http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Simplicious Chirinda Wednesday 03
November 2010
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s lawyers have proposed
strengthening Parliament and
whittling down presidential powers in
submissions to a special parliamentary
committee leading the writing of a
new constitution for the country.
In a model constitution handed to the
Constitutional Select Committee and
Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric
Matinenga at the weekend, the Law
Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) also proposed a
stronger declaration of rights in
the new governance charter to serve as a
bulwark against state encroachment
on the rights of
citizens.
Analysts trace the genesis of Zimbabwe’s governance and
economic crisis to a
spineless Parliament and a president with virtually the
powers of an
absolute monarchy that have allowed President Robert Mugabe
free reign over
the country for more than two decades, while he has
regularly used his
immense powers to stifle opposition to his
rule.
LSZ president Joseph Tshuma said the lawyers’ model constitution
seeks to
provide a template of how a democratic and pro-human rights
governance
charter should look like.
He said: “The draft seeks to
entrench multi-party democracy in Zimbabwe,
with significant power devolved
to the provinces.
“A strong declaration of rights and a clear separation
of powers will
protect people’s freedom against encroachment by the state,
but at the same
time the government will have sufficient power to carry out
its functions
effectively.”
The lawyers said in coming with their
model constitution they also borrowed
from three existing draft
constitutions, one written by Mugabe’s previous
government but rejected by
Zimbabweans in a referendum10 years ago and
another drafted by civil society
groups working under the National
Constitutional Assembly pressure
group.
The third draft utilised by the lawyers is the controversial
Kariba draft
constitution written by Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and the two MDC
formations of
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Premier Arthur
Mutambara.
A senior Harare lawyer, Stanford Moyo, who was involved in the
project to
draft a model constitution described the LSZ document as an
attempt to
reshape Zimbabwe’s political power architecture.
He said:
“The draft seeks to change the entire power architecture, reducing
the
executive power concentration because it creates tyranny.”
Other
highlights of the LSZ proposals are the creation of a non-executive
president who will be head of state and is elected by Parliament, while the
Prime Minister will be the head of government and he/she will be elected by
popular vote.
The LSZ proposes that the president appoints judges on
the advice of an
independent judicial services commission but that such
appointment be
subject to approval by the Senate.
On the contentious
issue of the role of the security services in the
functioning of the state,
the LSZ proposes that the defence forces, police,
prison service and
intelligence services be brought firmly under civilian
control with
Parliament exercising greater scrutiny on the state’s arms of
coercion.
The lawyers also proposed devolution of powers to provinces
with each
province having its own elected governor and legislature and its
own public
service and police service.
The COPAC shall use
submissions by groups such as the LSZ and by members of
the public during an
outreach programme that ended last week to prepare a
draft constitution that
shall be put before Zimbabweans in a referendum
expected in the first
quarter of next year.
The writing of a new constitution is part of
reforms agreed by Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Mutambara to entrench democracy and
ensure the next elections
are free and fair. – ZimOnline.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Trevor Grundy
Wednesday, 03 November 2010
06:48
LONDON – Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the UK will return to
“unprecedented
violence” if President Robert Mugabe feels that he is danger
of losing the
2011 general election, according to the internationally
respected human
rights organization, the Catholic Commission for Justice and
Peace (CCJP).
“If Zanu (PF) believes it can win an overall majority by sleigh
of hand, it
will try to do so. But if not, it may unleash unprecedented
violence on the
basis that it has nothing to lose,” a senior official from
the CCJP told a
team of information officers from the UK’s Border
Agency.
The team were on a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe in August and
released a
120- page report on their mission on October 27. The report was
made public
on the day that over 300 worried Zimbabweans gathered outside
Lancaster
House in London for a meeting to hear a senior Home Office
official, Phil
Douglas, answer questions on the sudden ending of a four year
moratorium on
deporting failed asylum seekers.
Earlier, Immigration
Minister Damien Green told the House of Commons know
that forced returns
would start again, but not before three high court
judges had made up their
minds about whether Zimbabwe was or not a safe
place to return failed asylum
seekers to.
A report issued this week by the Zimbabwe Vigil said that very
few of
Zimbabweans who heard what Douglas had to say were satisfied. At one
point
there was a cry of “blood on your hands” in the famous London meeting
place
where in December 1979 Chimurenga Two ended. Between 12, 000 and
15,000
failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers now face a worrying Christmas and
uncertain
New Year.
The purpose of the Border Agency’s fact finding
mission in August was to
gather information on the situation in Zimbabwe
since the formation of the
Government of National Unity (GNU) in February
2009. It said: “Most
organizations reported that the parliamentary
constitutional outreach
process (COPAC), which is consulting with the public
about the contents of
the new constitution, has led to renewed reports of
intimidation and
violence. As a result, there were fears that the current
situation may
deteriorate ahead of national elections which are like to take
police in the
next couple of years.”
On Monday, Reuters reported that
President Mugabe appeared set on calling a
general election by next June.
Were that to happen, and were high court
judges to decide that it is safe to
send failed asylum seekers home,
thousands of men, women and children would
be forced to make a new start in
their old country as an 86 year-old despot
makes his final throw of the
dice.
The CCJ told the fact finders that
there is little political violence in
Zimbabwe at the moment, adding - “This
is because the population has been so
cowed by previous violence that they
are afraid to do the sort of things
that would provoke further actual
violence – the threat of it is enough,
especially in the rural areas for
traumatized local communities.”
The Border Agency and officials from the
Foreign Office spoke to
representatives of several NGOs who expressed
similar beliefs that violence
on a massive scale could be just around the
corner. They also spoke to seven
men and women who had returned to Zimbabwe,
apparently without difficulty.
The Research and Advocacy Unit told fact
finders: "Zanu (PF) is currently
putting its campaigning strategy into
place. They are identifying areas for
bases to open up and recruiting youth
to deploy in January. There are
allegations that they will be receiving
training from the army.”
The Counselling Services Unit said that until
recently there was growing
police resistance to taking orders from Zanu
(PF), but that could soon be
reversed “now that the political structure has
access to diamonds and
therefore can reassert its control through economic
means”.
http://news.radiovop.com/
03/11/2010 10:50:00
Harare,
November 03, 2010 - Zimbabwe's teachers are facing serious political
threats
that have so far seen six being transfered at the orders of war
veterans.
The Progress Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president,
Raymond Majongwe
told a a press conference in Harare on Tuesday that his
organisation had
received reports of teachers being victimized since the day
President Robert
Mugabe announced that elections could take place next
year.
Six teachers from Gwangwava Primary School in Rushinga were
recently
forcibly transferred to other schools in Bindura after war veterans
and Zanu
(PF) supporters said they did not want the teachers in their
community.
The six, who are all PTUZ members consist of two couples, one
male and one
female teacher.
According to Majongwe, PTUZ feared for
the reachers' lives because the
district education office in Bindura,
working in cahoots with the war
veterans, transferred the six to Zanu (PF)
strongholds so that they could
'fix' them.
"We want to put on record
as an organisation that the situation in and
around schools is starting to
disturb us," Majongwe said.
He said teachers were being victimised at a
time when the GNU (Government of
National Unity) was showing obvious signs
of cracks. He said Zanu (PF)
supporters led by war veterans had threatened
to cleanse the Mashonaland
province of any members of the PTUZ."
"We
don't need this. It is unnecessary and uncalled for," Majongwe said.
"What
we have is a serious challenge around the failure by government to
address
teachers' salaries."
"This election that is coming will not solve any
problems facing teachers,
infact the election will increase grave yards and
opharns."
Majongwe said his organisation had written to Education
minister, David
Coltart to intervene. They were also planning to approach
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai so he can talk to President Robert Mugabe
to convince his
supporters to end the teachers'
victimisation.
Zimbabwe teachers, especially in rural areas, have over
the years been the
target of political violence by war veterans and Zanu
(PF) supporters who
accuse them of supporting the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
The situation saw hordes of Zimbabwe's teachers running
away to enighbouring
countries like South Africa, Botswana and to countries
overseas.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
3 November
2010
Norman Mabhena, the MDC national executive member and brother to the
late
national hero Welshman Mabhena, has gone into hiding following threats
to
his life recently.
Mabhena was forced to relocate to a safe house
and another town over the
weekend, when two attempts were made to ‘bump him
off the road’ on Friday
last week.
Our correspondent Lionel Saungweme
told us that Mabhena had also been
receiving death threats, two of which
included phone calls telling him ‘he
was going to die for embarrassing the
ZANU PF leadership.’ In the last two
weeks the MDC official was getting late
night visits to his home from
unknown people.
‘It got to a point
where he would see a car or cars parked outside his gate
each morning.
Whenever he tried to approach the occupants of the vehicles,
they would
drive off without saying a word. He thought he was being stalked,
so he
decided to go into hiding,’ Saungweme said.
Mabhena started receiving
threats after his family spurned a ZANU PF offer
last month to have his
brother, Welshman, interred at the national shrine.
The former late
nationalist and governor for Matabeleland North died in
Bulawayo last month
after a long struggle with diabetes and high blood
pressure.
The MDC
released a statement saying the party was greatly concerned by the
continued
attempts on the life of their national executive committee member,
by ‘dark
forces in ZANU PF’.
‘The MDC notes with concern that Norman Mabhena has
been forced to relocate
his family to a safe house as the threats to his
life and family continue to
increase. The attempts on the life of Mabhena
show that ZANU PF is a party
with a murderous record on innocent people who
expose their corruption and
dishonesty,’ the statement
said.
Saungweme said while it looks like Mabhena and his family were
paying a
heavy price for defying the ZANU PF mob, the Bulawayo based
politician is
adamant he would be ‘back soon.’
‘I understand Mabhena
has temporarily relocated to a town where he feels
safe and to give his
family a break following persistent threats and
intimidation. But he has
indicated he would be back very soon to concentrate
on the big job ahead of
winning the elections in 2011,’ Saungweme added.
http://news.radiovop.com
02/11/2010 21:47:00
Chimanimani, November
02 2010 - Political violence has hit Kwirire area in
Chimanimani where war
veterans and Zanu (PF) supporters are forcing
villagers to attend the
party's campaign meetings which are being held at
the homesteads of local
traditional leaders during the night.
Villagers in the area told Radio
VOP on Tuesday that political violence
which was being allegedly instigated
by war veteran, Ronnie Chimbarara and
Jane Knight, the Zanu (PF) Women’s
league Manicaland provincial member has
been on the increase after President
Robert Mugabe’s address of the party’s
national youth assembly and the
women’s league in Harare two weeks ago.
“Since Mugabe’s address to the
youths and women’s league in Harare, people
of Kwirire have been having
sleepless nights. Every night the villagers are
being called to attend
campaign meetings at headman Derera’s homestead,”
said a project coordinator
with a local aid organisation operating in the
area.
Last week the
war veterans allegedly attacked and destroyed the hut of Caleb
Makuyana, an
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activist in the area.
The youths who
were singing anti-MDC slogans and toy-toying, descended on
Makuyana’s
homestead around midnight and accused him of influencing other
villagers not
to attend the meetings.
Addressing the two party’s organs, Mugabe urged
the party’s youths and the
women’s
league to prepare for elections mid
next year.
“I do not see any reason why we cannot do that. So, are you
prepared for
elections?’ said Mugabe.
The MDC’s Coordinator for
Chimanimani, Pardon Maguta confirmed the
resurfacing of political violence
in Kwirire.
“For the past two weeks we have been receiving numerous
complaints of
political violence from our supporters in the Kwirire. Some of
the
supporters have been at the office to seek advice on what to do in the
wake
of this escalation of violence in the area,” said Maguta.
Three
weeks ago, Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba summoned all Manicaland
based
headmen to a meeting in Mutare where he threatened them with
unspecified
action if their subjects voted for the MDC during the upcoming
election.
By Alex Bell
03 November
2010
The Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has this week backed ZANU PF’s ‘sanctions’ argument, as part of efforts to force the international diamond trade monitor to green-light full exports from Zimbabwe.
The meeting of members of the trade watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP), is set to decide Zimbabwe’s future in the diamond trade, with the government pushing for a full resumption of diamond exports. Sales from Zimbabwe were suspended last year, over human rights abuses at the lucrative Chiadzwa diamonds fields. But despite pressure to ban the country completely, the KP has instead taken the lenient route of giving Zimbabwe time to fall in line with international standards.
It is not surprising that the government wants full sales to resume, with Chiadzwa predicted to be the largest alluvial deposit of diamonds in the world. The notoriously ZANU PF aligned AAG is also set to get a nice slice of the gem encrusted pie, after announcing it has ten members lined up to venture into local diamond cutting and polishing. It was AAG President Supa Mandiwanzira who recently signed a US$1.2 billion deal with an Indian diamond polishing conglomerate, which is set to see Zimbabwe trade its gems for Indian training. Mandiwanzira is now also piling pressure on the KP to allow full diamond sales from Zimbabwe and his latest tactic has been a ‘position paper’ that echoes ZANU PF sentiment on ‘sanctions’.
The paper, presented to KP members at the Jerusalem meeting this week, uses the targeted US and European sanctions as the scapegoat for Zimbabwe’s economic destruction. The paper blames the measures, targeted against Robert Mugabe and his inner circle, for poor health care in Zimbabwe as well as for the mass exodus of Zimbabweans who have fled violence and poverty in recent years. This is despite the fact that it was the ZANU PF regime that destroyed the economy through greed and corruption, while unleashing violence on opposition supporters, all to hold on to power.
Economist John Robertson told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that the ‘sanctions’ argument is baseless, because it was ZANU PF’s policies that destroyed the economy, not the targeted measures. Robertson explained that the economy suffered most because “the ZANU PF regime moved to shut down its most valuable industry, and that was agriculture.” Violent land invasions over the past ten years have seen the agricultural industry completely collapse, resulting in massive job losses, economic downturn and widespread hunger. All these reasons are listed by the AAG as the fault of Western ‘sanctions’.
“Sanctions have absolutely nothing to do with the performance of the economy,” Robertson said. “In fact if the sanctions were lifted, it would make no difference to the current economic situation because the same destructive policies are still in place.”
The AAG paper accuses Western nations, who are also KP members, of deliberately ‘politicising’ the debate over Zimbabwe’s diamond trade future. The AAG says these countries “want to mix their political objectives in Zimbabwe with the diamond business.” The paper however makes no mention of ZANU PF’s blatant politicisation of the diamond industry, with top ZANU PF officials said to be benefiting directly from mining operations.
A recent report by international rights group, Partnership Africa Canada, shows how the Chiadzwa diamonds are sustaining the ZANU PF regime and also fuelling the ongoing political conflict. The report Diamonds and Clubs: The Militarized Control of Diamonds and Power in Zimbabwe, exposed the involvement of individuals like former army general Solomon Mujuru, who is heavily involved in illegal diamond deals and also uses his diamond mine 'River Ranch' to launder the family’s ongoing plunder of resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report also names Mujuru’s political foe, Minister of Defence Emmerson Mnangagwa, as another contender for control of the diamonds, as part of ZANU PF’s intra-party power struggle.
Another report this year by rights group Global Witness also describes how Minister of Mines, Obert Mpofu, has been one of those at the forefront of the corruption at the diamond fields, by assigning his allies as board members in the state-authorised mining firms currently permitted to mine at Chiadzwa. The two firms have been implicated in the ongoing smuggling of gems out of Chiadzwa, a problem said to be losing the country many millions of dollars in potential revenue.
“Mpofu and his cronies seem intent on pursuing their violent, self-serving exploitation of the country’s diamond wealth. Nobody should be under the illusion that this is about anything other than lining the pockets of ZANU PF and their allies, who are being squeezed by economic sanctions,” reads the Global Witness report, Return of the Blood Diamond.
This week, Human Rights Watch also expressed fears that the diamond wealth would serve to strengthen ZANU PF’s grip on power, and called on the KP not to allow full exports from the country to resume. Human Rights Watch Africa Director, Rona Peligal, told SW Radio Africa that the involvement of top ZANU PF officials in diamond mining “supports fears that diamond riches will be used to ensure ZANU PF an election win.”
The Human Rights Watch official also explained the there are ongoing reports of abuse from Chiadzwa, where the military is still in control, despite promises by the government that the armed forces would be withdrawn. Peligal said that Zimbabwe has not fulfilled its promises to the KP, and that “large parts of the diamond fields remain under the control of the Zimbabwe Defence Force soldiers, who harass and intimidate the local community and engage in widespread diamond smuggling.” The AAG however insists that the country has already met the requirements listed by the KP to allow full sales.
“The government made a lot of promises, but soldiers still control most diamond fields and are involved in illicit mining and smuggling,” said Peligal. “Zimbabwe should mine its diamonds without relying on an abusive military that preys on the local population.”
Glaringly obvious in the AAG position paper is the absence of any mention of the human rights abuses at Chiadzwa. This includes the brutal murder of hundreds of panners in 2008 who were buried in mass graves, reports of which contributed to the enforcement of the ban on diamond sales last year. The AAG instead says in its paper that it “cherishes” the ideals of the KP, which was formed to end the global trade in blood diamonds. The paper calls on the KP to prevent diamonds from being “used as a tool for western regime change in Zimbabwe.”
The KP is set to make a decision at the end of
the Jerusalem meeting on Thursday, and there are fears that the KP will give in
to this pressure from ZANU PF. Rights groups like the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition have argued that there is no change in Chiadzwa to justify the lifting
of the trade ban. Critics have also argued that the KP will be putting the
entire diamond industry in jeopardy if it does give in to the pressure to allow
the sale of Zimbabwe’s diamonds.
See related:
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Zimbabwean
Wednesday, 03 November 2010
06:13
KARIBA – Over 200 traditional chiefs were whipped into line last
weekend to
back Zanu (PF)'s grand plan to table a life presidency proposal
for
President Robert Mugabe (Pictured) at the forthcoming Zanu (PF) annual
conference in December.
A midnight rendezvous was called by Local
Government Minister Ignatius
Chombo on Thursday, after he learnt that
traditional leaders had rejected
the tabling of a life presidency plan by
Chief Chisungo of Mashonaland
Central. The proposal was raised for
discussion at the Council of Chiefs
annual retreat in Kariba that ended last
weekend.
Just after Mugabe's address, Chief Chisungo stood up and said the
president
must rule forever and that he would only be removed by God,
attracting
outrage from his contemporaries in the Council. The Zimbabwean
understands
there was an explosive domestic session after Mugabe's address,
where angry
chiefs grilled Chisungo, charging the life presidency issue he
had raised in
the plenary was not agreed to by the Council.
"They put him
to task and he apologised," said a senior Local Government
source, who
attended the session which was closed to the media. Chief
Chisungo is
alleged to have said he was speaking for Mashonaland Central.
Chiefs also
emphatically said they did not want anything to do with politics
and that
they did not countenance political interference in their duties.
"They made
this abundantly clear in the specific break away meetings led by
Chiefs
Council president Fortune Charumbira," said our source. The
Zimbabwean heard
that soon after Chombo was briefed about the chiefs'
attempt to oppose the
life presidency, he called the late night meeting for
all 213 chiefs. He
asked all the eight provinces to take a clear position on
the life
presidency issue in a session supposedly organised to discuss a
review of
the past two days. Each of the eight provinces were given brand
new cars,
and promised another 20 vehicles in the months to come. One by
one, they
were whipped into line, resulting in
Mugabe getting a ringing endorsement of
his life presidency plan from all
the eight provinces. Chief Gwebu from
Buhera rubbished the proposed life
presidency for Mugabe, saying it was
"nonsense." So outraged was Chief
Malisa from Silobela that he refused to
present the Midlands position to the
plenary. The presentation was later
done by another little known chief from
Mberengwa. Midlands flatly opposed
the life presidency plan.
Chiefs from the two Matabeleland provinces also
fiercely opposed the
proposal. So high are the stakes in the Zanu (PF)
succession matrix that
Zanu (PF) vice president Joice Mujuru, who is also
jockeying to succeed
Mugabe, openly campaigned at the Chiefs Council
meeting, donating two in one
blankets to each of the 213 chiefs.
"They
are trying to scare any would-be contenders for the Zanu (PF)
presidency,"
said political analyst Ronald Shumba. "The Women's League has
said they want
Mugabe to be life president, the Youth League has said the
same, and the
chiefs have said the same. It’s part of the succession
dynamic. They are
trying to prime the chiefs for an election through
intimidation."
If
Mugabe succeeds in pushing through his plan at the forthcoming 11th Zanu
(PF) annual National People's Conference opening on December 9, the
President for Life title will remove his term limits in his party, in the
hope that his authority, legitimacy, and term will never be disputed again
in his party.
The President-for-life will make Zanu (PF) the first
political party running
a de facto monarch. An authoritative senior Zanu
(PF) Politburo source told
***The Zimbabwean a motion would be moved at the
conference to declare
Mugabe the "First Consul for life".
Mugabe, a very
long-serving authoritarian president, is resolutely moving to
prop up the
traditional chieftaincy to secure political support. Mugabe
agreed to
address all the issues presented to him at the end of the Chiefs
conference,
including giving chiefs oversight over all drought relief, BEAM
funds and
all safety nets in their communities, exemptions at toll gates,
giving them
new vehicles,
electrification of all their homes and significantly increasing
their
allowances. The chiefs want councillors and political leadership to be
subservient to them. They also said they wanted restoration of the dignity
of traditional institutions, calling for the law to be changed so that their
appointments are not done by politicians but by doyens of tradition. “They
also emphatically said they don't want anything to do with politics and they
don't want any political interference in their duties," said the
source.
However, Zanu (PF) is determined to put them at the forefront of its
campaigns. As a sweetener for backing the life presidency, Zanu (PF) will
soon implement a scheme dubbed the "community share ownership scheme" which
will be presided over by chiefs, entitling all the traditional leaders to 10
per cent shareholding for every strategic mineral mined within their
jurisdiction, said our Politburo source, who described the plan as a
"winner".
Of the 10 per cent shareholding, 2.5 per cent will go straight
into the
chief's pocket, and the remaining balance will be channelled into
the
coffers of the Council of Chiefs. The Zimbabwean understands Saviour
Kaukuwere, the Indigenisation Minister, is almost through with the policy
draft.
http://www.voanews.com
Scott Bobb | Johannesburg 03
November 2010
Thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa are
besieging government
offices seeking work permits under a new program
announced in September.
The South African government has given the estimated
one-million
undocumented Zimbabweans in the country until the end of
December to
legalize their status or face deportation.
It is early
morning in downtown Johannesburg and several-hundred Zimbabweans
have
gathered outside the Home Affairs Department to apply for permits to
work
legally in the country. Many have spent the night on the sidewalk in
order
to be first in line.
Commercial artist Charles Chawanda stood in line for
two days before he
received an application form. He is back today with his
completed form, his
passport and a letter from his employer. "They just
write our names down.
They just write a number on our form so that today
they have started to call
our numbers again so that they can process our
papers," he said.
He says the authorities have promised to send him a
text message when his
papers are ready, hopefully in 10 days.
South
Africa launched this exercise in September (20th). At the end of
December
it will end an 18-month moratorium that allowed Zimbabweans without
documents to work here for three months at a time without fear of
deportation.
Salesperson Tracy Nkonzo has come to apply, but she must
wait in line until
she can get her name on the list and a number in the
queue. "I have been in
South Afica for almost four years now and it is a bit
tricky when you do not
have the necessary papers," she says, "I mean it is
not so easy to get a
job. I mean the day-to-day life is very difficult if
you do not have
anything."
But many Zimbabweans in South Africa do
not have passports or even birth
certificates.
Thousands of them
gather every day outside Zimbabwe's passport office in
Johannesburg filling
the street and standing in lines that snake around the
corner.
An
overwhelmed Zimbabwean official passes out deposit slips. Applicants
must
pay the $100 fee at a local bank then return with the receipt in order
to
receive a passport application form.
A shop fitter from Pretoria, Charles
Mtetwa, has been coming here for two
weeks. "At the present, I am still
waiting for my form there," he says, "I
must get my form first. From there
I go into this queue to surrender the
form there."
During this time
he is not being paid. He fears he may lose his job.
South African
officials say they are processing 1,000 applications a day at
more than 40
centers across the country.
Electronic technician Blessing Musi has
spent the past three nights here.
He says it takes six weeks to get a
passport and then several more weeks for
the South African work permit. He
is afraid there is not enough time.
"If do not get it in time it means I
am going to lose a job, one. My family
is going to get nothing, and I am
going to go home with nothing," Musi said.
University of Johannesburg
Professor David Moore says historically Africans
have migrated across the
continent, driven by politics, economics and war.
"In Africa, as a whole,
there is this constant migrating of people from
these relatively fragile
states which are colonial inventions. It is part
of a long-term historical
process of intra-continental migration with bursts
of nationalism and
xenophobia and these sentiments of us versus them," he
said.
Moore
says many South Africans are sympathetic to the plight of their
neighbors.
But he adds that resentment is high against foreigners,
especially among the
millions of unemployed South Africans who live in
shacks without water or
sanitation.
"It is harder to be hospitable when you are really poor and
you feel that
people are taking your jobs and taking your houses and that
sort of thing,"
Moore states.
Migrant activist Godfrey Phiri of the
Peace Action group says the program
will allow some Zimbabweans to legalize
their stay. But he says there is
not enough time to process everyone. Many
think the deadline will be
extended, but Phiri says some fundamental changes
are needed.
"South Africa has been deporting people, although they say
they have not
been doing it. And even now the police still continue to
harass people on
the streets for documentation," Phiri said. "And they are
even corrupt as
well. They ask for bribes."
Finally, analysts note
that most of the estimated one-million illegal
immigrants in South Africa
are unskilled workers, including children, who
are unemployed or working in
the informal sector.
They cannot qualify for the work permits. As a
result, they are likely to
continue as before, sneaking across the porous
border and surviving on the
streets as best they can.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
03
November 2010
Controversial businessman Philip Chiyangwa on Tuesday
withdrew criminal
defamation charges against Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda
and eight city
councilors who exposed his corrupt acquisition of council
land on the cheap.
Chiyangwa cited ‘changed circumstances’ but did not
elaborate.
Warship Dumba, the councilor who led the special committee
that investigated
Chiyangwa’s ‘irregular land deals’, told SW Radio Africa
they had not struck
a deal with the businessman, despite Chiyangwa claiming
so in the past few
weeks.
Dumba told us Chiyangwa knew he had no case
because ‘the committee that
investigated him was a constitutional committee
appointed according to the
Urban Councils Act. Suing us would actually mean
suing the residents of
Harare because whatever we do, we are doing on their
behalf.’
The council report exposed how Chiyangwa, with help from ZANU PF
officials
then running the council, bought council land on the cheap without
following
proper procedures. It also implicated local government Minister
Ignatius
Chombo as having corruptly acquired stands from council for
himself.
But instead of the police investigating Chiyangwa and Chombo they
arrested
the councilors who investigated the matter. The arrests in April
followed a
complaint of ‘criminal defamation’ made by Chiyangwa, who is
Mugabe’s
nephew.
Journalists Stanley Gama, Jennifer Dube, Feluna Nleya
and Vincent Kahiya
were also detained after exposing the land scandal in
articles that appeared
in their respective newspapers. Police demanded to
know the source who
‘leaked’ the council report to the journalists.
On
Wednesday Dumba said council was determined to recover the land on behalf
of
the residents. ‘If people want to make it a political thing, I don’t
think
it will be fair to the residents of Harare. There is nothing political
about
this issue. This is about people who irregularly acquired council
land.’
So why is Chiyangwa claiming a deal was struck with the Harare
City Council
to resolve the matter amicably? Dumba said it was possible
Chiyangwa might
have had discussions with other people in council but those
discussions or
opinions expressed in them did not reflect the official
council position.
http://news.radiovop.com
03/11/2010
08:35:00
Harare, November 03, 2010 - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
has said the
inclusive government does not depend on President Robert
Mugabe’s whims and
its lifespan is not determined by an
individual.
Speaking to journalists after his meeting with World Food
Programme
officials on Tuesday, Tsvangirai said the unity government’s
tenure was
determined by the observance of a process defined in the Global
Political
Agreement (GPA).
Mugabe has said there must be fresh
elections in Zimbabwe because the unity
government cannot be
extended.
But Tsvangirai said: “The inclusive government’s tenure is not
determined by
an individual. It is not dependent on Mugabe’s
generosity.”
He added: “Its tenure is dependent on us completing the
constitutional
process, the holding of the referendum and the creating of
conditions for a
free and fair election. Therefore it is not based on
Mugabe’s generosity but
on negotiations.”
He said the government was
continuing with the discharge of governance
duties although there was
tension.
“The government is working but you can see that there is
tension,” said
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai said the World Food Programme
(WFP) regional director, Mustapha
Darboe, had assured him that the UN
organisation will continue to be a
critical partner in the fight against
hunger.
“The WFP has been in this country at the most crucial time in the
last two
years. They have been instrumental in contributing to the human
challenges
in the food sector,” said Tsvangirai.
WFP’s Darboe said
the UN organisation had a “very flexible anti-hunger
solutions that are
being put at the disposal of the vulnerable people of
Zimbabwe”.
Responding to questions on the polticisation of food aid
in Zimbabwe, Darboe
said: “WFP has a very impartial and neutral apolitical
policy that ensured
fairness in food distribution.
http://www.voanews.com
Mnangagwa,
long seen as a potential successor to President Robert Mugabe in
leadership
of the former ruling party, also chafed MDC officials by
describing the
former opposition party as a “puppet” of the West
Blessing Zulu &
Ntungamili Nkomo | Washington 02 November 2010
Zimbabwean Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's formation of the power-sharing
Movement for
Democratic Change has accused Defense Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa of
escalating tensions in the country with comments hinting that
his ZANU-PF
party might not stand down if it loses elections many expect to
be held next
year.
Mnangagwa, long seen as a potential successor to President Robert
Mugabe in
leadership of the former ruling party, also chafed MDC officials
by
describing the former opposition party as a “puppet” of the
West.
The ZANU-PF secretary for legal affairs is a prominent member of
the
so-called Joint Operations Command which in the turbulent 2008 election
period took charge of Mr. Mugabe's interests in the run-off phase in which
violence mainly directed against members of Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC formation
was widespread and often deadly.
The JOC was supposed to have been
dismantled under the terms of the 2008
Global Political Agreement for power
sharing - but it is still meeting on a
regular basis and is answerable only
to Mr. Mugabe.
Mnangagwa was quoted as saying allowing the MDC to rule
would negate the
gains of independence since 1980.
The
state-controlled, ZANU-PF leaning Herald newspaper quoted Mnangagwa as
telling a ZANU-PF rally in Chivi, Masvingo province, that “we cannot allow
[Zimbabwe] to slip back into the hands of neo-imperialists.”
Similar
remarks came in 2002 from the late army General Vitalis Zvinavashe,
who
vowed that security chiefs would not accept the results of the
presidential
election that year if MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai won it.
The MDC
reported rising tensions in Masvingo, Manicaland and Midlands
provinces in
particular, and civic groups warn that the country is not ready
for an
election as the political parties have failed to embrace national
healing.
Tsvangirai MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said Mnangagwa’s
remarks were
misguided and signaled that ZANU-PF is in the "sunset" of its
time in power.
Mnangagwa told a VOA reporter to "go to hell” before
switching off his
phone.
Political analyst Pedzisayi Ruhanya said
Mnangagwa is using scare tactics as
his party has little popular
support.
The MDC has also castigated police for allegedly applying the
law
selectively, saying such practices promote violence. The party said the
Zimbabwe Republic Police seems to favor ZANU-PF supporters, maintaining that
officers do not ordinarily arrest militants of the former ruling party if
they are involved in political violence.
Political analyst
Mqondobanzi Magonya said the security reforms outlined in
the Global
Political Agreement should be implemented to instill
professionalism in the
national police force.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Tony Saxon
Wednesday, 03 November 2010
07:21
HARARE – Small scale miners in Zimbabwe will acquire mining
equipment on
credit from a Chinese manufacturing company Zheijiang
Manufacturers, it has
been revealed.
The Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF)
Chief Executive, Wellington
Takavarasha, last week told The Zimbabwean that
the miners would receive the
equipment upon payment of the first instalment.
“Under the programme the
miners will acquire, water pumps, crushers and
generators among other things
under a loan facility. We will first assess
the capability of the miners on
the fulfilling of the terms of the purchases
before recommending them for
the scheme,” said Takavarasha.
He added that
the aim was to enhance and increase roductivity. “We have
realized that most
of the operations of these small scale miners have been
negatively affected
as they do not have the funds to purchase the requisite
equipment,” he
said. Small scale miners in Zimbabwe have failed to acquire
modern
equipment to enhance production. “We are very grateful to the ZMF for
striking such a deal to us. We have been facing lack of capital from banks
because we do not have collateral. However, it remains to be seen whether
the equipment will be stronger and very durable.
There are some
reservations about the Chinese products coming into Zimbabwe.
Some are
saying they are of poor quality and not durable, but we are going
to try
them,” said a commercial farmer,Gift Mazodze. The farmers have
expressed
grave concerns over the prohibitive taxes that the Zimbabwe
Revenue
Authority (ZIMRA) charges for importing mining equipment.
http://www.businessday.co.za
MICHAEL BLEBY
Published: 2010/11/03
11:12:09 AM
SUPERMARKET chain Pick n Pay will expand its brand name to
Zimbabwe
following the announcement yesterday that it is raising its stake
in local
grocery company TM Supermarkets to 49%.
Pick n Pay’s
long-awaited announcement sees it pay $13m to increase the 25%
stake it took
in 1996 in the grocery chain that is part of the Harare-listed
Meikles.
Under the transaction, due to be completed by March, seven
TM outlets — four
in Harare and one each in Bulawayo, Mutare and Gweru —
will be rebranded as
Pick n Pay, allowing SA’s second-largest supermarket to
follow rival brands
Shoprite and Spar north of the Limpopo.
After a
decade of contraction, and with limited improvement likely — the
International Monetary Fund expects zero growth next year and says that
without significant policy changes, growth will average just 3% to 2030 —
Zimbabwe does not offer the prospects of a resource-rich Angola or even
Zambia. But for Pick n Pay, it is an easy way to entrench its existing
position.
“You will make more in countries (such as Angola, Zambia,
Nigeria and Ghana)
than in Zimbabwe, but Zim is on our borders,” Nedbank
Securities analyst Syd
Vianello said. “It’s easy access. If you can entrench
yourself now and
quickly — because you already have a stake — then you’ve
got to go for it;
R90m ain’t a lot of money.”
The move strengthens
Pick n Pay’s position in a country where rival Shoprite
just has one store
and is reluctant to expand amid the country’s uncertain
political
situation.
Pick n Pay’s purchase of the extra stake is conditional on
regulatory
approval in Zimbabwe, but TM Supermarkets CEO Mark Vickery said
yesterday
this would not be a problem. “We did clearance by the Reserve Bank
and also
there’s going to be approval or clearance through the
Indigenisation Board.
We don’t see any stumbling blocks on either of those,”
he said.
Zimbabwe’s planned indigenisation law, which would require a 51%
local
ownership, only applies at the holding company level — in this case,
Meikles — and is not an issue for TM Supermarkets.
Mr Vickery, who
said last month that his company needs $40m to get all of TM’s
51
investment-starved supermarkets up to “world-class” standard, said Pick n
Pay’s investment will be used mainly in the conversion of seven stores to
“fully fledged” Pick n Pay stores . “That money will be earmarked for Pick n
Pay developments. Whatever is left over will be used to upgrade certain
other supermarkets,” he said.
US giant Wal-Mart’s planned acquisition
of general merchandise retailer
Massmart has also put a focus on the
expansion of retailers into Africa.
Pick n Pay, which opened its first
store in Zambia in July, has another 37
stores outside SA — 17 in Namibia,
12 in Botswana, seven in Swaziland and
one in Lesotho.
Massmart has
25 stores in the wider region, excluding the two Zimbabwean
Makro outlets.
http://www.businessday.co.za
Despite moves by three firms, Zimbabwe is not
attracting new money, writes
Michael Bleby
MICHAEL BLEBY
Published:
2010/11/03 07:19:27 AM
THERE seems to be a pattern. Pick n Pay’s
announcement to increase its stake
in Harare-based TM Supermarkets comes two
weeks after SABMiller said it had
once again started reporting the results
of its Zimbabwean associate, Delta
Corporation, in its results.
In
July, Nestlé said it was spending Sf25m to expand and upgrade its Harare
factory.
Do the moves by SA’s second- largest supermarket, the
world’s second-largest
brewer and the world’s largest food company point to
a trend?
Is Zimbabwe on the cusp of a brave new world of foreign
investment that will
help put the once- strong economy back on its feet? Not
yet, it seems.
“The people seemingly going in are the people who are
there already,” says
Syd Vianello, a retail industries analyst at Nedbank
Securities in
Johannesburg. “Give me the name of somebody moving into
Zimbabwe tomorrow to
put up a new factory from scratch. I haven’t found
anyone yet.”
That is the case with the recent investments in the country.
It is no great
burden for Pick n Pay, which in the year to August made a
pre- tax profit of
R682m.
“With the additional capital available, we
believe there is significant
upside potential in the TM operation ,” CEO
Nick Badminton says.
SABMiller’s decision does not require extra
expenditure, nor is it
significant to the company’s overall performance. In
a trading update last
month, the company said its 36% stake in diversified
industrial company
Delta contributed 0,3- million hectolitres of lager in
the six months to
September. In the year to March, SABMiller produced 213-
million
hectolitres.
Nestlé’s investment in the country was part of a
larger Sf150m investment
spread across the equatorial African region. The
investment also came after
the Swiss company said last year it would stop
sourcing milk from Gushungo
Dairy Estate, a farm that had been unlawfully
seized from its previous
owners and had become the property of Grace Mugabe,
President Robert Mugabe’s
wife.
The Zimbabwean economy has been
stabilised by the introduction of the US
dollar as a currency, and is a more
inviting prospect to investors — both
foreign and local — in the consumer
and retail industries. Spar , a grocery
chain managed in Zimbabwe by
Harare-listed Innscor Africa, has 64 outlets
and plans to open four more
this year.
Some companies are also — surprisingly, perhaps — making money
there. In the
15 months to March, sugar producer Tongaat-Hulett reported a
R576m profit
from its Zimbabwean operations. It is reinvesting the money in
the
operations, CEO Peter Staude says.
Still, the economy faces
serious constraints on growth. There is little
money around to invest. Bank
deposits tripled from about 400m in the first
quarter of last year to about
1,3bn in the fourth quarter, but many people
remain wary of banks. Between
January last year and March this year the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
helped itself — as the IMF says, in its
latest article IV consultation
report, “without appropriate oversight” — to
80m of private banks’ reserves
to fund its own operations and repay selected
creditors.
Much of the
money stored in banks is on call , so banks have little scope to
lend
longer-term .
“The best locals can get is six months. You cannot run a
business based on
that,” says Ndodana Mguquka, MD of Harare-based brokerage
New Africa
Securities and chairman of the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange.
Nor are all foreign investors expanding. Massmart , a general
retailer from
SA, is in talks to sell its two Makro stores to local retailer
OK Zimbabwe,
on the grounds they are not attractive enough to
keep.
There is another consideration. Zimbabwe’s planned indigenisation
law,
requiring locals to have a 51% stake in any company, is putting many
off. An
executive at another consumer-industry group says uncertainty over
the new
legislation stops firms investing more in their Zimbabwean
operations.
“It’s a huge deterrent to foreign direct investment. We’re
operating fairly
freely. There is reasonable freedom of the press and
reasonable personal
freedoms. But this (indigenisation) issue, we don’t know
which way it will
go.”
blebym@bdfm.co.za
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Wednesday 03 November
2010
JOHANNESBURG – A conference of civil society groups last week
has unsettled
South Africa’s ruling ANC party, scared that the meeting could
mark the
beginning of moves to form a new labour-based party in the style of
neighbouring Zimbabwe’s MDC party.
The powerful Congress of South
African Trade Unions (COSATU), which is part
of the country’s tripartite
ruling alliance led by the ANC, convened the
civil society
meeting.
But the ANC was not invited and so wasn’t the South African
Communist Party
(SACP), the third member of the ruling alliance.
The
South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) and the official
opposition Democratic Alliance party were also not invited, giving rise to
speculation that the conference that was also attended by Treatment Action
Campaign – a civil society group with uneasy relations with the ruling
party – was an attempt to pitch the organisers as an alternative centre to
the ANC-led governing alliance.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday
following a Monday meeting of top party
leaders to discuss the COSATU
conference, ANC secretary general Gwede
Mantashe labeled the civil society
meeting as “oppositionist” in character.
"We noted that the ANC, the SACP
and SANCO were not invited, positioning the
conference as an alternative
block to the (tripartite) alliance,” Mantashe
said.
He rejected
explanations by conference organisers that inviting the ANC
would have
opened floodgates for other political parties to demand to be
also invited
as an argument always used by “reactionary forces”.
The MDC was in 1999
born out of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions with
the union’s then
secretary general Morgan Tsvangirai emerging as the leader
of the opposition
party that nearly toppled President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU
PF in elections the
following year.
The MDC, which has since split into two parties, has over
the past decade
fought a bitter struggle for power with ZANU PF, finally
defeating Mugabe’s
party in parliamentary elections in 2008 but could not
take power because
Tsvangirai’s margin of victory in a parallel presidential
ballot was not
enough to allow him to takeover the presidency.
The
MDC and ZANU PF are now partners in a power-sharing government with
Mugabe
as President while Tsvangirai is Prime Minister.
Mantashe insisted the
ANC was not in panic mode but hinted that the ruling
party views the
conference as an attempt to remove it from power, adding
that those who
helped fund the ANC’s anti-apartheid struggle were the ones
lining up to
fund any new effort to outs the party from power.
He said: "The funding
of divisions of liberation forces is funded by those
who supported them
originally. This funding is normally directed to organs
of civil society
with an aim of forming opposition parties."
The ANC has called an urgent
meeting with COSATU to discuss the union’s role
in the
conference.
But COSATU secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi yesterday
insisted the union
was not contemplating launching a workers’ party to
oppose the ANC
government and accused Mantashe and other top ANC leaders of
acting out of
paranoia.
"I honestly don't know what informs this
paranoia on the part of the
leadership. COSATU went with the overwhelming
majority of the people who
participated, very clear that we are not going
there to form a workers'
party or a new left-wing party or whatever," Vavi
told South Africa’s SABC
national broadcaster.
"Reading the statement
of the ANC, I must say it's rather shocking,
inconsistent, incoherent (and)
reflective of something that is not anywhere
close to what COSATU's
intentions were in convening the civil society
conference," he said. –
ZimOnline
November 3rd, 2010
This is the first in a series of short audio blogs. In this, our blogger shares his views on the way forward for the former political opposition parties, especially after the experiences of the constitution outreach.
We are a company with a long track record for award winning documentaries.
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