http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in News, Politics
RUSAPE —
In its attempt to win back the rural supporters, Zanu PF has
started roping
in members of the Apostolic sects to
participate in the indigenisation and
economic empowerment programme.
REPORT BY CLAYTON MASEKESA
Several
Zanu PF politburo and central committee members, led by
Vice-President Joice
Mujuru, were in Manicaland recently where she urged
members of Johanne
Masowe Church in Gandanzara area to embrace the
programme.
But
critics said this was an attempt by the former ruling party to lure
church
members ahead of elections.
“I would like to urge you to be actively
involved in the indigenisation and
economic empowerment programme,” said
Mujuru. “You should empower yourself
through these programmes. The
indigenisation and economic empowerment
programme is centred in controlling
our resources. So be part of us and we
will not back track.”
She
added that the church should participate and benefit from the community
share ownership trusts and employee share ownership trusts.
The
trusts have however, been mired in controversy, with accusations that
the
programme was benefitting mostly Zanu PF senior leadership and
traditional
leaders.
Mujuru said there should be a bank managed and owned by a church
union to
ensure transparency and that people do not lose out. Several banks
have
collapsed in recent years with ordinary people losing their hard-earned
cash.
“We will not expect a church leader to cheat innocent citizens.
This will be
one way to ensure that we have a transparent and Godly practice
within our
economy,” she said.
The Johanne Masowe Church was promised
that it would benefit from the
Sovereign Wealth Fund, which would provide
the church members with capital
to purchase stakes in foreign-owned
companies.
The fund is now supposedly pegged at US$4 billion after
several
foreign-owned companies were forced to cede 51% shareholding as
stipulated
by the controversial Indigenous and Empowerment Act.
Also
in attendance were Zanu PF Political Commissar and Information minister
Webster Shamu, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF Secretary for
Administration Didymus Mutasa and former Chimanimani MP Munacho Mutezo,
among others.
‘Empowerment programme based on
patronage’
churches have become a lucrative hunting ground for
politicians seeking
votes. Both President Robert Mugabe and Morgan
Tsvangirai have become
regular visitors to different churches in what
analysts see as a way of
seeking votes ahead of elections.
Their
visits to churches are expected to increase as dates for elections
draw
near.
Efforts to get a comment from Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo
were
fruitless last week.
But Zanu PF’s political foe, the MDC-T, has
said the economic empowerment
programme was based on patronage.
“The
ill-advised Zanu PF empowerment programme is not demand driven and is a
narrow model of transferring wealth to a few black elite and not genuine
wealth creation and distribution to the poor people of Zimbabwe,” said the
party in a statement.
“The MDC believes that a genuine broad-based
upliftment programme, which
balances the need to attract investment, grow
the economy and create jobs
for all, must be developed to protect the
country from further Zanu PF
plunder.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Politics
BULAWAYO
— Zanu PF Bulawayo province has started drumming the support of
residents,
students and church members in its bid to mobilise 80 000 people
to vote for
the party in this year’s general elections.
REPORT BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
The party’s provincial chairperson, Killion Sibanda said Zanu PF
was forming
a “unity pact” with residents associations, students and
churches ahead of
next year’s plebiscite.
The party has already
kick-started a voter registration exercise, urging its
card-carrying members
in the city to register to vote.
“Our strategy to win the hearts and
minds of the people of Bulawayo revolves
around unity, uniting with key
stakeholders in the city,” said Sibanda.
“Unity is our key word. We want to
first unite all our party members in
Bulawayo. The party has been divided
and that cost us in the past
elections.”
Sibanda said the party’s
association with residents’ organisations, students
and churches would
enable it to mobilise a lot of votes for Zanu PF.
“We are also targeting
a unity pact with key stakeholders who will help us
in our mobilisation
campaigns. We want to unite with key stakeholders like
students, churches,
residents associations, war veterans, detainees and war
collaborators,” said
Sibanda. “Once we achieve that unity pact, Bulawayo
will go to Zanu PF. I
can tell you that with this unity pact, we can easily
have over 80 000
residents vote for Zanu PF in Bulawayo.”
He said during the
anti-sanctions campaign in 2011, Bulawayo province raised
at least 79 000
signatures, an indication that the 80 000 votes were
possible.
Sibanda said the party was leaving no stone unturned in
efforts to reverse
Zanu PF’s 2008 election white-wash by the MDC formations
in Bulawayo.
Zanu PF fared badly in the 2008 elections in Bulawayo and
failed to win a
single seat in the province.
In some polling stations,
President Robert Mugabe got zero votes and the
former ruling party blamed
the poor showing to factionalism.
But Bulawayo Progressive Residents
Associations (BPRA) chairperson, Rodrick
Fayayo said the organisation would
not support any political party.
“BPRA works with all stakeholders. We
can work with Zanu PF on issues to do
with service delivery but we cannot be
involved in their mobilisation
campaigns,” said Fayayo.
“We can only
mobilise residents to register to vote and we are not worried
about who they
vote for.”
Zanu PF Bulawayo province has over the years grappled with
infighting,
factionalism and discontent among party members.
Shortly
after the election of Sibanda as provincial chairperson recently,
divisions
and infighting emerged over charges that the former had rigged
elections.
So serious was the infighting that the province failed to
accredit on time
its delegates for the Zanu PF conference in the Midlands
province in
December.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Local
A can of worms
has been opened in the life of General Josiah Magama
Tongogara with several
of his children and other family members joining a
chorus of people
questioning whether the late Zanla supremo really died in a
car
accident.
Report by Patrice Makova
They said if the Zanu PF
leadership had nothing to hide, a commission of
inquiry into his death over
33 years ago should be instituted to clear the
air.
Recently,
Angeline Gamanya, mother of Tongogara’s four children, said in an
interview
with a local weekly that the death of the former Zanla commander
still
haunted her and demanded that she be driven to the scene of the
accident
where her husband died.
But it has also emerged that Tongo, as the late
Zanla chief of defence is
commonly called, sired a total of 10 children with
seven women.
The family spokesperson, Michael Magama Tongogara, insisted
none of the
seven women, including Angeline, was ever traditionally or
legally married
to him.
Some of Tongogara’s children residing outside
Zimbabwe last week told The
Standard that only the truth of what happened to
their father would bring
closure to the family and the whole
nation.
They doubted the official version that their father died in an
accident on
December 26 1979.
“There are so many glaring
inconsistences about what happened to our father.
You can tell they [Zanu PF
Officials] are lying,” said one of the children.
“We want the truth to come
out in order to bring finality to this issue.”
Another child said the
images of Tongogara’s body depicted a burnt body not
congruent with an
ordinary side-swiping of the late general’s vehicle as
official versions of
accounts say.
“If his body was burnt, why is it that the wreckage of the
car does not show
any burns?” asked another Tongogara sibling, adding that
from what the
family had gathered from “credible sources”, some parts were
missing from
the body.
Michael, Tongogara’s elder brother, confirmed
that the family was still in
the dark about what happened.
He said up
to now Tongogara’s personal belongings, including his knobkerry
and other
traditional artefacts, have still not been returned to the
family.
Michael said when he was flown to Maputo to view his young
brother’s body,
something inexplicable happened, signifying that something
was amiss in
accordance with African traditional beliefs.
“All I can
say is that when his coffin was opened for me at the mortuary,
his body wept
(mutumbi wakasvimha misodzi), then I just left,” said Michael.
He said
even if the family was not satisfied with the explanation of what
happened
to Tongo, there was nowhere they could complain, hence the best was
to
remain quiet.
Michael said the family was of the opinion that Tongo’s
children were being
neglected by the government and the Zanla commander’s
former close friends
and compatriots.
He said while Tongo had four
children with Angeline, namely Hondo (born
1969), Tichafa, Bvumai and
Nyaradzo, he also sired six other children with
different
women.
These are Conrad (born 1963) who is the eldest of all Tongogara’s
children,
Sukai, Simba, Tichaitora, Annie and Granger.
Michael said most
of Tongogara’s children were struggling to survive, with
some unemployed
despite the sacrifice made by their father and the closeness
the national
hero was to several senior government and party officials.
He said after
his death, close friends, among them the late Retired General
Solomon Mujuru
and the late Chief Air Marshal, Josiah Tungamirai, virtually
cut links with
the family.
“Rex [Mujuru] was very close to Tongo after we recruited him
from Zipra.
With Tungamirai, they used to dress like twins,” said
Michael.
He said the others close to Tongogara included Zanu PF politburo
member and
former minister, Kumbirai Kangai and former Zimbabwe Defence
Forces
commander and the late General Vitalis Zvinavashe.
“All these
were Tongo’s people, but after independence no one came to us to
see how the
family or children were doing. Maybe there is something they are
afraid of,”
said Michael.
The death of Tongogara attracted a lot of speculation in
independent
Zimbabwe. Some suggested that his death supposedly in a car
crash in
Mozambique, a few weeks before ceasefire and independence was
suspicious.
Zanu PF women’s league boss, Oppah Muchinguri, sat behind
Tongogara in the
same truck with four others. Tungamirai and others were in
a front car.
Muchinguri survived without a scratch.
In 2002,
Muchinguri told Moto magazine that their vehicle side-swiped a
trailer of
another truck before rolling twice, resulting in the instant
death of
Tongo.
But readers responded that the story had many loopholes, including
why their
vehicle had no spare wheel for such a high-powered
delegation.
The liberation hero never legally married:
Michael
Michael said he was surprised to hear from the rumours that the
army on
Boxing Day organised commemorations for Tongo without consulting him
or his
other siblings, sisters; Annie, Rossie and Edna and young brother
Joshua, as
well as most of his children.
Michael questioned the
involvement of Angeline and her daughter Nyaradzo in
the army
commemorations.
He said Angeline should not “masquerade” as a member of
the Tongogara
family, as the late guerrillas never married any of the seven
women he sired
children with.
“He had many girlfriends and children,
Angeline being one of them. His
philosophy was that we should produce as
many children as possible, so that
some of them would become liberation
fighters,” he said
Michael said Nyaradzo was not yet known to the
Tongogara family, as she was
yet to be formally introduced to it, 33 years
after she was born.
Moreover, the family believes that after 1980,
Angeline married the late
businessman, Cuthbert Moyo, whom they knew from
the Zambian days.
Contacted for comment, Nyaradzo said she and her mother
would only respond
to questions in writing.
I was close to Josiah:
Brother
Michael, who was based in Zambia during the struggle and is still
an active
Zanu PF member, said he was close to his brother.
He
produced several letters from Tongo asking him to take care of his
children
even in the event that he died.
In one of the letters, dated December 4
1978, Tongogara wrote from
Mozambique to his elder brother outlining his
trials and tribulations with
the war of liberation and his concern for
Zimbabwe and his family.
Wrote Tongogara: “Budi early next year Amai
Hondo is supposed to come to
Maputo to stay. The party has decided that all
officials should have their
‘[wives]’ in Mozambique in order to solve a
number of problems. So I feel
when all is set, she should bring with her two
kids, Bvumai and Sukai. You
remain with two boys Hondo and Tichafa. I want
the two young ones for one
simple reason, because they are young and can
easily catch up with
Portuguese, though they will be integrated with other
English-speaking
children.”
Michael said the late Vice-President,
Simon Muzenda, helped to write
supporting affidavits to enable Tongogara’s
children to get birth
certificates as he knew them and their mothers.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Local
EIGHT
people died while several others were seriously injured yesterday when
the
bus they were travelling in veered off the road and overturned at Cement
Siding on the outskirts of Bulawayo about 10km on the Harare
highway.
REPORT BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Bulawayo police spokesman,
Mandlenkosi Moyo confirmed the accident but did
not have the finer
details.
He could not confirm the number of people who died in the
accident.
But survivors said the Jay Jay Tours bus, which was heading to
Botswana from
Harare, veered off the road at around 2am yesterday and
overturned, killing
some passengers on the spot.
The bus was carrying
65 passengers.
Mandla Dube, one of the relief drivers, said he did not
know how he survived
as everything seemed to occur in a split of a
second.
“I do not know how I survived. I was thrown out of the bus,” Dube
said,
adding that he fractured his ribs and sustained head
injuries.
Dube said Themba Sibanda, who was driving during the time of
the accident,
reportedly also suffered head and rib injuries.
This past
festive season has seen a death toll of over 208 people compared
to about
147 who died in road accidents in 2011.
The accidents occurred despite the
heavy presence of traffic police on major
highways.
Traffic safety
officials blame a number of factors for the upsurge in
crashes, including
the poor state of the roads and the increase in the
volume of traffic and
human error.
Police have also been accused of contributing to the carnage
by taking
bribes from traffic offenders, enabling unroadworthy vehicles to
continue
plying the roads.
The corruption charges last week forced a
senior police officer to issue a
statement urging motorists to ignore
roadblocks staffed by less than three
officers.
During the holidays,
the police deployed senior police officers to man
roadblocks and bus termini
because they are less prone to corrupt
activities.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Local
ONE of the four
elephants exported to China has died and conservationists
fear for the lives
of the remaining three that are also reportedly in bad
health.
REPORT
BY JENIFFER DUBE
There was an uproar from conservationists last year when
the Zimbabwe Parks
and Wildlife Management Authority sanctioned the
exportation of the animals.
In a statement yesterday, chairperson of the
Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force, Johnny Rodrigues, confirmed that one of
the four elephants airlifted
to the Asian country in November last year had
since died.
He said the Asian Animals Foundation had informed them of the
death.
“They [Foundation] say that the four elephants arrived at the end
of
November 2012,” said Rodrigues. “Two went to Taiyuan Zoo, one of which
has
subsequently died. The other two reportedly went to Xinjiang Tianshan
Safari
Park.”
He added: “We are saddened and disgusted that these
elephants have been
removed from their mothers and the African bush to live
alone in a cold
unfriendly jail cell in a foreign country.”
Rodrigues
said the weather in China is not favourable to the animals.
“We believe
the temperature at the Xinjiang Tianshan Safari Park is less
than 20 degrees
Celcius below zero,” he said. “It is highly unlikely the
elephants will
survive in the cold when they have been accustomed to
temperatures of
between 30 and 40 degrees.”
The wildlife authority last year confirmed
exporting four elephants to from
Hwange National Park to a zoo in
China.
Rodrigues insisted there was still another 14 elephants being kept
in a boma
[a small enclosure] at the Hwange National Park waiting to be
exported.
But the parks authority in December refuted the claims saying
only five
elephants were currently in the boma and were constantly being
assessed by
an independent veterinary official.
Both Zimbabwe Parks
and Wildlife Management Authority public relations
manager Caroline
Washaya-Moyo and Environment and Natural Resources Minister
Francis Nhema
said they were not aware that one of the animals had died.
“I received an
inquiry about it, probably from the same person who told
you,” Nhema said.
“I have no clue about the issue as of now but I should be
having a report on
Monday.”
There were concerns that the elephants had been subjected to
cruelty as they
had to endure a road trip of about 800km from Hwange to
Harare before being
airlifted.
Animal activists also felt taking the
animals to a zoo would be stressful to
the elephants as they were not used
to such captivity.
Exportation above board: Parks
The Zimbabwe
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority last month argued that
the
exportation was above board and in line with the country’s laws, adding
that
it had received requests for the purchase of elephants from potential
clients from France, Ukraine, United States of America and DRC.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Local
MUTARE — Four war
veterans last week appeared in court here facing extortion
charges after
demanding US$500 from Mountview Hotel.
REPORT BY CLAYTON
MASEKESA
The four: Lucia Taremba (53), Robson Mutombo (56), Isaac
Mangenje (54) and
Job Marange (51) were not asked to plead when they
appeared before Mutare
magistrate Charles Murowe.
They were however,
remanded out of custody to January 8 on a US$30 bail
each.
The four
former freedom fighters are being charged with extortion as defined
in
section 134 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
According
to the State led by Nelson Makunyire, charges against the four are
that on
December 8 last year they unlawfully put pressure on Panganai
Ndongwe of
Mountview Hotel with the purpose of extortion.
On the day in question,
the four arrived at the hotel and introduced
themselves as members of the
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans
Association (ZNLWVA).
They
demanded money saying it was for the association’s coffers and would
fund a
trip to Tanzania to “collect” the spirits of freedom fighters who
died in
that country during the liberation struggle.
Makunyire said after
pressuring the hotel staff, the four walked away with
US$500 which they used
for personal business.
A police report was made leading to the arrest of the
four.
Nothing was recovered.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Local
AS
plans to conclude the constitution-making process and other key reforms
ahead of elections continue to hang in the balance, analysts say it will be
disastrous if polls are called under the Lancaster House
Constitution.
REPORT BY PATRICE MAKOVA
Zanu PF at its annual
national people’s conference held in Gweru last month
resolved President
Robert Mugabe should dissolve Parliament and proclaim a
date for the
elections if the constitution-making process was not concluded
by last
Christmas.
The Cabinet and parliamentary committee tasked with breaking
the impasse on
constitution-making has since failed to meet the
deadline.
Presidential spokesman George Charamba recently said Mugabe
could still call
for elections under the current Lancaster House
Constitution if a new
charter was not finalised soon.
But analysts
said it was unlikely that Mugabe and Zanu PF would go ahead
with threats to
unilaterally call for elections under the current
constitution as there were
many forces at play.
Political Scientist, Shakespeare Hamauswa said
elections using the current
constitution would not produce a credible
result.
He said threats to call for elections using the old constitution were
a
negotiating tactic by Zanu PF.
“The party is using threats so that
its demands are met,” said Hamauswa.
“They are saying to the two MDCs,
accept our proposals to amend the Copac
draft constitution or else we go
with the old constitution. Elections
without a new constitution threaten the
validity of the result.”
He said since 2010, Zanu PF had been threatening
to call for elections but
this never materialised because of the role of
Sadc as guarantors of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Hamauswa
said agreeing on a new constitution was Sadc’s main precondition
for the
holding of new free and fair elections.
The MDC-T has said the June 2008
Presidential elections run-off was
characterised by intimidation, violence
and it left over 200 of its
supporters dead.
Political analyst,
Charles Mangongera believes threats to call for elections
under the current
constitution were most likely a “bluff”.
“The idea is to psyche-up people
for national elections,” he said.
Mangongera said elections were part of
a negotiated settlement and not an
issue of trying to convince the
MDCs.
He said Sadc made it clear that the three GPA partners had to
implement the
agreed election roadmap, including concluding a new
constitution before
holding free and fair polls.
“We have heard this
talk before but I think Mugabe is politically shrewd
enough to understand
the implications of unilaterally calling for
elections,” said Mangongera.
“Mugabe himself is tired of the old
constitution and has in the past made
reference to it as an old tattered
trousers which is now full of patches and
therefore in need of replacement.”
He said some around Mugabe could be
the ones frustrated by the current
constitution-making process as they were
eager to participate in elections
in the hope of winning.
The
Copac-driven constitution-making process has been deadlocked for several
months over demands by Zanu PF to incorporate several amendments into the
new draft charter.
Zanu PF wants to maintain Mugabe’s imperial
powers.
The party is also against devolution of power, dual citizenship,
a land
commission security sector reforms and the creation of an independent
prosecuting authority separate from the Attorney-General’s
office.
But the two MDCs have so far insisted that the Copac draft was
final as all
parties appended their signatures to the document.
The
President has to consult all principals
University of Zimbabwe political
science lecturer, Professor John Makumbe
said it would be a violation of the
GPA to hold elections using the old
constitution.
He said
constitutional amendment number 19 stipulated that Mugabe has to
consult
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube of MDC before
dissolving
Parliament and proclaiming dates for elections.
“Chances are Mugabe is
not keen to be on the wrong side of Sadc and to call
for elections without
consulting the other GPA principals,” said Makumbe.
He said calling for
elections using the Lancaster House Constitution would
be the “worst
scenario” for the country.
“This will literally produce the same result
of 2008 [elections]. The two
MDC formations, Sadc and the African Union
would never accept this
scenario,” said Makumbe.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Local
THE
festive season comes with numerous experiences for various people, some
of
them good things to always remember in life while others are bad.
REPORT
BY JENIFFER DUBE
After escaping death by a whisker when I was involved in
a car accident last
November on my way to Irisvale in Matabeleland South,
where my family is
settled, I decided I was safer visiting my original rural
home for the
December holidays.
My original rural home, Mthoniselwa
in Matabeleland North’s Nkayi District,
has changed a lot since my last
visit in December 2009.
One of the positive changes is that almost
everyone in the village now
speaks openly about their HIV
status.
This was a taboo.
“HIV stigma and discrimination is a
thing of the past here,” Ntokozo Mlilo
said. “Those of us who take
[anti-retroviral] drugs are no longer scared of
what people may say when
they see us taking them because unlike in the past,
people in this village
now understand that to be HIV-positive does not mean
death and that having
it does not necessarily mean that one is of loose
morals.”
This was
achieved through the efforts of the Free Presbyterian Church of
Scotland
that helped in fighting stigma in the community by opening a mobile
clinic
in the village.
The clinic, which falls under the church’s Mbuma Mission
Hospital, is open
to the community once every month.
“When the clinic
started in March 2011, we were told that it was meant to
exclusively bring
relief to those of us who were taking [ARV] drugs as we
previously had to
walk 11km every month to collect the tablets at Mbuma
Mission Hospital,”
Sinikiwe Nkomo said.
“The community would be called for monthly meetings
where we were taught
about HIV and Aids then those of us who take the
tablets would be given our
monthly allocations.”
The services have
now been extended to pregnant women and those with infants
requiring
frequent visits to the clinic.
The clinic is a makeshift mud and grass
structure built by the community.
Previously, some expectant mothers went
into labour while others delivered
without visiting any health institution
as Mbuma Hospital is too distant for
many.
With the changing climate,
the community has also embraced a new farming
method — gatshopo
(conservation farming).
In the past, people in our area would not till
their land after the first
rains as they believed it was
taboo.
Everyone would wait for the second rains and they would use ox-
and
donkey-drawn ploughs to till their land.
However, some
non-governmental organisations have convinced them that the
first rains were
not taboo and encouraged them to use them for farming.
I was surprised to
see that almost every homestead now has a small field set
aside for
conservation farming.
Everyone now tills after the first rains, puts
manure in the holes they dig
to preserve moisture and wait for the second
rains.
Once the second rains come, they go back to the fields and dig
again. This
time putting seed, usually maize, in the holes and start weeding
around
them.
Unlike in the past where weeds would be racked away
under the belief that
they would “wake” up again if left near plants, the
villagers now use them
for mulching.
Whenever they meet, villagers
now ask each other how their gatshopo is
doing.
Most people I spoke
to say the method had resulted in higher yields but it
also means more work,
as it requires that they always tend to the field,
making sure there are no
weeds near the plants.
I discovered that many people were still using the
bush latrine system,
making it unhygienic to have huge numbers of people
gather where there are
no ablution facilities.
Fearing disease
outbreak, several makeshift structures for various churches
have been built
at the village centre, and each has a toilet.
So serious is the hygiene
campaign that a grocery shop which was operating
without a toilet was
recently forced to shut down.
The water situation too has improved in
this dry village.
Several homesteads have drilled wells, most of them
more than 30 metres
deep.
But I was dismayed by the state of my
former school, Mthoniselwa Primary.
Parents I spoke to said they now
feared that the roof for the classrooms
would one day collapse and kill
their children.
Even the walls, some said, were an equal threat to their
children’s lives.
During the rainy season, some teachers are forced to
use their houses for
lessons as they also fear for their lives in the
classrooms.
I hope when I go back things would have changed for the
better.
Villagers no longer worship at homesteads
People of
Mthoniselwa are now very spiritual.
In the past, only a few subscribed to
Christianity, with the dominant
churches being “iPostoli” (Apostolic Faith
churches), Roman Catholic and
Zion Christian Church (ZCC).
But now
several other churches, including the one which runs the clinic,
have been
established.
Many people, including those who were previously labelled
witches and
wizards now worship with others in churches.
The
villagers also no longer worship in the homesteads or bush following
teachings about the high risk of such diseases as cholera where a large
number of people are gathered.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Community News
WEDZA—
The indigenous mopane tree is under siege here from villagers who are
cutting it before burning it to extract charcoal for sell to dealers who
have swarmed the district from Mutare.
REPORT BY JAIROS
SAUNYAMA
The worst affected areas include Chikurumadziva, Mutiweshiri and
Mangoro,
where the labour-intensive charcoal-making business has become a
source of
living for several villagers.
Tree trunks are burnt through
the night before villagers extract charcoal in
the day, using simple tools
like hammers.
The burning charcoal is then covered with river sand for
cooling.
The charcoal is sold to dealers who pay US$1 per bucket and US$3
per 50kg.
The dealers re-sell the charcoal to boarding schools, tobacco
farmers and
urban dwellers in Manicaland, who use it as a substitute for
electricity.
The villagers said they were earning a living from the
charcoal business.
“It is a hard job but at least we have something in
our pockets,” said one
charcoal dealer, Maria Mbengwe.
“If it were
not for these dealers, our festive season would have been bleak.
The buyers
come after every two weeks and I can sell more than 30 bags of
charcoal.”
Another villager, Theresa Mutsvanga said, “Rains are no
longer reliable in
this area such that we have to find other means of
survival and this
charcoal business is one such
means.”
Chikurumadziva village headman, Sam Shumba, confirmed the booming
charcoal
business in his area, adding that the charcoal dealers came at
night with
lorries.
“There is indeed a charcoal rush in this area.
forests are under siege from
villagers,” he said.
“The buyers are
said to come from Mutare and they come with their lorries
during the night
for transactions. It is three months now since the business
started.”
Zviyambe councillor, Godfrey Chitsaka, lamented the
destruction of the
Mopane tree, which takes several years to
mature.
“It is true that there is charcoal business taking place in this
area and
there is indeed massive deforestation, especially along Mhare
River,” said
Chitsaka.
“The problem we have here is that people own
their pieces of land and they
do whatever they want with them at the expense
of the environment. It’s very
difficult to convince people to stop cutting
Mopane trees since they own the
land.”
Chitsaka said they had
embarked on a massive campaign to educate villagers
on the need to protect
the environment.
Efforts to get a comment from Environmental Management
Agency (EMA) last
week were fruitless.
Mopane tree is one of
Zimbabwe’s hard wood, making it termite resistant. for
this reason, it has
long been used for building houses, fences and railway
sleepers.
Outside Africa, Mopane is gaining popularity as a heavy and
decorative wood.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Community News
GURUVE — The
Tengenenge community in Guruve is at loggerheads with a Chinese
mining
company, San He Mining Zimbabwe, which it accuses of carrying out
mining
operations in their fields without consulting them.
REPORT BY OUR
CORRESPONDENTS
The company, which is mining chrome in the area, is also
accused of causing
environmental degradation, as its operations are leaving
gullies that are
dangerous to humans and livestock.
Villagers who
spoke to The Standard, said the company had vowed to carry on
with their
chrome mining despite complaints from the community.
The villagers said
the Chinese were boasting of how they would continue
mining because they had
the support of unnamed senior politicians.
“Things are really bad and we
don’t know where we might end up at tomorrow.
The Chinese came and started
operating in this area without consulting us,”
said one villager, Loyd
Bako.
“They have invaded our territories. Our fields have been taken and
the
entire landscape is now an eyesore.”
Another villager, Patience
Zamba, said she feared the whole community would
be displaced by the mining
company.
“They told us that they can take us to a place that has already
been mined,
but for now, we are ready for anything,” she said.
The
villagers said the company was also polluting water sources that the
community used for drinking and watering their gardens.
“They are
polluting our water, making it difficult for us and our animals.
We told
them to drill boreholes for us, but they refused,” said Zamba.
San He
mining Zimbabwe official dispels conflict claims
However, a senior official
with San He Mining Zimbabwe, Anling Zhang,
downplayed the problem, insisting
that the company was in good books with
the community.
“We are not in
conflict with them,” she said.
“We are waiting for our re-opening because
for now we are not doing any
business. the export of chrome has been banned,
so we have nothing to do.”
But Environmental Management Agency provincial
manager for Mashonaland
Central, Robert Rwafa, confirmed the conflict
between the villagers and the
mining company.
“We have been told of
that conflict but what we want is unity between the
company and people so
that we protect the environment. we are currently
making a database that
will incorporate the issue,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Community News
WHEN two
elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
REPORT BY MUSA
DUBE
This is the true scenario for NewZim Steel workers, who are bearing
the
brunt of the ongoing fight between Essar Group and the government over
the
ownership of some iron ore claims.
The workers have gone for over
nine months without pay.
A day before Christmas, The Standard news crew
visited the sleepy town of
Redcliff, where it witnessed the alarming poverty
levels that the workers
are going through as the government and Essar
continue to dilly-dally on the
conclusion of the deal for the takeover of
the former Ziscosteel.
The non-payment of salaries to the workers has
caused social and economic
disorder in the town, as the moral and social
fabric has virtually
collapsed. Marriages have irretrievably been broken due
to poverty-induced
challenges.
A number of schoolchildren are no
longer going to school because their
parents can no longer afford the
fees.
One of the workers, Tichaona Zimuto said life had been tough since
the
company collapsed in 2008. He said most of his colleagues had embarked
on
urban subsistence farming in order to eke out a living as they patiently
wait for the company to resume normal operations.
“Things are
difficult here my friend and we are just surviving by the grace
of God.
Imagine we are yet to receive our salaries since April. We don’t
know
whether we will ever be out of this problem,” said Zimuto, a father of
six.
“We have nothing to feed our families and that’s why we are just
ploughing
some maize, so that we can feed our starving families.”
Another worker,
Panashe Gumbo (43) added: “We have become a laughing stock
in the entire
community. We have lost respect and dignity and it’s now
embarrassing to
tell someone that you work at Zisco [NewZim Steel].”
“We are battling to
pay electricity and water bills, as well as our children’s
school fees
because the company is failing to pay us. I have been kicked out
of my
rented house several times for failing to pay.”
As The Standard news crew
drove around the ghost town, it witnessed several
workers busy planting at
the Redcliff golf club fairways.
If Tiger Woods were to come to Zimbabwe
and see the decimated golf turf, he
would definitely shed tears. The once
world-class golf course has been
destroyed, as nearby residents from Rutendo
and Redcliff suburb have invaded
the swampy area and turned it into little
fields.
Most of the sporting facilities in the town have either collapsed
or turned
into white elephants due of total neglect.
The once busy
Redcliff town centre is now a pale shadow of itself, with most
of the shops
virtually closed down. the few remaining ones just open with no
meaningful
business taking place.
Ziscosteel closed down in 2008 and its revival has
been a tale of “so near
yet so far”.
Despite a partnership with the
Indian firm, Essar, more than a year ago, the
company, now known as NewZim
Steel, has failed to resume normal operations.
Presently, the company is
battling to pay the over 3 000 workers.
The company has the capacity to
take on board between 5 000 and 10 000
people in both the upstream and
downstream industries.
The government recently set up a committee to
handle the paperwork on the
sticky issue of iron claims ahead of the
projected start of operations at
NewZim Steel this month.
The
Minister of Industry and Trade, Welshman Ncube, has said officials from
Essar Holdings, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and from his
ministry would convene a meeting to iron out the problems hampering the
company’s operations.
However, workers said they no longer trusted
what he said. “We have heard
such stories for a long time and we are tired
of them,” said a worker who
gave his name as Enock Moyo. “These ministers
are just politicking with our
lives.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Business
FARMERS have urged
the government to stop interfering in the setting up of
the Commodity
Exchange of Zimbabwe (Comez), insisting the process must be
private
sector-driven to ensure efficiency.
REPORT BY OUR STAFF
Comez was
launched two years ago but has not operated because of
bureaucracy, lack of
co-ordination between various government bodies and
poor
funding.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) president, Donald
Khumalo,
expressed dismay that there has not been activity on the market
since the
launch of Comez, a brainchild of the union and other private
sector players.
“It [Comez] would be valuable to farmers, it will unlock
the agricultural
sector’s potential while also delivering cost-effective
solutions,” he said.
A commodity exchange is an organised market place
where trade, with or
without the physical commodities, is funneled through a
single mechanism,
allowing for maximum effective competition among buyers
and sellers.
For agricultural commodities, trading would be on the basis
of warehouse
receipts issued by the exchange operated or approved warehouses
which
guarantee quality and quantity of products.
Zanu PF last year
resolved to take an active role in the exchange at its
Annual National
People’s Conference held in Gweru, adding to the melee
surrounding the
much-anticipated exchange.
“Conference resolves that the party takes a
leading role in the
establishment of an Agricultural Commodity Exchange that
should provide a
vibrant market to drive the agriculture sector,” reads part
of the
resolutions.
Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube
however, dismissed the idea
saying progress would go on in accordance with a
Cabinet resolution passed
last year.
“What I know is that there is a
Cabinet resolution for the setting up of the
commodity exchange. How then
can the party set up a state institution?” he
said.
Benefits of the
exchange for farmers are that it provides a platform for
hedging and price
discovery, an increased market, price transparency, risk
mitigation,
eliminating delayed payments to farmers.
It also eliminates the need to
use title deeds as security for financing
grain production. The exchange
would also maintain a system of surveillance,
where experts monitor market
player’s behaviour in order to hedge against
manipulation, speculation and
other malpractices.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) vice-president, Peter
Steyl, said the
exchange was an efficient method of providing value for
products delivered
by farmers. He also said the process was supposed to be
driven by the
private sector to make it efficient.
“We had one which
was very useful for farmers about 10 years ago, but it
shut down,” he
said.
“This one [exchange] should be private enterprise-driven without
need for
government involvement.”
The preceding exchange, termed the
Zimbabwe Agricultural Commodities
Exchange folded in 2001 after the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) was granted a
monopoly to purchase wheat and
maize.
Market distortions became prevalent as the GMB set the maximum
buying and
selling prices. Farmers faced problems ranging from poor pricing,
vague
market signs, delayed or no payment at all despite crop delivery and
major
challenges of contract farming.
In his budget statement last
year, Finance minister Tendai Biti urged
relevant parties to set aside
administrative “jealousies” and make the
exchange a reality.
Exchange
promotes market sanity: Robertson
Independent economic analyst, John
Robertson, said the exchange would be a
good mechanism for bringing about
discipline in the market.
It would best serve the interests of competent
people farming the land, he
said.
“The ministries must back off,
there is no need for officials trying to
regulate things, they should simply
set the rules and stand aside. this
should be a private sector-driven
process,” said Robertson.
“There isn’t need for government involvement.
all this interference is
slowing it down.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Business
More
than 3 000 workers were retrenched across sectors in Zimbabwe between
January and September 2012, the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz)
has revealed.
Report by Christopher Mahove
Emcoz director John
Mufukari said this had been a result of the general poor
performance of the
country’s economy in the past few years.
“You need to visit any
industrial area and find out for yourself that they
have been turned into
shops. We have turned from a manufacturing to a
supermarket economy,” he
said.
Mufukari said there was need for a paradigm shift by employers and
workers,
who represented the labour market, as the business-as-usual
approach was not
benefitting the country.
“We have realised as the
labour market that we are not doing anyone any
favour by taking positions
that try to beat the other to accept our position
because we will be
contributing to the very weak performance of the
economy,” Mufukari
said.
He said employers should acknowledge there was “a decent-work
deficit” in
Zimbabwe, despite the fact that most workers were quantitatively
highly paid
compared to their counterparts in the region, while employees
must also
consider constraints facing industry before demanding unreasonable
increments.
“There is still a decent-work deficit caused by the
distortions that
prevailed in the economy over the past 10 years.
Workers
might be highly paid but still, it is not sufficient for them to
lead decent
lives,” he said.
“It would be false and dishonest for employers to claim
workers are
over-paid because, for example, it costs just US$10 to rent a
one-roomed
house in Lusaka, Zambia, while the same costs around US$80 in
Harare.”
Workers on the other hand, Mufukari said, should not negotiate
only to
fulfil legal requirements, but consider that when employers fail to
pay
arbitral awards, they would be forced to retrench, causing job losses
which
otherwise could be avoided.
“There is a tendency where workers
think they find a better deal at
arbitration as opposed to negotiations, so
they want to get to a stalemate
as quickly as possible because in Zimbabwe
normally arbitrators are inclined
towards workers,” he said.
The
Emcoz boss revealed that they had started training National Employment
Council negotiators on new negotiation methods that would guarantee a
win-win situation and benefit the economy in the process.
“We have
said to ourselves, it is now time that the labour market showed
leadership
and came up with a kind of negotiation where we don’t sit across
tables and
hurl insults at each other, but look at the problems facing
industry and
come up with a joint solution which is win-win and grows our
economy.”
Zim’s unemployment rate at over 80%
A total of 4 432
workers were retrenched in 2011, with 6 972 having been
laid off in 2010.
Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is estimated at over 80%.
Last year’s
retrenchments fly in the face of the much-hyped Zanu PF’s
indigenisation
programme, which was supposed to end unemployment and MDC-T’s
Jobs,
Upliftment, Investment Capital and the Environment (Juice) project.
The
Juice programme was set to create one million new jobs between 2013 and
2018
and projects an average economic growth rate of 8% per annum during the
same
period.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Opinion
I
don’t claim to know much about what happens in the spiritual world. Our
elders spoke of Nyikadzimu, the spiritual land of the ancestors. They
consulted spirit mediums whenever misfortune befell them, for example after
mysterious deaths or after a long dry spell to ask for rains. People still
tap into the spiritual world and chiefs are custodians of such revered
places as the Njelele shrine in Matabeleland, deemed to be the shrine of
Mwari [God].
Opinion by Conelia Mabasa
Now there is a new
craze, prophets abound on the land, some behind rocks in
the vleis or in
modern buildings in the cities. Are we not at the mercy of
these
“spiritually-gifted” beings among us? All sorts of crimes have been
committed, especially against women, who have fallen victim to self-ordained
prophets.
Zimbabweans are naturally a superstitious lot. If somebody
says they can
explain what they can’t, they will fall over each other to
seek divine
intervention. Are today’s prophets, whose spouses become
prophetesses by
virtue of being married to the “men of God”, taking
advantage of our
gullibility and fear of the unknown?
Last week two
flamboyant and confessed friends and prophets, Uebert
Mudzanire Angel of
Spirit Embassy and Emmanuel Makandiwa of United Family
International Church
seemed to be out to outdo each other by mesmerising
their congregants with
huge doses of miracles and predictions of both
misfortune and God’s favour
and in the process fed the press.
Angel is reported to have multiplied
money in Botswana and repeated the feat
in Zimbabwe. Makandiwa on the other
hand is said to have predicted that gold
would soon be falling from heaven
to give reprieve to the poor. But soon
after, he sent the nation reeling by
predicting disaster in the form of a
garment falling off an old woman to
spell disaster after a “great wall”
fails due to old age.
While it
may be true that they are real men of God, they have made God so
commonplace
and wealth-oriented that I find their type of Christianity
revolting.
Matthew 6 v 33 says, “Seek ye the Kingdom of God first . . . .”
While
hunger should not be synonymous with Christianity and Godly conduct,
showing
off and capitalist tendencies are also frowned upon. The five loaves
and two
fish were multiplied and shared. The water that Christ turned into
wine at
the Wedding at Cana (John 2) was also shared. When he broke the
bread at the
last supper, he shared.
The avalanche of miracles and prophesies should
be a cause for concern.
Suddenly God is so common he can take instructions
from man at the drop of a
pin; that must be a source of worry for church
leaders, for qualified
shepherds of this world. God is now so common he can
whisper your phone
number to a prophet; he is so common he can whisper your
home address, your
ID number, the angel of the Lord can lead his man
spiritually to your
doorstep and show him where your bed is facing, even the
holes on your sofa
set! Of what use is information about you that you
already know if it’s not
to prop the prophet?
Zimbabweans are an
educated and a hardworking lot. But they are being told
they can wake up
with fat bank accounts and sacks of gold nuggets from
nowhere. Of what use
is false hope? I want my children to grow up knowing
that they have to work
to survive and not wait for a spiritual father to
dish out mysterious money.
We need real men of God to guide us properly. God
is a peaceful force and
anyone can reach out to him. He is not a God of fear
and consternation. He
is not an alarm and despondency causing God. Wishing
you true worship in
2013.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Opinion
Happy new
year everyone!
While we celebrate the coming of the new year, maybe let
us also look at the
changes that would make 2013 a truly happy year, as far
as the environment
is concerned.
Ending 2012, we talked about the
environmental problems that bedevilled
Zimbabwe, most of them serious enough
to endanger not only our flora and
fauna, but the welfare of virtually
everyone living in the country.
I know from my tone, some would feel I am
being too much of an alarmist, and
I honestly wish this was nothing but
false alarm . . . but it is not!
The environmental conditions in Zimbabwe
are far from being healthy and
unless the powers that be finally decide to
put their promises into action,
things will continue to crumble, right until
the environment can no longer
sustain us.
Take the contentious
wetland abuse issue for instance, which proved to be a
popular subject in
2012. In spite of all the lobbying by different groups
for the abuse of the
ecologically-sensitive areas to stop, wetlands
continued to be
invaded.
It would seem the fact that wetlands are our main source of
water supply is
a point that has escaped responsible
authorities.
Monetary benefit from the sale of the wetland areas to land
developers has
so far appeared to be their top priority.
But unless
we decide we no longer need water to survive, the continued
invasion of
wetlands and their conversion to other uses will see us having
even less
water than we already have.
With the country currently wailing under
insufficient water supplies with
areas like Ruwa having gone for years
without any potable water supply, one
can just imagine the scenario if the
situation were to get any worse than it
already is.
It is my sincere
hope that 2013 would finally see the responsible
authorities coming back to
their senses and realising this trend just cannot
be allowed to go on. I
hope 2013 will see the restoration of the country’s
wetlands.
Mining
companies must co-operate
At the end of 2012, mining companies (both
small scale and large scale) had
through their unconventional ways of
operating, proven to be destructive to
the environment.
It would seem
by end of last year, most mining companies still had not
understood that
they had to operate in a manner that as much as possible
minimised
environmental degradation. Mining, when done carelessly, has been
known to
have a seriously negative environmental impact. This characterises
mining in
Zimbabwe.
There has been a lot of damage on the country’s landscapes,
with open pits
being a common site. It is apparent most companies do not
take seriously
enough the need to reclaim the land to its previous state
after concluding
their activities.
Furthermore, there was much
concern over some companies dumping dangerous
chemicals in rivers which
people depend on for water supply.
Some companies operating in the
Chiadzwa diamond fields for instance were
reportedly dumping their chemicals
in Save River, endangering thousands of
people’s health while killing their
livestock. This has been observed to be
the trend in other mining areas as
well.
While it cannot be denied that in mining lies the hope for the
revival of
the country’s economic base, it needs to be done in a manner that
does not
kill the environment.
The economy cannot be allowed to
revive at the expense of ecology!
Hopefully, necessary steps would be
taken in 2013 to make it mandatory for
mining companies to operate in a
manner that does not continue to upset the
ecological balance, all in the
name of reviving the economy.
As the festive season comes to an end, you
only need to look around you to
see how much of a problem litter still is.
In spite of massive clean-up
campaigns last year as some companies and
individuals volunteered to help
solve the waste management problem, which
had clearly proved too huge for
responsible authorities to handle alone,
people continue to litter.
Besides cleaning up and providing disposal
bins (which are in serious short
supply), maybe it is time to concentrate
more on changing the nation’s
mindset towards littering. I hope by end of
2013 the majority of us will
find it embarrassing to litter.
There
needs to be emphasis on what I believe to be the three main pillars of
waste
management: reduce, reuse and recycle.
Wildlife poaching is yet another
problem that urgently requires correctional
measures, otherwise we might
soon have no wildlife to talk about. I hope
more poachers get arrested in
2013.
Forests need to be preserved
Veld fires and deforestation proved
to be another pair of problems that
caused headaches for conservationists.
Maybe 2013 can present a solution to
ending the proliferation of wild fires
and the restoration of the country’s
once rich forests.
But of course
that would only be made possible if the powers that be begin
to tackle such
issues with the seriousness they deserve.
This is to a prosperous 2013
everybody!
For feedback email; cmasara@standard.co.zw
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Editorial
So,
more than 200 lives were lost on our roads during the festive season? Do
I
feel vindicated in my opinion expressed in this column just before
Christmas
that Zimbabwean drivers are the worst in the world? The police
issued 13 048
tickets for various traffic offences. There were in total 1
244 road
accidents, 111 of which were fatal while 977 people are, as we
speak, lying
on their backs in beds nursing their injuries! The statistics
for once don’t
lie; indeed our driving leaves a lot to be desired!
Opinion by Nevanji
Madanhire
Many drivers will blame the poor state of the roads for the
accidents; they
will say the roads are potholed, are badly marked and
signposted and are
generally in a poor state of repair. But what should all
these bad
conditions of the road tell any driver with a little bit of common
sense?
Don’t they tell the driver to exercise extreme caution? But, as the
police
will tell you, the accidents were mostly a result of drunken driving,
unnecessary speeding, overloading and defective vehicles. This means, in
spite of the bad conditions of the roads, the drivers did not exercise any
caution.
There is one thing common among drivers who drive under the
influence of
alcohol, who speed, who overload and who drive defective
vehicles; they
place very little value on human life, whether their own or
that of the
people they carry.
Now, putting a value on human life is
not anything the Highway Code can
teach; if a driver doesn’t know
intuitively the value of life, he can never
learn the habits that instruct
good driving. It is a sad fact of life in
Zimbabwe that the people who have
failed to go far in school are the very
people who, because of a lack of
alternative professions, end up driving our
buses.
Many may find this
conclusion a little snobbish but take a look at the
people driving our urban
commuter minibuses and tell me what level of
education they have. See how
they recklessly stop on the highway to pick and
drop passengers and tell me
they value the lives they carry and those
carried in other
vehicles!
If the police had recorded the levels of education of the 13
000 drivers
they ticketed during the festive season, what conclusions would
have been
obvious? How many times have you asked yourself in response to the
action of
the commuter omnibus driver ahead of you, “Did this guy go to
school?” It’s
going to be painful to agree with this, but drivers need to
have a certain
level of education, preferably post-O’level.
Let’s
look at the haulage truck driver who crammed 63 people into his truck
and
killed 18 of them. A little bit of education would have told him that
carrying people is different from carrying rocks. The fact that a truck can
carry a block of granite from Mtoko to Cape Town does not mean it can
similarly carry 100 people even if they weigh a lot less than the rock. The
rock sits solidly on the rig and does not fidget; people move about and
constantly affect the equilibrium of the vehicle hence, in buses they have
to stick to their seats. A little education would have told him that if a
haulage truck was meant to carry people, it would have been designed like a
bus!
Bus drivers who overload are also unaware of the engineering
mathematics
that go into bus building; making people stand in the aisle
affects the bus’s
balance. Engineers were not fools to arrange seats the way
they did and to
say how many people the bus should carry!
Road
construction is also instructed by intricate knowledge of civil
engineering;
there are lots of centrifugal and centripetal forces at work as
a vehicle
negotiates curves in the road, hence the speed limits and the road
markings
drivers see along the roads. But if one doesn’t have a fair
knowledge of the
physical sciences, all these signs are lost to him.
But travellers are
also to blame for the situations they find themselves in.
One weakness of
Zimbabweans is that they don’t plan their travel
meticulously. Many a time
we have seen a whole family of more than five
standing by the roadside
trying to find transport to their rural home for
Christmas. Tragically we
have read about whole families being wiped out in
accidents during the
festive season. The question to ask is why the whole
family has to travel in
the festive season when everyone knows transport is
problematic!
The
schools would have closed a fortnight earlier, meaning children could
have
travelled outside the congested times. Sometimes we see families moving
with
household goods such as beds, wardrobes and sofas also during this
period.
In the end, whatever form of transport the family gets has to carry
everything even if it was not designed to carry the things. Hence we see
beds hanging precariously on little jalopies while human heads stick out of
every opening. Not only is the vision of the driver obstructed but again the
whole question of balance comes in.
Holiday travel should be
relaxing, enjoyable and fulfilling. As one travels
along the roads in the
countryside, one should enjoy the sights they see;
the landmarks, the
indigenous trees and the occasional wild animal walking
in the forest. But
we are denied this luxury by lack of planning. We want to
travel during the
Christmas rush when buses are cracking at the seams with
people, when there
is hardly any breathing space in the bus, etc. The truth
is: if we planned
our travel a little more intelligently there wouldn’t be
any need to jump
into any vehicle that comes along. Even the drivers we
entrust with our
lives would be able to put into practice good driving
habits.
How
guilty is the travelling public of making it impossible for the driver
to
concentrate while driving, to avoid driving when tired, to never drive in
a
hurry, to drive a vehicle with safety features, to follow safety rules and
to ensure we are all wearing safety belts?
Zimbabwean traffic laws
ought to be made more stringent so that errant
drivers are punished
severely. Certain traffic offences should call for the
cancellation of
driving licences, meaning the driver would have to re-apply
for a new
licence.
This ensures drivers are more careful, and the public should also
play their
part in ensuring safety on the roads.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
January 6, 2013 in Editorial
There is nothing
wrong with self-proclaimed prophet Uebert Angel stuffing
wads of money into
people’s pockets and bank accounts and proclaiming it
“miracle money”. This
is what all rational people believe he is stealthily
doing.
Editorial
Comment
But many others believe Angel is indeed endowed with the power to
instruct
God to produce money and give it to a select few among his
congregation.
Again there is nothing wrong in people believing in what they
choose to
believe in. It’s called faith and it defies rational
explanation.
Money, however, is an earthly tool used by earthly people of
all religious
persuasion to transact business. It comes with rules so that
is doesn’t
cause conflict. This is why it has to be strictly regulated by
central
government.
Angel should know this basic truth and, without
sounding blasphemous, so
should God. In the secular world, all money that
comes into a monetary
system without the authority or knowledge of central
government is illegal.
This is because it has the potential, depending on
the quantum, to
destabilise the country through inflation or a parallel
market.
For this reason, certain government agencies should take an
interest in
Angel’s “miracle money”. The central bank should know its
origins, its
authenticity and its quantity.
Revenue authorities
should also look into how this money can be taxed. This
is very important
because even if only holy people receive it, they
eventually put it into a
system used by everybody. If some people have
access to untaxed income while
others have every cent of their earnings
taxed, this becomes unfair and
could create a social crisis.
The police should also be interested to
know if there is no criminality
surrounding this money. Criminality may come
in the form of money
laundering. Zimbabwe is using — because of its
universal use —about the most
laundered currency in the world, the US
dollar.
Many analysts are also of the view that some churches have
reinvented money
pyramids which almost crushed Zimbabwe’s banking system in
the 1990s and
conned thousands of people of their life
savings.
Whichever way we look at it, Angel’s “miracle money” needs
probing.
