http://en.rian.ru/business/20120627/174264222.html
Russian Technologies may
supply military helicopters to Zimbabwe in a swap
deal to buy the world’s
second largest platinum deposit
© RIA Novosti. Andrey
Greshnov
11:48 27/06/2012
MOSCOW, June 27 (RIA
Novosti)
State corporation Russian Technologies may supply
military helicopters to
Zimbabwe in a swap deal to buy the world’s second
largest platinum deposit,
Kommersant business daily reported on
Wednesday.
Russia is holding negotiations with Zimbabwe on an
inter-governmental
agreement on stimulating investment and defense, a source
in the
presidential administration told the paper.
“Russian
Technologies has already secured preliminary support from Zimbabwe’s
official representatives during its visit to the country in April,” another
source told the paper, adding the local authorities were interested in the
supply of Russian arms, in particular military helicopters.
“The
issue being discussed is the transfer to Russian Technologies of the
rights
to develop the deposit in exchange for the supply of helicopters,”
the
source said.
A source close to Russian Technologies confirmed the state
corporation’s
interest in the Darwendale project.
Darwendale has
proven platinum reserves of 19 tons and total resources of
755 tons taking
into account other metals, such as palladium, gold, nickel,
copper and
others. Total capital investment in the deposit development from
2011-2055
is estimated at $2.8 billion.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
27 June
2012
The final revision of the draft constitution has been completed and
a new
charter for Zimbabwe will be officially launched on Wednesday next
week, a
highly placed source told SW Radio Africa.
The latest version
of the new charter, promising reform and transparency,
was finished in
Harare on Wednesday by COPAC’s management committee. The
source told us the
document is now in the proof reading stage and will be
unveiled to the
public next week.
According to the source, the management committee that
consists of the same
negotiators to the GPA has all but agreed on the
contentious issues that had
been stalling progress, including devolution,
executive structure and dual
citizenship.
Despite strong objections
from ZANU PF, the parties agreed that members of
the armed forces will be
forbidden from taking part in active politics,
including campaigning for any
particular political party.
‘All the contentious issues have been dealt
with after the parties came up
with suggestions that were acceptable to all.
To show you how far things
have moved, the negotiators are now dealing with
transitional mechanisms,
especially on how they will move from the current
constitution to the next.
‘In this regard, the posts of President and
Prime Minister will remain in
force until after the next elections when a
new leader is inaugurated. This
is meant not to create a power vacuum,’ the
source added.
The new charter will have an executive president answerable
to Parliament
and checked by a strengthened Judiciary. After nearly two
weeks of
negotiations over the contentious issues in a draft prepared by the
parliamentary select committee, the negotiators also unanimously agreed to
abolish the position of Prime Minister.
The new constitution is
designed to redistribute political power away from
the capital, Harare, to
eight provincial councils created under devolution.
Under the new system,
the national government will provide a given
percentage of budgets to the
provincial legislature, which will comprise
elected parliamentarians,
senators and local council officials.
This Electoral College will
recommend a governor whose appointment will be
done by the
President.
In the current constitution power is concentrated in the
executive branch of
government, which has seen Robert Mugabe unilaterally
appoint high
officials, including judges and governor of the Reserve Bank.
But in the new
system, parliamentarians will get involved in making
appointments.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
26/06/2012 00:00:00
by Patience
Nyangove
ZANU PF and the two MDC parties have finally reached an
agreement which will
see devolution of power form part of the new
constitution for Zimbabwe, New
Zimbabwe.com can reveal
today.
Negotiating teams led by Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamasa and the
secretary
generals of the two MDC factions Tendai Biti and Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga have been locked in talks for over a week, trying to
save the draft constitution which has been in the works since
2009.
Under the deal agreed by the parties, the country’s 10 provinces
will each
have a provincial assembly made up of Members of Parliament and
Senators
from that area, representatives of local authorities and 10
individuals
elected by proportional representation as well as a provincial
governor.
The provincial assembly will nominate two possible candidates
for governor
which they will forward to the President who will choose from
the two,
according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
Under the
current constitution, the President appoints governors who are
invariably
members of his party.
Zanu PF had vowed not to support any constitution
with devolution of power,
with officials claiming it would encourage
secession advocates in
Matabeleland to push for a withdrawal from
Zimbabwe.
But the MDC parties – who have placed devolution at the heart
of their
policies – said Zanu PF was rejecting people’s views after the
issue
registered high during an outreach programme led by a parliamentary
committee to collect the people’s views.
Sources said the parties
were also trying to reach agreement on the
abolition of the death penalty –
which the MDC parties support, but Zanu PF
rejects.
“There has been a
lot of movement on all the issues, the areas of
disagreement have been
narrowed considerably,” said the source.
Zanu PF negotiators have also
been pushing for the inclusion in the draft
constitution of a clause that
every Presidential candidate must contest with
a running mate, as is the
case in the United States and Malawi.
Zanu PF officials hope this would
deal with the troublesome succession issue
within their party. Whoever is
named as Mugabe’s running mate would
immediately assume the status of his
preferred heir as future leader of the
party.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Zanu (PF) wants to control all diamond
mining inZimbabwe, according to a
senior official. A member of the
Politburo, who cannot be named for security
reasons, told The Zimbabwean
last week that at a recent meeting the party’s
policy makers resolved to
take control of all diamond mines.
27.06.1211:40am
by Tony
Saxon
“I do not know how they are going to do it, but this is
what the party is
planning,” said the source.
The Diamond Act, still
being debated by the cabinetcommittee on legislation,
proposes giving
management contractsto the private companies currently
mining
diamonds.
“The politburo is saying there are some companies who have
imposed sanctions
on Zimbabwe who are dominating the diamond sub-sector
andall these mines
must be taken over,” he added.
He revealed that
Zanu (PF) was specifically targeting Murowa and River
Ranch, both owned by
De Beers, emphasizing that the South African mining
giant faced total
expropriation.
“We have resolved that the party will continue to push for
thee xploitation
of all the resources in the country and we are
sayingempowerment cannot be
limited to diamonds, let alone specific deposit
areas like Chiadzwa,”
explained the politburo member.
He said Zanu
(PF) had resolved that 2012 should be aturning point in the
overall
indigenization and empowerment drive. The Chiadzwa diamond fields
have
already been nationalized and highly militarized. The companies allowed
to
operate there have all been appointed by Zanu (PF). They include Mbada
Diamonds, which has very close links to top party officials and is run by
the military, and the Chinese-run Anjin Investments.
Human rights
abuses in Chiadzwa, documented by Human Rights Watch and other
international
organisations, continue unabated amid tight security.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Sapa-AFP | 27 June, 2012
09:46
Western diplomats have toured controversial diamond fields in
eastern
Zimbabwe where rights groups have reported abuses by security forces
pushing
out illegal panners.
The visit, the first by foreign
diplomats to the high-security diamond
fields, saw ambassadors led by the
European Union head of delegation to
Zimbabwe, Aldo Dell'Ariccia, touring
two mines, the Chinese-owned Anjin and
Marange Resources where officials led
them through the extraction process.
The diplomats asked the Anjin
management how much revenue they had remitted
to the government following a
complaint by Finance Minister Tendai Biti that
the treasury is yet to
receive money from the firm since the start of the
year.
Munyaradzi
Machacha, a director at Anjin disputed Biti's projection that
earnings from
diamond mining would contribute $600 million to state coffers.
"We have
contributed $30 million to the fiscus through royalties because an
average
price of a single carat is $60 and not $1 500 as projected by the
Minister
of Finance Tendai Biti," Machacha told the envoys.
He added "Biti should
be man enough to tell the world that he made a mistake
in his budget
presentation on revenue coming from diamond sales as figures
he projected an
amount way off the mark."
Machacha said Anjin is yet to break even and
recover around $400 million
invested by the Chinese into the
operation.
Ambassadors from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic,
Denmark,
France, Germany and Spain were set to continue the tour on
Wednesday.
They are due to visit to a settlement where villagers who were
removed from
the vast Marange diamond area, about 330 kilometres southeast
of the capital
Harare, were relocated.
The Marange fields, one of
Africa's biggest diamond finds in recent years,
have witnessed gross human
rights violations, according to rights groups.
The Zimbabwean army
cleared small-scale miners from the area in late 2008 in
an operation that
Human Rights Watch says killed more than 200 people.
Rights groups accuse
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which shares power with the MDC
in a tense coalition
government, of funnelling profits from Marange diamonds
to senior military
officials and party leaders.
Diamond watchdog, Kimberley Process has
given the country the green light to
sell its gems despite opposition from
rights groups and Western nations.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance
Guma
27 June 2012
Global Witness, a human rights group focused on the
exploitation of natural
resources, has recommended an investigation into the
activities of
mysterious Chinese business tycoon Sam Pa, diamond firm Anjin
Investments
and Sino Zimbabwe to see if they “risk funding future human
rights abuses.”
This week the group released an explosive report titled
“Financing a
Parallel government” which exposed how the Central Intelligence
Organisation
(CIO), army and police chiefs were involved in the diamond,
cotton and
property sectors.
The ownership structures of companies
like Anjin and Sino Zimbabwe, which is
involved in the cotton industry, were
exposed as being dominated by senior
members of the state security agencies.
Half of Anjin’s shares are said to
be held by Brigadier-General Charles
Tarumbwa, a Zimbabwean military lawyer.
Hong Kong based businessman Mr
Pa, benefiting from his access to diamonds in
Zimbabwe, is reported to have
ploughed US$100 million into the CIO to fund
covert operations against the
opposition. He is also funding ZANU PF and
Robert Mugabe’s re-election bid
in return for business opportunities in the
country.
Global Witness
believe the activities of Mr Pa, Anjin and Sino Zimbabwe
“meet the threshold
for being placed on targeted sanctions lists.” Even
Finance Minister Tendai
Biti fears “there might be a parallel government
somewhere in respect of
where these revenues are going.”
The group believes SADC, which is
playing an active role in mediating the
political crisis in the country,
“should give the problem of off-budget
financing of security forces a high
priority in forthcoming negotiations,
with the aim of securing democratic,
civilian control over the budgets for
the security services.”
Global
Witness also recommended that the coalition government “should pass
legislation banning serving and recently retired members of the military,
police, the CIO and other members of the security services from control
over, or beneficial ownership of, mining companies.”
Another way of
putting pressure, the group say, is for consumers not to buy
diamonds
originating from the Marange mines “until they can be certain they
will not
fund the Zimbabwean secret police, military and police. Companies
should
conduct due diligence investigations into the source of their rough
diamonds.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tererai Karimakwenda
27
June, 2011
The police in Bulawayo arrested over 100 members of the Women
of Zimbabwe
Arise (WOZA) pressure group, as they conducted a sit-in protest
on Wednesday
calling for the immediate release of a draft Constitution.
According to
WOZA, many members in custody were handcuffed, which is a
violation of women’s
rights protocols.
The arrested group includes
WOZA leader Magodonga Mahlangu, three mothers
who are breastfeeding and
three children who are not even WOZA members.
Police have denied lawyers any
access to them on three separate occasions.
WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams,
who led a second group of protestors, was
not arrested.
The group had
organised ten protests that were due to start at 11:00 am. But
riot police
appear to have been tipped off and had arrested 40 people,
including
by-standers, by 10:30am. WOZA said only 3 of the ten protests made
it to the
location where a memorial statue of the late Joshua Nkomo is to be
erected,
which had been designated as the venue for the sit-in protest.
Four other
protests were conducted after 11:30 am with members marching from
the Statue
site to the Bulawayo Central Police station tohand themselves in.
But riot
police denied them entry into the building and threatened to
assault
them.
SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme, who witnessed the
arrests in
Bulawayo, said the riot police appear to have known about the
protests
because they were seen in large numbers near the location of the
statue and
at other key sites nearby, before WOZA members
arrived.
“After the arrests Jenni Williams arrived with another group of
women
carrying placards and singing loudly. She knew her colleagues had been
arrested but she did not shy away from the police. She went straight to the
Central police Station to protest the arrest of WOZA members. That was very
brave,” Saungweme said.
It is not clear whether Williams was also
arrested when she arrived but WOZA
members were denied access to the group
that had been taken into custody.
“Right now as we speak there is a heavy
police presence outside the station.
I think there is about 30 of them. Some
have AK 47 rifles and a few are in
plain clothes,” our correspondent
said.
Wednesday’s protests are a continuation of a campaign by the group
to
pressure parliamentarians to release a draft constitution and go to a
referendum, instead of “bickering” over the issues and ignoring what the
people said during the outreach exercise. They want the country to move
forward.
The sit-in or occupation style protests started on Monday in
Harare, where
WOZA members marched to the parliament building in two
separate groups, just
as they were trying to do in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
Police in Harare did not
disrupt the peaceful protest but Bulawayo was a
different story.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
27 June 2012
Police inspector Petros Mutedza may have died of
injuries suffered when he
fell off a vehicle driven by a fellow policeman, a
state witness testified
on Wednesday in the ongoing trial of 29 MDC-T
members accused of murder.
Giving evidence a day after the High Court
inspected the Glen View scene
where Mutedza was allegedly stoned by the
MDC-T members, Joshua Daka
strongly asserted that the cop’s death was due to
the fall. This was his
second testimony.
Daka, a police officer,
responded to reports of a brawl at Nyararai bar in
the Glen View 3 shopping
centre on the day Mutedza died. All the MDC
activists deny the charges and
have pleaded not guilty. Their trial began
this month after some had already
served nearly one year in custody.
During the morning court session, Daka
told the trial Judge, Justice
Chinembiri Bhunu, that he saw Mutedza running
to a parked vehicle at the
shops just as people that he could not identify
started throwing stones at
him.
As he reached the passenger door of
the vehicle, with one leg almost inside,
the driver took off at a high speed
resulting in Mutedza falling hard on the
tarmac. Daka said he was standing
some 80 metres from where his colleague
hit the road.
During his
initial court appearance in early June, Daka told the Court he
saw Mutedza
fleeing from Munyarari bar, heading towards a residential area.
He said he
could not identify those who were running after him throwing
stones.
The police officer claimed he ran to assist Mutedza when he
realized he was
seriously injured and helped move him to a safe place at the
shopping
centre. Several other police officers arrived at this point and
helped to
take Mutedza to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
http://www.mdc.co.zw
Wednesday, 27 June
2012
Today is 27 June 2012, a very significant and memorable day for the
people
of Zimbabwe as it brings sad memories of how Zanu PF, dripping with
blood,
stole the people’s will and elections on 27 June 2008.
Exactly
four years ago today, the people of Zimbabwe witnessed a very sad
event as
Zanu PF and its president, Robert Mugabe claimed to have won an
election
that was contested by one presidential candidate.
This was despite the
fact that Zanu PF had been trounced heavily by the MDC
and President
Tsvangirai in the harmonised elections held earlier in March.
Today, we
sadly remember the hundreds of MDC members and their families who
were
murdered, tortured and maimed at the hands of Zanu PF and State
security.
Families were left broken, homeless and destitute as Zanu PF
hoodlums went
on a rampage looting and raping innocent people.
The country was brought
on its knees by a ruthless Zanu PF regime that
wanted to cling to power at
all costs despite losing its popularity through
dictatorship, corruption and
disregard of the people’s freedom.
However, we salute SADC, AU and the
international community for not
recognising this sham election as it led to
the formation of the inclusive
government with President Tsvangirai as the
Prime Minister.
The inclusive government, despite attempts by Zanu PF to
scuttle its
performance, has brought the country’s economy back on track.
Schools and
hospitals have reopened and basic commodities are now
available.
The MDC supports the guarantors of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA),
SADC’s stance that the inclusive government puts in place
measures to ensure
the next plebiscite will not be another sham
election.
The MDC hails SADC’s position that Zimbabwe must proceed with
the
implementation of all outstanding issues in the GPA and the roadmap to
free
and fair elections.
In its communiqué at the end of the
Extraordinary Summit of SADC Heads of
State and Government in Luanda, Angola
on 1 June 2012, the regional bloc
urged the parties to the GPA, assisted by
South African President and SADC
facilitator Jacob Zuma, to develop an
implementation mechanism and set time
frames for the full implementation of
the roadmap to elections.
The MDC is fully committed to the
implementation of the election roadmap and
challenges other parties to the
GPA to play their role to ensure a free and
fair poll that guarantees the
secrecy of the ballot as well as the security
of the vote and
voter.
The people’s struggle for real change: Let’s finish it!!
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Written by Gift Phiri, Chief Writer
Wednesday, 27
June 2012 10:30
HARARE - A UN food agency team is in Zimbabwe to
assess crop supplies in the
southern African country after nearly half of
its crops was written off due
to a mid season mini-drought.
The UN
Food and Agriculture Organisation (Fao) has dispatched its teams in
the
field for a crucial crop and food supply assessment mission.
The
eight-member delegation comprises Rome-based permanent representatives
from
France, Iran, Morocco, Indonesia, the United States and the European
Union.
The assessment, due to be completed in about a week’s time,
will establish
the potential food deficit and help the government and relief
agencies
determine how much food aid is required.
Production of the
staple maize plunged to 1,35 million tonnes in 2011.
Zimbabwe consumes
about 1,8 million tonnes of maize annually.
Government says out of the 1
689 786 hectares of maize planted area, 45
percent was lost to a mid-season
drought. The late rains saw crops in
several parts of the country wilting
under severe moisture stress.
In a bid to tackle hunger in Zimbabwe, Fao
has been giving small-holder
farmers a boost by distributing seeds and
fertilisers.
“We want to understand the operations, activities being
carried out by the
Fao,” Mohammed Lakhal, Fao’s Moroccan representative
said.
The UN team will go around the country to assess the harvests. The
delegation of permanent representatives visited upper Guruve yesterday to
assess a project bankrolled by Fao to resuscitate dip
tanks.
According to the latest Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment
Committee (ZimVac)
report, about a million people, representing 12 percent
of the rural
population will require food assistance.
Rates of
chronic and acute child malnutrition still stand at 34 percent and
2,4
percent respectively, while a third of rural Zimbabweans still drink
from
unprotected water sources, which continues to expose them to waterborne
diseases.
The United Nations has warned that around a million people,
nearly a 10th of
Zimbabwe’s rural population, needed food aid.
Food
production in Zimbabwe has fallen by more than 50 percent, measured
against
a 10-year average, due mostly to the current social, economic and
political
situation and the effects of drought.
The shortfall means Zimbabwe will
need to import almost 500 000 tonnes of
food, either commercially or through
food aid, to meet the minimum food
needs of its people.
Agriculture
Mechanisation and Irrigation Development minister Joseph Made
told the Fao
team, Western “sanctions-induced challenges and climate change”
had gutted
commercial agriculture.
Made’s claims are at variance with economists who
suggest the combined
effects of drought, economic collapse, and the
government’s sullied land
reform programme has led to severe food
shortages.
President Mugabe denies that his agrarian revolution has
killed agriculture,
and says the land seizures were necessary to correct
colonial imbalances
that left 70 percent of the country’s best farmland in
the hands of the
minority white population.
The southern African
country, once a regional bread basket, has failed to
feed itself since 2000
following the land reform.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
The army is bulldozing itself into
local authorities, seizing council land
and revenue- generating projects,
several mayors told Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai here on
Friday.
26.06.1206:22pm
by Staff Reporter
Gathered for
the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe five-year strategic
planning
meeting, they told Tsvangirai that virtually every local authority
in the
country was a victim of interference by the army, war veterans and
Zanu
(PF)-sponsored Chipangano Youth Movement. Tsvangirai heard that in
Mutare,
Major General Douglas Nyikayaramba forcibly established a squatter
camp on
council land for political gain, without approval from the local
authority.
Masvingo municipality is struggling to recover unpaid bills from
the local 4
Brigade military base. Efforts to secure settlement of
outstanding bills are
met with stiff resistance sometimes accompanied by
threats.
The
Harare City Council lost control over Hatcliff Flea Markets to
Chipangano,
which collects revenue from vendors despite the project being
owned by the
local authority. The council has been threatened with
unspecified action by
Chipangano and some army personnel should it dare lay
claim over the
informal markets.
In Marondera, war veterans supported by Zanu (PF) are
positioning themselves
to take charge of the proposed 4,500 housing units at
Hunyani residential
project. They have resolved that the project be put on
ice until next
elections are held. They fear that since the project was a
brain-child of
MDC-T City Fathers, an early launch of the scheme would give
political
mileage to Tsvangirai and the MDC. The mayors also raised concerns
over
‘partisan’ allocation of road development funds by the Zimbabwe
National
Roads Authority.
“Allocation of the funds tended to favor
Zanu (PF)-controlled rural councils
at the expense of urban local
authorities run by MDC. Imagine a small local
authority like Chaminuka
District Council with such little traffic receiving
an allocation of $3
million, while the capital city Harare with its high
traffic volume being
allocated a mere $50,000. Marondera Municipality was
allocated $150,000 on
paper, but nothing on the ground suggests the local
authority would benefit
from the funds anytime soon,” said the mayors.
Tsvangirai said he would
raise some of the issues in cabinet to help chart
the way forward.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Written by Godfrey Mtimba
recently Brazil
Wednesday, 27 June 2012 11:29
RIO DE JANEIRO -
Zimbabwe has been named as one of Africa’s “dangerous
conflict zones” where
election-related disputes are stalling development.
Speaking during a
labour and environmental meeting at the sidelines of the
United Nations
World Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro
recently,
global trade union leaders blamed African leaders, including those
from
Zimbabwe, for hampering development.
The union leaders said this emanated
mostly from political conflicts borne
out of sitting leaders’ refusal to
hand over power after losing elections.
One of the trade unionists,
International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC) —Africa general secretary
Kwasi Adu-Amankwah said the prevalence of
conflicts and political tensions
in countries such as Zimbabwe had destroyed
economies.
This, he said,
had resulted in a negative impact on development despite some
countries
being rich in mineral resources.
“Political instability and conflicts in
African countries like Zimbabwe,
DRC, Sudan, Chad, Mauritania, Guinea
Bissau, Ivory Coast and Tunisia to
mention a few, have contributed to the
stalling of development on the
continent as attention has focused on
fighting instead of fostering
development,” he said.
Amankwah took a
swipe at dictators in Africa, both deposed and serving,
saying they should
be held accountable for the continent’s underdevelopment.
He said while
other continents were now focusing on sustainable development
through the
creation of green economies, Africa still has a challenge as
some countries
were still struggling with election related conflicts.
“Most of these
conflicts emanate from elections. Some leaders are always not
willing to
hand over power after they lose elections. This will explode into
a serious
crisis that will see the loss of life at a time the leaders should
be
focusing their attention on developing our continent that is still
lagging
behind when we compare it with other continents,” Amankwah said.
Zimbabwe
has been in political turmoil since President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu
PF and
long-time rival and now coalition government partner Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai’s MDC have been embroiled in serious elections disputes
since
2002.
Amankwah said countries like Zimbabwe were lagging behind because
of serious
problems such as gross human rights violations and bad
governance, adding
that the countries were also facing a severe crisis of
massive unemployment
rates.
“In these countries you see there are a
lot of problems facing citizens as
the economies will not be performing well
as foreign investment is lost due
to the political situations. Food
insecurity, health problems and massive
job losses are the usual rampant
scenarios in these countries and there is
no way we can foster democracy and
development in these countries,” he said.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest
unemployment rates in southern Africa, which
stands at over 80 percent
despite being endowed with vast deposits of
minerals such as gold, diamonds
and platinum.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
27/06/2012 00:00:00
by Roman
Moyo
Share
THE government is finalising work on the Mines
and Minerals Bill which will
among, other things, discourage speculative
activities in the mining sector
as well as facilitate the economic
empowerment of the country’s previously
disadvantaged black
majority.
Mines and Mining Development Minister, Obert Mpofu said the
Bill would be
brought before Parliament in the third quarter of the
year.
In a statement, Mpofu said government will adopted “a use it or
lose it
policy which is aimed at pushing claim holders to utilize their
claims or
risk having them repossessed”.
“An overhaul of the old
system will include new issues that address the
release of ground held for
speculative purposes, the holding of land by
people who do not mine and
people who want to sell claims they do not own,”
he said.
“In
addition to the Mines and Minerals Act there will be formulation of a
Diamond Policy, Diamond act and other polices that will guide the operations
of the mining activities through the country.
“The more you
revolutionise statutes, the more relevant they become, the
more user
friendly they become, the more popular they become with people and
people
take advantage of them and operate in a sustainable manner.”
The mining
industry has since called on the government to expedite the
proposed
amendments to so prospective investors are clear about the
operating
environment.
“As long as these amendments remain outstanding the
investment environment
remains unsettled and adds to the higher country risk
rating,” said
immediate past president of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines
Victor Gapare
said.
“The government and the mining industry have been
consulting on the issue
since 2002 and it is high time the amendments are
finalised to give
investors confidence in the legislative framework
governing the mining
industry”.
Gapare said potential investors
had also lamented the lack of ground for new
investment in mineral
exploration.
“As members may be aware the country has been locked down by
Exclusive
Prospecting Order (EPO) applications going back to 2002 and the
letter sent
out to applicants for the payments of additional fees was
received with
mixed feelings,” he said.
“It would be important for
the ministry to clarify this position for
transparency and to act within the
confines of existing regulations and
notice circulation to industry. The
industry looks forward to periodic
announcements on how much ground is
available for mineral exploration.”
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
COPAC is mainly interested in spending donor
funding, a spokesperson from
National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisations said.
27.06.1208:51am
by Sofia
Mapuranga
Speaking at a workshop organised by Zimbabwe
Environmental Law Association
workshop in Harare recently to review the
outcomes of the draft
constitution, Machinda Marongwe said Civil Society
Organisations were
failing to access funding from donors because all the
focus was on the
constitution making process.
“CSOs cannot implement
a number of activities in the country because donors
are currently giving
huge sums of money to COPAC,” he said. “They have
invested so much money in
the constitution making process and because the
process is now at a critical
stage where they cannot abandon it, COPAC is
taking advantage of this and
prolonging coming up with a conclusive draft
document.”
Marongwe
accused COPAC of gobbling funds meant to finance information
gathering to
ensure that they come up with a people-driven document.
“Where is the
national report and why is COPAC taking forever to avail it to
the nation?
It is critical that we analyse whether the raw data that they
gathered has
been incorporated in the draft document so that we are able to
present our
views before they come up with a conclusive constitutional
draft,” he
said.
There have been repeated calls for COPAC to speed up the process to
enable
the country to go for elections, a development that has been met with
criticism from the MDC formations.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
The International Monetary Fund will not give
Zimbabwe any more money until
it repays outstanding arrears amounting to
more than $200million, business
sources have confirmed. The country owes
$550 million in all.
27.06.1211:26am
by Ngoni Chanakira
Harare
A high level IMF delegation was in Zimbabwe for the annual
Article IV
Consultations. They held discussions with several individuals
including
ministers.
“Yes we met with the IMF in Harare,” said a
senior official from the
Business Commission of Zimbabwe, which is led by
David Govere and represents
all business organisations.
“They said
Zimbabwe must clear all outstanding IMF arrears and get its
economy back on
track.”
The news comes hardly a week after President Robert Mugabe
castigated
Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, accusing him of sidelining the
“City of
Kings” - Bulawayo.
“If Bulawayo dies then all of Zimbabwe
dies,” Mugabe said in Bulawayo before
dashing off to Rio De Janeiro in
Brazil to attend the three-day Summit on
the Environment.
“I asked
Biti what he had done with the $500,000 we had been given by the
IMF and he
said he only had about $100,000 left. We should have used that
money to
bring the businesses in Bulawayo up to standard because most of
them were
closed.”
An economist said $500,000 would hardly be enough to re-equip
one company.
Mugabe also took a swipe at the IMF, accusing it of sidelining
developing
nations.
Numerous politicians and business executives have
accused Mugabe’s
government of ignoring Bulawayo over the years.
The
IMF has said several issues needed to be sorted out including structural
impediments, the acceleration of indigenisation in mining and other sectors,
property rights and political uncertainty.
It said it was worried
about higher than anticipated increases in imported
food and fuel prices as
well as the financial system where most commercial
banks were
under-capitalised.
“Zimbabwe does not have the capacity to pay off the
IMF’s arrears from its
own resources,” Biti said in Harare. “We will need to
request cooperating
partners for a concessional bridging loan or grant to
settle the arrears.”
Clearance of the arrears would unlock new financing
arrangements from the
IMF, which would then be used to repay the bridging
loan obtained from the
cooperating partners.
Zimbabwe owes
multilateral institutions a grand total of $2,504 billion,
including $1,126
billion to the World Bank, $529 million to the African
Development Bank and
$221 million to the European Investment Bank.
http://www.voanews.com
26 June
2012
Ntungamili Nkomo | Washington DC
Dubai-based airline,
Emirates, announced Tuesday it was ramping up its
schedule to Zimbabwe,
increasing the number of flights from five days a week
to a daily service
starting October 1.
The airline, one of the fastest growing, took
advantage of Air Zimbabwe’s
endless troubles and started servicing the
Dubai-Lusaka-Harare route in
February this year.
In a statement,
Emirates Vice President of Commercial Operations for Africa,
Jean Luc
Grillet said the airline was expanding its service due to increased
demand.
“A daily service to Lusaka and Harare will mean greater
choice for
customers," he said, "while an increased cargo capacity of 40 per
cent will
facilitate more export business opportunities for both countries,
forging
greater trade links and increasing access to key trading partners in
Asia
and the Middle East.”
Independent economic commentator Walter
Nsununguli Mbongolwane told VOA the
demand for flights to Harare is due to a
rebound in tourism and mining.
Currently, Emirates operates 21 passenger
and cargo destinations across
African.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai Karimakwenda
27
June, 2012
Writer and veteran nationalist Mike Masotsha Hove died in
Bulawayo Wednesday
afternoon, after battling with illness for many
years.
Many Zimbabweans remember him as a journalist who kick-started the
careers
of several top reporters in the country and as the father of Sekai
Holland,
the co-Minister for National Healing and Reconciliation.
SW
Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme, who visited the family home
in
Bulawayo soon after Wednesday afternoon, said no arrangements had yet
been
made for the burial and a memorial.
Saungweme said Masotsha Hove was 97
years old and had been an influential
force during the liberation struggle,
working with veteran nationalists such
as Joshua Nkomo, Reverend Ndabaningi
Sithole and Herbert Chitepo.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
ZESN held a public meeting at
the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the 26th of June
2012 with the topic: An Analysis
of the Working Draft Constitution/COPAC
process. They were four speakers
representing the academia, civil society
and women namely Dr. Charity
Manyeruke, Dr. Alex Magaisa, Ms. Emilia Muchawa
and Professor Lovemore
Madhuku.
27.06.1201:40pm
by ZESN
The major highlights were
as follows:
• Dr. Charity Manyeruke highlighted that there is need to
give up individual
rights as the current constitution making process is
engulfed with self
interest of individuals, political parties and interest
groups. She further
stated that Constitutions are not written by the people
but by those who
wield power; the politicians. On devolution she commented
that Devolution is
a policy issue and therefore cannot be enshrined in the
Constitution. She
dismissed dual citizenship stating that economic benefits
from those in the
Diaspora are paltry.
• Dr. Alex Magaisa said that
Zimbabwe will rightly develop its new
constitution informed by the past,
present and future aspirations of its
people. He highlighted four key
improved areas in the Working Draft
Constitution such as the Bill of Rights,
Citizenship, Separation of Powers
and Elections. He reiterated that it was
premature to say the process is
flawed, as we the contents of the official
draft are yet to be published,
“let it be judged when it comes out” said Dr.
Magaisa. He also saw a great
need to deconstruct the contentious issue on
Devolution which he regarded as
an issue that has been misinterpreted to
mean cession. Unlike Dr. Manyeruke
he argued that devolution would be good
for Zimbabwe.
• Ms. Emilia Muchawa highlighted that the Constitution of
Zimbabwe which was
adopted as part of the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement was
a document which
offers little opportunity for women. She applauded the
working draft as she
said after carrying out a Gender Audit of the Working
Draft Constitution it
can be safely said that 75% of women’s concerns had
been included. However,
she said that women felt that more could be done as
there is no mention of
gender parity in critical areas such as the security
service and the
judiciary. The women of Zimbabwe are demanding a
constitution that
guarantees more women in decision making positions through
adoption of
mechanisms such as a constitutional quota.
• Professor
Madhuku maintained the NCA position that they would mobilize
people for a NO
vote to the new constitution as it believes that it is the
outcome of the
three political parties and is not driven by the people. He
said that the
political parties are in control of the process. He envisaged
a scenario
whereby the GPA principals might adopt the constitution without
subjecting
the draft to a Constitutional Referendum. He urged people to
judge the COPAC
draft on both the process and the content.
• COPAC was urged to intensify
their dissemination of information on the
process as the public is not aware
of progress with the draft constitution.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Recent reports of the emergence
of both corruption and political violence in
the MDC come as no surprise to
some of us. We must understand that all of us
are victims of the political
culture of violence and corruption under which
we have lived for the past 32
years. This is the political culture imposed
on the Zimbabwe body politick
by none other than the former liberation
movement, Zanu
(PF).
27.06.1208:34am
by John Makumbe
Being products of
that culture, it is only natural that when push comes to
shove, as
over-ambitious individuals seek to enter the corridors of power,
some
individuals will resort to both political violence and corruption.
Further,
our near comatose economy has the tendency of tempting those among
us who
have accessed a little bit of power and authority to abuse these
instruments
for self aggrandizement. The corrupt abuse of some council
resources is a
case in point. The MDC also suffers from the problem of
knowing its members
and supporters well enough to be able to distinguish
between the bad and the
good apples. The party is just so large that there
is no capacity to vet
every card-holder before they are issued with the
membership card. Indeed,
some elements from Zanu (PF), including some
Central Intelligence spies,
have easily obtained MDC membership cards which
enable them to attend
virtually all party functions with ease.
They will then be able to carry
out their damaging work against the party of
excellence without being found
out. It is my considered view that over the
years, Zanu (PF) has found it
quite easy to infiltrate, not just the MDC,
but virtually all other
political parties operating in this country today.
The lack of unity among
these political parties also makes it a lot easier
for the former ruling and
now reeling party to get away with such
infiltrations.
How can these
problems be resolved by the leadership of the MDC? Given the
size of the
MDC, there should be no hesitation on the part of the leadership
to
thoroughly investigate all reported cases of corruption and political
violence among its members. Individuals found on the wrong side of the
party’s
principles should be evicted without delay. They should also be
subjected to
a properly constituted disciplinary committee hearing before
being evicted.
No party member should be sacrosanct. Some of these
measures are already
being effected, and some corrupt councillors have
already been expelled from
the party.
The party should also tighten
its vetting process to ensure that bad apples
find it difficult to join.
Well-thought out guidelines need to be devised,
debated by the leadership
and popularised among the people as soon as
possible. These guidelines will
have to be followed whenever new members are
recruited, and whenever leaders
at all levels are being elected.
Further, the party needs to embark on a
strenuous programme of training all
its leaders as soon as they have been
elected into office. It is naive to
expect that all those who are popularly
elected into office know the party
principles, aims, objectives and values.
On the contrary, the majority of
leaders at the various levels guess their
way through the first few years of
their term of office. This is the very
time they are most likely to fall
foul of what the party stands for. They
need help and the party leadership
has to provide it. - makumbe60@gmail.com
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
When the British settlers colonised
Zimbabwe, one of the key things they did
was to establish their religion
here. They also built facilities to cater
for their needs provide British
goods and services - not what Zimbabweans
needed. They sang praises of and
hoodwinked chiefs and local leaders to get
mining concessions and land. They
also made sure that they left a mark
wherever they went, flying the Union
Jack and building hotels, churches and
so on. Today the Chinese are doing
exactly the same.
26.06.1205:30pm
by Maxwell Saungweme
It’s
ironic today that those who claim to have fought the liberation
struggle and
declaring that “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again” are
actually aiding
the colonisation of the country by the Chinese.
It is no secret that the
Chinese have taken over most of the lucrative
diamond and other mines and
are benefitting more than the Zimbabweans who
are supposed to be the
beneficiaries of the country’s mineral wealth. There
is no shred of doubt
that Zimbabwe is being mortgaged to the Chinese by the
government of the
day.
Meanwhile, the government is failing to provide health care
facilities and
services to its people. HIV/AIDS patients struggle to get
drugs, schools are
still under staffed and rural schools operate without
basic leaning aids and
infrastructure.Our roads are still characterised by
potholes and
dilapidation, many go hungry and street kids are a common
feature.Unemployment is still very high and the economy is still not robust
enough for the country to use its own currency. What benefit are these
Chinese deals bringing and what development has been spurred by their coming
to Zimbabwe?
As if grabbing of mines is not enough, the Chinese have
also taken over
foodstuff, household goods and clothing shops in most of our
towns, crowding
out of business struggling indigenous business people and
informal
traders -predominantly women. The dumping of cheap Chinese clothing
has
crippled our clothing industry, robbing thousands of
employment.
To demonstrate that they are here to stay, just as the
British settlers did
during colonialism, the Chinese are building Chinese
hotels, supermarkets
and temples all over. These sell Chinese foods and
products thereby reducing
the benefit Zimbabwe should get from selling its
products to tourists.
They are given permission to build hotels in
environmentally protected areas
where Zimbabweans are not allowed to build.
The case of the giant Chinese
hotel in the wetlands adjacent to the National
Sports Stadium in Harare is a
clear demonstrationthat our leaders have lost
all logic and ignored the laws
of the land in seeking to appease the
Chinese. Two weeks ago even President
Robert Mugabe had to officially open
the Jin’an Buddha Temple in Chiadzwa- a
clear sign that Zimbabwe’s
leadership accepts and indeed fosters
colonisation of the country by the
Chinese.
The British settlers were notorious for praising chiefs and
local leaders.
Mugabe was showered withpraise by the master of theJin’an
Buddha Temple, Kai
Hui. According to The Herald of 16 June, Hui likened
Mugabe to Chairman Mao
and wished him good health and victory in the next
elections.
As one enters Zimbabwe through one of the most strategic ports
of entry,
Harare International Airport,one is greeted by huge signboards in
Chinese
and English. There is nothing so telling of colonialism than
Zimbabweans
ignoring their own languages like Shona and Ndebele and writing
signboards
at our airports in Chinese.
It’s high time we woke up and
start advocating and acting against the
colonisation of our country by the
Chinese in broad daylight. - Maxwell is a
development specialist and writes
in his own capacity and can be contacted
at maxwellsaungweme@gmail.com
Tell
us about it
Do you agree that Zimbabwe is being colonized by the Chinese?
Have you had
an experience, good or bad, with Chinese people in Zimbabwe?
Please tell us
about it.
Email: editor@thezimbabwean.co.uk
Facebook:
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/#facebook
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/thezimbabwean
Sms:
+27 79 570 9663, +263 736 999 005
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
27/06/2012 00:00:00
by Amb. Charles
Ray
REFLECTING on my nearly three years in Zimbabwe, I remain
cautiously
optimistic; the long-term future for this country is bright, and
that is due
in large part to the overwhelmingly energetic, dedicated, and
intelligent
young people, people who make up the majority of Zimbabwe’s
population.
How can young people build a better country, you might ask?
After all, the
culture does not give the young such power. Well, I will
concede that
culture is a limiting factor – but, only a limiting factor – it
does not
have to be a complete barrier.
Young people can – and should
– take a more active role in the development
of their country, but that must
start with self. That’s right; the key to
having a better community or
country begins with each individual making a
commitment to being the best
that he or she can be.
So, what can you do, beginning in the here and now, to
create a better
Zimbabwe, a country that you can be justly proud
of?
You can start by defining what kind of society you want to live in,
what
kind of country that you, when you’re old like me, you can leave to
your
children and grandchildren. And, you need to decide what kind of person
you
want or need to be in that society. This means that you need to clearly
define ‘you.’
Don’t wait for things to happen, or for others to do
things for you.
Identify what needs to be done, and then do it. Start small
– you should
aspire to reach for the stars, but take that journey one step
at a time, one
challenge at a time.
Is there a problem in your
community that has bugged you for some time? The
government is slow or
non-performing about picking up trash? Well, quit
complaining about it; get
a group of your friends together and start a
volunteer project to clean up
your neighbourhood. Even better, organise a
small enterprise of your friends
and offer your services for a modest fee to
homeowners in your
community.
Never stop learning. Don’t restrict your learning to the
classroom, text
books, or what teachers have told you. Read widely; question
every
assumption, and put every theory to the test. Reach out to the broader
world
and see what it has to offer. You might be surprised to learn that you
might
even have something to offer that world.
Don’t fear failure. I
read somewhere recently that ‘fear; is an acronym for
Forget Everything and
Run’. Well, drop that habit, and stop running. My
definition of success is
‘a string of failures that you survive and learn
from.’ If you’ve never
failed at anything, you’ve probably not learned
anything new. Remember, it’s
not how many times you fall down that matters,
but how many times you get
back up.
Develop tolerance. The world is a diverse place, and so are the
countries in
it. A tolerant society, one that values every member and gives
each member
the opportunity to contribute to its development, will prosper.
Intolerant
societies might do well in the short term, and I have my doubts
about that
actually, but in the end will fail and fail miserably.
Go
beyond the surface. This is related somewhat to my injunction to keep
learning, but it’s important enough that I highlight it. Develop the habit
of educating yourself on the nuances of situations and people, and avoid the
dangerous habit of judging merely on surface appearances, incomplete
information, or sound bites. Look behind the curtain and see that all those
blinking lights are really being manipulated by a small person, as Dorothy
did in the Wizard of Oz.
Maintain a positive attitude. If you’re an
optimist, sometimes you will be
wrong, but, if you’re a pessimist, you’ll
always be right. Look for the
positive side of a situation, and take
advantage of it. Sometimes, things
that we think are negative, if viewed
properly, can work out to our
advantage. When life gives you lemons, don’t
cry, just make lemonade.
Learn to visualise the outcomes you want in
life, then get up off your
backside and work to make them happen. In most
cases, you have a 50-50
chance of success, which is better than the 100%
rate of failure if you
never try – right?
Put your focus on the
things that really matter. I have noticed over the
past three years that
politics dominates every conversation. It’s as if
nothing else matters.
Well, ask yourself; in your daily life, how often does
politics really
affect the things that matter most to you? You get up; brush
your teeth,
have breakfast, spend some time with your family, and then off
to school or
work.
Now, I know that political decisions can affect our lives – bad
economic
decisions can raise prices, drive away investment, cost jobs – but,
it’s
really the day-to-day personal decisions we all make that truly
determine
our lives.
Look at the business that survived the terrible
hyperinflation; they did
that, not through political intervention, but
hard-headed personal
decisions. I’m not saying you should ignore politics,
but put it in its
proper place – somewhere out there, but use more of your
energy in building
a better local environment. Help kids do their school
work, clean up your
neighbourhood, start small local business to satisfy
local needs, help fill
in the potholes, plant a tree. I could go on and on,
but I think you get the
picture.
By working on the things that you
can control, by striving to make your
little corner of the world better, you
contribute to making the country, and
ultimately the world, better. If
everyone does that, imagine the outcome. It’s
like building a brick wall.
You have a picture in your mind of what the
whole wall looks like, but you
erect it one brick at a time.
Ambassador Charles Ray is the outgoing US
Ambassador to Zimbabwe. This was
his speech at the DefZee Presents held at
theUS Embassy Public Affairs
Section
