Zimbabwe PM's staff released without charge

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

Sapa-AFP | 23 March, 2013 12:55

Zimbabwe police have released without charge two staffers from Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office who were taken in for questioning two
days ago, a spokesman say.

Spiwe Vera and Elizabeth Banda were apprehended just days after four aides
to Tsvangirai and their lawyer were arrested on the day the country held a
key referendum on a new constitution.

"They (Vera and Banda) took statements and there are no charges against
them," said Tsvangirai's spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka.

"The interrogation is becoming senseless and we are now taking it as
harassment... One of the staffers was called to report again to the police
while picking up a child from school," he added.

On Sunday, Thabani Mpofu -- director for research in the prime minister's
office -- and three other colleagues were arrested.

Their lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, a prominent human rights attorney who has
represented the opposition and rights activists, was also detained.

The four aides to Tsvangirai have been charged with breaching the state
secrecy code and impersonating the police.

Mtetwa faces a charge of obstructing the course of justice for allegedly
shouting at police during a raid of the prime minister's communications
office.

All of them were on Wednesday denied bail at a magistrate's court.

After largely voting in favour of the new constitution in the weekend
referendum, Zimbabwe will go to the polls later this year to end a shaky
power-sharing government between veteran president Robert Mugabe and
arch-rival Tsvangirai.

President Mugabe to Approach Courts Again to Avoid By-Elections

http://www.voazimbabwe.com

Blessing  Zulu
22.03.2013

WASHINGTON — With only a few days to go before a Zimbabwe High Court
deadline given to President Robert Mugabe to proclaim a date to hold three
by-elections in Matebeleland, the government’s legal team, led by Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa, is next week expected to file papers in the
courts to further delay the polls.

The High Court had given Mr. Mugabe until March 31 to proclaim a date for
the three by-elections following the expulsion of former Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) lawmakers Abednico Bhebhe, Njabuliso Mguni and
Norman Mpofu from the party.

They took the president to court in 2010 demanding the by-elections.
Speaking in Rome on Thursday, the president said his legal team would be
going back to court to seek another extension.

In a previous application Mr. Chinamasa said the cash-strapped government
needed time to find resources to fund the by-elections.

He also argued that apart from the three constituencies, the government was
also required to fill another 25 parliamentary vacant seats and 164 local
authory vacant seats.

The seats fell vacant due to deaths or expulsions. Bhebhe told VOA's Studio
7 that Mr. Mugabe’s move is unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, an aide to South African president Jacob Zuma has refuted claims
that Pretoria’s facilitation team was thrown out of a full Joint Monitoring
and Implemenation Committee meeting in Harare Wednesday.

Mr. Zuma is the Southern African Development Community-appointed mediator in
Zimbabwe.

The Herald newspaper, qouting the Zanu-PF representative at the meeting,
Tsholotsho lawmaker Jonathan Moyo, accused the three-member Zuma
facilitation team of trying to interfere in the country’s affairs by
allegedly acting outside its mandate.

The facilitation team is said to have insisted on attending the JOMIC
meeting. JOMIC is a Zimbabwean multipartisan panel that was first launched
on January 30, 2009, pursuant of the 2008 Zimbabwean power sharing
agreement.

Mr. Zuma’s envoys and Zanu-PF hawks have traded barbs previously as Pretoria
continues to push for electoral reforms ahead of this year’s crucial polls.

Zanu-PF has been resisting implementing reforms agreed on when the unity
government was formed.

But Mr. Zuma’s international relations advisor Lindiwe Zulu told VOA's
Studio  that there was no such impasse.

Political analyst Earnest Mudzengi, director of the Media Centre, is not
surprised that President Mugabe’s party continues to resist reforms ahead of
elections since reforms mean certain defeat in elections.

Anti-corruption chief charged with fraud

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

23/03/2013 00:00:00
     by Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE Anti-Corruption Commission chief executive, Ngonidzashe Gumbo, has
appeared in court charged with defrauding the government of US$435,000 when
he purchased a Harare property to house the anti-graft body.

According to prosecutors, Gumbo requested US$1,68 million from the
government in 2010  to purchase the offices in Harare’s Mt Pleasant area but
it has since emerged that the building actually cost US$1.2 million and that
the US$435,000 balance was allegedly not declared.

Prosecutors also accuse Gumbo of registering the building under a private
company in which he was one of the directors along with Sukai Tongogara,
Edwin Mubataripi, Christopher Chisango and Gibson Mangwiro – all of them
fellow Commission executive officials.

Gumbo was remanded in custody for bail ruling when he appeared before Harare
magistrate Donald Ndirowei on Friday. The magistrate is expected to make his
ruling on the bail application on Monday.

His attorney, Advocate Fadzai Mahere, said her client was prepared to pay
US$2,000 and surrender title deeds to his Mandara home as part of the bail
conditions insiting he was not a flight risk since his passport had expired.

But prosecutor, Michael Reza, opposed bail arguing Gumbo faced serious
charges. Reza added that although Gumbo's passport had expired, he could
still leave Zimbabwe illegally since the country’s borders were porous.

The prosecutor also said Gumbo was likely to interfere with evidence since
he had access to Commission offices where documents crucial to the case were
held.

According to papers before the court, Gumbo approached the Ministry of Home
Affairs sometime in 2010 seeking alternative office accommodation as the
Commission faced eviction from its premises.

The ministry gave him permission to look for new offices after which he
returned with a request for US$1,68 million to buy the Mt Pleasant property
which belonged to a Diane Spalletah.

Prosecutors say the money was then transferred to a CBZ bank account
belonging to a company called Perpetual Properties for which Gumbo’s
daughter allegedly worked as an administrator.

Perpetual Properties then paid Diane Spalletah US$1,2 million for the Mt
Pleasant building, charging US$44,500 as their commission.

From the US$435,500 balance, US$160,000 is said to have been used to
purchase a property owned by Poptechnologies where Gumbo and one Popatlal
Samir are directors. An individual named as Da Silva was given US$100 000,
while Samir received US$95 000.

Gumbo allegedly allocated US$80 000 for “renovations” and registered the Mt
Pleasant property under a shelf company called Property Mortage in which he
had equal shareholding with Tongogara, Chisango, Mubataripi and Mangwiro.

Mugabe'll stick to June poll, spokesman

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

23/03/2013 00:00:00
     by Staff Reporter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is not minded to delay elections beyond June 29, his
spokesman has insisted, setting the stage for a showdown in the fractious
coalition government over the timing of the key vote.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa sparked howls of protest from the MDC
formations when he stated Wednesday that, “in accordance with the law” new
elections must be held by June 29 with the MDC-T threatening to boycott the
vote. The MDCs want the poll delayed to allow implementation of further
reforms.

But Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, said Friday that delaying the
elections beyond the end of June was an act of “constitutional indiscipline”
the President was not minded to entertain.

“The President is stressing that beyond 29 June we will be using the
Constitutional clause extending the life of the executive which he decries
because it suggests indiscipline in the country,” Charamba told the Herald
newspaper.

“There is a very strong constitutional imperative. Our Government has a
five-year-life span … that is always defined around the President’s date of
swearing in.

“The President was sworn in on the 29th of June 2008; come the 29 of June
this year, the term of Government and the term of Parliament come to a
close. When that happens we must go to the elections immediately and that
means we must have elections before the 29th of June.”

Charamba said although it was possible to delay elections by up to three
months after the end of the current Parliament, Mugabe did not consider the
option ideal.

“There is an allowance within the Constitution that, should Government come
under pressure for whatever reason, it has the prerogative of extending
elections by another three months beyond the date where the elections fall
due, except this can only happen in circumstances which are demonstrable and
in our reckoning, we do not think there is reason to do so,” he said.

“After all, if we move beyond June 29 it will mean we will not have the
three arms of Government namely the executive, judiciary and the
legislature … (so) while this is possible it is not what we must wish for.”

Charamba said it was also imperative that the country had a substantive
government in place by August this year when Zimbabwe jointly hosts with
Zambia the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) summit.

“We have the UNWTO summit that is coming in August,” he said.
“The expectation is that by that time we must have a substantive Government
in place which is able to give that event the organisational seriousness
that it deserves. When you look at all those factors then you realise we
must have our elections before the 29th of June.”

But the MDCs have united in opposing Chinamasa’s time-frame, insisting there
is not enough time to ensure a credible vote.
MDC-T secretary general and Finance Minister Tendai Biti whose leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, insists Mugabe must agree the election date with him said
his party would boycott a June vote.

He said: “Zanu PF is trying to harvest fear. They planted fear and murdered
our people in June 2008, they are trying to reap that, harvest that in June
2013. We will not be part of a June election.”

MDC leader and Industry Minister Welshman Ncube said Chinamasa’s time-frame
does not factor in various challenges made necessary by the adoption of the
new Constitution which include the amendment of the country’s electoral
laws.

He explained: “The (new) constitution must now be gazetted; wait for 30 days
and once the 30-day period has expired, parliament must then debate and pass
it. It then goes to the President for assent.

“Once that is done, a large chunk of the constitution will come into effect
immediately it is gazetted, other parts will come in whenever a new
President is sworn in. What is relevant to elections is that for a minimum
of 30 days after new constitution comes in, ZEC is obliged to do voter
registration outreach so that those who want to register can register.

“After that, the President can then begin the process of proclaiming an
election. The Electoral Act requires that the period from the proclamation
to the nomination court is 14 days, it further provides that the period from
proclamation to election is 58 days, which is why if you factor in 30 days
for publishing constitution, the 30 days for voter registration and the 58
days to an election you’re looking at a minimum period of four months.

“I have not factored the things that still have to be done negotiating
amendments to the Electoral Act to be consistent with the new
constitution... you are looking at a minimum period of four months before
you can actually have an election date which is why some of us keep saying
it is not possible, if you are going to do it properly, to have an election
earlier than the last part of August or for that matter earlier than
September.”

Mugabe regime targeting High Court judge

http://nehandaradio.com

on March 23, 2013 at 2:09 pm
975 830 88 0

By Lance Guma

HARARE – A High Court judge who recently ordered the immediate release of
human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa and also granted a search warrant to the
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) to search the offices of three
Zanu PF Cabinet ministers is now allegedly being victimised by the Mugabe
regime.

Nehanda Radio understands the Zanu PF controlled state media has been
ordered to dig up as much dirt as they can on Justice Charles Hungwe as
retaliation for these two rulings which were not sanctioned by the regime.
All judges who make independent rulings are eventually hounded out.

The onslaught began on Saturday when the Herald newspaper published a story
claiming Justice Hungwe “has come under fire from the legal fraternity for
denying justice to a 55-year-old man he convicted in 2003 but has failed to
sentence over the past 10 years after losing his court records.”

The case involves Jonathan Mutsinze of Nyameni, Marondera who has been in
Harare remand prison awaiting sentencing following his conviction on charges
of robbery and murder with actual intent in 2003. Mutsinze was arrested and
convicted of car theft in 1998 and sentenced to six years and eight months.

But while serving his sentence he was tried on other charges of murder and
armed robbery committed in 1998. His trial began in 2002 before Justice
Charles Hungwe and was concluded in March 2003. The trial prosecutor was Mrs
Florence Ziyambi, who is now deputy attorney general (civil).

“Mutsinze was convicted of murder with actual intent. Extenuation done
before the matter was remanded to another day for sentencing. According to
sources at the High Court, the trial record which was retained by Justice
Hungwe has never been seen again,” the Herald reported.

“Meanwhile the accused has been languishing in remand because the matter is
considered partially heard since it did not go for sentencing. Tapes
pertaining to Mutsinze’s case were also erroneously erased before the matter
was completed making the production of a duplicate record virtually
impossible.”

The Herald even quoted a senior advocate who spoke on condition of anonymity
equating Justice Hungwe’s behaviour to criminal negligence.

“It is a fundamental and internationally recognised principle of the rule of
law that justice delayed is justice denied. This poor fellow’s justice has
been grossly and scandalously violated by Justice Hungwe’s inexplicable
failure to sentence him after convicting him some 10 years ago of a very
serious crime of murder.”

Justice Charles Hungwe issued an order around 1 a.m. Monday (2300 GMT
Sunday) for arresting officers to immediately release detained human rights
lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa. The police however refused to obey the order and
bizarrely a lower Magistrates Court denied Mtetwa bail.

Two weeks ago Justice Hungwe granted the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission
(ZACC) permission to search the offices of Mines minister Obert Mpofu,
Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere, and Transport and
Infrastructural Development minister Nicholas Goche.

The commission also pounced on the National Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Board (NIEEB) and Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara)
offices which fall under Kasukuwere and Goche respectively. It was only
pro-Mugabe judge, Justice George Chiweshe who blocked the searches.

The only time the Zanu PF controlled state media has run a negative article
on a judge has been in the run up to them being hounded out of the bench.
Examples in the past have included Justice George Smith and Benjamin Paradza
who later fled Zimbabwe after being arrested and victimised for his
independent rulings.

Meanwhile just like clock work, Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission chief
executive Ngonidzashe Gumbo is being accused of buying offices to be used by
the commission in Mt Pleasant using Government funds, but registered the
property in the name of a company he jointly owned with four of his
subbordinates.

Gumbo allegedly requested US$1 680 000 to purchase the offices at 872
Betterment Close in Mt Pleasant but its being alleged the actual cost was
US$1,2 million. He allegedly did not declare the balance of US$435 000 after
purchasing the property. Gumbo yesterday appeared at the Harare Magistrates’
Courts.

Judge under fire

http://www.herald.co.zw

Saturday, 23 March 2013 01:31

Jonathan Mutsinze explains his ordeal during an interview at Harare Remand
Prison yesterday. The prison complex has been his home for the past 15
years.

Caesar Zvayi
Deputy Editor

HIGH Court Judge Charles Hungwe has come under fire from the legal
fraternity for denying justice to a 55-year-old man he convicted in 2003 but
has failed to sentence over the past 10 years after losing his court
records.

The man, Jonathan Mutsinze of Nyameni, Marondera has been languishing in
Harare remand prison awaiting sentencing following his conviction on charges
of robbery and murder with actual intent in 2003.

Mutsinze was arrested and convicted of car theft in 1998 and sentenced to
six years and eight months, and while serving his sentence he was tried on
other charges of murder and armed robbery committed in 1998.
His trial began in 2002 before Justice Charles Hungwe and was concluded in
March 2003.
The trial prosecutor was Mrs Florence Ziyambi, who is now deputy attorney
general (civil).

Mutsinze was convicted of murder with actual intent. Extenuation done before
the matter was remanded to another day for sentencing.
According to sources at the High Court, the trial record which was retained
by Justice Hungwe has never been seen again.
Meanwhile the accused has been languishing in remand because the matter is
considered partially heard since it did not go for sentencing.

To make matters worse the tapes pertaining to Mutsinze’s case were also
erroneously erased before the matter was completed making the production of
a duplicate record virtually impossible.

Now a veteran of the remand prison, Mutsinze’s relentless quest for justice
has acquainted him with the legal process and legal jargon.
‘‘I am still here because the law is not taking its course,’’ he said in a
resigned tone.
Harare lawyer Mr Terrence Hussein of Hussein and Ranchod Legal Practitioners
said it was surprising that such a miscarriage of justice could go on in
Zimbabwe.
“Constitutionally every person has a right to a fair and speedy trial and to
say somebody is waiting for 10 years to find out his fate is clearly in my
view unconstitutional. It is violating his basic right not to have his case
determined in a speedy manner. Mutsinze has a right to appeal to the Supreme
Court to have his right determined or can have his case brought urgently on
review to the Supreme Court in the same manner. However, it is surprising
that things like that are happening in Zimbabwe,” Mr Hussein said.

His sentiments were echoed by advocate Martin Dinha of the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Justice who said Justice Hungwe’s conduct infringement on Mutsinze’s
rights.
“It is a lapse on the justice delivery system. It is definitely an
infringement on his democratic and human rights. Accused persons should be
brought before the courts and tried in a speedy manner. It is
unconstitutional to stay under such conditions awaiting sentence.”

A senior advocate who spoke on condition of anonymity equated Justice Hungwe’s
behaviour to criminal negligence.
“It is a fundamental and internationally recognised principle of the rule of
law that justice delayed is justice denied. This poor fellow’s justice has
been grossly and scandalously violated by Justice Hungwe’s inexplicable
failure to sentence him after convicting him some 10 years ago of a very
serious crime of murder.

‘‘This means the public in this case has suffered double jeopardy. On the
one hand we have justice denied through Justice Hungwe’s grossly delayed
sentence dating back to some 10 years ago. On the other hand we have a very
clear unavoidable case of either gross incompetence or criminal  negligence
on Judge Hungwe’s part whose delayed sentence is nothing short of an
inexcusable scandal which smacks of corruption of the criminal justice
system,’’ the advocate said.

Human rights lawyer Jeremiah Bhamu said Mutsinze’s rights have been
seriously violated because he can’t even challenge his conviction in the
absence of a sentence and record.

‘‘He is clearly being denied his rights to protection before the law. As a
convicted person he is entitled to know his fate. The law says trials should
be done in a reasonable time and that includes sentencing. As it is he
cannot even challenge his conviction without the record.”

Chris Mhike of Atherstone and Cook said justice needed to be served.

‘‘In terms of Zimbabwean and International Laws, all citizens are entitled
to personal liberty. Both the Lancaster House Constitution which is the
current fundamental law of the land, and the Copac draft which is about to
become Zimbabwe’s new basic law enshrine the right to personal liberty
subject to applicable limitations.

‘‘In the circumstances I would urge the authorities at the High Court
registry to urgently locate Mr Mutsinze’s file or create a dummy file or
arrange for a trial de novo (fresh trial) if possible so that this grave
injustice is cured,’’ Mr Mhike said.

Mrs Irene Petras, the director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,
refused to comment saying she had not come across the case even though it
has been highlighted before in the media with the latest coverage occurring
only last month.

Mutsinze said he has tried on numerous occasions to have his case heard by
various judges among them Justices Bharat Patel, Felistas Chatukuta and
Joseph Musakwa, who all wrote letters of notification to Justice Hungwe to
no avail.

‘‘I do not know what happens now,’’ Mutsinze said with a voice full of
despair, ‘‘I am looking for a pro-deo, whenever I appear in court, I need
somebody to represent me,’’ he said.

A bishop with Jerusalem Apostolic Faith Church before his incarceration and
husband to four wives and father to 10 children, Mutsinze said no one had
visited him since 2007.
His family now consists of the prison wardens and fellow inmates he has been
with over the years.

His greatest fear is joining his maker before his case is finalised like his
co-accused Pedzisai Zhoya who passed on at the same prison complex in 2006.

Zanu (PF) rocked by corruption scandals

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com

Staff Reporter 2 hours 16 minutes ago

The issue of corruption is now at the centre of Zanu PF’s succession
infighting with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) being turned
into a battlefield, amid reports that party heavyweights in opposing
factions are out to pull each other down for allegedly being corrupt.
The fight has also claimed scalps at Zacc, with the arrest of the body’s
chief executive officer Ngonidzashe Gumbo over allegations of swindling the
commission of over $435 000.
Well-placed sources yesterday told NewsDay that three powerful ministers
being targeted for investigations by Zacc believed they were being
persecuted for belonging to a faction opposed to a rival one.
Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Transport minister Nicholas
Goche and Mines minister Obert Mpofu – all Zanu PF politburo heavyweights —
were the target of Zacc’s crackdown.
The sources said Kasukuwere believes a faction led by Vice-President Joice
Mujuru was working with Zacc.
Repeated efforts to get comments from both Kasukuwere and Sylvester Nguni,
Minister of State in Vice-President Mujuru’s Office, were unsuccessful.
Mujuru and Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa reportedly lead Zanu PF
factions angling to succeed President Robert Mugabe once he leaves, although
they have repeatedly denied harbouring presidential ambitions.
So hot is the issue that some Zacc commissioners are said to be
contemplating quitting in protest over infiltration by politicians opposed
to investigations.
Responding to the issue of the contentious search warrant that they could
not successfully use to search the ministers’ offices, Zacc spokesperson
Goodwill Shana told journalists in Harare on Wednesday that the anti-graft
body did not secure the warrants to “pursue underhand and malicious
investigations against certain organisations, their officials and respective
ministries”.
The unfolding saga has seen the first real casualty at Zacc with Gumbo
(50) — a former Senior Assistant Commissioner with the Zimbabwe Republic
Police — remanded in custody to Monday next week by Harare magistrate Donald
Ndirowei for a determination on his bail application which was strongly
opposed by prosecutor Michael Reza.
The former top cop is alleged to have authorised disbursement of various
amounts into other people’s accounts from the $1,7 million which the
government had provided Zacc for various projects.
Gumbo’s arrest came at a time when the High Court blocked Zacc investigators
from conducting searches at National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Board and Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation offices.
“As Zacc, we are not prompted by political considerations, but by reasonable
suspicion that a crime has been committed . . . the individual and political
diversity of the commission would make a political sectorial agenda
difficult to pursue or achieve,” Shana said.
Reports suggest that Zacc was now heavily divided with some commissioners
claiming that their efforts to crack down on corrupt top Zanu PF officials
were being frustrated by “sell-outs” in their midst who were allegedly
leaking information to targeted party “bigwigs”.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission  investigators allege that there is
political pressure on them to halt their investigations into the abuse of
constituency development funds (CDF) by ministers and prominent legislators
until after the elections.
Two commission investigators told the Mail & Guardianthere was political
pressure from those implicated, who had allegedly sought an audience with
the attorney general to postpone the probe. The investigators said they had
been advised by their superiors that investigation must cease until after
the elections.
They said all the MPs subject to their investigation were contesting
forthcoming parliamentary elections.
"Just when we were about to request arrest warrants, we got a directive to
halt all investigations and arrests," an official said.
Gross abuse of funds
Another investigator said that the investigation had revealed gross abuse of
funds across the political divide. "There are very few clean people, within
all parties."
Commission officials allege that attorney general Johannes Tomana wrote a
letter in March last year to the ministry of constitutional and
parliamentary affairs to halt investigations until a complete audit was done
in all constituencies.
In a letter dated March 5 2012, Tomana advised the accounting officer at the
ministry of constitutional affairs that there was a need to "fairly deal
with results of the ongoing CDF audit which has given rise to investigations
and arrests currently being handled by [the] commission". Constitutional
Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga said that he was shocked by Tomana's letter.
"You don't wait to prosecute a thief that has stolen in the supermarket
pending other investigations," he said. "I don't get it. Some are saying I'm
doing this to victimise other MPs because I'm leaving government. I don't
understand how the element of victimisation comes in. The issue relates to
the abuse of funds, which had nothing to do with me," he said.
Intending to leave the government
Matinenga has indicated his intention to leave government when his term ends
to rejoin the Bar at Advocates' chambers in Harare.
Investigators said the abuse of funds they uncovered related to legislators
who:
• Produced fake receipts of development that was not carried out;
• Gave invoices of developmental work done by non-governmental
organisations, but presented these to investigators as projects funded
through the CDF;
• Deposited CDF funds into their personal accounts;
• Funded personal projects using CDF funds;
• Connived with constituency­members to abuse the funds; and
• Did not co-operate with commission investigators or did not live up to
their promises to provide proof of documentation for work done.
Since the funds were introduced in 2010, four legislators have been arrested
in connection with abuse.
Three belong to the Movement for Democratic Change party linked to Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and only one is aligned to President Robert
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. They are: Albert Mhlanga (MDC-T), Marvellous Khumalo
(MDC-T), Cleopas Machacha (MDC-T) and Franco Ndambakuwa (Zanu-PF).
Ndambakuwa's charges were withdrawn, but the MDC cases are still pending.
Investigators said they believed their probe was halted to protect
legislators who risked losing their seats if they were exposed.
The commission's dockets, seen by the M&G, name ministers in both Zanu-PF
and the MDC. The names are known to the M&G but cannot be revealed for legal
reasons.
The funds were introduced to allow legislators to bypass bureaucratic red
tape by giving them quick access to money for local projects.
In his 2009/10 national budget speech, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the
funds were meant to fund "the construction of boreholes, the repair of
schools and clinics, the purchase of electrical generators and building of
market stalls", among other projects identified by local communities. Plus
NewsDay

Violence against women a major concern-UN

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

23.03.13

by Tarisai Jangara

Gender inequality and violence against women in Zimbabwe remain a major
concern, says Alain Noudehou, United Nations Resident Coordinator, in a
statement today commemorating International Women’s Day in retrospect.

The day was locally on 8 March under the theme, “Peace begins with me: Peace
begins with you: Peace begins with Us All: Act now to end violence against
women and girls.”

It is estimated that up to seven in every 10 women globally are beaten,
raped, abused, or mutilated in their lifetimes and most of this violence
takes place in intimate relationships.

“Violence against women and girls is a gross human rights violation that
fractures families and communities and hampers development. “It has enormous
social, economic and productivity costs for individuals, families,
communities and societies,” Noudehou said.

He however commended Zimbabwe for taking steps in fighting violence against
women through the 4P’s campaign-“Prevention, Protection, Participation,
Programs”-- which was informed by the Africa Unite to End Violence against
Women Campaign, the regional component of the UN Secretary General’s global
UNiTE campaign.

“ Women in Zimbabwe are under-represented in political decision-making, with
their numbers in Parliament, for example, far below the African Union and
SADC target of 50 percent women in decision-making,” he said in the
statement.

Noudehou noted that women were also disadvantaged in terms of health with
the maternal mortality ratio high at 960 per 100,000 live births.

According to the 2011 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 1 in 4 women
reported that they had experienced sexual violence, and 1 in 3 women aged 15
to 49 have experienced physical violence since the age 15.

“If violence against women and girls is interpreted in economic terms,
according to a 2009 study by the Swedish International Development Agency,
the aggregate cost in Zimbabwe was estimated at US$2 billion,” read the
statement by Noudehou.

African Commission finds Zimbabwe responsible for torture of a human rights lawyer

The end of Zimbabwe power sharing, the return of brute power

http://www.zimdiaspora.com/

SATURDAY, 23 MARCH 2013 15:15     PETER NYONI

By Timothy Scarnecchia

This past weekend’s referendum in Zimbabwe marks an important transition
away from the 2009 Government of National Unity (GNU) formed in the
aftermath of the violent 2008 elections.

The low-key referendum, where nearly 3 million people voted “Yes” for the
new constitution (and nearly 180,000 voted “No”), was not as widely reported
in the international press as the police actions on Sunday morning, when the
homes and offices of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials in
Harare were raided. When Zimbabwe’s veteran human rights lawyer, Beatrice
Mtetwa, arrived on the scene and demanded to see a warrant and inventory of
materials removed from her client’s home, she was told that there was no
need for a warrant and that she had to turnover her cellphone, as she
allegedly was recording the conversation.   After a scuffle with the police,
they confiscated her bag and phone and she was brought to the police office
and charged with interfering with police business. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR) immediately made a request to the High Court for an
injunction calling for the release of Mtetwa. The High Court issued the
proper papers for her release but the police refused to honor the order.
Now, four days later, Beatrice Mtetwa and the MDC officials remain in jail,
having been denied bail.

The high profile arrest of Mtetwa, and the slow movement of the police to
release her, is reminiscent of the pre-GNU ZANU-PF state in which there were
no restraints on persecution of opposition figures. It is telling that the
police no longer feel the pressure to “play fair” only one day after the
referendum voted in favor of the new Constitution (a requirement for new
national elections planned for some time in June or July 2013). It is also
telling that the arrest of the MDC officials seem to have been a
“pre-emptive” strike to allegedly stop them from leaking government
information about the ongoing anti-corruption investigation that has become
part of a larger struggle within ZANU-PF. The anti-corruption investigation
appears to have come to an abrupt end after failed attempts to search the
offices of the most powerful parastatals and ministries connected to mining
and indigenization.

During the past four years of the GNU, ZANU-PF and the two MDCs have held
together a ‘unity’ government that was always more about ZANU-PF giving the
MDCs “a share” of government than actually any sharing of government.
ZANU-PF has managed, most importantly, to keep exclusive control of the
military, the police, and the mining sector, as well as the Ministry of
Youth Development, Indigenisation, and Empowerment.  The MDC was given the
Ministry of Finance, from which Tendai Biti has many times reported that the
state treasury is empty. And yet, the Ministry of Mines is awash with cash
from the diamond trade.

The refusal to turn the substantial diamond trading profits over to the
state treasury has allowed ZANU-PF to run a form of government of its own
within the GNU, and now that the GNU seems to be over, the Ministry of Mines
is not about to cooperate with the “other” government’s anti-corruption
investigation.  Last week, those involved with the National Indigenisation
and Economic Empowerment Board (NIEEB) managed to obtain a High Court order
stopping the anti-corruption commission from searching their offices for
evidence connected to an alleged corruption scandal involving the NIEEB.
This “Nieebgate” scandal appears to be the main purpose of the raid on the
MDC offices, as well as court orders to stop the official investigation. The
Zimbabwe-based Centre for Natural Resource Governance put it this way in a
press release on March 20th:

“It is also reported that since the attempts to investigate corruption at
the said Parastatals and government ministries, the ZACC General Manager,
Sukai Tongogara, daughter of the late ZANLA Commander General, has gone into
hiding after she was tipped that state security agents wanted to arrest her
for abuse of office. The persecution of the anti-graft commission is a
serious setback in the fight against corruption.”[i]

It is not as if these ZANU-PF controlled parastatals and ministries that
withhold profits from the state treasury for personal and political reasons
are not already well known, but these recent very public moves to silence
critical debate indicate a return to intimidation and arrests at a level
reminiscent of the run-up to every election since the 1990s. It appears that
the high level conflict in ZANU-PF over the control of the party and
corruption charges waged against some of the really big players, has now
caught MDC officials investigating the case as part of the backlash.

That Mtetwa, the MDC official’s lawyer, has also been arrested was probably
not part of the original plan of those who sent the police to the home of
Thabani Mpofu, the MDC’s chief legal advisor, to confiscate materials
related to the corruption case. Mtetwa’s arrest fits more with the continued
harassment of human rights lawyers and activists throughout the GNU period,
a trend that has picked up steam with the arrests of Okay Machisa, Director
of ZimRights in January this year, and more recently the arrest of Jestina
Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project Trust earlier this month.
Last year, Frances Lovemore’s Counseling Services Unit was also targeted
among other groups. As Agnus Shaw reports, the four MDC officials, “… are
charged with impersonating police officers because they were gathering
information on the state’s failure to prosecute cases of high level
corruption.” Shaw goes on to say that the police claim the four officials
had papers that looked like official police ‘dockets’, and therefore they
were allegedly impersonating police officers.

Now, with the arrest and detention without bail of Beatrice Mtetwa, it would
appear that the Zimbabwe Police and ZANU-PF are once again sending a message
to the human rights groups of the country: do not interfere by attempting to
represent the victims of human rights abuses during the election season.
This is an ominous message but one, unfortunately, that Zimbabweans are
accustomed to, as many of these brave advocates have been arrested and
tortured in the past by the Zimbabwean police and the CIO.  However, given
that Beatrice Mtetwa was arrested as part of specific action to stop the
potential leaking of evidence in the corruption case, her case seems to be
in a different category, something now beyond the ongoing harassment of
human rights groups and NGOs before the elections. Mtetwa and the four
officials were denied bail on Wednesday, and are scheduled to appear next in
court on April 3rd.

Why a post-GNU Zimbabwe is not likely to have ‘free and fair’ elections

What, then, if anything, did four years of the GNU achieve if ZANU-PF
remains in a position to control the police, gain court orders to stop
anti-corruption investigations, and to arrest the opposition on charges of
“allegedly receiving or communicating state secrets”? [ii] It would seem, as
many people predicted at the time, that at the most the GNU presented Robert
Mugabe and his ZANU-PF comrades the necessary breathing space to recover
from an electoral loss in 2008 which they managed to turn into a run off
‘victory’ (for at least the presidential vote) after the deaths of over 300
people and the injury and torture of many more.

Nic Cheeseman and Blessing-Miles Tendi co-authored in 2010 a very important
comparative analysis of the GNUs in Zimbabwe and Kenya. They argue that the
GNU in Kenya was the product of a “politics of collusion”, while Zimbabwe’s
GNU represented the “politics of continuity.” Their analysis seems to hold
for the recent Kenyan elections and the constitutional process that preceded
it. In Kenya, all of the elite parties in the GNU had an interest in
protecting themselves from prosecution for crimes after the 2007
post-election violence. The main stakeholders, whether Raila Odinga, William
Ruoto, Mwai Kibaki, or now president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta, all had a common
goal. They colluded with each other in order to re-write the constitution
and to avoid taking seriously any sort of “truth and justice” clauses that
they had agreed upon when entering the GNU in 2008.  The Zimbabwean GNU is
seen as fundamentally different by Tendi and Cheeseman because in Zimbabwe
it was ZANU-PF that needed protection from future prosecution for political
violence, much more than the two MDC parties. Given that in this unequal
situation those with “veto power” in Zimbabwe were the military and ZANU-PF,
the other parties to the GNU were not able to effectively challenge the
status quo, thus the idea of a “politics of continuity.”

It is therefore depressing (but not surprising) that leaders of both
factions of the main MDCs, Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube, agreed that
conditions are in order for a ‘free and fair’ election this year.  They are
not really in a position to state otherwise, even as their own followers and
candidates are again on the receiving end of harassment and violence. Both
leaders appear confident that the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) will assure fair elections this time around. The fact that ZANU-PF
continues to protest against outside election observers other than SADC and
AU observers, and that the new head of the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission,
Judge Rita Makarau, was previously appointed to the Supreme Court by
President Mugabe, would seem to counter the rosy picture both Tsvangirai and
Ncube have thus far presented.

This past Sunday’s pre-emptive strike by the police against the MDC
officials is itself further proof that the GNU was never about substantial
power sharing. The timing of the raids, a day after the referendum, may show
that some respect was given to the MDC’s role in securing a “Yes” vote. But
immediately after, the MDC is once again the target of police raids. This is
illustrated, ironically, by the fact that those MDC members in government
who were making a case against alleged corruption are now themselves charged
with “breaching the official secrets code, impersonating police and illegal
possession of documents for criminal use.” The absurd case against them is
that “they were preparing criminal and corruption cases against Zimbabwe’s
police chief, the attorney general and other senior government officials,
including the very prosecutors handling their case.” All this seems to show
that ZANU-PF is back in pre-GNU form, and that the two main MDCs are once
again seen as “enemies of the state” by ZANU-PF.  This, of course, was the
portrayal of the MDC since it came to prominence with the defeat of ZANU-PF’s
attempted constitutional reform referendum in 2000.

That Beatrice Mtetwa, the internationally respected and honored human rights
lawyer, has been treated this way by the police and the courts – with a
recurring refusal of bail – further demonstrates the lack of concern within
ZANU-PF and the police for the rule of law and for international opinion
particularly when election time nears. Although it is still not yet clear
who was behind the order to search the MDC legal counsel’s home and offices,
it may, as suggested above, have been one faction in ZANU-PF that
orchestrated the police raid in hopes of defending their own reputations, as
they have done through the intimidation of the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption
Commission ZACC in the past weeks. If so, there may be another faction
within ZANU-PF willing to work behind the scenes to help release those
recently arrested in order to push further the anti-corruption investigation
as part of their battle within ZANU-PF.

In any case, it would seem that two of the commonly-held predictions made at
the beginning of the GNU are likely be confirmed now: 1) that the GNU would
allow ZANU-PF to regroup and extend its control, and 2) that factionalism
within ZANU-PF over Mugabe’s succession may lead to its own downfall.
Interestingly, as ZANU-PF factions jockey for positions leading up to the
next elections, the corruption charges are generating accusations and the
use of the police in ways that reveal the fundamental failure of ZANU-PF to
govern and manage the economy. This does not mean, however, that ZANU-PF has
lost its ability to win elections and to use violence to achieve this end.
The MDC parties, with such limited room to maneuver, are left hoping that
ZANU-PF will implode and lose at the polls. Hence Tsvangirai’s formulaic
response to the arrests of the four MDC officials and Mtetwa as reported in
the Mail & Guardian: “Reacting to the arrest of his aides and their lawyer,
Tsvangirai told journalists that ‘this is the natural reaction of people who
feel trapped, who feel they have lost power. These are acts of desperation .’”
It is doubtful, however, that ZANU-PF would agree with such a claim. In
December 2012, Robert Mugabe encouraged his supporters to “fight like a
wounded beast” in the upcoming elections. Mugabe knows from experience that
his party has proven its resiliency many times over, mostly through
electoral violence.

Having had the chance to hear Beatrice Mtetwa speak when she received the
Inamori Ethics Award in 2011 at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio,
I remember being energized by her bravery as well as her calmness in the way
she has handled so many tough cases in Zimbabwe. She has managed, along with
hundreds of other brave lawyers in Zimbabwe, to force the courts to do their
job properly. Despite the efforts by politicians and the attorney general’s
office to politicize the courts, Mtetwa and others have in fact had many
successes. Those of us outside of Zimbabwe need to be attentive and active
this year. This includes letting our support for Beatrice Mtetwa and others
caught up in this crackdown be known to our own governments and to the
Zimbabwean officials—and certainly SADC officials—and doing our best to
assist what is now a long struggle for justice and respect for the rule of
law in Zimbabwe.

Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, summed up
the situation well in the Mail & Guardian, especially noting the need to
fight the “enervating fatalism” most observers of the Zimbabwean situation
tend to convey:

“With Mtetwa in police detention, her court ordered release flagrantly
ignored, it is hard to imagine that anyone can credibly contend that, as
matters stand, there exist realistic prospects for free and fair elections
later this year. But if concerned observers outside Zimbabwe can afford such
enervating fatalism, it is not an option available to those inside Zimbabwe.

As Precious Chakasikwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights remarked: “For
every Beatrice Mtetwa that these state agents and institutions put behind
bars and attempt to embarrass, humiliate and punish without lawful cause,
there are 10 other human rights lawyers waiting to take up the mantle.” As
they must, if there is ever to be a different outcome.”

Timothy Scarnecchia is an Associate Professor of African History at Kent
State University, Kent, Ohio, USA. Thanks to Amanda Hammar for her helpful
contributions to this article.

[i] The CNRG press release (March 20, 2013) goes on to make the following
recommendations.

CNRG calls on government to do the following things:

That the Anti Corruption Commission is given political, judicial and
financial support to enable it to carry out its mandate effectively
That the Anti Corruption Commission Act of 2004 is amended so that the
Commission seeks clearance to investigate from Parliament rather than from
the Zimbabwe Republic Police
That the Anti Corruption Commission is independent and is granted immunity
to investigate any office without interference
That the Ant Corruption Commission is given power to recommend punishment to
the judiciary on those found to have committed white collar crime and that
their recommendations are taken seriously
That there be no selective application of the law in the fight against
corruption
That the Anti Corruption Commission is protected from threats and
intimidation
That the law deals effectively with public officials who refuse to cooperate
with the Commission
[ii] The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights reports the following charges
were brought against the four officials: “The Magistrate also dismissed the
bail application filed by four officials working in Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s Office among them Thabani Mpofu, Felix Matsinde, Councillor
Warship Dumba and Mehluli Tshuma, who were charged with contravening Section
4 of Official Secrets Act for allegedly receiving or communicating secret
information, Section 179 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
for alleged impersonation and Section 40 (1) of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act for possession of articles for criminal use.
The four aides were remanded to 3 April 2013.”indepthafrica

Where Citizenship Went to Die

http://www.nytimes.com

By PETINA GAPPAH
Published: March 22, 2013

AT the Registrar General’s office in this city, queues form as early as 3 in
the morning. By 8, they wind all the way around the building and into the
street, where vendors sell a medley of randomness: bananas and airtime, shoe
polish and ice cream. Inside, crowds of desperate people stand skin to skin,
babies squashed on their mothers’ backs as they struggle to breathe in the
fetid air of the mazelike corridors.

In this chaotic atmosphere, the government issues the documents that confirm
the identity of Zimbabweans, and that entitle them to go to school, to
drive, to get jobs, to travel and to marry, the documents that confirm that
they exist.

The first circle of this hell is the birth certificate office, where mothers
are asked publicly about the paternity, and often the legitimacy, of their
babies. The innermost circle is Room 100, where citizenship comes to die.

On Tuesday, Zimbabwe’s electoral commission announced the results of a
referendum to approve a new Constitution — it had passed with nearly 95
percent of the vote. It means new curbs on presidential power, an emboldened
Parliament and a strengthened bill of rights. It will also lead to an
election later this year.

Most of the debate about the Constitution has been focused on the politics:
what it will mean for Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, the opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change and other, smaller,
parties. This is natural: Zimbabwe has been in the grip of Mr. Mugabe since
independence, and people are yearning for change.

But whatever happens at the presidential level, there are many progressive
provisions in the Constitution that will have an immediate and long-term
impact on the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. The provisions on
citizenship, so central to identity, to a people’s connection with their
country, are the most important of these.

I am intimately familiar with the Registrar General’s offices, and with Room
100 in particular. I know the dirty label on the door, the wooden bench set
against the wall, the roller-binders on the shelves crammed with yellowed
paper and the cracked fake leather stools on which dour officials sit behind
a high counter listening to pleas almost always beginning with, “But I was
born in this country ...”

Room 100 is for people like me, people whose citizenship has to be
confirmed. If it is not, we are rendered “aliens” who cannot vote, run for
office or travel on a Zimbabwean passport.

I was born in Zambia in the ’70s, a few years before there was a Zimbabwe.
My father, like many skilled black workers who could not get jobs in
segregated Rhodesia, sought his fortune elsewhere. He and my mother moved to
Kitwe, a town on the booming Zambian copper belt. Zambia, then called
Northern Rhodesia, must have felt for my parents like an extension of the
Southern Rhodesia that they had grown up in. Indeed, between 1953 and 1963,
Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now called Malawi), had
formed the Central African Federation together. Citizens of the three
countries later moved freely and frequently across borders, with many
unskilled laborers eventually coming to work in the mines and on the farms
of Southern Rhodesia.

By the time Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, it had inherited a melting
pot of black citizens from across the Federation and beyond. Its white
citizens were also mixed — from Britain and Continental Europe. And there
soon came an influx of migrants from India.

When I first entered Room 100 in 1998, I was applying for my first passport
as an adult. The officers were jovial and efficient. They asked whether I
had ever taken Zambian nationality. I had left Zambia as a 9-month-old baby,
I said, and had been back only once, for three days on a school trip. From
the binders full of papers, an officer dug out a copy of a standard letter
from the Zambian ambassador that said something like, “Persons born in
Zambia to non-Zambian parents have no independent claim of citizenship in
Zambia.” He would put it in my file, he said, and I would have no other
problems.

By 2002, my passport had run out of pages. I had to apply for another. Room
100 was more packed than it had been four years earlier. The officers were
less friendly, less eager to hunt down documents to put in individual files.
The year before, a ZANU-PF-dominated Parliament had passed the Citizenship
Amendment Act, which obliged all persons wishing to retain Zimbabwean
citizenship to renounce their foreign citizenship.

The amendment was a direct response by ZANU-PF to the challenge posed by the
recently founded Movement for Democratic Change, whose financial support was
considered to be white-based. The government was hoping to disenfranchise
the estimated 30,000 white Zimbabweans by making those with actual or
potential foreign citizenship actively choose to be Zimbabwean. But it
mainly affected the more than one and a half million black Zimbabweans, many
of them poor farmworkers, who had paternal links to the former Central
African Federation and elsewhere. (In the patriarchal society of Zimbabwe,
only a father could pass on citizenship through blood. The mother’s
citizenship mattered only if she was unmarried.)

Under the new regime, people whose fathers were born outside the country, or
who themselves were born outside the country, or who had “funny looking”
surnames, had to pass through Room 100.

That day in 2002, I pointed out the absurdity of renouncing a claim that my
own file said I did not have. But the officers got nastier and the afternoon
grew hotter, until I was ready to renounce all future rights to all the
nationalities of all the countries in the world, just to get the ordeal over
with.

In October 2011, I received a letter dated September 2009 that finally
confirmed my status as a citizen. But even with this official confirmation,
the familiar dread came over me as I went back to the Registrar General’s at
the end of last year. My passport had again run out of pages.

As I stood in line, I listened to the conversations around me. Jethro, a
19-year-old man, explained that he was born in Zimbabwe to a Zimbabwean
mother. But his father, who had abandoned him as a baby, had been born in
Mozambique. For all he knew, his father had claimed Zimbabwean citizenship.
But the mere fact that his father was born abroad was enough to disqualify
Jethro as a citizen.

Zimbabwe’s Jethros thus found themselves in limbo. Unable to trace their
fathers, they could not inherit citizenship from their mothers. Disqualified
as Zimbabweans, and unable to claim the citizenship of countries their
fathers were born in, they were effectively stateless.

The new Constitution addresses these citizenship headaches once and for all.
It states clearly that citizenship by birth cannot be taken away. Becoming a
citizen of another country, or having a claim to foreign citizenship, is not
enough to take away Zimbabwean citizenship. Effectively, the Constitution
recognizes multiple citizenships. Significantly, it also allows women,
whether married or not, to pass their citizenship on to their children.

Parliament will now amend the Citizenship Act to bring it in line with the
new Constitution. For the more than a million Zimbabweans with parental
links elsewhere, for the many Zimbabweans whose children are growing up
abroad but who still feel a burning loyalty to Zimbabwe, for Jethro and for
me, these changes could not come quickly enough. Room 100 is now in the
past, or, if it is still in the present, it will only be in nightmares from
which we know we will wake.

Petina Gappah, a lawyer, is the author of the short story collection “An
Elegy for Easterly.”

Return the favour to Beatrice

http://www.cathybuckle.com/

March 23, 2013, 9:34 am

Dear Family and Friends,

Large red hearts had been tied to some lamp posts along the main highway
through my home town five days after the country voted in a referendum. Made
of kaylite the red hearts with white lettering proclaimed: “VIVA ZANU PF,”
and with those words we know for sure that open season has begun.

Hardly had we finished voting in the no-contest, constitutional referendum
last week when one of the bravest of the brave was arrested.  Going to the
MDC communications office on behalf of her clients who were being arrested,
human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was herself detained by police.  With
foreign journalists from many countries here to cover the referendum, it
didn’t take long for Beatrice Mtetwa’s arrest to make international news and
become common knowledge at home.

Surely this was a mistake, a mis-understanding people thought; this is the
courageous, internationally acclaimed lawyer and defender of human rights
who has fought in the courts for journalists, political victims, members of
WOZA and other NGO’s.  An MDC press statement said that Beatrice Mtetwa had
been arrested for: “daring to ask why her client had been arrested.” Later
we heard that the human rights lawyer was to be charged with 'obstructing or
defeating the course justice'.

The irony of the timing of Mtetwa’s arrest left everyone dumbfounded. Her
lawyer said: “Her arrest is not just an attack on her profession but on the
people of Zimbabwe who have just voted yes to a new constitution that
enshrines fundamental human rights.”  On the same day that Mr Mugabe and his
wife were meeting and being bowed to by the new Pope Francis in the Vatican,
Beatrice Mtetwa was appearing in the dock at the Harare Magistrates Court.

At first one, then two, then three nights later Beatrice Mtetwa was still
being held in custody. This despite an order issued a few hours after she’d
been arrested in which High Court Judge Charles Hungwe ordered the police to
release Mtetwa from custody. That order wasn’t adhered to and mid week an
Harare Magistrate dismissed the application for bail by Mtetwa’s lawyers
saying that if she was released she would interfere with police
investigations and remanded her in custody until April 3rd.

Yet more days ticked past with Beatrice Mtetwa still in custody. Each time
we see glimpses of her, on the way  to and from court, standing in the back
of a police truck, wearing socks but no shoes, she is still smiling, waving
and holding her head up high and so our admiration grows.  At the time of
writing Beatrice Mtetwa is still in custody; a fact the EU need to consider
as they prepare to remove sanctions against ninety percent of the
individuals in Zimbabwe who are on their list. The lifting of sanctions is
apparently a “reward” for holding a free and  fair referendum – not such a
great achievement considering that both political parties had called for a
YES vote and most people who voted hadn’t even seen the document they were
voting for.

When men come in the night, Beatrice Mtetewa says she’ll be there with her
‘headlights glaring’ and now it’s our turn to return the favour to Beatrice
and all the people who still need her help. Until next time, happy Easter
and thanks for reading, love cathy.