(AFP) – 2 hours
ago
HARARE — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday said new
elections
were possible this year despite a timeline that put the polls in
2012 at the
earliest.
"We still have six months to go and elections
can be held this year," Mugabe
told a meeting of his ZANU-PF party's central
committee.
"The inclusive government was never meant to last
forever."
Mugabe said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) wanted to extend the so-called "global political
agreement"
under which it shares power with Mugabe's party in a tense
coalition
government.
"When we appended our signatures to the global
political agreement it was on
the understanding that this was a vehicle for
fresh elections which would
decide who should govern this country," Mugabe
said.
"Having joined government and tasted the warm sweetness of power,
the MDC
formations no longer want elections. They want elections suspended
indefinitely and their governorship extended to
infinite."
Negotiators from the rival parties agreed on July 6 to a
timeline for
election preparations that would put the polls in
2012.
The roadmap set down a timeframe of 45 days to complete new
electoral laws,
followed by 30 days for voter education and two months to
prepare a new
voter roll.
No decision was made on the date for a
referendum on a new constitution.
Under Zimbabwe's unity accord, signed
after violent and inconclusive
presidential elections in 2008, a new
constitution must be approved by
referendum before new general
elections.
The constitution-writing process is running a year behind
schedule. Drafters
have set September as the target for a referendum, but
repeated delays have
cast doubt on the date.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
15/07/2011
15:49:00 by
SOUTH AFRICA has told the beleaguered Zanu PF leader
Robert Mugabe that
there is no way the country can have elections this
year.
The South African facilitation team to the Zimbabwe political
crisis said
polls can only be held when all the provisions in the GPA and
the election
roadmap are fulfilled.
The team’s comments come in the
wake of Wednesday’s declaration by the Zanu
PF politburo that elections
would be held this year no matter what.
Rugare Gumbo, the Zanu PF
spokesperson, said the politburo had unanimously
re-endorsed the party’s
Mutare congress resolutions on elections.
South African President Jacob
Zuma’s international relations advisor and
spokesperson of the facilitation
team, Lindiwe Zulu, yesterday said restated
positions should be fulfilled
first before elections could be held.
Zulu is on record saying elections
in Zimbabwe were not feasible this year.
“In as far as elections are
concerned, there are certain processes that need
to be followed, among them
implementing everything in the election roadmap.
It’s not for the
facilitation team to determine when elections will be held,
but they should
be held when the environment is conducive, when all parties
are happy and
when the institutions that are supposed to run the elections
are in place,”
said Zulu.
“. . . We have to bear in mind that the roadmap was crafted by
the
negotiators, who represented their parties and it was adopted not only
by
the Troika, but the whole Sadc. We, therefore, expect the roadmap and
also
the GPA to be implemented before elections are held.”
Zulu said
the facilitation team would not be distracted by comments made (by
Zanu PF
or anyone else) outside the negotiation process as her team only
dealt with
negotiators.
She said her team would soon meet the negotiators to work on
the timelines,
which would be presented at the Sadc summit in Angola next
month.
The negotiators have agreed on timelines and presented them to
principals,
but Zanu PF has refused to accept them claiming they would drag
elections
into next year or 2013.
Speaking soon after the politburo
meeting on Wednesday night, Gumbo said
their chief negotiator, Patrick
Chinamasa, had taken them through the issue
of election timelines, but the
party had rejected them.
“Some of the timeframes are unacceptable, given
that they will drag
elections until next year or 2013,” Gumbo said, adding
Zanu PF would push
for elections this year.
Political analysts
meanwhile declared Zanu PF’s wish for elections this year
would most
certainly hit a brick wall because Zuma and Sadc would not accept
another
disputed election.
Political analyst John Makumbe said it was practically
impossible to hold
elections this year adding it was “crazy” for Zanu PF to
believe the
politburo could unilaterally impose its decisions.
“They
are clearly living in the past and are refusing to realise that they
are no
longer the ruling party. Now there is an inclusive government and
they are
part of a three-legged pot, so it’s no longer the politburo which
runs the
country,” he said.
Another analyst, Charles Mangongera, said it was clear
Zanu PF would soon be
forced into an embarrassing climb-down over the
election demands because
other GPA partners and Sadc won’t accept polls
without a clear roadmap.
“These are just statements of bravado, but at
the end of the day, Zanu PF
will soon have its tail between the legs,
considering the stance taken by
Zuma and Sadc,” he said. Newsday
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Jul 15, 2011, 17:53
GMT
Harare - Zimbabwean police on Friday arrested four journalists who
were
covering the eviction of a police officer, who was reportedly sacked
for
having the prime minister's party's song as his mobile phone ring tone,
their lawyer said.
Lizwe Jamela, from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights group, said
journalists Nqobani Ndlovu, Pindai Dube, Oscar Nkala and
Pamenus Tuso had
sent him text messages that they were being detained at
Ntabazinduna police
station near Bulawayo, the country's second-largest
city.
Jamela said the four freelance journalists had gone to the police
station to
cover the eviction of a policeman who was accused of supporting
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Police sources in Bulawayo said Tedious Chisango was dismissed
from the
police force for having an MDC song as the ring tone on his mobile
phone.
Friday's arrests come weeks after that of editor Nevanje
Madanhire, reporter
Patience Nyangove and Loud Ramakgapola in connection
with a story that The
Sunday Standard published covering the detention of
Jameson Timba, a
minister in Tsvangirai's office.
The Zimbabwe Union
of Journalists condemned the arrests, saying it confirmed
that the country
was a 'rogue state like Burma (Myanmar) and Iran.'
Foster Dongozi,
secretary general of the union, said in a statement, 'This
is really
frightening exercise the police has started. The union's fears are
that the
arrests will escalate as elections are approaching.'
http://www.iol.co.za
July 15 2011 at 10:09am
.
A Zimbabwean
police constable is facing armed robbery charges after he
allegedly robbed
five taxi drivers of their money and valuables using his
service pistol,
Zimbabwe's Herald Online reported on Friday.
Aloud Hurumba, 23, was not
formally charged when he appeared before regional
magistrate William Bhila,
who remanded him in custody to July 27. His trial
date has been set for
August 18.
Hurumba told the court that fellow policemen assaulted him
while he was in
custody.
Prosecutor Michael Reza said he would
investigate the claims, adding that
the accused should be remanded in
custody for government doctors to examine
him.
Hurumba was stationed
at Chikurubi Support Unit, Lima Troop.
Reza alleges that Hurumba was
issued with a service pistol in April this
year. - Sapa
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tererai Karimakwenda
15 July,
2011
The MDC-T district chairperson for Headlands Allan Svotwa, has been
reported
missing since Wednesday night, when he was taken from his house by
a Colonel
Svodzai and some police officers.
According to the MDC-T,
the abductors said they were taking Svotwa to
Headlands police station. But
relatives who went to look for him were told
he was not there.
Lawyers
are reportedly making frantic efforts to locate the missing
official, as the
party reels from an intensifying ZANU PF campaign of
arrests and torture of
their officials and supporters.
Meanwhile two other MDC-T members are
reportedly in hospital recovering from
injuries sustained in an attack by
ZANU PF thugs on Thursday. A statement by
the MDC-T said Abel Samakande, the
Mutoko East district chairperson, and
Steven Zenda, the Mutoko East District
Organising Secretary, were severely
assaulted at the Mbare Musika bus
terminus in Harare.
Zenda was dragged off a bus and forced to contact his
district chairperson,
Abel Samakande, who made his way to Mbare. The two
were taken to a torture
base nearby and severely assaulted. Two Police
Internal Security
Intelligence (PISI) officers are reported to have arrived
during the
assault, but they simply took details of the two victims before
they were
released.
Mbare MP Piniel Denga said: “The situation in
this area is difficult to
manage because the ZANU PF youth militia work in
cohorts with the police in
perpetrating violence against the
MDC-T.”
Denga told SW Radio Africa that the Chipangano gang in the area
receive
instructions from top ZANU PF officials, and they have destroyed
boreholes
and other developmental projects, saying they are linked to the
MDC-T.
The Chipangano gang has also been accused of blocking the Old
Mbare hostels
rehabilitation programme, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.
A report in the Daily News said Harare Mayor Muchadeyi
Masunda accused ZANU
PF politburo member Tendai Savanhu, and the party’s
Harare provincial youth
chairperson Jim Kunaka, of using the violent youths
to attack council
workers who were rebuilding the hostels.
Masunda
said the two should “stop politicising the Bill and Melinda Gates
project”
because the funds were “not sourced for cheap political gains but
to ensure
that people have good lives”.
Speaking at a ceremony at the Town House on
Thursday, the Mayor reportedly
said: “Tell those misguided loose cannons in
the form of Jim Kunaka to stop
politicising the project because the funders
have more money to help us.”
But as the Mbare MP Denga explained, ZANU PF
and the Chipangano youths want
no progress or development in the area if it
benefits anyone suspected of
being a supporter of the MDC, or that makes
local MDC officials appear to be
doing good for the people.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tererai Karimakwenda
15
July, 2011
The group of 24 MDC activists facing charges in the case of a
murdered
police officer in Glen View, appeared at the Harare Magistrates’
Courts for
their routine remand hearing on Friday. Their lawyer Jeremiah
Bamu revealed
that the 8 still in remand prison continue to be denied
medical access by
prison officials, who are ignoring a court ruling ordering
treatment.
The activists were arrested back in May after officer Petros
Mutedza was
killed in a Glen View pub. The police randomly raided the area
and arrested
only MDC members, despite evidence that many were not even
present when the
tragic incident occurred. Witnesses said Mutedza was killed
by unknown
assailants.
Defence lawyer Bamu told SW Radio Africa on
Friday that the magistrate did
not set a trial date for the case but “made
an undertaking” to set the date
at the next hearing on July
29th.
Regarding medical access Bamu said they were advised “to liaise”
with the
prosecution next week and arrange for those needing it to seek
private
treatment. “The earlier ruling said we should arrange medical access
with
prison administrators but all our efforts have been in vain,” Bamu
said.
The lawyer said the arrested activists sustained injuries when they
were
severely assaulted by the police while in detention. He added that
those
still in remand prison, especially the female inmates, are only
getting pain
killers for their injuries.
A statement by the party
revealed that Yvonne Musarurwa has a fractured left
hand and a wound on her
right leg. Cynthia Manjoro has a large lump on the
left knee after being
beaten with a bottle.
Glen View Councillor Tungamirai Madzokera, who
sustained serious head
injuries during the assaults, has also still not been
treated. As reported
on SW Radio Africa, lawyers said he is experiencing
pain at night and is
having memory problems.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, July 15, 2011 – Two
members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC-T), who were abducted on
Thursday in Mbare by
suspected Zanu (PF) militia known as Chipangano, are
battling for their
lives at a private hospital.
In a statement to the media, the MDC-T
said Abel Samakande, the MDC-T Mutoko
East district chairperson and Steven
Zenda, the Mutoko East District
Organising Secretary, were seriously
assaulted by Zanu (PF) thugs in Mbare
ON Thursday.
Samakande sent a
sms to a Radio VOP reporter about his abduction on Thursday
afternoon.
The MDC-T said Zenda, 36, who was at the Mbare Musika bus
terminus was
forced out of a bus by Zanu (PF) youths led by one Hondo and
started
assaulting him. “They dragged him to a building opposite former Bata
Stores
at Mbare Musika where other Zanu (PF) youths were gathered and
further
assaulted him with booted feet, button sticks and metal rods. The
assault
resulted in him sustaining injuries on his head, hands, feet and
back. Zenda
was forced to call his superiors to come to Mbare. He contacted
his district
chairperson, Samakande, 42 who on arrival had his car's side
window smashed
as Zanu (PF) youths tried to abduct him,” read part of the
MDC-T statement.
"The two were then allegedly dragged into a torture base
at Mbare Musika,
where they were further assaulted. During the assault, two
police Internal
Security Intelligence, (PISI) officers are said to have
arrived, and in the
presence of Zanu (PF)’s Chipangano chairperson and one
Hondo, took details
of the two before they were released. The MDC-T said the
two activists
reported the incident at Mbare Police Station where a docket
was opened but
no arrests had been made although the assailants have been
identified. The
RRB number is; 1217898.
“The two have since been
admitted in hospital. Zanu (PF)’s violent
Chipangano terror group continues
to roam the streets of Mbare, harassing,
intimidating and assaulting known
MDC activists and supporters but no action
is taken against them,” the
statement noted.
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za
Eyewitness News | 6 Hour(s) Ago
A
Zimbabwean conservation group is claiming Chinese miners are poisoning
elephants in the Zambezi Valley.
The Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce
says it has reports of nine elephants
being killed so far.
The
taskforce says the nine elephants were killed at Mushumbe Pools,
reportedly
with poisoned loaves of bread.
Johnny Rodrigues believes a Chinese firm
looking for uranium was
responsible, but there has been no police
confirmation of that.
Rodrigues told Eyewitness News that the ivory has
been removed from the
carcasses.
He is now worried that if the
carcasses are not burnt, they will poison
other wildlife.
Rodrigues
says they have reported the matter to the National Parks and
Wildlife
Management Authority, who has promised to investigate.
http://af.reuters.com/
Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:46am
GMT
JOHANNESBURG, July 15 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's annual inflation
rate quickened
to 2.9 percent year-on-year in June from 2.5 percent in May,
the Zimbabwe
National Statistical Agency said on Friday.
On a
month-on-month basis, inflation was at 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent in
May,
Zimstats said. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe)
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Tobias Manyuchi Friday 15 July
2011
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s trade deficit with South Africa
increased more than
seven times over the past four years to hit 13,6 billion
rands (about US$2
billion) last year, according to a report produced by the
Ministry of
Economic Planning in Harare.
The report shown to
ZimOnline yesterday said Zimbabwe last year exported
goods worth 1, 3
billion rands to South Africa, while importing 15,1 billion
rands worth of
goods from its richer southern neighbour, its main supplier
of most key
requirements ranging from food to loans to fund its struggling
industry.
Zimbabwe in 2007 imported 1.9 billion rands more worth of
goods from South
Africa than it sold its giant neigbour that boasts Africa’s
biggest economy.
According to the report, the huge trade imbalance in
favour of South Africa
“reflects the difficulties being faced by local
industry, as South African
imports and credit lines are helping to provide
basic consumer goods as well
as keep some manufacturing industries
afloat.”
Zimbabwe and South Africa were for decades each other’s biggest
trading
partner on the continent in addition to being strong political
allies.
But the relationship has changed over the past decade following
the collapse
of Zimbabwe’s economy chiefly due to President Robert Mugabe’s
controversial
policies, including his violent farm reforms that destabilised
the mainstay
agricultural sector.
According to the report Zimbabwe,
which used to sell more goods to South
Africa than to any other country on
the continent, now exports most of its
products to Zambia, which absorbs 30
percent of Zimbabwe’s exports.
Botswana and Malawi are the second biggest
export markets with each taking
15 percent of Zimbabwe’s exports, while
South Africa, just like Mozambique,
accounts for only 11 percent of its
northern neighbour’s export receipts.
Zimbabwe’s export sector has
remained depressed over the past decade, a
reflection of a crisis-sapped
economy that had contracted since 2000 and
only reversing the trend in 2009
following formation of a coalition
government by Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai.
While the economy has shown impressive signs of
recovery and is seen
expanding by nine percent this year, capacity
utilisation in the key
manufacturing sector remains depressing at or below
40 percent.
Local industries say they are unable to increase production
because of a
host of problems including power shortages, high input costs,
shortages of
working capital, antiquated machinery and technology. --
ZimOnline
http://www.radiovop.com
By Amos Maseko, Harare, July 15,
2011 - President Robert Mugabe's government
has invited the newly installed
South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit to
come and officially open this
year's Harare Agricultural Show, which runs
from August 19 to
27.
“Mayardit will be opening the show this year. He has already
confirmed his
attendance,” said a well placed official within Zimbabwe's
agriculture
ministry who could not reveal his name on professional
reasons.
According to the official, Mayardit confirmed his visit
Thursday.
The visit will mark the South Sudanese leader's first ever
visit to Zimbabwe
in his new official capacity.
Then Vice President
of a united Sudan, Mayardit was in Zimbabwe 2009 “to
consult and update”
President Mugabe on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA) between the
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the government in
Khartoum.
Analysts say Mugabe is keen to position his country for
rich pickings in the
resource rich country after opportunities were rendered
abound by her recent
split from a united Sudan to form her own autonomous
state.
Mugabe's regime has been deserted by old friends in the past
decade who are
careful not to associate with his authoritarian
leadership.
During the past 10 years, Mugabe has found friendship among
countries such
as Libya, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, whose leaders are also
seen as rogue.
His visit is also expected to cement trade relations with
Zimbabwe after
Zimbabwe’s secretary for Foreign Affairs Joey Bimha early
this month told a
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Regional Integration
and International Trade that Zimbabwean businesses had
been invited by
Southern Sudan to come and exploit the numerous business
opportunities that
have been made available by the recent split of the vast
region to form its
own independent State.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
15/07/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
ZIMBABWE has “so many hangmen” government claims that an
executioner cannot
be found are not credible, a Senator said during a debate
in the House of
Assembly.
Some 55 death row inmates await their date
with the hangman – but the
government says it has been unable to fill the
vacancy since 2005. Several
newspaper adverts have gone unanswered, say
ministers.
"In our country there are so many hangmen. Maybe we are not
advertising
enough,” Chikomo Senator Morgan Femai (MDC-T) said while
contributing to a
debate on the state of prisons on
Wednesday.
Femai’s statement was laden with political undertones with its
unmissable
allusion to perpetrators of political violence in the country,
but for the
inmates, the life of uncertainty is proving
unbearable.
At least one of the 55 prisoners has been in jail for 13
years, and he told
the House Committee on Human Rights: “I’m being hanged
daily because I don’t
know when my sentence will be carried out.”
The
parliamentary committee has recommended that the death row inmates’
sentences be commuted to life in prison, as capital punishment comes under
new pressure from legislators.
“Why are we continuing with this law if we
can't find a hangman?” asked
Masotsha-Ndlovu Senator Enna Chitsa
(MDC-T).
Obert Gutu, the country’s Deputy Minister of Justice and a
Senator for the
MDC-T which supports abolition of the death penalty, said
many Zimbabweans
would not take the job for fear it would attract “evil
spirits to the
hangman and his family”.
“In the African culture, a
job that entails the killing of another human
being is not considered a job
at all,” Gutu said last week. “It is looked at
with contempt and
superstition, mostly because as Africans, we believe that
if one kills
another human being, the spirit of that person will return to
torment its
killer and his family.”
http://mg.co.za/
JASON MOYO Jul 15
2011
President Robert Mugabe's use of farmland to stifle dissent
among his
followers has been laid bare by the threatened invasion of a farm
owned by a
senior member of his party, who is regarded as a
moderate.
Tracy Mutinhiri is a Zanu-PF MP, deputy labour and social
welfare minister
and the ex-wife of a struggle stalwart.
Nine years
ago, a mob led by her then husband Ambrose Mutinhiri, an ex-army
brigadier,
seized the property from tobacco farmer Gary Cartwright. Last
weekend, a
Zanu-PF mob arrived to drive her off it.
Members of her party have
alleged that she is "too friendly" with Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
is co-operating with members of his Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC),
Zanu-PF's coalition partner in government.
She is accused of voting with
the MDC when Lovemore Moyo was elected as
speaker of Parliament earlier this
year. After that vote she told reporters
that she had received death threats
and she feared for her life.
Months earlier, while mourning the death of
her brother, an MDC official who
had been killed in a car crash, she thanked
the MDC for helping with the
funeral.
Last week she accompanied
Tsvangirai on a tour of poor districts in the east
of the
country.
Her rivals say all this is evidence that she has sold out to the
opposition
and they are now demanding that she be driven off the
farm.
"When I came back from the tour I heard that there had been
meetings to plan
the invasion of my farm," Mutinhiri said.
Dozens of
Zanu-PF militants camped for two days at the gates to the farm,
where they
sang songs denouncing her and threatened to set fire to her
tobacco barns
and her maize crop. Armed police kept the militants at bay.
She denied
the charge that she voted against her party.
"How do they know? It was a
secret ballot."
Mutinhiri said the invasion had been driven by Zanu-PF
rivals who were after
her parliamentary seat.
She has also angered
party leaders by opposing the setting up of torture
camps in her area and by
co-operating with MDC councillors in development
projects.
She has
banned the use of party slogans at village meetings and has resisted
pressure from her seniors to dole out money to Zanu-PF supporters from a
state-funded constituency development fund.
A Zanu-PF leader in the
district, Lawrence Katsiru, said a formal appeal had
been sent to the party
for Mutinhiri's expulsion from Zanu-PF because "she
is working more with the
MDC than the party that voted for her".
Katsiru criticised "her refusal
to work with Zanu-PF people in the
distribution of the fund". He said
"people are now wondering if she still
belongs to Zanu-PF".
Mutinhiri
said she used her allocation from the fund to renovate a school
and a clinic
and to start a poultry project for locals.
She planned to meet senior
party members this week and hoped her case could
"be addressed in line with
protocol", she said.
Critics said she would probably discover party
leaders to be cowed, afraid
to be seen to be defending her. To do so would
be to risk the wealth they
themselves had accumulated under Mugabe's
extensive patronage system, which
promises anything from farmland to
lucrative government contracts in
exchange for total loyalty.
They
said that although even his closest lieutenants were beginning to join
the
growing murmuring over Mugabe's future, they were unlikely to challenge
him
openly as it could mean losing the wealth they had gained under his
rule.
Mugabe sold the land-reform exercise as a programme to benefit
the landless
poor. Although thousands of peasant families did benefit, the
choicest farms
were parcelled out to his top allies. In that way, he ensured
that party
officials would not speak out against his policies, lest they be
driven off
their farms.
Even after her ordeal Mutinhiri continued to
make it clear that she was
"very thankful" to Mugabe for "empowering" her
with the farm. "No matter
what happens, I will stay put. I am entitled to
this farm."
Mugabe and his politburo will decide Mutinhiri's fate on
Friday. He is
likely to make an example of her and strike a blow for his
radical loyalists
against party moderates.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
15 July
2011
A lawyer representing former ZIFA Chief Executive, Henrietta
Rushwaya, has
challenged a committee investigating allegations of match
fixing to “be
brave enough to call her in a court of law, prove the
allegations or shut up
forever."
An explosive 162 page report into
match fixing involving players, coaches,
journalists and football officials,
fingered Rushwaya as the alleged
mastermind. It is reported she prejudiced
the football mother body of over
US$450 000 in proceeds during trips by the
national teams to Asia, where
they deliberately lost matches between 2007
and 2009 as part of a betting
scam.
But Rushwaya’s lawyer Selby
Hwacha is being quoted by BBC Sport as saying
“my instructions to her are
that she should sue for damages." It was only
last year the politically
connected Rushwaya was sacked from the ZIFA top
job for mismanagement and
insubordination. Even then the allegations of
match fixing were already
hovering, but no concrete report had been
compiled.
On Wednesday we
asked the man who led the investigation, ZIFA Vice President
Ndumiso Gumede,
why Rushwaya had not been arrested despite playing such a
leading role. “The
police have our report and it’s up to them to follow the
people. If there is
any criminal component to my report, it is them who
should follow up. I have
no arresting powers,” Gumede told us.
Decorated coaches like Sunday
Chidzambwa, Luke Masomere, Rodwell Dhlakama,
Methembe Ndlovu and Norman
Mapeza have been sucked into the scandal, having
travelled with the teams on
different occasions during their spells as
coaches. Chidzambwa, just like
Rushwaya, has also threatened to sue over the
publication of the
incriminating report.
But Gumede stuck to his guns telling us: ‘The truth
is that there are people
who went with him (Chidzambwa) who have been
truthful, whose conscience
worries them, who have told us the truth,
including that Mr. Chidzambwa
bought a car in Singapore with the proceeds he
irregularly got.”
Analysts are saying the match fixing allegations, if
properly prosecuted,
could wipe out an entire generation of coaches and
football players as they
all risk life bans under FIFA rules.
Some
will take heart from recommendations from Gumede’s committee that
players
should be dealt with leniently, because not all of them knew the
games were
fixed.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
15 July
2011
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has rejected the monitor nominated by
civil
society to oversee operations at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, saying
the
appointment is null and void.
Lawyer Shamiso Mtisi, a
representative of the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers
Association (ZELA), was
put forward by civil society groups as the proposed
Local Focal Point for
the international diamond trade watchdog, the
Kimberley Process (KP). But
Mpofu has now effectively vetoed this decision,
saying Mtisi’s nomination
lacked consensus from all participants in the KP.
The placement of a
Local Focal Point is part of ongoing efforts to
legitimise Zimbabwe’s
diamond trade, which was suspended in 2009 over human
rights concerns at the
Chiadzwa diamond fields. These concerns are still
high with ongoing reports
of rights abuses and rampant smuggling, all at the
hands of the military,
which maintains tight controls of the entire area.
It was these concerns
that Mtisi was said to have raised at a recent KP
meeting in the DRC, in a
damning report on continuing violence at Chiadzwa.
Mtisi reportedly spoke
about the continuing military presence at the diamond
fields, citing
numerous incidents of severe beatings of villagers.
Gabriel Shumba from
the Zimbabwe Blood Diamonds Campaign told SW Radio
Africa on Friday that it
is no surprise that Mpofu has rejected Mtisi as the
Local Focal Point. He
explained that ZANU PF has their own candidate which
they would prefer in
the role, and Mpofu is “blind” to any other proposal.
“They are throwing
the baby out with the bath water with this decision,
because Mtisi is well
respected,” Shumba said. “If the government wanted to
cultivate a healthy
working relationship with civil society at the diamond
fields, then they
shouldn’t have rejected him.”
Shumba also agreed that Minister Mpofu
appears to be picking and choosing
when the KP’s ‘agreement-by-consensus’
rule best suits him. The KP has
repeatedly failed to reach consensus on
Zimbabwe’s trade future, but Mpofu
has in turn repeatedly threatened to sell
Chiadzwa diamonds anyway.
However, he is now hiding behind the consensus
rule to veto Mtisi’s
appointment, which Shumba said is “a deliberate effort
to frustrate the KP
process.”
The KP meeting in the DRC ended with no
consensus on Zimbabwe’s trade
future, but despite this, the KP chairman
Mathieu Yamba unilaterally
declared that exports from Chiadzwa could resume.
A number of KP member
states have since distanced themselves from this
announcement, insisting
that without consensus Zim diamond exports cannot be
accepted.
Meanwhile, villagers from the Marange region where the Chiadzwa
diamonds
fields are situated have spoken about the ‘curse’ that the diamonds
have
become for them. Hundreds of former Marange residents have been
relocated to
Arda Transau, an abandoned, government-owned farm in Odzi,
where there are
reports of hunger and lack of proper sanitation and other
facilities.
Residents said they will never benefit from the diamonds, with
one resident
saying it is “a bad curse to the local people of Marange.”
http://www.voanews.com
14 July
2011
Residents of the diamond-producing area complain that mining
security
operations have restricted their freedom, and many of them have
been
relocated against their will without adequate
compensation
Brendan Murphy
As the diamond world continues
to argue over stones from the rich Marange
alluvial field in eastern
Zimbabwe, the people of the Chiadzwa communal area
wonder if they will ever
receive any benefits from the rich ground beneath
their
feet.
Kimberley Process participants have sharply disagreed over issues
including
compliance by firms working the field, but the voices of the
people most
affected are rarely heard.
Residents of the
diamond-producing area complain that mining security
operations have
restricted their freedom, and many of them have been
relocated against their
will.
Far from wealth, the diamonds have brought them daily challenges.
Local
representatives say they voiced their complaints to government
officials
only to be ignored.
Hundreds of former Marange residents
have been relocated to Arda Transau, an
abandoned, government-owned farm in
Odzi, also in Manicaland province, where
many complain of hunger and lack of
proper sanitation and educational
facilities.
Thousands more will be
moved away from their homes as mining continues. They
fear that they will
never receive any benefit from the stones one relocated
resident said were
“a bad curse to the local people of Marange.”
Access to the Marange area
is highly restricted, limiting transparency even
for members of Parliament,
government officials and human rights groups.
Roadblocks and patrols of
staked-out claims restrict the freedom of movement
of local
residents.
“Transportation is paralyzed,” said a Chiadzwa resident who
asked not to be
named. "No buses are allowed to move in and out of Marange
area. The area is
quite restricted.”
Tichafara Kusena, councilor of
Mukwada Ward, which borders Chiadzwa and is
also rich in diamonds,
complained that security forces at roadblocks harass
the
community.
“The local people are not very free when they are moving
around because
sometimes we are just stopped by the police,” Kusena said.
“Anywhere you
come across with them, they question you, they search even
vehicles and
sometimes the vehicles are taken to the diamond base on
allegations that the
vehicle is not cleared, when it’s not cleared it’s not
allowed to move
around the mining area. Sometimes they let their dogs on
people when they
are moving or when they are going to the
shops.”
While violence in Marange has subsided considerably since the
2008 military
operation securing the zone in which an estimated 200 people -
mostly
freelance miners - were killed, the community still fears attacks by
security personnel guarding claims.
Mbada Diamonds, the largest
operator, is said to have expanded its claim
recently, but company director
David Kassel declined to respond to questions
on this point.
Malvern
Mudiwa, chairman of the Chiadzwa Community Development Trust, said
Mbada has
created a "fire-guard" around a large area to mark its newest
claim.
But many families still live within the staked-out zone, which
is patrolled
by armed security guards accompanied by attack dogs. Mudiwa
said the dogs
attack people or livestock if they wander too close to the
fire-guard. But
it is impossible to avoid crossing it because it cuts
through the community.
“I wouldn’t know what [the guards] are expecting
from the villagers who are
staying on their own land,” Mudiwa said. “This is
why I’m saying this is
very unacceptable. As CCDT we condemn this action in
the strongest possible
way.”
Mbada director Kassel told VOA Studio
that alleged human rights abuses are a
myth.
“Since the time of my
company’s investment into the Marange diamond fields,
which is approximately
in August to September 2009, I have not been aware or
seen or been told by
any party, and I’ve been very much involved at
community level in the rural
areas of Chiadzwa and Marange, I’ve not been
made aware of any human rights
abuses that are purported to have taken place
or to have been taking place
or anything of that nature at all. All of that
reporting is inaccurate, it’s
untrue, and it’s not verifiable or verified.”
Mudiwa, who records the
incidents and often helps victims to the hospital,
said attacks appear to
many to be a mining company tactic to force residents
to
relocate.
With travel restricted and incidents of harassment frequent,
some residents
welcome relocation to Arda Transau. One relocated man who
gave his name only
as Francis said that in Marange, he was afraid to leave
his house for fear
of the guard dogs.
“Good riddance,” he said of
Marange. But he has found life at Arda Transau
difficult.
Civil
society activist Shamiso Mtisi, a so-called local focal point for the
Kimberley Process, said relocated families face starvation in Arda Transau
once they have run through compensation of US$1,000 and groceries provided
by the mining firms.
Relocation began in July 2010, when Anjin
Investments moved 12 families to
temporary housing in Arda Transau. A
relocated man who asked not to be
identified said he did not think he had a
choice. He said the governor of
Manicaland and the Marange district
Administrator told residents they would
be forcibly moved if they did not
go.
Residents were promised two and half hectares of land with some
irrigation,
but the 200 families at Arda Transau have much less than one
hectare of land
from which to eke a living. The shortfall in farmland is
disastrous for
livelihoods.
“The company simply said we were going to
be moved - they never negotiated,"
said one of the first moved by Anjin. “It
was a year of bad harvest. We didn’t
have any food. We had to buy food. It
got serious before the end of last
year.”
The Center for Research and
Development in Mutare reported that 146 families
were relocated in the
middle of the 2010-2011 farming season.
Center Director Farai Maguwu said
relocated families lost all of their
investment in their fields and had to
clear new plots in mid-season at Arda
Transau.
“The families were
forced to abandon their crops in the midst of the
agricultural season,”
Maguwu said. “They were given food stocks for 3 months
and a US$1000
disturbance fee. They are currently starving whilst the
community is now
under an army Brigadier Nyakunu whose duty is to
effectively conceal
humanitarian disaster unfolding.”
Mbada Director Kassel told VOA that
Chiadzwa residents were moved to
“wonderful accommodations” including arable
land, with water, schools and
hospitals.
“Relocations are being done
with the absolutely approval of the people, in
consultation with the people,
in consultation with the authorities. There
are no forced removals by any
means,” Kassel said. “The people are more than
happy to move, and there is
absolutely no truth to forced removals of
people. Certainly not in Mbada’s
concession.”
Francis, relocated to Arda Transau by Mbada this May,
complained that there
is no clean drinking water and his small children have
to walk seven
kilometers to Odzi for school as the local school that was
promised does not
yet exist.
“They are proposing to build a school,”
he said. “But you see some of these
things are just promises. One other
thing about the new location is that we
don’t have potable water, drinking
water. Down there in Chiadzwa, we had a
borehole at our
home.”
Francis said his family must walk five kilometers to fetch
water.
As reported by VOA, Marange diamonds have not benefited the
Zimbabwean
people. But for Marange residents they have been nothing short of
a
disaster.
When Anjin started to relocate residents of the Chiadzwa
communal area in
July 2010, the company had not even gone through the
process of a tender to
establish its claim with Harare. Eventually moved
from temporary shelters,
these families say that they still have not seen
the facilities established
in Arda Transau that they said government
officials told them they could
expect, such as functioning clinics and
schools.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said he had visited Arda Transau and
that the
homesteads there are modern and comfortable. “They have done more
than 1,000
homesteads which are complete,” Minister Mpofu said. “Those are
state-of-the-art homesteads which have not been seen anywhere else in
Africa. It is a modern resettlement program.”
Those relocated to Arda
Transau did not complain about their homes, but said
the water and
electricity promised by the officials before their relocation
is still not
available.
“We were allocated 4-bedroom houses. Nothing else. No water,
no electricity.
They said electricity would be supplied,” a man relocated by
Anjin told VOA.
“Right now, people are just starving there at Arda
Transau. They have no
food, lots of those people who were given plots this
year, they didn’t plow
during the past rainy season, and as a result they
are in hunger.”
The Anjin resident said people who had been relocated to
the Anjin area were
still better off than those on the Mbada side. Anjin, he
said, had offered
some of the men construction jobs for a few dollars a day.
But now those
jobs have ended.
Another 4,000 families are slated for
relocation to the same farm.
Maguwu of the Center for Research and
Development says Arda Transau is not
big enough to accommodate those 25,000
people, let alone give them enough
land.
Two smaller companies
operating in the Marange mining zone, Pure Diamonds
and Marange Resources,
will soon initiate relocations of their own.
The New Reclamation Group,
which holds a 50% stake in Mbada, has a video on
its Web site that portrays
its treatment of Marange residents in a different
light than the residents
themselves. “The people of Marange have been aided
to the tune of $2.5
million US," it declares. The video shows residents
receiving food aid and
says Mbada has given relocated residents food and
farming inputs and planted
trees.
But Marange residents are demanding sustainable benefits such as
jobs or
shares in the mining company. Local councilor Tichafara Kusena
observed that
the mining companies never consult the community about needs
when providing
aid - for instance donating unneeded exercise books to a
school that was
desperate for text books.
Kusena said the people of
Marange are losing hope of ever benefiting from
diamonds.
“The
general feeling is that we are not going to benefit ... because those
who
are supposed to benefit, those who are directly affected ... are are
being
relocated to Arda Transau, which is far away from the mining
companies,”
Kusena said.
“They are being relocated without even employment, being
relocated without
even compensation, being relocated without even any
benefit," he continued.
"What can we expect? We are not going to
benefit.”
Meanwhile, international attention has dwindled since 2009 when
massive
human rights abuses came to light. Rights activists say only large
scale
violence would boost pressure on Harare to institute reforms in
Marange.
Human rights advocates also worry that the Kimberley Process has
become a
toothless watchdog under its new chairman, Mathieu Yamba of the
Democratic
Republic of Congo, whose unilateral rulings and declarations have
grossly
favored the Zimbabwean government and those extracting immense
wealth from
the Marange field.
Far from that diamond trove, Marange
people in Arda Transau face an
uncertain future.
“Most people are
actually starving,” the resident relocated by Anjin told
VOA.
“They
don’t know where the diamond money is going. Maybe some people in
Harare,
maybe the minister of mines knows better.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
15 July
2011
The South African Department of Home Affairs has said it will
investigate
the causes of last week’s ‘stampede’ at a refugee reception
centre, which
left 14 Zimbabweans injured.
The incident occurred last
Friday at the Marabastad Refugee Reception Office
in Pretoria, which is
already notorious for being overly congested. The
congestion has also
worsened recently, after the closure of the Crown Mines
Refugee Reception
Centre in Johannesburg last month.
“The Department regrets the incident
and will embark on further
investigations to determine the conditions which
led to the stampede with a
view to ensuring there is no recurrence of such
an incident in our offices,”
Manusha Pillia, Home Affairs spokesperson told
The Zimbabwean newspaper this
week.
South Africa has the highest
number of registered asylum-seekers in the
world and about 95% of asylum
seekers in South Africa enter from Mozambique
or Zimbabwe. The country is
now trying to toughen its immigration laws,
including changing the amount of
time asylum seekers have to register at
Refugee Reception
Centres.
The current time limit of 14 days could be reduced to five if
the department
of Home Affairs succeeds in passing its Immigration Amendment
Bill, which is
before Parliament. The amendment could prevent many asylum
seekers from
receiving refugee status because already the 14 day period is
not long
enough.
http://www.voanews.com/
July 14,
2011
Nico
Colombant | Johannesburg
Zimbabwe's growing exile community
in South Africa is struggling with many
issues, such as bureaucratic
hassles, losing their rights in their home
country and a lack of
opportunities in their new country.
There is shouting and jostling, as
hundreds of Zimbabweans wait inside the
compound of South Africa's
Department of Home Affairs in an attempt to get
or renew their asylum
papers.
Outside, Samuel Bango feels lucky because he finally got his own
papers
renewed.
He says he left neighboring Zimbabwe because he could
not feed his family
anymore as inflation and political violence became
unbearable.
Austin Mamvura explains it took three weeks for him to get
his own asylum
papers. He tries to get by in South Africa by selling
cookies to other
Zimbabweans waiting in line.
Many Zimbabweans say
that in addition to the bureaucratic hassles, they face
discrimination in
public places, and the constant threat of xenophobic
violence. More than 60
Zimbabweans were killed in a wave of anti-immigrant
attacks in 2008, and
more similar killings have since been reported.
At human rights offices
in Pretoria, Zimbabwean lawyer Gabriel Shumba says
it is not just in South
Africa where his fellow nationals feel at a loss. He
feels frustrated exiled
Zimbabweans cannot more easily help improve the
situation in their own
country.
"In terms of Zimbabwe's political realities, the deliberate
sidelining or
disenfranchisement of people who have been forced to flee
their country in
particular for national processes such as the
constitutional reform
exercise, such as national healing issues, such as
even elections," said
Shumba. "There are over four millions Zimbabweans who
are now currently in
exile, who are people who are unable to vote for a new
government in their
own country."
Other exiled Zimbabweans are
concerned about bare survival.
Unemployed, homeless and hungry, they have
found refuge at the Central
Methodist Church in a noisy section of downtown
Johannesburg.
Offices have been converted into cramped quarters, where
families huddle
together.
The church's lobby has been converted into
a market area and also a place to
dry laundry.
One of the jobless
living here, Isaac Matanda, was previously a local
government administrator
in Zimbabwe. He fled by foot last year because he
feared for his life due
to his opposition political activities.
"Things have not been so
comfortable to date, because I am still in search
despite that I have got
high qualifications," said Matanda. "I am trying to
run around."
More
Zimbabweans have been streaming into South Africa recently, amid
uncertainty
over elections to be held possibly this year, incessantly high
inflation and
the continued arrests of opposition leaders and activists in
their
country.
Conservative estimates put the number of Zimbabweans in South
Africa at 1.5
million, with more than 300,000 among them seeking
asylum.
At night before bedtime, exiled Zimbabweans come together to sing
and pray
for better days.
The man behind the church's generosity is
Bishop Paul Verryn.
"We deal with almost every possible human difficulty
that you possibly can,"
said Bishop Verryn. "There are relationship
problems, there is violence,
there is sometimes alcohol, it is a problem in
the building. It is not
smooth sailing and there are not any easy and quick
answers."
Bishop Verryn gives nightly sermons where he also advertises
available jobs
in South Africa which he hears about.
The services are
well attended. Exiled Zimbabweans say they are a moment of
reprieve in
turbulent and desolate times away from home.
At the end of the service,
when the bishop asks who wants special prayers
and a sprinkle with holy
water, dozens of adults rush forward with their
children, hoping they will
have a better life eventually, wherever that may
be.
http://af.reuters.com
Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:59pm
GMT
* Strong economy attracts regional migrants
* Violent
attacks on migrants worries gov't, investors
By Jon
Herskovitz
JOHANNESBURG, July 15 (Reuters) - South Africa has set the
stage for the
mass deportation of more than one million Zimbabwean
immigrants later this
month in a move that could alter its status as the
world's largest country
of refuge.
South Africa has been a beacon for
asylum seekers due to its liberal
immigration laws, proximity to African
trouble spots and massive economy
compared to the rest of the continent that
has attracted millions seeking
wealth they cannot find at home.
About
one in five of the 845,800 asylum seekers globally in 2010 sought
refuge in
South Africa, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees.
That is nearly double the combined figure for the United
States and France,
the world's number two and three countries in terms of
asylum applications.
The bulk of asylum seekers are from neighbouring
Zimbabwe, which has become
an economic basket case under its entrenched
leader Robert Mugabe, whose
ZANU-PF party has been charged by global powers
with using violence and vote
fraud to stay in power.
The government
said the crackdown on the Zimbabweans is a signal it wants to
get tough on
those who use asylum applications to seek work and money.
"Following this
project, our intention is to document nationals of other
neighbouring
countries," said Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa.
South Africa
allowed hundreds of thousands from Zimbabwe to enter without
documents about
two years ago when its neighbour was swept up in political
violence and its
already unsteady economy collapsed under the weight of
hyperinflation.
It set an end of 2010 deadline for the Zimbabweans to
apply for proper
visas -- with 275,000 filling out paperwork -- and said
when July ends, it
will start deporting what analysts estimate could be one
to two million
other Zimbabweans without proper
documents.
BOTTLENECKS
With few staff and a flood of applicants,
it can take Home Affairs months or
even years to process applications,
allowing immigrants to stay long enough
to earn mostly modest sums of money
to help their families back home.
"As long as regional economic
inequalities remain so stark, South Africa
will continue to be a primary (if
temporary) destination," said Loren
Landau, director of the African Centre
for Migration and Society at the
University the Witwatersrand.
The
only problem is that those legitimately seeking political asylum face an
uncertain future, waiting longer in South Africa for a decision than in many
other countries.
A concern for South Africa is that not only are the
number of asylum seekers
from neighbouring countries growing, but so are the
numbers from further
afield African states including Somalia, Ethiopia and
the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
With unemployment at 25
percent, the government has faced criticism from its
poor for allowing
immigrants into South Africa, where they compete for
scarce jobs and space
in shantytowns that have mushroomed in major cities.
Tensions flared
about two years ago when attacks on migrants left at least
62 dead and more
than 100,000 homeless, rattling the nerves of the
government and
investors.
The refugees strain public services but many also take on jobs
for which
there are not enough skilled South Africans, or perform work that
South
Africans do not want to do.
"I would say that the net result is
that the benefit equates to or surpasses
the burden," said James Chapman, a
refugee attorney at the University of
Cape Town Law Clinic.
The
government, concerned about the influx, is planning to tighten its
borders
and expel those who stay illegally.
"The issue here is not about too many
asylum seekers, per se. Rather, it's
about a migration management regime
that is ill-suited to South Africa's
regional position," Landau said.
http://mg.co.za/
RAY NDLOVU Jul 15 2011 00:00
The growing
influence and political resurrection of former Zimbabwe minister
of
information Jonathan Moyo in the past seven months is sharpening the
bitter
factional battle within Zanu-PF.
There is mounting uncertainty and
division among Zanu-PF's two factions, led
by Joice Mujuru and Emmerson
Mnangagwa, over the latest ambitions of the
brash
tactician.
Political speculation is that Moyo is being fronted by the
Mnangagwa faction
to head Zanu-PF's election campaign and replace Webster
Shamu, the party's
current political commissar and minister of information
and publicity.
Shamu's term as political commissar will expire in 2016
and he has the
difficult task of reviving Zanu-PF's waning support in the
country in
preparation for the next elections.
Zanu-PF spokesperson
Rugare Gumbo dismissed the claims of behind-the-scenes
tussling, saying: "I
don't know what you are talking about. Our politburo
members are chosen at
the congress and Moyo is our party member and a
politburo member too. It is
not true. This is political speculation by
certain
individuals."
However, the Mujuru faction is opposed to Moyo's
ascendancy, wary that his
rise could be used to manoeuvre it out of the
succession race. As early as
2004 Moyo was linked to the Mnangagwa faction,
when he overtly lobbied for
Mnangagwa's rise to become the country's deputy
president ahead of the
incumbent Joice Mujuru in a "coup meeting" called the
"Tsholotsho
Declaration".
President Robert Mugabe later fired Moyo as
minister of information and from
Zanu-PF's 50-member politburo -- the
party's highest decision-making body --
in February 2005 and accused him of
being the ringleader of the coup plot.
However, in December last year
Mugabe reinstated Moyo to the politburo. The
move was interpreted by
observers as an attempt by Mugabe to rope in Moyo's
propaganda
expertise.
Months later Moyo's comeback trail has been littered with a
raft of
provocative statements that have rattled Zanu-PF
structures.
CONTINUES BELOW
A bruising loss in March to the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over
the post of speaker in Parliament
is said to have done little to inspire
confidence in Moyo among party
members after he had promised to win the post
back for Zanu-PF.
The
speaker's election was marred by allegations that several Zanu-PF
legislators voted for the MDC's Lovemore Moyo and this led to his victory
over Simon Khaya Moyo, the chosen candidate.
Jonathan Moyo's recent
verbal spat with South Africa President Jacob Zuma,
whom he described as a
"tainted negotiator", and his leading role in
Zanu-PF's delegation to the
Southern African Development Community summit in
South Africa last month,
have further compounded claims of behind-the-scenes
tussling to install him
as the party's chief strategist in preparation for
the next
elections.
Moyo has been making spirited calls for the arrest of Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and is perceived to have been behind the arrest
of Jameson Timba,
a top Tsvangirai aide, who spent three days in police
custody after he
allegedly called Mugabe "a liar".
Moyo has called
for a crackdown on independent journalists, whom he accused
of false
reporting and of receiving Western funding.
Zanu-PF hawks remain fearful
that Moyo's brash style could hurt the party's
stability and image and
provide easy political leverage for the MDC.
Last month Gumbo clashed
openly with Moyo, saying, "he does not speak for
the party", only for
Didymus Mutasa to emerge later and defend Moyo's
utterances as necessary
steps to defend the party against imperialism.
Mutasa is a fervent Mugabe
ally and is the minister of state for
presidential affairs. The
contradictory statements expose the depth
of divisions within the
faction-riddled party.
Said political analyst Eldred Masunungure:
"Zanu-PF is no longer operating
as an institution and depends entirely on
one person to resuscitate the
party.
"It must be worried, because
where the party is going at this rate remains
unclear. Why should Zanu-PF
depend on one person? The defence of the party
is a collective duty. Zanu-PF
is utterly vulnerable because it is dependent
on the skills of one person
and that is tragic."
By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, 15/07/11
Yes it’s true that Jonathan Moyo
hates his past because proof lies in his
writings in which he passionately
castigated Robert Mugabe, the President of
Zanu-pf. Moyo said and did things
that he now wishes he should never have
said or done. That’s why he does not
want his dirty skeletons metaphorically
speaking removed from the cupboard.
Fortunately, he cannot undo some of his
“wrongs” especially what he wrote,
it’s there for eternity and historians to
analyse and sometimes laugh
at.
Judging from his latest attempts to silence the independent press as
if we
have pardoned him for his retrogressive media laws e.g. AIPPA, it can
be
argued that he is facing tough tests of allegiance and loyalty to
Zanu-pf.
Evidence that the architect of Zimbabwe’s tough media laws is under
the
microscope is his latest attempts to gag the Daily News and the Zimbabwe
Independent by stopping them from republishing articles he wrote attacking
Robert Mugabe. However, the media is fighting back.
“He hates the
fact that our papers are exposing him as the unprincipled and
inconsistent
character that he is. He hates his writings of five years ago.
You remind
him of this and he unleashes his venom on you,” Alpha Media
Holdings
Chairman, Trevor Ncube said (Newsday, Jonathan Moyo hates his past,
14/07/11).
“It is a clear attempt (his threat of lawsuit against the
Independent) to
block information that he deems distasteful and an indirect
way to
intimidate the media into self-censorship,” Media Institute of
Southern
Africa director, Nhlanhla Ngwenya said (The Independent, Jonathan
Moyo in
bid to gag the Independent, 15/07/11). What appears to be worrying
Moyo
since re-joining Zanu-pf , can be narrowed into two problems: personal
and
party.
Topmost on what can be perceived as Moyo’s personal
problems which could be
the driving force in his endless search for
political immunity are his
unresolved issues with the Ford Foundation Kenya
and the University of
Witwatersrand in South Africa. That could also explain
his alleged
presidential ambitions whereby he acts and speaks as if he is a
Super-
Minister or as “the President of the Republic in waiting” come “the
looming
danger” which he threatened recently. Another personal crisis Moyo
is facing
is that of sanitising or air-brushing his self-inflicted damaged
image as he
appears to be having flash-backs or nightmares of something he
regrets
doing – his anti-Mugabe stance.
Then the party problems are
mainly those of re-integration whereby he
appears to be facing a credibility
crisis and a crisis of confidence in the
eyes of vigilant Zanu-pf hardliners
who are unconvinced by his “chameleon
style” tactics and lack of guerrilla
war credentials other than transiting
through Tanzania to the United States
for his Western funded degrees. The
party has had to engage in fire-fighting
tactics to douse Jonathan Moyo’s
fireworks in the wake of his fiery attacks
on SADC and the Mediator on
Zimbabwe South African President Jacob Zuma. To
some Mugabe loyalists, Moyo
is “a big risk”, “incompetent” and an “unguided
missile” - from online
comments.
It is possible that Jonathan Moyo is
facing resentment from within Zanu-pf
as there has not been any internal
party healing since the Tsholotsho
debacle hence growing factionalism.
However, rejoining Zanu-pf must have
been a matter of survival for the
serial flip-flopper who had to shed real
tears to be pardoned five years
ago. According to the BBC, Jonathan Moyo
cried (yes cried) when asked if he
was plotting a coup, Mugabe told a
campaign rally in March 2005.
“We
asked him whether he wanted to stage a coup…and tears started flowing
down
his cheeks,” Mugabe said in Moyo’s home districts (BBC, Mugabe ‘made
ex-spin
doctor cry’, 24/03/05). “He did terrible things, going to the army
commander,” Mugabe told the crowd, gathered in a dusty stadium outside a
beer shop owned by Moyo, the BBC said citing AFP as its source.“No Jonathan,
you are clever, but you lack wisdom. You are educated, but you do not have
wisdom,” Mugabe said.
Mugabe’s words seemed prophetic about Moyo
because after writing “Why Mugabe
should go now,” Jonathan Moyo went on to
re-apply to work for the same
person he was demonising with an archive of
precious articles for political
historians. So who is wise now? Moyo’s
failure to “raise” Zanu-pf from its
“Lazarus moment” is frustrating many in
the party and is evidenced by a
series of botched projects such as the
following:
• Jingles – which backfired as research later showed they
are
counterproductive;
• Anti-sanctions campaign – is terminally ill
and abandoned for being too
problematic;
• Indigenisation – backfired
when parliament found it to be
unconstitutional; even the promise to pay for
the shares is unconvincing and
too risky when the state is failing to pay 75
000 ghost workers a living
wage;
• Insisting on second opinion on
ghost workers – backfired because the
Auditor General also confirmed there
are over 10,000 ghost workers on the
civil service payroll;
• Using
over a thousand Chibondo skeletons – backfired, because of
outraging public
morals and opening Pandora’s box as some of the dead bodies
had fluids
suggesting they did not die 30 years ago during Ian Smith’s
regime;
•
Hate speech especially against President Zuma and SADC – backfired, as
Zanu-pf had to embark on fence-mending diplomacy to nearly all regional
leaders;
• Resisting a diamond audit, backfired as it showed there was
something
to hide;
• Threatening the ‘the looming danger” a military
coup – backfired when
some in Zanu-pf distanced themselves from the cowardly
act
• Elections now or in 2016 – proving unrealistic without constitution
and
voters roll
With this analysis, we hope we have answered the
question, “Is Jonathan Moyo
regretting his anti-Mugabe stance” with a
resounding “Yes”.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com
http://www.cathybuckle.com/
The question
July 15, 2011, 10:36
am
An article in the UK Independent on 13th July titled “France claims
Gadaffi
is prepared to sacrifice his grip on power” caught my eye this
week.
Rumours are that Zimbabwe might be his destination of choice if – and
it’s a
big if - he decides to leave Libya. Gadaffi is on record as saying “I
am not
going to leave this land. I will die here as a martyr” but things
have
changed quite a lot since he said that. Nato forces began their
bombardment
in mid-March and they have inflicted considerable damage on
Gadaffi’s
forces. He is under increasing pressure from his own ministers and
soldiers
as well as the ‘rebels’ to leave the country. “The question,” says
the
French Foreign Minister, “is no longer whether Gadaffi is going to leave
power, but when and how.”
So where would he go and, more to the
point, who would have him? His
relationship with Robert Mugabe goes back a
long way. The news that there
were African mercenaries fighting on Gadaffi’s
behalf in the present
conflict came as no surprise. Rumours that Mugabe had
dispatched Commando
troops to Libya to protect Gadaffi tied in neatly with
reports that Zanu PF
was being funded by the Libyan leader who has fiercely
defended Robert
Mugabe’s regime at the AU.
It would not be the first
time Mugabe had intervened militarily in another
African country. Zimbabwe
sent 11.000 troops to the Congo back in 1999 in
defence of Laurent Kabila.
That war lasted four years and led directly to
the start of Zimbabwe’s
economic collapse. The rewards for the army’s top
brass however were
lucrative deals in Congolese diamonds. Would it suit the
military to have
Gadaffi as an exile in Zimbabwe bearing in mind the
security considerations
that would be involved?
And now, twelve years later, is Mugabe about to
give refuge to his friend
Gadaffi, a man who, like Mugabe, has used violence
against his own people to
retain power. The fact that it would alienate
Zimbabwe from the rest of the
world is hardly likely to trouble Mugabe. When
asked in parliament about
Zimbabwean involvement in Libya, the Minister of
Defence, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, replied, “I have no mandate to investigate
activities happening
in another African country.” Such a bland non-answer
did little to quieten
the rumour mill. It was reported that in early March
the US identified
Zimbabwe as a possible exile venue for Gadaffi and the
Russian envoy on the
Libyan crisis met with Mugabe as recently as July
5th.
How will ordinary Zimbabweans react to having the Libyan dictator in
their
midst? Neither civic society nor the MDC have reacted so far. Rumour
has it
that Gadaffi’s family already owns several properties, including
farms,
businesses and residential stands. Gadaffi himself purchased a house
once
owned by Grace Mugabe in one of Harare’s ‘leafy suburbs’.
Mugabe
will be the one to make the decision about whether to give Gadaffi
asylum
and moral considerations are not likely to carry much weight. Mugabe
has
already given refuge to Mengistu Haile Mariam the former Ethipian
dictator
and the Ruandan genocidaire Protais Mpiranya. The Zimbabwean people
have
been silent on that issue too. Mugabe will perhaps be encouraged by
stories
that Gadaffi has a plane loaded with gold bullion and thousands, if
not
millions, of US dollars ready for a quick getaway. Gadaffi is apparently
demanding absolute guarantees of his personal safety. That might be
difficult in a country where greed and envy appear to be the over-riding
motives for the diamond-rich military elite. How other African leaders would
view such a development is another consideration. While Mugabe professes not
to care what the west thinks of him, he is anxious not to offend his African
brothers. Having a man like Gadaffi in the country would surely make
Zimbabwe a target for all sorts of extremist groups and that would not play
well with Zimbabwe’s neighbours, including South Africa, whose President
Zuma is the facilitator for the troubled negotiations between the political
parties.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.
BILL WATCH
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE AND STATUS OF BILLS SERIES
[15th July 2011]
Public
Hearings on Human Rights Commission Bill
The
Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs, Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs and the Thematic Committee on Human Rights will be holding joint public
hearings on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill in Chinhoyi, Gweru,
Bulawayo, Gwanda, Masvingo, Mutare and Harare.
Venues, dates and times were circulated in a special Bill Watch dated
14th July.
Committee
Meetings Open to the Public 18th to 21st July
The meetings listed below will be open to members of the public, but as
observers only, not as participants, i.e. members of the public can listen but
not speak.
Note: As there are sometimes last-minute changes to the meetings
schedule, persons wishing to attend a meeting should avoid possible
disappointment by checking with the relevant committee clerk that the meeting is
still on and still open to the public. Parliament’s telephone numbers are Harare 700181 and
252936. If attending, please use the
Kwame Nkrumah Ave entrance to Parliament.
IDs must be produced.
Monday 18th July at 10 am
Portfolio Committee: Mines and Energy
Oral
evidence from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development on the mining and
processing of chrome
Senate Chamber
Chairperson: Hon Chindori-Chininga
Clerk: Mr Manhivi
Monday 18th July at 2 pm
Portfolio Committee: Budget, Finance, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion
Meeting with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s board on the bank’s
operations
Committee Room No. 4
Chairperson: Hon Zhanda Clerk: Mr Ratsakatika
Tuesday 19th July at 10 am
Portfolio Committee: Health and Child Welfare
Oral evidence from Mpilo Hospital Board and the Ministry of Health on
the Half Year Budget Performance Report
Committee Room No. 1
Chairperson: Hon Parirenyatwa
Clerk: Mrs Khumalo
Portfolio Committee: Foreign
Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade
Oral
evidence from the Zimbabwe Investment Authority on the implications of Economic
Partnership Agreements
Committee Room No. 3
Chairperson: Hon Mukanduri
Clerk: Mr Chiremba
Wednesday 20th July at 9 am
Thematic Committee: Peace and Security
Oral evidence from the Rural and Urban Councils Association on their
service delivery
Committee Room No. 4
Chairperson: Hon Mumvuri
Clerk: Miss Zenda
Thursday 21st July at 10 am
Portfolio Committee: Media,
Information and Communication Technology
Oral
evidence from the Ministries of Information Communication Technology and Media,
Information and Publicity on the First and Second Quarter Financial Statements
and Reports
Committee Room No. 2
Chairperson: Hon S.
Moyo Clerk: Mr
Mutyambizi
Portfolio Committee: Education, Sports and Culture
Oral evidence from Zimbabwe Football Association on current trends
regarding their programmes and activities
Committee Room No. 4
Chairperson: Hon Mangami Clerk: Ms Chikuvire
Status of Bills as at 15th July 2011
Bills
Passed and Awaiting Presidential Assent and/or Gazetting as
Acts
Small
Enterprises Development Corporation Amendment Bill [final reading in the Senate 12th
July]
Bills in the Senate
Deposit Protection Corporation Bill [H.B. 7A, 2010]
Passed by House of Assembly: 1st June 2011 [with
amendments] [Electronic version
available]
Ministry:
Finance
Stage: Awaiting Second
Reading.
Public Order and Security Amendment Bill [H.B. 11A, 2009]
Private Member’s Bill introduced by Hon I. Gonese, MDC-T.
Passed by House of Assembly: 8th December 2010 [with
amendments] [Electronic version of Bill as amended by House of Assembly
available.]
Stage: Awaiting Second Reading
Bills in the House of Assembly
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill [H.B. 2, 2011] [Electronic version available.]
Gazetted: 10th June
2011
Ministry: Justice and Legal
Affairs
Portfolio Committee: Justice, Legal Affairs,
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs
Introduced: 12th
July
Stage: Awaiting report from
Parliamentary Legal Committee
National
Incomes and Pricing Commission Amendment Bill
[H.B. 10, 2010]
Gazetted: 5th November 2010 [Electronic version available.]
Ministry: Industry and Commerce
Portfolio
Committee: Industry and Commerce
Stage: Awaiting Second Reading
Bill Being Considered by Parliamentary Legal Committee
[PLC]
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill [H.B. 2, 2011] [Electronic version available.]
Referred to PLC: 12th July, immediately
after First Reading in House of Assembly
[Note: The PLC has 26 “business days” within which to report back to
the House, but can be granted an extension by the Speaker. The House cannot proceed to the Second
Reading stage of the Bill until the PLC has reported.]
Bill Awaiting Introduction
Electoral Amendment Bill [H.B. 3, 2011] [Electronic version available.]
Gazetted: 27th June 2011
Ministry: Justice and Legal
Affairs
Portfolio Committee: Justice, Legal Affairs, Constitutional and Parliamentary
Affairs
Bill
being Printed
Older
Persons Bill
[H.B. 1, 2011] [Electronic version NOT
available.]
Ministry: Labour and Social
Welfare
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information
supplied.