http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Correspondent Friday 05 November
2010
JERUSALEM – The Kimberley Process KP) has failed to reach
agreement on
whether to allow Zimbabwe to export more diamonds from its
controversial
Marange deposits, but Harare immediately said it would resume
selling the
gems “without any conditions”.
"An agreement has not yet
been finalised," KP chairman Boaz Hirsch told
journalist after a four-day
meeting of the world diamond industry regulator
ended in Jerusalem on
Thursday.
Hirsch said. “There are a small number of countries that are
still in
consultation with their capitals. We had deadlines and the plenary
has
ended, but we do hope to reach a consensus in the coming days …. we are
still working with Zimbabwe and other countries.”
But a defiant
Zimbabwe Mines Minister Obert Mpofu disagreed, telling
reporters that the
southern African country would immediately resume exports
of diamonds from
the Marange fields.
Mpofu said Zimbabwe would not be held hostage to the
West who have looted
its diamonds for too long.
"These are our
God-given resources and we will do with them what we feel is
best for our
people,” Mpofu said. "Zimbabwe will sell diamonds without any
conditions.
There is no opposition to that."
The KP temporarily lifted a ban on
Marange diamond exports in July after its
Zimbabwe monitor Abbey Chikane
said Harare had met all conditions set by the
regulator.
Under a
consensus agreement reached by the KP and Zimbabwe during the World
Diamond
Council (WDC) meeting in Russia three months ago, Harare was allowed
to
conduct two supervised auctions of rough diamonds from Marange.
The move
saw about 1.5 million carats of stockpiled Marange diamonds going
under the
hammer in August and September.
It was not immediately clear what action
the KP would take should Zimbabwe
carry out its threat to sell diamonds
outside the KP system, with Hirsch
only saying that it was up to individual
member countries to uphold the
group’s principles should Zimbabwe begin
exports before an agreement is
reached.
WDC president Eli Izhakoff
also declined to speculate what action the
organisation that represents the
diamond industry would take should Zimbabwe
begin exports before a decision
is made.
Izhakoff said the WDC’s position has always been “an inclusive
one” rather
than advocating expulsion or the possibility of allowing
diamonds to
penetrate the market outside the KP system. – ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Sebastian Nyamhangambiri Friday 05 November
2010
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s elections chief Simpson Mutambanengwe on
Thursday said
without an immediate injection of funds his commission will
not be able to
carry out reforms key to ensuring that polls expected next
year are
credible.
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai have said
elections to choose a new government to replace their
uncomfortable
coalition must take place next year once an exercise to write
a new
constitution is completed.
But Mutambanengwe said the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) could only be
able to carry out elections next
year if the government urgently provided it
with funds to fix a voters’
roll that is in shambles and for other work
that must be done to ensure the
conduct and outcome of the vote is
acceptable to all parties.
"If the
funds are made immediately available for us to carry out preliminary
operations then we will be ready to carry on elections," said Mutambanengwe,
a former Harare High Court judge brought in to head the ZEC as part of
reforms meant to ensure elections in the country are free and
fair.
Mutambanengwe, who was serving on the Nambian bench after leaving
the Harare
High Court, said he wants a voters’ roll that "is acceptable and
that
satisfies all stakeholders.”
Critics say the present voters’
register is outdated with thousands of dead
people still appearing on the
voter’s register and have accused Mugabe and
his ZANU-PF party of benefiting
from the shambles.
In what seemed a veiled warning that he will not be
railroaded by political
leaders into conducting an election without proper
preparations, the former
judge said: "I know politicians have been talking
about it, saying there is
going to be elections next year.
“But the
point is whether (conditions are conducive) to enable us to carry
out are
our mandate according to the precepts can only be determined by
ZEC."
Zimbabwe’s elections have in the past been blighted by violence
and charges
of vote rigging, which saw the European Union and United States
slapping
sanctions on Mugabe and senior members of ZANU-PF.
The
country's most recent election in 2008 ended in stalemate after
Tsvangirai
defeated Mugabe for the first time but election officials
withheld results
for five weeks, only to call for a run-off vote, which was
marred by
violence and boycotted by Tsvangirai citing deaths among his
supporters at
the hands of ZANU-PF.
Mugabe was elected unopposed but the veteran
President’s blood-soaked
victory was rejected by the international community
including some of his
African allies forcing him to agree to form a
power-sharing government with
Tsvangirai. – ZimOnline.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance
Guma
05 November 2010
As the country once again plunges into election
mode ZANU PF youths in
Bikita severely assaulted four teachers who had dared
to suggest during a
discussion that the country was not ready for elections
next year. A report
by the Daily News website says three of the teachers are
battling for their
lives at Silveira Mission hospital. A nurse at the
hospital has also
confirmed the admissions.
During a discussion in a
local pub the four teachers are said to have argued
against the holding of
elections next year, citing rampant political
violence. It is the tragic
irony of the incident that their point was later
confirmed by the intolerant
attitude of the ZANU PF youths who went on to
beat them
up.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Masvingo provincial
Co-coordinator,
Munyaradzi Chauke, told the Daily News that Charles Gono,
Ephraim Huyo and
Douglas Muchato were battling for their lives in hospital
while Andrew
Mutuzu, who escaped, reported the incident at their office
after he fled
Chizondo secondary school where he worked with his
colleagues.
“Violence against teachers in the rural areas is still
widespread especially
when it comes to issues that have something to do with
politics. Our members
were beaten up for contributing their views during a
debate at a bottle
store. They were assaulted because their views differed
with that of the
ZANU PF leader Mugabe on the timing of elections. This is
not fair and we
cannot continue to be treated as punching bags by ZANU PF
members,’ Chauke
told the Daily News.
A war vet in the area, calling
himself Comrade Lenin, is reported to have
bragged that ZANU PF would
unleash violence on their opponents. ‘We have
since set up our war machinery
since we are already in election mood since
the day our president announced
that there will be polls next year and
campaigning is already under way. As
for those who oppose our party, like
these teachers, I feel pity for them
because we were ordered to deal with
them,’ the website quoted him as
saying.
Herald, Friday, November 05, 2010
By Peter Matambanadzo
LOCAL Government, Rural and Urban
Development Minister Ignatius
Chombo is embroiled in an acrimonious
property-sharing wrangle with
his wife, Marian, from whom he has been
separated for the past three
years.
The protracted divorce and
property sharing dispute is now before the
High Court.
The estranged
couple agreed to divorce, but failed to reach a
settlement on the sharing of
vast properties spread countrywide
despite several pre-trial conferences held
to try to resolve the
matter without going to trial.
On Wednesday,
Judge President Justice George Chiweshe referred the
contentious issues to
trial after another attempt to resolve the
matter hit a brick
wall.
During the civil trial, the court will seek to come up with a
formula
on how to share the matrimonial property.
The court will hear
evidence regarding contributions made by each of
the parties in acquiring the
properties.
The court will look at money invested as well as generation
of ideas.
The hearing date is yet to be set.
Mr Wilson Manase of
Manase and Manase is acting for Minister Chombo
while Mr Motsi Sinyoro of
Sinyoro and Partners is representing Mrs
Marian Chombo (nee
Muhloyi).
The two separated in 2007 and Minister Chombo wants a divorce,
citing
irreconcilable differences.
"The marriage between the two
parties is irretrievably broken down to
an extent that the two are not
reconcilable and no prospects for . .
. restoration of a normal marriage
relationship," stated the minister
in his declaration filed with the
court.
He says the two have not lived together as husband and wife for
at
least 24 months and there is no more love or affection.
Minister
Chombo has pledged to look after their two children, born in
1986 and
1989.
"He will take care of his two children's educational
requi-rements,
including air fares once a year to and from school, tuition
and
ancillary expenses," he said.
Minister Chombo says during the
subsistence of the marriage they
acquired property like furniture, utensils
and electronic equipment.
He wants the couple's two houses in Alexandra
Park and Greendale
awarded to his wife.
The minister also proposes
that all movable property at their Allan
Grange Farm go to Mrs Chombo on
condition that farming equipment
which is not on loan or not yet fully-paid
for is valuated and shared.
He also wants to be granted the first offer
to buy the equipment.
Minister Chombo, however, is not agreeable to
paying his estranged
wife the US$2 000 monthly maintenance she is claiming,
arguing that
she can earn a living from the properties and businesses he
wants to
cede to her.
Mrs Chombo, in her summary of evidence, claims
she was customarily
married to the minister in the United States in
1985.
In 1993 she said they renewed their vows and remarried under
the
Marriages Act (Chapter 5:11).
"Defendant (Mrs Chombo) will testify
that the relationship became
strained when plaintiff (Minister Chombo) left
matrimonial home
saying that he wanted to sort out some personal issues and
promised
to come back home," Mrs Chombo says.
She says since then the
marriage has been strained but there are
prospects for restoration of normal
marriage.
Given a chance to reflect on the matter without undue
influence, Mrs
Chombo feels the marriage can be successfully
resuscitated.
On the matrimonial assets, Mrs Chombo says she signed a
post-nuptial
agreement stating that they will share 50 percent of all
properties
acquired - whether held personally or in proxy - during
the
subsistence of their marriage.
She averred that on top of fixed
assets including a borehole,
generator, coldroom, it will be just for
Minister Chombo to pay a
monthly maintenance of US$2 000 until her death or
re-marriage.
She also wants the court to award her 15 of the family
vehicles that
include:
- 4 Toyota Land Cruisers
- 3 Mercedes
Benzes
- Mahindra
- 2 Nissan Wolfs,
- 1 Toyota Vigo,
- 1 Mazda
BT-50,
- 1 Bus
- 1 Nissan Hardbody
- 1 Toyota Hilux
Mrs Chombo
is also claiming other properties that include:
- 2 Glen View houses
- 2
flats in Queensdale,
- A property in Katanga Township,
- Stand Number 1037
Mount Pleasant Heights
- 4 Norton business stands
- 3 Chinhoyi business
stands,
- 4 Banket business stands,
- 1 commercial stand in Epworth,
-
2 residential stands in Chirundu
- 4 commercial stands in Kariba
- 1 stand
in Ruwa
- 1 stand in Chinhoyi,
- 2 stands in Mutare
- 2 stands in
Binga.
- 4 stands in Victoria Falls
- 1 stand in Zvimba Rural
-
Chitungwiza (two residential and two commercial stands)
- Beitbridge (four
stands),
- 20 stands in Crow Hill, Borrowdale
- 10 stands in Glen
Lorne,
- 2 flats at Eastview Gardens (B319 and B320)
- 1 flat at San
Sebastian Flats in the Avenues, Harare
- Number 79 West Road, Avondale.
-
Greendale house
- Number 36 Cleveland Road, Milton Park
- Number 135 Port
Road, Norton,
- 2 Bulawayo houses.
- Number 18 Cuba Rd, Mount
Pleasant
- Number 45 Basset Crescent, Alexandra Park,
- 2 Chegutu
houses
- 1 Glen Lorne house (Harare)
- 2 houses (Victoria Falls).
-
Stand along Simon Mazorodze Road,
- Norton (one stand)
- Avondale (two
stands)
- 365 Beverly House (one stand)
- Bulawayo (three stands),
-
Mica Point Kariba (one stand).
She further wants the court to share
farming equipment at New Allan
Grange Farm including three tractors, two new
combine harvesters, two
boom sprayers and two engines.
She is also
seeking an order compelling Minister Chombo to cede to
her shares in the
family's 10 companies including Dickest, Hamdinger,
Landberry and Track in
Security Company.
Mrs Chombo, in her court papers, is also claiming
cattle at Darton
Farm, shared chicken runs, pigsties, a shop, grinding mill,
house,
mills, tractors, lorries, six trucks, five of which are
non-runners,
four trailers (three non-runners) and one truck.
She
added that other interests were the Mvurwi Mine, hunting safari
lodges in
Chiredzi, Hwange, Magunje and Chirundu as well as
properties in South Africa.
Friday 05 November 2010
The published part of the vast personal
asset register of Ignatius Chiminya Chombo ,a close ally of Robert Mugabe, a
senior Zanu PF politburo member and a Cabinet minister, arising from his
marriage dispute before the High Court, clearly points to his unsuitability for
public office. The salary and benefits of Cabinet ministers are a matter of
public record. There is no way a single, honest person in high office could have
managed to acquire such treasure, other than through abuse of office.
It
is without doubt that Chombo, a former teacher, neither inherited the wealth nor
ever owned a business empire to justify personal ownership of such a sickening
amount of wealth. Before his appointment to government, slightly more than a
decade ago, Chombo’s claim to property was a smallholding in the former African
purchase area of Chitomborwizi near Chinhoyi. In the absence of an explanation
of how he managed to acquire such an obscene array of properties from Chirundu
to Chiredzi; from Victoria Falls to Mutare; a fleet of top of the range vehicles
and commercial trucks; 10 companies; commercial farms; mines and safari lodges,
Chombo must simply be relieved of his official duties and called to account as
he is clearly unfit for public office.
Mugabe seems to shield Chombo.
After the Harare City Council reported him to the police in April 2010 for his
involvement in shady deals in the city, involving an irregular acquisition of
more than 20 hectares of prime land in the plush suburb of Helensvale, the
police ignored the complaint and never mounted a criminal
investigation.
The MDC understands that Chombo’s assets are merely a tip
of the iceberg, compared to the collective loot that the entire top Zanu PF
leadership holds as personal and family estates. There are numerous reports of
other senior leaders owning literally whole towns, like Rusape and Victoria
Falls. That Chombo has been able to acquire such booty in such a short period of
time makes nonsense claims by Mugabe and Zanu PF that travel restrictions on
their senior party leadership are the prime cause of Zimbabwe’s slide into an
economic abyss.
The MDC has been vindicated by the latest expose inside
Zanu PF. The party has always maintained that Zanu PF politicians often raid
state coffers and national assets for personal use. It is now clear from the
latest case that the collapse of Zimbabwe was authored and promoted by Zanu PF
through unbridled asset-stripping, corruption, violence and dictatorship, as
evidenced by the revelations emanating from the domestic tiff between Chombo and
his ex-wife, Marian, which is now spilling out into the public domain. Under an
MDC government, no public official can get away with such greed and avarice.
Inside the MDC family, our leaders have signed a code of ethics and values; and
have declared their private property and assets for public scrutiny.
On
a national scale, the MDC calls for a comprehensive inquiry into the private
interests of all senior Zanu PF leaders and senior public officials, from any
other sections of our society, to ascertain the impact of the looting that has
taken place in Zimbabwe during the past 30 years. Only through a judicial
commission of inquiry can Zimbabweans, in the public interest, be able to know
fully the plunderers of their national heritage and finite
resources.
Together, united, winning, ready for real
change!!
--
MDC Information & Publicity
Department
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Guthrie Munyuki
Friday, 05
November 2010 10:05
HARARE - Zanu PF has laughed off claims by Norman
Mabhena, the young brother
of the late national hero, Welshman, who has
relocated his family to a safe
house citing “increasing” attempts at his
life by members of the
revolutionary party.
Welshman Mabhena died
in Bulawayo last month after a long struggle with
diabetes and high blood
pressure.
Rugare Gumbo, Zanu PF spokesman, said Norman Mabhena was
seeking attention
but was irrelevant to their ethos and would not cause them
sleepless nights.
“This is downright nonsense. There are many people who
have opposed Zanu PF
but are still walking on the streets. Why would we
want to eliminate him
when we honoured his brother and our comrade, Welshman
Mabhena, whom we
conferred with a national hero status?
“It’s not
about physical elimination of people but elimination of ideas. As
far as we
are concerned, Norman is not part of us, will never be with us and
we will
also never be with him as our ideas and his are different,” Gumbo
told the
Daily News.
Mabhena has said the pressure on his life and family has been
increasing and
fears that Zanu PF henchmen are out to eliminate him in
revenge of the snub
the Mabhena family delivered to President Robert Mugabe
when it refused to
have the late nationalist buried at the national shrine
in Harare.
Norman Mabhena and his family were fiercely opposed to have
Welshman buried
at the Heroes Acre despite the Zanu PF Politburo declaring
him a national
hero.
The snub was seen as a kick in the teeth for
Mugabe and Zanu PF who
desparately tried to have the family change their
decision which eventually
stuck as the former ZAPU strongman was buried at
Lady Stanley cemetery in
Bulawayo.
Mabhena has claimed that the
threats on his life have increased after being
trailed by unknown people
whom he claimed attempted to sweep him off a
bridge in Bulawayo on October
29.
He said his family had been moved to a safe house following the
incident.
“I thought that the first time we received the death threats,
it was going
to be a once-off issue, however, my family is no longer safe as
we have
continued to receive threats and I have moved my family to another
location,
which I cannot obviously disclose,” Mabhena told a local daily
paper of the
latest incident.
Inexplicably, Mabhena, who is the
national executive committee member of the
main faction of the MDC, has not
reported the threats to the police.
“We need co-operation from Mr
Mabhena. In such situations, we expect a
person to report to the police so
that we take necessary action. It’s not
about a political party, it’s about
the security of an individual,” police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told the
Daily News.
The MDC issued a statement pleading with the law enforcement
agents to take
action against what it said were dark forces in Zanu
PF.
“The MDC condemns attempts by Zanu PF to eliminate one of our top
leaders in
the party, Norman Mabhena. The MDC, the Mabhena family and the
nation will
hold Zanu PF responsible if anything happens to Norman Mabhena
or any of his
family members.
“Zanu PF should leave the Mabhena
family alone as they mourn the life of a
celebrated revolutionary, who
fought for the liberation of this country and
stood up against Zanu PF’s
corruption, the traits the MDC is fighting for to
deliver real change to the
people,” said the statement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Octogenarian becomes star of hip-hop videos
calculated to appeal to young
voters ahead of possible elections next
year
* David Smith, Africa correspondent
* guardian.co.uk,
Friday 5 November 2010 16.28 GMT
From William Hague's
baseball cap to Gordon Brown's iPod, politicians'
attempts to woo the young
have often invited ridicule.
Now Robert Mugabe may have outdone them all.
Africa's oldest leader, 86, is
the improbable star of music videos in which
he chats with a teenage rapper,
uses urban slang and mocks "old white folks'
behinds".
Even his fiercest supporters would be hard pushed to describe
him as the
epitome of cool. But the radical makeover seems calculated to
appeal to
young voters in possible elections next year. In the past this
task has
generally been left to his notoriously brutal Zanu-PF youth
militia.
One of the videos, Diaspora, combines an old Mugabe speech
berating
Zimbabwean exiles with a pulsing dance beat. The president can be
heard
saying in the shona language: "You run off to England, you get there
and you
get a job cleaning old white folks' behinds. Who are you running
to?"
In another, shown frequently on state television, he sits in his
office,
picks up a mobile phone and asks a young singer, "Zvirisei-sei?",
which
translated means "Wassup?"
Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper, the
Herald, said the songs are from an
album, Get Connected, by a group called
The Born Free Crew. "Some of the
songs on the album pay tribute to President
Mugabe for advocating the total
emancipation of not only Zimbabwe but also
the continent at large," it
added.
"The album opens with the track
Network, about the need for people to stay
connected with their country as
well as the leadership, with President
Mugabe at the helm."
The paper
said a copy of the album was recently presented to the
president.
Jonathan Moyo, a Zanu-PF MP formerly known as Mugabe's spin
doctor, said the
videos had been created by young musicians rather than
Mugabe himself but he
assumed they have the president's blessing.
"He
has not made this video, they are by young musicians," he said. "These
young
musicians have decided to put across a message with the assistance of
president Mugabe's speeches from the archives and footage from the archives.
It's not like he spent three days shooting them."
But Moyo admitted
he did not know whether Mugabe had recorded the line
Zvirisei-sei, or been
subjected to artful editing.
He added: "I can't imagine president Mugabe
would disapprove because there
is nothing offensive about them. He must be
charmed by the realisation that
young people reached out to
him.
"Normally you'd expect young people to stay away, as he's been
presented by
his opponents as too old, out of touch and a political
dinosaur. This shows
the opposite reality. It's not him trying to
incorporate young people into
his message; it's young people incorporating
him into his message."
Heidi Holland, author of the biography Dinner with
Mugabe, said she would
not be surprised if the 30-year ruler had a hand in
the videos.
"Mugabe will stop at nothing to win because that's the core
of his
personality," she said. "He will adopt whatever persona is required.
During
an election he does put on all the populist stuff. It's just rather
strange
for an octogenarian to be donning shades and using hip-hop
language."
The videos are not Mugabe's only populist ploy ahead of his
desired
electoral contest with the Movement for Democratic Change next year.
He
recently handed a cheque for $300,000 to the Zimbabwean runner-up of the
TV
reality show Big Brother Africa All Stars. It seemed to work as that
runner-up, Munyaradzi Chidzonga, has agreed to campaign for the
president.
In the past Mugabe has also flooded state radio with
pro-Zanu-PF jingles.
South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper noted
today: "His handlers have
tried to make him look cool before. In 2008 they
invoked Tupac, using lyrics
from the Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z album, to
send the message to voters that
their troubles were only
temporary.
"Using Tupac's lyrics from the song Keep Ya Head Up, one
banner declared:
'Through every dark night, there's a bright day after that.
So no matter how
hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep ya head
up.'"
But young Zimbabweans may take more convincing. One 27-year-old,
who did not
wish to be named, said: "I can imagine going out in Harare or a
rural area
and seeing people dancing, but because it's catchy, not because
they're
going to vote."
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Staff Reporter
Friday, 05
November 2010 16:13
HARARE - The secretary general of the smaller
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party, Welshman Ncube has a strong
message for his colleagues in the
larger MDC party led by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai.
“Why would some people think they will agree with
Mugabe on a big thing like
elections when they can’t agree on small things
like the appointment of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor?” asked
Ncube as he threw a veiled
attack to his colleagues in the MDC who have
taken a position that the
country’s political woes would only be solved by
an early election.
“If you can’t agree on simple appointments what makes
you think you can
agree on something like a United Nations observer mission
for elections?”
Ncube said this while speaking at a broadcasting media
conference hosted by
the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in Harare
on Friday.
He said the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which he
negotiated together
with representatives of Tsvangirai’s party and Zanu PF
representatives was a
peace document.
“The GPA was a peace agreement,
Zimbabwe was literally at war but when the
peace collapses do you say let’s
go back to war and fight or you go back to
the peace agreement to see what
went wrong and how it can be solved ?” said
Ncube.
Ncube even called
his colleagues in the larger MDC party to look at things
in a more sober
view.
“Any election called by Mugabe in anger cannot be anything other
than a Zanu
PF victory. It will take us back to June 2008,” said Ncube who
said the
country’s reform agenda has not been completed and any call for an
election
will be an exercise in futility because no persuasion has been made
on
Mugabe to reform the country’s electoral laws.
He even said no one
was guaranteed an electoral victory.
Ncube’s view of suspending an
election has been interpreted as a fear of the
plebiscite because of his
party’s failure to command popular support.
But he said Mugabe and Tsvangirai
suffer from what he called the “Cow Dung
Effect.”
“We are slowly
retreating as political parties to our electoral mode
trenches and the
moment we are in those trenches it is unlikely that we are
going to have
those reforms which is why some of us think it was a mistake
to start
talking about elections,” said Ncube.
“The difficulty is that we have
political gladiators understandably who are
more preoccupied with proving to
the nation who has less fear for the
elections than the other. They have all
this macho-mentality when all
objective indicators show that it’s not in the
national interest to talk
about election or even talk about it when you have
not even completed the
constitution making process.”
Mugabe and
Tsvangirai seem to have agreed that the country should go for an
election
next year after which a new government will be formed.
Mugabe has
indicated that he will not want to extend the lifespan of the GPA
whose term
is supposed to run until the end of February 2011.
But on Thursday the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) made it clear that
it had no money to
run the poll. Among some of the things that it will need
to do is to
overhaul the country’s voters roll which is in shambles. This it
says will
take several months to complete.
The country’s broadcast media which is
currently monopolised by the state
owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC) will need to be opened up to
ensure equal representation of the
divergent political voices
http://www.voanews.com
Darren Taylor |
Johannesburg, South Africa 05 November 2010
If the Zimbabwe government
cannot deliver passports, where do all these
people with passports get
them?
Under new South African government regulations, Zimbabweans living
in Africa’s
strongest economy must apply for new four-year residence permits
by December
31. Those the authorities find to be working, studying or owning
businesses
in South Africa – and the few with refugee status – will be
allowed to stay.
The rest could be deported, says Jackie McKay, South
Africa’s immigration
chief.
Zimbabweans have been streaming into
South Africa for the past decade
because of political violence and poverty
in their homeland. The
International Organization for Migration says there
are up to two million
living illegally in South Africa.
Migrants
without valid Zimbabwean passports are barred from applying for the
new
residence documents. Monitors of South Africa’s revised immigration
policy
say this requirement puts many Zimbabweans currently living in South
Africa
in grave danger of being deported beginning early next year. They
question
the Zimbabwean authorities’ ability to deliver all the travel
documents
needed by immigrants before the year-end deadline for permit
applications.
South African and Zimbabwean government officials say
the “vast majority” of
Zimbabweans in South Africa already have passports.
But observers – such as
human rights activists, immigration analysts and
groups representing
migrants – say exactly the opposite.
“The 31st
December deadline is unrealistic. The major problem with that
deadline is
that there are thousands of Zimbabweans who do not have
passports,” says
Gabriel Shumba, a lawyer and director of the Zimbabwe
Exiles
Forum.
Tara Polzer, from Wits University’s Forced Migration Studies
Program, agrees
with Shumba, commenting, “That is one of the biggest hurdles
for this whole
process. It’s actually quite concerning if the institutions
involved are
going into it without recognizing that as a real
hurdle.”
Braam Hanekom, who manages an NGO that advocates for immigrant
rights, says,
“Only about ten percent of Zimbabweans here have passports.
Those that have
them tend to be among the more privileged of the immigrants
– those from the
urban areas and those who have access to [money] to afford
the passports.”
But McKay insists that “most” Zimbabweans in South Africa
do indeed have
passports – despite the fact that hordes of Zimbabweans from
all over South
Africa have been besieging their consulate in central
Johannesburg for more
than a month, desperate for the travel documents.
Queues have been so long
and service so slow, that passport seekers have
been sleeping on pavements
below the building for days on end.
As a
reason for McKay’s view that most Zimbabweans in South Africa have
passports, Polzer says the South African government appears to be relying
“solely” on information it’s been given by its Zimbabwean
counterpart.
“The Zimbabwean authorities obviously have an interest in
making everything
appear as smooth as possible. But I think there’s plenty
of evidence that
South Africa’s Home Affairs Department can draw on to show
that the vast
majority of Zimbabweans in South Africa definitely do not hold
passports,”
she says.
But Zimbabwe’s consul general in South Africa,
Chris Mapanga, describes such
statements as “malicious.” He asks, “If the
Zimbabwe government cannot
deliver passports, where do all these people with
passports get them? All
those people who are now applying for these new
permits at (South African)
Home Affairs offices, where did they get their
passports if the Zimbabwe
government cannot deliver passports?”
But
Elinor Sisulu, a Zimbabwean academic of international renown who once
worked
for her country’s government, responds that Zimbabwe’s passport
application
process is “dysfunctional at best. Even in Harare, there’s
administrative
chaos.… There are huge problems in getting passports in
Zimbabwe. It’s very,
very difficult to get a Zimbabwean passport.”
Mapanga scoffs at her
comments, saying, “Hey, these NGO people. They make
things up. They lie. The
fact is that Zimbabwe has a very efficient
(passport) system.”
But
Austin Moyo, chairman of the South African branch the Movement for
Democratic Change, one of the parties in Zimbabwe’s unity government,
maintains that most Zimbabweans in South Africa don’t have passports “for a
very simple reason.”
“Most of them came (to South Africa) through
(illegal) border jumping and
they did not have any documents,” he
says.
McKay responds that Moyo is “wrong.”
“Most Zimbabweans come
into the country legally. The statistics and the
facts from our movement
control system at Beit Bridge (border post) show
that. And our system shows
that they have passports,” he says.
NGOs, immigration experts and groups
representing Zimbabweans expressed
surprised at McKay’s statements. “The
whole world accepts that only a
fraction of migrants are in South Africa
legally. There are loads of expert
international studies that show that.
(McKay’s) kind of denialist (sic)
stance is shocking,” says
Shumba.
But the immigration chief continued, “Even at our refugee
reception centers,
Zimbabweans that are applying for refugee status or
asylum status, most of
them have indicated that they do indeed have
Zimbabwean passports.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
05 November, 2010
Several reports have appeared recently
in independent newspapers, regarding
the ongoing battle for succession
within ZANU PF. Some have included
interviews with top officials and include
information that only trusted
insiders would have access to. This has
intensified the debate over the
alleged infiltration of independent papers
by Mugabe’s party and put some
journalists on the suspect list.
The
most recent report to raise questions appeared this week in The
Independent
newspaper and was headlined “Mnangagwa takes lead in Mugabe
succession
race”. The piece was written by Faith Zaba, who has a history of
writing
controversial political reports, some of which have been strongly
refuted by
the MDC and described by them as “a figment of her imagination”.
In fact the
MDC threatened to sue The Independent over one report in which
Zaba claimed
that three MDC ministers were being investigated for
corruption.
This
week she said Mnangagwa’s hopes of succeeding Mugabe had been gloomy,
after
the Mujuru faction won key party positions in the Women’s and Youth
Leagues
and held most posts in the politburo. But that had all changed as
“Top Zanu
PF officials are now convinced that Mnangagwa is being groomed to
take over
when Mugabe retires after the next elections”.
The ‘evidence’ used for
this conclusion was the fact that her sources said
Mnangagwa “is the only
Defence Minister that drives around in a
mini-motorcade. Former Defence
Ministers Sydney Sekeramayi, and the late
Moven Mahachi never had that
privilege”.
Zaba also claims that there is talk that Mnangagwa is using
the presidential
helicopter. She quotes Mnangagwa dismissing this on
Wednesday, saying he
uses an army helicopter to travel outside Harare, which
has similar colours
to the one used by the president.
Some observers
believe the report was planted by Jonathan Moyo, a very close
friend to
Mnangagwa. The link between Moyo and Zaba is not clear but there
are rumors
that suggest a very close friendship between the two.
It is Moyo who was
named the ringleader in the failed Tsholotsho coup plot
in 2004 when
Mnangagwa’s allies gathered to draw up a plan to secure his
position as vice
president. The plan backfired and led to many being
punished by Mugabe. But
Moyo and Mnangagwa survived.
As the Zimbabwe crisis gets more complex and
as in-fighting within political
parties intensifies, it is the long
suffering Zimbabwean people who have to
try and find the truth in reports
carried in the media. And it is the long
suffering, truly independent
journalists, who also have to continue to
battle to find the truth.
http://in.reuters.com
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED
NATIONS | Fri Nov 5, 2010 12:01am IST
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Oil-rich
Norway remains the best country in the
world to live in, while Zimbabwe,
afflicted by economic crisis and AIDS, is
the least desirable, according to
an annual U.N. rating released on
Thursday.
The assessment came in a
so-called human development index, a measure of
well-being published by the
U.N. Development Program for the past 20 years
that combines individual
economic prosperity with education levels and life
expectancy.
The
UNDP placed Norway, Australia and New Zealand at the top and Niger --
last
year's back-marker -- the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe
at
the bottom, as Western countries again led the list while sub-Saharan
African nations trailed.
Japan headed the field in life expectancy,
at 83.6 years, with Afghanistan
last at little more than half of that --
44.6 years. The tiny Alpine state
of Liechtenstein had by far the highest
per capita annual income -- $81,011,
460 times higher than last-placed
Zimbabwe on $176.
Overall, the index contained some significant changes
near the top compared
with last year, with the United States rising to
fourth from 13th and
Iceland -- hard hit by the global financial crisis --
plummeting to 17th
from third.
But UNDP officials said the figures
were not fully comparable due to changes
in calculation methods this
year.
Per capita gross national income, which includes aid and
remittances, has
been used instead of gross domestic product, while in
education literacy
levels have been replaced by average years of
schooling.
Due to difficulties in obtaining the required figures from
some countries,
only 169 of the 192 U.N. member states were graded.
Absentees included North
Korea.
LONG-TERM TRENDS
Instead of
year-on-year shifts, this year's report focused on what it said
were upward
long-term trends, assessing developments in 135 countries since
1970.
"The overall message is actually quite positive," Jeni Klugman,
lead author
of the report, told journalists. "What we find is that the world
is much
better off than it was," including a doubling of incomes in real
terms over
40 years.
The report says only three countries have a
lower human development index
than in 1970 -- Congo, torn by conflict since
the 1990s, Zambia, hit by
falls in the price of copper, its main export, and
Zimbabwe, where inflation
reached 500 billion percent two years
ago.
According to UNDP, the country to have made the most progress in the
past
four decades is the Gulf state of Oman, because of major health and
education improvements, with China in second place due to its prodigious
economic growth.
"This report shows that the gap in health and
education outcomes between
developed and developing countries has narrowed
significantly over the past
40 years, even though the income divide, with a
few notable exceptions,
worsened," UNDP chief Helen Clark told a meeting to
launch the index.
This year's report also drew up new indicators
measuring the impact of
inequality in the distribution of health, education
and income, as well as
of gender inequality.
On distribution it found
that the country with the least inequality was the
Czech Republic, while
Mozambique had the most. The Netherlands had the least
gender inequality,
while Yemen had the most, the survey said.
http://news.radiovop.com/
05/11/2010 08:24:00
Harare,
November 05, 2010 – Zimbabwe has been ranked 157th investor friendly
country
in the world out of 183, the World Bank said Thursday.
Best Doroh,
World Bank Finance and Private Sector Development Specialist
said at a press
conference in Harare, Zimbabwe's neighbour Zambia had come
out better off at
number 76.
The World Bank titled “Doing Business 2011” was done for the
period from
June 2009 to 2010.
“Zambia performed much better. Our
(Zimbabwe) business environment, our laws
have remained unreformed for the
past year,” Doroh said.
It takes about 90 days to complete all the stages
of registering and
starting up a business in Zimbabwe. The country has been
making plans to set
up a one stop shop for setting up a company through the
Zimbabwe Investment
Agency (ZIA) but this has not materialised.
Out
of 183 countries Zimbabwe has been 128 in terms of businesses access to
credit lines and number 143 out of 183 in terms of starting a
business.
Indigenisation regulations have scared investors away in the
past months
after the government led by President Robert Mugabe moved to
implement
empowerment regulations that will see all foreign firms worth more
than US
500 000 dollars lose 51 percent stake to locals.
Foreign
companies are still submitting their proposals to the Indigenisation
ministry.
The World Bank said their report “analyses regulations that
apply to an
economy’s businesses during their lifecycle, including start-up
and
operations, trading across borders, paying taxes and closing a
business.”
By Clifford
Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London 05/11/10
The international
isolation of Mugabe’s Zanu-pf regime is growing at an
unprecedented pace
amidst fears that Zimbabwe is sitting on a knife edge due
to increasing
political violence. The momentum should not be lost to Mugabe’s
diversionary
tactics anymore. The latest in a series of Mugabe’s major
diplomatic flops
was the decision by the Kimberly Process Certification
Scheme in Jerusalem
on Thursday 4th November 2010, to uphold a ban
preventing Zimbabwe from
exporting its controversial diamonds due to
allegations of human rights
violations by government soldier despite threats
by AAG to flood the world
market with under-priced diamonds if they are not
allowed to export
(Associated Press, 04/11/10).
This comes in the wake of another
diplomatic fiasco when Jacob Zuma of South
Africa failed to get EU targeted
sanctions on his comrade in arms lifted
soon after the US snub of SADC on
sanctions (Newsday, 14/10/10). It looks
like the net is closing in on Mugabe
and his cronies unless there is a
restoration of human rights and the rule
of law in the country. As if that
is not enough, the IMF expressed concern
this week of the “deteriorating
political climate in Zimbabwe” (Voanews,
03/11/10). There could be no better
time for the civil society in Zimbabwe
to vigorously campaign for the
immediate deployment of an advance party of
United Nations (UN), European
Union (EU) and African Union (AU) and SADC
election monitors and
peacekeepers to help prepare a level playing
field.
Things should not be left to the last minute. Claims that there
will be no
elections due to funding problems could be a ploy to take the
opposition by
surprise. Civil society leaders should be wary of possible CIO
infiltration
by being diverted from combating repression to making worthless
regional
missions to SADC. Similarly, suggestions of a pre-election deal
with
securocrats could be a Zanu-pf time-buying political gimmick because
everything about security sector reform is already in the GPA. All that
remains is for Mugabe to implement the GPA with all its imperfections
without delay.
One of the eminent African Elders, Nelson Mandela’s
wife Graca Machel said
SADC has taken too long to solve the problems in
Zimbabwe and that it was
time to tell Mugabe to respect the will of the
people. “I want to say to the
leadership who are in government in
Zimbabwe...a government must protect its
citizens…it’s how you treat your
own citizens, that’s where your legitimacy
comes from,” she told church
leaders who were planning to fast for Zimbabwe
(Zimeye, 22/01/09).
Amazingly, there has been a rare admission of failure at
least by one SADC
leader.
Botswana’s Foreign Minister, Phandu Skelemani told SW Radio
Africa last
year: “Well as we have said before, we at SADC have failed the
people of
Zimbabwe. We have simply failed to tell the leadership, the
political
leadership in Zimbabwe that what they are doing is wrong, it is
undemocratic
and that they ought to respect the people and do everything
with the people
as the priority. That SADC has failed to do, so SADC has
virtually achieved
nothing in respect of Zimbabwe. It is unfortunate but it
is true” (Mmegi
Online, 29/01/09). The frustration with SADC’s role in
Zimbabwe is traceable
to the time Mbeki was the mediator and is
ever-growing.
Zimbabwean scholar, Brian Raftopuolos said that SADC’s
announcement in
February that Mbeki’s mediation had resulted in the two
political parties
reaching an ‘agreement on all substantive matters relating
to the political
situation in Zimbabwe’ and that the outstanding matters
were merely
procedural was the “worst kind of political dishonesty,” (The
Mail &
Guardian online(19/03/08).
In an editorial entitled: ‘SADC
Has Neither Bark Nor Bite’ the Zimbabwe
Independent last month declared that
SADC has failed to be firm, “especially
with Mugabe, by demanding a
resolution to the outstanding issues so that
work to build the country
continues in earnest (Zimbabwe Independent,
24/09/10). SADC’s or more
precisely, South Africa’s neutrality on the
Zimbabwe issue has always been
nebulous.
African church leaders were shocked to hear the then South
African President
Thabo Mbeki allegedly say that he supported Mugabe and
that MDC and its
leader leader Morgan Tsvangirai were “puppets of the West”
according to an
article by Gerald Harper on the Zimbabwemetro website on
05/05/08. Further
controversy was caused by the facilitator’s 10-page letter
to Morgan
Tsvangirai. The perception of South Africa’s bias was reinforced
by Jacob
Zuma’s Foreign Minister recently who pledged to use South Africa’s
seat at
the UN Security Council to oppose any sanctions against
Mugabe.
Although, we need African Union and SADC election monitors
alongside the UN
and EU contingent, over the years until 2005, SADC
countries have
demonstrated their solidarity with Zimbabwe for instance, by
calling on the
Commonwealth and the European Union (EU) to lift targeted
smart sanctions
against Mugabe and his inner circle, or refusing to attend
SADC-EU
ministerial meetings that excluded Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe Election
Support
Network, Report on the Zimbabwe 29 March Harmonised election and 27
June
2008, page 19).
In April 2005, SADC and African Union observers
endorsed Zimbabwe’s
parliamentary election which was won by Mugabe’s Zanu-pf
party. SADC said
the vote reflected the will of the people despite other
monitors saying it
was neither free nor fair (BBC, 05/04/05). “Many voters
were dead people and
ghost voters. Most of who voted for Zanu-pf,” claimed
Vusi from Bulawayo. In
its short-sightedness and usual defiance, Zimbabwe
dismissed the appointment
of an African Union envoy for the country, former
Mozambican President
Joachim Chissano, arguing that there would be no talks
between Zanu-pf and
the MDC (BBC, 16/08/05) and yet the GPA is now a
fact.
It should be noted that African leaders failed to condemn
controversial
re-election of Mugabe at their African Union summit in Egypt
in 2008. Mugabe
reportedly hugged several heads of state and other diplomats
in meetings
after the opening session. “He was hugging everyone, pretty much
everyone he
could get close to,” one African delegate who was present at the
talks said
(Aljazeera.net, 01/07/08). Disappointment with SADC and the AU
has sometimes
elicited public anger.
Reginald Thabani Gola, a
Zimbabwean Political Analyst charged that the SADC
and the African Union
have strategically advanced misty views over
Zimbabwean genocide while the
“madness goes on unabated.” “Yes! They have
come out loudly against any
possible United Nations sanctions against
Mugabe. Unreservedly criticised
the West for its unwavering attitude against
Mugabe’s crimes against
humanity,” said Gola (Zimbabwemetro, 09/12/08).
It was therefore not
surprising when the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said
the African Union had
failed the people of Zimbabwe by turning a blind eye
towards human rights
abuses. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the
African Union should
suspend Zimbabwe from the 53-nation group if Mugabe’s
government failed to
end the political violence and other rights abuses
(Zimdiaspora,
22/01/09).
Admittedly, Mugabe’s anti-Western rhetoric has divided African
opinion. Even
Botswana’s Ian Khama who had been in the minority of those
critical of
Mugabe’s dictatorship, surprised the world last month by calling
on Western
governments to lift the targeted smart sanctions on his
neighbouring ruler.
However, some black luminaries have been unequivocal in
their condemnation
of Mugabe’s tyranny. Among them, former South African
President, Nelson
Mandela decried the “tragic failure of leadership” in
Zimbabwe (LATimes,
26/06/08), while Archbishop Desmond Tutu told Dutch TV in
2008 that Mugabe
should be removed by force if he refuses to go, for the
“gross violations”
he has committed (BBC, 05/12/08).
Kenya’s Prime
Minister Raila Odinga said African governments should oust
Mugabe. Professor
Ali Mazrui, a renowned African International Cultural
Historian and
Political Scientist, criticised Mugabe for “shamelessly”
entrenching himself
in power in contrast to former Ghanaian President Jerry
Rawlings who
relinguished power honourably without manipulating the system
in his
favour(Modernghana, 14/03/02). Founder member of Zanu-pf, Enos Nkala
said,
“We produced a creature that destroyed this country”
(Zimbabwesituation.com,
13/01/07.
Although, Zanu-pf would be less enthusiastic about EU election
monitors,
Mugabe’s hostility to a UN role in the next elections should be
expected in
view of a scathing report on the role of Zimbabwe defence forces
in the
Democratic Republic of Congo and the alleged arms dealing, looting of
DRC
diamonds by some named Zimbabwean politicians, soldiers and businessmen.
According to the (BBC 21/10/02) a United Nations panel called on the
Security Council to impose financial sanctions against companies and
individuals who plundered the DRC’s wealth. That was not going to be with
friends with veto powers on the Security Council like China and Russia, and
now South Africa.
Asked by Reuters about Zanu-pf’s readiness for
polls in 2005, Jonathan Moyo
said, “I think Zanu-pf are sweating in their
pants…” (Zimbabwesituation,
29/03/05). Probably, that could be still an
accurate prediction of the 2011
elections. Before he was ‘born again’ as a
Zanu-pf cadre, Jonathan Moyo
said, “In the circumstances, Mugabe has come to
be surrounded by dodgy
political characters along with other bureaucratic
and media sycophants who
are known for their malice and incompetence”
(Zimbabwesituation, 19/01/07).
Given the increase in reported political
violence stretching from
Chimanimani to Masvingo and the threat of a coup
should Zanu-pf lose, one
only wishes that election monitors and
peacekeepers from the UN, EU, AU and
SADC could be stationed in Zimbabwe now
– six months before the elections
expected in June 2011 and another six
months thereafter. At the same time,
targeted sanctions including a travel
ban, assets freeze on Mugabe and his
cronies should be maintained. Similarly
the ban on the sale of weapons to
Zimbabwe must stay.
Clifford Chitupa
Mashiri, Political Analyst, London
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com
Friday, 05 November 2010
Six years ago
on this very day I left Zimbabwe. I knew as I flew out of
Harare that life
would never be the same again for me. I was leaving behind
a whole lifetime
of memories, of friends and family – a daughter and a
grandson – to come to
a country where I had been born but which was as alien
to me as Africa had
once been. Time heals all wounds, they say, but for me
the passing years
have only emphasised the sense of loss. “I am a
Zimbabwean” I tell people
here but hardly a day passes without Robert
Mugabe or one of his cronies
telling white people that their skin colour and
their colonial past excludes
them from making that claim.
I was reminded of that as I watched a re-run of
‘Mugabe and the White
African’ this week and heard Ben Freeth ask the
question, ‘Can a white man
ever be an African?’ For Robert Mugabe and Zanu
PF the answer is a
resounding ‘NO!’ but for me and thousands like me all
over the diaspora,
Zimbabwe continues to be the place we call home. I think
of all the
thousands of children I taught and of the teachers I trained –
black
Zimbabweans all of them – whose acceptance and friendship filled my
days in
Mutoko and Murehwa and I wonder how we have arrived at this racial
intolerance in Independent Zimbabwe.
This week, for example, a female
Zanu PF member called for the death
sentence for anyone who supports
sanctions or is friendly to the west!
Addressing the Chiefs at their annual
conference Mugabe resorted yet again
to racist rhetoric, referring to
Britain and America as ‘Damn fools’ for
saying that the GPA had not been
properly implemented. Speaking in Shona he
talked about how the west,
‘Sevarungu’, as whites, came to Zimbabwe and
expected to have the upper hand
as they once had. Mugabe’s inability to
forgive the racial injustices of the
past gives him a convenient excuse to
blame the whites for everything that
is wrong in Zimbabwe after thirty years
of his misrule. He conveniently
forgets that these very ‘varungu’ are the
donors whose dollars are keeping
‘his’ people fed and providing reading
materials for schools where kids
share one book between four and teachers
are subjected to mindless
harassment for no other reason than the belief
that all teachers are MDC
supporters.
Ever since Mugabe announced that elections will be held in 2011
war veterans
have been giving orders to transfer teachers out of ‘their’
areas. That was
going on in Mash East long before I left Zimbabwe; nothing
changes it seems.
And in my old home district, police and CIO this week
confiscated radios
donated to villagers on the grounds that the radios came
from an unknown
source and customs duties had not been paid. Any excuse to
silence the
source of independent news; nothing changes in Mugabe’s
Zimbabwe.
But it was a letter in the Financial Gazette that really attracted
my
attention this week. “Is this racist?” asked the letter writer and quoted
a
question from the Grade Seven examination which every child in Zimbabwe
sits
at the end of primary school. This is what the Grade Seven children
were
asked in a multiple choice question on the General Paper: “Before
Independence blacks and whites failed to live together peacefully because:
A. the whites had guns. B. the blacks liked to strike. C. the whites did
not like the blacks and D. all the blacks wanted to live in towns. Whether
this is racism or not, I do not know but what I do know is that it is a very
badly designed multiple choice question, aimed at 11-12 year olds to test
not factual knowledge but political opinion with racist overtones.
As
Zanu PF gears up for elections, teachers in rural areas are once again in
the frontline. Zanu PF does not care for educated people, they think for
themselves and so teachers are beaten up for daring to express alternative
views. Three of those teachers are fighting for their lives in a Mission
Hospital after a violent beating by Zanu PF thugs in Bikita. All over the
country anyone with educational qualifications must be pondering their
futures in this divided and intolerant country. No wonder the International
Crisis Group declared this week that Zimbabwe is ‘on a knife edge’ in the
run-up to the elections.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH. aka
Pauline Henson.