Tsvangirai eyes protests to overthrow Zim government

http://mg.co.za/

CHEGUTU, ZIMBABWE - Jul 25 2011 07:57

Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
said his party would emulate protests that toppled governments in North
Africa if it deemed it necessary, Zimbabwe's Herald online reported on
Monday.

Addressing his supporters in Chegutu on Sunday, Tsvangirai said some people
blamed his party for not violently toppling the government.

"I want to tell foreigners who have been saying the MDC are this or that,
they have to know that each struggle has its own milestones.

"Yes, those in Egypt might have gone to the city and toppled the government
while those in Libya had to take weapons, in Malawi they are in the streets.

"The way we fight differs because the people and the conditions in that
country define each revolution ... another tactic can be employed ... we
don't want violence."

He urged Copac (Zimbabwe's Constitution Select Committee) to expedite the
constitution-making process so that the country could have a referendum in
October or November this year.

"There must be an agreement that there is no violence as we go for elections
and there should be a guarantee that whoever wins, will be respected," he
said.

'Threat to elections'
Zanu-PF is demanding the resignation of the head of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, creating an early threat to newly agreed regulations that would
bring far-reaching reforms of the way elections are run in the country.

If passed, the Zimbabwe electoral amendment Bill, a raft of electoral
reforms agreed to by Zanu-PF and the MDC, will remove control of elections
from an office run by a long-time ally of President Robert Mugabe and hand
it to the commission.

But war veterans, the radical core of Zanu-PF, have put pressure on the head
of the commission, retired Judge Simpson Mutambanengwe, to step down over
alleged criticism of the war veterans' behaviour and his insistence that
Zimbabwe is not ready for elections.

According to the Bill, Mutambanengwe is mandated to run all elections,
including a referendum on a new Constitution, expected by year-end, which
would pave the way for new elections. The commission will also be
responsible for printing and distributing ballot papers and the demarcation
of constituencies, a task previously performed by a delimitation commission.

Under the new law the electoral commission will have to release the results
of the presidential elections within five days, preventing a repeat of 2008
when it took five weeks before the results were announced.

'Phantom voters'
Observers see the reforms as a major concession by Zanu-PF, which has had a
tight hold on the electoral process. For decades elections have been run by
the registrar general, Tobaiwa Mudede, a Mugabe supporter. He has also
presided over a much-criticised voters' roll.

Last month the South African Institute of Race Relations exposed the fact
that an additional 2.6-million voters appeared on the roll. "Phantom voters"
include more than 40 000 people over the age of 100, 17 000 of them born on
the same date -- January 1 1901.

Mudede insisted the voters' roll was "100% perfect".

Douglas Mwonzora, MDC spokesperson, said: "The electoral reforms are the
first steps in the right direction and a clear respect of the people's
will."

Those gains now seem to be linked to Mutambanengwe's future. One of the
founding leaders of Zanu-PF, he was described by the party as "a man of
questionable moral standing in society".

'Matter of urgency'
Leaders of the war veterans said they wanted Mutambanengwe to step down
because, at a summit in Europe, he had accused them of violence.

Such remarks, they said, were "synonymous with the regime change agenda
proponents, hence the need for Justice Mutambanengwe to resign or be fired
from the country's electoral body as a matter of urgency".

He denied making the comments and said the charges were "a complete
falsehood". But he has previously raised the question of whether Zimbabwe
has dealt with its "culture of violence" adequately to allow for free
elections.

Mutambanengwe also said that Zimbabwe did not have the money to hold
elections, which would require $240-million. He said the commission was
"barely surviving" with only $8.5-million allocated to it.

"It is provided for in the constitution that we have to be adequately
funded. If our programmes are held back because the funds are not
forthcoming, who should say something about it?" he said this week.

This has angered Zanu-PF, which is still insisting on holding elections
despite opposition from rivals and regional leaders. -- Sapa, staff reporter

Police accused of inaction after ZANU PF attack in Parliament

http://www.swradioafrica.com

 

By Tichaona Sibanda
25 July 2011

The police approach to the violent disturbances in Parliament on Saturday is being described as unusual, even curious by Members of Parliament and some of the victims caught up in the violence

Foul mouthed and visibly drunk mobs from ZANU PF went about their violent business right in front of the riot police, in what is being attributed by legislators to a serious ‘deficiency’ by the partisan police force.

Mobs of ZANU PF supporters stormed the Parliament building in central Harare and disrupted a public hearing on the Human Rights Commission Bill. The police are being accused of being aware of the threat to the public hearing but not taking any action to deter violence and responding to the attack without urgency.

The consultative meeting, conducted by a Parliamentary group, had to be abandoned 45 minutes after it started when the ‘hired mob’ from Mbare began toy-toying, singing revolutionary sings and denouncing the MDC-T led by Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai.

The group assaulted the MDC-T’s Hwange Central legislator, Brian Tshuma and also beat up several Harare based journalists including SW Radio Africa correspondent Simon Muchemwa.

“The gang rounded on me for taking pictures of a group that was attacking Financial Gazette reporter, Levi Mukarati. Fortunately I managed to break free and fled the scene,” Muchemwa said.

He added: “The police did not do anything. They just stood there watching as the ZANU PF mob was mercilessly beating up people.”

Muchemwa said, rather than moving to protect the Parliament premises from potential violence, police details were more concerned about cancelling the event, because “ZANU PF representation inside the venue was outnumbered by whites and MDC groups.”

“Of course all this is nonsense because there were no whites inside the meeting. It is unbelievable I saw people being assaulted right in front of the police but they just stood there and did nothing. Imagine if this violence was instigated by anyone other than those from ZANU PF, I think hospital beds would be full in Harare with police casualties,” Muchemwa added.

MDC-T Senator for Zaka, Misheck Marava, and leader of the Parliamentary group that convened the Harare meeting, said police were slow to respond to the violent protesters who broke into the House of Assembly.

The Senator said they will sit down soon as Parliamentary committees to express their outrage and demand an explanation from the authorities.

“The dismissive response by the police to requests for assistance was a failure to protect the right to free expression. As a politician I can say I was hugely embarrassed with what happened and I can only describe the police inaction as a major deficiency in policing,” Marava said.

He added: “The police should have moved quickly to protect people both inside and outside Parliament. The government, including the police, have a duty to protect the right of Zimbabweans to participate in Parliamentary hearings.”

President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team, which left Harare on Friday, said they were outraged at the latest outbreak of violence, just a few metres away from Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai’s offices.

A SADC summit in Zambia at the end of June demanded an end to ‘violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and any other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement’. But that rebuke has not discouraged ZANU PF militants, who continue targeting MDC supporters in different parts of the country.

Lindiwe Zulu, spokesperson for the facilitation team told SW Radio Africa that “any violence coming from any quarter at any time is really just not acceptable.”

“It is very unfortunate. That’s what Livingstone was about. The leaders at Livingstone took a firm decision to call on all three political parties to deal with that issue of violence, but also called on them to create an environment that is conducive for political activities for everybody,” Zulu said

SADC team shelves security sector talks

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

by Irene Madongo
25 July 2011

The SADC facilitation team on Zimbabwe has confirmed that it did not discuss
the crucial question of security sector reforms, when they met
representatives of political parties in the coalition government last week.

The security sector is widely blamed for inflicting violence on those
opposed to ZANU PF, especially during elections. The MDC-T has been ardently
calling for the reforms, but these are being resisted by army chiefs and
Robert Mugabe. This month the MDC-T reportedly said it was not happy with
the road map for elections because it does not address reform of the
military, to ensure the country’s generals and other top officers do not
meddle in electoral politics.

But facilitator Lindiwe Zulu told SW Radio Africa on Monday that the issue
will be discussed at a later stage, despite it being a key stumbling block
to progress. Zulu said the main purpose of the trip last week was to look at
the road map to the elections, especially to set the time frames.

“We had meetings with the different political parties, not necessarily the
negotiators as a whole. We are going to have a meeting with the negotiators
very soon so that we can look at the time frames, and what that means and
what are the plans around that,” she explained.

Asked why security-sector reform was not raised on this occasion, she said
the negotiators should discuss it with their principals first. She also said
it would be raised when she met them formally in their capacity as
negotiators. This time round they had met representatives of the different
political parties.

“It’s their job to discuss the issue. The three parties of the GPA have got
a responsibility to deal with those issues, and some of the outstanding
issues still have to go to their principals, and ourselves too,” she
explained, “we’ll deal with those issues once we’ve had an opportunity to
[present] a report to our principal [Jacob Zuma], but also we’ll deal with
these issues once we meet with all of them as negotiators.”

She said her team was looking at meeting the negotiators in the next one or
two weeks. They are made up of Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche
(ZANU-PF); Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma (MDC-T); and Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Moses Mzila-Ndlovu (Welshman Ncube’s MDC).

Mangoma on Monday also confirmed that the issue of security sector reform
had not been raised in their talks. But he said it will be raised at the
upcoming meeting.

“We discussed issues that needed to be attended to, but we didn’t discuss
the details about how to go about the security sector reform,” he explained.
“Our position is there on paper and this required us to meet as a group with
the facilitator to be able to discuss not just that, but all the other
issues.”

The meeting will take place ahead of a SADC summit next month, at which
South African President Zuma is expected to present a progress report,
including a road map toward Zimbabwe’s next elections.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the Zimbabwe Media Commission refused to
meet the facilitation team while it was in the country last week. Zulu said:
“The Media Commission said to us that they needed us to give them enough
time, number one; but also they said they needed us to also alert the
minister responsible that we are coming and we need to have meetings with
them. We don’t have a problem with that if that’s the procedure that we need
to agree on.”

White farmer arrested for insulting Mugabe

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Pindai Dube
Monday, 25 July 2011 13:04

BULAWAYO - Police have arrested a 76-year-old white commercial farmer and
miner, Mike Van Royen, in a move viewed as meant to facilitate the grabbing
of his farming and mining business by Zanu PF officials.

Van Royen was arrested on Friday in Bulawayo on charges of insulting
President Robert Mugabe.

He runs Cynthia Mine and Asher Estates in Matobo district in Matabeleland
South province, which was a scene of earlier clashes between a group of Zanu
PF youth and his workers.

Van Royen told the Daily News that the youth were led by Zanu PF Bulawayo
provincial deputy secretary for transport Joel Tshuma, who could be eyeing
the businesses.

Before Van Royen’s arrest on Friday, Tshuma led a group of Zanu PF youths to
Asher Estates Farm and Cynthia Mine on Monday and locked all gates and
threatened Van Royen’s workers, according to the ageing farmer.

They subsequently barred Van Royen from entering the farm and mine, which he
has been running for the past 36 years.

Charges against Van Royen are that last week he was phoned by Tshuma over
the farm and mining businesses and he told the Zanu PF activist “to go and
hang together with Mugabe”.

He is being charged under Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act.

Van Royen’s lawyer, Tawanda Mashayamombe of Mashayamombe and Company
confirmed the arrest. He said he had already secured a High Court order
granted by the High Court Judge for his client’s release.

“He is facing charges of insulting the President but the High Court has
already granted an order for his release on medical grounds. He is suffering
from a heart problem. So as I am speaking to you I am at the Bulawayo
Central police station and police have released him into my custody until he
appears in court on Monday (today),”said Mashayamombe.

Contacted for comment, Tshuma said: “I know Van Royen but all other things
which people are saying, that I beat his workers are lies. They just want to
tarnish my image.”

There are currently just over 200 white commercial farmers left out of at
least 4 500 white farmers who used to farm in Zimbabwe before land invasions
began in 2000.

Mugabe has repeatedly defended the often-violent land reforms as necessary
to correct historical imbalances.

Critics say the land reform went overboard and effectively turned into a
grab-and-loot exercise by the ruling elite and their connections.

Police ban ‘Free the Airwaves’ concert

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Alex Bell
25 July 2011

The police have banned a concert to campaign for the opening up of the
airwaves, despite previously giving the event the green light.

According to media rights group, MISA-Zimbabwe, the police did not know that
the concert, slated to take place in Warren Park, was a ‘public awareness
activity’. The event, dubbed “Free the Airwaves Now” was organised by MISA
together with the Artists for Democracy Trust group to lobby for urgent
broadcasting reforms.

But Warren Park police officers have said they only became aware of the
scope of the event when a preview article was published by the NewsDay
newspaper. The concert has now been cancelled because of the police ban.

MISA-Zimbabwe Director Nhlanhla Ngwenya said the banning of the concert “is
clearly an erosion of our rights to affirm and express ourselves.”

The “Free the Airwaves” concerts are platforms that MISA-Zimbabwe says it
uses “to build public support in lobbying the authorities on the need for
wholesale broadcasting reforms that will completely liberate the airwaves in
line with regional and international treaties on freedom of expression.”

The broadcasting sector continues to be dominated by the state-run ZBC,
despite the urgent media reforms dictated by the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) that formed the unity government.

Recently, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) announced its
intentions to licence two commercial radio stations, in a move widely
criticised as nothing more than a ZANU PF ‘ruse’, to give the illusion that
the media landscape is reforming.

Last week, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Luke
Tamborinyoka, told SW Radio Africa that the licencing plans “is all part of
ZANU PF’s machinations ahead of the next SADC summit to give the impression
that the airwaves are being freed.”

MISA-Zimbabwe meanwhile said in a statement that it “condemns the barring of
peaceful civil events and gatherings such as the one slated for Warren Park
as not only undemocratic but indicative of the extent to which the police
are arbitrarily abusing their authority to violate citizens’
constitutionally guaranteed rights.”

“It is such arbitrary actions that the coalition government should urgently
address and curb to prevent the country’s plunge into a police state,”
MISA-Zimbabwe said.

Zimbabwe man charged with insulting Mugabe in joke

http://www.monstersandcritics.com

Jul 25, 2011, 15:49 GMT

Harare - Harare court officials on Monday ordered a 52-year-old Zimbabwean
man to stand trial for allegedly telling a work colleague that President
Robert Mugabe's death was imminent in an apparent joke that misfired.

Zebedia Mpofu allegedly mocked a colleague, informing him that a soft drink
and packet of biscuits he was having for lunch came courtesy of Zimbabwe's
economic policies under Mugabe's main rival, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.

Mpofu, a general labourer at a private security firm in Harare, has been
charged with undermining the authority or insulting the president.

'He went further to say that President Mugabe had ruined the country and
that he was going to be dead by December 2011. Then Morgan Tsvangirai would
take over as President of Zimbabwe,' according to the state case, which
ordered Mpofu to report to court.

Jeremiah Bamu of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights successfully asked
the court to move the trial date to August 11 to have time to prepare a
defence.

Mpofu joins several other Zimbabweans, from politicians to ordinary
villagers, mainly from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party,
who are facing charges of insulting or undermining Mugabe.

Judge gives police green light to access Biti phone calls

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Lance Guma
25 July 2011

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court
after the High Court on Friday dismissed his attempt to block police
accessing his mobile phone call register from Econet.

Biti approached the High Court seeking an interdict preventing mobile phone
network provider Econet from disclosing any information about his phone
lines “without a valid court order”. The MDC-T Secretary General says the
police are trying to abuse their position by claiming they are investigating
criminal activities.

Only a few weeks ago the state media were trying to make the case that Biti
was having an affair with an economist in his ministry. The request for his
phone records is being seen as an attempt to try and prove that allegation
and discredit the Minister. The alleged mistress was also one of five
employees in the Ministry who were arrested by police on dubious charges
that included ‘unauthorised trips’.

Police claim they are investigating a case of suspected fraud in which Biti
“is believed to have authorised several foreign trips for a female economist
in the ministry and giving her travel and subsistence allowances at special
rates.” The police obtained a warrant from a Magistrate’s Court to get Biti’s
phone records. But the Minister then approached the High Court to block
this.
On Friday Justice Chinembiri Bhunu said while Biti “has the right to privacy
under section 18 of the constitution, that right is not absolute. The police
also have the legal right to detect, investigate and arrest suspects. Thus
where the police have reasonable cause to investigate crime the subject’s
right to privacy must of necessity give way for the common good and public
interest to fight crime.”

It’s widely believed the campaign to vilify and tarnish the image of Biti is
a covert operation by the Central Intelligence Organisation trying to smear
several MDC leaders with stories of alleged affairs and other sex traps.

MDC-T National Executive member Charlton Hwende was initially sucked into
the Biti-affair story by the state owned Sunday Mail before the paper later
issued a retraction. On Monday Hwende told SW Radio Africa “we know they
(ZANU PF) are desperate, they have lost support and don’t know how to move
forward. All they can do is give us non- existent wives and girlfriends.”

Meanwhile Biti has also been the subject of an escalating hate campaign
directed by Mugabe. Following a bust up between Biti and Mugabe in a
meeting, a petrol bomb was thrown at the durawall of his house and ZANU PF
has sponsored several demonstrations at his office.
Additionally a senior police chief recently asked traditional chiefs and
headmen in Murewa to generate lighting to kill Biti, claiming civil servants
will never get a decent wage as long as he is Finance Minister.

Workers demand expulsion of Chinese

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Edward Jones     Monday 25 July 2011

HARARE – Zimbabwean workers at Chinese cotton firm Sino-Zimbabwe Cotton
Holdings at the weekend demanded the expulsion of Chinese nationals running
businesses in the country after a march to protest failure by the company to
pay their wages.

The workers first demonstrated against the management at the company’s
factory near Hopley, a settlement just outside the capital Harare before
marching to its headquarters in the centre of the city.

The placard-wielding workers accused the management of being insensitive to
their plight by refusing to increase their monthly salaries.

“They are not paying our wages and yet they abuse the very same workers.
Enough is enough, they should go back to their country,” one of the workers
said during the march.

Management at Sino-Zimbabwe could not be reached for comment.

Sino-Zimbabwe was last year accused of using political muscle to
clandestinely purchase cotton from farmers contracted by local companies.

The Cotton Ginners Association of Zimbabwe approached the High Court to stop
the company from purchasing the cotton. Sino-Zimbabwe rejected the
accusations.

Zimbabwe has for the last seven years increasingly leaned on China to shore
up its troubled economy after President Robert Mugabe fell out with Western
donor nations. Critics accuse the Chinese of mistreating local employees.

In Zambia there were riots over pay disputes in Zambia’s Copperbelt region,
which saw some protester being shot.

China is one of the biggest investors in Zambia’s mining industry but its
companies have not enjoyed an easy ride with staff, unions or the political
opposition, which routinely accuses them of abuses. -- ZimOnline
 

ZBC Asked To Respond To Hate Language Allegations

http://www.radiovop.com/

Harare, July 25, 2011 – The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee
(JOMIC) has asked the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) to urgently respond to allegations of using the hate language and
partisan reporting.

Information obtained by Radio VOP indicates that Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party has formally
lodged a complaint with JOMIC over ZBC’s unprofessionalism.

In a lengthy letter of complaint to JOMIC national director, Patience
Chiradza in February this year, the MDC-T charged that the ZBC was
constantly subjecting Tsvangirai and its leadership, including Finance
Minister Tendai Biti, to public flogging during its news bulletins.

The party said ZBC's actions were against the spirit of the inclusive
government as spelt out by the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by
Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara in September, 2008.

It further accused the ZBC of using hate language and showing open biased
towards President Mugabe and his party Zanu (PF) despite the three parties
in the GPA agreeing on sweeping media reforms, including the reform of the
ZBC.

The MDC-T, in its letter of complaint, further charged that the ZBC through
its radio and television broadcasts, daily denigrated Prime Minister
Tsvangirai.

Information at hand indicates that JOMIC, established under Article XXII of
the GPA between Zanu (PF) and the two formations MDC, wrote to the ZBC on 20
July, 2011, demanding that the state broadcaster’s chief executive officer,
Happison Muchechetere, respond to the allegations raised by the MDC-T
through its secretary general Biti.

The letter to Muchechetere was handed to the ZBC, the same day when JOMIC
held a workshop and hosted a luncheon for all editors from both the private
and state media.

The MDC-T has also lodged formal complaints with JOMIC over statements
attributed to Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba that President Mugabe
must die in office and that soldiers would salute Tsvangirai even if he won
the next presidential elections.

JOMIC, which is being accused of being a toothless bull-dog, is composed of
12 senior members with four each drawn from the three partners in the GPA.

Apart from ensuring the implementation of the letter and spirit of the GPA,
JOMIC is charged with receiving reports and complaints in respect of any
issue related to the implementation, enforcement and execution of the GPA as
well as serving as a catalyst in creating and promoting an atmosphere of
mutual trust and understanding between the three political parties.

Disgruntlement Over Civil Servants Salaries

http://www.radiovop.com/

Harare, July 25, 2011 - Sharp differences have emerged within the country’s
civil servants as it emerges there are disgruntlements over the latest
salary increase for public workers which range between US$31 and US$100.

While the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Teachers Union of
Zimbabwe (TUZ) welcomed the increments, the combative and militant
Progressive Teachers Union Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and the Zimbabwe Nurses
Association (ZINA) said in separate interviews with Radio VOP they were
disappointed by the “meagre” award.

Both PUTZ and ZINA categorically stated that the money was “very little” and
not enough to sustain the worker in an environment where the poverty dictum
line is estimated at US$502.

Latest statistics show that averagely the least paid government worker got
US$253.

Raymond Majongwe, the secretary general of PUTZ, said the government was
playing games with the lives of civil servants. He said his union was not
happy at all with the increment.

“We are not happy at all, no sober person and no genuine worker will say
they are happy with this increment, the money is just too little,” he said.

ZINA chairperson for Harare province Mugove Chipfurutse said he was equally
disappointed with the government for giving civil servants such a low wage
increase and that it was not what they were expecting.

“Things are not good for us the money we got is way below our expectations.
A senior nurse getting average of US$384 and a junior nurse getting an
average of US$350 is just not enough, it is not what we were expecting” said
Chipfurutse.

A teacher who preferred to be unanimous also expressed his dismay over the
increment saying the
President Robert Mugabe and the two Movements for Democratic Change (MDC)
formations have been at logger-heads of civil servants salaries.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti last week told parliament that there would be
no supplementary budget to carter for civil servants salary increment.

There was speculation the award could have been financed from the sale of
the Marange diamonds.

Company makes civil service salary pledge

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

25/07/2011 00:00:00
    by Staff Reporter

THE state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) has pledged
to continue subsidising civil service salaries but denied allegations it was
refusing to work with the Ministry of Finance over the issue.

Government workers last week received a salary hike with the least paid
employee earning US$253, up from about US$128.

The issue had long divided the coalition government after President Robert
Mugabe told restive state employees their salaries would be adjusted in June
while Finance Minister Tendai Biti insisted that treasury was skint.

It later emerged that the increment was funded by proceeds from diamond
mining activities in the controversial Marange fields where the ZMDC is
involved in joint ventures with some foreign companies.

Still, it was claimed that ZMDC by-passed Biti and paid the US$40 million
directly to the government’s paymaster, the Salary Service Bureau.
ZMDC chief, Godwills Masimirembwa dismissed the allegations, insisting there
was nothing irregular about the payment.

"(The allegation) is a figment of the imagination of detractors who were not
happy with the progress. ZMDC operates through the Ministry of Mines (which)
gave the Ministry of Finance money to pay the state workers through
Treasury,” the ZMDC boss told The Herald.

"The accountant-general in Minister Biti's office, Judith Madzorera, who
handles the funds, will (confirm) that the money, was not paid directly (to
SSB) but it came through Treasury," he said.

Biti, who claims revenues from the diamond activities are not being remitted
into treasury, maintains that the government does not have the capacity to
sustain the salary increase leaving civil servants uncertain whether the
payment was just a one-off.

"The increment that the government awarded the entire civil service is
welcome although it is not enough," Kundai Sibanda who works in the
Information ministry told local media.

"Most of us have received $100 as an increment per month. We are worried
this money might not be able to be coming next month.”

However, Masimirembwa said the ZMDC was prepared to continue subsidising the
increment.

“There are no complications from this arrangement as some are claiming,” he
said.
"ZMDC and its partners would continue to mine and sell diamonds for the
benefit of Zimbabweans.”

Zanu PF running an illegal parallel Finance Ministry

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/

25/07/2011 12:34:00    Staff Reporter

HARARE, - Zimbabwe's state media has reported that the state mining
corporation says it is paying government employee raised this month with
revenues from controversy-mired diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe in a
development that raises the stakes for a new parallel government with its
own Finance Ministry under Zanu PF.

The Finance Ministry, controlled by the prime minister's party in the
troubled coalition, has said it didn't have the money from taxes to pay wage
hikes.

But media loyal to President Robert Mugabe reported Monday that the head of
Mining Development Corp., Goodwills Masimirembwa, said it was paying raises
to some 200,000 state employees. The raises add an estimated $40 million to
the monthly salaries tab.

Mugabe has called for early elections to end the coalition and in April
promised raises to teachers and other civil servants who had threatened
strike action.

‘Mugabe on way out’

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

By Xolisani Ncube, Staff Writer
Monday, 25 July 2011 12:36

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has claimed that President Robert
Mugabe is on his way out of power due to old age and waning support but
urged his supporters to be patient to allow him a peaceful exit.

The MDC leader, also revealed that regional leaders, are now fed up with the
87-year-old leader who has been flouting the Sadc-initiated and guaranteed
Global Political Agreement (GPA) which brought about the shaky inclusive
government.

The inclusive government was formed after Tsvangirai trounced Mugabe in the
March presidential elections but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
said the MDC leader, did not garner enough votes.

A presidential run-off election was called for but Tsvangirai pulled out due
to excessive violence against his supporters. Mugabe went on to contest in a
one-man poll which was condemned by Sadc, the African Union and the
international community as a sham.

Tsvangirai spoke of Mugabe’s exit while addressing thousands of people at a
packed Pfupajena Stadium in Chegutu yesterday.

He also spoke on the election roadmap, violence which has engulfed the
country and Mugabe’s costly travels around the world.

He told his supporters that there was no need to emulate the uprisings in
North Africa because Mugabe was “finished” and added that different
countries use different means to resolve their political problems.

“Each revolution is defined by the country’s people depending on prevailing
conditions. It’s not that the people of Zimbabwe are cowards to choose the
path we have chosen. Pari zvino chandinoziva ndechekuti kana uchinoviga
munhu mukuru hamungomutore mumba mobva maenda naye kumakuva, munosumudzira
muchimisa, muchisimudzira muchimisa, kusvika masvika naye.

(We should not hurry on the old man, we know he is on his way out. We will
be patient with him because we know he is going.)

Tsvangirai, who has for the past two years has been holding regular meetings
with Mugabe, also pointed out that Sadc leaders now understood the MDC
better and also implied that they also wanted Mugabe to step down.

In March, the Daily News exclusively revealed that regional leaders were
planning to persuade Mugabe to retire and hand over power to younger and
energetic leaders.

Tsvangirai said regional leaders were exhausted with the never-ending Zanu
PF culture of violence and wanted the Zimbabwe crisis solved quickly.

“Sadc leaders said you people from Zimbabwe you are a problem, we want you
to go and sit down and tell us what you are going to do before elections,
because this is not ending,” he said.

Tsvangirai said while his party wanted elections as soon as possible, the
MDC would not participate in an election where violence is the tool for
winning.

“We want a new constitution early, let me tell Mwonzora here that please
expedite the constitution making process so that we end this thing
(inclusive government) and get over it as early as possible,” said
Tsvangirai.

He formed a shaky coalition with his old arch rival 28 months ago in a bid
to halt catastrophic economic problems which had crippled the nation, but in
the past six months, the government has not been operating properly due to
violations of the GPA by Zanu PF.

“Over the last six months, the culture of violence which we thought we had
buried when we formed is back again. The spirit in Zanu PF is of violence,”
he said.

Tsvangirai said Zanu PF is scared of free and fair elections because they
have a documented culture of violence.

“The attack us claiming we are violent but are we the party that killed
people in Matabeleland, are we the party that carried out Operation
Murambatsvina, are we the party that stormed Parliament and beat up people,
are we the ones who beat up people during the constitutional commission
reform?” asked Tsvangirai to a thunderous response from the crowd.

He said the culture of violence only pointed at Zanu PF.

At the weekend, Zanu PF militants stormed Parliament and assaulted an MDC
Member of Parliament and journalists saying they did not want the Human
Rights Bill to be discussed.

The Bill would eventually create an independent Human Rights Commission that
reports directly to parliament.

Zanu PF, which since independence has orchestrated various human rights
violations is worried that a Human Rights Commission will investigate
callous murderous activities like the Gukurahundi massacres in the Midlands
and Matabeleland which resulted in the death of about 20 000 civilians.

Mugabe’s party has spread violence to several centres in the country in
recent weeks.

Turning to accusations in the state media that he had blown millions of
dollars in travelling, Tsvangirai laughed it off and said it was ridiculous
as it is Mugabe who is well-known for his appetite for travelling.

Tsvangirai said Mugabe is a chief globe-trotter who cannot afford to spend
time at home.

“I was reading a newspaper today that I have been described as someone with
spirits of travelling a lot, but let me ask, where is Mugabe now?

“He went to a youth conference, is he a youth? How do you have an
87-year-old man sharing with an 18-year-old person? How do you compare the
two?” asked Tsvangirai.

Speaking at the same rally, MDC chairman and speaker of Parliament Lovemore
Moyo castigated Zanu PF youths who invaded parliament yesterday.

He said the behaviour is deplorable and should not the condoned.

“Shame on them! Parliament is an important institution which is respected,
this thing where a young boy can go and disturb the work of Parliament to
the extent of beating up an MP is taboo,” said Moyo.

Glen View residents in new bail application

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Tendai Kamhungira, Court Writer
Monday, 25 July 2011 13:17

HARARE - Eight Glen View residents and MDC activists who have been
languishing in remand prison for over eight weeks on allegations of killing
a policeman have launched a fresh bid for freedom.

The High Court will tomorrow hear a fresh bail application filed by the
residents’ lawyer Jeremiah Bamu of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
They cite changed circumstances and the “weakening” of the state case as
reasons why their bail application should succeed this time around.

The eight are Councillor Tungamirai Madzokere, Rebecca Mafukeni, Yvonne
Musarurwa, Cynthia Fungai Manjoro, Stanford Maengahama, Lazarus Maengahama,
Stanford Mangwiro and Phineas Nhatarikwa.

Some of their co-accused are already out on bail. The residents and
activists are citing the passage of time as one of the reasons why they
should be freed on bail.

Because the trial date has not yet been set, the residents argue that their
stay in incarceration is now indefinite.

“A prolonged and indefinite stay in custody is akin to investigative
detention which our courts have frowned upon. This is especially so when the
presumption of innocence still operates in applicant’s favour,” reads the
application.

The residents also base their bail bid on the fact that 16 of their
co-accused were granted bail and they argue that this is a material change
in circumstances.

They also argue that none of those granted bail have breached their bail
conditions, a position which they say renders the state’s fears baseless.

“The applicants have a right to be treated in the same manner as their
co-accused and the conduct of those who are granted bail is indicative of
their own conduct should they be granted bail,” read the application.

The activists say the state’s case is weak and has not been strengthened by
the passage of time.

They argue that investigators have not collected any further evidence since
their arrest and imprisonment, a factor they say shows that the police are
not certain as to who the real perpetrators are.

The residents say there are no good grounds for the state to oppose their
bail application. Prosecutors are opposing bail.

On their initial remand, the suspects, together with those already granted
bail, appeared in court with visible marks of assault during their time in
police custody. This prompted magistrate Shane Kubonera to order an
investigation into possible torture. He also ordered that the residents be
given immediate medical attention, a ruling which prison authorities went on
to defy.

Police arrested the 24 residents and MDC activists following the death of
Inspector Petros Mutedza during a public brawl at a shopping centre in Glen
View in May this year. The MDC accuses the police of using Mutedza’s killing
as justification to crack down on the party’s activists.

Amplats says still in Zimbabwe ownership plan talks

http://af.reuters.com

Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:53pm GMT

By Ed Stoddard

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Anglo American Platinum has not received any
rejection notice from the Zimbabwean government over its plan to transfer a
majority stake in its local operation to black investors, the company's
chief executive said on Monday.

Neville Nicolau also said in an interview with Reuters that a potential
seizure of its Zimbabwe operations would have little impact on its bottom
line, adding the country had long-term potential for the firm.

Zimbabwe last week said it had rejected all 175 proposals it had received
from foreign mining firms outlining their plans to comply with a
controversial ownership law, and will kick out any firms that don't meet a
September deadline.

"We haven't received any rejection from the government and remain in talks
with them," Nicolau told Reuters after a presentation of Amplats' interim
results.

He said discussions focused on how much past deals would count as credits
towards compliance and how much would be straight equity.

The government of President Robert Mugabe says foreign mining firms must
sell or transfer a majority stake of their operations there to local black
investors or face losing their assets.

Amplats' main Zimbabwean asset is its Unki mine, which is expected to
produce some 30,000 ounces of platinum this year against a group target of
2.6 million ounces.

Nicolau said the loss of its Zimbabwean operations would hardly dent its
balance sheet or income statement but the company was committed to the
country because of its mineral wealth. Only South Africa has larger proven
reserves of platinum group metals.

"If we had to shut down and they took 100 percent of the mine, and they
kicked us out of the country ,it would be an absolutely nominal impairment
on Anglo American Platinum ... It might be 1 percent in terms of our asset
value," he said.

"So why do we bother going through the issues in Zimbabwe? It's because the
mine has a long life. It has the opportunity to increase production with
relatively little capital."

He said there were few options for miners looking for platinum metals.

"Other than South Africa, it's really the only other place in the world
where you find platinum group metals," he added.

Zim environmental group warns of serious poaching threat

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Alex Bell
25 July 2011

A wildlife and conservation group in Zimbabwe has warned that poaching is
reaching critical levels, which threatens not only the welfare of the
country’s wildlife, but also future tourism.

The Wildlife and Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ) group said that wildlife areas
in the South East Lowveld are under serious threat, including the Gonarezhou
National Park, Manjinji Bird Sanctuary, Chipinge and Malapati Safari Areas,
Bubiana, Chiredzi River, Save and Malilangwe conservancies. These all make
up part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation area, which is the
world’s largest interregional conservation park.

The WEZ said serious poaching is taking place in the areas, with elephants
being killed for ivory, rhinos for the horns and lions, zebra, leopards and
cheetahs all being killed for their skins. The group said this is all
commercial poaching and if it is not prevented quickly “we can right off
wildlife in the Lowveld and we should forget about our participation in the
Great Limpopo Transfrontier tourism.”

The same area is also under serious threat from people who are invading the
conservation areas and killing the elephants and antelopes for meat. The WEZ
said that people are also killing lions and crocodiles because they are
viewed as “pests.”

“They are clearing vegetations for crops such as maize and cotton but the
areas under wildlife are not suitable for cropping and are not good for
cattle ranching as well,” the WEZ said.

The group said: “WEZ appeals to the powers that be to help remove these
people and help them by settling in suitable areas where they can do their
cropping.”

The group added that it has appealed to the Ministries of Environment and
Tourism to intervene, before wildlife in the area goes extinct.

“WEZ is prepared to help The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority with
anti- poaching operations and supplying the intelligent information related
to poaching but for WEZ to do this we request Government to re-establish the
positions of honorary Park officers or warden. Those involved will operate
knowing that they are operating legally within the parameters of the Parks
and Wildlife Act and with the authority derived from the Minister in charge
of Wildlife and Environment,” the group said.

ZIMSTATS to conduct pilot census

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Thulani Munda     Monday 25 July 2011

HARARE -- The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTATS) will conduct a
pilot census project next month to test the country’s preparedness ahead of
next year’s population count, it said on Monday.

The pilot census will be held from 18 to 28 August, ZIMSTATS said, adding
that the head count will cover a total of 100 enumeration areas across the
country’s 10 provinces.

“It needs to be stressed that the pilot census is a national project that
requires support of everyone,” ZIMSTAT said in a statement.

ZIMSTATS, which was formerly known as the Central Statistical Office, has
counted the number of Zimbabweans every 10 years since the first census in
1982.

Previous censuses have shown Zimbabwe’s population increasing with the 2002
enumeration exercise putting the number of people in the country at around
12 million.

But analysts expect the next census to show either a drop in population
growth or stagnation after a political and economic crisis drove at least
three million people or a quarter of the country’s population to foreign
countries in search for jobs and better leaving conditions. – ZimOnline

Journalists assaulted at parliament

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Journalists Aaron Ufumeli and Lev Mukarati were on 23 July 2011 reportedly
assaulted and harassed by suspected Zanu PF supporters who were part of a
public hearing on the Human Rights Bill that was being conducted at the
Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare.
25.07.1104:57pm
by MISA

Ufumeli, chief photographer with Alpha Media Holdings publishers of The
Standard, Zimbabwe Independent and Newsday, was manhandled by the mob that
tried to grab his camera while the others demanded that he delete the
pictures he had taken.

Mukarati who works for the Financial Gazette was attacked with clenched
fists and kicked by the crowd. The mob accused the journalists who work for
the private press of writing falsehoods as well as not singing the national
anthem in addition to working for the “wrong papers”.

MP for Hwange Brian Tshuma was also reportedly assaulted by the mob.
MISA-Zimbabwe position

MISA-Zimbabwe condemns the assaults and calls upon the police to deal with
this lawlessness and arrest any members of the pubic bent on violating the
media’s freedom to access information and the citizens’ right to freedom of
expression and association.

The fact that the attacks happened at Parliament Building with an MP
reportedly being assaulted under the police’s watch speaks volumes about
these acts of impunity that place the lives of journalists and innocent
citizens at great risk.

This lawlessness is very worrying indeed given that the Parliament of
Zimbabwe is not only a high security zone but is also supposed to be the
citadel of civility and permissiveness of diverse views as evidenced by the
multi-party composition of both the House of Assembly and the Senate.

The fact that none of the assailants were arrested gives the culprits free
reign and endangers the lives of Zimbabwean journalists especially those
working for the private press as their safety and security cannot be
guaranteed by the police as they conduct their lawful professional duties
throughout the country.

The three principals to the inclusive government, President Robert Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Deputy Professor Arthur Mutambara
and their respective political parties, should demand explanations from the
police on what transpired for purposes of accounting for the culprits who
should face the full wrath of the law.

Diamond barons back in dock

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Everson Mushava, Staff Writer
Monday, 25 July 2011 14:09

HARARE - Fresh charges are hanging for diamond moguls, former Zimbabwe
Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) boss Dominic Mubaiwa and Core Mining
and Minerals Resources director Lovemore Kurotwi when they appear before the
High Court today, according to their lawyer.
The two are already facing fraud charges for alleged irregular diamond
mining licensing in alluvial stones-rich Marange area.

Earlier, the state alleged that government was prejudiced of $10 million by
the two but later changed the figure to $2 billion.

Advocate Lewis Uriri, representing the two, said the state was expected to
press new criminal charges against Kurotwi and Mubaiwa today.

“We will oppose the charges and if we succeed, the case proceeds to a trial
with charges in their present form. If we do not succeed, we will be given
10 days to respond to the new charges and go for trial,” said Uriri.

He said since the current High Court term was ending this Friday, the trial
would only resume after September 5 when a new term opens.

The state in April this year successfully applied to change the quantum
involved in the case from $10 million to $2 billion.

The state then said Kurotwi and Mubaiwa connived with a South African
company BSGR, which had shown interest in Marange to prejudice the state of
$2 billion by misrepresenting facts about the funding of the venture.

Kurotwi’s outfit, Canadile Miners later had its license to mine in Marange
revoked after the state allegedly uncovered the alleged fraud.

The two had initially been charged with three other ZMDC officials whose
charges the state later withdrew in a bargain deal that will turn the three
into state witnesses.

Four Masvingo students appear before a Masvingo magistrate

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Four Masvingo students appeared before a Masvingo magistrate today Monday
the 25th of July. They are facing charges of malicious damage to property
and attempted murder following a demonstration at Masvingo Polytechnic on
the declining state of the education sector in the country.
25.07.1106:00pm
by Student Solidarity Trust

The four Zivanai Muzorodzi, Gamuchirai Mukura, Arnold Batirai and Brighton
Ramusi were arrested on Friday the 22nd of July and were in custody until
today when they appeared in court. The students were released on free bail
and have been remanded to the 8th of August.

The students Solidarity Trust continues to advocate for the respect of
academic rights as they are an epitome of a democratic society. The state
should divert its scarce resources from persecutions and prosecutions of
students to provision of a world-class education system Zimbabwe was once
revered for.

Standards in many state institutions lie in ruins or are in an appalling
state due to neglect. It is socially unjust and ironic for the state to
continuously victimise students who are calling the state’s attention to a
plunge in standards and run-down facilities.

Thousands attend Hero Nyakauru’s memorial service

Monday, 25 July 2011

Thousands of MDC members including President Tsvangirai and relatives of the late Sekuru Rwisai Nyakauru on Saturday attended his memorial service at Nyakomba Village in Nyanga. Sekuru Nyakauru, 82, died in April from injuries he sustained after he was abducted and assaulted by Zanu PF supporters and state security agents in February.

He and 34 MDC members including Hon Douglas Mwonzora, the party’s national spokesperson were later arrested and spent 27 days at the Mutare Remand Prison.

President Tsvangirai said he saluted the courage shown by Sekuru Nyakauru in fighting for real change and his spirit would live on. “The death of Sekuru Nyakauru is now part of our history,” President Tsvangirai said.  “His death has shown that violence is now a religion in Zanu PF. You can kill but you cannot destroy the spirit of the people. If you have lost support of the people, resign.  Don’t force the people to support you,”

Quoting 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 verse 1 – 2 that reads; “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but I have no love, I am nothing”, President Tsvangirai said the Bible verse showed that Zanu PF had no love for the people of Zimbabwe.

“However, on violence perpetrated by Zanu PF, the MDC is saying enough is enough.  The MDC is not a party of violence but we want to bring peace and harmony in the country.  The selfless commitment that we have in the MDC is to have peace in the country,” he said.

President Tsvangirai said the people had gathered at Nyakomba Village to celebrate the life of real change hero. “Not heroes in Zanu PF who are called heroes for killing innocent people. I urge the children of Sekuru Nyakauru and the Nyakomba community to emulate what your father did.”

On elections, President Tsvangirai said the country was preparing for elections and Zanu PF would resort to violence but will never win any free and fair election. “That is why they are confused on whether we will have elections this year or next year. But as MDC we are calling for free and fair elections. If Zanu PF wants elections this year let them go ahead and see how and if they will govern,” he said.

MDC Secretary General, Hon. Tendai Biti said the death of Sekuru Nyakauru was similar to that of thousands other MDC members who have been murdered by Zanu PF and state security agents in the fight for real change in the country. “But God doesn’t give you a burden that you cannot defeat. We have been given Mugabe and Zanu PF as our burden and we will surely defeat them,” he said. 

Hon. Mwonzora said despite being in remand prison for a month, Sekuru Nyakauru came out of prison more determined to continue fighting for real change. “When we got to prison he was very sick and at one time collapsed, vomiting blood. Prison officers would not take him to a civilian hospital believing they could treat him there,” Hon. Mwonzora who shared the same prison cell with Sekuru Nyakauru said.

Some of the people who have been implicated in the abduction of Sekuru Nyakauru are Wilfred Pokoto, Tawonga Mutsiwawo and Kilborn Masunungure. Pokoto especially was mentioned as having assaulted the 82 year old using a ‘safety’ shoe, that had an iron tip inside the front shoe end.

Scores of senior MDC officials and most of the activists who were in detention with Sekuru Nyakauru attended the memorial service.  They included, the deputy Treasurer-General, Hon. Elton Mangoma, national Organising Secretary Hon. Nelson Chamisa and his deputy Hon. Abednico Bhebhe, Women’s Assembly Chairperson, Hon. Theresa Makone, Manicaland Provincial Chairperson, Julius Magarangoma, Media, Information and Publicity deputy Minister, Hon. Murisi Zwizwai, Youth Assembly Spokesperson, Clifford Hlatywayo and Reverend Sebastian Bakare.

Reverend Bakare is the current Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Harare.  He was one of the well-wishers who visited Sekuru Nyakauru and the other detainees while they were in prison.

Together, united, winning, voting for real change!!

--
MDC Information & Publicity Department

Malawi protesters threaten more demonstrations

http://www.timeslive.co.za/

Sapa-AP | 25 July, 2011 19:21

Malawian activists who helped organize last week's protests say there will
be more demonstrations unless the president addresses their grievances.

Protest organizer Rafiq Hajat said Monday that President Bingu wa Mutharika
has until August 16 to resolve persistent fuel and foreign exchange
shortages. Hajat says otherwise protests will begin the next day.

Mutharika on Sunday reshuffled the country's military leadership after
anti-government protests in three major cities. Officials said Monday that
the death toll had risen by one to 19 after the protests turned violent.

While the military has withdrawn from major cities, a police remained on the
streets Monday when Mutharika visited shops and businesses that were
attacked and looted during the unrest.

"Blood diamond" regulation system broken

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/2011721857193676.html

The recent regulatory approval of Zimbabwean diamonds for sale reveals deep
flaws in the system.
Khadija Sharife Last Modified: 25 Jul 2011 10:02

The recent approval of Zimbabwean diamonds mined from the $800bn Marange
fields by the Kimberley Process (KP) chair, the DRC's Mathieu Yamba Lapfa
Lambang, has prompted a global "human rights" outcry with KP members such as
Canada, the EU, and the US claiming there was "no consensus".

Meanwhile, other countries like China (the world's fastest growing diamond
consumer market), and India (which cuts and polishes 11 of 12 stones) have
all given the green light to Zimbabwe, removing any potential problems of
surplus minerals from Marange, which has been described by Zimbabwean
Finance Minister Tendai Biti as "the biggest find of alluvial diamonds in
the history of mankind".

With potential revenues pegged at $1-1.7bn annually, the support of
neighbouring governments like South Africa, another major diamond producer,
and "host" country to 3 million Zimbabwean political and economic
"refugees", is not surprising. Nor is the potential KP rupture being shaped
as a battle between politically "interfering" Western nations and
cash-starved developing nations.

That Zimbabwe's diamonds are mined under the direct surveillance of the
country's vicious military and controlled by brutal lifetime dictator Robert
Mugabe is not in question. Since the discovery of Marange's diamonds in
2006, the military has largely supervised mining; mass looting by political,
corporate and military elites has occurred, accompanied by violent
displacement and human rights violations; companies based in secret
jurisdictions such as Mauritius and Hong Kong have been granted "due
diligence" approval; and there exists complete opacity over volumes
extracted, exported and sold.

But to what extent does the vehement opposition stem from political
objections to a nation controlled by the blatantly anti-Western Mugabe? More
broadly, was the KP system - propagating that less than one per cent of
global diamonds constitute "blood" minerals - built for the purposes of
eliminating corporate and state-sanctioned exploitation, or normalising and
sanitising it?

Governments given a free pass

Arguably the best thing about the much-lauded and oft-applauded KP system,
an international initiative created and backed by governments,
multinationals, and civil society organisations to diminish the trade in
conflict or "blood" diamonds, is that the KP's very definition of blood
diamonds, by default, excludes the world's primary agents of "conflict":
governments. It also excludes the private mining corporations that partner
with the governments in developing countries to extract the diamonds.

By default, the KP's definition excludes Zimbabwe as a "conflict" agent.

According to the KP, "Conflict diamonds means rough diamonds used by rebel
movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining
legitimate governments".

This definition, spurred by the investigative research of two NGOs, Global
Witness and Partnership Africa Canada, was largely structured around two
cases: Angola's brutal opposition movement UNITA under Jonas Savimbi, which
used resources as "portable wealth" to fuel the 27-year conflict with the
MPLA government; and Sierra Leone's civil war-for-resources, facilitated and
backed by neighbouring Liberian warlord Charles Taylor. Both cases, which
saw violent exploitation of alluvial diamond fields, were identified as
rebel movements striving to undermine the governments of Angola and Sierra
Leone through the control of key mines.

Marginalised were the key roles that governments played in initiating and
sustaining both conflicts: as much as 70 per cent of Taylor's official
war-chest, which financed the rebel movement in Sierra Leone, was supplied
by major Western multinationals, with the assistance and blessing of the US
government.

This was done via Liberia's maritime "tax haven" registry, which operates
from the US state of Virginia, just outside of Washington. The registry,
known as the LISCR, peddles Liberia's flag (i.e. corporate registration) for
a small fee ($713), in exchange for zero tax and a host of other secrecy
services. Liberia, through its US base, hosts over 11 per cent of global
maritime trade and represents one of the world's top two "flags of
convenience" (FOC).

During a lawsuit brought before the US Supreme Court, it was stated,

"Taylor's oversight of LISCR is so tight he acts in effect as one of LISCR's
senior partners, and is intimately involved in all aspects of management,
personal assignments [and] distribution of funds,  salaries and foreign
offices....Taylor received a substantial piece of  LISCR's revenue—up to
one-third."

No matter. "LISCR has always cooperated with, and received support from, the
US State Department," stated key LISCR figure Yoram Cohen.

Meanwhile, the US' political, financial and military support for Angola's
Savimbi - described by US President Ronald Reagan as a "freedom fighter"
(though a US diplomat countered that he was "pure evil") - was not only in
partnership with South Africa's apartheid regime, which also financed
Savimbi as well as military strikes on the MPLA government, but continued
long after the MPLA was globally recognised as Angola's legitimate ruling
party. The three decade-long conflict, which resulted in the deaths of
330,000 children from 1980 to 1988 and cost $30bn during the same period,
was directly fueled by Angola's vast diamond wealth. The landmark Fowler
Report (2000) claimed that UNITA could easily wash diamonds through official
channels.

De Beers funds African conflicts

While the KP definition of "conflict" diamonds makes no mention of
state-sanctioned human rights violations and conflict waged by "legitimate"
governments - in both cases, the US government played a key role undermining
legitimate governments - so too does it elide the role of corporations,
chiefly De Beers, which controls 70 per cent of the rough diamond market, in
facilitating and sustaining the conflict as buyers.

Between 1992 and 1993 alone, De Beers was known to have purchased between
$300-500m in diamonds from UNITA. The Fowler Report claimed that in 1999,
around the time Global Witness began drawing attention to the subject, De
Beers ceased purchasing diamonds directly from Savimbi (labeled by the AU as
an "agent of apartheid South Africa") or via potential third parties. The
combination of a democratic South Africa and the loss of De Beers' direct
support destroyed UNITA's political and financial foundation.

Savimbi himself would be killed soon after, in the same year that the
Kimberley Process certification system was formally adopted.

For their part, African governments, including many tinpot regimes, are all
too happy with the KP system primarily requiring self-regulation on the part
of governments. The deliberate simplification of "conflict" resources as
non-state, apolitical, and marginal to the global architecture intentionally
locates it against a specific backdrop delinked from the forces of supply-
and demand-side corruption.

Life in Angola under the helm of lifetime dictator Dos Santos, for instance,
is militaristic, brutal and grossly corrupt. As soon as the billions from
diamonds and oil, which constitute 99 per cent of exports, are generated, a
significant portion is looted.

Yet the KP's narrow definition of conflict diamonds, and the system of
compliance, enables the regime to "self-regulate" what constitutes the
taking and spilling of "blood", be it an economic, political, or physical
conflict. It also enables corporate buyers, such as De Beers, and the
company's main Africa rival, the Lev Leviev Group, also connected to the
CIF, to purchase diamonds produced under Angola's dictatorship, with a clean
and clear KPCS certificate.

Resource-rich Namibia, overflowing with diamonds and ruled by a single
party, SWAPO, since liberation, is corrupt, underdeveloped and
anti-democratic. Botswana, too, billed as a shining democracy, has been
controlled by one political party for more than four decades, and shares the
same characteristics with Namibia.

For the KPCS system, coming into effect in 2003, a forced peace is no
different from a democracy.

But while the KP system compliments the undermining of democracy and
widespread looting in African nations by allocating the right of
identification to regimes, the marginalisation of Zimbabwe is perceived as
motivated by decisions unrelated to human rights violations. Moreover, the
KP system does not even explicitly articulate a human rights provision,
preferring to focus on, and protect, the rights of governments.

But not all governments are equal.

Though the US, for instance, switched sides from Savimbi to Dos Santos with
apparent ease, the MPLA government - one of China's largest oil suppliers,
also partnered with a private Chinese entity - the China International Fund
(CIF), mining diamonds in Zimbabwe, does not seem to have forgotten the
"Western" tendency to undermine "legitimate" governments for "political"
reasons. Nor, perhaps, has the ANC ruling party in South Africa, described
by the US, the apartheid government's primary backer, as "terrorists".

Both remember all too well that human rights have nothing to do with foreign
policy, especially when it comes to resources.

Proponents vigorously state that, since the 1990s, "blood" diamonds have
decreased from 15 per cent to just 1 per cent, informed by the KP's claim
that 99.8 per cent of production is mined in member countries,
establishing - in theory at least - compliance on the part of
diamond-producing and -trading nations. This includes countries like Angola,
Namibia, Botswana, the DRC and South Africa, contributing the bulk of
Africa's global exports, estimated at 65 per cent of global rough diamonds.

The diamond industry, via the World Diamond Council - of which diamond giant
De Beers was a founding member - collaborated with the NGOs driving the
issue (as well as the UN and governments globally) to develop and introduce
the certification procedure of rough diamonds, governing the trade, known as
the Kimberley Process Certification System (KPCS). In 2002, 52 governments
adopted and ratified the KPCS which quickly entered into force.

How the system works

So long as a regime - whether producing diamonds, or trading in it - holds
"sovereign" state power (and is not classified as a pariah by systemically
important governments such as the US - think Iran), that regime qualifies as
a participating member.

Participating governments agree to oversight of the diamond trade within
their borders through "internal controls" such as tamper-resistant
containers, collecting and maintaining official production, import and
export data, and running importing and exporting authorities.

Participants must ensure that diamond containers are accompanied by KP
certificates stating, "The rough diamonds in this shipment have been handled
in accordance with the provisions of the Kimberley Process Certification
Scheme for rough diamonds".

In addition to the narrow definition, the KP has no independent mandatory
scrutiny and is therefore governed by the very corporate and political
forces that stand to benefit most from looted resources.

De Beers, the company that opaquely controls about 70 per cent of the
world's rough diamond supply, is largely based in Africa and has partnered
with many African governments such as South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and
Angola. De Beers seized the initiative as a means of distancing the
company's diamonds, which adorn engagement rings, from association with the
images of drugged-up child-soldiers trained to use pangas or bush knives to
hack off the arms and legs of terrorised people.

Manufacturing demand

For starters, while people may want diamonds, nobody actually needs
diamonds. This much was admitted by the advertising firm NW Ayers, retained
by De Beers, who created perhaps the world's most potent luxury goods
slogan: "Diamonds Are Forever". According to Ayers, "We are dealing with a
problem in mass psychology. We seek to ... strengthen the tradition of the
diamond engagement ring - to make it a psychological necessity".

But the biggest secret of all is that diamonds are quite plentiful, and to
manufacture value, "price stability" is crucial for maintaining market value
through artificial scarcity.

Russia's 90 per cent state-owned entity, Alrosa, supplies 25 per cent of the
world's rough diamond market. Said Andrei Polyakov of Alrosa, "If you don't
support the price, a diamond becomes a mere piece of carbon." To this end,
Russia's state-owned stockpiling agency, Gokhran, is allocated an annual
budget to vault millions of gem quality carats each month. In 2009, over 3m
carats were stockpiled monthly. In 2010, the agency was allocated a budget
of $1bn.

But you'd be mistaken in thinking that the diamond industry giants are
rivals to one another. Rather, they are collaborators coordinating on
crucial issues. Alrosa, created in 1992, is the collective product of the
Soviet Union state-owned diamond industy, and has a long history with De
Beers.

Fast forward to 2002, when new contracts were negotiated providing De Beers
with $3.8bn in diamonds over a period of five years. But EU anti-trust
laws - fearing the cumulative global power - 95 per cent, struck the
companies, citing monopolistic behaviour. Similarly, the US has cracked down
on De Beers for monopolistic behaviour.

Zimbabwe's $800bn Marange diamond fields may collapse the market if not soon
brought within official channels. Supa Mandiwanzira, a representative of
Zimbabwe's Diamond Consortium, stated that "we have the potential to destroy
the whole industry" by flooding the markets. This was echoed by Zimbabwean
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, who catalysed a "walkout" by NGOs like PAC from
the KP in June when he stated that diamonds would be sold with or without KP
certification.

So, while for Western governments Zimbabwe presents a political problem, for
the diamond industry (and diamond-producing nations) Zimbabwe presents a
dangerous economic crisis in the making.

Zimbabwe may yet receive KP approval. Or it ultimately may not. But whatever
the case, Zimbabwe is not the crisis facing the KP, but the product of its
own innate fault lines.

Khadija Sharife is a journalist and visiting scholar at the Center for Civil
Society (CCS) based in South Africa, and a contributor to the Tax Justice
Network. She is the Southern Africa correspondent for The Africa Report
magazine, assistant editor of the Harvard "World Poverty and Human Rights"
journal and author of "Tax Us If You Can Africa".

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Investor confidence wanes

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Editor
Monday, 25 July 2011 14:17

HARARE - Zimbabwe's indigenisation policy has dampened foreign investors’
confidence and participation on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), the
African Development Bank (AfDB) has said.

In its monthly economic review for July, the continental lender said shares
worth $13,1 million were bought by external investors on the local bourse
compared to those disposed with a value of $17,3 million – culminating into
a $4,2 million net capital outflow.

“This negative development reflects waning investor confidence, particularly
in view of intensified indigenization and economic empowerment initiatives
as well as uncertainty surrounding future elections,” said AfDB.

It said “the substantial disposal” happened or occurred around June 10 when
uncertainties about the outcome of the Southern Africa Development Community
summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa were heightened.

The regional development bank said about 350 million shares were traded on
the ZSE last month alone.

The indigenisation policy – which requires all foreign-owned firms to cede
at least 51 percent of their shareholding to black Zimbabweans – has majorly
affected sectors like mining.

Officials in President Robert Mugabe’s government, notably Empowerment
minister Saviour Kasukuwere, say the programme would be extended to several
other sector, including manufacturing and the sensitive banking industry.

As a result, foreign investors have taken a cautious approach and stance
towards Zimbabwe, yet its economy is mainly driven by resource or extractive
sectors such as mining.

The AfDB said the Zimbabwe Investment Authority approved nearly 75 projects
in the five months period to June, indicating a marginal increase from the
72 approved in a similar period last year.

The approved projects have an estimated value of $906 million, as compared
to those approved in 2010 and worth an estimated $104 million. Out of the 75
projects, 15 were mining.

In May, ZSE chief executive Emmanuel Munyukwi said the prevailing and acute
liquidity challenges, coupled with limited foreign investor participation,
were weighing down the local bourse.

He said the equities market remained depressed, with daily turnover touching
a lowly $600 000 per day from a peak of $1,5 million.

“We should know that foreign investors are the ones with the money. Their
increased participation means more activity on the market,” he said.

However, he said “foreign investors have not totally deserted the market, as
they remain very keen on Zimbabwe, but uncertainty had affected their
confidence.”

Munyukwi particularly singled out Kasukuwere’s indigenisation programme as
one of those policies causing investors to be jittery.

He said the ZSE recorded a net inflow – the difference between shares bought
and sold by foreigners – of $6 million in January and $4 million in February
this year, while net outflow was at $2 million in March and this reflected
lower investor participation during the month.

However, the inflows improved to $2 million in April. Market turnover,
meanwhile, has been on a similarly yoyo trend, with January’s figure hitting
$32 million, while it leapt to $47 million in February.
In March, it fell back to $36 million, while a figure of $35 million was
recorded in April.

Zanu PF should stop abusing youths

http://nehandaradio.com

July 25, 2011 3:14 pm

By Tallent Chingovo

It is beyond any rational disputation that Zanu PF is pinning its hopes of a
successful self revival, from its “Lazarus moment” on violence and
intimidation in the next coming elections, the same way they did in June
2008 hence the stinky call for elections now before and without any
constitutional changes, media, electoral and security sector reforms.

The recent utterances against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai by the self
proclaimed, de facto army spokesman, one Douglas Nyikayaramba is a clear
confirmation that the securocrats are ready to help Zanu PF achieve that.

As the election chorus echoes all over Zimbabwe, the former ruling party is
quite aware and convinced that the chances of victory in a free and fair
election are neither here nor there, hence the fear of reforms and the
oiling of all violence machinery including the youth militia.

Any close and objective retrospection of Zanu PF’s history and contemporary
politics indicates that the party has a penchant of abusing the youths as
weapons of violence. On Thursday the former ruling party bussed thugs,
crooks and gangsters to go and disrupt the US Ambassador Charles Ray’s
meeting in Kwekwe.

The same happened in Mutare and Masvingo where the Human Rights Bill public
hearing meetings failed to proceed because of the same reasons. It’s all
chaos in Zimbabwe, touts masquerading as war veterans invaded the august
house assaulting MPs and journalists and all the drama was in the eyes of
the police. Surely real war veterans will never do that for they know what
they fought for.

The deplorable, unfortunate and regrettable incidences took place at a time
when the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenization and Empowerment,
Saviour Kasukuwere is proposing for the revival of the infamous National
Youth Policy (NYP). Of cause, like all Zanu PF initiated proposals, it
glitters only on paper but the implementation is going to be chaotic and
brutal as usual.

Indeed Zanu PF has a record of parading slogans and its violence programs as
policies. The idea of NYP is not unique to Zimbabwe only as history and
records have it that the program has been a successful story in other states
including other African nations such as Kenya and Nigeria. What is only
unique about the Zimbabwe’s NYP is that unlike in other nations where it
succeeded, here it is a systematic indoctrination exercise where the youths
are schooled to be intolerant and violent towards dissenting voice and
opponents.

Even the curriculum is never lined along lines of core values, such as the
“promotion of national identity, unity, oneness, patriotism, self reliance,
discipline and vigilance against crime”. This program which once ran between
2001-2007 expressed some yawning irregularities in all senses.

“Recruitment was done through Zanu PF district party offices, the curriculum
discriminated against marginalized and other interest groups, there were a
militarized style of running the program, widespread allegation of sexual
and drug abuse……” (The Independent, Abuse as Zanu PF Seeks Youth Service
Revival, 15/07/2011) These were the same youths who abducted, maimed and
killed innocent people in the bloody 27 June 2008 Presidential runoff.

The political demagogues in Zanu PF want to maintain the perpetuation of
Youths abuse by manufacturing external enemies (EU, USA, and Britain), then
mobilize them into militia groups along false programs disguised as
“defending the independence and sovereignty of the state”. Opponents are
regarded as threat to state security and as such should be crushed.

The so-called youth empowerment programs have done nothing in terms of real
empowerment to the targeted group besides turning youths into unlawful acts
of barbarism manifesting itself in a number of very funny Zanu PF
masterminded programs such as the chaotic land reform, NYP, anti-sanctions
marches, ant-sanction petition, upfumi kuvadiki etc.

The majority of such programs are slogans paraded as policies without any
benefit to the youths. These slogans have done nothing to counter real
challenges facing the youths, HIV and AIDS, unemployment and poverty,
marginalization on economic and political matters etc. Instead Zanu PF, as a
system exhibits the escalation and perpetuation of these challenges.

According to Zanu PF type of empowerment/indigenization, Chinese empowerment
is Youth empowerment no wonder why the party continues to carry chaotic
policies similar to the May 2005 Operation Murambatsvina, which sabotaged
the indigenous black population including the youths.

Prominent scholars such as Makumbe, Sachikonye and Masunungure agree on the
view that “the clean-up campaign was motivated by the government’s quest to
create space for Chinese businesses in urban centers because it targeted
informal traders and small enterprises of which these were areas apparently
dominated by the Youths who were self employed. (Trust Mvutungayi, China in
Zimbabwe: Exploring the Political and Economic Impacts of Chinese Engagement
in the Zimbabwean Crisis).

The Asian tigers(Chinese) are feasting undisturbed over the bounteous
natural resources in Zimbabwe  all in the name of Indigenization yet most of
the youths cross the crocodile infested Limpopo river, using undesignated
and dangerous points in search of greener pastures.

There in South Africa they are subjected to all sorts of harassment
including being subjected to xenophobic attacks and deportations and those
left at home are recruited into militia groups, trained and turned into
criminals for political gains.

The whole world witnessed a looting spree against foreign owned businesses
in Harare and Bulawayo in the first few months of 2011 by Zanu PF youths
whose minds have been brainwashed into looters and thieves as the only way
of survival. So dear reader it’s your chance to make your judgment as to who
really is a real threat to state security.

History has it that Zanu PF does not respect the youths and the party’s
decision making structure exhibits a clear testimony to this. The youths in
Zanu PF have little or no input in decision making processes. The party’s
highest position for the youths, the Secretary for Youths, currently held by
Absalom Sikhosana has never been given to any young person. The old person
who takes this position is not even voted for it at the Youth League’s
Congress, he/she is handpicked by the President.

This clearly shows that “decisions by the youth arm of the party are
attitudes and wishes of the old foes….” Even on matters of employment,
reward and patronage ensures youth remain dependant on party leadership.
“Jobs in government are channeled through the party as rewards for hard
work, mostly to youth leaders , who in turn keep control over the rest
through promises of similar rewards”.(http://.www.AllAfrica Files, The
Problem of Youths in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe).

The foregoing situation is currently brewing unnecessary tension and
conflict in the shaky Inclusive government where Zanu PF is trying to
protect some of its beneficiaries stealing from the government coffers who
are on public service payroll as “Youth Officers” yet they are ghost
workers. Youths should be empowered to be academically and technically
equipped to support themselves without being manipulated and abused by fake
politicians. Anyone who abuse and manipulate the youths is not only a threat
to the youths but to state security.

As we approach election time, real youths should stand up to be counted.
They should stand up to protect and defend their communities and parents not
harassing them only to impress the unconcerned greedy politicians who
falsely believe that everything that glitters should be seen on their
shirts. Real youths should be inspired by the spirit of fore brothers and
sisters, the spirit of camaraderie and patriotism, who stood at the fore
front of the liberation struggle as effective battalions of resistance.

Youths should be agents of change, development and prosperity and stand as
custodians of national values not of immorality and barbaric behavior. Zanu
PF should stop creating a rebel movement style where it intentionally
disempowers the youths to create for itself a fertile source of rebels who
will without any option be ready to be conscripted so that they can have
access to crumbs falling from the table of their bosses.

The nation needs young blood ready to look straight in the eyes of the beast
and tell them that enough is enough, not fake and mentally colonized people
who stand aside and celebrate as their future is plundered. Not people who
conspire with the ailing, Zanu PF to destroy the future today through
nefarious slogans paraded as policies.

After all is said and done, real youths should register, vote and be voted
into office in the next coming elections because “there is nothing for us
without us”. Vibrant and robust youth participation is a vanguard of
independence which Zanu PF is desperately trying to steal away from the
youth community by abusing the latter as violence machinery.

Youth participation cannot be defined within the context of toy-toying,
sloganeering, looting, stone throwing and raising hate-speech placards in
the streets of Harare and Parliament. It goes beyond that. Youths are
leaders for today and tomorrow and can, without fail define their destiny
which should never be corrupted by hypocrites and sycophants whose wish is
to cling to power even through nefarious means.

Tallent Chingovo is a senior member of the MDC-T Youth Assembly.

How to Handle the Wounded Buffalo

Many of you will recall my story about the old buffalo bull that was shot by
hunters and retired into the Jessie bush to recover. I have been asked on
several occasions what happened to the old dagga boy. He never did come out
of the Jess and I think we can assume that he is still seriously injured and
relies on the Jess to protect and shelter him.

I have just read a book on the establishment of the Gona re Zhou National
Park in the southeast lowveld where the author came across a similar
situation except that in this case the old dagga boy had been shot by
poachers with a dum dum bullet and had a badly injured right shoulder. This
animal discovered the District Commissioner had established a no hunting
zone around his offices and he sought sanctuary there – grazing within a few
metres of the offices and staff houses.

He never did fully recover but did gain confidence and would wonder away
from his sanctuary on occasion. One evening the DC heard a huge fight going
on down at the river and in the morning he went down to investigate what had
happened – he found evidence of a fight between the old buffalo bull and two
male lions. The buffalo had backed against the river bank which at that
point was a sheer drop of some metres, there with his back against the bank,
he had fought off the two adversaries and in the process actually broke one
of his horns off in the attack. He resumed his habit of staying close to the
office and died of old age a couple of years later.

My old dagga boy has done a similar thing – knowing full well that going out
into the open and confronting his enemy, he would be no match for them and
receive the inevitable fatal bullet. So he has stayed in the Jessie provided
by the GPA and is trying to recover his strength but has not been able to
get back his health and will probably have to accept that he is no longer up
to the fight. Like the old dagga boy in the lowveld, I expect him to retire
and live out the remainder of his life close to the only sanctuary he has –
one created by an old adversary turned protector.

In other words this old buffalo bull has run his course and is no longer
able to have anything more to do with the real fight for the future of the
herd. Of course he was not alone in the original contact, but he was the
dominant bull and his skill and cunning had kept the herd together and
pointed in the direction he wanted to go but is now without effective
leadership and therefore very vulnerable.

I have stated on several occasions recently that the GPA process offers no
hope to Zanu PF. If the road map is implemented and followed as is being
demanded by regional States, then in about a years time, Zanu PF would have
to come out of the Jessie and face the MDC. But this time it would be under
very different circumstances that would be tantamount to a turkey shoot.

A new electoral Act will be in place, with a new voters roll that actually
reflects the nature and distribution of the population. New delimitation
would have reduced the number of seats in the so-called Zanu controlled
areas and increased the number of seats in the MDC areas, the media would be
under professional management and control with independent radio and
newspapers. The campaign, voting, counting and reporting would be controlled
by an independent Electoral Commission and watched by a skeptical region and
an even more skeptical world community. The Military and the CIO would be
unable to do what they have done in all recent elections – no targeted
violence and intimidation, no killings of MDC activists and officials, no
assistance to Zanu PF candidates and leadership.

Zanu PF under such conditions would be naked in a blizzard. They would not
survive, I doubt if they could win even the three seats that Muzorewa won in
1980, and they know it. So what options do they have? I am afraid they have
only one. Like the old dagga boy in Nuanetsi, they have to do a deal with
their archenemy, the MDC. The big Mzwiti who up to now they have viewed with
distain and contempt. Now the MDC is their only friend and the lions of
Gukurahundi and Murambatsvina are also out there and are hungry.

Our obligation is to see that change takes place in a peaceful, legal and
democratic manner. The only way for that to happen and to allow Zanu PF some
sort of protection in the last years of its life, is to do a deal and this
involves Zanu PF going back to the proposal that MDC put on the table in
December last year. Limit the election that is coming to a contest for the
Presidency.

If the price of such a transition is going to be a decent retirement for the
old dagga boy, so be it, it is cheap at any price. If the price involves
giving the same protection to the dagga boy’s gang called the JOC, so be it.
It is better than a savage fight with the old dagga boy’s backs against the
bank of the river and still able to gore its opponents and perhaps do
serious damage to the rest of us.

What Zanu PF is only just appreciating is that the SADC has joined the line
of beaters that is driving the old wounded buffalo from his place in the
Jess. If they delay, soon it will be too late and their calls for a
harmonized election will come to fruition – but only after they have been
forced to concede the ground on which that battle will take place. There are
many who would say let the day come, we have been waiting a long time for
this and cannot wait for the final shot to go in. Time is not on their side.

The danger of that course is that the final showdown will be a real battle
between titans and the grass and trees will suffer more than necessary. The
only answer is to do a deal, accept the inevitable and arrange, like Smith
in 1976, to watch the final in this series to be played out on a field and
in a game that does not call for any more suffering. Then we can all get on
with rebuilding this broken land of our.

Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, July 23rd 2011