http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
21:14
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week issued an
uncharacteristic
veiled attack on President Robert Mugabe for refusing to
accept electoral
defeat in last year's poll.
Giving a
keynote address at a two-day national vision workshop in
Harare on Friday
Tsvangirai said he wished to see a Zimbabwe where leaders
are chosen by the
people and "incumbents" step down once defeated in a poll.
"I
envisage a Zimbabwe where political leaders are elected to serve
the people
and not their own interests, where incumbents stand down
gracefully if they
lose an election," Tsvangirai said amid applause from
delegates who attended
the two-day conference.
Political analysts said the
attack was directed at Mugabe, who has
ruled the country for the past 29
years and was trounced by Tsvangirai in
the first round of last year's
presidential election.
The MDC-T leader however failed to
garner the 50% plus one vote that
was needed to claim the
presidency.
After losing the election Mugabe's supporters
embarked on a violent
campaign that claimed lives of over 200 MDC activists
resulting in
Tsvangirai pulling out of a run-off election.
"I want membership of a political party to be no more divisive or
dangerous
than membership of a football club," Tsvangirai said.
"Working
towards a common vision is not possible if we do not
acknowledge, accept and
put aside the differences that divide us today.
"Such divisions
have the potential to derail the pursuit of any common
vision."
The six-month-old inclusive government of Zanu PF
and the MDC
formations is going through turbulent times as Mugabe continues
to flout
with impunity the Global Political Agreement (GPA), signed on
September15
last year.
Mugabe has refused to replace
central bank governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana,
after he unilaterally re-appointed the two
against provisions of the
GPA.
The MDC has taken the issue to the Southern African
Development
Community, the guarantors of the GPA.
Speaking
at the same meeting, former Minister of Defence in Mugabe's
government in
the 1980s, Enos Nkala accused the 85-year-old leader of
ruining the
country.
He said it was not true that smart sanctions imposed
on Zimbabwe were
the cause of the current economic crisis.
"If Smith (Ian) managed to survive sanctions why can't we?
"Where have the gold and platinum reserves gone? The problem is we are
looting! Let's stop this looting and develop the country," charged
Nkala.
He said Mugabe must stop attacking America and Britain
and concentrate
on reconstructing the country he has
ruined.
"My friend (Mugabe) is very eloquent and clever but
spends most of his
time shouting at other nations."
Acting
President Joice Mujuru urged participants to use the Vision
2020 document to
draft the new national vision, dubbed Vision 2040.
But Zapu
interim chairman Dumiso Dabengwa said Zimbabwe needs a
permanent national
vision that is people-centred, non-partisan and that does
not fall away when
a new administration assumes power.
Dabengwa said previous
visions failed because they did capture the
people's aspirations and were
also partisan in nature.
He said the much-hyped Vision 2020,
crafted by Mugabe's
administration, collapsed because it did not capture the
aspirations of the
ordinary people as it was foisted on
them.
But Zanu PF apologist Obadiah Msindo said there was need
for national
healing and reconciliation before the crafting of a national
vision.
"It's not possible to come up with a national vision
when people are
not free to say what they want, when there is so much
political tension in
the country," said Msindo, who is Destiny of Africa
Network founder.
With the theme, Zimbabwe Vision 2040:
Collectively shaping our destiny
in pursuit of a shared national vision, the
conference which ended yesterday
was designed to gather views that would
form a common national vision.
The conference, chaired by
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, was
attended by officials from Zanu
PF, the two MDC formations, Zapu,
non-governmental organizations and civil
society organisations.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009 21:01
NYANGA -
Finance Minister Tendai Biti yesterday said he will quit the
inclusive
government if he is forced to resuscitate the Zimbabwean dollar,
because he
is determined to ensure that his policies are not reversed.
Last
month President Robert Mugabe told Zanu PF's National
Consultative Assembly
he wanted the worthless dollar which was taken out of
circulation following
the formation of the unity government re-introduced
because people had no
access to multiple currencies.
But Biti told the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe
Winter School yesterday that the Zimbabwe
dollar would not return anytime
soon.
"The most important
thing is that the Zimbabwe dollar is not coming
back.
"If I
have to bring the Zimbabwe dollar back into circulation, I will
go back to
my law firm at 200 Herbert Chitepo Avenue."
Biti is a partner
at a leading Harare law firm Honey and Blanckenberg.
In calling
for the return of the dollar, Mugabe said rural people were
being forced to
trade using the livestock because they did not have foreign
currency.
"We can't have a country like that," Mugabe told
party members. "We
are considering going back to our own currency. People
must get money."
But Biti, who set aside US$6 million in his
mid-term budget review to
mop up the Zimbabwean dollar, said the
demonetisation of the local currency
would allow the government to stop
quasi-fiscal activities by the RBZ.
Biti said he was working on
a legal framework to ensure that the
central bank sticks to its core
business. The framework should be in place
by the end of this
month.
"I want to ensure that all the omissions and commissions
of the past
don't happen again," he said. "We want the RBZ to stick to its
core
business.there is no reason why a central bank should be buying dresses
and
firewood."
He said the number of central bank deputy
governors would be reduced
from the current four to two to increase the
number of non-executive board
members to nine.
Under the
proposals the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance
will sit on the
board but will not have voting rights.
He also said that he had
removed the section, which allows the
government to order the RBZ to carry
out activities outside its core duties.
The MDC-T secretary
general said he was going to introduce the RBZ
restructuring of debt Act to
service the US$1.1 billion debt of the central
bank.
Under
this Act, Biti said the debt would be transferred to a vehicle
run by an
appointed administrator with powers to liquidate.
He said the
money owed to mines would be repaid in gold bonds approved
by his ministry.
The gold bonds which had already been issued were just
papers.
Biti said by the end of year he was looking forward
to the RBZ being a
credible institution.
On the issue of
the government having received US$950 million from
China Biti said: "There
are too many ministers of finance. This Minister of
Finance has not received
US$950 million whether from China, Shanghai, Mumbai
or
wherever."
However, he acknowledged that he had received US$10
million and a
consignment of soya beans from the Chinese.
BY
KUDZAI KUWAZA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009 20:56
EIGHT workers for the co-Minister of Home
Affairs, Kembo Mohadi, are
facing attempted murder charges after they
severely assaulted 11 villagers
who were reportedly trying to recover their
cattle from the minister's farm
in Beitbridge.
Mohadi's workers
are now facing attempted murder charges in a case
that threatens to expose
an attempt by the police to cover up for the
vicious attack on the
villagers.
According to records at the Beitbridge magistrates'
courts, Mohadi and
11 villagers from Chabetha and Shanyaugwe villages are
fighting for the
ownership of a herd of cattle whose number is still
unclear.
The villagers reportedly drove the cattle from a farm
belonging to
Mohadi to their homesteads, claiming that the beasts were
stolen from them.
It is the state's case that Mohadi's workers,
Salso Ncube (18), Rodger
Mukoni (58), Tamson Sibanda (31), Dukana Sibanda
(32), Kenneth Ndou (22),
Keitumetsi Mbedzi (29), Knowledge Ncube (24) and
Soul Noku descended on the
two villages between April 25 and 30 searching
for the villagers.
They allegedly assaulted 11 villagers with
fan belts, sticks, open
hands and booted feet accusing them of stealing the
minister's cattle.
The accused also hammered a nail in the
upper left arm of one of the
complainants, Dumisani Moyo.
Mohadi then made a report at Zezani police station accusing the
villagers of
stealing his cattle.
But when the matter went to court, the
prosecutors refused to handle
the case saying the villagers were badly
beaten.
They said there were also no witness statements from
the police
implicating the villagers.
The matter was taken
back to the police station for further
investigations.
The
minister's workers are being charged with contravening Section 189
of the
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, attempted murder and
assault.
They will appear in court on August
31.
BY SANDRA MANDIZVIDZA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
20:53
ROY Bennett the deputy agriculture minister designate cannot
attend
urgent meetings in South Africa because Attorney General Johannes
Tomana
(pictured) won't release his passport.
Since Bennett's
arrest in February and subsequent release on bail, the
State has stubbornly
held onto his passport as part of stringent bail
conditions.
The Movement for Democratic Change-T treasurer faces charges of
possessing
illegal weapons of war allegedly to commit acts of terrorism.
Bennett denies
the charges outright.
The MDC-T has been pressing President Robert
Mugabe to swear in
Bennett as deputy agriculture minister without further
delay.
However, Tomana's reluctance to relax Bennett's bail
conditions -
given his imminent swearing in expected next month - has
fuelled suspicions
that the AG was hell bent on derailing the inclusive
government.
Yesterday MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa hit out at
Tomana saying his
actions were divisive.
Chamisa said
Tomana's attitude was the "single largest threat to
national
healing".
On Wednesday lawyers Mtetwa and Nyambirai Legal
Practitioners wrote to
the AG's office requesting Bennett's passport. They
also wanted his bail
conditions relaxed.
Their request was
turned down by Michael Mugabe, a law officer
standing in for
Tomana.
As a result, Bennett's lawyers filed an urgent chamber
application at
the High Court.
However, High Court judge
Justice Francis Bere dismissed the
application on the grounds the reasons
given by Bennett's lawyers on the
certificate of urgency were "scant and
very conservative".
The judge said the deputy
minister-designate had "a good case but had
chosen a wrong
route".
In his affidavit, Bennett said the stance by the AG's
office was a
threat to the inclusive government.
Bennett
said the AGs decision had gone against expectations,
especially considering
that other parties involved in the matter had not
objected.
"I repeat that the respondent's stance has no discernable legal basis
and is
clearly motivated by malice as the administration of justice will not
in any
way be jeopardised by relaxing the bail conditions as prayed," said
Bennett
in court papers.
Tomana was the only respondent in the
case.
The MDC-T has been pushing for Tomana's removal from
office on the
grounds that his re-appointment was unprocedural. The party
was also wary of
his undisguised allegiance to Zanu PF.
Last month the main witness Peter Hitschmann in the case against
Bennett
said he would not testify against the former Chimanimani MP. He said
the
allegations were mere fabrications. Bennett's trial is scheduled for
October
13.
MDC-T secretary general, Tendai Biti said: "He (Bennett)
should not be
facing those charges and to deny him his freedom of movement
is very
unfortunate," he said.
"This puts question marks on
the legi
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July
2009 20:50
KARIBA - The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee,
stung by
accusations that it is a paper tiger, has turned the heat on the
state media
accusing it of poisoning the new political
dispensation.
Thabitha Khumalo who represents the MDC-T on Jomic -
a tripartite
forum monitoring the implementation of the Global Political
Agreement
(GPA) - said they were worried that the state media had relapsed
into
"disseminating hate speech".
"We had a meeting with the
media executives and explained to them what
was expected of them in terms of
the MoU," she said.
"We noticed a short-lived reform but we are
concerned that in the past
four weeks, the state media has reverted back to
its old ways of giving
coverage biased towards one party while denigrating
others."
Khumalo's statement follows comments by Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai that the government-controlled media was violating the GPA
by
continuing to serve partisan interests.
"It is a fact
that in contravention of both the letter and spirit of
the GPA, the state
media continues to serve partisan interests, thereby
failing to fulfill
their mandate as a public service to the people of
Zimbabwe," Tsvangirai
told journalists at the Gweru Press Club recently.
Tsvangirai
gave an example of how the state media vilified him when he
went on a tour
of the United States and Europe to drum up financial support
for the
inclusive government.
In response to the biased coverage, The
Prime Minister's office
recently started its own newsletter to update
Zimbabweans on its activities.
But President Robert Mugabe's
spokesperson George Charamba recently
told the state media that he was
studying the publication to see if it was
not violating the country's
draconian media laws.
Khumalo said Jomic was also concerned
about the coverage of the chaos
that characterised the All Stakeholders'
Conference on the new constitution,
which the ZBC tried to blame on the MDC,
workers, students and the National
Constitutional Assembly.
Zanu PF officials and ministers were seen urging on the rowdy elements
who
forced the suspension of the first day's programme.
"You also
find that they continue to ensure that Zanu PF officials
appear on screen
articulating their views but when it comes to MDC, they do
a voice over and
we say that is wrong," she said.
Jomic is made up of 12
members, with four drawn from each of the
country's three main political
parties, Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009 20:45
BULAWAYO
- Another Gweru farmer was murdered at his home last week, a
few days after
a Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) director was killed by
unknown
assailants.
The murders have rekindled memories of the terror that
hit the country's
agricultural sector nine years ago.
Ray van
Rensburg (76), an abattoir assistant at Fairhill Farm just
outside the
Midlands capital, died on Wednesday after he was attacked by
unknown
assailants at night.
This happened hardly a week after the
burial of Bob Vaughan-Evans, a
regional director of the CFU in Gweru who was
also killed by unknown
assailants.
Vaughan-Evans'
80-year-old wife is still hospitalised following the
vicious
attack.
Trevor Shaw, a member of the CFU in Gweru, said the
assailants forced
their way into Van Rensburg's house after breaking a
kitchen window.
They broke the kitchen window before opening
the main door which was
locked from inside.
"The incident
happened on Wednesday evening," Shaw said. "We
discovered that the kitchen
window had been broken and this is how the
assailants gained their way into
the house.
"They could have used a smaller person to go in and
open the door from
inside since it was bolted from inside."
He said on the fateful day Van Rensburg who used a hearing aid had
removed
the device before retiring to bed. "He had removed the hearing aid
he used
before he went to sleep. After the assailants had broken into the
house,
they struck him at the back of the head twice as in the Vaughan-Evans'
case
and he died in his bed," Shaw said.
The assailants made off
with Van Rensburg's wallet that had US$25. No
other property was stolen from
the house. Shaw said the motive for the
attack was still unclear. Police
spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner
Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the
case yesterday.
But he could not provide further details saying
he was failing to
raise police handling the case.
Several
commercial farmers were murdered in cold blood at the height
of the land
invasions that began in 2000 and received President Robert
Mugabe's tacit
support.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
20:37
BULAWAYO - High Court judge Justice Maphios Cheda's car that was
damaged by a pothole has been repaired by the government after he threatened
to sue the city council, his lawyer said last week.
Cheda
threatened legal action after his official Mercedes vehicle
incurred a
repairs bill of US$ 1 681.
He said two wheels and rims were damaged
when he hit a pothole on a
poorly-lit stretch of Leopold Takawira Avenue on
May 24.
Council refused to meet the bill from Zimoco, the
Mercedes Benz
dealership in the country saying the road was under the
jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Transport.
Government took
over trunk roads from the management of local
authorities in
2007.
It emerged this week that the Ministry of Justice, which
employs
Cheda, paid the bill but is now demanding that the Ministry of
Transport
re-imburse it because it was supposed to pay for the
repairs.
Cheda's lawyer, Job Sibanda of Job Sibanda &
Associates, confirmed
that the repairs had been carried
out.
"My client is happy that his car has been taken for
repairs," he said
on Thursday.
"The tyres and the rims have
been replaced and we are told the
Ministry of Justice is the one that
intervened and took the vehicle for
repairs."
Sibanda said
the judge was told that the Ministry of Justice would
recover its money from
the Ministry of Transport.
"It is now an issue between the two
government departments," Sibanda
said.
"They are now
discussing how to handle the matter since they all
belong to one
government.
"We are happy that the vehicle is out of the garage
and the judge is
now in possession of that vehicle."
Zimbabwe's road network is littered with potholes and Cheda's case
might
open floodgates for similar claims.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009 20:33
THE Harare city council is threatening
legal action against residents
who are failing to pay outstanding rates,
setting the stage for a serious
showdown with ratepayers.
Residents who have refused to settle their bills in the absence of
services
have started receiving final letters of demand from the beleaguered
local
authority.
According to one of the letters sent to Lesley Petho of
Highlands who
owed US$131, council warned that failure to pay within seven
days would
result in "legal action being effected without further warning to
you, with
costs charged to your account".
Petho said he had
since paid because he feared legal action but was
still unhappy about
council's threats.
"I paid because they were threatening to take me to
court," he said.
"But it is unfair considering that I did not
receive any service from
these people.
"These rates include
such things as refuse removal which has not
occurred for years and they also
include charges for water which we receive
once a week in
Highlands."
However, thousands of residents who are in his
predicament are
threatening to take council head-on as they feel it is not
entitled to their
money because of its shoddy service delivery
record.
Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) chief
executive officer
Barnabas Mangodza said his organisation was handling a
number of complaints
from residents who want to challenge
council.
"They have to justify their demands," he said. "It
will only be fair
if the charges are proportionate to service delivery or at
least be
commensurate with provision of at least basic services like water
and refuse
collection."
But Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda
said his council, which took over
from successive commissions imposed by the
Minister of Local Government and
Urban Development, Ignatious Chombo, needed
to start from somewhere.
"If they start talking about the poor
state of things, they want us to
get into the blame game and start asking
such questions as who is
responsible for the deterioration?" Masunda
said.
"But how will that help us? Even me, for the past four
years, I have
not had water at Chisipite where I stay but I have been paying
council dues.
It is only when we pay that council will have resources with
which to
improve its service."
He said council was working
on improving the provision of water after
receiving US$2.4 million from the
government.
The money would be used to install a line to
provide uninterrupted
power to Morton Jaffray Waterworks.
Masunda
said council was also working on sourcing adequate water
treatment
chemicals.
He said council was engaged in talks with the French
and German
embassies who have promised to facilitate the repair of refuse
compactors.
Council has not collected refuse in many parts of
the city for years
because it could not service equipment.
"Part of the problem was due to lack of compactors because over the
years
council's automotive workshop degenerated into an automotive
graveyard, with
not even a single functioning vehicle," he said.
But Mangodza
said council's threats would not work.
"We also have lawyers on
standby and we urge all affected parties to
contact us so we can assist each
other", he said. "It has always been our
position that people cannot pay for
services that have not been provided."
Mangodza said council
was to blame for the chaos because it ignored
pleas by residents to reduce
its rates to affordable levels in view of the
high unemployment
levels.
The lucky ones with jobs earn an average of US$100 a
month, while an
average municipal bill for families in high-density suburbs
is US$20 a
month.
He said council could raise more revenue
by charging affordable rates
that would encourage residents to
pay.
"Councils should stop overcharging residents and finding
joy in
threatening them with legal action yet knowing all too well that some
of
these people are pensioners whose earnings amount to
nothing."
CHRA says it recently carried out a study that showed
that 55% of the
Harare council's revenue went towards
salaries.
Mangodza urged the local authority to consider other
revenue-generating methods to reduce its reliance on rates and
tariffs.
Councils must also consult widely before coming up
with budgets to
avoid resistance from ratepayers, he said.
Residents are also demanding that the city council do away with its
top
heavy management structure, which they said gobbled up most of the money
that could be used to finance service delivery.
CHRA says
the local authority must return to its old system where it
used to be run
under five departments instead of the current nine.
Meanwhile,
CHRA has petitioned Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai asking
his office to
investigate the treatment of ratepayers by municipalities
across the
country.
Mangodza said among other issues, CHRA appraised
Tsvangirai on the
need for institutional reforms in councils, harmonisation
of local
government legislation and reduction of the excessive powers
wielded by the
Minister of Local Government.
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
20:24
BULAWAYO - The inclusive government is drafting a Bill to guide
the
emotive national healing process, which will spell out measures to be
taken
against perpetrators of political violence.
The Bill will
address issues of compensation, amnesty and the period
to be covered by the
new dispensation.
However, there is still debate on the way forward
with human rights
groups advocating for the prosecution of perpetrators of
electoral violence
while the government seems to favour
amnesty.
The Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office,
Gorden Moyo,
said he was aware of the proposed Bill.
"I am
aware that a legal framework or instrument to guide the process
is being
worked on and will be brought before parliament soon for debate,"
he
said.
However, he could not comment further on the matter
saying it was
still premature.
Zanu PF chairman, John
Nkomo, MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda and
Sekai Holland of MDC-T are the
joint ministers responsible for national
healing.
Nkomo
refused to comment on the legal instrument last week while
Sibanda and
Holland were not available. The other ministers could not be
reached for
comment.
A conference on national healing was planned for
sometime this week
but Moyo said it had been put on hold to allow for
ongoing consultations on
the new constitution.
"There has
been a lot of activity on the constitution-making process,
that is why
national healing seems to be moving at a snail's pace," Moyo
said.
"The issue of a constitution has deadlines that have
to be met whereas
the national healing process is a lifelong process.it is
supposed to be
there continually, it does not start somewhere and stop
somewhere," he said.
Zimbabwe last year experienced one of the
worst episodes of political
violence since the Gukurahundi
atrocities.
The violence was largely blamed on militant
supporters of President
Robert Mugabe who were angered by the veteran
leader's poor performance
against Tsvangirai in the March 2008
polls.
The MDC-T says more than 200 of its supporters died in
the violence,
thousands were tortured and hundreds others were forced to
flee their homes.
Tired of waiting for justice to prevail,
victims have been taking the
law into their own hands and trying to recover
their property from Zanu PF
supporters.
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
17:38
BULAWAYO - Three MDC MPs last week approached the High Court
seeking
an order barring the party from proceeding with disciplinary
hearings
against them.
The three legislators were suspended
together with five other senior
party officials for alleged
misconduct.
They were accused of disrespecting and de-campaigning
Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara's leadership and campaigning for the
MDC - T.
Early this month, the eight officials walked out of a
disciplinary
hearing protesting against procedures.
In the
application filed on July 14, the three MPs Njabuliso Mguni
(Lupane North),
Norman Mpofu (Bulilima East) and Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi
South) through their
lawyer Thamsanqa Khumalo of Khumalo and Attorneys,
demand to be furnished
with "proper" allegations, their places of
occurrences, the list of
witnesses and summaries or synopsis' of the
evidence or witnesses'
statements.
Alex Goosen, a senior official in the Mutambara
camp is the fourth
applicant in the matter.
The officials
want the July 4 hearings to be set aside until the
committee hearing their
cases is reconstituted.
The chairperson of the disciplinary
committee, Lyson Mlambo is cited
as the first respondent while the party is
the second respondent.
In their affidavits, the officials argue
that the allegations levelled
against them are still
unclear.
"As far as I am concerned, the allegations are too
vague," Goosen said
in his affidavit.
"The period between
October 2008 and April 2009 is seven months long.
"It should
be possible for the respondents to advise me precisely
where and when I am
alleged to have committed the acts of misconduct."
Mpofu said
he does not understand why he was being charged with
associating with the
MDC-T since the faction resolved last year that it will
support Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of the aborted June 27
presidential run-off
election.
"I am accused of interacting with MDC-T or
collaborating with their
structures," he said.
"I am
supposed to have done this in the period June 2008 and April
2009. This is a
period of 10 months.
"I will understand if I am accused of
campaigning for MDC-T this year
for that makes more sense."
On the other hand Mguni argues that during the time he was accused of
holding meetings in Lupane allegedly campaigning for Tsvangirai he was in
the United Kingdom.
Bhebhe who is accused of integrating
the party's structures with those
of the MDC-T says all the allegations
levelled against him are not true.
Bhebhe argues that he did
not integrate the MDC structures with those
of the MDC-T as alleged by his
party.
The MP also argued that the July 4 hearings violated the
party's
constitution, which guarantees "open, transparent and democratic
decision
making processes".
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
17:30
HARARE - A senior police officer in Beitbridge who refused to
investigate allegations that police severely assaulted two prison officers
accused of leaking information to the media was last week convicted of
contempt of court.
Chief Inspector Cuthbert Mandere defied a
court order instructing him
to investigate allegations that a Detective
Inspector Moyo of the Law and
Order section in Gwanda heavily assaulted
Bhekinkosi Nkomo (28) and Sayanai
Muchechese (26) of Beitbridge
Prison.
The two were accused of smuggling into Beitbridge Prison
investigative
reporters from the South African Broadcasting Corporation's
special
assignment programme.
The SABC in March produced a
documentary about conditions in Zimbabwe's
jails that showed prisoners
suffering from severe malnutrition.
The prison officers were
immediately charged with contravening the
Official Secrets
Act.
But the charges were dropped for lack of
evidence.
Nkomo and Muchechesi then made a complaint to the
court saying they
were badly assaulted by Moyo.
This
prompted Beitbridge prosecutor Tasi Moyo to write a letter to
Mandere, who
is the officer-in-charge in the district ordering him to
investigate the
alleged assault.
But Mandere refused to investigate the case
arguing that it was "too
sensitive and political".
Moyo
issued a warrant of arrest leading to Mandere's arrest.
Last
week Beitbridge magistrate Ignatius Mhene found Mandere guilty of
defying
court orders.
But the senior police officer was spared jail
when he was cautioned
and discharged.
The documentary
showed sickly inmates who appeared to be deprived of
food and medical
care.
The SABC journalists said they worked with some wardens
and police
officers.
They said the film was shot over three
months with cameras smuggled
into the prisons.
Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa was quoted as saying the
documentary, which
shocked many Zimbabweans due to its horrifying images,
was "a
fraud".
He claimed the images were shot in other
countries.
BY SANDRA MANDIZVIDZA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009 16:52
THE Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) has described conditions in the
country's
jails as an embarrassment to the criminal justice system, in its
first
admission that prisoners are dying of starvation.
There are reports
that dozens of prisoners are dying of malnutrition
every month because of
serious food shortages at the overcrowded prisons
across the
country.
ZPS deputy commissioner, Washington Chimboza, recently
told a workshop
organised by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) that
years of
under-funding had led to serious shortages of food, clothing,
cooking
utensils and transport.
He said since 2006 the
prisons had recorded the worst death rates in
the history of the
service.
"The most severe cases were experienced in 2008 where pellagra
was
rampant in our prisons," Chimboza said.
"Malnutrition
acted as a catalyst to most deaths given that where
cases of opportunistic
infections were evident, it was impossible to
commence one on medication
since there was no food in the country in general
and particularly in
prisons."
The ZPS had not been able to satisfy any of its
statutory obligations
because it was heavily incapacitated, he
said.
"Our inability to honour such a mandatory obligation
(feeding
prisoners) has caused untold suffering to the inmate population in
our
custody," he said.
The country has 46 prisons and 26
satellites, with a total carrying
capacity of 17 000.
The
current prison population is 12 971 of which 2 672 people are in
remand
prison.
Female prisons have 694 inmates. Earlier this year,
Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa claimed that footage for a SABC
documentary that exposed
the shocking conditions at the country's jails was
shot from jails in other
countries.
But the government has
since admitted that the situation is dire and
called on well wishers to come
to its rescue.
On transport, Chimboza said ZPS had four
vehicles only which have been
down since September last year and they could
not be serviced because the
costs were always higher than was allocated from
the fiscus.
"We are statutorily required to service the High
Court and all other
courts throughout the country, but we have become an
embarrassment to the
criminal justice system," Chimboza
said.
"An offender is expected to be back in court for either
remand or
trial after two weeks in custody but we even have cases where
offenders have
spent up to a year without access to court such as in
Marondera."
Chimboza said due to transport challenges the
service requested that
such prisons as Marondera be declared places of
holding court but still the
magistrates, prosecutors and other officers
would fail to attend court
citing transport problems.
Chimboza also said the prisons virtually had no cooking utensils, with
Chikurubi which has an average holding capacity of 2 000 inmates with only
two cooking pots.
"This presents a problem with cooking",
he said. "In Chikurubi for
example, we have 26 steam pots all of which are
not functioning.
"We thus had to run around and got two cast
pots from other prisons
and those are the ones we are currently
using.
In the past, we would also ask for empty drums from such
companies as
Lafarge to use for cooking but of late we cannot even get the
drums."
He said even if the food was cooked, the prisons did
not have plates
and other utensils for serving food.
The
deputy commissioner said water was also a problem, with Chikurubi
having
gone without water for the last five years.
Prisoners were also
spending most of their time naked because of an
acute shortage of
uniforms.
"Male inmates have not been able to go on working
parties, let alone
conduct visits since they are improperly clothed", he
said.
"The unconvicted are expected to use their own clothes,
in which case
it is equally difficult for them because in most cases no one
would have an
extra set of clothes to wear when they are finally supposed to
go home, for
example when they are acquitted or granted
bail."
Chimboza said ZPS was also failing to honour its
obligations to
provide a free medical service to both its officers and
inmates.
"All this is because of inadequate funding", he said.
"Every year, we
always prepare our budget and give the figures we require
but we always get
less money than we have requested."
Several prisoners have benefited from a general amnesty as the
government
tries to reduce the prison population.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
16:46
ZANU PF is not "sincere" in implementing the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) and this is dampening prospects of a quick economic
recovery, analysts have said.
Last week's violent disruption of
the All-Stakeholders' Constitution
Conference in Harare by Zanu PF and
ministers and supporters was the biggest
demonstration of the former ruling
party's insincerity, they said.
The analysts said this was further
strengthened by several incidents
in which President Robert Mugabe has
willfully flouted the agreement signed
by his party and the two MDC
formations on September 15 last year.
At last week's
conference, Zanu PF supporters heckled and forced the
Speaker of Parliament
Lovemore Moyo off the high table by pelting delegates
with empty water
bottles turning the important constitutional conference
into a
circus.
The MDC said Zanu PF had a political motive in
disrupting the
constitution making process.
"Zanu PF has
an incentive to avoid a people-driven constitution
process ever since they
were resoundingly rejected by the people of Zimbabwe
on March 29, 2008,"
said the MDC in a statement.
After the disturbances Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
his deputy Professor Arthur Mutambara
held a joint press conference
denouncing the incident.
"We
are here to say that we will not brook any further disturbances in
the
future. We must have this constitution done, it's a necessity," Mugabe
told
reporters.
"We feel disturbed and we have a sense of abhorrence
with what
happened this morning.
"What happened is not in
accordance with the letter and spirit of the
global political
agreement.
"This is not the time to be shouting insults to each
other."
But Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace national
director,
Aloius Chaumba was not convinced.
"In public, he
(Mugabe) speaks what people want to hear but his
actions speak louder than
words," Chaumba said.
He said Mugabe has not been sincere from
the beginning as shown by his
attempts to inflate the number of ministers in
the inclusive government
beyond what was agreed in the GPA.
University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure agreed
with
Chaumba saying Mugabe was acting in "bad faith" by refusing to address
the
outstanding issues of the GPA.
He said his actions had fuelled
mistrust and suspicion in the
six-month-old inclusive
government.
Masunungure claimed that Zanu PF was stalling the
replacement of
Central Bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-General
Johannes Tomana,
media reforms and the convening of the first meeting of the
National
Security Council (NSC) as well as disrupting the
constitution-making
process.
Instead, Mugabe has kept the
Joint Operations Command (JOC), which he
inherited from Ian Smith's regime
and which is widely believed to be making
major policy decisions in the
country.
"Generally, there is deficit of good faith,"
Masunungure said. "The
totality of these issues, cumulatively, shows that
Mugabe and Zanu PF are
not sincere."
The MDC has written to
the Southern African Development Community
(Sadc), the guarantor of the GPA,
complaining about Zanu PF's unwillingness
to address the outstanding
issues.
A summit is scheduled for this month to deliberate on
the matter.
As the unity government limps on, Zanu PF has been
accused of
resuscitating its abandoned "bases" in rural areas where several
MDC
activists were murdered while others were severely tortured during last
year's
violent presidential election.
The MDC claims that
over 200 of its activists were killed and several
thousand others displaced
in the political violence.
There are also reports of renewed
cases of political violence in the
rural areas further fuelling suspicion
Mugabe is already eyeing an election,
analysts said.
Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa, who is also MDC-T MP for
Dangamvura-Chikanga promised to institute investigations to determine the
validity of his party's claims.
One political analyst who
requested anonymity said what is happening
in the inclusive government was
not healthy for the country.
"This is not healthy for the
implementation of the GPA," he said. "In
fact, it militates against the
spirit of inclusivity, reconciliation and
national healing that they want to
foster."
He said some senior Zanu PF officials who committed
crimes ranging
from murder, rape to looting of national coffers were
sabotaging the
implementation of the GPA because they feared that real
political change
would mean that they are brought to
justice.
Among them are those who committed murders during the
Gukurahundi era
in Matabeleland and the Midlands and in the past national
elections as well
as general human rights abuses.
"Those
who were involved in these abuses are suspicious of any
political change
that the inclusive government seeks to achieve and are
therefore putting
spanners in the works," said the analyst.
"The whole political
game borders on suspicion, mistrust and fear of
the unknown," he
added.
Masunungure blames Sadc and the African Union (AU) for
the problems
dogging the implementation of the GPA.
"(Former South African president Thabo) Mbeki had his quiet diplomacy
but
(Mbeki's successor) Jacob Zuma's diplomacy is silent. It is as if
nothing is
happening," he said.
Zuma, the current chair of Sadc, took over
from Mbeki as President of
South Africa this year.
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
16:06
NYANGA - Efforts to bring investment into the country are being
hampered by discord in the inclusive government raising concerns of its
policy consistency, a leading regional banker has warned.
Speaking at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe Winter
School
in Nyanga on Friday, Development Bank of Southern Africa chief
economist Sam
Muradzikwa said conflicting statements coming from the unity
government were
a cause of concern for investors.
"The all inclusive government is
a transitional phase," Muradzikwa
said.
"Questions being asked
by investors are how long will these policies
stick? Are they here to stay?
Certain conflicting statements and actions by
politicians in the unity
government do not help the cause."
He said investors were
skeptical on whether the policies being put in
place by the unity government
will be maintained because of previous policy
changes "which were as rapid
as inflation".
Muradzikwa expressed concern at the lack of
clear government policies
on some vital aspects of the economy such as
mining and indigenisation,
which would hinder investment the country
desperately needs to resuscitate
the economy.
"Unclear
policies on mining and indigenisation worry me. We are not
saying that there
should be no indigenisation but all we are asking for is
policy clarity and
consistency," he said.
"Muradzikwa said most South African
companies were reluctant to start
operations in the country because the
Zimbabwean government has not yet
signed the Bilateral Investment and
Protective Agreement.
"Most companies in South Africa are
telling us that without that
agreement they can forget about them going into
Zimbabwe. We keenly wait to
see whether it is signed,' Muradzikwa
said.
He said there was a need to revise tariffs and taxes
being charged by
the government which were skewed and discouraged
investment.
Muradzikwa said finding projects in Zimbabwe for
his bank to finance
was 'a nightmare" because of a lack of credible and
coherent project
proposals by those who applied for loans.
He said the costs of basic commodities were still very high and
unrealistic
because of ignorance of the value of the US dollar on the part
of
Zimbabweans.
Muradzikwa gave an example of some vendors who
were selling tomatoes
for as much as US$5 dollars a packet.
This year's Winter School is being held under the theme 'Re-entering
the
global economy- How fit is your business?"
BY KUDZAI
KUWAZA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009 15:44
FINANCE Minister Tendai Biti on Thursday provided the tonic needed to
revive
the economy but analysts warned against policy reversals which have
been
perfected by the government since independence.
Presenting his
mid-term fiscal policy review Biti provided tax relief
for industry by
reducing duty on capital, intermediary and raw materials in
a bid to raise
capacity utilisation.
On raw materials, Biti reduced the duty to
0-10%from 0-1%, duty on
intermediate goods was slashed to 10% from 10-15%
while for capital goods,
the duty was removed signaling government's
intention to raise production.
Industries have been crying foul
about the high production costs which
have made local products more
expensive than imports.
Analysts say the tax relief on
production will boost capacity
utilisation to the levels desired under the
revival plan, Short Term
Emergency Recovery Programme
(STERP).
Under STERP, capacity utilisation will reach 60
percent by the end of
the year.
Analysts are unanimous that
the relief will increase production and
ultimately lead to an increase in
government coffers through corporate taxes
and Pay as You Earn (PAYE)
through increased salaries.
"He is increasing the tax base by
promoting industries," said Witness
Chinyama, the head of research at
Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited.
In the six months to June
corporate taxes contributed US$6.9 million
of total revenue generated,
representing a paltry 2.4%.
Its contribution was below the
targeted US$32.6 million.
PAYE collections amounted to US$47.9
million (16.8%) against a target
of US$40.2 million.
Analysts say although PAYE collections had missed the target
considering
that civil servants' salaries were below the tax bracket, the
figure was
still modest.
Biti forecast a GDP growth of 3.7 percent this
year while inflation is
expected to end the year at 6.4%.
He said going forward the economy is expected to register growth
driven by
the rebound in agriculture, mining and information and
telecommunication
technologies amongst others.
He said in the 2009-2010 season,
Zimbabwe expects to harvest two
million tonnes of maize spurred on by the
small scale farmers.
On that note, Biti said, US$146 million
had been set aside for inputs
requirements for small scale farmers.
Biti said the long overdue central bank reforms would be taken to
allow the
apex bank to concentrate on its core business.
RBZ reforms
entail the recapitalisation of the bank as well as coming
up with
legislation that drains the debt from RBZ to enable the institution
to start
operating on a clean slate.
But the process will be done after
establishing the central bank's
assets and liabilities, Biti
said.
He said Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) would be
explored as an
engine for growth as the economy was constrained to allow for
meaningful
government spending.
"We are in the process of
negotiating with the Chinese on various
capital PPP development projects in
roads construction, work on electricity
and increase power generating
capacity particularly at Kariba," he said.
Analysts say a
mismatch between capital and recurrent expenditure was
unhealthy. The
current ratio is 10: 90 against 25:75.
Biti buried the Zimbabwe
dollar to allay fears of business who have
been mixed signals on the fate of
the battered currency.
The minister also set aside US$6 million
to buy the entire stock of
the Zimbabwean dollar floating around an exchange
rate to be determined in
future.
"Demonitising is putting a
tombstone on the grave of the Zimbabwean
dollar," he said.
Chinyama said the issue of the Zimbabwean dollar had traumatised the
people
and bringing it back injects a temptation of printing money.
To
appease the civil service, Biti announced that a grading system
would be
formulated resulting in civil servants earning salaries according
to their
grades.
But he got few friends in the process.
Having set aside an additional US$14 million monthly to cover
salaries, it
means that with the grading system, the lowest paid worker
would be lucky to
earn US$200 this month, a figure inadequate to cover
basics.
In addition the review of civil service salaries
always triggers a
wave of price increases and analysts fear Biti's
intervention would leave
the beneficiaries worse off.
The
new salary for the least paid worker failed to match the US$454
minimum
salary proposed by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
Teachers have been agitating for an industrial action but were
restrained on
promises of a "hefty" review in Biti's mid term policy
statement.
Biti accused banks of killing the savings
culture among the populace
by offering insignificant interest rates on
deposits.
He said while deposit rates were meagre, lending
rates were ranging
between 7-18% a mismatch Biti said "is unsustainable if
we want to restore
the savings culture in Zimbabwe."
BY
NDAMU SANDU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
15:42
BULAWAYO - Council says an acute shortage of surveyors has
seriously
affected the city's expansion plans and delayed the implementation
of long
awaited housing projects.
According to a recent council
report on ongoing property developments,
the land surveyors department, like
many council operations has been
crippled by a severe brain
drain.
It is council policy that all new residential suburbs should
be fully
serviced with water, sewer and roads before any housing development
can be
undertaken.
Bulawayo's population estimated at over
1.5 million has been rising
steadily since independence pushing the need for
housing higher.
The city also recently came up with a new
master plan that saw its
boundaries widening by more than 45
kilometers.
"The land surveyors' department had a critical
shortage of surveyors,"
reads the council report.
"There is
no final examiner and principal land surveyor to do
approvals. With most of
the work at the final stage, it would take quite
some time before it is
finally examined and approved."
The local authority, which is
still struggling to raise money from
rates and tariffs following the
dollarisation of the economy, said it can
not afford private surveyors
because their charges were beyond its reach.
"Private land
surveyors needed US$90 per hour to do the final
examinations and approval.
The department is however trying its level best
to negotiate for a possible
review of the fees," read the minutes.
The surveyor general in
the Ministry of lands, Edwin Guvaza, said the
shortage of surveyors was not
peculiar to Bulawayo and urged the
municipality to find innovative ways of
dealing with the problem.
"There is no way the council will
overcome this problem besides having
its own personnel," Guvaza
said.
"It will help the council a lot for it to offer
competitive salaries
as failure to do so would be
disastrous.
"If the council decides to sub-contract, the
private sector would have
to charge them fees that are worse than having
your own personnel."
Guvaza said US$90 charged by private
surveyors was the most
competitive rate that applied in neighbouring
countries.
"The tariff is approved by the ministry (after
consultations with the
rest of the regional market).
"It
might sound too high but this is what the market in the region
charges for
private surveyors," he said.
"This is a fee that was gazetted
in April and if the council is saying
the rate is too high, then they are
saying the government erred in accepting
a regionally-accepted fee, which is
a problem on its own."
Meanwhile, the council's allocation for
the construction and
maintenance of roads from the department of roads has
been slashed to US$254
000 from US$ 700 000.
BY NKULULEKO
SIBANDA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July
2009 16:40
I was a small boy when the war ended in 1980. I only have
fleeting
memories of the war. It was a terrible time, especially in the
rural
communities. I remember one day, when literally scores of men in faded
jeans, carrying heavy bags and big guns converged at our
village.
I was terrified by the sight of so many men with so
much ammunition. I
held on tightly to my mother's dress. Then one of the men
spoke to me. He
had a soft voice that did not match his imposing physical
appearance. I
expected a coarse perhaps harsher voice.
He
said: "'Ko iwe shamwari zvaunochemera mai ko ini vangu vari kupiwo"'
(My
friend, since you cry for your mother, can you please find one for
me?).
He was surprisingly gentle. He carried those words in a
humorous tone
that made everyone laugh in an instant. It lightened the mood.
I felt at
ease. I was incredibly surprised by the kind demeanour and conduct
of those
men - they seemed kind and respectful.
One of the
men approached Sekuru, my grandfather. He asked if he and
his men could have
some fruit whilst they awaited the food which the women
of the village were
preparing. He wanted permission.
Sekuru Magaisa was a good
farmer, at least by peasant standards. He
had a large orchard - oranges,
mangoes, peaches - he had everything. Sekuru
had worked hard for it over the
years.
He often took the produce to the local schools - Kwenda,
Warikandwa,
even as far as kwaSadza, where he sold his fruit to the teachers
and
students.
I like to think if he had more and better land,
he could have been a
more successful farmer. But historical circumstance had
not allowed him the
opportunity.
Sekuru gave his permission
but he asked that they take reasonable
amounts from each tree because, in
his words, tomorrow other "sons" like
them would also pass by the village
and ask for some fruit too. These
fighters were called vana - "sons" or
simply vakomana - "boys" for they were
the children of the land who had
dedicated themselves to help free Zimbabwe.
I was surprised
that these many men with guns would have the decency
to approach an old man,
my Sekuru and ask him for permission to pick his
fruit.
When I
saw them approach the village, I thought they would do whatever
they wanted.
They were decent men after all, I thought, not the scary
monsters I had
imagined.
They had the decency to ask for permission to take
someone else's
property even though they had the arms and the physical force
to demand
their way.
The boys descended on the fruit trees
in their multitudes. It did not
matter whether the fruit was
ripe.
Clearly, they were hungry. They had explained how long they
had
travelled during the night. Food was prepared and they devoured
everything
before them. They had a voracious appetite and it
showed.
Afterwards, the man who had asked Sekuru for permission to
pick fruit
led his men in thanking the villagers. They clapped the clap of
elders.
Together they thanked the ancestors. They expressed their
gratitude
for the guidance they had received and asked for more guidance as
they
pursued their journey and the greater cause. Sekuru blessed them and on
behalf of the village and the community, gave them our best
wishes.
The man, whom I now think was the commander of the
group, then asked
the women of the village not to sweep the yard after their
departure.
He instructed them to spread grains of sorghum and maize
across the
whole yard and every place where the comrades had walked at the
village.
The chickens would scurry to pick the grains and in the
process they
would obscure the marks left by the men's heavy
boots.
This, he explained, was a better way to erase the marks
because
sweeping the yard would only raise a lot of suspicion if enemy
soldiers
appeared and the villagers would get into serious
trouble.
I thought that was clever.
During the war
years, there was a lot of suffering by the fighters and
the ordinary men and
women too - across races, ethnic groups and regions.
Over the years
villagers got to know the boys who were fighting.
Sometimes they
would come back and other times they would bring the
sad news that a comrade
had lost his life in the fighting.
The villagers were also
assaulted by rival forces for helping the
boys. The ordinary people provided
food and clothes to the boys.
The boys were grateful. It was a
mutually beneficial relationship.
They knew that the prize belonged to
everyone, not to a chosen few. It was
not just for those who held guns but
for everyone who played a complimentary
role in the struggle. As I grew up
to be a man, I have learnt more about the
war, the good and the
ugly.
Next month, in August politicians will congregate at
various shrines
across the country. They will purport to pay respect to
those fallen sons
and daughters.
They will remind ordinary men
and women of the sacrifices that were
made for a free Zimbabwe. Yet you do
wonder whether they have also captured
any lessons from the sacrifices of
their fallen comrades, those that Simon
Chimbetu reminded when he said,
"Pane Asipo" - that there are others who did
not live to see the
party.
Would those brave boys have condoned the present state of
affairs in
the country? Would they have participated in the violation of the
rights of
those very same men and women who provided the food and camouflage
during
the struggle?
Would they have disregarded the laws,
dancing on top of chairs and
desks in the courts of law and conference
rooms? Would they have resisted
the creation of new democratic constitution?
Did they really lose their
lives in order to facilitate the kind of Zimbabwe
that exists today?
These are perhaps futile questions. I ask
them not of the fallen boys
and girls. No, they will never be able to answer
these questions.
But I ask them of their colleagues who survived
that struggle and now
preside over the nation; a nation in which if the
comrades had waged the
struggle today, there would be no thriving orchard
from which to gather
fruit, there would be no chickens, no goats, not even
the maize-meal to make
sadza; a nation in which people's dignity has been
stripped away.
And yet to restore these things requires neither
a life nor a cent.
All it requires is a minimum level of decency and common
sense.
Otherwise it can hardly be a surprise if upon posing a
question to a
primary school pupil on the concept of independence, her
answer might be
that it is a process by which a formerly oppressed and
marginalised people
becomes more oppressed, more marginalised and poorer; a
process by which
half-dressed dignity is stripped naked, for all the world
to see.
This, surely, cannot be what those boys I saw at our
village on that
day dreamed of. They deserve better.
Alex
Magaisa is based at, Kent Law School, the University of Kent and
can be
contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk or
a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July 2009
16:35
I have had an opportunity to follow various discussions on
various
scenarios relating to the issues of electoral laws and systems and
constitution-making processes in some African countries - Burundi, Rwanda,
Kenya, Sudan, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and the case of
Zimbabwe.
I found the recent case of Uganda almost similar to that
of Zimbabwe,
in that as in the latter; President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
recently made
pronouncements to the effect that there is no need to make
major changes to
the country's electoral laws adding that even the
opposition leader was
present when those electoral laws were
coined.
Sounds like Robert Mugabe talking to the Morgan Tsvangirai
(MDC-T)
about the Kariba draft which was coined by the three
parties.
The only difference is that Zimbabwe so far is dealing
with the
constitution-making process, while Uganda is dealing with electoral
laws.
However, the two are linked. Museveni argues that not much needs to be
changed, save for a few amendments. In the same vein, Mugabe suggests that
what they agreed on with the MDCs leading to the Kariba draft must remain
with only a few amendments.
In Uganda, as expected,
President Museveni is asking everyone to show
cause why there should be a
complete overhaul of the system.
"You talk of amending the
Electoral Law. Amend it in order to achieve
what? You were there when we
reformed the UPC electoral laws - introducing
one ballot box, one ballot
paper, counting and announcing results
immediately after counting,
etc.
The only remaining point is computerising the voters' register
in
order to stop the opposition from engaging in multiple registration of
voters which they have been doing in Kampala, the North and other areas.
Which other electoral reforms are you talking about?"
However, the point that President Museveni missed is that, in the
same way
he is trying to stop the opposition from engaging in what he calls,
"multiple registration of voters", by calling for electoral reforms the
opposition also wishes to stop him from rigging the elections and engaging
in other nefarious activities.
We may even add that in this
case the opposition believes that by
causing electoral reforms they may
finally find the key to the president's
exit door.
Further, the above statement by President Museveni; bullish and
emphatic as
it sounds, clearly seals the call for the cause of the ordinary
masses to at
least manage the process of fashioning the democracy they want.
That also is
the scenario of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's constitution-making
process is also mired in controversies;
the civil society as usual is part
of the confusion.
This confusion and failure to speak with one
voice makes it very
difficult for the civil society to even claim that the
resolutions of a
divided All-Stakeholders' conference have a binding effect
on all other
members of the civil society.
Further, whoever
argues that way must also know that their views are
not representative of
every civil society organisation in Zimbabwe.
However, it is the
nature with most Zimbabweans, to always claim to be
speaking on behalf of
everybody, even when they know that whatever they are
saying is not
representative of everyone.
The divided calls by the civil
society serve to show the discord with
which Zimbabweans speak and sing on a
very important issue such as this one
of
constitution-making.
Imagine, they even hold conventions and
conferences in very opulent
environments (Rainbow Towers) to discuss
problems of a country that is in
dire poverty when the membership on the
ground is hungry.
Does that alone not smack of the same profligacy
displayed by the same
Parliamentarians who claim to be standing for the
wishes of the people when
they also demand US$30 000 a month, while civil
servants wallow in poverty?
One strand is being purveyed by
Zanu PF in support of the Kariba
draft, while the other is being pushed by
MDCs, by way of a Parliamentary
Select Committee.
The
political logic here is to create a façade of dissent within
political
ranks. Mere chicanery!
The first political strand as stated
above comes through Zanu PF and
appears to want to force people to embrace a
draft that was agreed on by the
MDCs and Zanu PF in Kariba, hence the name
Kariba draft.
Everyone knows that this document is very
dangerous in that it only
carries the wishes of
politicians.
It must be emphasized here that when this Kariba
document was exposed
by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and by
other people and
political actors like Professor Jonathan Moyo, Independent
MP for Tsholotsho
North, now the only opposition in Zimbabwe's Parliament,
the MDC as one of
the main signatories and culprits that engineered this
draft then started on
another wild wave to fame by claiming that they want a
process that carries
the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe, yet referring to
a Parliamentary
Select Committee. As if they had not even participated in
the drafting of
the Kariba draft in the first instance.
The
second political strand is one where MDC is publicly claiming that
they have
the people at heart and that what Zanu PF is trying to do by
pushing the
Kariba draft is undemocratic.
Meanwhile it is a statement of fact
that pushing the Kariba draft down
our throats is undemocratic and bad, what
is not said by the MDC is
acknowledging that they were part of the process
that produced such a
document. In the same way we do not trust Zanu PF, we
also can not trust
them.
It may be necessary to also
understand that this is a strategy hatched
by politicians to use a two
pronged approach when dealing with us the people
as they often refer to us
as "a bewildered crowd".
The idea in their strategy is to ensure
that if we reject the Zanu PF
approach of pushing the Kariba draft down our
throats, we will end up having
to use the "half-a-loaf-is
better-than-nothing" approach, and end up
embracing the MDC parliamentary
project.
Zimbabweans have had an opportunity to learn hard
facts about the
nature of politicians; that politicians are generally
dreamers of, often,
very wild and weird dreams that they always pass on to
us, the ordinary
masses, to act on the "national stage", meaning some kind
of a puppet
theatre.
It is clear that the people can not
and must not allow to be cheated
by these two strands of political
manoeuvring, as it is clear that its
purveyors all have one single thread
that runs through the gamut of their
cause: being
politicians.
The best for us as Zimbabweans is a people driven
constitution not a
half-baked process. Let us have a process that is
people-centred and
people-driven.
What Zimbabweans should
aim for is a document that will last for a
while before it is bastardised by
politicians through amendments.
Brilliant Mhlanga is an academic
and a human rights activist from the
National University of Science and
Technology (NUST). He is currently a
Doctoral Researcher at the University
of Westminster, London.
BY BRILLIANT MHLANGA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/
Saturday, 18 July
2009 16:33
SPEAKING last Saturday at the burial of the late Ackim
Ndlovu, who was
declared a national hero, President Robert Mugabe wondered
whether there was
any unity in the inclusive government.
"Are
we truly one in the inclusive government? Are we united? Let us
show it. and
speak with one voice," Mugabe said, adding that he and his
party were
surprised by the actions of the other partners to the Global
Political
Agreement (GPA), which forms the basis of the government of
national
unity.
Most people would have wanted to put that question to him
instead of
the other way around.
The president and his party
apparently are unaware that they are
responsible for the reactions they
generate.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is under fire from
his party for
trying to shield Mugabe from criticism. The recent cabinet
boycott brought
to the fore the disgruntlement within the Prime Minister's
party over their
treatment by the other parties to the GPA.
The unilateral re-appointment of the Governor of the Reserve Bank and
the
Attorney-General, the continued refusal to swear in Roy Bennett as
Deputy
Minister of Agriculture as well as the barring of senior MDC-T
ministers
from attending an official function at State House for a North
Korean
delegation are violations of the letter and spirit of the GPA, to
which they
conveniently feign amnesia.
Was the decision to confer hero's
status on Ndlovu, Zipra's founding
commander, a resolution of the inclusive
government or a Zanu PF decision?
Why does the president appear ready to
notice the shortcomings of the other
parties when he and his party are seen
the world over as obstacles to
reform?
His response would be
instructive and would answer the doubts he has
about the commitment to unity
on the part of others in the inclusive
government.
There
was understandable anger among former Zapu cadres that Ndlovu
was
neglected.
This anger explains why they took over activities in
Bulawayo. They
see a mosaic of hypocrisy that dates back to the days of the
late Clemence
Muchachi, once a top-ranking Zapu figure who died a pauper in
rural Shurugwi
after he was neglected by a government that is quick to
confer hero's status
on figures from Zanu PF.
Why does
someone who sacrificed so much for the liberation of this
country have to
die before getting recognition? If former Zapu properties
had not been
seized by the state the plight of freedom fighters from Zapu
would not be so
distressing.
Ndlovu should have been allowed an opportunity to
enjoy the fruits of
his liberation war contribution before he
died.
The decision to declare Ndlovu a national hero was driven
by fear of
the revival of Zapu as a political force and a desperate bid to
court the
Matabeleland vote to support the Kariba draft constitution
document which
Zanu PF has made its icon.
While President
Mugabe doubts whether there is genuine unity in the
unity government, the
public media continues to pour scorn on the other
parties to the GPA. He may
see nothing wrong with this but the other parties
see it
differently.
If he wanted to, he could whip them into line and they
could cease
forthwith being contemptuous of the other parties. The issue the
president
should be raising is his party's commitment to the inclusive
government. So
long as Zanu PF continues to block change it will be seen as
the sore loser
that it is.
The GPA offered it a patriotic exit
from exclusive power. But it has
spurned the deal preferring to hang on no
matter what the damage.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Correspondent Saturday
18 July 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe has accumulated arrears of
more than US$3.1 billion on its
debt to international financial
institutions, according to Finance Minister
Tendai Biti.
Biti did
not, however, say what proportion of the arrears were principal
repayments
or interest, only saying the outstanding amounts dated as far
back as 2000
when Zimbabwe started facing economic challenges.
"Clearance of our
outstanding external payment arrears is one of the key
conditionalities for
unlocking new balance of payments support from
multilateral international
financial institutions such as the IMF, World
Bank and the African
Development Bank," Biti announced during the
presentation of the 2009
mid-term budget review.
The minister made the announcement as the
director of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) External Relations
Department Caroline Atkinson said on
Thursday that Zimbabwe would have to
find donor support to clear its arrears
to the Bretton Woods institution
before applying for aid.
"We made clear there that before Zimbabwe could
ask us for regular IMF
financing, they would have to have committed donor
support to help them
clear arrears," Atkinson told a media briefing in
Washington DC.
Zimbabwe owes the IMF about US$135 million, more than
US$640 million to the
World Bank and at least US$400 million to the African
Development Bank.
Zimbabwe requires at least US$8.4 billion this year to
revive its industry
and restore health and education facilities which had
collapsed due to years
of poor funding.
The country also needs a
further US$718 million in humanitarian support to
rebuild water and
sanitation facilities and to improve food security until
the end of 2009. -
ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=19928
July 18, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Former Zanu PF secretary-general and close ally of
President Robert
Mugabe has accused the Zimbabwean leader of plundering the
country's wealth
through alleged corruption and mismanagement.In a candid
address to
delegates to a seminar called to formulate Zimbabwe's Vision 2040
strategy
in Harare Friday, Tekere said Zimbabwe had been completely
destroyed by
Mugabe and his corrupt officials in government.
"We are
in a fix. Zimbabwe is thoroughly poor, thoroughly plundered; the
leadership
has stolen from it. It is completely destroyed," he said.
He said with
the rate at which the country was losing its resources through
corruption
and mismanagement by Mugabe, it would not be surprising "if the
country
wakes up one day to find it has also lost its flag and national
anthem.
"We don't have a currency of our own anymore," he
said.
"Now that we don't have a currency, the next thing we will end up
having no
flag and no anthem.
"What has happened to our resources?
Have they all been taken to Malaysia
and Hong Kong? Where is all this
plunder piling up?"
Tekere, a prominent fighter in Zimbabwe's liberation
war in the 70s,
accompanied Mugabe on his dramatic escape to Mozambique in
1975, where he
subsequently assumed leadership of ZANU in
exile.
Tekere now accuses Mugabe of embarking on the controversial Look
East
Policy. He claimed this was a ploy by Mugabe to sell out the country's
resources to his friends in Asia.
Even with the policy in place,
Tekere said, Zimbabwe was still not honouring
its debts to countries such as
China.
"Once upon a time, we bought some planes from China. There were
two of them.
I understand each was US$15 million and we got the third one
mbasera (as a
token of appreciation). Are you honoring our debts?"
He
also accused Mugabe of "losing his head" by calling US assistant
secretary
of state for African affairs, Johnnie Carson an idiot.
Mugabe spoke
following a discussion he held with Carson whom he met at the
African Union
meeting in Libya recently.
The American diplomat had apparently accused
the Zimbabwean leader of
violating the unity agreement he signed with his
former rivals in the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Tekere
then turned on Enos Nkala, who served with him in Zimbabwe's first
cabinet
in the early 1980s. He launched a tongue-in-cheek attack on the
former
Finance Minister, who was also his close friend, for alleged lack of
foresight when he once suggested that Zimbabwe had enough foreign currency
reserves to last for years.
Nkala was among the delegates attending
Friday's conference.
"You, Enos Nkala, you worked as Finance Minister.
It's unfortunate Tendai
Biti (current Finance Minister) is not here to
"uncrucify" you when I
crucify you.
"When you left that ministry, you
boasted we had enormous reserves. Now what
has happened today? Were you
lying?
"With the rate at which this country is losing its resources to
other
countries, it would not be surprising if you, Enos Nkala wake up one
morning
to find you have also lost your manhood. That is how poor we are
now," said
the former leader of the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), now
defunct.
Tekere, the former secretary-general of Zanu-PF was sacked from
the position
in 1988 after he clashed with the rest of the party's
leadership following
his single-handed campaign against
corruption.
He formed ZUM ahead of the 1990 general election. While the
party put up a
spirited fight it lost both the presidential and the
parliamentary
elections.
Since then Tekere's political fortunes have
declined considerably.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-18
21:06:25
HARARE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Non Aligned Movement
(NAM) has
thrown its weight behind the inclusive government in Zimbabwe and
expressed
hope it will successfully tackle national efforts to rebuild the
economy,
The Herald said on Saturday.
Leaders of the
118-member grouping made the observation at the
15th NAM summit in the
resort town of Sharm El-Sheik in Egypt.
In this regard, the
leaders, including Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe, who was honored to
chair the meeting on its second and last day,
called for the immediate
lifting of Western-imposed economic sanctions that
have crippled the
economy.
The leaders welcomed the signing of the Global
Political Agreement
(GPA) by Zimbabwe's three major parties, the Zanu-PF and
the two MDC
formations, and the formation of the inclusive
government.
They saluted the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) for
its successful mediation role and the region's ongoing
endeavors to help
Zimbabwe rebuild its economy.
On the
United Nations reform, the NAM summit stressed that efforts
should be made
to develop the full potential of the world body as it is the
central and
indispensable organ for addressing issues relating to the
international
cooperation.
The summit said the reform of the UN should be
transparent,
comprehensive and inclusive, and fully respecting the political
and
universal nature of the world body.
The NAM leaders
emphasized the need for the payment of assessed
contributions by major
contributors which is critical to the financial
stability of the
organization, to be timely, and to be without conditions so
as to enable the
UN to carry out its mandates effectively.
They added that a
reformed UN should be responsive to the entire
membership, faithful to its
founding principles and capable of carrying out
its
mandates.
Mugabe urged NAM to rise up the challenges of the
21st century in
order to remain relevant.
From ZWNEWS, 18 July
Bulawayo - The mass graves of those who perished in the
Gukurahundi genocide
25 years ago constitute forensic crime sites and should
not be disturbed
until medical experts are on hand to assemble evidence that
may be used in
trials. The call was made yesterday by the Matabeleland
Freedom Party (MFP)
which has long described the murders as genocide. From
1983 to 1987, shock
troops of the Fifth Brigade, answerable directly to
Robert Mugabe, murdered
between 20,000 and 40,000 men women and children in
Matabeleland. The
soldiers were led by Perence Shire who currently heads the
Zimbabwe Air
Force. Moves are now afoot to officially classify the massacre
as genocide.
Speaking by phone from Bulawayo, MFP spokesman, David Magagula,
told ZWNEWS
that his party was in touch with crime scene investigators from
Bosnia and
hoped to win funding so that a forensic sweep could me made of
the affected
sites. "When these graves are opened, experts must be there to
detail the
crime scene," he said. "They must take DNA from bones so we can
identify
victims, and to sift and assemble evidence that may be used in
war-crime
trials."
Similar work in identifying remains and cause
of death is underway in
Bosnia, East Timor and Cambodia. Mr Magagula said
that there was widespread
support in Matabeleland for a program of justice
and what he called "true
healing" over Gukurahundi. "We cannot forgive the
perpetrators when we have
not been told who to forgive or what crimes we are
supposed to pardon," he
said. "There must be a full and open investigation,
and part of this will
come from forensic evidence at the murder sites," he
said. The Matabeleland
Freedom Party manifesto includes demands for a
referendum on greater
autonomy for the southern regions of Zimbabwe. But Mr.
Magagula said that
delays in delivering justice were "hardening the minds of
our people.
Everywhere in Matabeleland today there are calls for complete
independence
from Zimbabwe," he said. "This move will only grow louder and
more radical
if there is no effort to address the genocide and place the
accused on
trial."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
www.chinaview.cn 2009-07-18
22:05:19
HARARE, July 18 (Xinhua) -- the Zimbabwean government
will start
collecting toll fees from motorists with effect from next month
to maintain
and upgrade national roads, Finance Minister Tendai Biti has
said.
Presenting the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy and revised budget
in
Parliament on Friday, Biti said the delay in introducing the fees gave
authorities enough time to consult.
The government
instructed the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra)
to set up some rudimentary
toll gate structures to facilitate the collection
of the money along the
major highways in March this year but shelved the
plan to consult
further.
According to Statutory Instrument 39 of 2009 published
in the
government Gazette in April this year, the government disclosed that
the
toll fees would be collected from ports of entry and on city to city
routes.
The vehicles registered by a diplomatic mission that
enjoys
privileges under the Privileges and Immunities Act, diplomat and
government
vehicles, vehicles belonging to a fire brigade or ambulance
service and
vehicles bearing Zimra logos will be exempted from paying
tolls.
Foreign buses or heavy goods vehicles that cross between
two ports
of entry shall also be exempted if they present proof of payment
of transit
charges.
The new toll fees are ranging from one
U.S. dollar to five U.S.
dollars.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=19924
July 17, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Austin Zvoma, the Clerk of Parliament, acted
beyond his powers by
suspending two convicted MDC MPs.
The two have
appealed against their sentences, human rights lawyers said
Friday.
On July 15, Zvoma suspended from Parliament Chipinge East MP
Matthias Mlambo
(MDC) after he was recently sentenced to 10 months in prison
by a Chipinge
magistrate, on what the MDC says are trumped up charges of
public violence.
The following day, Zvoma, also advised Shuah Mudiwa, the
Mutare West MP who
also represents the MDC, that he had been suspended from
Parliament
following his recent sentence of seven years imprisonment on a
charge of
kidnapping. Again the MDC says this case was contrived to
facilitate the
slashing of the party's slim but crucial parliamentary
majority.
Mudiwa, like Mlambo appealed against the sentences and both are
out of
prison.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) executive
director Irene Petras
said the suspension from parliamentary duties of
Mlambo and Mudiwa was null
and void.
"The purported letters of
suspension emanate from the Clerk of Parliament,
Austin Zvoma," Petras said.
"The suspension has been ordered despite the
fact that both MPs have
appealed their convictions and sentences and these
appeals have yet to be
considered by the courts and/or finalised."
Mlambo was convicted and
sentenced to 10 months in jail with hard labour on
May 11 after he was
found guilty of obstructing a police officer from
discharging his
duties.
The Chipinge East legislator was arrested on April 11 at the
funeral wake of
an MDC member in Chipinge, Manicaland. He was accused of
inciting MDC youth
members during his address.
The police alleged the
youths became hostile during the funeral.
Mudiwa, the MP for Mutare West
was sentenced to seven years in jail on
charges of kidnapping a 12-year old
girl.
The governor and resident minister for Manicaland, Christopher
Mushowe, who
lost the Mutare West seat to Mudiwa in the watershed March 29,
2008, polls,
is said to have influenced the court process.
Charges
against Mudiwa arose from an incident that occurred in November 2007
in
Marange in which Mudiwa, and his co-accused are alleged to have waylaid
the
girl who lives in Muchisi Village in Marange and kidnapped her.
Human
rights campaigners have said the law was being applied selectively in
a
deliberate strategy to reduce the number of MDC MPs in Parliament. But
Zanu-PF denies the suggestions.
The mainstream MDC has 100 seats in
the 210-seat House of assembly while
Zanu-PF has 99 and a breakaway MDC
faction holds 10 seats. Another seat is
held by Professor Jonathan Moyo, an
independent MP.
Petras said the Clerk of Parliament had no authority
under either the
Constitution of Zimbabwe or the Standing Rules and Orders
of the House of
Assembly to purport to suspend any Member of
Parliament.
"As such, his actions are null and void," Petras
said.
Section 42 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe says upon the sentencing
of a
legislator to death or a jail term of six months or more, 'such member
shall
cease forthwith to exercise his functions . and his seat shall become
vacant
at the expiration of 30 days from the date of such
sentence.'
But because Mlambo and Mudiwa both won the right to appeal
against their
sentences, this allowed them to continue their duties in
Parliament, until
the matters were finalised.
Petras said the action
taken by the Clerk of Parliament usurped the
functions of the judiciary and
violated the principle of separation of
powers.
"The unilateral
action also violates several fundamental rights and freedoms
which are
protected under the Declaration of Rights in the Constitution and
which the
state is obliged to ensure, both on behalf of the individuals, and
the
constituencies they represent," she said.
"Hon. Mlambo and Hon. Mudiwa
should be immediately permitted to continue
attending Parliament, exercising
their rights, and executing their
constitutional mandate.
"The Clerk
of Parliament should also desist from taking similar unlawful
action against
any other Member of Parliament who may have been convicted
and sentenced,
but who has filed an appeal against such conviction and
sentence."
Associated Press
By MICHELLE
FAUL (AP) - 3 hours ago
CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Doctors Without Borders
warned on Saturday that a
chronic shortage of drugs to treat AIDS in six
African countries could cost
thousands of lives and reverse progress made on
the continent most afflicted
by the disease.
In recent weeks, some
clinics have stopped accepting new patients, Eric
Goemaere, medical
coordinator in South Africa of the organization, which is
also known by its
French abbreviation MSF, told The Associated Press.
He said apathy of
governments, donors and the organizations they work with,
as well as the
global economic crisis, were to blame.
"There's no doubt people will die
as a consequence. It's a catastrophe in
the making," Goemaere said before
the opening of a four-day international
AIDS conference in Cape
Town.
A newsletter for the conference said, "Amidst a lingering global
recession
and reports that world leaders are retreating on prior
commitments, the
5,000 AIDS researchers, implementers and community leaders
gathering in Cape
Town this weekend are determined to raise their collective
voices."
The conference president, Dr. Julio Montaner of the Geneva-based
International AIDS Society, added, "Either we move forward or we will fall
back. That is the reality we face at this pivotal moment in HIV
scale-up."
The countries affected are Zimbabwe, Uganda, Congo, Malawi,
Guinea and South
Africa, with the last suffering the highest rate of AIDS
infection in the
world.
At the end of 2007, 33 million people
worldwide were living with HIV,
according to the World Health Organization.
Two-thirds of them live in
sub-Saharan Africa.
The Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which provides a
quarter of all
international financing to fight AIDS across the world, has
not received $3
billion to $4 billion in promised funding, according to Mit
Philips of the
MSF research center in Brussels.
"Some countries have committed but have
not paid and there's a lot of
uncertainty at an international level whether
the Global Fund will get the
money it needs," she said in a telephone
interview.
The fund has already slashed 10 percent from grants already
approved last
year, Philips said.
The fund's Web site says that,
since its creation in 2002, it has approved
$15.6 billion for more than 572
programs 140 countries.
In addition, Philips said, there has been no
promised increased in funds
from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief, a pet project of
President George W. Bush that is credited with
saving millions of lives.
On the campaign trail, President Barack Obama
promised to expand the program
by a billion dollars a year. But Philips said
funding has remained flat.
Goemaere said organizations using the project's
funds in Uganda have been
told to stop taking on new patients.
For
those who do not die, that means getting sicker and sicker before
getting
access to the drugs, that they may need expensive specialist care
instead of
that of ordinary health workers, and a greater likelihood of
suffering side
effects from the anti-retrovirals.
"It makes a huge difference if people
come walking in for treatment, or if
they are coming in on stretchers,"
Goemaere said. "We're very scared" of
hearing no new patients must be
enrolled.
Local news reports that some AIDS victims in South Africa's
KwaZulu-Natal
province have been forced to halt their drug regimen raise
other issues.
Such patients develop drug-resistance and then must be treated
with a more
expensive cocktail of medication.
Goemaere also feared
difficulties in getting drugs could reverse decades of
work to fight the
stigma attached to AIDS: "We will be going back to the
dark times with
people thinking that treatment is not reliable or not
accessible, so 'let's
hide the disease.'"
The United Nations last month warned governments
against using the global
economic crisis as an excuse to cut funding for
fighting AIDS at a time when
there are nearly five new HIV infections for
every two people put on
treatment.
"With reports of drug shortages
here and elsewhere foremost on our minds, we
must hold our leaders
accountable for the needless deaths that will result,
along with countless
preventable infections," said the South African
co-chairman of the
conference, Dr. Hoosen Jerry Coovadia, who is professor
in HIV/AIDS research
at the University of Natal-Durban.
Dear Family and Friends,
On the side
of the main highway near Harare there's a hand painted
sign on a piece of
battered tin. 'Bricks 4 Sale,' it says, the
message wedged into a forked
stick. Standing in a forlorn heap
alongside are the very bricks. Its a sad
little assortment of rubble:
lumps of red, odd sized, second hand bricks with
eroded edges, cracks
and chips and some even with splotches of white paint on
them.
A few kilometres away a very battered blue pick up truck with
no
number plates and a seriously twisted chassis is below a bridge
across
the main road collecting water from a stream. The stream bank
is full of
litter - plastic bags and drinks bottles, broken glass and
beer tins. In the
back of the truck there's a huge white plastic
container that must hold a
thousand or more litres. Three women and
four men are working in a line with
buckets, pouring murky water from
the polluted stream into the water tank.
A little further along the road a crooked tree branch is propped
up
with chunks of cement, a thin plank nailed onto the top. Standing in
a
line along the plank are six old plastic jam jars. They have no
lids and are
half filled with a murky brown liquid. "HUNEY" is the
sign that's written in
charcoal on a stone nearby.
A group of soldiers stand right in the road
trying to wave down a
lift and as you swerve to avoid them you see how very
young they are,
almost children still and yet wearing army camouflage. No
private cars
stop, no one knows who's who these days. The big 4x4's flick
past,
windows closed, doors locked, huge aerials swinging. On their
car
doors are the stickers announcing that they are the people
keeping
Zimbabwe alive, the international aid organizations.
Strange
scenes are everywhere in our broken country after a decade of
collapse, even
in upmarket suburbs. Rounding a corner in a quiet
residential neighbourhood
its not unusual to come across a great
gathering of people. At the hub is
whichever house in the street is
fortunate enough to have a borehole, and
whose owner is gracious
enough to share. A hosepipe over a wall fills
countless buckets, tins
and twenty litre plastic containers. Patiently men
and women wait for
a share, some carrying their containers in aching hands,
others
pushing wheelbarrows and hand carts.
Even with such abnormality
around us, not to mention the disgusting
scenes of hooliganism at the
constitutional conference recently,
there are little glimmers of light coming
into view. The removal of
20 US cents worth of government levies from fuel is
one, the lifting
of import duty on newspapers, mobile phones and computers is
another.
A breath of fresh air is blowing into our country and lets hope
it
turns into a gale and blows away what newspaper owner Wilf Mbanga
calls
Yesterday's Men. Until next week, thanks for reading, love
cathy Copyright
cathy buckle 18th July 2009.
www.cathybuckle.com
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force
Landline: 263 4 336710
Landline/Fax: 263 4
339065
Mobile: 263 11 603 213
Email: galorand@mweb.co.zw
Website: www.zctf.mweb.co.zw
Website: www.zimbabwe-art.com