount to support its farmers has grown to become a net food exporter, while Zimbabwe continues to plug a food deficit.
Political analysts say Mugabe has managed to ensure support from the key security service, including the army, police and central intelligence, by dishing out prime farms to commanders and senior officers.
The security forces
Of the nearly 200 officers from the rank of Major to the Lieutenant General in the Zimbabwe National Army, 90 percent have farms in the most fertile parts of the country. This is replicated in the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe Prisons Service, Air Force of Zimbabwe and CIO.
In total there are 400 officers in the security services alone who are known to have farms above 250 hectares, often seized at gun point from the previous white owners while several lower ranking officers and war veterans also have smaller holdings.
Constantine Chiwenga, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander, who is among a cabal of Defence Forces chiefs who have publicly declared that they will only serve Mugabe, has two farms near Harare, including the 1,200 hectare Chakoma Estates, which his wife seized at gunpoint, telling a terrified white farmer that she lusted for white blood and sought the slightest excuse to kill him.
Perence Shiri, a veteran of the liberation struggle whose record was soiled during his command of an army crack unit in an insurgency crackdown in Matabeleland in early 1980s, has two farms, the 1,460 hectare Eirin farm in Marondera, which he seized after evicting 96 landless families and the 1,950 hectare banana producing Bamboo Creek in Shamva.
Augustine Chihuri, Mugabe’s loyal Police Commissioner General owns Woodlands Farm (size unknown) in Shamva.
In the past year more than a dozen senior army and air force officers with have used armed soldiers to evict white commercial farmers.
In August last year Brigadier General Justin Mujaji evicted white farmer Charles Lock from his 376 hectare Karori farm in Headlands district east of Harare and defied several High Court orders, including one meant to allow Lock to take his tobacco and maize crop and equipment.
“Clearly there is a common thread here, where the military which is supposed to defend its citizens brazenly terrorises them in the name of land reform,” said John Makumbe, a University of Zimbabwe political lecturer and Mugabe critic.
Politburo and judges
All of ZANU-PF’s 56 politburo members, 98 Members of Parliament and 35 elected and unelected Senators were allocated former white farms, all 10 provincial governors have seized farms, with four being multiple owners, while 65 percent of the country’s more than 200 mostly partisan traditional chiefs have also benefited from the land reforms.
Sixteen Supreme Court and High Court Judges, including Chief Justice Chidyausiku, who owns the 1 000 hectare Estes Park farm in Mazowe/Concession district, also own large farms ranging between 540 to 1380 hectares.
Forty serving and former ambassadors have been allocated farms, with 70 percent of Parastatals bosses also owning large tracts of land.
Investigations have also revealed that Mugabe’s personal banker and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono surprisingly does not own a farm given to him by government but has managed to buy four farms, including the prime 4,000 hectare Donnington farm in Norton he purchased in 2001.
Sources said Gono, who at the time was CBZ Holdings chief executive who personally authorised loans for senior government officials, bought the farms at knockdown prices from farmers who were under pressure from invaders to leave their properties.
"The white farmers have simply been replaced by a new black elite," said a source. But while the old white farmers regarded farming as a profession and most worked their land full time maintaining Zimbabwe as the bread basket of Africa , the Mugabe cronies who have replaced them largely fit the mould of what Mugabe himself has described as "mobile phone farmers".
They are largely responsible for converting Zimbabwe into a basket case as they have used their land more for weekend recreation.
Minister of State in Vice President Joyce Mujuru's office, Sylvester Nguni, himself a huge land owner, once accused his fellow ZANU PF officials of only acquiring vast swathes of land "for pride" as they had dismally failed to use their land many years after they seized it.
While most of the seized land controlled by these top Mugabe cronies continue to lie fallow, most of the poor peasants and small holder farmers in communal and other better areas account for most of the improvements in agricultural output last year.
In fact, the peasant farmers accounted for more than half of Zimbabwe's total maize production even before the mass evictions of white landowners who mostly focused on cash crops.
Sources say if the land reforms had been based on a transparent poverty alleviation thresholds and properly implemented with the right beneficiaries being selected and empowered without Mugabe's patronage considerations, the white farmers would largely have not been missed.
But even the 350 000 black farm workers, who many had thought would be among the initial targets or beneficiaries of land reforms were largely ignored.
Unconfirmed reports say many of the former farm labourers have died due to poverty after they were evicted alongside their former white employers. The few who remained on the farms have to content with the new black landowners who don't invest on the properties and pay them starvation wages. -- ZimOnline
LIST OF ZIMBABWE’S TOP FARM OWNERS
*The list is not exhaustive as district land officers who have the knowledge of farm owners in any given district were in some cases unwilling to disclose such details for fear of possible reprisals.
NAME FARM SIZE AREA
R. MUGABE Gushungo Estates 4046ha Darwendale
Gushungo Dairies 1000ha Mazowe
Iron MasK 1046ha Mazowe
Sigaru Farm 873ha Mazowe
Gwebi Wood 1200ha Mazowe
Gwina Farm 1445ha Banket
Leverdale Farm1488ha Mazowe
Highfield 445ha Norton
Cressydale Estate676ha Norton
Tankatara 575ha Norton
Clifford 1050ha Norton
John O’Groat Farm760h Norton
Bassiville 1200ha Mazowe
S & M. MUJURU Alamein Farm 1300ha Beatrice
JOHN NKOMO Gijima Lodge xxx Hwange
SIMON KHAYA MOYO Marula Block 36 2034ha Bulilamangwe
CABINET MINISTERS
Joseph Made Tara Farm 840ha Odzi
Emmerson Mnangagwa Sherwood Farm 1600ha Kwekwe
Francis Nhema Nyamanda 1000ha Karoi
Stanislaus Mudenge Chikore Farm 760ha Masvingo
Kembo Mohadi Jopembe Block 3000ha Beitbridge
Benlynian Range 3200ha Beitbridge
Patrick Chinamasa Tsukumai 800ha Headlands
Nyamazura 1260ha Rusape
Hebert Murerwa Rise Holm 1100ha Arcturus
Ignatius Chombo Allan Grange 3000ha Banket
Oldham 400ha Chegutu
Shingwiri 1600ha Chegutu
Webster Shamu Lambourne Farm 1340ha Selous
Tobacco Estate 900ha Chegutu
Obert Mpofu Young Farm 2300ha Nyamandlovu
Umguza Block 39, 40, 41 6200ha Umguza
Auchenberg 1026ha Nyamandlovu
Sithembiso Nyoni Fountain Farm 3100ha Insiza
Walter Mzembi BW Farm 720ha Masvingo
Nicholas Goche Ceres Farm xxx Shamva
Savior Kasukuwere Conucorpia Farm 100ha Mazowe
Harmony Farm 500ha Mazowe
Didymus Mutasa
Sydney Sekeramayi Maganga Farm 620ha Marondera
Edna Madzongwe Aitape Farm 2000ha Chegutu
Coburn Estates Plot 13A560ha Chegutu
Bourne Farm 445ha Chegutu
Mpofu Farm 1200ha Chegutu
Stockdale Farm 750ha Chegutu
Reyden Farm 1340ha
SECURITY SERVICES
Constantine Chiwenga Chakoma Estates 1276ha Goromonzi
Perence Shiri Bamboo Creek 1950ha Shamva
Eirin Farm 1460ha Marondera
Augustine Chihuri Woodlands Farm xxx Shamva
Paradzayi Zimondi Upton Farm 1029ha Goromonzi
Happyton Bonyongwe Thetford Farm
Henry Muchena Serui Drift 1500ha Chegutu
Abu Basutu Swallowfork Ranch 2711ha West Nicholson
Elson Moyo Daisy Farm 1600ha Chegutu
JUDGES
Godfrey Chidyausiku Estes Park 895ha Concession
Luke Malaba Marula Block 35 1866ha Bulilamangwe
Paddington Garwe Faun Farm 760ha Chegutu
Antonia Guvava Harndale Farm 1000ha Chegutu
Mafios Cheda Marula Block 37 3039ha Bulilamangwe
Ben Hlatshwayo Kent Estate 800ha Norton
Charles Hungwe Little England 6956ha Makonde
Chitakunye Alfias The Grange 1300ha Chegutu
PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS
David Karimanzira Arcadia Farm 1300ha Marondera
Cain Mathema Gwayi Ranch 4600ha Gwayi
Umguza Block 3700ha Umguza
Chris Mushohwe Kondozi Farm 400ha Odzi
Titus Maluleke Clipshap Farm 3000ha Masvingo
Thokozile Mathutu Dete Valley Farm 2800ha Dete
Anthonia Extension6500ha Umguza
Angeline Masuku Wollendale Farm 3000ha Gwanda
Cephas Msipa Cheshire Farm 2100ha Gweru
ZANU-PF/GOVT HIGH RANKING OFFICIAL
Reward Marufu Leopards Vlei 1294ha Glendale
Kachere Farm 880ha Mazowe
Sabina Mugabe Mlembwe Farm 1037ha Makonde
Longwood Farm 924ha Makonde
Gowrie Farm 430ha Norton
Leo Mugabe Diandra 815ha Darwandale
Nangadza 1200ha Mhangura
Journey’s End 3000ha Makonde
Patrick Zhuwao Marivale Farm 244ha Mazowe
George Charamba Battlefields 02 1572ha Kwekwe
Nathan Shamuyarira Mt Carmel xxx Chegutu
Bright Matonga Lions Vlei 2000ha Chegutu
Amos Midzi Magudu Ranch 10701ha Chiredzi
Dick Mafios Insingizi Farm 1100ha Bindura
Melfort 554ha Mazowe
Joseph Chinotimba Watakai 1240ha Mazowe
Happison Muchechetere Burry Hill Estate 617ha Makonde
Tobaiwa Mudede Ballineety 3147ha Nyabira
Austin Zvoma Chinomwe Estates 1432ha Makonde
Mariyawanda Nzuwa Stella Burton 425ha Mazowe
David Parirenyatwa Rudolphia 802ha Murewa
Charles Utete Rudzimi 3350ha Lomagundi
Paddy Zhanda Chipfumbi Meadows1364ha Goromonzi
http://www.radiovop.com/
30/11/2010 18:20:00
HARARE,
NOVEMBER 30, 2010 – The editor of The Standard newspaper who handed
over
himself to the police on Tuesday morning has been detained after he was
formally charged of communicating falsehoods.
Nevanji Madanhire was
being sought by the police in connection with a story
written by the
paper’s Bulawayo based correspondent Nqobani Ndlovu alleging
that the force
was recruiting war veterans and retired officers.
Ndlovu said his sources
told him the veterans will direct operations ahead
of next year’s
elections.
The reporter spent eight days in custody before he was granted
bail by the
High Court last week.
Madanhire who was accompanied by
his lawyer Chris Mhike spent almost the
whole day waiting at the police
station.
A detention order was finally signed just before 5 PM after the
investigating officers pretended to be organising that he does not spend a
night in the cells.
He is charged under Section 31 (B) (II) (C) of
Criminal Law (Codification
and Reform) Act.
Part of the section
criminalises the publication of statements that
undermine “public confidence
in a law enforcement agency.”
If convicted, the journalist will be
“liable to a fine of up to or exceeding
level fourteen or imprisonment for a
period not exceeding 20 years or both.”
Analysts have blamed the
clampdown on journalists on Zanu PF hardliners who
want to control the flow
of information ahead of next year’s elections.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
by Irene Madongo
30 November
2010
State agents are understood to be after the Standard newspaper’s
deputy
editor, over a story about Local Government Minister Ignatius
Chombo’s
excessive wealth. The newspaper’s editor could also be jailed as
police
continue their clampdown on the independent media.
ZANU PF’s
Chombo is being widely condemned around the country after his
staggering
wealth, revealed in his divorce battle, detailed his ownership of
innumerable properties, plus farms, mines and hunting lodges in Zimbabwe as
well as properties in South Africa. Opposition parties and residents
associations want an official investigation to be launched into how he
acquired this wealth.
On Sunday night members of the notorious
Central Intelligence Organisation
visited the home of the Standard’s deputy
editor, Walter Marwizi. They
visited again at around 4:30 am.
The
Standard’s editor Nevanji Madanhire said: “I think it should be related.
He
wrote an article about Chombo in the Standard. It’s about Chombo’s
property.
He was just asking the opinion of civil society, what do they
think of his
wealth and they were saying he is not fit for public office and
all that. I
think this is the Chombo issue.”
Madanhire himself was on Tuesday charged
with publishing falsehoods and
could be jailed over another story that
appeared in the paper. The story
claimed that exams for promotion in the
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) were
scrapped, so that retired police and war
vets could occupy vacant top posts
in the force to direct operations during
the 2011 polls.
The ZRP denies the allegations, and wants the paper to
reveal the source
behind the article. The newspaper says it is unethical to
do so, and the
source could be tortured if exposed.
Nqobani Ndlovu,
the journalist who wrote the ZRP story, was charged for
defaming the police
under Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act. He was
thrown into prison and released last Friday, after
spending nine days behind
bars. His lawyer is challenging a section of this
law and wants it to be
declared unconstitutional.
Commentators have warned that the harassment
of journalists by the ZRP,
headed by Mugabe loyalist Augustine Chihuru, will
worsen as the country
heads towards elections.
http://www.voanews.com/
Sources said Mr. Zuma urged the Harare principals to draft a
road map to
free and fair elections to select a government with full powers,
and that he
envisioned an expanded role for SADC in that
ballot
Studio 7 Reporters | Washington/Harare 29 November
2010
South African President Jacob Zuma, mediating dialogue in Zimbabwe
for the
Southern African Development Community, will meet this week with
Zambian
President Rupiah Banda, chairman of the so-called SADC troika on
politics,
defense and security on which Mr. Zuma also sits, to discuss the
crisis in
Harare, sources said Monday.
Mr. Zuma, who visited Harare
last week, will update Mr. Banda Thursday on
progress ending the stalemate
in Harare. Mr. Zuma has said he persuaded
President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, to resume
one-on-one talks.
Mr. Banda and
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, the third troika member,
failed to
show up for a meeting on Zimbabwe in Gaborone, Botswana two weeks
ago.
After meetings Friday with the Harare principals, including
Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara, Mr. Zuma said he had managed to
resolve a number
of issues including the breakdown in communications between
Mr. Mugabe and
Mr. Tsvangirai, who for a month had been boycotting the
customary Monday
talks the two had held.
Sources said Mr. Zuma urged
the principals to come up with a clear road map
to free and fair elections
for the country to select a government with full
powers. He is also said to
have urged wider involvement by SADC in the next
round of
elections.
Lindiwe Zulu, a foreign policy advisor to Mr. Zuma, told VOA
Studio 7
reporter Ntungamili Nkomo that Mr. Zuma and Mr. Banda will decide
the way
forward for their panel in seeking resolution to the longrunning
political
conflict in Harare.
"Indeed President Zuma will take up the
Zimbabwean issue with Mr. Banda as
chairman of the troika when he comes to
South Africa this week, aiming to
move the process forward," Zulu
said.
Political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya said the Southern African
Development
Community has lost credibility, having failed to act decisively
on Zimbabwe
in the past. He said he doubted that the Zuma-Banda meeting
would yield
significant results.
Many in Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change have lost faith in
SADC and in the wake of the letdown
in Gaborone the party is appealing to a
higher power, drafting and
circulating a prayer for guidance to help
Zimbabwe achieve
democracy.
The prayer says in part that Zimbabweans have suffered much
"at the hands of
men who have turned from God's word and
wisdom."
Earlier this month, Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, a
widely feared
stalwart of Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF, also struck a religious
chord telling a
funeral gathering that he had found comfort in the arms of
God.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Programs Manager Pedzisai Ruhanya
remarked in
an interview with VOA reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that the
Tsvangirai MDC
formation should also be seen taking action because God helps
those who help
themselves.
Meanwhile, US diplomatic cables released
by whistle blower website,
Wikileaks included one from Harare in 2007 in
which former Ambassador
Christopher Dell told the state department that the
end was near for Mr.
Mugabe in political terms.
He described Mr.
Mugabe as a ruthless leader but a “brilliant tactician”
though hampered by
his “ego and belief in his own infallibility [and] his
obsessive focus on
the past as a justification for everything in the present
and
future.”
Dell described then-opposition leader Tsvangirai as a flawed
figure with
“questionable judgment in selecting those around him.”
Nonetheless, Dell
considered Mr. Tsvangirai to be "the indispensable element
for opposition
success.”
In calling a near-term end to Mr. Mugabe’s
term in power, Dell acknowledged
that such predictions had been made by his
predecessors.
Mr. Mugabe lost the first round of the 2008 presidential
election to Mr.
Tsvangirai, but clung to power through a runoff election
that many in the
world and region considered to lack legitimacy, leading to
the current
power-sharing arrangement in Harare.
Though the
unauthorized release of secret U.S documents by Wiki leaks has
been
controversial to say the least, Emira Woods, co-director of the
Institute
for Policy Studies in Washington said she believed the leaks are
good for
democracy.
Political analyst Charles Mangongera said Dell’s observations
on Mr.
Tsvangirai are well known, adding what is more interesting for
political
scientists is what was revealed about those in ZANU-PF who have
worked with
the U.S. government.
Elsewhere, the Zimbabwean Supreme
Court on Monday cleared the way for six
people accused of plotting a coup in
2007 against Mr. Mugabe to appeal a
High Court decision upholding their
re-indictment following the expiration
of a statutory time limit for
trial.
VOA Studio 7 correspondent Thomas Chiripasi reported from Harare.
http://www.businessday.co.za
LOYISO LANGENI
Published:
2010/11/30 06:34:45 AM
THE South African government joined the scramble
to ease the fallout over
WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of documents
yesterday, red- faced over a
claim that International Relations and
Co-operation Minister Maite
Nkoana-Mashabane had called Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe a "crazy old
man".
The claim was just one among
thousands to lift the lid on what the world’s
leaders really think about
each other, gleaned from millions of documents
that detail classified
exchanges between US diplomats abroad and Washington.
The revelation is
an embarrassment for SA, which has expended diplomatic
capital trying to
keep Mr Mugabe, aged 86, in power.
"We are still making consultation with
the minister, who is in Libya, to
verify whether she uttered those words,"
her spokesman, Malusi Mogale, said
yesterday.
The department would
issue an official statement "soon" once the
"consultation process" had been
concluded, he said.
Last month, at a public lecture at the University of
Pretoria, Ms
Nkoana-Mashabane told of SA’s frustration in trying to resolve
the political
impasse in Zimbabwe.
She blamed political adversaries
Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for
Democratic Change and Mr Mugabe for
failing to implement the national unity
framework.
President Jacob
Zuma was forced to visit Zimbabwe just last week in yet
another attempt to
convince the two to work together.
The leaked documents also report that
US diplomats considered former
president Thabo Mbeki as biased and feared he
was siding with Mr Mugabe
during his mediation efforts in
Zimbabwe.
Former US ambassador to Harare, Christopher Dell, warned in
2007 that power
sharing would only prolong Zimbabwe’s crisis, and "we must
guard against
letting Pretoria dictate an outcome which perpetuates the
status quo at the
expense of real change and reform".
Mr Dell
described Mugabe as "more clever and more ruthless than any other
politician
in Zimbabwe", and said of Mr Tsvangirai that he is a democrat,
but "also a
flawed figure, not readily open to advice, indecisive". With
Sapa-AFP
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
by Irene Madongo
30
November 2010
Residents in rural Matabeleland North and South are
increasingly being
targeted by violent war vets, sponsored to establish ZANU
PF strongholds.
Villagers in Nyamandlovu are being harassed by a war vet
called Nkanyezi,
and their headmen are being pressured to take up senior
posts in ZANU PF
branches in the area, according to our
correspondent.
Already war vets sponsored by key ZANU PF members have
been terrorising
locals and MDC members in other parts of the country. War
vet leader
Jabulani Sibanda has become notorious for his terror campaign in
rural
Manicaland and despite protests by locals and MPs, the police have
still not
arrested him.
This intimidation of villagers is now being
duplicated by Nkaynezi,
according to our Bulawayo correspondent Lionel
Saungweme. He said Nkanyezi
is also forcing MDC and ZAPU members to
surrender their membership cards and
join ZANU PF. “He is one of Obert
Mpofu’s hangers-on and that is where he
derives his power from. It looks odd
that an individual could command such
power, but it’s the system in Zimbabwe
that if you stand up and say you are
ZANU PF you can cause communities to
suffer without the police interfering,”
Saungweme said.
It’s
understood that police have ignored reports about Nkanyezi, and
although
ZIPRA war vets have asked him to stop his violent behavior, he has
refused
to do so.
“Nkanyezi has approached Chief Deli, also known as Chief
Mabhena, in
Nyamandlovu with the express request that Deli grant him the
honor of being
a headman. Nkanyezi has been influencing and trying to coerce
other headmen
to become chairmen or leaders of ZANU-PF structures. He has
succeeded to
some extent which is why he is making a request to become a
headman,”
Saungweme said, “Others would see this as Obert Mpofu’s attempt at
trying to
get influence within the area. He faces stiff resistance from
people who
have resettled there and former ZAPU cadres who say he sold out
and went to
ZANU PF,” Saungweme explained.
Meanwhile in Gwanda,
former MP Abednego Ncube is reported to be forcing
villagers in farm
resettlements to surrender MDC and ZAPU cards. Ncube is
understood to be
working alongside another ZANU PF war vet Sijumba, real
name Robson Mafa, to
get their operation underway. It’s understood Ncube
wants to be an MP again.
On Tuesday Saungweme said that Sijumba has
organised militants to go
door-to-door with a tin for locals to deposit
their MDC or ZAPU membership
cards. Villagers have been told that if they
don’t take up ZANU PF
membership they could be removed from the area. They
were given a 24th
November deadline to do so, which has now been moved to 31
December.
http://www.radiovop.com
30/11/2010 13:59:00
Harare, 30 November -
Tormented Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
treasurer-general Roy Bennett
has petitioned the Supreme Court demanding to
be furnished with the outcome
of an appeal filed by Attorney General (AG)
Johannes Tomana challenging the
acquittal of the former Chimanimani
legislator.
Bennett’s lawyer
Beatrice Mtetwa recently wrote to the Registrar of the
Supreme Court
requesting an update on the status of Tomana’s appeal in which
Chief Justice
Godfrey Chidyausiku reserved judgment.
“We enquire when we might expect a
decision in the matter as our client is
anxious that this matter continues
to hang over his head,” reads part of
Mtetwa’s letter.
Chidyausiku
indefinitely reserved judgment in July when he presided over an
appeal
lodged by Tomana in May challenging the acquittal of Bennett.
High Court
Judge, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu in May acquitted the Deputy
Agriculture
Minister-Designate, at the close of the State’s case. Bennett
had been on
trial since last October on spurious charges of insurgency,
banditry,
terrorism and sabotage.
In acquitting the former commercial farmer
Justice Bhunu ruled that the
State’s prosecution team, led by Tomana, had
failed to establish a prima
facie case against the former Chimanimani Member
of Parliament.
In his appeal the AG argues that Justice Bhunu misdirected
himself when he
acquitted Bennett in that he assessed pieces of evidence in
isolation rather
than adopting a holistic analysis of the admittedly
circumstantial evidence
adduced by the State.
Tomana also contends
that Justice Bhunu erred in adopting a piecemeal
approach to evaluate the
weight of evidence brought before him by the State,
whose prosecution team
was led by the AG himself, assisted by Chris
Mutangadura, the chief law
officer and Florence Ziyambi, the Director of
Public Prosecutions in the
AG’s Office.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
30
November 2010
The MDC-T will only decide on Wednesday whether its
senators should resume
sitting in the upper house of Parliament, a top party
official said on
Tuesday.
Morgan Komichi, the deputy organizing
secretary, told SW Radio Africa their
standing committee, the top decision
making body of the party, will meet on
Wednesday to deliberate on the
issue.
Business in the senate had been adjourned to next year after MDC
senate
members protested the attendance of provincial governors who were
unilaterally re-appointed by Robert Mugabe, in violation of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA).
But MDC-M leader and deputy Prime
Minister, Arthur Mutambara, said in
Masvingo on Monday that the enate would
resume sitting this week. He said
the three principals to the GPA had agreed
to this during their meeting last
week with the SADC mediator, President
Jacob Zuma of South Africa.
Mutambara added that the senate would get
back to business while they wait
for a verdict from the High court and also
the outcome of the SADC Troika
meeting, scheduled for next week. Recently
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
began legal action against Robert Mugabe
over the appointment of the
provincial governors and it is now before the
courts.
But despite proclamations by Mutambara that senate proceedings
will resume
this week, MDC-T senators and officials told us they knew
nothing about it.
‘Who is Mutambara? He’s not even our leader so where
does he get the
authority to tell us that. At least he should have had the
courtesy to brief
us first before rushing to the media,’ one senator
said.
Komichi was more diplomatic when he said the decision for senators
to go
back lies with the standing committee. He said it has always been
Tsvangirai’s
modus operandi that before he goes public on any major party
issues he
briefs the standing committee first.
MDC-T senators are
adamant they will continue with their boycott of the
senate until the matter
of the governors is resolved.
Mutambara has said in his address to
business leaders in Masvingo that the
three principals agreed on the senate
resumption after Mugabe conceded that
he violated the GPA by re-appointing
the governors for another term.
Another MDC-T senator said; ‘Since Mugabe
has agreed he violated the GPA by
re-appointing the governors, he should
simply reverse the appointments and
Tsvangirai might be forced to drop the
court case against him and we will go
back to the senate. As simple as
that.’
The ten ZANU PF appointed governors are meant to take seats in the
House of
Assembly as senators but because Mugabe defied the provisions of
the power
sharing deal in unilaterally appointing them, the MDC-T has
refused to
recognize ‘strangers in the house.’
Political commentator
Luke Zunga said he wondered why Mutambara would think
that Tsvangirai would
be so gullible as to agree to such an arrangement,
taking into account the
number of times Mugabe has reneged on issues agreed
upon during SADC
summits.
‘How many times has Mugabe agreed with Tsvangirai on so many of
the GPA
issues only to go back on his word whenever he meets his politburo?
This is
a classical example of giving someone a taste of their own medicine.
I bet
the answer tomorrow (Wednesday) is the MDC-T will decide against going
back
to the senate and we will have another standoff.
Zunga said the
standoff will in effect derail the passing of the Finances
and Appropriation
Bills that seeks to give effect to the budget statement
presented last week
Thursday by Finance minister Tendai Biti.
The Finances Bill would
legalise the various tax measures that the minister
announced, while the
Appropriation Bill, once passed, gives effect to budget
votes allocated to
Government ministries and departments. The two Bills are
supposed to sail
through both the House of Assembly and Senate before being
submitted for
Presidential assent.
‘If both parties fail to bridge the gap, as far as
the latest crisis is
concerned, then the Finance Ministry cannot disburse
the funds to various
ministries, even those controlled by the MDC. This is
something that both
parties have to seriously consider and negotiate with
the suffering people
in mind,’ Zunga added.
http://www.ipsnews.net
By Ignatius
Banda
BULAWAYO, Nov 30, 2010 (IPS) - Tasha Ncube* has no kind words for
the
police. Early last month, the 31-year-old mother of two was beaten
several
times by her husband over what she says were small arguments. This
was the
first time in a marriage that has gone for years without any such
occurrence.
"I began suspecting he must be seeing someone as I have
heard such stories
before about men with ‘small houses’ suddenly being
moody," Ncube said.
Small house is a local euphemism for a
lover.
"When I confronted him he went mad and he beat me up. I reported
him to the
police."
But Ncube did not get the response she expected.
"They said I should go back
home and ask relatives to mediate as they were
getting many reports from
women who withdrew charges after the husband
apologised. I was so angry I
did not know what to say..."
Like many
other women, she returned home to continue life with her abusive
husband.
Officers 'interpreting' law
Ncube’s case is typical
example of what gender activists say is a glaring
gap between the
enforcement and interpretation of legal provisions that seek
to protect
women from gender-based violence.
Gender activists and the gender
ministry made groundbreaking strides over
several years to push GBV
legislation through Parliament. The Domestic
Violence Act was finally passed
by Parliament in 2007 amidst much
celebration.
But Irene Zwelibanzi,
an activist who has spent several nights in police
cells after Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) organised demonstrations in the
streets of Bulawayo
says police attitudes towards women are yet to change.
"Some male police
officers forget that when they are at work they are
professionals but they
still behave like uneducated men in the street and
demean women who seek
their protection," Zwelibanzi complained.
"This is not helping the fight
we are waging for our rights as we are also
now fighting to change the
attitudes of the police themselves," she said.
Police: 'We do take it
seriously'
The Zimbabwe Republic Police maintains that it has done much
to sensitise
members of the force on dealing with domestic violence cases
and how to
handle reports, especially from battered women.
The
Domestic Violence Act stipulates that domestic violence is punishable by
up
to 10 years. This is the reason some police officers give for not taking
all
reports seriously, claiming that some wives do not want to see their
husbands locked up for that long.
"Sometimes we get wives reporting
their husbands for beating them up, but
after locking him up, the wife comes
only a few minutes later to say she has
forgiven him and wants to withdraw
the charges," said an officer who spoke
on condition of
anonymity.
"It’s not that we do no take these reports seriously, but
sometimes it helps
that these disputes do not reach the police station if
marriages are to be
saved," the officer reasoned.
"I think it is
generally about gender relations -- how sensitive men are to
women’s
experiences of domestic violence, particularly women they don’t
know," says
Amanda Atwood of kubatana.net, a forum for Zimbabwe online
activists and
bloggers.
"How comfortable are women generally discussing issues of
domestic violence
with strangers, particularly men?" Atwood
reflected.
Meanwhile, according to research conducted this year by the
Zimbabwe Women
Resource Centre and Network, domestic violence accounted for
more than 60
percent of murder cases in Harare’s High Court, providing
insight into the
gravity of the situation.
Raising profile of
GBV
There has been a push to give the issue prominence in the
constitution
making process with advocacy based on evidence of the high cost
of GBV to
the nation. In particular, medical costs, justice, transport,
school fees,
loss of working hours, treatment of sexually-transmitted
infections, HIV and
loss of household income have been cited.
Efforts
to address GBV at community level are generally dismissed as
ineffective by
women like Ncube who say the non-involvement of law
enforcement officers
means such initiatives are ignored by men.
As part of a Gender Based
Violence Strategy and Implementation Plan, the
Gender Ministry, together
with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
has been conducting
training of community-based counsellors.
Rejoice Timire, executive
director of the Disabled Women Support
Organisation, says women living with
disability have not been spared either.
Timire called for the needs of this
oft forgotten group of women to be
addressed during the 16 Days of Activism
Against Gender Based Violence.
"There is high unemployment and economic
dependency and this has left the
women with disability more vulnerable to
abuse," Timire told IPS.
Ncube is still hurting from the double abuse she
suffered – at the hands of
her husband and the police who refused to act. "I
obviously feel bad about
having reported my husband. Not because I reported
him but because the
police refuse to do anything about it," she
said.
*Names have been changed.
30 November
2010
The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) conducted
informative road
shows in Highfields and Glen Norah over the weekend in a
bid to mobilise
residents to demand accountability and transparency in Local
Government. The
road shows, which were conducted at Machipisa and Chitubu
Shopping Centres
respectively, attracted over 1,000 residents who gathered
and expressed
their determination to stamp out corruption in local
government.
The road shows were prompted by the reluctance of the powers
that be to
commission investigations into the incriminating revelations made
by the
Harare Land Audit Report regarding Minister Chombo and Philip
Chiyangwa’s
unprocedural acquisition of Harare land. Residents are not
amused with the
fact that the Honourable Minister and Chiyangwa have never
been investigated
but the Harare Councilors who came up with the report are
the ones who were
arrested instead. The recent revelations of Minister
Chombo’s numerous
properties in almost every Local Authority in Zimbabwe are
also a cause for
concern to residents.
Within that context, CHRA
conducted the road shows to disseminate
information and raise awareness
among residents regarding these issues. The
road shows were also a
mobilising tool to bring residents together so that
they could come up with
collective resolutions on issues of corruption. The
Association witnessed a
great turnout of residents, most of whom openly
demanded the reinstatement
of the suspended Harare Councilors. Residents
expressed their discontent at
the ongoing and seemingly endless
investigations on the suspended Councilors
which they said is a waste of
ratepayers’ money. They pointed out that
Chombo is on a war path to
frustrate the Councilors so that they can stop
exposing him. Residents also
demanded that Minister Chombo should be fired
because he has dismally failed
to resuscitate Local Authorities and that he
should be investigated and
brought to book for his corrupt activities.
Issues of service delivery were
also explored as residents depicted their
grievances through theatre, poetry
and music.
CHRA is currently in
the process of engaging the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Local
Government and the Prime Minster’s office to appeal for
their intervention.
The Association remains committed to advocating for
democratic, transparent
and accountable local governance as well as lobbying
for quality and
affordable municipal services on a non partisan basis.
CHRA
Information, making the implicit, explicit
http://www.timeslive.co.za
Nov 30, 2010 5:29 PM | By
Sapa-AFP
Zimbabwe's police chief has warned that the results of elections
proposed
for next year will be accepted only if President Robert Mugabe's
party wins,
the Zimbabwe Mail news website reported.
Police
commissioner Augustine Chihuri is a veteran supporter of Mugabe and
his
Zanu-PF party, which is in a power-sharing government with the Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) of Morgan Tsvangirai.
Chihuri was quoted by the
Mail as telling a group of junior officers in
Harare that "this country came
through blood and the barrel of the gun, and
it can never be recolonized
through a simple pen, which costs as little as
five cents."
His
remarks added to fears of a new wave of violence against MDC supporters
if
the country heads back to the polls next year.
Mugabe is pushing for
presidential and parliamentary elections to be held by
the middle of next
year, despite the fact that the international community
says conditions for
a free and fair vote are not yet in place.
Chihuri's reported remarks
pick up on a theme in Mugabe's speeches that
Tsvangirai is a "a Western
puppet" who will hand the country over to whites
if he comes to
power.
Tsvangirai's arm of the coalition government reacted
angrily.
"He (Chihuri) must immediately be investigated for these
statements," said
Eric Matinenga, minister of constitutional affairs and MDC
member.
"If that is not a coup, what is? If that is not treasonous, I
dont know what
is."
Josphat Tshuma, president of the Law Society of
Zimbabwe, said the
commissioner's remarks were "setting a very dangerous
precedent."
He was asserting that the right of citizens to choose who
ruled them was
"irrelevant", effectively "neutralizing" the police as an
institution for
the protection of citizens.
"He is justifying
everything that is necessary to keep one party in power,"
he
said.
Mugabe's party began using violence and election fraud to cement
its hold on
power after the MDC emerged as an opposition force in
2000.
In 2008, the MDC won parliamentary elections and Tsvangirai won the
first
round of presidential elections.
The MDC victory cost around
200 MDC supporters their lives at the hands of
Zanu-PF militia and the
military.Author: Jan Raath
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
30 November
2010
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s party says it will not rely
solely on the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) to deliver a
free and fair
election in the country. Speaking to SW Radio Africa on
Tuesday, MDC-T
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said; ‘The core strategy is to
mobilize and
galvanise the people of Zimbabwe to have a free and fair
election. We are
not putting all our eggs in the SADC basket, because we
have learnt from
events in the past.’
On Friday South African
President Jacob Zuma met all three coalition
leaders - Tsvangirai, Mugabe
and Mutambara. He is reported to have pressed
them to come up with, and
implement, a roadmap for elections, that ZANU PF
insist should be held next
year before June. Responding to widespread views
that Zuma was a mediator
biased in favour of Mugabe Chamisa said;
‘Skepticism is there because of
past circumstances, but Zimbabweans are
their own ultimate
liberators.’
Some reports claimed Zuma achieved some success in getting
Tsvangirai and
Mugabe to talk after, after more than a month. Asked to
comment on Fridays
negotiations Chamisa said; ‘Well I don’t know whether I
should call it
progress or otherwise. We received an undertaking that
President Zuma is
going to facilitate the construction of a roadmap towards
the holding of a
free, credible and legitimate election. Of course we are
still to see the
proof of the pudding in the eating.’
Although
Chamisa refused to disclose the details of the meetings, SW Radio
Africa has
been told that Zuma asked Tsvangirai to withdraw a High Court
petition
challenging Mugabe’s unilateral appointments of provincial
governors.
Tsvangirai is however said to have flatly rejected this proposal,
demanding
that Mugabe reverse his appointments first. Asked if this was true
Chamisa
said; ‘The veracity or otherwise remains confined to the corridors
of those
in the cockpit.’
Zuma travelled to Harare after the SADC troika on
politics, defence and
security failed to meet in Botswana a week before,
because two of its three
leaders, Zambian President Rupiah Banda and
Mozambican President Armando
Guebuza failed to turn up. Zuma is now expected
to meet the same troika
either before or after Christmas and appraise them
of the so-called election
roadmap.
For Zimbabweans the merry-go-round
continues and two years of these endless
meetings and summits has taught
them to expect nothing.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
30 November
2010
The South African authorities are being accused of not being serious
about
documenting illegal Zimbabweans in the country, as pressure continues
to
build on the government to extend its documentation deadline.
The
December 31st deadline is fast approaching, and the signs are clear that
the
process to document the tens of thousands of Zimbabweans without proper
paperwork in South Africa will be unsuccessful.
Zimbabweans have been
spending days in queues trying to get their papers in
order to get the
relevant permits needed to remain in the country legally
past the December
deadline. But there are reports that some home affairs
offices across the
country are only processing 50 people a day, and there is
growing panic
about the threatened mass deportations set to start in the New
Year.
Rights groups have been calling on the South African
authorities to extend
the deadline, if they are serious about the process
being successful. The
Consortium of Refugees and Migrants of South Africa
(CoRMSA), has asked the
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to
help pressure the South
African government to extend the deadline. CoRMSA
said in a statement that
it made the appeal during the 48th Session of the
African Commission on
Human and Peoples’ Rights held in Gambia earlier this
month.
CoRMSA Chairperson, Kaajal Ramjathan Keogh, told SW Radio Africa
on Tuesday
that they have also approached the United Nations High
Commissioner for
Refugees. She said that Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini Zuma was
present at all these meetings, “but she declined any
efforts made for the
deadline to be extended.”
Last week Dlamini Zuma
insisted that the cut-off date was not flexible and
would not be moved. She
also said that anyone who tried to apply for legal
permits after the
deadline passes, will not be assisted.
Ramjathan Keogh said that the
authorities need to extend the deadline until
at least June 2011, “if they
are serious about this process being
successful.” She said that, as it
stands, “the process is doomed to fail.”
“We are worried that the South
African authorities are not concerned with
documenting the Zimbabweans and
instead just want to start deportations for
their political reasons,”
Ramjathan Keogh said.
She continued: “It leads us to believe that they
will use the documentation
process as an excuse to legitimately start
deportations again, because they
will have offered this option to people,
however briefly, so we have very
serious concerns.”
“to teach the youth political direction. The youths have always played an important role in campaigning for the party. They should also be given jobs.”
With the collapse of the education system and the flight of anyone who is able to the diaspora, Zimbabwe seems to be left with mindless thoughtless zombies. These same zombies, who’s unemployment level is over 90%, are primed for exploitation, whether they themselves recognise it or not.
With the revival, or at least debate about revival, of National Youth Service Centres (no mention has been made about reform) it appears that ZANU PF is readying itself to campaign for the undeclared, yet to be funded 2011 elections. The issue of the ‘people-driven’ constitution, all the rage a few months ago, has been forgotten and given a back seat, even by civil society and MDC-T, who were the biggest proponents of that pointless exercise.
The negotiated settlements, were thrown out the window giving ZANU PF, with it’s militarised institutions the upper hand.
The people of Zimbabwe should be afraid. The GPA doesn’t matter, the Government of National Unity is anything but, and politically naïve opposition parties have learnt nothing from the past twelve years.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by Tavada Mafa
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
11:24
Harare - The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe on Tuesday sent
a
security alert to the inclusive government SADC facilitator, Jacob Zuma,
UN
special rapporteur on Right to Education the Intentional Labour
Organisation
and Education International over the continued political
victimisation of
its members. (Pictured: Raymond Majongwe)
The
Organisation's Secretary General Raymond Majongwe told reporters in
Harare
after a land mark ruling by the labour court on the six Rushinga
teachers
who were forced to vacate their work places last month. Majongwe
said
because the government had ignored for a ,long time to act on reported
cases
of teachers who were victimised by ZANU-PF they had this time decided
to
appeal to the international community.
“As PTUZ we have today raised a
secuurity alert on teachers with SADC
through Honorable facilitator Jacob
Zuma,UN special rapporteur on the Right
to Education,ILO and Education
International. We hold fears that the
intelligence officers in Rushinga are
baying for the blood of the teachers,”said
Majongwe.
He said it had come
to PTUZ's attention that there was ethnic hatred in the
area being
insinuated by a ZANU-PF headman by the name Mupezani who had
declared to
eradicate Karanga teachers through politically victimising them.
Majongwe
said the six teachers who were forced to leave Gwangwava Primary
school last
month by school head Luckson Chidhidhi, District Education
Officer Beauty
Gasa with the help of villagers,were on Tuesday going to
return to the same
school as pronounced by the labour court last Friday.
The six affected
teachers who were being represented by labour law experts
Matsikidze and
Mucheche and won their case are Julius Mawarire,Tinashe
Mavurayi,Talent
Muchakazi,Angela Zanza,Silibaziso Mawire and Maphios
Chisora. According to a
court ruling presented by labour court in favour of
the teachers the school
head and the Education Oofficer are directed to let
the teachers assume
their duties at Gwangwava Primary School with immediate
self-knowledge
“The decision to transfer the said teachers without their
notice and their
knowledge and consent is hereby set aside. The respondents
are hereby
ordered to allow the teachersto execute their teaching duties at
Gwangwava
primary school without victimisation threats. The respondents
shall follow
the appropriate ;procedure in transferring the said teachers on
notice and
invite their inputs to the transfer and allow those who elect to
be
transferred to choose stations to be transferred to,”read the labour
court
judgement.
http://af.reuters.com
Tue Nov 30, 2010 6:27pm GMT
*
Zimbabwe leader attacks indictment of Sudan's president
* Accuses West of
operating double standards
* Suggests Bush, Blair should be prosecuted
over Iraq
TRIPOLI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
on Tuesday
asked why the International Criminal Court (ICC) is not indicting
Tony Blair
and George W. Bush for war crimes instead of prosecuting Sudan's
leader.
Mugabe, speaking at a joint summit of the European Union and
African states,
said the ICC was applying a double standard by indicting
Sudanese President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and
genocide.
Sudan's government has said it was boycotting the EU-Africa
summit in
protest at EU pressure for Bashir to stay away.
[ID:nMCD874154]
"Why does this court not do the same with Tony Blair and
George W. Bush,
both of whom occupied Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi
people?" Mugabe said in a speech to the summit in Libya's
capital.
As U.S. president, George W. Bush called Mugabe's rule
"tyrannical," while
Blair, the former British prime minister, accused Mugabe
of human rights
abuses and running down what was once one of Africa's most
prosperous
economies.
Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980,
denies those accusations and
says the West, and especially Zimbabwe's former
colonial ruler Britain, is
trying to sabotage his country.
"Bashir is
not with us now. Why? Because some European countries said if he
comes, they
will not attend the summit," Mugabe said in his speech.
"They are wrong
because they shouldn't take this decision before we know if
he is guilty or
innocent ... Only a court in his own country can decide if
he is guilty or
not."
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Edward Jones Tuesday 30 November
2010
HARARE – Confidential diplomatic cables leaked by whistle-blower
website
Wikileaks suggesting the US is leading Western attempts to topple
President
Robert Mugabe are a godsend for the veteran leader who will now
look to use
the leaks as justification to crush Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s MDC
party, analysts said on Monday.
The cables, part of
more than 250 000 notes and briefings by US ambassadors
across the world to
the State Department, show the United States as working
with its Western
allies and the MDC to oust Mugabe -- vindicating the
86-year-old leader who
says the West wants to topple him and install a
puppet government in
Harare.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in
1980, has
over the last decade accused Western powers of trying to oust him
in
retaliation against his land seizures that drove thousands of white
commercial farmers from their land.
Analysts say Mugabe and his
ZANU-PF party will use the latest revelations as
propaganda fodder and
excuse to crackdown on the MDC as Zimbabwe heads
towards elections next year
that many critics fear could see a return to
violence without political,
security and electoral reforms.
Setting the agenda
Former U.S.
ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell said in leaked
diplomatic notes to
Washington at the end of his posting in 2007 that the
U.S. was taking a
leading role to bring Mugabe down and said they could not
leave former
coloniser Britain, to do the job because it was hamstrung by
its colonial
past.
“Thus it falls to the U.S., once again, to take the lead, to say
and do the
hard things and to set the agenda,” Dell said in a cable posted
on the
Wikileaks website at the weekend.
“We need to keep the
pressure on in order to keep Mugabe off his game and on
his back foot,
relying on his own shortcomings to do him in.”
The U.S. has denied
seeking Mugabe’s removal although it has maintained
sanctions on him and his
ZANU-PF allies since 2002 for rigging elections and
rights abuses. The
octogenarian leader says sanctions are punishment for his
land grab and hurt
the poor.
Washington says it works with democratic forces to bring
democracy to
Zimbabwe.
Mugabe has previously branded Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai a “pathetic
puppet” used by the West to remove him from
office and has vowed that he
would never relinquish power.
But
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in the March 2008 presidential vote but not
by
enough a majority to claim the presidency after election authorities
withheld results for five weeks only for the veteran leader, backed by
security forces, to return to power after Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off
scarred by violence.
Analysts say Dell’s remarks were the clearest
yet by a senior U.S. official
admitting that Washington was in partnership
with the MDC to push Mugabe
out. Besides confirming Mugabe’s worst fears,
the remarks could worsen
relations in the fragile coalition
government.
Vindicating Mugabe
The leaks follow statements by
former British foreign secretary David
Miliband last year that London would
only remove sanctions on Mugabe and his
inner circle on the advice of the
MDC.
“This indeed somehow vindicates Mugabe. He has been telling the
world that
the West is trying to get rid of him by using the MDC,” said
Eldred
Masunungure, who heads local think tank Mass Public
Opinion.
Mugabe, who critics say is a democrat turned dictator who wants
to die in
office, is a crafty politician who has survived three decades in
power and
despite being in the twilight of his political career, shows no
sign of
quitting and will stand for elections which increasingly look likely
to be
held mid next year.
Dell said only the MDC’s limitations had
stopped the U.S. to achieve “more
already”, which analysts interpreted to
mean forcing Mugabe out of power. He
said while Tsvangirai was Zimbabwe’s
hope of removing Mugabe he had many
flaws, including being not readily open
to advice, indecisive and with
questionable judgment in selecting
allies.
“Zimbabwe’s opposition (MDC) is far from ideal and I leave
convinced that
had we had different partners, we could have achieved more
already. But you
have to play the hand you’re dealt. With that in mind, the
current
leadership has little executive experience and will require massive
hand
holding and assistance should they ever come to power,” said
Dell.
Political analysts said the latest revelations could provide for an
explosive election next year and radical elements within ZANU-PF could
justify violence against MDC opponents in the name of defending the
country’s
sovereignty.
Hardliners re-energised
In his election
campaigns Mugabe portrays himself as a persecuted
nationalist defending the
country from an imperialist onslaught meant to
roll back his land reforms
and subjugate blacks but many Zimbabweans feel
the ageing leader has become
more authoritarian and have voted for the MDC
in the hope the party can mend
the ruined economy.
Masunungure said: “This could re-energise the
hardliner elements around
Mugabe who will feel justified to crackdown on the
MDC saying they are
defending the country from foreign
aggression.
“But this does not at all change the perception of the rank
and file towards
Mugabe’s leadership because they are more bothered by
politics of the
stomach and not bilateral issues or international
diplomacy.” -- ZimOnline
Public Affairs
Section
U.S. Embassy,
Harare
Statement by
Ambassador Charles A. Ray
Wikileaks’
irresponsible behavior threatens relations and lives
President Obama and
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have made it a priority to
reinvigorate America’s relationships around the world. They have been working
hard to strengthen our existing partnerships and build new ones to meet shared
challenges, from climate change to ending the threat of nuclear weapons to
fighting disease and poverty. As the United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, I’m
proud to be part of this effort.
All relationships
will have ups and downs. We have seen that in the past few days, when documents
purportedly downloaded from U.S. Defense Department computers became the subject
of reports in the media. They appear to contain our diplomats’ assessments of
policies, negotiations, and leaders from countries around the world as well as
reports on private conversations with people inside and outside other
governments.
I cannot vouch for
the authenticity of any one of these documents. But I can say that the United
States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be
confidential. And we condemn it. Diplomats must engage in frank discussions with
their colleagues, and they must be assured that these discussions will remain
private. Honest dialogue—within governments and between them—is part of the
basic bargain of international relations; we couldn’t maintain peace, security,
and international stability without it.
I do believe that
people of good faith recognize that diplomats’ internal reports do not represent
a government’s official foreign policy. In the United States, they are one
element out of many that shape our policies, which are ultimately set by the
President and the Secretary of State. And those policies are a matter of public
record, the subject of thousands of pages of speeches, statements, white papers,
and other documents that the State Department makes freely available online and
elsewhere.
But relations
between governments aren’t the only concern. U.S. diplomats meet with local
human rights workers, journalists, religious leaders, and others outside the
government who offer their own candid insights. These conversations depend on
trust and confidence as well. If an anti-corruption activist shares information
about official misconduct, or a social worker passes along documentation of
sexual violence, revealing that person’s identity could have serious
repercussions: imprisonment, torture, even death.
The owners of the
WikiLeaks website claim to possess some 250,000 classified documents, many of
which have been released to the media. Whatever their motives are in publishing
these documents, it is clear that releasing them poses real risks to real
people, and often to particular people who have dedicated their lives to
protecting others. An act intended to provoke the powerful may instead imperil
the genuine and well meaning We support and are willing to have genuine debates
about pressing questions of public policy. But releasing documents carelessly
and without regard for the consequences is not the way to start such a debate.
For our part, the
U.S. government is committed to maintaining the security of our diplomatic
communications. We will continue to work to strengthen our partnership with the
people of Zimbabwe and make progress on the issues that are important for our
two countries. We can’t afford anything less. President Obama, Secretary
Clinton, and I remain committed to being trusted partners as we seek to build a
better, more prosperous world for everyone.
Issued by Charles
A. Ray, U.S. Ambassador, Harare, November 29th,
2010
BILL WATCH SPECIAL
[26th November 2010]
House of Assembly Portfolio Committees: Post-Budget Analysis
Meetings:
28th November to 7th December
All Portfolio Committees will be meeting to discuss the budget.
Please note that for easy reference we have listed the Committees alphabetically
and not in the date order of meetings as we usually do. The Committees will
hear from Ministry officials and invited stakeholders. All the meetings are
open to members of the public as observers only, not as participants. If
attending, please use the Kwame Nkrumah Ave entrance to Parliament. IDs must be
produced.
Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement
Wednesday 1st December, 10 am – 12 noon
Thursday 2nd December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Committee Room No. 3
Chairperson: Hon Jiri Clerk: Ms
Mudavanhu
Budget, Finance and Economic Development
Wednesday 1st December, 10 am – 12 noon
Thursday 2nd December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Committee Room No. 413
Chairperson: Hon Zhanda Clerk: Mr
Ratsakatika
Defence and Home Affairs
Monday 29th November, 2 pm – 5 pm
Tuesday 30th November, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 3
Chairperson: Hon Madzore Clerk: Mr
Daniel
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture
Wednesday 1st December, 10 am – 12 noon
Thursday 2nd December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Committee Room No. 4
Chairperson: Hon Mangami Clerk: Ms
Chikuvire
Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International
Trade
Wednesday 1st December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday 2nd December, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 2
Chairperson: Hon Mukanduri Clerk: Mr
Chiremba
Health and Child Welfare
Friday 3rd December, 10 am – 12 noon
Tuesday 7th December, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 1
Chairperson: Hon Dr Parirenyatwa Clerk: Mrs
Khumalo
Higher Education, Science and Technology
Monday 29th November, 2 pm – 5
pm
Tuesday 30th November, 10 am – 12 noon
Government Caucus Room
Chairperson: Hon S. Ncube Clerk: Ms
Mudavanhu
Industry and Commerce
Wednesday 1st December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday 2nd December, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 311
Chairperson: Hon Mutomba Clerk: Ms
Musara
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
Wednesday 1st December, 10 am – 12 noon
Thursday 2nd December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Committee Room No. 2
Chairperson: Hon Mwonzora Clerk: Miss
Zenda
Local Government
Wednesday 1st December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday 2nd December, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 413
Chairperson: Hon Karenyi Clerk: Mr
Daniel
Media, Information and Communication
Technology
Wednesday 1st December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday 2nd December, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 4
Chairperson: Hon S. Moyo Clerk: Mr
Mutyambizi
Mines and Energy
Monday 29th November, 2 pm – 5 pm
Tuesday 30th November, 10 am – 12 noon
Senate Chamber
Chairperson: Hon. Chindori-Chininga Clerk: Mr Manhivi
Natural Resources, Environment and Tourism
Wednesday 1st December, 10 am – 12 noon
Thursday 2nd December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Committee Room No. 1
Chairperson: Hon M. Dube Clerk: Mr
Munjenge
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare
Monday 29th November, 2 pm – 5 pm
Tuesday 30th November, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 1
Chairperson: Hon Zinyemba Clerk: Ms Mushunje
Public Works and National Housing
Tuesday 30th November, 2 pm – 5 pm
Wednesday 1st November, 10 am – 12 noon
Government Caucus
Chairperson: Hon Mupukuta Clerk: Mr
Mazani
Small and Medium Enterprise
Wednesday 1st December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday 2nd December, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 1
Chairperson: Hon R. Moyo Clerk: Ms
Mushunje
State Enterprises and Parastatals
Monday 29th November, 2 pm – 5 pm
Tuesday 30th November, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 311
Chairperson: Hon Mavima Clerk: Mr
Mutyambizi
Transport and Infrastructural Development
Monday 29th November, 2 pm – 5 pm
Tuesday 30th November, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 2
Chairperson: Hon Chebundo Clerk: Ms
Macheza
Women, Youth, Gender and Community
Development
Wednesday 1st December, 2 pm – 5 pm
Thursday 2nd December, 10 am – 12 noon
Committee Room No. 3
Chairperson: Hon Matienga Clerk: Mrs
Khumalo
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information supplied.
PEACE WATCH 14/2010
[27th November 2010]
New E-Discussion Forum Topic
“Should
Zimbabwe have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission?”
Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, who chaired South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
said at the time of the Commission’s hearings: “True reconciliation exposes
the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even make things
worse. It is a risky undertaking, but in the end it is worthwhile because in
the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing.
Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.”
Workshops
and seminars held throughout the country to promote “healing” have repeatedly
reported calls for “truth telling” and “truth recovering”, echoing the belief
that there can be no true healing and reconciliation without formal
acknowledgement by both victims and perpetrators of the wrongs of the past.
Should a Truth and Reconciliation Commission be set up and if so what is the
best way to do this?
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