Zim Standard
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
EMBATTLED MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday failed
to secure the
endorsement of Theresa Makone as chairperson of the women's
assembly by the
national executive, The Standard confirmed last
night.
The failure was a big blow to Tsvangirai, already accused of
violating
the party constitution at will.
He had traversed the
length and breadth of the country last week,
trying to drum up support for
Makone, installed as Lucia Matibenga's
replacement in controversial
circumstances.
In his presidential report to a heated meeting in
Harare yesterday,
Tsvangirai announced Makone as Matibenga's
replacement.
The reaction was a point-blank rejection of the
change. He was told
the process leading to the change was "flawed" and
"unacceptable" to the
executive.
The party had to be guided by
democratic principles in any election,
he was told.
To add to
her humiliation, Makone was asked to leave the boardroom by
party officials
who said they did not recognise her election.
Party sources said
several senior party officials were emphatic in
their opposition to the
manner of Matibenga's replacement by Makone.
Among them were
founder-members and high-ranking officials of the
party. Their readiness to
openly challenge Tsvangirai signalled the
potential of the crisis to poison
the unity of the party.
These members of the party hierarchy said
they did not recognise the
so-called extraordinary congress held in secret
in Thokozani Khupe's
restaurant in Bulawayo. One told the meeting that he
was unaware how Makone
was elected.
Tsvangirai tried in vain to
defend Makone's "election", saying the
matter was "water under the bridge".
He failed to convince delegates the
issue had not been properly brought to
the meeting.
It could thus not be debated.
Tsvangirai
was reminded since he had mentioned it in his report, the
matter
legitimately would be discussed. The strong objections prompted the
national
executive to defer the matter to 11 November.
On that day, Lovemore
Moyo, the party chairman, is expected to explain
how Makone's election was
handled.
Moyo did not attend yesterday's meeting.
Earlier, in his presidential address, Tsvangirai tried unsuccessfully
to
have a commission of inquiry set up to look into circumstances leading to
thousands of Matibenga's supporters being in Bulawayo for the
congress.
The commission was to probe alleged violence in Gweru and
how youths
came to disrupt his meeting in Kwekwe last week. The delegates
did not
endorse the proposal.
The party's information
department yesterday said in a statement that
the national executive had
resolved to "set aside discussion on the matter
(Makone's election) until
the return of the party chairman".
Meanwhile, two women's
organisations, granted observer status to the
extraordinary congress of the
women's assembly by Tsvangirai, have shed
light on what transpired in
Bulawayo where Makone was elected.
The Women in Politics Support
Unit (WiPSU) and the Feminist Political
Education Project (FePEP) said: "The
entire electoral process of the MDC
(Tsvangirai) Women's Assembly was
severely flawed and could not have
constituted a legitimate process in terms
of the MDC's internal party
procedures, basic electoral norms and the SADC
guidelines regarding
election."
It said there were allegations
"some provincial chairpersons and
district chairpersons had been given sums
of between $40 to $60 million",
cellphones and taken on shopping trips to
South Africa.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
Grade III school dropout was just what was needed to
expose the
gullibility of both the Cabinet and the Zanu PF
politburo.
Information gathered by The Standard shows in graphic
detail, how a
Cabinet of people with many academic degrees swallowed hook,
line and sinker
ludicrous claims by a 35-year-old alleged Guruve spirit
medium.
More than any other Zimbabwean, the primary school dropout
showed it
takes little imagination to fool Zanu PF leaders, desperate to
find "magic"
solutions to the country's unprecedented economic
crisis.
As Zimbabwe faced crippling fuel shortages, little known
Nomatter
Tagarira alias Rotina Mavhunga emerged from Pemhiwa village in
Guruve late
last year to tell government officials that Changamire Dombo of
the Rozvi
Empire had left behind treasures hidden in Mashonaland West
province.
This wealth, in the form of diesel, gold and diamonds,
she told
mesmerised ministers, could help the country out of the economic
quagmire
spawned by violent seizures of productive farmland in
2000.
Tagarira claimed to be possessed by Changamire Dombo's
spirit. She
told government officials her rituals could recover those
treasures - and
they believed her!
Both the politburo and the
Cabinet deliberated on the findings, hoping
this could turn around the
fortunes of a country with the highest rate of
inflation in the
world.
To the amazement of Zimbabweans who have endured fuel
shortages since
October 1999, the government announced a miracle cure -
thanks to Tagarira's
mystic powers.
But a single pipe lodged
between the rocks at the summit of Maningwa
hills was all the alleged spirit
medium needed to complete the ruse, which
had desperate ministers, police
and the Central Intelligence Organisation,
falling over themselves with
undisguised glee and relief.
Away from the prying eyes of the CIO
agents and the police, aides of
the alleged spirit medium fed diesel into
the pipe.
It was that secret pipe that spewed the precious liquid
into the
caves, where it then "miraculously oozed from the rock", much to
the
astonishment and delight of the ministers: here was the solution to
Zimbabwe's
fuel crisis.
The Standard was told when the pipe ran
dry, the spirit medium would
make near-impossible demands which had to be
met before "the ancestors
allowed the diesel to flow again".
In
the meantime, her aides would refill the pipe which contained about
20
litres of diesel at any given time.
But if diesel stocks were
empty, the spirit medium knew how to handle
the situation; she instructed
senior government officials to go to other
sites where they could see other
treasures left by Changamire Dombo.
A subcommittee of the Joint
Operations Committee (JOC), led by Deputy
Police Commissioner Godwin
Matanga, which visited the "oil mountain", was
made to travel 40km along the
Kariba/Makuti road to a place called Kaburi.
From there, they were
told to move to another venue where they were
shown diesel in a small
gourd.
Between 28 and 30 May, the team was led to various places in
Chinhoyi
and Guruve in pursuit of Changamire Dombo's wealth. They waded
through pools
and caves identified as chitubu chemachembere, garoi,
nyakasikana,
pasipameraziso and chiroroma.
Among high ranking
Cabinet ministers in a special committee tasked to
look into the diesel find
were the Minister of Defence, Sydney Sekeramayi,
Minister of Home Affairs,
Kembo Mohadi and securiy minister, Didymus Mutasa.
One minister
developed blisters on his feet after spending three weeks
following the
spirit medium.
At the shrine no one was allowed to wear shoes, lest
they offended the
"ancestors", who provided the fuel.
The
officials could not have been disappointed as they were shown
"gold in large
boulders" wrapped in traditional clothing.
Observations made by the
JOC committee, which prepared a report for
the Cabinet, betray how officials
fell for the alleged spirit medium's plot.
The committee talked about using
the "diesel and gold to boost our national
wealth". It said the "gold should
be sold to clear the country's debt" -
US$4.4 billion.
On
several occasions, a witness saw CIO agents "in deep and secretive
consultations with the alleged spirit medium, especially at
night".
Meanwhile the spirit medium's simple traditional life
changed
dramatically as ministers and top government officials trooped to
the
mountain for an audience with "Changamire Dombo".
At one
time the alleged spirit medium was flown to Kariba where she
"extracted gold
from Kariba Dam".
While in the past the alleged spirit medium used
to be surrounded by
villagers, now her dare (council) comprised members of
the CIO and the
Police.
Keen to safeguard the "diesel
deposits", the government provided armed
police who guarded her and the
whole mountain round the clock. Eleven war
veterans were also on standby to
ensure the alleged spirit medium's needs
were catered for. The alleged
spirit medium received several presents,
including a farm and a farm house.
Prosecutors value them at $5 billion.
But the government soon
realised what any other normal thinking
Zimbabwean had known: that diesel
could not gush out of rocks. This led to
the arrest of the spirit medium's
aides and later the alleged spirit medium
herself.
The State
says Tagarira committed an offence by saying there was
diesel in Maningwa,
when in actual fact she knew this was false. It says
this "interfered with
the ordinary comfort, convenience, peace or quiet of
the
public".
Tagarira, who is accused of fraud or alternatively
committing acts
constituting criminal nuisance, is offering a simple
defence:
"Four years ago, I started receiving the spirit of Sekuru
Dombo. I was
told this by people who had heard me speak whilst in a trance.
It was the
spirit of Sekuru Dombo that said there was 'mafuta'
diesel.
"I am a spirit medium. I get possessed and I can be made to
say things
that I might not even remember when I come out of a
trance."
If acquitted, ministers and members of the Zanu PF
Politburo may have
to reflect on how they were fooled by someone who says
she did not even know
what she was saying.
Zim Standard
PF By Kholwani
Nyathi
BULAWAYO - The fractious Zanu PF Bulawayo province was
last week
rocked by fresh divisions after a restructuring exercise,
described by some
senior officials as "fraudulent".
The
exercise led to the creation of "fictitious" branches that will
elect a new
provincial executive ahead of the party's special congress next
month.
Disgruntled officials, including politburo members,
yesterday accused
the interim executive of manipulating the exercise to
ensure that it was
retained.
The interim executive enjoys the
backing of politburo members from the
region.
Zanu PF
provincial spokesman, Effort Nkomo maintained the
restructuring exercise was
a success. He denied reports that some war
veterans demonstrated outside the
party headquarters after they were barred
from taking part in last weekend's
elections.
"The party has gained a lot of ground and strengthened
its structures,
following the successful restructuring exercise," he
said.
Zanu PF commissar, Elliot Manyika ordered the province to
carry out a
restructuring exercise after Jabulani Sibanda's supporters
accused the
interim executive of trying to bar them from taking part in
provincial
elections scheduled for April.
The Zanu PF old guard
reacted angrily to Manyika's order and accused
him of trying to impose
leaders from outside the region.
But, there is controversy over the
way new districts were created
following the restructuring
exercise.
A Zanu PF politburo member who requested anonymity said
the elections
were not free and fair.
"The so-called
restructuring exercise was a fraud," he said. "Where
did all those new
districts they claim were created come from because there
is no evidence
that the party membership is growing."
The senior Zanu PF official
said the elections would fuel more
divisions within the party.
"Instead of uniting the party, the restructuring has seen the creation
of
another faction, in addition to the Egodini faction (those loyal to
Sibanda)
and the Petition faction (those who support the old guard."
The
party's districts increased from 29 to 53 and officials attributed
this to
the growing membership.
They claimed there were new members who
joined during the
restructuring exercise.
The elections for
district co-ordinating committees have also been
disputed.
A
faction of war veterans loyal to Sibanda were barred from taking
part.
Zimbabwe Defence Industries boss Tshinga Dube, who is
linked to a
faction led by the old guard in the region, was the only
newcomer in the
DCCs, which will act as an electoral college for provincial
elections.
"The problems in Bulawayo now need the direct
intervention of
President Mugabe himself," said another source. "We now
understand why
Jabulani Sibanda is always lambasting some of these senior
people in the
party.
"Through these fictitious structures they
want to promote tribalism
and their own interests at the expense of those of
the party. They have also
ensured that their stooges in the interim
committee will be retained."
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
TSHOLOTSHO - Vice President Joseph Msika on Friday accused Zanu PF's
"young
Turks" challenging their seniors in the ruling party of lacking
discipline
and respect for their leaders.
This comes hardly two months after
the former PF Zapu leader vowed he
would die in office rather than retire
from politics.
There is also growing apprehension in Matabeleland
over controversial
war veteran, Jabulani Sibanda's campaign to discredit
party officials in the
region he accuses of destroying Zanu PF.
Addressing guests at Tsholotsho High School where he officially
commissioned
a science laboratory block built by Zanu PF chairman, John
Nkomo, Msika said
youths in Zanu PF should not waste their time plotting the
downfall of their
leaders.
"Do not try to topple your leaders," Msika said.
"Understudy them so
that you could become effective leaders when your chance
comes to rule this
country.
"The likes of (Dumiso) Dabengwa and
Nkomo are understudying us and I
can tell you they have never undermined me
or plotted my downfall."
Msika is among politburo members from
Matabeleland who called for
Sibanda's expulsion from the party in 2004 for
allegedly "disrespecting his
seniors".
Msika repeated his
claims that Sibanda was not a war veteran.
Although he did not
mention Sibanda by name, Msika said "some people"
were claiming to be war
veterans "yet they did not fire a single bullet"
during the liberation
struggle.
Zim Standard
By Kholwani
Nyathi
BULAWAYO - The government is backtracking on its
decision to draw
water for Bulawayo from the heavily-polluted Khami Dam
after criticism from
senior Zanu PF officials in the region.
The influential politicians reportedly told the promoters of the
controversial plan to "leave Bulawayo residents alone".
Two
months ago, the Zimbabwe National War Authority (Zinwa) announced
it was
working on plans to draw water from Khami Dam to alleviate the city's
crippling water shortages.
Zinwa has been trying to wrest
control of the city's water and sewer
systems from the council for the past
10 months.
The council disassociated itself from the initiative,
claiming the
water from the dam, decommissioned in 1989, could not be
recycled because
raw sewage was being discharged into the catchment area
every day.
A Zanu PF politburo member, Dumiso Dabengwa, chided
those behind the
plans "to proceed to the dam with their cups and drink the
water and leave
the people of Bulawayo alone".
Zinwa, condemned
by most local authorities where it has taken over
their water and sewage
systems, had previously maintained Khami water was of
better quality than
that of Lake Chivero.
Zinwa said it was waiting for the council's
go-ahead to start pumping
water from the dam.
But on Friday,
Munacho Mutezo, the Minister of Water Resources and
Infrastructural
Development, told a pre-budget seminar the plan had not been
approved.
"We are looking at Khami like any other sources, such
as Nyamandlovu
and Mtshabezi," said Mutezo. "We will be guided by experts
and we will not
take a political decision on the matter and we are not going
to be
reckless."
The Government has been accused of not taking
the water shortage in
the city seriously after it failed to finance the
connection of the idle
Mtshabezi Dam to the city water system, even after
three of the five supply
dams dried up.
Zinwa has not
resuscitated the 77 boreholes at the Nyamandlovu Aquifer
to alleviate the
water crisis.
Meanwhile, Mutezo maintained that the government
would not compensate
the MDC-dominated council for the water and sewage
infrastructure it would
take over.
The council has said it will
not hand over the systems to the
parastatal until compensation is
assured.
Zim Standard
By Bertha Shoko
THE United Nations agencies in Zimbabwe and other international and
non-governmental organizations have welcomed the reduction in the HIV
prevalence rate in the country, saying it was "good news" and called on a
more concerted effort to further bring down infection rates.
Zimbabwe's partners in the fight against the scourge also called on
the
government to raise more resources and make Antiretroviral Drugs (ARVs)
available to everyone who needs them
The Minister of Health and
Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa on
Wednesday last week unveiled new
statistics showing a significant drop in
the HIV prevalence rate from 20,1%
to 15,6%, recorded over a four-year
period (2002-2006).
These
new national estimates were announced at the launch of the
Zimbabwe
Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS) and Antenatal Clinic Surveillance
on
Pregnant Women, showing HIV and Syphilis prevalence rates.
The
overall HIV prevalence among antenatal clinic attendees (pregnant
women)
decreased from 25.7% in 2002 to 21.3% (2004) and to 17.7% in 2006.
The new HIV estimates are based on the findings in the ZDHS and the
antenatal clinic findings in which the latter showed that at least 16% of
all women interviewed and tested were HIV positive.
Other key
announcements made by the Ministry are that there are now
1.3 million people
living with HIV compared with 1.8 million before.
It was also said
that 2 214 people are now dying every week instead of
the 5 000
a
week during previous years.
According to the new evidence, the
number of people in need of ARVs is
now 260 000 compared with 90 000 who are
currently accessing the drugs.
Before this, the ministry claimed the number
of people in need of ARVs was
300 00. But, this figure was disputed by
non-governmental organizations
involved in Aids work, who claimed the
number
was more than 600 000.
In a joint statement
following the announcement, the United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef) and
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said
the new data reinforced
Zimbabwe's successes in behaviour change among young
people.
The biggest falls among pregnant women were recorded among the 15-24
year
age group, showing a drop in HIV from 20.8% to 13.1% in just four years
(2002 to 2006), according to the new estimates.
"Young people
are having fewer partners and using more condoms," said
UNFPA's
Representative in Zimbabwe, Bruce Campbell. "They have heard the
messages,
taken action, and are being safer. Now we must continue our
combined efforts
to ensure national HIV prevention programmes have an even
greater
reach."
The United Nations in Zimbabwe said the announcement
underscored the
need to strive for continued broad behaviour- change
promotion and universal
access to quality HIV prevention, as well as
adolescent sexual and
reproductive health services. Without ongoing and
substantial support, the
current positive national trends would not be
sustainable.
"It is imperative that all partners adhere closely to
the concept of
three Ones "(prevention, prevention, prevention)," said Dr
Kwame Ampomah,
the Country director of UNAIDS.
"One of our
greatest achievements over the last few years," said
Ampomah, "has been a
truly collaborative and concerted effort to ensure that
all partners support
the National AIDS Strategic Plan, and that there is
only one national
co-ordination mechanism led by the National AIDS Council,
and only one
comprehensive and integrated Monitoring and Evaluation System."
Unicef's Representative in Zimbabwe, Dr Festo Kavishe, said:
"Zimbabweans
have again shown that they have the determination and the
education to
defeat HIV/AIDS, and a variety of causes of child mortality.
However,
mortality also played a hand in the drop and there remains an
urgent need to
boost prevention and treatment programmes in Zimbabwe.
"There is no
doubt that a drop in the rate is great news," said WHO
Representative in
Zimbabwe, Dr Mandlhate. "However let us recognize that a
sero-prevalence
rate of 15.6% remains high and this is not the moment for
relaxing. Rather
we must take advantage of this positive action by youth and
put even greater
energy and resources.
"The United Nations family reiterates its
commitment to supporting
Government efforts towards the achievement of
universal access of HIV
prevention, treatment care and protection for those
living with HIV and
their families."
Zim Standard
By Godfrey
Mutimba
MASVINGO - Controversy continued to dog the Miss Rural
Zimbabwe beauty
pageant after contestants were stranded in Masvingo last
week.
The contestants of the pageant, snubbed by the people of
Masvingo,
spent two days roaming the city streets on empty stomachs while
the
organisers were busy trying to raise money to buy fuel for the vehicles
they
had hired.
After being postponed several times, the show
was finally held at
Masvingo Polytechnic. It was moved from the Great
Zimbabwe Monument after
officials there turned down the organisers' request
to stage it at the
shrine following the controversy it had
generated.
The Standard caught up with the organizer and pageant
founder, Sipho
Mazibuko-Ncube, at a bank in Masvingo.
Mazibuko
said she wanted to withdraw money from the pageant's account
to buy fuel but
claimed she was failing to do so because the bank was
off-line.
"We are going to Harare today, our kombis are there and we are waiting
for
the bank which is offline right now," Mazibuko said.
A quick check
by this reporter revealed that the bank was online, with
people busy
transacting business inside.
Sources close to the pageant revealed
that Mazibuko had run out of
cash, after poor attendance at the show, which
attracted less than 100
people.
Some contestants who were
heavily guarded by bodyguards from a
Bulawayo gym told The Standard they
were stranded and hungry. They said they
had been told to wait for
Mazibuko's husband who they understood was to
deposit money into her account
so they could go home.
"We have no bus fare to go back home," said
one of the contestants,
licking her dry, cracked lips. "We did not eat the
whole day today and we
are waiting for our boss (Mazibuko) to withdraw money
from her account which
she said her husband had deposited."
The
contestant said Mazibuko returned from the bank empty-handed by
end of day
on Monday - two days after the show - and they were forced to
sleep in
Masvingo again.
Mazibuko's heavily built bodyguards, nick-named the
Bulldogs, were
also stranded and some ended up using their own money to
return to Bulawayo.
"I can't wait for Mazibuko," said one of the
guards. "We are also
stranded, The girls are just loitering in the streets,
waiting for Mazibuko
to do something. This is a very bad
situation."
A modelling fan, who attended the show, said it was
poorly organized,
with less than 100 people in attendance "Considering that
it is a national
event, the show was a flop," said Dickson
Muguti.
The Standard was told the Masvingo business community and
politicians
who had promised to support Mazibuko ditched her after press
reports that
the girls were being abused.
Women's Affairs
Minister, Oppah Muchinguri, was quoted in the State
media criticising the
pageant, described by Information Permanent Secretary,
George Charamba, as
"a mess".
The Girl Child Network founder and director, Betty
Makoni, has also
criticised the show.
Zim Standard
Our
Staff
SUPERMARKET shelves continue to remain empty despite
Reserve Bank
Governor, Gideon Gono's declaration last month that the
authorities were
working flat-out to ensure that business restocked by the
end of October.
Presenting his mid-year monetary policy statement
on 1 October, Gono
vowed the RBZ would ensure basic commodities would be
back on the shop
shelves by month-end.
A snap-survey by The
Standard in Harare last week showed Gono's
promise was in vain: most shop
shelves were still empty.
The central bank was not immediately
available for comment.
While expensive South African luxury imports
continue to dominate the
shop shelves, such basic commodities as maize meal,
sugar, cooking oil and
salt were nowhere to be found in the same
shops.
Even the traditional "people's supermarkets" - OK, TM and
Spar - are
selling large quantities of the luxury imports. There seems to be
a
proliferation of new brands of some products, manufactured by equally new
industry players.
In some cases, The Standard crew came across
confused shoppers, some
of whom scrutinised unfamiliar products at length
before buying.
"This juice - is it good?" a woman asked a fellow
shopper in one
supermarket. "I need something for my children but I cannot
find any
familiar flavour."
Some retailers like OK New Marimba
were even unpacking South African
products to sell them as single units,
still at exorbitant prices.
One interesting case was of the
Nutriday Yoghurt, sold at below R20
for six packets in South Africa, being
unpacked and sold at $897 000 a unit.
Zim Standard
by Jennifer
Dube
THE National Incomes and Pricing Commission must stick to
its mandate
of monitoring prices, instead of trying to force illegal
policies down the
throats of business, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
president has
said.
In an interview last week, Callisto Jokonya
said the NIPC "can best
put their house in order and get their work done
instead of deviating from
their mandate".
"They are just going
about trying to find a loophole everywhere,
instead of concentrating on
their pricing mandate," fumed Jokonya.
He said he was incensed by
the commission's recent announcement that
business would now be required to
produce foreign currency invoices for
imported goods and inputs to curb
"unjustified" price increases.
"The foreign currency issue is for
the governor of the Reserve Bank,
not the NIPC. They are deviating from
their mandate," he said.
Jokonya said the NIPC must realise that
such a price control regime
was inappropriate for an import subsidised
economy, such as Zimbabwe's.
"I do not want to waste my time
commenting on the likely effects of
such an impractical move, as I could end
up looking like a fool myself.
"All NIPC has to remember is that
Zimbabwe does not have foreign
currency. Both the government and the Reserve
Bank do not have foreign
currency. There is no foreign currency on the
official market," he said.
NIPC chairman Godwills Masimirembwa last
Monday announced the new
measures, adding that his organisation would stop
businesses from pegging
prices on parallel market rates through converting
the foreign currency
component at the official exchange rate.
The country is battling a severe foreign currency crunch which has
prevented
the government from importing such critical essentials as wheat
and
electricity.
It is estimated the country has been maintaining less
than two weeks'
import cover for a very long time now, something which,
according to
economists, is "very dangerous" for the economy.
What it means is that the foreign currency available at the central
bank can
hardly sustain two weeks' imports.
Business have had to resort to
the illegal parallel market for foreign
currency, where it is readily
available at exorbitant rates.
For example, while the Zimbabwe
dollar remains stagnant at an official
rate of Z$30 000:US$1, the parallel
market rate rises constantly, with the
greenback changing hands at Z$1 200
000 last week.
Business thus feels the new measure is aimed at
forcing them to
subsidise their goods.
Jokonya urged the
country "to continue praying" over the deteriorating
economic
environment.
Zim Standard
BY our
staff
THE government has lost the bulk of the wheat stuck in
Mozambique for
over eight months, as it failed to source foreign currency to
pay for the
consignment, sources said last week.
Although Grain
Marketing Board acting CEO Samuel Muvuti denied the
claims, baking industry
sources said of the 36 000 metric tonne consignment,
the government only
managed to pay for 1 600 tonnes, not enough to satisfy
local demand for a
day.
Last March, it emerged that the government was failing to pay
for the
consignment, stuck at the port in Beira.
"That flour no
longer exists," said the sources. "We understand
somebody else took it over
as the government was seriously behind in
arrears.
"The little
that came was hardly enough to last the industry a day and
we are surprised
the government harped like that about it."
But Muvuti said the GMB
was still negotiating with the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe and the wheat
supplier.
"It is a lie that we have lost the wheat," he said. "We
are still
negotiating for an appropriate price. We are trying to get the
supplier to
lower the price from the current US$520 per tonne."
He would not say how much the GMB was willing to pay.
"I cannot
pre-empt what we are offering as there are many players
involved," he
said.
Sources said the government was "fond" of exaggerating the
country's
wheat situation, adding that they were even surprised to hear the
country
was expecting 140 000 tonnes from the winter harvest.
"That amount can cover us for 22 weeks but we do not think the figure
would
be that high, given the problems associated with the winter crop,"
they
said.
Farmers have so far delivered about 23 000 tonnes of the
winter crop
to the GMB since harvesting started in September.
But sources said problems continued to dog the baking industry, with
the GMB
now proposing to scrap the subsidy for millers, which would push up
the
price of bread.
The GMB buys wheat from the farmers at $71,5
million a tonne and sells
to millers at a subsidised price of $238
000.
Sources said the GMB complained to the government that it was
making a
loss and proposed that either the government subsidises the price
or allows
the GMB to sell at the purchasing price plus a
mark-up.
It is estimated the price of bread may shoot up from $100
000 to $1
million if the millers added their own mark-up.
"Those issues are still being negotiated. Although the government and
millers are yet to agree, I am assured government will ensure that bread
will still remain affordable to consumers," Muvuti said.
Zim Standard
BY NDAMU
SANDU
A PARLIAMENTARY team has conducted a number of interviews
as the
Transport and Communications portfolio committee seeks to unravel the
mystery surrounding the fate of the former Air Zimbabwe acting group CEO
Oscar Madombwe.
Madombwe was sent on leave last
September.
Two weeks ago, Leo Mugabe, Transport and Communications
portfolio
committee chairperson, announced a four-member subcommittee to
investigate
Madombwe's fate.
The subcommittee is chaired
by
Chitungwiza Senator Forbes Ma-gadu and includes Harare Central MP
Murisi Zwizwai, Mutoko Senator Edmund Jacob and Chikomba MP Musekiwa
Chiurayi.
Magadu confirmed with Standardbusiness last week the
subcommittee had
conducted interviews but could not identify the
interviewees, as the matter
was sub judice.
The subcommittee
will interview the former Air Zim board member Luxon
Zembe, who chaired the
board's human resources committee.
Zembe said he had read the story
in the newspapers but no one had
interviewed him.
"I will
wait," he said. "When they come, I will tell them the truth -
the facts are
there."
Information gathered last week shows that what the Air Zim
board
chairman, Mike Bimha, told the committee two weeks ago was not
entirely
accurate.
Bimha said Madombwe had agreed to be sent on
leave, but the veteran
pilot, who has in the past flown President Robert
Mugabe, was on an
indefinite paid leave effective 1 September.
Sources say even before his forced leave, Madombwe was made redundant
at the
airline and allowed to fly on a few occasions before being banned
"for
security reasons".
Air Zimbabwe then appointed Dr Peter Chikumba to
head the airline in
February.
Two weeks ago, Bimha told the
portfolio committee the board had
reached an "amicable" agreement with
Madombwe that he goes on a sabbatical
after which his future with the
troubled airline would be decided.
Bimha told the committee that
Madombwe had declined to revert to his
old position at National Handling
Services (NHS).
Innocent Mavhunga was appointed to head NHS in
September, weeks after
Madombwe had been sent on leave.
Insiders told Standardbusiness last week Madombwe's "crime" was
producing an
adverse technical report on Air Zim's bid to buy five Ilyushin
planes from
Russia.
Madombwe has on two occasions steered the airline's ship
from sinking.
He was there when Air Zim needed him most following the
resignation of then
head Rambai Chingwena. He came to the rescue again in
2004 when then group
CEO Tendai Mahachi was suspended. Mahachi left Air Zim
last year.
Under Madombwe's reign at Air Zim the airline posted its
first profit
in 10 years: $554 million in December and $389 million in
January.
Madombwe declined to comment on his future at the airline
when
contacted for comment on Thursday.
Zim Standard
THE only beneficiary of a delayed 2008 poll is
going to be the
ruling party but just how the whole of the opposition MDC is
unable to
fathom this is most perplexing.
Just as the python
mesmerises its prey, the MDC is slowly being
entranced into a deadly game
from which it can never hope to emerge
victorious.
It begs the
question: What muck has the ruling Zanu PF/government
uncovered and is using
to threaten the opposition, resulting in the MDC
being led willingly like a
lamb to the slaughter?
It is difficult to understand what the
opposition is getting in return
for the concessions it continues to make to
the ruling party. The
inescapable conclusion is that the opposition has
decided to sell out in
broad daylight.
First, the opposition
agreed to Amendment No 18 of the Constitution.
Now it has agreed to
elections in June next year, instead of March 2008, as
reported last week.
This exposes the extent of the opposition's naivety. The
government and Zanu
PF have agreed to scrap the post of executive mayors,
precisely because they
are aware that they will lose to the MDC, but the
opposition appears
oblivious to the chicanery the government and the ruling
part are engaged
in.
The reason Zanu PF is doing away with executive mayors is
because it
realises its dismal performances will continue and that by
allowing
councillors to elect a mayor the ruling party has a chance of
avoiding the
embarrassment of previous mayoral polls.
But the
reason why the government would be in favour of harmonised
elections in June
next year rather than March 2008 is because it gives it
more time to right
its wrongs and project itself as being committed to
improving services and
the lives of the majority of Zimbabweans, when in
fact it is the author of
the country's misfortune.
Who in their right senses would vote for
the ruling party, in the
middle of an electricity, water, fuel and food
crisis? These are enough
grounds for the opposition to mount a compelling
campaign against the
government and Zanu PF and get them out of
power.
The main function of an opposition is to drive those in
power out,
while for any ruling party the objective is to ensure they remain
in and
shut out the opposition. The MDC does not appear to appreciate this,
or if
it does, it has decided to give up the fight. It is such ill-informed
complicity by the opposition that strengthens the case for a third
alternative.
The 2005 Parliamentary elections were held at a
short notice, so the
argument for more time is merely a ruse by the
government to buy more time
to put its house in order and to try and rectify
the catalogue of blunders
it has committed since 2005, chief among them
Operation Murambatsvina, and
the disasters in the food, water, fuel and
power sectors.
Of course, the other reason is simply that Zanu PF
and the government
do not have the resources for their campaign and for
staging elections. When
and if the opposition realises what the government
is up to it will be too
late. And the electorate will have awoken to the
betrayal by the MDC.
The government is stringing the opposition
along. It has a history of
trashing any agreements it enters into in its
determined bid to remain in
power. So far the opposition can not claim to
have extracted any significant
concessions from the government. It is giving
away too much, but getting
nothing in return.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by
Bill Saidi
EVERYBODY'S idea of a perfect world is one in which
every day is
Christmas, with turkey and mistletoe.
Or, in the
remotest parts of Zimbabwe, rice and chicken for the whole
family, every
day.
The Perfect World is not Utopia, or countries with a
cradle-to-grave
social welfare system.
The Swedish prime
minister, Olof Palme, was killed as he left a
theatre in 1986.
Abraham Lincoln, the US president, was killed in a theatre. John F.
Kennedy
was assassinated in broad daylight in Dallas, Texas.
The USA has
nothing like the cradle-to-grave social welfare system
that Sweden has. It's
emphatically capitalist. The government notoriously
persecuted all suspected
communists in Hollywood - of all places - through
the House UnAmerican
Activities Committee, from 1947.
In the Senate, the chief
head-hunter was Joseph McCarthy. The
committee, renamed the House Internal
security Committee was abandoned only
in 1975.
Still the
richest country in the world is far from being an example of
a Perfect
World. Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal introduced the world to a
new
definition of political skulduggery.
George W. Bush's misadventure
in Iraq has definitely heightened the
suspicion among many that the USA
cannot be identified as an example of The
Perfect World.
The
demise of communism in the late 1980s put paid to the wild hype
and hope
that in this ideology of equality lay the seeds of a Perfect World.
My memory of a visit to the Soviet Union in 1973 remains of a young
man in
Baku, Azerbajain, begging me for chewing gum, as we walked along a
street in
that city.
witzerland, which has not gone to war for ages, is
rich, but not
"perfect". A recent election centred on a drive to kick out
immigrants. Most
critics called it "racist".
Then you have
Zimbabwe which, at independence in 1980 was once touted
as being on the
verge of emerging as an African country inching towards a
near-perfect
world.
Today, with almost all supermarkets half empty or shut down
altogether, what would an average Zimbabwean citizen consider their "perfect
world"?
One in which they are able to work to provide for their
families, save
money for the family's future, build a decent house in a
decent area and
retire in comfort.
One in which there is
freedom of expression, education, food, shelter,
security, worship and
association.
Any citizen who pays taxes, doesn't sexually molest
innocent men,
women or children, must be entitled to a say in who can
guarantee these
freedoms.
Their choice would be made in an
election, as free and fair as it can
be. If it does not meet that criterion,
then they ought to demand to know
why.
Some African analysts
now believe we should experiment with compulsory
voting: there is a deep
darkness in the minds of many about the exact role
of an election in
determining who runs a countries and how.
It's not enough to insist
that since 1957, all Africans know the
relevance of an election to their
destiny. There were elections in Ghana
from 1957 but Kwame Nkrumah was not
removed in an election. Most Africans
have understandably lost faith in
elections as a guarantor of their
freedoms.
n example was
the cause of the Biafran war in Nigeria: Odemugu Ojukwu
lost faith in the
federal system as protection of the rights of the people
of Eastern
Nigeria.
A BBC programme featuring the Nigerian Nobel Prize for
Literature
winner, Wole Soyinka's interviews with Ojukwu and his then
adversary, Yakubu
Gowon, brings to the fore the futility of entrusting
political decisions to
soldiers.
People, in general, ought to
be educated on the dynamics of the
political clout they wield in determining
their destiny.
If it cannot be achieved through a free and fair
election, then they
must demand to know why not.
Most
governments in Africa, unfortunately, would not raise a finger to
help their
people through the maze of an uncluttered diagram of how any
election has to
constitute the ultimate testimony of their freedom of
choice.
To many diehard pan-Africanists, this requirement seems to have all
the
unpalatable ingredients of a Western system.
They would prefer for
the people to trust "their" government to honour
its pledges to be fair to
them. There is much evidence such a risk could be
fatal.
There
have to be clear structures, supervised by independent agents,
to ensure the
people are not taken for a ride.
If helps if the opposition is
clear-headed as it goes into an
election. By its own fuzzy thinking and
planning, it might turn the turkey
and mistletoe into sadza (isitshwala)
cooked by a drunk, with rotten maize
meal infested with rat
droppings.
If you eat that for Christmas, watch as unpleasant
things explode from
your rear-end.
saidib@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
sundayview by Judith
Todd
A group of us, including Mike Munyati
from Zimbabwe Television, met at
Sandro's to commiserate with Godwin Matatu.
Mike was "shocked but not
surprised" by the news that Shamuyarira was making
it impossible for Godwin,
like Michelle Faul, to continue working as a
journalist in Zimbabwe.
It was now the turn of veteran Zanu PF
politician Edgar Tekere to be
in trouble, and Mike told us what bits had
been cut from his interview with
Tekere, screened that week. These were that
the political leadership in the
country had "decayed" and that Tekere no
longer had any respect for the Zanu
PF Politburo, as it was now hand-picked,
not elected. Mike said his friends
in the CIO were expecting trouble in
Tekere's stamping ground, Manicaland.
"The ground is swelling," they told
Mike.
Mike, previously of Zanla, asked me something about PF Zapu.
I said I
didn't know, as I was not a member of Zapu or any other party. Mike
laughed.
"Don't apologise," he said. "It's not entirely a bad thing to
belong to
Zapu." Then he said: "You see, Godwin, Judy loves underdogs. When
she came
back to Zimbabwe, she was worried that she wouldn't have anyone to
look
after. But then, fortunately for her, we started crushing
Zapu."
Mike wasn't very happy himself. I gave him a lift back to
ZTV and, as
we arrived, his hands clenched and he beat a tattoo on the
dashboard. "War!"
For the past two months there had been an
instruction at ZTV that no
stories could go out without being cleared with
the director of news. The
director was himself immediately under Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation's
director-general, Tirivafi Kangai, brother of
Minister Kumbirai Kangai.
Kumbirai had been appointed by the Politburo,
through Minister Nyagumbo, as
Zanu PF chairman for Manicaland province in
the place of Edgar Tekere.
That first week of May 1987, Godwin
Matatu for the London Observer,
Karl Maier of the UK Independent, Sully Abu
for the Lagos African Guardian
and I visited Rusape and spent some hours
with Edgar Tekere. I noted some of
his thoughts.
Was his
removal a surprise?
I'm used to being surprised in the rough and
tumble of politics. But I
have always tended to be controversial and not
many people like controversy,
especially in a young country like ours, which
is still trying to find its
way.
Why were you
removed?
Perhaps someone could find a very good n'anga (traditional
soothsayer)
to answer that question for me. But by way of guesstimating,
it's probably
because I'm very critical of the people up there. There is
daily theft and
corruption by our leaders. Compare this to our leadership
code, where it is
stipulated that our leaders cannot own more than 50 acres
of land each.
Perhaps some now own 50 000 acres. This is a collapse of our
leadership code
and it is my duty as a leader to criticise
this.
Comrade Nyagumbo has said that I'm my own enemy. Well, I'm my
own
enemy because I'm not going to sit back and let them get away with what
they
are doing. They are violating every basic code of Zanu and of our
beginnings. How can thieves talk about socialism? How can we talk about our
very poor people when their leadership is corrupted?
What do
you feel about the collapse of the unity talks?
I was working in
the very innermost Zanu committee on unity. I was
made responsible for
approaches to various groups. I was working from the
basis that unity must
not be only Zanu-Zapu, it must be national.
And Zanu had accepted
that concept. "Let us work in togetherness and
without recrimination." As a
governing party one of the obligations is to
lead the nation in
togetherness. But I'm not sure how many of my colleagues
appreciate this. I
describe the pasis (down with) as the slogans of
yesterday, the products of
minds that are bankrupt. Instead of pasi to Nkomo
or to Zapu, can't we
instead have down with laziness? Instead of pamberi
(forward) with Zanu,
can't we have forward with work or forward with the
five-year
plan?
I had done very well with the Muzorewa group, and so our
leadership
thought I could help with Matabeleland and suggested I go there
for three
weeks. I said no, I can meet Nkomo in Parliament. I was getting on
fine with
them and I had even met Ian Smith. I was then going to get on with
the
Ndabaningi Sithole group, through Noel Mukono. The only problem was I
thought I was going too slowly. So when it was decided that the unity talks
had collapsed, I felt frustrated and embarrassed. I had been doing the
spadework single-handedly. How would the people I had approached in good
faith now feel?
It is the obligation of this government to
continue to toil for
national unity.
What is your response to
the statement that there is no Zanu PF in
Manicaland without
Tekere?
I really would not like to comment on that. That's for
other people to
say. I was a founder member of Zanu. They asked me to table
the motion to
get rid of Nkomo and then of Sithole, and I did. It was very
dangerous then
to try and get rid of Nkomo, but I did what I was
asked.
I joined the Youth League in 1955. I am a political animal
and I am
going to die a political animal.
By way of national
duty, I still know how to put on my uniform. If,
for example, we are
threatened by South Africa, I must remember to put on my
uniform, not my tie
and suit. I am 50 now, but I think the bones and muscles
can still do the
bush.
What is the future for yourself and for Zanu PF?
I leave that for providence to decide. However, it is not a privilege
to be
concerned about the future. It is a right. I am going to continue
politicking.
Might you not step on the toes of those who are
against you?
As I said at that meeting of our province addressed by
Comrade
Nyagumbo on Friday 1 May, you may yet sack me from the party, you
might
arrange for me to be gunned down in broad daylight, you might arrange
for me
to sit on a bomb so that I go up in smoke. In this game of politics
one has
to learn to wear heavy-duty shock absorbers.
What is
your relationship with the prime minister?
There is no personal
relationship. There is just a business
relationship to do with management. I
do not accept what has happened to me.
We have a national disciplinary
committee. This committee, in the case of
Zvobgo, went to the Politburo, who
then took the case to the full Central
Committee. Why did this not happen to
me? Because they are being dicey. This
is where I get very, very hot. The
Politburo is now hand-picked, not
elected. I have no respect for it. It is
the hand-picked people who are
interferring with those who are popularly
elected. What a mess-up in the
party!
No one says the issue was
clearly discussed, even in the Politburo?
No.
How do
you think Comrade Nyagumbo had the authority to act as he did?
Political ineptitude. I am not responsible for the activities of
political
fools. Although I myself am an April fool, born on the first of
April just
over fifty years ago, and I now have half a century of political
foolishness
behind me. I am not as foolish as some.
l Excerpt from Judith
Todd's latest book, Through the Darkness; A Life
in Zimbabwe, available from
www.zebrapress.co.za
Zim Standard
WHILE there is
the provision in
Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill 2007 that, for the
first time in the
history of constituency delimitation in the country,
parliament would be
presented with the preliminary report for consideration,
we have noted, with
interest, that the Bill is quite inexplicit on various
issues that pertain
to the delimitation exercise.
Although it
states that the "President shall cause the report to be
laid before
Parliament within the next seven days after he has received it"
from the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, it is not clear what powers
Parliament has
over making any changes to the report. The Bill is also
silent on what it is
really that Parliament can do with the report. What is
clear, however, is
that Parliament is not the final authority in determining
the boundaries
since the report has to go back to the President then ZEC for
final
approval.
In some countries where a constituency plan proposed by a
boundary
commission must be enacted by the legislature before it is
implemented, the
law is always explicit on the role that the legislature
plays in the drawing
up of constituency boundaries.
Countries
like Mauritius and Malaysia have provisions in the
constitution which
outline that the legislature can either accept or reject
the proposed
delimitation plan. The two countries' constitutions are also
clear that
while parliament can accept or reject the delimitation plan, it
does not
have the authority to modify the plan. In the Bill, it is not clear
what
parliament can do with the report, whether it has powers to modify it
or not
remains unclear.
According to the Bill, it is not explicit whether
parliament can
effect changes to the constituency plan, or as is the case
with Mauritius
and Malaysia, just reject it without powers to modify
it.
The Bill is also silent on the role of the executive pertaining
to the
Bill. Is it that the President just causes the report to be tabled
before
parliament or he has powers to make changes to the constituency map
within
the seven days before he causes the report to be debated in
parliament? It
is important to note that prior to the provisions in the
Bill, the President
was the final authority with regards to the delimitation
of constituencies
but according to the new Bill, ZEC has the final
authority. It is therefore
not clear, as is the case with parliament, what
the role of the executive is
when he is presented with the ZEC delimitation
report.
The Bill also does not make it clear whether there is
provision for
legal recourse to aggrieved parties who might feel hard done
by the way the
constituency boundaries would have been drawn up. Some
countries like
Nigeria and Uganda have made provisions to allow delimitation
plans to be
challenged in court while others like Tanzania and Pakistan have
effectively
barred court processes that involve the delimitation issues. In
our case the
proposed constitutional amendments are not clear on whether the
delimitation
plans can be challenged in court or not.
The
amendments do not indicate what form of action will be taken in
case
parliament is dissolved before the delimitation report is tabled before
it.
One would have thought the Bill was to have provisions that take care of
the
likely event that parliament dissolution precedes the completion of
delimitation.
But while the Bill is silent on the several issues that we have raised
above, it is loud on some provisions that we feel have an impact on the
administration of elections. It specifies that the delimitation report
should be completed not later than one month before parliament is dissolved
to allow for the parliamentarians to deliberate on the report before their
attention is shifted towards campaigning.
The usual practice in
the country has been that delimitation is done
three months before the
election. As ZESN, we recommend that the
delimitation process be finalised
at least six months before parliament is
dissolved. This would enable ZEC to
establish adequate polling stations and
come up with staffing levels that
would make the whole election
administration process viable. Apart from
expediting ZEC's work, timely
establishment of polling stations and their
publication would help the
electorate acquiesce themselves with the voting
centres and this is
particularly crucial in the harmonised 2008
elections.
The early completion of the delimitation exercise would
afford
stakeholders involved in civic education, ample time to inform the
electorate of the new constituency, ward and senatorial boundaries so that
they register, transfer or inspect the voters' roll in time for the actual
election. Ahead of the election in 2008, this will be very crucial as it
will necessitate people to be acquiescent with their wards as the election
will include local authority elections.
The Bill is also clear
that ZEC would play a crucial role in
determining constituency boundaries,
thus there is need to ensure ZEC is as
impartial as is possible. There is
need, therefore, to ensure that ZEC as
the Electoral Management Body (EMB)
excludes anyone with political
connections from serving on the commission.
It should have its own staff not
the current situation where staff is
seconded from government ministries,
departments and even the security
services. ZEC should also have its own
consolidated funds to avert reliance
on government for funding which can
compromise its
impartiality.
ZEC officials should report directly to Parliament
not an individual
minister who, in our case, is a contestant in the
elections for which the
boundaries are drawn. In short, as stipulated in the
SADC Principles and
Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections section 7.4,
ZEC should be
"impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable" as well
as "staffed by
qualified personnel" who are incorruptible so as to ensure
that the whole
electoral process, including delimitation, is as impartial as
is possible.
Article produced by the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (ZESN).
AU should stop protecting Mugabe's autocratic
regime
FOR all his denigration of the British on the world stage,
(President)
Robert Mugabe is very attached to our way of doing things at
Westminster.
Sadly, it is only the pomp and ceremony that attends
the opening of
Parliament he likes. He attends his Parliament in an
open-topped
vintage Rolls-Royce, escorted by mounted lancers resplendent in
colonial-style pith helmets and with his consort beside him.
He
has dispensed with all the tiresome bits: fair elections, open
debate, free
media and open association. Opposition MPs who criticise him
are viciously
assaulted by the security forces, detained and charged with
treason.
Members of his own Zanu PF and the armed forces who
show signs of
disloyalty have a noticeable tendency to die in motor
accidents.
Ruthlessness towards political opponents has always been Mugabe's
hallmark.
The international community was so keen to buy into his
self-portrayal
as the magnanimous and conciliatory statesman that it turned
a blind eye to
incidents such as the murder - in a "car crash" - of Josiah
Tongogara,
commander of the Zanu's military wing Zanla, only six days after
the signing
of the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979.
Far more
seriously; it ignored the 1980/5 Gukurahundi massacre of 20
000 so-called
dissidents in Matabeleland.
The principal donor nations, the UK and
USA, are portrayed as villains
even though we provide food aid to keep
millions of Zimbabweans alive in a
country where agriculture has been
systematically destroyed as a means of
political control.
African leaders, mesmerised by the myth Mugabe has
created of himself
as the liberator and father of Zimbabwe, scramble
to protect
him.
Mugabe's skill has been to maintain the facade of functioning
democratic institutions and rule of law. He can afford to do that because he
knows he can crack down with an iron fist when any real threat to his power
shows signs of momentum. As with any bully, he doesn't need to resort to
violence; the reputation for violence is enough to cow the desperate
population into
submission.
Yet somehow, the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions continues to
mobilise resistance to the regime with
great international solidarity from
Cosatu in South Africa and our own
TUC.
Keeping together a democratic and non-violent opposition in a
despotic
state that has at its disposal the untrammelled forces of the army,
police
and youth militia has been a magnificent achievement on the part of
Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of the mainstream MDC opposition.
International commentators lecture opposition groups saying they must
present a united front, however artificial it might be. Surely Zimbabweans
deserve democracy, not a one-party state nor a one-party
opposition.
Zanu PF itself is more divided than ever. I'm not
really interested in
which faction leader is in the ascendant. In my view,
all the senior members
of
the Zanu PF line-up have been too closely
involved and complicit in
Mugabe's reign of terror to be able to play any
part in rebuilding Zimbabwe.
What we want for Zimbabwe is democracy, so that
the people of Zimbabwe can
decide who they want in government.
It remains to be seen whether the mediation process facilitated by
President
(Thabo) Mbeki at the request of SADC leads anywhere or is just
another ploy
to buy time for Mugabe and continue wearing down the
opposition.
Nothing in Mugabe's past, and the continuing
violence being meted out
to the MDC, suggests that he is ready to give up
power. But the economic
position of the country is dire and his ability to
fall back on state
resources and play a long game is running
out.
The prime minister's refusal to take part in the EU-Africa
summit if
it means sitting down with Mugabe is very welcome. The African
Union should
stop protecting Mugabe. Only then will we be able to believe
the commitments
they made to good governance and democracy at
Gleneagles.
Kate Hoey
UK Labour MP and chairman of
the all-party parliamentary group on
Zimbabwe
--------------
Why Zanu PF wants executive mayors
out
IT is not difficult to appreciate the motive of the paranoid
regime's
intention to dissolve the posts of executive mayors.
The ruling party is scared of an embarrassing defeat if the elections
are
held. Who is comfortable with the skyrocketing bills of unavailable
water?
Worse still, it is doubtful whether the water is fit for human
consumption,
when eventually it becomes available.
Who is comfortable with the
daily floods of sewage at a time when all
meals are being prepared outdoors
due to load-shedding of electricity
supplies?
Because the
ruling party is obviously bankrupt and has no meaningful
sympathisers beside
village heads, there is a strong need to consolidate its
grip on council
affairs with the control of revenues being prominent. Most
Zanu PF chefs
have unscrupulously contracted their private companies to
councils, using
the influence of their offices. In the event that the
opposition holds
influential posts like that of executive mayors, retaining
these contracts
won through fraudulent tender procedures will be extremely
difficult.
The ruling party considered it a waste of their
meagre resources, time
and energy especially in view of the hard-to-be-won
harmonised parliamentary
and presidential elections. The abolition of the
post of executive mayors is
just a case of sour grapes.
It is
not surprising that the Minister of Local Government confessed
publicly that
there has never been efficient administration of council
affairs since 1995.
But who has been running the councils beside Zanu PF?
Makanyisa
Wachop
Chitungwiza
----------------
Most prices no
longer affordable
GOODS in shops have gone up again. Just
imagine biscuits
selling for $350 000. In cloth-shops, one metre of material
is going for
more than $1 000 000.
Maize meal is going for $1 000 000 for a 10
kg bag. Meat is somewhere
around $1 000 000 and $2 000 000 a kg. Is this is
normal in a country where
most of us in the private sector are earning
around $5 000 000 a month?
Salaries are still frozen and there is
not much buying power among
poor Zimbabweans.
We are suffering
out here, people. Those privileged to get close to
the ministers should tell
them that things are tough out here. The black
market is thriving and
everything is in abundance. Our salaries are pegged
on normal scaling but
our expenditures are on the black market rate. How is
one expected to
balance things? Kombis are demanding $200 000 a single
journey.
So where are the price control people? We thought they had found an
appropriate formula for the economy last time when they forced everything to
be reduced. We are now far worse than before.
If Obert Mpofu,
the Minister of Industry and International Trade keeps
quiet in the face of
all this madness we shall say he does not know what he
is doing. Maybe he
was just politicking since we are approaching elections.
But this has made
him very unpopular with everyone.
Finally, may I appeal for an
overhaul of the entire economic system?
Accusing each other will
not take us to anywhere. The outside world
has its own contributions but let
us be bold enough and accept where we have
erred. Let us call a spade a
spade. We have messed up. Let us pick the
broken pieces and start to
rebuild.
Sam Khumalo
Bulawayo
zimbabwejournalists.com
3rd Nov 2007 01:00 GMT
By a
Correspondent
HARARE - Irked by growing opposition to his rule at the
University of
Zimbabwe, President Mugabe yesterday capped 3 034 students but
departed from
the norm. He did not say a single word to congratulate the
graduates or even
encourage them or their parents as he normally does and
has been doing this
year at other university graduations around the
country.
Graduates and their parents were shocked yesterday when Mugabe
stuck to his
mere ceremonial role and did give a speech at the institution
which has over
the past few years been regaining its stature of being a
hot-bed for
opposition politics.
Students at the university, who have
aligned themselves to the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
have been giving the government
headaches with protests that have also
resulted in property being damaged on
campus.
There was tight
security at the UZ with armed security details from the
army, police and
Central Intelligence Organisation all over the place.
Cameras were not
allowed into the sports pavilion where the ceremony took
place and cell
phones had to be switched off. Those who had cameras to
capture their
children or relatives important moment had to leave them
outside if they
wanted to enter the pavilion.
"President Mugabe is well-known for holding
grudges and this time it was us
the poor University of Zimbabwe graduates at
the receiving end. I take it he
did not want to be seen complimenting a
group of students who have and
continue to condemn his rule," said one
student from the arts faculty.
"Can you imagine none of us will have a
photograph to cherish the hour they
graduated because someone did not want
pictures to be, I assume, distributed
on the internet to even sent to the
international media. It is rank madness,
especially to think that a whole
President will take it out on students and
treat them as if they do not even
exist."
The graduates and their guest had to take pictures at the
different
faculties and around the university after the ceremony and after
Mugabe had
left.
One graduate who only wanted to be identified as
Chipo said: "It would have
been good for some of us who have no political
connections at least to hear
the Chancellor saying something. There were no
ululations, the kind
synonymous with such occasions, the ceremony for me was
just dead but anyway
what matters most is that I have graduated, I have done
well and hope now to
get out there and get a job, hopefully."
Another
graduate said: "Of all the things, I did not expect to have such a
graduation ceremony. I know there are some involved in politics who did not
even want him to cap them but others like me would have loved to hear him
say something about our prospects in the Zimbabwe we are living in today,
job creation and related things but he chose to keep quiet and walk away
without even saying congratulations to us, let alone our hard-working
parents who suffered through this man-made crisis to have us go to
university to this day."
At least 2 320 graduates were conferred with
first degrees, 703 with Masters
degrees and 11 with Doctorates in
Philosophy.
They came from the Faculties of Agriculture, Arts, Commerce,
Education, Law,
Science, Social Studies and Veterinary Science and from the
Institute of
Development Studies and the College of Health
Sciences.
The graduates comprised 144 medical doctors, 14 dentists, 42
pharmacists, 25
medical laboratory scientists, 16 veterinary doctors, 137
agriculture
scientists, 43 computer science specialists, 83 accountants, 263
economists,
184 engineers and 91 lawyers.
Mugabe has in past speeches
urged such graduates to stay and work towards
the development of their
country rather than moving to greener pastures.
Most health professionals
from Zimbabwe go to work in the United Kingdom,
New Zealand, South Africa
and Australia.
Vice Chancellor Professor Levy Nyagura, who spoke at the
ceremony, boasted
the UZ continued to strengthen links with universities in
the Far East.
"The University of Zimbabwe is keen to meet the growing
demands for Chinese
language as our people seek to explore the vast business
opportunities that
you, Your Excellency and Chancellor, have abundantly
created for our
economy.
"To that end, it is our hope that the
University of Zimbabwe, through the
Confucius Institute, will accelerate
better understanding of China, promote
greater bilateral exchange and
co-operation, and help commerce and industry
and individuals by offering
consultation, Chinese language and culture
training and transfer of
technology," said Nyagura.
Meanwhile the Zimbabwe Youth Movement reports
that its treasurer Wellington
"General Homes" Mahohoma was abducted at the
UZ yesterday.
"Mahohoma was invited to attend a graduation ceremony at
the University of
Zimbabwe by his brother, Walter Mahohoma who was
graduating with Masters in
Agro-meteorology," the ZYM said in a statement.
"General Homes is a former
student leader at the University of Zimbabwe who
was slapped with a life ban
along with three other colleagues in 2006 after
leading a myriad of
demonstrations at the university in particular and the
country at large."
Witnesses said Mahohoma was "whisked away by
unidentified man in suits
suspected to be CIO and part of the presidential
guard working in cahoots
with the university security".
Efforts to
contact the Avondale police station and university security have
been in
vain.
Yahoo News
Sat Nov 3,
8:27 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - A lawmaker from Zimbabwe's ruling party has
been arrested
after handing himself over to the police investigating the
sale of 10,000
litres of cooking oil on the black market, a report said
Saturday.
The state-run Herald said police arrested Zanu-PF lawmaker
Zacharia Ziyambi,
of Kadoma West, in connection with the sale of the cooking
oil consignment.
It added that authorities were also keen to question a
senator, Chiratidzo
Gava.
"He (Ziyambi) is still in police custody
and investigations are still
continuing," police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka
told the daily.
"Our specific interest is to critically examine and
establish the
circumstances surrounding the acquisition of 10,000 litres of
cooking oil
from Grefax Cotton," he added.
Ziyambi and Gava are
alleged to have signed a letter to acquire the cooking
oil from Grafax
Cotton purportedly for the benefit of their constituents.
Mandipaka said
police impounded the cooking oil found being offloaded in
drums from a
Nissan truck near a furniture shop.
In June, President Robert Mugabe's
government ordered a blanket freeze on
the prices of all goods and services,
previously limited to essential
products, saying prices could only be raised
with government approval.
Zimbabwe, reeling under hyperinflation, is
critically short of essential
items like wheat, fuel, cooking oil and
sugar.
In July, a senator from the ruling party and thousands of business
people
were arrested for flouting a government-imposed ceiling on basic
commodity
prices.
Mugabe's government introduced price controls five
years ago to fight a
burgeoning black market in staples like cornmeal,
cooking oil and bread.
The Zimbabwean
Friday, 02 November 2007 16:08
By Ntando
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa 's minority African Christian
Democratic
Party (ACDP) party said on Thursday that President Thabo Mbeki's
mediation
talks on Zimbabwe is looking bleak if Mbeki fails to recognize the
human
rights violations by Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party.
ACDP President, Kenneth Meshoe, accused Mbeki - who was appointed by
the
SADC heads of states to mediate between Zimbabwe 's ruling party Zanu-PF
and
the main opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - of
being
Mugabe's chief defender.
"So far President Thabo Mbeki did not see
anything wrong with Mugabe
and his government while there are lucid human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
While this continues we don't see any hope for
progress in these talks. As
an opposition party we urge him (Mbeki) to stop
being biased and
self-protective towards Mugabe, while the Zimbabwean
government continues
with human rights abuses in the country in the presence
of mediation talks.
"We call on President Mbeki being honest and
open to Mugabe if he is
wrong and to be open to the opposition if it is
wrong", Meshoe said.
Meshoe blamed Mugabe for failing to respect
the ongoing talks.
The SADC-led mediation talks on Zimbabwe missed
Tuesday's key deadline
to agree on a broad framework for free and fair
elections.
Meanwhile South Africa's main opposition party, the
Democratic
Alliance (DA), said Thursday that it has submitted written
parliamentary
questions to Mbeki on Zimbabwe.
Despite missing
the Tuesday' deadline, the negotiating teams in
Pretoria continue to thrash
out some remaining stumbling blocks.
Issues still to be tackled are
the role of the police, military and
the CIO during the elections, and the
contentious issue of when to introduce
the country's new constitution. Both
sides are agreed on a new constitution
but are divided over when to
introduce it. Zanu-PF wants to introduce it
after the elections, while the
MDC insists it must happen before.
The talks constitute the most
comprehensive and sustained attempt so
far to reduce tensions between
Zanu-PF and the opposition parties in
Zimbabwe and to move ahead with free
and fair elections.
From Business Day (SA), 3 November
Dumisani Muleya and Sarah Hudleston
Morgan
Tsvangirai's future at the helm of Zimbabwe's strife-torn opposition
party,
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), hangs in the balance ahead
of
Saturday's crisis meeting to deal with growing infighting. Tsvangirai,
President Robert Mugabe's main political rival, is fighting for political
survival in the MDC after a rebellion in the party structures, which was
triggered by his recent dismissal of the head of the women's league, Lucia
Matibenga. Tsvangirai nearly defeated Mugabe in the 2002 presidential
election, "losing" by a mere 400 000 votes amid allegations that the
election was rigged. Tsvangirai challenged the electoral outcome in court,
but the case is still pending. However, his power and influence seems to be
on the wane since 2005 - with the MDC splitting into two factions over
participation in the senate elections. The recent squabbles in the
Tsvangirai-led MDC could weaken the opposition.
Accusations of
violations of the constitution, violence and weak leadership
are being
levelled against Tsvangirai by his hitherto loyalists, who are
infuriated by
his unilateral dismissal of Matibenga to install Theresa
Makone - the wife
of his adviser, Ian Makone - as head of the women's wing.
Loyalists,
including his deputy, Thokozani Khupe, held a women's congress in
Bulawayo
last weekend and elected Makone as the new leader of the women's
wing. This
sparked off angry reactions in the party structures. There is
also anger
that Tsvangirai has not briefed party structures about the talks
between the
MDC and Zanu PF facilitated by President Thabo Mbeki. Matibenga
and others
have been critical of the approach adopted by Tsvangirai and his
secretary-general, Tendai Biti. Reports from Harare say that the MDC's
parliamentary caucus wants to oust Tsvangirai, saying he has become a
liability to the party.
Party spokesman Nelson Chamisa confirmed
Saturday's crisis meeting, saying
it would also be an opportunity discuss
the alleged escalation of violence
against opposition members. "The MDC as a
democratic institution has
sufficient mechanisms to deal with challenges
that are inevitable in such a
mass-based organisation," Chamisa said. He
declined to comment on
behind-the-scenes manoeuvres to oust Tsvangirai. But
sources say that senior
party officials, among them organising secretary
Elias Mudzuri, Chamisa,
youth chairperson Thamsanga Mahlangu, deputy
secretary-general Tapiwa
Mashakada, health secretary Blessing Chebundo,
transport secretary Murisi
Zwizwai and Budiriro MP Emmanuel Chisvuure, now
want Tsvangirai out. William
Bango, Tsvangirai's spokesman, says these men
are among Tsvangirai's closest
allies and that the issue has been blown out
of all proportion. "I know
these men and to a man, if they had a problem
with the president, they would
sit down and work it out with him," he
says.
But sources say Tsvangirai has lost the support of one of his
former key
advisers, top national executive council member Eliphas
Mukonoweshuro. They
say this influential group wants to depose him if he
refuses to reverse the
decision to dissolve Matibenga's women's assembly.
Mashakada is being tipped
to lead the MDC in the interim until a special
congress is held to elect a
new leadership, sources say. Documents show
Mudzuri last week wrote to
Tsvangirai telling him that the dissolution of
the Matibenga executive was
brazenly unconstitutional. "The process of
dissolving the assembly can only
be done by the national executive
committee, national council or national
assembly of women," Mudzuri warned
Tsvangirai.
"It is unacceptable for us, the president and the
secretary-general, as the
custodians of the constitution, to breach the
constitution. You must relook
at this and respect the constitution." But
Tsvangirai ignored the advice and
forged ahead with the "congress".
Tsvangirai reportedly enjoys the support
of Biti, national chairperson
Lovemore Moyo, and his "kitchen cabinet" made
up of Ian and Theresa Makone,
businessman Jameson Timba and lawyer Selby
Hwacha, among others. Roy
Bennett, the party's national treasurer, said on
Friday that reports that
Tsvangirai's tenure as leader was under threat were
"absolute rubbish". "His
support has never been stronger. Any ructions are
part of a process of
cleaning the party of Central Intelligence Organisation
infiltrators. He has
done nothing unconstitutional. The decision to get rid
of Matibenga was
taken by the women's league on grounds of nonperformance.
But it has
provided a great opportunity for the government to undermine his
leadership," he said.
I note in the latest Zimday that the
Business Day Newspaper in South
Africa
carries a story about the
fuel pipeline from Beira to Harare. This
story has
many
inaccuracies in it including the basic facts. At the peak of
economic
activity in 1997 the country used about 5,5 million litres
of liquid
fuels a
day. This is thought to have slumped to less than
half as a
consequence of
the economic collapse that has followed
over the past decade.
The pipeline was originally established by
Lonrho working with the
Government of Mozambique and its ownership,
even today, is shrouded in
mystery. What we do know is that the tariff
charged for the use of the
pipeline has been very substantially above
world market rates for
similar
pipelines of a similar length and
capacity.
Originally the pipeline was built to serve the oil
refinery at Feruka
but
after the imposition of sanctions in 1966 by
the UN the pipeline was
not
used until it became possible to feed
refined products through its
length
after Independence. Thereafter
the Norwegian Government financed the
development of a new petroleum
terminal at Beira as a part of the
Beira
Corridor
Project.
The pipeline was subsequently extended to Harare - by a
consortium
which
again included Lonrho and the Zimbabwe government.
It was designed to
terminate at the newly established underground
storage facilities at
Msasa
in Harare. The latter are thought to be
capable of storing up to half
the
total demand for liquid fuels for
a year. In fact they have not been
used to
any extent because it
was discovered that the storage of refined
petroleum
products for
any length of time is a difficult and expensive
operation.
Subsequently the private sector (led by Mobil who have now left the
country)
built a storage complex above ground some 3 kilometres
from the
underground
facilities and these tanks are now used as the
terminus of the
pipeline.
The capacity of the line is 3 million
litres of fuel a day - not the
1,2
billion litres a day as recorded
in the article. The balance of our
requirements was always imported via
rail from South Africa where
there is a
surplus of diesel due to
the operations of SASOL.
Eddie Cross
30th October 2007
IOL
November 03 2007 at 10:11AM
By Clayton Barnes
Adonis
Musati, a Zimbabwean asylum seeker and a familiar face to many
at Cape
Town's Home Affairs office, died on a pavement just metres from the
Foreshore office on Friday.
Musati, 24, is believed to have
died of hunger.
Bennett Hodi, the last to see Musati alive, said he
came zigzagging
across the road towards the Cape Town International
Convention Centre on
Friday morning and asked a construction worker for
money to buy a loaf of
bread.
'These guys have a strong
bond, they are like a family'
Hodi, a guard at a nearby construction
site, said although none of the
workers had money, a colleague decided to
buy the bread as they could see
Musati was hungry and weak.
"He
told us he hadn't eaten in two weeks," said Hodi. "We gave him the
bread and
he finished half a loaf in seconds.
"He then asked
for water and swallowed a few sips before lying down
under a tree on the
island opposite the Convention Centre.
"A few minutes later we
noticed he was lying on his back with his legs
and arms stretched out.
That's when we rushed over and saw he wasn't
breathing. We immediately
called the police."
Braam Hanekom, chairperson of People Against
Suffering, Suppression,
Oppression and Poverty (Passop), was greeted by a
crowd of people standing
around Musati's body after being released from the
holding cells at Cape
Town Central police station on Friday
afternoon.
Hanekom and a member of his refugee advocacy group were
arrested on
Thursday night after a peaceful sit-in by desperate asylum
seekers turned
violent when they clashed with police.
The
refugees refused to leave the department's premises after waiting
more than
seven hours to be served.
Hanekom said Musati's death had left the
refugees heartbroken and
angry.
"These guys have a strong bond,
they are like a family," said Hanekom.
"These refugees have nowhere to go,
nothing to eat and nowhere to live.
"They depend on begging in the
streets bordering the Home Affairs
office to stay alive.
"This
is unfortunate and if nothing is done, we are definitely going
to see more
refugees dying on the streets of this country."
Patrick Chauke,
chairperson of Parliament's Home Affairs Portfolio
Committee, was on the
scene and said Musati's death was a tragedy.
"This is not good, but
we are trying our best to process the paperwork
for all refugees as
effectively and efficiently as possible," said Chauke.
"Our condolences go
out to the family.
"The next step now is to get in contact with the
Zimbabwean
authorities and their embassy. We'll do our best to see that the
deceased
gets a proper burial. If his family is located in time we might be
able to
transport his body back."
Musati's friend, Steve
Mabambe, said he was saddened by Musati's death
and feared living on the
streets of Cape Town.
"I came here for a better life, but it looks
like we will all die if
we don't get asylum and jobs soon," said
Mabambe.
Senior Superintendent Billy Jones said an inquest docket
was opened.
This article was originally published on page 5
of Cape Argus on
November 03, 2007