http://www.iol.co.za/
November 29 2011 at 12:20pm
By Jenni
Evans
The Constitutional Court has sent a Mail&Guardian application
for a secret
report on the 2003 Zimbabwe elections back to the Pretoria High
Court for
further determination.
This was the essence of a judgment
the court handed down on Tuesday.
The judges found that for a court to
decide that the State had properly
claimed that a record was exempt from
disclosure, it should determine
whether the State had shown that the
withheld information fell within the
exemptions claimed.
Because of
the nature of proceedings under the Promotion of Access to
Information Act,
courts may sometimes not have enough evidence to
responsibly decide whether
an exemption from disclosure was correct.
The judges said this could
happen because the requester, not having access
to the record, faced
difficulties raising genuine disputes of fact as to the
exemptions claimed
by the State.
It could also occur when the State was limited, under the
act, in its
ability to refer to the contents of the record in justifying the
exemptions
it claimed.
Therefore, the court ordered that the High
Court in Pretoria be allowed to
invoke its right to see the secret report,
so it could decide the case.
The M&G was using the act to see the
report by two South African judges.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe
retained his position in that election
over opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The judges, Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke, observed the
elections at
the request of former president Thabo Mbeki.
Khampepe is
a judge in the Constitutional Court and Moseneke is deputy chief
justice.
Both recused themselves when the court heard the matter in May.
The
publisher of the M&G asked for the report in June 2008, but the
president would not release it on the grounds it contained information given
by Zimbabwean officials in confidence.
The report was to be used by
the president for policy formulation.
The High Court in Pretoria granted
an order compelling the president to make
the report public.
The
Supreme Court of Appeal rejected an appeal by the presidency against the
High Court order and the presidency approached the Constitutional
Court.
M&G editor Nic Dawes voiced disappointment over the
ruling.
“I am disappointed,” he said outside the court.
It meant
the presidency's appeal was upheld, and the report could not be
released
yet.
The newspaper had been trying to get hold of the report for three
years.
Dawes said the judgment was important in terms of the
controversial
Protection of State Information Bill and the difficulties
faced when trying
to get information from the State, and in the context of
next year's
elections in Zimbabwe. – Sapa
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, November 29, 2011
--- Zimbabwean police who have in the past forced
President Robert Mugabe’s
rivals to cancel scheduled meetings citing lack of
manpower, have pledged to
be in “full force” at the Zanu-PF conference set
to be held in Bulawayo from
December 6 to 10.
Police on Monday said the Zanu-PF conference was set to
be “one of the
largest gatherings this year in Bulawayo.”
“Some rogue
elements of society always want to capitalise on the large
gatherings to
display how uncouth and unreasonable they may become,”
Bulawayo police said
in statement to the media.
“Political gatherings are the best platforms
of arraying the critical tenets
of democracy – freedom of association,
freedom of expression, freedom of
movement among others.
“Indeed it’s
time to give democracy a chance. As ZRP, we will not take a
back seat and
watch whilst some unruly elements disturb peace of this
beautiful City of
Kings.”
Acting officer commanding police Bulawayo province Assistant
Commissioner
Christopher Gora is quoted in the same statement saying:
“Police will not
condone any action, which is likely to disturb peace and
the smooth running
of the conference and threaten the security of
delegates.”
Early this month, police in Matabeleland North blocked Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai from holding rallies in Victoria Falls and Lupane
claiming they
had no manpower.
But at the Zanu-PF conference, the
Bulawayo police said they had adequately
deployed on every
street.
“As such members of the public are urged to desist from carrying
firearms,
knobkerries or perform any acts likely to provoke or incite
violence in the
run up to and soon after the conference.
“We expect
higher level of political maturity to all participants and
maximum
cooperation from all delegates.
The Zanu-PF conference will be held at
the Zimbabwe International Trade
Fair.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change held its congress in April at
the much bigger
Barbourfields Stadium and police presence was not that
pronounced.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Tonderai Kwenda, Deputy News Editor
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
12:01
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has all but secured his
candidature as the
Zanu PF candidate meaning it is all but confirmed that he
is going to be the
party’s life president.
Zanu PF secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa yesterday extinguished
ambitious attempts by
elements within the party’s factions to come together
and turn their
conference set for next week into an extra-ordinary congress
to try and push
out Mugabe.
Mugabe’s candidature has put paid to an interview Justice
Minister Patrick
Chinamasa gave to Namibian newspapers about three months
ago when he said
Zanu PF has no credible candidate other than
Mugabe.
The party’s officials, who by day bootlick Mugabe and were
exposed by the
whistle-blower website Wikileaks, as regime change merchants
for working
with foreigners to push out the 87-year-old president, are said
to be still
hopeful of a Mugabe ouster.
With indications that the
earliest Zimbabwe can hold elections is 2013, it
means that Zanu PF will
present the frail Mugabe at 89 as its presidential
candidate.
Mutasa,
told the Daily News there will not be any succession debates at the
Bulawayo
meeting ruling out any chance of surprises.
“Who is succeeding who, there
is nothing like that,” said Mutasa responding
to questions on whether the
party will discuss any succession plans for
Mugabe.
“We have said
again and again but you journalists just won’t listen. New
leaders are
elected at congress and this is not a congress.”
Instead, Mutasa said the
party will discuss indigenisation, agriculture, the
society, schools and
other issues.
Asked if the WikiLeaks issue will be on the table Mutasa
said, “We are not
in a hurry about it.”
It was Mugabe himself who had
announced that the conference might be turned
into a congress but the party
made a U-turn on realising that the Zanu PF
factions were converging and
plotting to oust the octogenarian leader.
But despite these telling signs
of a tired body due to advanced age, six out
of 10 provinces have so far
lined up to endorse him as the former ruling
party’s presidential candidate
for any future election.
Mugabe has been to the Far East on several
occasions this year on suspected
medical-related trips.
With
elections likely to be delayed until 2013 considering the timetable of
democratic reforms that have to be carried out before an election can be
called, Mugabe could find the going tough.
Zimbabwean elections are
usually characterised by punishing schedules and
any delay in the polls will
work against him.
At 89 in 2013, Zanu PF will find him to be a hard sell
as he will be pitted
against youthful candidates in the form of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
Simba Makoni, Arthur Mutambara, Welshman Ncube,
Dumiso Dabengwa and Job
Sikhala.
But party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo
has in the past said “wisdom comes with
age,” when he dismissed talk of
putting up the issue of the presidential
candidate up for a vote at the
Bulawayo conference.
So far the script of the previous years has largely
been reproduced with
Matabeleland South, Midlands, Mashonaland West,
Matabeleland North, Masvingo
and Harare having already publicly backed
Mugabe with an endorsement after
their provincial conferences.
“We
have one candidate only. That is the president,” said Andrew Langa, the
Zanu
PF Matabeleland South chairman.
Excitable Zanu PF chairperson Simon Khaya
Moyo has also brought a new
dimension to the whole debate telling party
supporters that the congress
will not do anything out of the extraordinary
except to reaffirm the
decisions of the party’s last congress which was held
in Mutare.
“Provinces can only reaffirm the decision of the congress. Our
party
constitution provides that whoever is elected presidential candidate
becomes
the party’s presidential candidate for any election until our next
congress,” said Moyo in an interview with the state-owned media
recently.
The party’s provinces have been endorsing Mugabe in quick
succession and at
the current rate, they are all likely to do so before the
start of the
conference.
Midlands province, the home province of Zanu
PF legal affairs secretary
Emmerson Mnangagwa has also endorsed the dear
leader.
The defence minister, who is believed to be leading one of the
factions
fighting to succeed Mugabe personally delivered the message
endorsing Mugabe
at a provincial meeting held in Gweru.
He said: “We,
as the Midlands, endorse President Robert Gabriel Mugabe as
the party’s
candidate in the forthcoming election,” he said adding that he
is a leader
“with a clear vision. He knows all our concerns and has the
solution to
solve them.”
Zanu PF Harare province is the latest in what has become a
predictable path
every year endorsing Mugabe after a provincial
meeting.
The province’s chairmen Amos Midzi said Mugabe’s candidature is
a foregone
conclusion saying the ailing leader was “the best candidate” to
represent
Zanu PF.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
28/11/2011 00:00:00
by Business
Reporter
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono has warned that Zimbabwe’s
nascent
economic recovery is at the mercy of the United States dollar, which
is
facing new pressures from the Euro-zone debt crisis.
Gono says
Zimbabwe should in fact be looking to the Chinese yuan as its main
currency,
while urgently seeking to restore its own currency which was
abandoned in
2009 after a dramatic loss of its value.
Speaking in Gweru last Saturday,
Gono said: “The extraordinary happenings in
Europe where economic power
houses in the Euro-zone have been hit by a debt
crisis deserves
extraordinary measures, especially here in Zimbabwe where we
have adopted
the U dollar as the major currency in our multi-currency
regime.
"With the continuous firming of the Chinese yuan, the US
dollar is fast
ceasing to be the world's reserve currency and the Euro-Zone
debt crisis has
made things even worse.
“As a country, we still have
the opportunity to avoid being caught napping
by adopting the Chinese yuan
as part of consolidating the country's look
East policy.”
China is
now Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner, with the Asian giant
absorbing most
of the country’s mineral and agricultural produce.
Vice President Joice
Mujuru first raised the possibility of adopting the
yuan in September last
year, saying it would be a “logical step” and could
help solve some of the
country’s liquidity constraints.
The multiple currency regime announced
in January 2009 has been fraught with
difficulties. Retailers are supposed
to accept the Euro and the British
pound but those two currencies have never
caught on, with most transactions
being conducted in United States dollars,
the South African rand and the
Botswana pula.
Finance Minister Biti
presented his 2012 budget last week and expects the
multiple currency regime
to remain in place at least until the end of 2012
when ministers hope it
would be replaced by a single currency for the
Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC).
Gono, speaking at theConfederation of Zimbabwe
Industries' (CZI) end-of-year
business dinner, said the use of foreign
currency was ultimately
unsustainable in the long run.
“As long as we
continue to use other people's currencies, where we do not
have control over
that currency, we are not going anywhere as a nation,” he
said.
“At
the moment the US dollar is going down the tube owing to the Euro-zone
debt
crisis and as a country, we are also going down the tube because we do
not
have control of that currency.
"The year 2012 should thus see Zimbabwe
coming up with its own currency
which we should be using without ruling out
the multicurrency system until
the economy stabilises.”
The demise of
the Zimbabwe dollar is attributed in no small measure to Gono’s
policy of
printing money, but he insists that his actions were in response
to an
unprecedented economic crisis which called for “extraordinary
measures”.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
29
November 2011
The education sector is witnessing growing anger from both
parents of school
learners and Zimbabwe’s teachers, because of rising school
fees and stagnant
salaries.
Some parents have expressed their anger
to the media about proposed fee
increases, which could be as high as 25%.
Reports have said that state
schools want to boost fees for day students
from US$160 to US$180, and
increase boarding fees to US$585 from US$560 a
term.
SW Radio Africa has been told that some private school boarding
fees are set
to rise to about US$13000 for the year. The situation is so
serious and the
fees so high that many parents are said to be leaving for
South Africa,
where good government schools are still
available.
Education Minister David Coltart said on Tuesday that the fee
hikes are
unavoidable, because the sector has been underfunded for more than
a decade.
He added that it is the government’s fault for not playing its
part in
ensuring the sector improves.
“This year we were allocated
about US$60 million for education but we only
saw about US$14 million of
that to run all the schools. This is woefully
insufficient and we’ve had to
turn to parents and this means a fee hike,”
Coltart explained.
He
added that he hopes to make the process of fee increases as transparent
as
possible, saying nothing is yet set in stone. He said that “even when the
fees are set, I plan to make the accounts for each school available on the
bulletin boards every month so parents can see where their money is
going.”
Finance Minister Tendai Biti last week announced more than US$700
million
set aside for education in the national US$4 billion Budget. Coltart
welcomed this commitment, but he was also cautious.
“The challenge is
to turn this theoretical budget into a reality,” he said.
SW Radio Africa
meanwhile has also been told that private school gardeners
are earning more
than government school teachers, who are still only earning
about US$180 a
month. PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou told SW Radio Africa
that state
teachers are earning “starvation wages.”
“It is unfortunate that the
national budget didn’t make any room for salary
increases because teachers
are now condemned to perpetual poverty,” Zhou
said.
Biti has
previously admitted there is little money for salary increments,
and made no
direct reference to a much needed increase during his Budget
speech last
week. Instead, he adjusted the tax requirements so civil
servants won’t be
paying such high tax. Their ‘allowances’ have also been
declared tax free as
on January 1st.
Biti is already facing resistance to his 2012 Budget from
within Cabinet,
with MPs reportedly holding back approval of the proposals,
until he gives
in to their demands for new cars and outstanding allowances.
Legislators
from ZANU PF and the MDC-T have told the Daily News they would
not give
their approval until their ‘needs’ are met.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
29 November 2011
An MDC-T
member from Mount Darwin North is recovering after he was assaulted
at his
home by known ZANU PF members last week.
Try Pfebve the MDC-T district
security officer for Mount Darwin North was
last Thursday “severely
assaulted,” by three ZANU PF members at his home in
Mukumbura. According to
an MDC-T statement, the three ZANU PF members who
attacked Pfebve are
Tandirai Chakari, Chiripo Chitoro and Tinashe Chakari.
The MDC-T reported
that Pfebve sustained “serious head injuries, his ribs
and left knee cap
were also fractured.” He was admitted in hospital for four
days.
Pfebve reported the matter to Mukumbura police station but no
arrests have
been made. He said the three ZANU PF members who assaulted him
asked him
“why he had played MDC songs earlier in the afternoon. They used
logs to
assault him all over the body.”
“ZANU PF thugs have continued
to act violently despite calls by their
leader, Robert Mugabe to stop all
forms of violence. ZANUPF needs to put in
place mechanisms to control their
bullies to refrain from violence,” the
MDC-T said in a statement.
http://www.news24.com
2011-11-29 12:22
Johannesburg - A vaginal
gel researchers had hoped would help prevent HIV
transmission for women is
ineffective, according to a report on Tuesday.
Researchers leading the
Tenofovir gel study at 15 sites across South Africa,
Uganda and Zimbabwe
recommended that 5 000 women who participated in the
trial should stop using
it, The Times reported.
The results of this second study shocked
scientists when they proved the
gel, developed by researchers at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal, could not
save millions of lives.
Last
year, the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in SA found the gel
was
39% successful in preventing HIV infection.
'Baffled'
Director of
the Aids research centre Professor Salim Abdool Karim said he
was "baffled"
by the results of the new study.
"This was totally unexpected because
there was good evidence from laboratory
research, animal studies and human
trials, which showed that Tenofovir gel
prevented Aids," he was quoted as
saying.
He and his wife, Quarraisha Abdool Karim, were expecting to have
the gel in
clinics next year, but the new findings sent them back to the
drawing board.
He said it was not clear whether the new result was due to
inadequate use of
the gel by women participating in the study, insufficient
drug levels in the
women at the time of HIV exposure, or some other
reason.
The couple was widely lauded after the gel was presented at the
International Aids Conference in Vienna last year - where the global
microbicide research community agreed a second study was needed to confirm
the protective effects of the gel.
The study saw participants, aged
between 18 and 30, using the gel 12 hours
before intercourse and within 12
hours after intercourse.
Funders included amongst others, the science and
technology department, the
US government and the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.
- SAPA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
By Associated Press, Published: November 29 | Updated:
Wednesday, November
30, 1:27 AM
HARARE, Zimbabwe — A militant youth
group loyal to Zimbabwe’s president is
calling for a boycott of a restaurant
chain whose latest advertisement
depicts the aging, authoritarian president
as “the last dictator standing,”
state radio reported Tuesday.
The
radio quoted the head of the group calling for South Africa-based Nando’s
to
withdraw the ad that depicts President Robert Mugabe or face punitive
action. Jimu Kunaka, the head of group known as Chipangano, said the
restaurant chain risked action including a boycott. Chipangano is a
“brotherhood” of Mugabe loyalists.
The commercial that touts
chicken shows Mugabe dining alone at Christmas,
his empty table set for
departed dictators including Moammar Gadhafi.
To the soundtrack of Mary
Hopkin’s hit song “Those were the days, my
friend,” the commercial shows an
actor playing Mugabe reminiscing about his
times with former dictators. It
portrays him and Gadhafi engaging in a
water-pistol fight, with Gadhafi
wielding a golden AK-47 water pistol.
The ersatz Mugabe also makes sand
angels with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, sings
karaoke with Chairman Mao, and
holds overthrown Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
astride a tank in a scene
parodying Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in
the hit movie
“Titanic.”
The head of Nando’s Zimbabwe franchise said it was not
informed of the South
African television and press campaign, and is
independent of them.
Musekiwa Kumbula, corporate affairs director at
Innscor Africa, holders of
the Nando’s franchise in Zimbabwe, said in a
statement the 60-second
television commercial widely seen on Zimbabwe
websites was generated in
South Africa for its market and
clientele.
The Innscor group “strongly feels the advertisement is
insensitive and in
poor taste,” he said.
But, he added, “No
consultation takes place between different franchises
when they are
formulating marketing strategies.”
It is an offense under Zimbabwe law to
insult Mugabe or undermine the
authority of his office.
Mugabe once
maintained close ties with Gadhafi. But relations became
strained over
payments for a gasoline deal during acute fuel shortages and
shortly before
the Libyan leader befriended Western leaders such as former
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, whom Mugabe harshly criticized for his
policies toward
Zimbabwe.
Chairman Mao’s China helped train Mugabe’s guerrillas to end
white rule in
the former British colony of Rhodesia and Mugabe has been a
frequent visitor
to China ever since.
Mugabe played host to Saddam
Hussein at a world summit of the Non-Aligned
Movement in 1986. And though
Mugabe was a sharp critic of apartheid-era
South African President P.W.
Botha — depicted in the commercial being pushed
on a swing by Mugabe —
apartheid South Africa remained Zimbabwe’s biggest
trading
partner.
Business tycoon Ray Kaukonde, a major stockholder in Innscor and
a former
provincial governor in Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, said the advertising
denigrated Mugabe. He called it “a violation of business ethics” and said it
was “in total disregard of African values,” state radio reported
Tuesday.
State radio said Chipangano demanded an apology be made to the
nation for
the “negative portrayal” of Mugabe, 87, who led Zimbabwe to
independence in
1980. Critics, Western governments and rights groups have
said he has become
increasingly authoritarian and unleashed a decade of
violence, vote-rigging
and intimidation amid a breakdown of the rule of law
since he ordered the
seizures of thousands of white-owned farms in
2000.
Human rights activists accuse the Chipangano group of forming
violent gangs
that roam Harare’s impoverished townships and seize property
from street
vendors and householders seen as supporters of Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai’s former opposition party in the nation’s fragile 30-month
coalition government.
Harare-based officials for the South
African-based satellite television
provider DStv said that if the commercial
is aired on South African
channels, it cannot be filtered out of programs
received by tens of
thousands of Zimbabwean subscribers.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
29
November 2011
Locadia Tembo, the woman at the centre of the marriage
storm with Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, is alleged to have slept
outside his Harare home
in Strathaven for 3 days, in an apparent attempt to
force him into marrying
her.
In line with the Shona custom of
‘kutizira’ a pregnant woman will either go
to the man’s house or his
relatives and refuse to leave until she is taken
into the family, or damages
are paid. This could explain why Tsvangirai
later sent emissaries to the
Tembo homestead last week Monday, to pay a
reported US$10,000 in
damages.
SW Radio Africa has now been told by sources close to the Prime
Minister
that “he is battling a major sting operation that is being
coordinated by
Mugabe’s regime.”
Tembo travelled to Buhera at the
weekend to meet Tsvangirai’s mother,
without the knowledge and consent of
the PM. Tsvangirai was said to be
seething with anger about this on
Sunday.
Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru, who is believed to be
Mugabe’s
spokesperson George Charamba, pre-empted Tembo’s visit to Buhera by
writing
about it even before it happened. His article ‘Tsvangirai: Tying the
Knot or
Knotty Ties’ was posted on Friday evening at 10:19 pm long before
Tembo made
her trip.
To make matters worse, Tembo was allegedly
accompanied by journalists from
the state owned media and she posed for
pictures outside and inside the
house. “Where on earth have you seen a rich
woman like that going into a
rural home, clutching ‘mutsvairo’ (broom) while
clearly posing for
pictures,” our source said.
It was further
alleged that Tembo distributed cash ‘like confetti at a
wedding’ while at
the Tsvangirai homestead, much to the delight of some of
the PM’s relatives.
“This is how the state media journalists were able to do
their job, taking
pictures etc. Everyone who was travelling with Tembo on
the day was treated
well,” he said.
The confusion surrounding whether Tsvangirai paid for
damages or married
Tembo has been covered extensively by the state owned
media. “The articles
have tended to be a mixture of the truth and outright
lies to try and
tarnish the image of the Prime Minister,” another senior
MDC-T official told
SW Radio Africa.
Although Tembo was initially
said to be 7 months pregnant, the state owned
Sunday Mail newspaper is now
quoting family members claiming she is not
pregnant. A source who spoke to
SW Radio Africa however said Tembo is the
one who told the PM she was
pregnant and on that basis went to his house in
Strathhaven, Harare,
refusing to leave.
Several people in the MDC-T pointed accusing fingers
at co-Home Affairs
Minister Theresa Makone, claiming she was trying to
influence Tsvangirai
into marrying Tembo, who is her friend. But in an
exclusive interview with
SW Radio Africa, Makone denied meddling in the PM’s
private affairs.
But Makone’s claims were later contradicted by Tembo’s
uncle, Isaiah
Karimatsenga, who told the Sunday Mail that Makone was present
during the
entire ‘marriage’ ceremony in Christon Bank last Monday. We also
received
information that it was actually Makone who bought the groceries
taken to
the Tembo homestead.
Meanwhile several members from the
Karimatsenga family are claiming they
will post video footage of the
‘marriage’ ceremony on the video sharing
website You Tube, if Tsvangirai’s
aides continue denying that he married.
An official in Tsvangirai’s
office however told us “they can go ahead, You
Tube will not marry Locadia.
The PM is the only person who can make that
decision.”
Political
commentator Pedzisai Ruhanya told SW Radio Africa: “I have
indicated before
and I will continue to argue that it’s a sting operation.
The state media
seems to be aware of every move this woman takes. If you
look at the
details, you can tell there is another hand at play.”
Ruhanya said:
“There are those who are naïve, who are saying why are we
blaming this woman
and not talking about the Prime Minister. But surely we
cannot ignore the
hand of the state. We cannot continue to blame Tsvangirai
because if it was
a normal issue, why is the state so interested?”
http://www.radiovop.com/
Harare, November 29, 2011-
Seven Movement for Democratic Change members who
have been languishing in
prison for the past six months have launched a
fresh bid for freedom by
seeking the high court to grant them leave to
appeal to the Supreme
Court.
The Glenview residents who include two brothers Lazarus
Maengahama and
Stanford Maengahama want the high court to authorize them to
petition the
Supreme Court to appeal against their denial of bail in
July.
Justice Tendai Uchena will hear the matter on Tuesday morning
in his
chambers.
The application for leave to appeal against the
refusal of bail for the
Glenview residents was necessitated by the
pronouncements made by Deputy
Chief Justice Luke Malaba early this month
that such leave was necessary in
terms of the bail appeal
procedures.
Justice Uchena threw out the residents’ bail application
in July after
ruling that they could flee from the country.
The seven
Glenview residents including the Maengahama brothers, Glenview
Ward 32
councillor Tungamirai Madzokere, Rebecca Mafikeni, Phenias
Nhatarikwa,
Yvonne Musarurwa and Stanford Mangwiro have been detained in
remand prison
since the time when they were arrested in May for allegedly
murdering a
police officer, Inspector Petros Mutedzi.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Pindai Dube
Tuesday, 29 November
2011 12:12
BULAWAYO - Humanitarian organisation, Medecins Sans
Frontieres - Spain (MSF)
has called on the Zimbabwe government to scrap
government hospital admission
fees saying there are derailing free
antiretroviral treatment (ART)
programmes, especially in rural
areas.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is an international
humanitarian
organisation heavily involved in providing medicine as part of
its
humanitarian work.
Addressing a press conference in Bulawayo
yesterday, MSF head of mission in
Zimbabwe, Mari Carmen Vinoles said MSF is
providing free ART to over 35000
HIV/AIDS patients countrywide.
The
MSF official said most HIV/Aids patients are now failing to get free ART
due
to high admission fees charged by government hospitals.
MSF conducts ART
programmes at government hospitals and council clinics
around the
country.
“Our main problem on giving free ART is admission fees charged
at government
hospitals.
“Some hospitals are charging as much as
US$30 and most people, especially
those in rural areas, cannot afford these
fees. Therefore they end up not
having access to our free ARVs treatment. So
we are calling on the Zimbabwe
Government, through the Ministry of Health,
to scrap these hospital
admission fees, so that everybody especially
pregnant mothers infected with
HIV/Aids can be on free ART treatment,” said
Vinoles.
Meanwhile, music superstar Oliver Mtukudzi and Chiwoniso Maraire
will today
(Tuesday) collaborate with Tsholotsho and Bulawayo Aids support
choir groups
during the launch of an anti-HIV campaign Compact Disk (CD) and
a book by
MSF in the city.
In the project titled “Positive
Generation: Voices for an HIV-free future”
Mtukudzi will also get backing
from Spanish musician Alejandro Sanz,
Dominican Republic musician Juan Luis
Guerra and Carlos Vives from Colombia.
Vinoles said, the project will
bestow international visibility on the
reality of HIV/Aids in Sub-Saharan
Africa and highlight the people on
treatment.
“The campaign objective
is to pay tribute to a generation of children,
adolescents, mothers who are
living “positively” with HIV and they are the
best testimonies to fight
stigma and transmit positive messages,” said
Vinoles.
Zimbabwe used
to be one of the country’s worst affected by HIV/Aids in the
world although
transmission rates have been declining in the last few years.
Researchers
say fear of infection and mass social change have driven a huge
decline in
HIV rates in Zimbabwe, offering important lessons on how to fight
the Aids
epidemic to the rest of Africa.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
29 November 2011
The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ)
has invited applications for 14
commercial radio licenses, to be dotted
around the country’s major urban
centres.
The 14 local FM licenses
will be in addition to the two national commercial
broadcasting licenses
that were recently granted to ZiFM, controlled by AB
Communications headed
by broadcaster Supa Mandiwanzira, and Talk Radio
channel to be run by
Zimpapers, publishers of the Herald.
Givemore Chipere, communication and
advocacy officer for Community Radio
Harare (CORAH), told SW Radio Africa on
Tuesday they were surprised to see
BAZ inviting application for local
commercial licenses.
Chipere said the application fee and radio
broadcasting service license cost
of US$2,500 and US$7,500 ‘is too much for
would be broadcasters in Zimbabwe.’
The basic license fee is also expensive
at US$50,000.
CORAH is an independent radio initiative based in Harare.
But its biggest
obstacle remains the fact that the government will not grant
it, or any
other community station, a broadcast license.
‘CORAH is
one of 10 community radio initiatives operating in Zimbabwe. The
others are
in Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Hwange, Kariba, Masvingo, Mutare and
Kadoma. All
these community radio projects are just waiting to be granted a
license from
BAZ and we can start broadcasting by Friday.
‘But this new process will
take time, even a year, and its just a gimmick to
hoodwink SADC into
believing there are media reforms in Zimbabwe when there
is nothing,’
Chipere said.
The BAZ offer for 14 local broadcasting licenses covers
Harare, Bulawayo,
Mutare, Gweru, Masvingo, Chinhoyi, Bindura, Gwanda,
Marondera, Lupane,
Plumtree, Kariba, Victoria Falls and Beitbridge. Some of
these areas are
regarded as pro-MDC areas and are areas where the ZBC radio
and television
signal is very weak.
Veteran and popular radio DJ,
Ezra ‘Tshisa’ Sibanda, said the plan to
operate radio stations in the MDC
controlled towns is a ZANU PF strategy to
try and penetrate the
areas.
‘It’s clear the licenses will be granted to ZANU PF people who
will use the
stations to prop up their propaganda. We all know what happened
with the two
national commercial radio stations and that will also happen
with local
station,’ Sibanda said.
Many observers have also noted
that it would be impossible to run a
commercial radio initiative in most of
the areas on offer. Commercial radio
depends on advertisers for its revenue
and in Lupane or Marondera for
instance, it would be impossible to find
enough advertising to fund a radio
station.
Meanwhile, BAZ has also
called for applications for licenses for free to air
satellite usage. The
wording of the BAZ advert is so complicated that no one
seems to know what
it really means: “Meanwhile, the “Content Distribution
Service” applies to
service provided by a content distributor comprising
content aggregated
within or outside Zimbabwe that is made available in
Zimbabwe with or
without payment of a subscription fee and the reception is
through satellite
transmission.”
There are radio stations broadcasting on satellite, for
which you need a
satellite receive. Many people in Zimbabwe now also have
free to air
television satellite reception. You can also receive various
radio stations
on this TV satellite transmission.
Analysts are
assuming that BAZ is trying to stop any Zimbabwean initiative
from
broadcasting a radio service in any form, including on a TV satellite
channel, unless they have a license. This license would be even more costly
than the FM channels at US$100,000.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
29
November 2011
The independent Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Zimbabwe has said
the process to award commercial licenses to two new radio
stations recently
was not open and fair.
The awarding of licenses was
set to mark a major milestone in media reforms
in Zimbabwe but MISA
described it as a ‘sham’ as the two new stations have
strong links with
Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party.
The two licenses were issued to ZiFM,
controlled by AB Communications headed
by broadcaster Supa Mandiwanzira, and
Talk Radio channel to be run by
Zimpapers, publishers of the
Herald.
The process was overseen by Tafataona Mahoso, the BAZ chairman
who is a well
known ZANU PF apologist. Several media groups said the
decision to grant the
licenses to ZiFM and Talk Radio channel ‘cruelly’
dashed any hopes for
broadcasting plurality in Zimbabwe.
When BAZ
invited applications, 14 organizations applied but 10 were
rejected, with no
reasons given. Among the final four were the two winners
announced last
week. Others were Kiss FM, which had music superstar Oliver
Mtukudzi among
its directors and Radio VOP, which broadcasts into Zimbabwe
from the
Netherlands.
MISA has since dispatched a letter to the three Principles
in the GPA,
Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara,
highlighting the fact
that BAZ is still not procedurally constituted as
required in terms of the
law. BAZ board members were unilaterally appointed
by the Ministry of Media,
Information and Publicity on 30th September
2009.
This was not done in consultation with other Principals in the GPA
and the
parliamentary Standing Rules and Orders Committee, as required by
the law
that governs the unity government.
The MISA letter says: “In
writing this letter of appeal, MISA-Zimbabwe is
greatly encouraged by the
fact that His Excellency and the Right Honourable
Prime Minister are on
record confirming and conceding that indeed this legal
procedure was not
duly followed and that the matter should be revisited.”
‘The matter has,
however remained unresolved up to the time of the issuance
of the two
licenses in question. It is MISA-Zimbabwe’s submission this
development,
renders the new licenses in question invalid,’ the MISA
statement
said.
They went on to appeal to the Principles to correct the illegality
of the
situation.
| |||||||||||
"The judgement was a resounding endorsement of asylum seekers' right to work, and they're obviously trying to override that," said William Kerfoot, the LRC attorney who handled the case. Asylum seekers, who are not eligible for any kind of social support, often wait years for their applications to be processed, and prohibiting them from working "effectively turned them into criminals or beggars", he commented. More than half of asylum seeker applications in South Africa are made by Zimbabweans fleeing economic hardship and human rights violations. Very few of them are eventually recognized as refugees, but applying for asylum is often their only legal avenue for remaining in the country. The resulting flood of applications has created a backlog in the asylum system that the Department of Home Affairs attempted to address in 2009 by introducing a special dispensation to lift the threat of deportation from undocumented Zimbabwean migrants. In the latter half of 2010, Zimbabwean migrants were given the opportunity to apply for work and study permits, and those already in possession of asylum seeker permits were encouraged to trade them in. Only about 275,000 of the up to 1.5 million Zimbabweans that the International Organization for Migration estimates are living in South Africa participated in the documentation process and many are still waiting for their permits to be issued. Home Affairs recently resumed the arrest and deportation of undocumented Zimbabweans, and according to news reports about 4,000 have been deported via South Africa's Beitbridge border post to Zimbabwe since early October 2011. "[The government] has been trying to do something about the asylum system for a long time, but the rhetoric is all about stopping economic migrants from coming in," said Roni Amit, a researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Society at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.
Apleni did not provide details of any planned alternative system, but suggested that the amendments would help deal with the backlog and ensure genuine asylum seeker applications were processed more quickly. "South Africans must feel safe," he told journalists at the media briefing. "If we're not able to control our illegal immigration, people won't feel safe." Kerfoot interpreted the latest government announcement as further evidence of "an overall harsher regime towards asylum seekers". He pointed to recent amendments to the Immigration Act reducing the time asylum seekers have to report to a refugee reception office after entering the country, as well as the closure of two of seven such offices, one in Johannesburg and another in the city of Port Elizabeth on the south coast. "All these things are part of the same pattern and it's the wrong way of going about things - it's unconstitutional and it doesn't comply with our refugees act," he told IRIN. The statement from PASSOP and other refugee rights groups expresses similar concerns about "what now appears a campaign against asylum seekers". [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] Inspect your Zimbabwe Electricty Supply Authority billhttp://www.kubatanablogs.net/kubatana/?p=7445 Mugabe - traitor against Africanshttp://www.sowetanlive.co.za/ X Factor star Gamu wins deportation fight
http://www.independent.co.uk/ Marange Diamond Revenue: A Clueless Jigsaw Puzzle? Cooking in a Three Legged Pot http://www.eddiecross.africanherd.com/ Bill Watch 53/2011 of 28th November [2012 Budget Highlights and Getting Money Bills Through Parliament ]
BILL
WATCH 53/2011 [28th November
2011] The
2012 Budget Note:
Budget for Constitutional and Referendum but No Budget for Elections
The Minister of
Finance, Hon Tendai Biti, presented the 2012 Budget Statement in the House of
Assembly on 24th November, taking just over two hours to deliver his speech, at
the end of which he tabled the Estimates of Expenditure for 2012. [See
Budget Highlights below.] The Minister of
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon Eric Matinenga,
then
moved the adjournment of the debate, explaining that members and especially
portfolio committees needed time to look into the Budget Statement and
analyse the Estimates. The
House of Assembly accordingly adjourned until Thursday 1st December, when debate
will continue. From Monday 28th November
to Thursday 1st December portfolio committees will conduct their post-Budget
analysis and prepare reports to be presented to the House when debate resumes.
The
Budget on the Internet The
full texts of the Budget Statement and the Estimates of Expenditure [the “Blue
Book”] can be downloaded from the Ministry of Finance website at http://www.zimtreasury.org/downloads/. Both documents
are in PDF format: the Budget Statement is 4.1MB, and the Blue Book is 1MB. [If you do not
have suitable Internet access, both documents are available on request from
veritas@mango.zw] Budget
Highlights No funds for
elections: The
Minister has not allocated any funds for the holding of the next general
election – an indication that at this stage a general election in 2012 is
considered highly unlikely by all sides [this is in fact a Government-approved Budget, not just the Minister of Finance’s
budget]. Addressing a Confederation
of Zimbabwe Industries post-budget meeting on 25th November the Minister said it
would be almost impossible to hold an election next year because of the
political situation. The issue was
political than budgetary; if an election was called resources for it would have
to be found. [Note:
When listing the themes on which the Budget would focus, the Minister mentioned
support to “election preparedness, including the Voters Roll” as a
component of “monetizing the GPA provisions”.] Budget for
Constitution-Making Process and Referendum: The
Minister said that “to facilitate
adoption and approval of the new Constitution, which is currently at its
finalisation
stage”
he proposed allocating $30 million towards “completion of the constitution-making process
and the Referendum”. A pro-Poor Budget: The Minister emphasised
that the intention of the Budget is to focus on “attaining both growth that is pro-poor,
broad based across all sectors, and a pattern of growth that moves us towards
structural transformation”. There
will be a $20 million Jobs Fund aimed at reducing
unemployment. Cash budgeting to continue: The watchword will continue
to be that the government can only spend what it earns. Revenue projection boosted by expected diamond
revenues: The Budget Strategy Paper
framed in August estimated revenue of $3.4 billion for 2012. But the decision by the Kimberley Process on
1st November to approve sales of Marange diamonds resulted in an upward
adjustment of projected revenue by $600 million to $4 billion, with a
corresponding expansion of estimated expenditure. The Minister said half the additional $600
million would go to infrastructure development, and half to recurrent
expenditure, including paying Government arrears to service providers [$17
million], student grants [$25 million] and the constitution-making process and
referendum [$30 million]. State wages bill still disproportionate: The Minister bemoaned the
fact that a high and disproportionate share of Budget expenditures has to go to
wages [57%] Expenditure - Selected Figures [All figures to nearest million] Total projected expenditure: This is $4 billion, made up
of: · Constitutional and statutory appropriations: $352 million [see below for
details] · Vote appropriations: $3.648
billion [see
below for selected individual votes] Constitutional and statutory appropriations [“cons and
stats”] These amounts must be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund [CRF]
by virtue of appropriations already made by the Constitution and Acts of
Parliament mandating payments from the CRF for specific purposes. As such they do not have to be approved by
Parliament again during the current Budget exercise, but they must be
covered by revenue. Examples of cons and
stats are: the salaries and allowances of the President, the Speaker of the
House of Assembly and the President of the Senate, the judges and other
constitutional appointees such as the Public Protector and Comptroller and
Auditor-General; State service pensions; and war veterans and ex-political
prisoners pensions. Pension-related
payments account for the bulk of cons and stats. Amounts listed under this heading include:
President’s salary and allowances:
$97 000 Speaker’s and Senate President’s salary and allowances: $150 000 State service pensions: $178
million Commutation of State service pensions: $$51 million War veterans and ex-political prisoners pensions: $91 million Allocations [These and all the other “vote appropriations” in the Estimates of
Expenditure require the approval of the House of Assembly and enactment into law
by the Appropriation Bill. They include
the majority of State employment costs.] President and Cabinet Office:
$172 million, including: Foreign travel expenses: $25
million State residences: $14
million Prime Minister’s Office: $19
million, including: Foreign travel expenses: $7
million Education and Higher and Tertiary Education: $1.15 billion all told, covering: Education: $707
million Higher and Tertiary Education:
$296 million Health: $346 million Defence: $318
million Home Affairs [including Police]:
$308 million Police: $274
million Registrar-General: $18
million Agriculture: $227
million Public Service: $126 million
[mainly employment costs] Justice and Legal Affairs:
$111 million This includes the Prison Service [$83 million] and the Attorney-General’s Office [$4 million], but not the Judicial Service, which comes under the
separate vote for the Judicial Service Commission. Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment: $48 million, of which Employment costs account for $30 million Judicial Service Commission:
$23 million [including $9 million for employment costs – salaries and
allowances of magistrates and supporting staff] Parliament: $18 million
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs: $10
million [he amount allocated for constituency development funds remains the
same as for 2011: $800 000. Taxation Proposals Income tax-free threshold: This is to be increased
from $225 to $250 per month, effective 1st January 2012. Income tax bands: Tax bands will be widened,
starting at $250 and going up to $10 000, above which income will be taxed at
the highest rate of 45%, effective 1st January 2012. Bonus tax exempt threshold: This is to be raised from
$500 to $700 with effect from 1st November 2011, i.e., it will be applicable to 2011 end-of-year
bonuses. Civil service allowances to be tax-free: Civil service incentives not already tax-free will be tax exempt,
effective 1st November 2011 [allowances constitute nearly half of civil service
incomes]. Customs and excise duties: Various adjustments to
duties are proposed, both up [e.g., excise duty on cigarettes and customs duty
on some imported finished products, such as selected motor vehicles and
electrical goods, and fruit and vegetables in season] and down [e.g. customs
duties on some imported raw materials].
There will be a rebate of customs duty on sporting kit and equipment
donated to registered sports associations.
Royalties on precious metals: There will be an increase
in gold [4.5% to 7%] and platinum [5% to 10%] royalties. Cooperating Partner/Donor Assistance The Minister estimated that for 2012 cooperating partner/donor
assistance would be about $500 million. [In 2011 they pledged $618 million for 2011, of which $371 million
had been disbursed by September, outside the Budget framework, mainly in
humanitarian assistance rather than development assistance.] He said that the Government would continue to engage cooperating
partners to increase and broaden support, “preferably by gradually shifting from
humanitarian to development assistance” and “on the need to graduate from off-Budget
support”. Like the 2011 Budget, this
Budget does not list donor funding in the Ministry of Finance’s Vote of Credit [this was last done in the 2010 Budget]. Getting
the Budget through Parliament When it resumes on 1st December the House of Assembly will debate the
Minister’s Budget Statement before considering the Estimates of
Expenditure. The Estimates will be dealt
with in a special committee of the whole House called the Committee of
Supply. The Estimates are divided into
parts called “Votes”. Each Vote lists
the funds to be allocated to a particular Ministry or other accounting entity
[e.g. the Judicial Service Commission or the Audit Office], giving a breakdown
of the different classes of expenditure authorised. The House will consider each of the 38 Votes
separately. If the House approves both Budget and Estimates, it will then move on
to consider the two Bills that give effect to the Budget: the Appropriation Bill, which will authorise
Government expenditure for 2012 in accordance with the approved Estimates, and
the Finance Bill, to give effect to those aspects of the Minister’s taxation
proposals which cannot be implemented by statutory
instrument. Motion
passed to “fast-track” Estimates and Bills: Immediately before the Budget presentation
last Thursday afternoon the House approved a Government motion, proposed by
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Eric Matinenga, suspending various certain Standing Orders to enable
the House to fast track the consideration and approval of the Estimates, and the
two Budget-related Bills. [This means the House’s ordinary rules about
taking only one stage of a Bill on the same day, adjourning at 7 pm, not
ordinarily sitting on Friday, adjourning at 1 pm on a Friday and allowing the
Parliamentary Legal Committee 26 days to report on a Bill, will not apply.]
It remains to be seen whether
allowing fast-tracking will enable Parliament to get through everything that
needs to be done on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd December. If it does not, there will have to be a break
of at least a week to allow ZANU-PF MPs
to attend the ZANU-PF conference
in Bulawayo from 6th to 9th December.
Depending on progress, therefore, one or both of the Houses may have to
sit during the week commencing Tuesday 13th December. [Note:
The fast-tracking resolution does not apply to any other Bills, so there is no
prospect of any other Bills, such as the lapsed and controversial Human Rights
Commission Bill and Electoral Amendment Bill, being rushed through before the
end of the year.] Possible Resistance from MPs: MPs have become
increasingly discontented about Parliament being treated as a rubber-stamp
institution by the Executive. What can
they do if not happy with aspects of the Budget? According to Standing Orders MPs cannot vote
to increase allocations proposed by the Minister, but they are allowed to show
their disapproval by reducing or omitting allocations for purposes not
acceptable to them. Or they could refuse
to approve the Estimates and the Bills, thereby forcing a re-think of the
Budget. That would be unusual, but would
not necessarily bring the business of government to a grinding halt at the end
of the year. In accordance with the
Constitution, there is provision in the Public Finance Management Act for
limited temporary financing of government activities for the first four months
of 2012 if the Appropriation Bill is not passed. There are indications from yesterday’s
post-Budget workshop that although a motion was passed to fast-track the Budget
bills the MP’s will refuse to do so and will want to take their time.
Role of the Senate: If passed by the House of
Assembly, the two Budget Bills will be transmitted to the Senate. If the Senate does not want any amendments to
the Bill and the Bill is passed as it comes from the House, it will go straight
to the President to sign. If the Senate
want to amend the Bill, according to the Constitution, as both Bills are “money
bills” it cannot do so directly. It has
to recommend its amendments to the House and the House must consider them, but
is not obliged to accept them. If the
House accepts the Senate’s suggested amendments, they will be incorporated
before the Bill is then submitted to the President for assent. Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information supplied |