http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/
AP 7 hours 23 minutes
ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's weather department is issuing
a flood alert
and says heavy rains are expected to continue.
The
Meteorological Service says downpours of more than 3 inches (nearly 8
centimeters) are forecast in northern and eastern regions through Jan. 2,
accompanied by gusty winds.
In a statement Friday, the government's
civil protection agency also advised
affected communities to find shelter on
higher ground.
It warned that roofs could be blown off and low-cost and
mud-built houses
risk collapse from water saturation.
In years of
economic decline, broken drainage and sewers have led to
outbreaks of
waterborne diseases worsened by rain. More than 4,000 people
died from the
waterborne illness cholera in 2008.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
29/12/2011 00:00:00
by VOA
THE
parliamentary select committee in charge of revising Zimbabwe's
constitution
says it will go to court to stop the Zanu PF-aligned,
state-controlled
Herald newspaper from publishing its official logo and
constitutional
materials without approval.
The threat followed the unauthorized
publication of portions of the new
constitution, which is now in the
critical drafting stage, by the newspaper.
Both formations of the former
opposition Movement for Democratic Change were
livid at the continued
publication of the select committee's unfinished work
by the newspaper with
Zanu PF officials on the body refusing to take
responsibility for the
leaks.
Committee Co-Chairman Douglas Mwonzora of the MDC formation of
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Zanu PF members on the panel are being
used
by hard-line elements in the former ruling party to derail the
constitution-making process.
But Zanu PF’s select committee
co-chairman, Paul Munyaradzi Mangwana, said
the leaks to state media have
nothing to do with Zanu PF.
"I do not see why the MDC and others are
pointing a finger at Zanu PF
because there are over 24 people on the select
committee and anyone could
have done that," he said.
"I was surprised by
the publication in the Herald just like everyone else.
It has nothing to do
with Zanu PF but we will be able to deal with it,"
Mangwana said.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, December 30, 2011– A committee of
parliament drafting the country’s
new constitution (Copac) is contemplating
taking the state owned Herald
newspaper to court for publishing
constitutional material without its
approval.
Some members of the
committee say the premature publication of the material
is designed to
derail the constitutional making exercise.
“We are contemplating taking
the Herald to court to stop it from publishing
what it purports to be Copac
constitutional material,” said MDC-T Copac
representative Douglas
Mwonzora.
“We will file for an interdict and we will succeed. In the
meantime we will
engage the editor of the Herald and after that we will not
warn him when we
go to court.”
Asked what action he will take if his
colleagues refuse to cooperate on the
matter.
Mwonzora said, “We will
file for an interdict alone and we will succeed.
These are matters of
national interest and its work in progress and
releasing information
prematurely is just not right.”
Mwonzora accused the Herald of
selectively publishing constitutional
information to confuse members of the
public and paint the drafters in bad
light.
“They are seeking to
rubbish the work of the drafters and accuse them of
taking information that
was not in the outreach document,” said Mwonzora.
The leaking of the
constitutional material is being blamed on Zanu-PF
members in Copac but
Mangwana defended his party saying it has nothing to do
with it since the
document was circulated to several Copac members and
anyone from any party
could have leaked it.
“Zanu PF is not responsible. We wanted to keep
whatever draft which was
being drafted by the drafters packed somewhere but
unfortunately towards the
end of the year there was a feeling from Copac
members that they wanted to
have a copy of what has been drafted and we now
do not know who has actually
leaked the drafts to the public. There were
initial drafts which were under
discussion and they are not binding anyone
to anything,” said Mangwana.
The Copac management committee is made up of
24 members.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
29/12/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
TRAVELLERS keen to renew their travel documents will have to
wait longer
after the Registrar General’s office suspended production of
passports,
blaming a power black-out which hit Harare on
Wednesday.
The development will likely hit thousands of Zimbabweans based
in
neighbouring Botswana and South Africa looking to renew their travel
documents before returning to work in the new year.
Harare was
plunged into darkness Wednesday evening following what officials
described
as a systems failure at the Kariba Power Station.
Other cities such as
Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Masvingo and Mutare were also
affected.
Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede said the black-out had
damaged equipment
at his department’s Makombe Building headquarters in the
capital.
"Following the blackout in the Harare Business District (on
Wednesday) we
have had an electrical problem affecting our system at Makombe
Building. We
do not know the cause yet," Mudede told the Herald
newspaper.
"(But) we have not completely shut down. We are using
alternative means to
process urgent passports only until the problem is
rectified."
According to the newspaper however, the Department
experienced similar
problems at the same time last year when it suspended
the processing of
identification documents due to what was said to be
electrical fault at its
production centre which is located at a city army
base.
A ZESA official said repairs to the damaged generators at Kariba
had been
completed enabling the utility to restore normal
supplies.
"Supplies are back to normal,” Shepherd Mandizvidza
said.
“Most of the power outages now occurring are a result of the rainy
season."
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, December 30,
2011 ---- Zimbabwean police on Thursday charged
prominent media activist
Andrew Moyse with publishing statements allegedly
denigrating President
Robert Mugabe.
Moyse who is the director of the Media Monitoring Project
Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
had presented himself to Gwanda police on Wednesday weeks
after he was
briefly detained in Harare over the same charges.
He was
ordered to return the following day in the company of his lawyers.
His
lawyer Kossum Ncube of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said police
recorded a warned and cautioned statement from Moyse.
Ncube said the
police said he would be summoned if they need him to help
with
investigations.
When he was initially arrested on December 6, police
seized documents, DVDs
and videos at the MMPZ headquarters where they were
allegedly looking for
material related to the Gukurahundi atrocities in
Matabeleland.
Police had also detained three MMPZ monitors, Fadzai
December, Molly
Chimbanda and Gilbert Mabusa in Gwanda on charges that they
distributed
subversive material during a public meeting.
They were
granted US$50 bail each by Gwanda magistrate Douglas Zvenyika
But the
three spent seven days at Gwanda Prison after the State invoked
section 121
which suspends bail pending an appeal to the High Court.
They were only
released by Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Nicholas
Mathonsi after he
dismissed the appeal by the Attorney General’s office.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Pindai Dube
Friday, 30 December 2011
10:20
BULAWAYO - Gladys Gombami-Dube the mainstream MDC senator for
Mabutweni died
of bird flu, a family spokesperson told journalists at her
house in Mpopoma
high density suburb on Wednesday.
Family
spokesperson Samuel Gombami who is brother to Gladys’ husband Fanuel
said
that postmortem results released on Tuesday in Harare shows that she
died of
bird flu.
“We were finally given postmortem results and they show that
she was taken
away by bird flu. We still can’t believe this as a family, we
are in still
shock,” said Fanuel Gombami.
Bird flu also known as
avian influenza is a contagious disease of birds,
caused by influenza (A)
viruses.
The outbreak of avian influenza of most concern began in poultry
in South
Korea in mid-December 2003.
The Mabutweni senator was buried
at Lady Stanley Cemetery in Bulawayo. Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
dozens of MPs and senators attended the
funeral.
Gombami-Dube, 48,
died after complaining of disorientation and dizziness
while travelling home
to Bulawayo from a funeral in Gokwe on Boxing Day.
She was rushed to a
hospital in Kadoma where she died. The senator was the
deputy chairperson
for the parliamentary select committee (Copac).
MDC deputy chairperson
for Bulawayo province Dorcas Sibanda said the party
was shocked with the
sudden death of Gombami-Dube and will give all the
assistance needed to the
family.
“We are shocked and worried about the death of our respected
senator for
Mabutweni because this doesn’t usually happen. We are still
running around
to give our mother a descent burial,” said Sibanda who is
also the
legislator for Bulawayo Central.
Gombami Dube’s Mabutweni
constituency covers Mpopoma, Pelandaba, Njube and
Lobengula. Above that she
has for the past two-and-a-half years been an
active member of
Copac.
Gombami who is also one of the founding members of the MDC in 1999
was born
on November 21, 1963 in Bulawayo.
She did her primary education
at Lukhanyiso Primary School in Mpopoma before
going to Mzilikazi High
School for her secondary education.
She got married to Fanuel Gombami in
1983. She is survived by three
children, two girls and a boy.
http://www.voanews.com
29 December
2011
In a
graveside eulogy of Mpopoma-Mabuthweni Senator Gladys Gombani-Dube in
Bulawayo, Mr. Tsvangirai said people should take the example of the late MDC
lawmaker
Ntungamili Nkomo | Washington
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai called on Zimbabweans Thursday to unite and
work together
to build the nation despite their political and ideological
differences.
In a graveside eulogy of Mpopoma-Mabuthweni Senator
Gladys Gombani-Dube in
Bulawayo, Mr. Tsvangirai said people should take the
example of the late MDC
lawmaker who he said worked well with her
counterparts from President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF in the constitutional
revision process.
Mr. Tsvangirai did not address the issue of elections
looming possibly in
2012 or the deepening divisions in the unity
government.
ZANU-PF officials attending the burial also spoke highly of
Gombami-Dube,
saying her death was a huge loss to the nation. She died
Monday after a
short illness.
All three parties in the inclusive
government were represented at her
burial.
Deputy Spokesperson
Thabitha Khumalo of the Tsvangirai MDC told VOA's
Ntungamili Nkomo that the
nation must shun political polarization.
"Senator Gombami-Dube was a
uniting force, and she is an example that the
prime minister urged
Zimbabweans to follow," Khumalo said.
Independent political analyst Effie
Dlela Ncube commented that unity can
only be achieved when the leadership
from all political parties make it a
priority.
http://www.radiovop.com
Bulawayo, December 30, 2011-- Police in Nkayi,
Matebeleland North on
Thursday barred two rallies of the Welshman Ncube led
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) before beating up and chasing more than
200
villagers who had gathered for the party’s first rally.
Speaking
to Radio VOP from Nkayi last night smaller MDC deputy secretary
general,
Moses Mzila-Ndlovu who is also National Healing Minister said
heavily armed
police stopped an MDC rally at Gonye business centre and fired
teargas to
disperse villagers who had gathered for their first rally.
The party’s
second rally which was scheduled for today (Friday) at Subhamu
Business
Centre in the same Nkayi district was also barred by police.
“Our party
supporters who had gathered at the venue of the first rally at
Gonye
business centre were beaten up, tear gassed and chased away by more
than 10
armed police officers in riot gear led by Nkayi Police Station
Officer in
Charge, Inspector Mapurazi.
“When we approached the police together with
our party President (Welshman
Ncube) to enquire why they stopped our
meeting, they said they had
instructions from above to ban all MDC rallies
in Nkayi,”said MzIla-Ndlovu.
Mzila- Ndovu said riot police also harassed
the party leaders including
President Ncube who had gathered at Nkayi
Senator Robsen Makula’s homestead
after the rally was
disrupted.
“After the disruption of our rally we gathered at our Senator
for Nkayi,
Makula’s homestead nearby to re-strategise but two riot police
officers
accompanied by Inspector Mapurazi followed and harassed us. There
are still
camped at Makula’s homestead and they want to make sure, all our
leaders who
had come here for the rallies leave,” he said.
The
National Healing Minister blamed the Matebeleland North Police Chief,
Assistant Commissioner Edmore Veterai for the ban of their rallies, saying
he is a Zanu-PF activist who will never allow the two MDC formations to
campaign in that province.
In October police in the same Matebeleland
North province banned three
rallies for MDC-T led by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai for no apparent
reasons.
The rallies were supposed to be
held in Victoria Falls, Binga and Lupane.
After the ban of his rallies,
Tsvangirai described the move as frustrating
saying police were still acting
as Zanu-PF activists despite the formation
of a unity government in
Zimbabwe.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
30/12/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
PRESIDENTIAL spokesman, George Charamba has denied reports
he received a
verbal dressing-down by his boss after handing the Zanu PF
leader the
“wrong” speech during the party’s annual conference in Bulawayo
early this
month.
Local media reports claimed a visibly angry
President Robert Mugabe
chastised Charamba in a four-minute drama after
realising that his aide had
given him the “wrong” speech just before making
his key-note address to the
conference.
The incident precipitated
speculation that Zanu PF hardliners and security
services chiefs -- seen as
having a stranglehold over Mugabe -- were trying
to carefully manage the
aging leader’s public utterances.
But Charamba denied he had been
dressed-down by Mugabe, insisting his boss
merely wanted to know if changes
he had made to the speech were incorporated
in the final draft.
“As
the press secretary, I must make sure everything for the President is in
place. Just as I got to the podium, the president asked where the speech
with hand written corrections was and he asked if they had finished
correcting it,” Charamba told the weekly Independent newspaper.
“I
told him that they had finished and I told him that what he had was the
clean copy. He said that was fast and said thank you. The discussion was
very amicable.”
The influential information secretary also dismissed
speculation the
military was now intercepting Mugabe’s speeches and
replacing them with
their own versions.
“Speeches from the president
come in three forms – they are originated by
the president himself, or by
his personal staff, who include Charamba,
principal private secretary
Lawrence Kamwi, his deputy or my deputy and/ or
a draft comes from the
inviting organisation,” Charamba said.
Charamba also said there was
nothing sinister about his increasing
association with army generals amid
reports defence forces chief, General
Constantine Chiwenga is positioning
himself as a possible successor to
Mugabe.
“I have no apologies to
make about being at Defence House, or at the PGHQ
(Police Headquarters) or
(the army’s) KG6 -- these are the structures I work
for,” Charamba
said.
“Do I work with the generals? -- Well it depends kuti it’s over
what. If
Chiwenga has an important speech, he sometimes asks me to work with
his
speech writers or asks me to go through his draft speech -- so do other
ministers. I have several ministers that come to me and they ask me to draft
their speeches.
“Do I have a relationship with the generals? -- Yes I
do have a working
relationship with the generals as the press person of the
president, the
same way I have a relationship with (other) party
people.”
Mugabe – who is on holiday in the Far East – has consistently
dismissed
reports of failing health.
A report by the whistle-blower
website, WikiLeaks claimed the 87-year-old is
battling advanced cancer while
another claimed Mugabe’s wife had let slip to
central bank chief Gideon Gono
that the Zanu PF leader was “out of it” most
of the time.
Mugabe is
set to take on bitter rival and current Prime Minister, Morgan
Tsvangirai in
fresh polls the veteran leader insists must be held early next
year to
replace the coalition government.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Lloyd Mbiba, Staff Writer
Friday, 30
December 2011 10:19
HARARE - As the nation struggles to come to grips
with the tragic Lake
Chivero boat disaster that claimed the lives of 11
children on Christmas
Day, the Zimbabwe Passengers Association (ZPA) has
launched an unrestrained
attack on the National Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority and the
ministry of Transport for shocking dereliction
of duty.
Paul Makiwa, secretary-general of ZPA said the responsible
transport
authorities should stop passing the buck and own up to their
failures as the
tragedy struck under their watch.
He further tore
into the bodies for failing to detect unprofessional conduct
in the
transport industry which has led to unnecessary loss of lives.
“As an
institution we are sick and tired of deaths. The responsible
authority
should enforce the rules so as to avoid accidents. Prevention is
better than
cure; therefore it is always important to prevent any accident
all the
time,” Makiwa said.
His call comes amid revelations that the boat which
capsized in Lake Chivero
recently was not registered.
Furthermore,
the boat had not been operational for some time and on the
fateful day the
mechanic was actually doing a test drive when tragedy
struck.
To add
salt to injury, it has emerged the boat had no life jackets, it was
overloaded and it was sailing outside the recreation time zone or in the
evening.
The ZPA implored transport operators to adhere to laid down
regulations
saying human life was much more precious than
money.
“It’s high time transport operators begin to respect and practise
the set
regulations because we are fed up of our members dying due to
negligent
driving,” Makiwa said.
“Most accidents have been caused by
overloading and to that effect we call
upon operators to respect the
law.”
Reports indicate that the boat crew was drunk and a cocktail of
negligence,
greediness and human error all combined to cause the fatal
accident.
And it is not the first time innocent lives have been lost in
senseless
accidents.
In 2002, 22 Moleli High School students perished
in the same Lake Chivero as
a result of negligence as their overloaded boat
again capsized in high
winds.
The owner of the boat put blame on the
children, who he claimed were rocking
the boat in excitement.
This
year’s festive season has witnessed 799 road accidents in which 72
souls
have been lost and 505 injured.
The National Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority public relations
manager Caroline Washaya-Moyo said
Fish Eagle, the company whose boat caused
the Lake Chivero disaster, was not
under their direct observation because it
was private property.
“It’s
a private property and we do not have a right to maintain our presence
on
such a property. It is only after we come across someone violating lake
rules that we tackle them and it is unfortunate tragedy struck when we were
not anywhere nearby,” she said.
But there are questions on how her
institution enforces compliance, when it
has no direct presence on the lake.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Staff Writers
Friday, 30 December 2011
14:00
HARARE - Information and Communication Technology (Development)
minister,
Nelson Chamisa joined the league of Zimbabwe’s finest performing
ministers
after he was adjudged to have performed the best during the 2011
year.
According to the rating of government ministers’ performance in
2011 by the
Daily News, Chamisa earned himself eight points for the
performance at his
ministry.
The ratings were done by a team of
journalists from the leading daily
newspaper, the Daily News and also based
on research conducted by this
newspaper.
He was at one time described
by President Robert Mugabe in a sarcastic way
as “Supersonic
minister”.
Recently, government ministers were issued with laptops each
under his
ministry’s e-government programme, becoming the first government
minister to
roll out such a programme.
Chamisa’s argument for the
removal of duty on computers was seen as a
positive stance that would play a
big role in ensuring that computers are
accessible to all and sundry and at
affordable prices.
The removal of duty on SIM cards, which was pushed by
Chamisa has seen the
cards not only being available but coming at a far
cheaper cost that the
$100 on black market people used to pay before the
suspension of duty.
With constant engagement of the players in the ICT
sector, Chamisa’s star is
seen rising and it was the view of the review team
that he had covered a lot
of ground in ensuring that the ICT policy, which
he says should see every
school with a computer and internet connection in
the very foreseeable
future, comes into fruition.
Internet usage has
increased among Zimbabweans as most can now log onto
internet on their cell
phones.
He was the overwhelming winner closely followed by Walter Mzembi
and David
Coltart. With this, the youthful minister was rated amongst the
best
performing ministers in Zimbabwe in the year 2011.
He won
despite the fact that some of his key mandates were grabbed by the
Zanu PF
side of government.
Below is the final rating of the other remaining
government ministers.
Nelson Chamisa: Minister of Information Technology
(Development)
RATING: 8
Eric Matinenga, Minister of Constitutional
and Parliamentary Affairs
Rating: 5
He was active in driving the
constitution making process. And the fact that
the process has moved to
another stage means that all in his ministry is
well, save for lack of
funding for the process.For that, Matinenga was
viewed by the review team as
having done fairly well.
Gorden Moyo, Minister of State Enterprises and
Parastatals
Rating: 4
The review team felt that Moyo still needs
to do a lot of work in reviving
collapsed and collapsing
parastatals.
With the good intentions he has, Moyo is seen as someone
with a potential of
reviving these parastatals.
The minister, it was
felt, now needs to move away from too much of talking
about policy issues
and graduate himself into an action-oriented person.
There is room for Moyo
to improve.
Paurina Mpariwa, Minister of Labour and Social
Welfare
Rating: 1
Very few things can be said about this minister.
The review team felt that
she did a lot of talking and very little of the
things she talked about were
realised.
She, launched the food for
work programme in 2011 and after that, the
programme died a natural
death.
Obert Moses Mpofu, Minister of Mines and Mining
Development
Rating: 3
Despite being able to wrestle and win over
the Kimberly Process
Certification Scheme (KPCS) certification for the sale
of Zimbabwean
diamonds, which was the highlight of his ministerial
occupation, Mpofu’s
rating was affected by his failure to fully account for
the diamond revenues
realised from the sale of diamonds by
Zimbabwe.
Finance Minister, Tendai Biti has been crying foul over the
revenues but
Mpofu has remained quiet about the issue.
Moreover,
Mpofu’s second blow was the continued issuance of licences to
Chinese firms
as if local firms cannot set up ventures to mine diamonds.
Mpofu must
explain where the diamonds he grabbed from ACR and Core Mining
have
gone.
Elton Mangoma, Minister of Energy and Power
Development
Rating: 1
Mangoma’s failure to come to the rescue of
the energy and power sector
earned him one point from the review
team.
Industry and commerce, the private sector, and consumers cried out
loud to
Mangoma to rescue them from Zesa Holdings crippling tariffs but the
minister
responded by allowing the power utility to increase its tariffs by
a further
31 percent.
Mangoma works hard, but as long as there is no
electricity in the people
homes, he has failed in his mandate.
Next year,
Zimbabweans need power.
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Minister of Foreign
Affairs
Rating: 1
The minister’s portfolio was regarded as an
important portfolio for the
maintenance of cordial relations between
Zimbabwe and other countries.
However, the review team felt that the
minister’s discharge of duties was
far below average.
More
specifically, the minister’s decision to send the representatives of
the
“Libyan government” packing out of Harare without the whole government’s
approval took away the minister’s rating and exposed him as more of a Zanu
PF functionary than a Cabinet minister.
Webster Kotiwa Shamu,
Minister of Media, Information, and Publicity
Rating: 1
Shamu was
regarded as a compassionate minister, especially at times of
bereavement of
both artists and journalists.
The minister could have scored more points
had he not allowed his party,
Zanu PF to rig the licensing of private radio
stations.
The fact that it was Zimpapers and AB Communications, both
known to be run
by Zanu PF sympathisers, that were granted licenses shows
that Shamu failed
in his duties as a cabinet minister.
It exposed him
for having used his influence as a Zanu PF commissar to force
the
Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (Baz), itself known to have more Zanu
PF
functionaries, to award the two licenses to the party’s sympathisers.
The
minister was also silent as state and non-state actors abused and
harassed
journalists, including getting reporters and editors arrested on
flimsy
grounds.
Honourable Minister, the review team is of the view that you
need to support
all media organisations and journalists in their fight
against harassment
and not to be seen supping with the media’s
“devils”.
Sam Sipepa Nkomo, Minister of Water Resources and
Infrastructural
Development
Rating: 5
Despite the challenges
faced by his ministry, Nkomo was seen as having been
an honest man in his
own right. Where there were challenges, he would simply
point out.
In
terms of water provision, Nkomo was adjudged to have tried to lead a
process
where water is readily available in high density suburbs throughout
most
parts of the country.
It is envisaged that as time goes on and with
resources being readily
available, Nkomo would be able, through his
ministry, to ensure that all
local authorities provide safe and clean water
to ratepayers throughout the
country.
An average performer, Nkomo was
awarded five points by the review team.
This marks the end of the
government ministers’ review for the 2011.
Sydney Sekeramai, Minister of
State Security
Rating 2
Sekeramayi has been a minister since
independence in 1980 and has simply
become part of the furniture in
government offices.
Sekeramayi has largely been quite this year as usual
and seems to be
enjoying the luxuries that come with being a government
minister in
quietness.
His ministry is in charge of the dreaded
Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) but in 2011 there were no
significant reports of brutality by the
secret service.
However, he
still allows the CIO to operate as a Zanu PF arm. The CIO at
times is used
to pursue personalities rather than national security issues.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Staff Writers
Friday, 30 December 2011
13:35
HARARE - The curtain on the year 2011 comes down on Saturday.
It has been an
eventful year for many. Pain, tears, sorrow, and happiness
characterised the
year, while for some, it was a year laden with unfulfilled
resolutions.
Today, the country’s popular newspaper, takes you
through the year,
re-living the memories of our politicians and leaders of
civic society.
We bring to you those that made news and those that made
empty noise during
the year. Here are the 2011 News Makers of the Year and
the Noise Makers of
the Year. Enjoy…!!!!
NEWS MAKERS OF THE YEAR
2011
Emmanuel Makandiwa
The young and dynamic prophet of the
United Families International Church
made news in the year drawing
extraordinarily huge crowds at his services.
There were attempts to
arrest him, sue him and bar him from developing his
mega church in
Chitungwiza but the man of God prevailed.
He launched the airtime juice
card which created problems with a private
company which claimed to have
started with the idea and the Post and
Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority (Potraz) started probing him but the
popular Makandiwa won over
the situations.
He pulled the largest crowds at churches and is credited
with turning
hundreds of thousands of people around the country into
Christians.
Makandiwa is the Daily News’ news maker of the
year.
Solomon Mujuru
The late army general’s death shocked many in
the country and beyond.
Circumstances that led to his death left many with
unanswered questions.
Up to this day, those questions and many others are
yet to get answers.
His story was told in many platforms but few remain
convinced his death was
as a result of the fire that gutted his house at the
family farm in
Beatrice.
He is among the top Daily News’ news makers
of the Year for 2011.
President Robert Mugabe
He made news during
the year for his repeated visits to the Far East for
which the local and
international media speculated they were for medical
reasons.
Mugabe
visited Singapore a record eight to nine times for suspected
treatment but
his officials claimed he was on government business except
once when
Presidential spokesperson George Charamba confirmed that the
87-year-old had
travelled for an eye review.
Finance minister, Tendai Biti at one time
argued Mugabe’s trips to the Far
East were eating hard into the finances of
the government.
Mugabe has tried to conceal that he is not feeling well
as he appears fit
and strong in public.
For that, he is among our
News Makers of the Year 2011. A year when people
discovered that Mugabe is
not only fighting the likes of MDC but his close
politburo members who were
exposed for plotting his ouster with foreigners.
Morgan
Tsvangirai
Like his rival, Mugabe, Tsvangirai dominated front pages of
newspapers for
the whole year, from the massive crowds he draws at his
rallies to his
“marriage” to Locadia Karimatsenga. Tsvangirai competed with
Mugabe for
front page coverage in all newspapers.
Lovemore Moyo,
Speaker of Parliament
A bid by Zanu PF to have him removed from the
speakership post and his
subsequent return to the same post after trouncing
Zanu PF national
chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo made news locally and
internationally.
He makes part of the list of the Daily News’ News Makers
of the Year 2011 as
his story is still the talk in political
circles.
To this day, chaos is the order of the day in Parliament as MDC
legislators
are hitting back at Zanu PF and have targeted Clerk of
Parliament, Austin
Zvoma for removal from his post on the basis of
incompetence.
Tracy Mutinhiri
A former legislator for Marondera
East, Mutinhiri made headlines during the
year when she was first accused of
sympathising with the MDC.
Her farm was invaded by Zanu PF militia
allegedly sent by state security
minister Sydney Sekeramayi.
She was
to hit back at Sekeramayi, accusing him of causing all her problems
after
she turned down his sexual advances.
Mutinhiri was eventually sacked from
Zanu PF and “fired” from government
where she occupied the post of deputy
labour and social welfare minister.
She is among our News Makers of the
Year for 2011.
Stephen Muzhingi
Muzhingi made international news
when he won the Comrades Marathon in South
Africa early this year for the
third time in a row. He was also crowned the
2011 Annual National Sports
Awards (Ansa) Sports Man of the Year.
President Robert Mugabe gave him
$50 000 for his achievements.
Kirsty Coventry
Now a usual
phenomenon due to her exploits, Coventry swept her way to our
News Makers
list after she scooped four of Zimbabwe’s six medals at the All
Africa Games
that were held in Mozambique this year.
At the home front, Coventry won
the third Annual National Sports Awards
Sportsperson of the Year Award after
she was voted the best sportsperson for
the year 2011. Indeed a plausible
achievement for the Coventry family.
Wendell Parson
Parson wrote
his own piece of history in 2011 after he was crowned a
co-winner of the
$200 000 prize-money at the 2011 edition of the Big Brother
Africa reality
show.
Tongai “Dhewa” Moyo
Sungura maestro, Tongai “Dhewa” Moyo’s
death towards the end-of-the-year
also made news as the “Samanyemba”
hit-maker had waged a long and painful
battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma — a
type of cancer that reportedly affects
the blood cells.
Rwisai
Nyakauru
Nyakauru, an 82-year-old MDC activist who was arrested in Nyanga
alongside
MDC spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora and several other MDC activists
also made
headlines in the local and foreign media.
They were jointly
charged with public violence and had to spend days on end
at Mutare remand
prison after the state invoked the notorious Section 121 of
the Criminal
Procedure and Evidence Act.
The act allows the state to detain an accused
person for a further seven
days despite being granted bail by the
courts.
Nyakauru subsequently died later and was laid to rest in
Nyanga.
Watch out for the second instalment of this story in tomorrow’s
edition of
the Daily News. This is where we will feature the Noise makers of
the Year
2011.
http://www.voanews.com
29 December
2011
Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said Zimbabwe needs an
independent
electronic media to promote the works of its musical artists,
noting that
many are excluded from ZBC airwaves for political
reasons
Violet Gonda | Washington
The death of the
prominent Zimbabwean musician “Prince” Tendai Mupfurutsa
this week marked
yet another sad chapter for the country's music industry.
This year has
particularly been a bad one for Zimbabwean music as the
country lost at
least 10 popular musicians, four of them in the month of
October
alone.
Sungura music legend Tongai Moyo succumbed to cancer in that
month, which
also saw the deaths of Khumulani Chaka, Takunda Mafika and
Khumbulani Gibson
Magaya.
Other music figures who died in 2011
included Cephas Mashakada, Clement
Chinyama, Adam Chisvo, DJ Hilton Mambo
and music promoter James “Jimalo”
Chiyangwa.
Industry commentators
say Zimbabwe lost more popular artists in 2011 than in
any other year they
can remember. Even living musicians find it hard to
survive in a tough
economic climate where their revenues are siphoned away
by
pirates.
State media quoted Information Minister Webster Shamu as saying
Tongai Moyo’s
family is wallowing in poverty “whilst pirates benefit from
his music.
Zimbabwe Musicians Rights Association Director Polisile Ncube
told reporter
Violet Gonda piracy is mainly to blame for destroying artists’
careers.
She said: “If people continue with piracy it means they kill the
music
themselves, they kill the musicians because with the piracy the
musicians
get nothing and at the end of the day if they stop composing there
won’t be
any entertainment for anybody.”
Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture Minister David Coltart said most
musicians live in poverty and they
must therefore consider their art from a
business standpoint so that they
can enjoy the fruits of their labor and
fully develop their
talents.
“It’s a tragedy in our country that whilst people like Oliver
Mtukudzi and
others are relatively wealthy, they are the exception. The vast
majority
live in poverty," he said.
“We have to look at our tax laws
and the general environment to ensure that
artists’ talents are realized and
that they become wealthy and productive in
society."
Coltart said it
is important to have an independent electronic media that
can promote the
music of the nation's artists. He noted that the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting
Corporation, the monopoly broadcaster for now, excludes many
artists for
political reasons.
The Zimbabwe Musicians Rights Association, meanwhile,
says it has embarked
on capacity-building programs to empower
musicians.
“We have galas to remember our heroes who died for our
country. Now we also
need something like that to remember our music legends,
who also inspired us
as young artists to be what we are today," said
musician-producer “Dr.”
Tawanda Benson.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/technology/internet/article3270797.ece
Roger
Boyes Diplomatic Editor – December 29 2011 12:01AM
From their kitchen
tables they have transformed global politics, helping to
topple regimes,
projecting women on to the public stage or, simply, making
bureaucrats
behave decently. This was the year of the blogger who, in closed
societies
from China to Egypt, turns out not to resemble the Western cliché
of a
lonely geek but the very model of a modern revolutionary.
Take Aleksei
Navalny, the Russian anti-corruption blogger recently released
from a 15-day
stint in prison. The former property lawyer illustrates the
power, and
perhaps some of the hidden weakness, of those who have come to
the fore in
2011. He has risen fast in the opposition ranks, not spending
years of his
life arguing obscure positions in smoke-filled rooms, or for
that matter, in
jail. “Navalny is an example of a new face, his political
career is just
starting,” says Ilya Ponomaryov, one of the organisers of
recent anti-Putin
protests. As a result, he has become a credible critic of
government
corruption and a credible new leader for a young internet-savvy
generation.
Russia has more than 50 million internet users, Europe’s
biggest audience,
and anyone who can master it can steer the views of a
largely depoliticised
young generation.
There may be problems with
choosing future leaders from the blogosphere — Mr
Navalny has been keeping
strange company with ultranationalists — but he can
shape and mobilise civil
society. Using Twitter, he coined the 140-character
slogans that are the
stuff of all modern uprisings, branding the Kremlin-run
United Russia Party
“the party of crooks and thieves”. That slogan appears
in the placards held
aloft in Red Square demonstrations and has entered the
public
discourse.
The influence of the blog and the social media in the Arab
Spring quickly
became apparent. The choice of Tawakkol Karman, a young
mother and blogger
from Yemen, as one of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
winners was entirely
logical. She had become the face of the unfinished
revolution in Yemen
because its driving force was made up of students from
the University of
Sanaa, articulate and networked, whose voice spread
through their extended
families to inspire resistance to President
Saleh.
Across the Middle East the use of the internet has been expanding
exponentially, thanks in part to the availability of BlackBerrys and other
smartphones.
The suicide of a Tunisian fruit merchant may have
sparked the revolt, but a
more typical hero was Wael Ghonim, the
Egyptian-born Google marketing
executive who brought young Egyptians on to
the streets using Facebook. He
has 400,000 Facebook followers. With the
right political skill, that can be
turned into a civilian
army.
However, the new social media leaders have done more than galvanise
a
restless generation. They have blurred the distinction between private and
public space in the Arab world. In the process they stirred the political
awakening of women who are no longer confined to a tradition that put the
management of public affairs in male hands.
Egyptian female bloggers,
including those aligned with the Muslim
Brotherhood, were among the first to
understand they could use cyber
communication to break through patriarchal
prejudice and voice the political
disdain of men. “Some write about their
imprisoned fathers, posting videos
of the trials and pictures of family
members,” said Omayma Abdel Latif, who
has made a study of the women in the
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Just as Twitter sustained the Iranian Green
revolutionaries after the
killing of the student Neda Soltan, so it is the
bloggers who are set to
keep alive women’s demands in post-revolutionary
Egyptian society. Since
internet usage has expanded hugely in the Middle
East — even in Algeria,
which has relatively low internet penetration — the
number of users has
jumped from 50,000 in 2000 to almost four million and it
follows that the
political self-confidence of women is growing.
A blog
gets beneath the skin of a closed society. It does not always have to
be
overtly political to sow the seeds of change. Saudi Arabia has one of the
fastest-growing blogging communities after Egypt. Almost every Saudi town
has a discussion forum website; news moves fast from the capital to the
countryside. Some blog in English (www.saudijeans.org). Others, such as
Khulud al-Fahd’s blog about women, are in Arabic.
In China, which has
been the most repressive in its attempts to put a lid on
subversive internet
use, the power of the blogger has exposed the daily
abuse of privilege and
has held local officials to account. The actress Yao
Chen is now the
undisputed queen of Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of
Twitter, having edged
aside the previous top blogger, the former racing
driver Han Han. She
exhorts her 15 million followers to back the journalists
investigating the
mysterious fatal high-speed train accident in July.
With more than half a
billion Chinese now online there is potential to
create and influence public
opinion; to make it part of the political
process in a way that it has never
been before. Residents in the village of
Wukan, which has been under police
blockade, are posting information and
photos online to support their
campaign for justice over land seizures.
The images of a child run down by a
car and ignored by passersby created
global outrage and put pressure on
society to change. This is new ground.
“Before there was no Chinese actor
participating like this in public
affairs,” says Ms Yao.
The point of a
blogger in a closed society is to use a moment of freedom
from censorship to
state simple truths. Western bloggers seek to shock with
dubious conspiracy
theories but in Cuba, for example, it is enough to give a
frank,
propaganda-free description of life on the island.
Yoani Sanchez, 36, has
launched Generación Y and become involved in a very
public Twitter row with
Mariela Castro, the daughter of Raul Castro, the
Cuban leader. Ms Sanchez
has now been denied permission to leave Cuba and
has been accused of being
part of a Washington-backed cyberwar against the
regime.
Next year
may become the year of blogger crackdowns. There are already many
in Russia
urging a Chinese-style blitz on bloggers, the fear being that huge
crowds
will be drummed up by the social media after the presidential
elections in
the spring.
In Zimbabwe, a leading member of Zanu (PF), realising that
seven million
people are now connected through their mobile phones, has
called for
measures to head off Twitter-inspired unrest. “Just look at what
happened
during the riots in the United Kingdom,” said Emmerson Mnangagwa in
a
worried speech to the party faithful.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/technology/internet/article3270803.ece
Analysis
Laura Pitel – December 29 2011 12:01AM
When the first glimmers of
protests appeared in Syria this year, many were
doubtful that they could
last. The many sceptics said that the country’s
notorious machine of
repression would come down hard, snuffing out any
chance of rebellion.
However, they did not count on the innovative people
who dodge constant
efforts to shut them down.
As their populations rose up against them, ailing
Arab leaders took
desperate counter measures, from “switching off” the
internet to creating
electronic armies to flood the web with pro-Government
propaganda. They
bought surveillance software from some of the West’s less
scrupulous
companies.
Bloggers and tweeters made mistakes and were
arrested in droves, but learned
quickly and Middle Eastern intelligence
services, more familiar with fist
and boot than keyboard and mouse,
struggled. When Hosni Mubarak shut down
the broadband network, Egyptians
used dial-up. Bahraini bloggers disguised
their locations to access blocked
websites. In Syria, codewords caught out
online snoopers and smuggled
satellite phones bypassed blackouts.
At times the intelligence services
were just stupid. “They actually think
Facebook is a device,” one activist
said. “They ask people: ‘Where’s your
Facebook?’” Another told of Government
agents who created an online
honeytrap using a photograph of Julia
Roberts.
Three tools in particular have helped to sustain the Arab
uprisings. Skype,
the online telephone software, allows activists to evade
phonetaps, plot
protests undetected and organise supplies. Facebook is a
platform on which
to germinate protests and collate news.
Most
powerful of all is YouTube, the video-sharing site. Type in “Syrian
revolution” and horrors appear: children shot by snipers, old men buckling
under torture, tanks firing into homes.
Governments can lie but a
simple mobile phone can prove the deceit — and
satellite networks which beam
the footage into millions of homes spur
thousands to take to the streets.
By Clifford
Chitupa Mashiri, 30 December 2011.
If there is a year that political
serial flip-flopper and arguably architect
of Zimbabwe’s media revenge laws,
Jonathan Moyo would NOT like to be
reminded of, it is 2011.
The year
2011 proved the most embarrassing, stressful and frustrating to the
Zanu-pf
politburo propagandist cum university professor that he wants it to
pass
quickly.
This was the year when Wikileaks exposed Jonathan Moyo’s fickle
Zanu-pf
loyalty as it emerged he once advised the United States on removing
the
Commander-in-Chief, Head of State and Government, First Secretary and
President of Zanu-pf Politburo Robert Gabriel Mugabe from
power.
Yes, it also became abundantly clear in 2011that Jonathan Moyo
hates his
past especially publications which kept reminding the public about
his
previous writings critical of Robert Mugabe whom he now says is his
hero.
Among the articles causing Jonathan Moyo embarrassment and stress
are: ‘Why
Mugabe should go now’; ‘Mugabe now too old, too tired’; ‘Mugabe
not telling
the truth’; ‘Mugabe leadership doomed to fail’; ‘Mugabe behaving
like a
cornered rat’; ‘Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe’; ‘Mugabe incoherent,
disoriented’
and so on.
Ironically, in 2011, Jonathan Moyo
hypocritically accused his political
opponents and the independent media of
being ‘British-funded political tools
of regime change’ when he failed the
test of morality himself by attempting
to work clandestinely for Mugabe’s
ouster with imperialist entrepreneur Sir
Richard Branson of
Britain.
According to one cable 07Pretoria2443 Jonathan Moyo and Richard
Branson
discussed ways to boot Mugabe out of power, during which Moyo
suggested to
Branson that it would be easier to use a respected group of
African leaders
who could convince Mugabe to leave power.
Incredibly,
in a move seen by experts as an attempt to deter journalists
from doing
their job and to throttle the Daily News financially, Moyo filed
a US$100
000 lawsuit against the editor and a reporter of the Daily News for
stories
quoting comments attributed to him in the cables that are already
known to
the whole world.
Jonathan Moyo confessed to losing sleep over the cables
“after spending an
average of 18 hours a day between August and last Friday
sifting through the
staggering record of the published cables on the
Internet and enduring
uniquely Zimbabwean broadband frustrations with
browsing speed and all,…”(see
Wikileaks, a blessing in disguise by Jonathan
Moyo, Zimpapers,10/09/11).
Moyo was also frustrated in 2011 for his
failure to have Finance Minister
Tendai Biti arrested for demanding a
diamonds cash audit and to have MDC
President Morgan Tsvangirai and his key
official Jameson Timba arrested on
allegations they undermined Mugabe by
disputing Mugabe’s interpretation of
the outcome of the SADC Extraordinary
Summit held in Sandton, South Africa.
A positive thing that Jonathan Moyo
did in 2011 was his brilliant public
lecture at the University of Zimbabwe
on ‘The challenges of public
administration in Zimbabwe today’ on 21 October
2011. Many would wish Moyo’s
New Year’s resolution was to return to
university work fulltime where he has
undoubted and admirable
skill.
Nevertheless, 2011 is the year Jonathan Moyo would like to forget
quickly.
Happy New Year!!!
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political
Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com
