http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
20:45
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is still staying at his modest
Strathaven home seven months after his appointment because President Robert
Mugabe has refused him permission to move to a state-owned
residence.
The issue of the Prime Minister's residence is said
to be the tip of
the iceberg as several former Zanu PF ministers are
allegedly refusing to
vacate government houses in Borrowdale and Gunhill to
make way for new MDC
ministers.
As a result government
has been incurring hotel bills running into
thousands of US dollars as it
struggles to secure accommodation for new
ministers from outside Harare,
documents at hand show.
Tsvangirai is entitled to stay at
Zimbabwe House that was
traditionally the home of prime ministers. The house
was also Mugabe's
official residence after independence in
1980.
MDC sources said Mugabe told Tsvangirai that he cannot
move to the
state property because he keeps his things there, while others
said the
Prime Minister was told that the drainage system was not
working.
"He (Mugabe) does not want Tsvangirai as his
neighbour," said a
source. State House is across the road and is
traditionally the home of
Zimbabwe's head of state, although Mugabe now only
uses it for ceremonial
occasions.
MDC-T spokesperson,
Nelson Chamisa said Tsvangirai was still staying
at his Strathaven home
"contrary to our understanding of the inclusive
arrangement where the prime
minister is supposed to have an official
residence."
Tsvangirai is not the only new member of the inclusive government
affected
by an accommodation crisis.
It emerged last week that State
Enterprises Minister Joel Gabbuza who
comes from Binga, Deputy Youth
Minister Thamsanqa Mahlangu and co-Home
Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa had
incurred a debt of US$39 895 at the
Crowne Plazza hotel because they cannot
get alternative accommodation.
The ministers incurred the bills
between February and July 29 but
government reportedly said it would only
pay for their stay until April 7.
"The government said it would
pay the hotel bills from the time they
checked into the hotel to April 7 and
after that the ministers were going to
pay for themselves. We asked their
ministries to pay the debt but they are
refusing," said an official at the
hotel.
Government paid US$4 525 for Mutsekwa, US$2 135 for
Gabbuza and US$634
for Mahlangu.
"We have already engaged debt
collectors in this case because we want
our money," he
said.
Last week, the minister said there was no way they would
pay the bills
because they were on government business.
Gabbuza said it was not their responsibility to find accommodation and
said
some former ministers and senior civil servants were occupying houses
where
they were not supposed to stay.
"I don't stay in Harare, and
there was no way I was going to stay in
the streets. We all know that we
were being paid US$100 a month and houses
in Harare cost more than $500," he
said.
"We need to know what the government is doing about those
houses. We
were kept in the hotel because they said they were looking for
our
accommodation."
A source in the Prime Minister's
Officer said the issue of
accommodation for the new ministers was a hot
potato and there were fears
some officials were taking advantage of the new
dispensation to abuse state
property.
"There were houses
that were built for the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (Chogm) in
1991 and are being used by ministers coming
from out of Harare," said the
source.
"But there is a lot of resistance from Zanu PF
people who are refusing
to make way for deserving people."
Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo referred questions to
National
Housing and Social Amenities Minister Fidelis Mhashu whose mobile
phone was
unreachable yesterday.
But a Zanu PF minister said: "It does
not mean every minister can go
and stay in those houses.
"I
have been a minister for a long time but I have never stayed in any
government house.
"What we can only do for those ministers
who stay out of Harare is to
give them stands."
BY
SANDRA MANDIZVIDZA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009 20:30
NATHAN Shamuyarira, the Zanu PF secretary for information and
publicity,
fiercely opposed the re-admission of his former deputy Jonathan
Moyo into
the party, contrary to reports that it was a unanimous
decision.
The former Information minister and independent
Tsholotsho North MP's
comeback was endorsed by the Zanu PF politburo on
Thursday.
Sources said although Moyo's return was not
opposed by politburo
members from Matabeleland as initially feared,
Shamuyarira did not hide his
misgivings about the man who poses a threat to
his job.
However, President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF kingpins
Didymus Mutasa
and Emerson Mnangagwa had already spoken glowingly about Moyo
leaving
Shamuyarira's case against the professor weak, sources
said.
Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo who had said Moyo must first
face a
disciplinary hearing for his role in the so-called Tsholotsho
Declaration of
2005 did not attend the politburo meeting.
Moyo sued Nkomo for saying he was behind the Tsholotsho meeting that
was
meant to plot the reconfiguration of the Zanu PF presidium. The High
Court
is yet to deliver its judgement on the matter.
"There was
nothing Shamuyarira could do because some senior members
weighed in for Moyo
while the rest remained quiet," said one of the sources.
"Had
Nkomo been present it could have been a different story."
Shamuyarira and Moyo had several run-ins during the latter's brief
stint in
Zanu PF and government.
The two once clashed after Shamuyarira
gave British news channel Sky
TV permission to do a documentary on the
situation in Zimbabwe and interview
Mugabe.
Moyo, who as
Minister of Information oversaw the deportation of
foreign correspondents
from Zimbabwe and led an onslaught against the
private media, tried to block
the interview but failed.
Announcing the politburo's decision
on Friday, Zanu PF deputy
information secretary Ephraim Masawi said Moyo had
not been given any
position yet.
But he is expected to work
with Shamuyarira in the information
department and there is even speculation
he would be appointed to government
soon.
Shamuyarira could
not be reached for comment last week. Mutasa refused
to comment referring
questions to Nkomo.
"I don't speak with The Standard and if
Nkomo is not around wait for
him or just say I refused to comment," he
said.
Mugabe fired Moyo from government after the Tsholotsho
debacle and the
controversial former university lecturer left Zanu PF after
he was barred
from representing the party in parliamentary
elections.
As Minister of Information, Moyo was responsible for
crafting
draconian laws including, the Access to Information and Protection
of
Privacy Act, which caused closure of newspapers and tarnished the
country's
reputation.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
20:22
MEDIA minister Webster Shamu has been accused of breaking the law
by
his deputy after he unilaterally appointed Zanu PF apologists to the
Zimpapers and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) boards. Shamu
appointed Tafataona Mahoso, the disgraced former chairman of the defunct
Media and Information Commission (MIC) to chair the BAZ board without
consulting his deputy, Jameson Timba.
The MDC-T has charged that
the appointments showed that the minister
was pursuing a "shameful and
sinister agenda".
This followed Wednesday's appointment of
boards for six parastatals
that fall under his ministry, packed with retired
army officers and Zanu PF
apologists.
Timba Saturday said
as far as he was concerned some of the
appointments were "a joke whilst
others are unlawful".
"The appointment of the Zimpapers board
is in my view unlawful," he
said. "The board can only be elected by an
annual general meeting of the
shareholders of Zimpapers of which the
Zimbabwe government is not one."
Zimpapers is a publicly listed
company where Old Mutual and the Mass
Media Trust are the major
shareholders.
He said in respect to the BAZ there were "legal
and procedural issues
that need to be attended to for the appointment of
that board to be valid at
law."
Timba said the Broadcasting
Services Act read with Amendment Number 19
of the constitution required that
President Robert Mugabe must consult Prime
Minister Tsvangirai before making
some of the appointments.
Mugabe was also supposed to consult
parliament's Select Committee on
Standing Rules and Orders Committee
(SROC).
"I took an oath to uphold the laws of this country and
that which is
unlawful must not be accepted by anyone who respects the rule
of law and the
rights and aspirations of the citizens of this country,"
Timba said.
"Therefore, these matters must be regularised by
the government in
order to deliver real change to the people of
Zimbabwe.
"I for one cannot be party to lawlessness and
thuggery disguised as
statecraft."
Shamu yesterday said he
could not comment because he was attending a
meeting presided over by
Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
The MDC is furious that Shamu
hand-picked Mahoso to head the body that
grants television and radio
licences after he failed interviews for the
Zimbabwe Media Commission
(ZMC).
"The biggest threat to democracy is not only the
unilateral
appointments but the unilateral decision to recycle a celebrated
media
hangman such as Mahoso by making him chairman of BAZ," the MDC said in
a
statement.
Meanwhile, the Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) -
the inter party organ charged with the
monitoring of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) - says it has written to
the principals in the unity
government urging them to expedite the
appointment of the ZMC.
Last month, Mugabe was given a
shortlist of 12 by the SROC from where
he would appoint nine
commissioners.
In a statement, Jomic said it had also asked
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara to ensure the
immediate appointment
of the National Economic Council, review the selection
of heroes and asked
for updates from government departments on what they
have done to fulfil
requirements of the GPA.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
20:17
CO-HOME AFFAIRS minister Giles Mutsekwa yesterday said he was
concerned that police were refusing to reform as details began to emerge on
how three striking Shabanie Mine workers were shot last month. The Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which called for the resignation of the
co-Home Affairs ministers Mutsekwa and Kembo Mohadi following the shooting
on September 25 wrote to the Minister of Labour Paurina Mupariwa calling for
an urgent investigation into the case.
Mupariwa was not
immediately available for comment.
However, Mutsekwa said he
was concerned about the conduct of the
police.
"I would
like to express my sympathies and also reiterate that I
understand ZCTU's
reaction", Mutsekwa said. "I have been to the mine to
assess the situation
and I even visited the injured persons at hospital
where they are
admitted.
"I have also talked to the police and the management
at the mine
regarding the issue which we as a ministry have decided to make
a cabinet
issue."
He said the ministry was disappointed
that senior officials at
Shabanie tried to cover-up for the
police.
"We have repeatedly told the police that they should
always refrain
from using firearms against defenseless people", he said." In
this
particular case, we have not yet received a convincing explanation on
how
the police got involved."
"This conduct does not belong
to the modern Zimbabwe we are now living
in."
ZCTU said the
three were shot as they fled from teargas thrown by the
police to disperse
more than 2 000 workers at the SMM Holdings owned mine.
The
union said the workers had convened a meeting where management was
supposed
to address them on salaries that had not been paid since
February.
"When one of the workers Alluwis Zhou (32) asked
about the whereabouts
of members of the management who were supposed to
address the meeting, he
was beaten with a gun and shot on his left hand and
shot again on the left
leg," the ZCTU said in the letter seen by The
Standard.
"Tear gas canisters were thrown to the sitting
workers.
"The other two Leonard Simbarashe Chinhadada (30) and
Taurai Zhou (50)
were shot on their right legs while running away from the
police officers.
"They were shot by an AK47 gun No. 2221
registered with the Bukwa Mine
Camp."
The injured workers
are admitted at a Harare hospital. The ZCTU said
state agents were still
hounding the workers at the mine forcing them to
return to
work.
Some suspected to have links with the MDC have reportedly
been fired
for engaging in an illegal strike while those from Zanu PF were
assured of
their jobs.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03
October 2009 19:25
A storm is brewing in Kadoma after senior council
employees allegedly
awarded themselves a hefty salary increment without
council approval.
Councillors are livid that after they approved proposals
to pay management
allowances of between US$150 and US$200 a month in March,
a new pay
structure was introduced without their knowledge.
According to documents at hand, management decided to pay council
workers
allowances ranging from US$400 and US$1 500 depending on grade.
The anomaly came to light last week when the works council chairman,
Erasmus
Jochore, complained to the mayor, Peter Matambo.
"With these
allegations we therefore need a report through you, the
mayor," Jochore said
in the memorandum dated September 28.
"Previously I understand
you were given a list of other allegations of
which the investigation became
fruitless.
"Workers are now calling for industrial action if
there is no response
from your office."
The councillors are
also unhappy that travel and subsistence
allowances for management had also
been increased without their knowledge.
According to council
minutes of June 22, the municipality spent US$19
865 on local trips for
management compared to US$1 704 the previous month.
Councillors
argue that besides the fact that the adjustments were
"illegal", the
council's financial position is still too weak to sustain
such "high"
salaries.
Jochore also raised concern about alleged corruption
citing a case of
a director he said owns "multiple houses registered in his
names and
relatives".
But Kadoma acting town clerk, Joel
Madzivanyika, said all the salary
adjustments were done above
board.
He claimed that the works council members had broken
into council
offices and stole accounting records which they were basing
their
allegations on.
The works council says it was also
concerned about the misuse of
council vehicles, equipment and fuel.
Matambo could not be reached for comment.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October
2009 17:48
A former permanent secretary has said the majority of
beneficiaries in
President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reform
programme are not
productive. Speaking at a World Bank conference last week,
Simon
Pazvakavambwa said land audits carried out by the Ministry of Lands,
Land
Reform and Resettlement indicated that the percentage of land
utilisation in
the fast track resettlement areas was low.
"Three land audits have been done all showing a similar trend of
between 20%
and 70% utilization," he said. "These audits have not been
published or
placed in the public domain."
Pazvakavambwa was presenting a
paper at the agriculture stakeholders
conference that was bankrolled by the
Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund - a
World Bank-created fund meant to come up
with a recovery strategy for the
country's economy.
He said
populist policies, poor planning, corruption and poor
beneficiary targeting
in the distribution of inputs since 2000 had destroyed
agriculture.
After the chaotic land reform programme
government introduced the
Government Input Scheme, the Productive Sector
Facility (PSF), the
Agriculture Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility
(Aspef), Operation
Maguta, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's farm mechanisation
programme, and the
Champion Farmer Programme.
All these
programmes failed spectacularly.
"Despite its efforts over the
last eight years, government has not
been able to achieve food security due
to several reasons," Pazvakavambwa
said.
"Simple but
effective solutions are required where government should
embrace development
partners, NGOs, civil society and other groups to tackle
what has become a
chronic problem."
Pazvakavambwa, who now works as a consultant,
had several clashes with
government officials over policy matters during his
stint with the ministry.
He was dismissed from his post in November 2006,
after a fallout that
occurred following the importation of inferior
fertiliser by the RBZ from
South Africa.
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009 17:45
BULAWAYO - Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo was openly
criticised
for meddling in the city's affairs at the installation of the
mayor on
Friday.
Chombo officially installed ceremonial mayor Thaba Moyo and
his deputy
Amen Mpofu, more than a year after they were
elected.
The ceremony was reportedly delayed because
Chombo insisted that he
must oversee it.
While the mayor
was diplomatic in his speech, the deputy mayor did not
mince his words
criticising the minister in public.
Mpofu said he could not
understand why Chombo could delay their
installation which was purely a
council event.
Mpofu said Chombo had even attempted to stop
Bulawayo councillors
from assuming their duties following their election
last year.
"It took four months to bring sanity to the council.
This was after we
used the court route," he said.
The
deputy mayor said Chombo's ministry had caused further problems
for the
council. He said it took more than six months for it to approve
council's
budget, making it impossible for the local authority to provide
services to
residents.
The deputy mayor said the council had been given
several excuses for
the delays, which he said had to do with
politics.
"Those that are privileged to be custodians of state
power must
realise they hold it in trust and nothing else," said
Mpofu.
"The legitimate owners of that power are the
residents.
"Unprofessional political meddling in council
affairs is not good for
the council and the residents."
Chombo only
promised to "look at the issues raised by the deputy
mayor" in his brief
response to the attacks.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009 17:37
ELIZABETH Mubaiwa is disappointed that
the Harare City Council has
been forced to reverse its plans to close down
the chaotic Mupedzanhamo
informal market. Her anger may be surprising
because the 45-year-old mother
of eight goes to the market daily to sell
wares for her family's upkeep.
"They should have closed the
market", she says. "Their plan was very
good as it would have benefited some
of us who are struggling."
Mubaiwa moves between stalls and
also along the perimeter wall
surrounding the market looking for customers
for the clothes she sells.
"We are forced to stand along the
wall because there is no space for
us here", she says. "The rich barons took
up all the space."
Council wanted to close down the market to
allow for an audit it said
would expose Zanu PF heavyweights who have
grabbed multiple stands meant for
the poor.
Already the
council audit has revealed that former members of the
commission appointed
by Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo to run the
city's affairs,
government and high ranking council officials have multiple
stands.
Investigations last week revealed that the market
"barons" were
conducting brisk business, subletting one stall to as many as
10 tenants
who pay as much as $100 per month.
The barons
only pay $15 a month to council.
"It is a big racket", Harare
mayor Muchadei Masunda said.
"These people just sit and do
nothing but make money out of it and
that is the evil we want to root out so
that we can offer the facility to
genuine and deserving traders who are
largely the vulnerable members of
society. These include widows and single
mothers."
Chombo himself has sought to protect some of the
stall holders.
The minister, who has been accused of
meddling in council affairs
following the controversy over Mupedzanhamo, on
March 17 ordered council's
director of housing, Justin Chivavaya, to ensure
12 stall holders believed
to have links with Zanu PF were
protected.
Last week, he went further to form a committee to
probe the operations
at Mupedzanhamo and other city council markets. That
way he blocked attempts
by council to close the market.
Chombo's move, though seen as designed to protect Zanu PF bigwigs,
appeared
to have gone down well with some of the traders at
Mupedzanhamo.
Jessica Sawara (39) is one of those traders who
are happy that council
did not shut the market.
"We would
have died of hunger", she said. "Closing this market even
for three days is
suicidal as I will not have anywhere else to go and fend
for my five
children and their unemployed father."
But there was general
consensus among the traders that there was need
for the re-organisation of
the market.
"A lot of people are operating illegally", Tawanda
Basira said. "But
the re-arrangement should not lead to a closure of the
market even for a
day. Let them do the weeding out of bad apples while
business is ongoing."
The mayor said council had not given up
on the matter but had seen it
prudent to work in conjunction with the police
and Chombo's committee.
"We considered the humane side of
things, therefore you will not be
seeing any closure of the market," said
Masunda.
"The relevant committee of the city council is now
going to work
closely with the committee that was put together by Chombo and
also the
police who have expressed an interest in being
involved.
"We feel that it is to our advantage as council to
work with all of
them as they will ensure that there is the restoration of
order in the
exercise."
Masunda said council's Health,
Housing Community Services and
Licensing committee had already generated a
"voluminous" document with the
names of people who were allocated the
stalls.
"They are already going through it and so far it has
emerged that two
special interest councillors are among the beneficiaries
and this is wrong
as both are gainfully employed", he said.
Special interest councillors are appointed by Chombo while the rest
are
elected into office.
Committee chairperson Julius Musevenzi on
Friday said he was still
"perusing" the document to establish if there were
any other unscrupulous
beneficiaries.
"We want the
committee to go through that document with a fine tooth
comb and identify
those people with market tables allocated to them for
reasons outside those
set by council," Masunda said.
"If it becomes clear that there
are people who are beneficiaries who
do not fit the criteria, it is those
people whose leases will be terminated
and re-allocated."
He said he was aware that some of the barons were even approaching
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai seeking protection.
However, the
Combined Harare Residents Association said there was need
for the council to
forge ahead with its audit.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
16:52
THE MDC-T could be headed for political oblivion if it pulls out
of
the shaky unity government, analysts said last week. The warning comes at
a
time when MDC-T has started consulting its structures on whether it must
pull out or remain in the inclusive government.
The MDC-T
accuses President Robert Mugabe of dragging his feet in
implementing the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) that led to the formation
of the unity
government in February.
Among other things, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's party is
unhappy that Mugabe is unwilling to reverse the
unilateral appointments of
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney
General Johannes Tomana.
An appeal to the Sadc leaders to have
the matters resolved has not
succeeded, leaving many in MDC-T contemplating
a pull out from the inclusive
government.
But analysts say
the MDC-T will be ill-advised to do so.
They said Zimbabweans
who have tasted a better life following the
formation of the unity
government would not be impressed by such a move,
which could throw them
back to the days when the Zanu PF government was free
to pursue disastrous
policies.
The analysts said the GPA was reached after Zanu PF
and the two MDC
formations realised they could no longer work without each
other.
Speaking at a public forum organised by the Mass Public
Opinion
Institute (MPOI) to review progress on the anniversary of the GPA on
Thursday, University of Zimbabwe political scientist Simon Badza said
neither Zanu PF nor the two MDC formations could pull out of the arrangement
without suffering serious ramifications.
"The first
political party to declare divorce of the GPA would be
ignored by the people
and it would mark the beginning of its end," said
Badza.
He
said the parties should remember that they formed the unity
government
because none of them could go it alone.
"As for the MDC, they
must realise that they joined in the first place
because they found it
easier to fight from inside than outside," said Badza.
"I wonder if the MDC
is serious about the issue of pulling out."
Media Institute of
Southern Africa (Misa) Zimbabwe director Takura
Zhangazha said it was too
late for the MDC-T to pull out because there are
not many alternatives to
pursue.
"If the MDC decides to pull out, does it mean that they
are pulling
out of the agreement, or out of parliament and the question that
arises
after that is then what next?
"The MDC has not
proffered an alternative to the inclusive government
which is where the
issue really is now," he said.
Zhangazha said given the support
the recent Sadc summit in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo gave to the
GNU, the MDC-T might not find
much support from countries in the
region.
He added that the pullout would worsen the plight of
Zimbabweans,
especially in light of improvements already made in sectors
such as health,
education and the economy.
"In health,
education, the economy the MDC themselves are projecting
more positives than
negatives so in light of these developments it may not
be advisable to pull
out."
But Zhangazha warned that while food and drugs were now
available,
basic commodities remained beyond the reach of the ordinary
people.
"They say there is food and drugs but visibility is not
accessibility," he said. "You go to a hospital . agreed the drugs are there
but they are expensive."
Schools have been opened but
teachers are not teaching while thousands
of students failed to register for
their "O" Level final examinations
because they could not afford the
required fees.
MDC-M secretary for external affairs Frank
Chamunorwa said the
inclusive government has made tremendous success in its
first year into
office.
He said food and drugs were now
readily available countrywide while
the provision of clean water as well as
road maintenance had improved.
Civil servants are now paid in
foreign currency after government
dumped the inflation- ravaged Zimbabwe
dollar.
Chamunorwa, who is also a member of the Joint
Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) - which monitors compliance
with the GPA -
said the agreement brought peace and stability in the country
following a
violent election last year.
The MDC-T says over
200 of its activists and supporters were killed by
State security agents and
Zanu PF militia in last year's elections.
"The inclusive
government was God-sent and any attempts to reverse
this will meet the
stiffest resistance," he said.
Bulawayo East MP, Thabitha
Khumalo (MDC-T), agreed with Chamunorwa
that the GNU was a compromise that
sought to give a reprieve to ordinary
Zimbabweans who had suffered for too
long.
"We went in there with our eyes wide open and no one ever
said it was
going to be easy. It was a huge compromise," said
Khumalo.
"We must realise that this is only a transitional
arrangement."
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE AND BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
16:47
TWO of the country's main teachers' unions have accused the
Salary
Services Bureau (SSB) of conniving with a rival group linked to
President
Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF to get monthly subscriptions from their
members
through the back door. In separate interviews last week both the
Zimbabwe
Teachers' Association (Zimta) and the Progressive Teachers' Union
of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said they suspected that SSB officials were working in
cahoots with the Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ) to deduct money from
their members without their consent.
TUZ, which has links
with self-proclaimed war veterans' leader Joseph
Chinotimba, was formed a
few years ago allegedly to counter the growing
influence of the PTUZ which
is aligned to the MDC formation led by Morgan
Tsvangirai.
PTUZ and Zimta officials said the "clandestine" deductions were meant
to
boost TUZ's weak financial standing.
Zimta acting chief
executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said they were
investigating what could be a
major scam involving officials from the SSB
and their sister union,
TUZ.
"There is a massive scandal," Ndlovu said. "We are still
investigating
but we suspect that some people in that department are playing
with figures
to give financial benefits to TUZ."
Ndlovu
said Zimta has raised the matter with both the SSB and TUZ but
has not
received a satisfactory answer yet.
"Complaints are still
coming but the matter is so confusing because
all of a sudden we have TUZ in
the picture and we have this problem," he
said.
He said
one-fifth of their 42 000 members have so far been affected.
PTUZ national coordinator Oswald Madziva said an estimated 5 000
teachers
who belonged to his union had US$2,50 deducted from their salaries
for the
past two months.
Teachers earn an average of US$150 per
month.
Madziva said the PTUZ realised that they were being
swindled of huge
sums of money after teachers complained that their pay
slips were indicating
that their membership fees were being forwarded to
TUZ.
He said the complaints were more prevalent in
Mashonanaland East,
West, and Manicaland as well as parts of
Midlands.
"It's an abuse of a State organ in the name of SSB,"
said Madziva.
"We suspect that there is someone within the SSB
who is working with
TUZ because there is no way TUZ was going to get our
members' EC (employment
code) numbers."
Madziva said the
SSB can only deduct the money after the unions sent
teachers' joining forms
and their EC numbers.
SSB paymaster Daniel Chifamba was said to
be out of the office last
week.
His secretary referred all
questions to SSB head of stop-orders, a Mr
Makuvatsine who was also not
available to give a comment.
TUZ has denied the allegations
saying it was only getting money from
teachers who joined the union
willingly.
TUZ chief executive officer Manuel Nyawo said
teachers were "flocking"
to join TUZ because the union was sourcing housing
stands for its members.
"It's a known fact that teachers are
flocking to TUZ," said Nyawo.
"Ask (Raymond) Majongwe (PTUZ secretary
general), he was surprised to see
his members when he visited my
office."
He however added it was a common occurrence for
teachers'
contributions to be wrongly accredited to another union, noting
this should
not raise alarm.
In some cases, Nyawo said,
monthly fees for teachers affiliated to his
union were being accredited to
PTUZ and Zimta.
"I can confirm that my wife never joined Zimta
but at one time her pay
slip indicated that Zimta had deducted money from
her salary.
"It's very common and should be addressed
accordingly," said Nyau who
refused to divulge the total number of teachers
affiliated to his union.
Several teachers last week confirmed
that they had money deducted from
their salaries and accredited to TUZ
account without their consent.
Robert Changamire of Marirangwe
North Primary School in Manyame
Constituency said several teachers in the
district had been affected.
"The problem with most of the
affected teachers is that they don't
have resources and time to go to Harare
to have the problem rectified.
"But this has been going on for
the past two months," said Changamire.
He said at least four
more teachers at his school were affected.
Another teacher at
Crowhill Primary School in Domboshava said he has
already written to the SSB
and even went to TUZ offices to make his
complaint.
"I did
not get much help at SSB because officials at the information
desk
instructed me to write a note explaining the circumstances and put it
in a
box and that was all," said the teacher who requested
anonymity.
The Minister of Education, Sport and Culture David
Coltart said he was
not aware of the scam but called for an immediate
investigation.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October
2009 15:52
CHIRUMHANZU - At Saint Theresa Mission Hospital, a Roman
Catholic run
health centre in the Midlands, a dedicated laboratory scientist
is forced to
burn the midnight oil twice a week. Since the hospital owns the
only CD4
Count machine in the whole district, Christopher Ziracha attends to
patients
from hospitals as far as Mvuma and Muonde.
A CD4
Count machine checks the strength of one's Immune System and
determines
whether a person needs anti-retroviral therapy.
The high
statistics of people living with HIV in the country -
estimated at more than
one million - means Ziracha has to work overtime to
ensure all blood samples
brought to the hospital are tested within the
prescribed
period.
"All blood samples taken have a lifespan of 24
hours.
"After this the blood would have gone bad and the
results cannot be
accurate," Ziracha told journalists during a recent media
tour organised by
the National Aids Council.
"This is why I
have to work at night.
"People travel long distances here in
the rural areas to come to the
hospital and if we had to ask them to go back
to bring fresh samples this
would be really cruel."
At
Mvuma District Hospital about 70 kilometres from St Theresa, staff
running
the Opportunistic Infections and Antiretroviral Drugs Therapy
programme
(OI/ART) face a dilemma of their own.
Although Mvuma Hospital
has put at least 378 people on ARVs so far
through support from the Global
Fund to fight Tuberculosis, Aids and Malaria
and the Expanded Support
Programme, there is no funding for support services
for the OI/ART
programme.
As a result, the institution has to scrounge for
fuel to take CD4 cell
blood samples to St Theresa at least twice a week for
tests.
"Sometimes we use our own money to buy fuel for the
vehicle that was
provided by the Global Fund," said Jotam Chinyama, the
district nursing
officer.
"When we have no money ourselves
we look for vehicles belonging to
other Aids service organisations going
near St Theresa to take our samples.
"When these two options
fail as in most cases the hospital is forced
to use the limited funds
available to support the OI/ART programme."
At Muonde Mission
Hospital, about 40 kilometres from St Theresa,
Sister Marcelline Chireshe's
has to make a difficult decision of either
turning away patients without
money or allowing the hospital to collapse by
offering free
treatment.
She said many people who test HIV positive cannot
afford to foot the
bill for all medical investigations required before they
are put on ARVs.
These tests include CD4 cell count, X-rays,
liver function and full
blood count tests.
Chireshe said
the baseline investigations can cost a patient about
$10, an amount beyond
the reach of many people in rural areas.
"Although we would
never turn any patient away for not having money,
the hospital risks going
under by giving people free treatment.
"But this is what we are
doing.
"The hospital has only managed to survive by the grace
of God,"
Chireshe said.
"Our only plea to government and
donors is that we want to be
supported so that all HIV related services are
free.
"The ARVs are free but this is not
enough.
"Here in the rural areas people struggle to raise just
$1 for
consultation what more $10? It's quite a lot of
money."
The experiences at these three hospitals are some of
the many
struggles that rural hospitals in Zimbabwe are going through as
they
struggle to offer HIV and Aids treatment.
Through
support from the Global Fund and Expanded Support Programme (a
basket fund
for five donors) about 24 027 people in the Midlands province
now have
access to the life prolonging ARVs.
About 767 people are on ART
at Muonde Mission Hospital alone.
Expenses for running the
OI/ART are the biggest challenge as donors
have concentrated on offering
free ART.
Being the only hospital with a CD4 Count machine has
brought several
challenges to St Theresa besides over stretching its
staff.
"Our biggest challenge is to get enough reagents and
other laboratory
chemicals that are enough for ourselves and then for the
Muonde and Mvuma
hospitals," Ziracha added.
Mvuma Hospital
clinical director Lazarus Chihoyi said the OI/ART
programme strained the
institution's budget.
"Running the OI/ART programme has been
very expensive for us because
we have no budget in place for
it.
"Our patients are surviving on sadza and beans, they do not
know the
smell of meat anymore but these are the sacrifices we have to
make," he
said.
But staff at the three hospitals want the
programmes to continue even
with the limited resources.
"We
have become so attached to this programme so much that we don't
want to see
it fail.
"We have seen people come here very ill and unable to
walk and then
after being put on treatment their health
changes.
"This gives us great satisfaction," said
Chinyama.
"Can you imagine if we had to tell someone you can't
start ARVs
because we have no fuel to take your blood for a CD4
count?
"It would break their heart and ours too because this is
a matter of
life and death.
"This is why we do our best to
make the programme work."
According to recent figures released
by the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare, Zimbabwe's HIV prevalence rate
now stands at 13, 7 percent
down from 14,1 percent in 2008.
Health and Child Welfare Minister, Henry Madzorera attributed the
decline to
"a combination of an increase in adult mortality and a decline in
HIV
incidence, resulting from adoption of safer sexual
behaviours".
BY BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October
2009 16:30
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) will later this month
review
Zimbabwe's overdue debt as it emerged that the country is failing to
cooperate on payments to the global lender. Zimbabwe owes the IMF SDR 89
million (about US$139 million) from the Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility - Exogenous Shock Facility (PRGF-ESF) Trust.
The
country was recently allocated US$510 million by the IMF as part
of a bail
out package for all the institution's members in response to the
global
financial crisis.
But Finance Minister Tendai Biti and Reserve
Bank governor, Gideon
Gono have differed on how the money should be
deployed. Biti says if used
recklessly the money would worsen Zimbabwe's
foreign debt.
According to a recent IMF paper - Review of the
Fund's Strategy on
Overdue Financial Obligations - three countries namely
Zimbabwe, Somalia and
Sudan remained in protracted arrears to the fund as at
the end of June 2009.
Protracted arrears are those that have
been outstanding for six months
or more.
Two members,
Somalia and Sudan, have accumulated arrears dating back
to the mid-1980s and
account for 18% and 75% of total arrears to the fund
respectively.
Zimbabwe, which has been in arrears to the
PRGF-ESF Trust since
February 2001, accounts for the remaining 7
%.
In May, IMF decided to lift the suspension of the fund's
technical
assistance in targeted areas following Zimbabwe's improvement on
economic
policies.
The latest review is significant as it
shows Zimbabwe had "abused" IMF
trust when it lifted the suspension on
technical assistance, observers said.
This was meant to
"address Zimbabwe's arrears problems and the severe
capacity constraints in
the fund's core areas of expertise that represent a
major risk to the
implementation of the government's macroeconomic
stabilisation
program".
"The Executive Board subsequently extended the next
review of Zimbabwe's
overdue financial obligations to the PRGF-ESF Trust to
no later than October
21, 2009," the global lender said.
"Zimbabwe's cooperation with the Fund on economic policies has
improved
significantly, but cooperation on payments to the fund has remained
poor".
IMF's executive board last reviewed Zimbabwe's
overdue financial
obligations to the PRGF-ESF Trust in
January.
But since the last review, Zimbabwe has made two
payments to the fund
amounting to SDR 44 million (about US$680
000).
IMF said notwithstanding Zimbabwe's commitment to make
quarterly
payments of US$100 000 starting in July "no such payments have
been received
to date".
The global lender said Zimbabwe's
arrears to the Trust Fund have
reduced the amount of resources that would
have accrued to the Reserve
Account of the PRGF-ESF Trust for the benefit of
the fund's low-income
members.
"Zimbabwe's arrears to the
PRGF-ESF Trust have also reduced the
balances available in the Reserve
Account, as SDR 74.5 million has been
drawn from the Reserve Account to
repay PRGF-ESF Trust lenders," the IMF
paper said.
Zimbabwe
has an external debt of US$5.7 billion which analysts say it
will not be
able to settle.
Some quarters in the inclusive government are
pushing for debt relief
under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative
(HIPC) but analysts say
without a proper planning on loan contraction even
with debt forgiveness,
the country can still find itself hamstrung by
debt.
Observers say Zimbabwe has been a blend country of
International Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the
International Development
Association (IDA) for a number of
years.
Had Zimbabwe not been in arrears it would have had
access to both the
World Bank's long-term interest-free loans and grants
through its IDA
lending window, as well as through the bank's IBRD lending
window, which
charges interest on loans.
A precondition for
HIPC debt relief is that the country should be
classified as an IDA-only
country.
For Zimbabwe, this means it must be reclassified as a
low-income
country and therefore also as an IDA-only country before it is
eligible for
debt relief under the HIPC initiative.
Given
Zimbabwe's re-engagement with the international community, and
with the
necessary political support from the IMF and World Bank boards, a
technical
case could be made to make it eligible for HIPC debt relief,
observers
say.
BY NDAMU SANDU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
16:28
ECONET Wireless' US$115 million investment into network expansion
resulted in Zimbabwe's mobile market penetration rate increasing to 21% as
at August 31. According to Econet board chairman Tawanda Nyambirai this
represented a seven percentage increase from February
figures.
Mobile penetration rate describes the number of active
mobile phone
numbers (usually as a percentage) within a specific
population.
Econet is the largest mobile operator with over two
million
subscribers and accounts for 70% of the mobile market
share.
"The sustained expansion of the network will continue to
close the
mobile penetration rate gap between Zimbabwe and other countries
in the SADC
region," Nyambirai said in a statement accompanying the group's
results for
the half year ended August 31.
In the region,
South Africa leads in the mobile penetration rate at
102% followed by
Botswana at 97%.
The increase in Zimbabwe's penetration rate is
a boon for the
telecommunications sector that endured close to a decade of
underfunding as
a result of the country's deteriorating
economy.
Since the use of multiple currencies in February,
mobile operators
have embarked on network expansion programmes to increase
the subscriber
base.
Nyambirai said Econet tariffs were
pegged at an average of US$0.20 per
minute against a regional average of
US$0.25 per minute.
"Despite the fact that other mobile
operators in the Sadc region have
fully capitalised their networks, their
mobile tariffs are higher than those
for Zimbabwean mobile operators, who
are in need of massive capital
injection," Nyambirai said.
Mascom Botswana charges at US$0.19 per minute and Zain Malawi has the
same
tariffs as Econet at US$0.20 per minute.
MTN Swaziland charges
an average of US$0.21 while Zain Zambia calls
are charged at
US$0.22.
MTN South Africa is more expensive than local
operators charging an
average of US$0.33 per minute.
In its
half year results for the period ending August 31 Econet
declared a dividend
of US$0.08 per share becoming the first company to
declare a dividend since
the use of multiple currencies in February.
Shareholders have
an option to be paid their dividends in either cash
or in the form of
additional shares in the company.
Revenue for the period was
US$131 million mainly driven by an increase
in
subscribers.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
16:26
BULAWAYO - Hwange Colliery Company Limited says it has repaired
its
key machine required for coal mining that stopped operating seven months
ago. HCCL officials said the repair of the dragline financed by a near
US$2.5 million loan will result in an immediate increase in coal
production.
Zimasco Holdings, Zimbabwe's sole ferrochrome
producer, provided part
of the US$2.5 million loan, in a deal that will see
the HCCL provide it with
coal and coke equivalent to its
loan.
"Test runs for the dragline have been carried out as
preparations to
commission the machine which is principally used in opencast
operations
gather momentum.
"Once fully operational, there
will be a significant increase in coal
production thus being able to meet
the needs of both local and foreign
customers," Burzil Dube, the HCCL
spokesperson said. Besides Zimasco, the
government also provided some funds
to facilitate the repair of the
dragline.
Dube however
could not could not shed light on the contribution by the
government.
HCCL last year failed to repair and service the
dragline due to
foreign currency shortages.
The coal miner
has been struggling to produce enough coal for the
domestic market, whose
appetite for the product has grown due to reduced
power output from the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).
Lack of foreign
currency to purchase new mining equipment among other
problems has been
blamed for the company's failure to produce enough coal
for the
market.
The company's equipment has outlived its lifespan as
seen by the
constant breakdowns.
The availability of coal
is seen as key to the resuscitation of local
industries that were forced to
scale down operations or shut down altogether
at the height of the country's
economic meltdown.
Companies were last year pushed to the brink
of closure due to coal
shortages, a critical input in most industries whose
reserves in
Matabeleland North in southern Zimbabwe alone are estimated to
last 500
years.
Local companies resorted to costly imports
from Botswana to mitigate
the effect of domestic supply
constraints.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
16:16
VICTORIA FALLS - The National Social Authority (NSSA) will soon
resume
the construction of a US$12 million hotel in Beitbridge amid doubts
the
facility will be ready for the 2010 soccer World Cup. NSSA is
constructing
the hotel on behalf of the Rainbow Tourism Group and will own
10% of the
business once the project is complete.
Construction work was suspended last year at the height of the country's
worst ever economic meltdown after workers started refusing payment in the
worthless Zimbabwe dollar.
James Matiza, the NSSA chief
executive officer told Standardbusiness
on the sidelines of the recent 27th
edition of the Employers Confederation
of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) congress that the
introduction of the multiple
currencies meant that the environment was now
conducive for work to resume.
"We started work early in 2008
after we awarded a contract to a
construction company to do the bulk of the
work, which included clearing the
ground, clearing the construction site and
road construction," he said.
"The contractor did some work but
as the year was progressing we
started feeling the strain of cash
shortages.
"The contractor said the workers were no longer
willing to accept the
Zimbabwe dollar salaries and a lot of them were
crossing the border into
South Africa." said Matiza.
He
said the contractor gave them the option of paying in fuel coupons
but NSSA
could not source them.
Matiza said after the new currency regime, they
decided to re-engage
contractors to take the project to the next
stage.
"We were now faced with the problem of pricing. They
used the
conversion rate from last year and the project costs were too
high.
"The estimates from the engineer were that the costs for
the projects
will be around US$ 8 million.
"After engagements with
the contractor, we have managed to reduce the
costs to as low as US$ 5,6
million."
Matiza said tenders for the construction of the
superstructure would
be advertised soon and if a suitable contractor is
found before the end of
the year, the hotel might be completed by the end of
2010.
"So this means that the hotel should be operational by
2011," he said.
Zimbabwe is among Southern African countries
waiting to tap into the
influx of tourists during the 2010 tournament that
kicks off in June but
there are concerns that the country does not have
adequate world class
tourism facilities.
BY NKULULEKO
SIBANDA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03
October 2009 16:44
THE reason why the Zanu PF politburo has re-admitted
Jonathan Moyo to
its structures is because the disintegrating party
desperately needs anyone
who will bring even the slightest number of voters
to bolster the shrinking
support base. The embattled former ruling party
has severely been weakened
indirectly by policy bankruptcy and more
directly by its failure to replace
its ageing leadership.
Zanu PF, which has failed to re-invent itself beyond what Moyo did for
the
party when he was the vociferous information minister and politburo
member
between 2000 and 2005, desperately needs the services of a
sabre-rattling
spin doctor who will do better than what the former DJ
currently running the
ministry of information is doing.
From where he stands, Moyo is
in a hurry to vacate his lonely corner
as an independent MP who faces the
clear and present danger of being
defeated in the next general election in
2011 because of the obvious fact
that the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai will
not repeat the unintelligent
mistake of not fielding a candidate in the
Tsholotsho North constituency
which he currently
represents.
Everyone, including Moyo himself, knows that he is
lucky to be a
legislator today and that the only reason why he is part of
the Sixth
Parliament of Zimbabwe is because the MDC naively decided to
support him
instead of fielding its own candidate who could have easily won
the
Matabeleland North constituency.
But more importantly,
after the dramatic but expected collapse of the
1987 Unity Accord and the
re-launch of PF Zapu whose powerbase is in the
Matabeleland region, Zanu PF
urgently needs new legs to stand on in the
region.
When
re-admitted, Moyo, who has a strategic constituency and has no
historical
ties with PF Zapu, will be useful in retaining the critical
Ndebele vote
that PF Zapu is threatening to take away from Zanu PF.
The
re-emergence of PF Zapu under the leadership of former Zanu PF
politburo
member Dumiso Dabengwa and the recent defection by former Zanu PF
stalwart
Thenjiwe Lesabe, who commands considerable respect in the
Matabeleland
region, has shaken the foundations of the former ruling party
to the extent
that its leaders are running scared and clutching at straws.
Moyo, who realises that Zanu PF is in panic mode and alarmed by its
apparent
loss of grip in Matabeleland has characteristically seized this
opportunity
to rejoin Zanu PF with the promise of delivering not only the
Tsholotsho
North constituency to Zanu PF but also pledging to resuscitate
the party's
propaganda machinery which is currently in comatose.
The former
information minister already has crucial supporters within
the Zanu PF
politburo in the form of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa,
politburo
members Didymus Mutasa who had already welcomed Moyo describing
him
variously as patriotic, hard-working and an important asset, even before
the
politburo had made a decision on his application for
re-admission.
John Nkomo, the chairman of Zanu PF and head of
the party's
disciplinary committee, who does not see eye to eye with Moyo
but has a very
dark cloud of sodomy allegations hovering over his head, will
find it
difficult to thwart Moyo's come back. More so because he belongs to
the
emasculated group of former PF Zapu cadres suspected of harbouring
intentions to defect from Zanu PF.
The other reason why
Moyo applied for re-admission into Zanu PF, a
political party he in 2007
described as a dead party full of geriatrics
clinging to power, is because
he sees abundant opportunity to grab power as
well as bounce back as the
party's chief's spin doctor given that Webster
Shamu, the clueless man
chosen by President Mugabe to replace him, has
failed to
deliver.
Another reason why Moyo was re-admitted into Zanu PF
without any
hassle is because he never resigned from Zanu PF in the first
place and has
in fact remained a crucial member of the now influential
faction led by
Mnangagwa which recently emerged stronger from the just-ended
youth league
conference where its candidate, Edson Chakanyuka, from the
Midlands
Province, was elected to the powerful post of deputy secretary of
the youth
league.
Moyo's recent attacks of Prime Minister
Tsvangirai and MDC ministers
is meant to convince both his sympathisers and
detractors in Zanu PF that he
is still part of them by speaking their
language and crying louder than the
bereaved.
That is why
Moyo is making laughable claims about the MDC forming a
parallel government
and compromising national security when in fact it is
President Mugabe who
is guilty of the crimes that Moyo is accusing Prime
Minister Tsvangirai of
committing.
More than anything else it is Moyo's self serving
return to Zanu PF
and his support of President Mugabe's violation of the GPA
that should worry
everyone as this represents the clearest threat to the
cohesion of the
government of national unity and national
stability.
BY JACOB RUKWEZA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03
October 2009 16:40
An old colleague sent me an email on Monday
afternoon. "Maionaka Rule
of Law yamunoswero chemera anaMagaisa?" (Do you
see the Rule of Law that you
always ask for?).
"Ndiyoka
Rule of Law yacho iyi?" (This is the Rule of Law), he
declared
emphatically.
He was of course, referring to the decision
pronounced earlier that
day by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe to grant a
permanent stay of
prosecution in favour of Jestina Mukoko.
The story of Mukoko is not new to followers of the Zimbabwe
story.
Mukoko, a human rights activist, was abducted, kept in
unlawful
custody and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment at the
hands of
state agents. Many other activists (including a toddler and an
elderly
gentleman) suffered a similar fate.
In its
decision, the Supreme Court confirmed that several of Mukoko's
constitutional rights had been violated.
These included
the right to personal liberty (Section 13 of the
constitution), the freedom
against inhuman and degrading treatment (Section
15) and the right to the
protection of the law (Section 18).
These rights are
guaranteed to every individual under the Constitution
of Zimbabwe. Flawed as
it may be, the constitution does provide for the
protection of these
fundamental rights.
"I'm happy for Jestina," I wrote to my
colleague. "I'm happy that this
unnecessary and heavy load has been shifted
from her shoulders by the
Supreme Court".
But I added that
the court had no other choice. It was clear from the
start that the manner
in which Ms Mukoko had been treated violated every law
and principle -
written or unwritten; that indeed, her treatment was a
brutal assault on the
nation's conscience.
It did not even require the law to set
her free.
"Common sense", I wrote, "required that she be
set free". Anything
else would have meant a huge embarrassment for our main
court.
As for the Rule of Law, I thought my colleague had been
too hasty in
his conclusion.
The result of the case has
gone some way towards salvaging the
reputation of our judiciary.
Nevertheless, there is more to the Rule of Law
than a single positive
decision, however monumental it appears. There are
some observations to be
made in this regard:
First, it has taken more than nine months
to decide a matter that
involved a clear and obvious breach of a citizen's
fundamental rights. The
court rightly found that these rights had been
violated. If individual
rights are to mean anything in reality, it is
important that they be
protected upfront or at the very least without undue
delay.
What we have here is a decision which acknowledges that
there were
violations of these rights. Yet, from day one the courts were
approached by
Ms Mukoko's lawyers.
They tried
everything to ensure that there was a cessation of the
violations of Ms
Mukoko's rights. Yet, as I wrote at the time, Ms Mukoko and
her lawyers were
subjected to what were in effect bungee-jumps in the
justice system - a high
speed and chaotic roller-coaster as they moved from
one court to another, to
no avail.
The point is: there was a chance to stop these
unlawful acts against
Ms Mukoko but those opportunities were not taken when
it mattered most.
Constitutionally guaranteed rights can
only make sense when they are
actively safeguarded from violation in the
first place. What good is a right
when it is violated and the protection of
the law is not given when asked
for? Mukoko could well have suffered worse
consequences during the period of
her unlawful custody. She could have
contracted disease; she could have
disappeared forever, indeed, she could
have died.
This case demonstrates how important it is for the
courts to play an
active role in the protection of constitutionally
guaranteed rights. What
the Supreme Court has found is not
new.
In a key but largely unreported judgment, Justice
Hungwe of the High
Court had already made similar observations, chiding the
state agents for
their conduct. This was known and it could have been
stopped ages ago.
Second, if there is to be effective
deterrence against similar conduct
in future, surely those who presided over
the violation of Ms Mukoko's
rights as found by the highest court in the
land, should feel the hand of
the law.
There should be
a clear message that those who commit such actions
against other citizens
should not be beyond the law. The reason why people
act with impunity, as
they did to Ms Mukoko and others in her situation, is
that they know that
they will escape the legal consequences of their
actions.
As it is, whilst there are celebrations in
light of the judgment, it
is easy to forget that there is absolutely nothing
to stop the same or
similar people from taking the same actions against Ms
Mukoko and others now
or in the future.
In other words,
she or someone else could well be abducted and
subjected to inhuman and
degrading treatment just as it happened in December
last
year.
One way to deter such conduct is to place legal
responsibility upon
the shoulders of the perpetrators of these hideous
acts.
This therefore, presents a key challenge to one of the
most disputed
offices in Zimbabwe - the Attorney-General's
Office.
How will the incumbent, Mr Tomana handle this one?
The highest court
in the land has found conclusively that Ms Mukoko's rights
were violated.
They were not violated by objects from outer
space.
These actions were taken by Zimbabweans who
presumably are known.
There is a key witness, Ms Mukoko
herself.
Ideally, one would think that this is a case where the
Attorney
General, the most senior state lawyer entrusted with powers to
prosecute
criminals would have taken swift action to ensure that
perpetrators are
brought to book.
Section 76 (4a) of the
Constitution empowers the Attorney General to
require the
Commissioner-General of Police to commence investigations in
matters where
in the Attorney General's opinion relate to any
alleged/suspected criminal
offence.
The Commissioner General is peremptorily required
to comply with that
instruction. So the powers are there but whether or not
they are invoked is
another matter but one that surely tests very severely
the commitment of the
prosecuting authorities to the Rule of
Law.
Indeed, if the alleged theft of a cell-phone caused
the hand of the
law to move so swiftly, one would expect that the serious
violation of
constitutional rights as found by the country's biggest court
would be
enough to cause that hand of the law to move at twice the speed, if
not
more.
There is another issue in relation to a number of
other persons who
suffered the same fate as Ms Mukoko.
I am advised that these persons were not co-parties to the application
by Ms
Mukoko. This means the decision directly affects Ms Mukoko but not the
others, whose cases remain pending before the High Court. If my
understanding is correct, this means these individual cases must be dealt
with by the Supreme Court before a stay of prosecution can be
granted.
I am not sure why the cases were not joined with that
of Ms Mukoko but
I suppose there were practical reasons for the approach
taken.
In any event, Ms Mukoko's case is now a firm
precedent which should
apply to all these cases. Given this scenario, you
would think that the
prosecution authorities would see sense and withdraw
the charges.
Certainly, the AG's office should be
considering this very seriously
if only to avoid further
embarrassment.
More importantly, where a Supreme Court
has made such an important
decision implicating agents of the state, you
would expect normal standards
of professionalism and decency to prevail
amongst those in charge of those
state agents.
Surely,
there can be no worse or more serious an indictment against
responsible
authorities than a decision by the highest court in the land
which
demonstrates impunity on the part of those organs.
In any
normal system, heads of those state organs would have been too
embarrassed
to remain in office.
They would tender their resignations
for failing to keep proper watch
of their charges. In other words, they
would take responsibility seriously.
And if they don't have the decency to
do so, their superiors would kindly
ask them to resign.
Alex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law School, the University of Kent and
can be
contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 03 October 2009
16:38
JONATHAN Moyo is back in Zanu PF! The politburo endorsed his
return
from the political wilderness on Thursday evening. That Moyo would
return
was never in doubt following his application for
readmission.
What however remains a subject of conjecture
is the role the prodigal
Zanu PF son will play in giving the sagging and
rotten edifice of Zanu PF a
makeover.
Before he left the
then ruling party after the Tsholotsho debacle, he
was a propagandist par
excellence for Zanu PF.
Earlier there had been suggestions that
Moyo would have to return to
cell level, which is the smallest unit of the
party. However, according to
The Herald, the politburo did not decide what
position Moyo would assume.
What is not surprising though is
that there are many in Zanu PF who
believe Moyo deserves a higher and more
influential position which would
enable him to launch missiles at Zanu PF's
enemies. Patrick Chinamasa has
hinted at a more elevated
role.
Neither he nor Didymus Mutasa could hide their excitement
when Moyo
applied to rejoin Zanu PF.
It is not difficult to
see why they consider him an asset. Moyo has
proved himself in the business
of attacking opponents, real or perceived. It's
a skill that is badly
lacking in Zanu PF at the moment. He also showed he
could be ruthless in
dealing with media organisations that criticise Zanu
PF.
The old guard appears to be clueless about how to advance the Zanu PF
agenda
following the formation of the inclusive government. It has been on
the
defensive since day one.
The truth of the matter is Zanu PF has
welcomed back Moyo into their
fold because they think he could be used again
to attack the MDC-T and work
out a strategy to rescue Zanu PF from being
completely eclipsed. The timing
of Moyo's re-admission is
crucial.
With the MDC-T weakening Zanu PF from inside the
government, some in
the party think Moyo, a political science professor,
might come to their
rescue.
While working outside the
party, Moyo has already proved that he, and
nobody else in Zanu PF, has the
ability to make effective attacks on the
MDC-T.
Just recently he alleged the MDC-T was running a parallel government
structure where civil servants were paid super salaries, thanks to the World
Bank.
Moyo's accusations caught the MDC-T flat footed and
the party is yet
to properly rebut his claims, although frankly most people
would probably
agree with the policy of keeping money out of Zanu PF's
hands.
Moyo appears to be relishing the prospect of a fight
with the MDC-T,
which ironically granted him a reprieve in Tsholotsho when
he was allowed to
run uncontested.
While he is right in
arguing that it is his democratic right to rejoin
Zanu PF, this right is
almost certain to impinge on the rights of others.
For journalists and human
rights defenders Moyo's return could be an ominous
sign of what is to
follow. The era of vitriolic attacks against the media
may be
back!
And worryingly, it's not just Moyo who is returning.
Tafataona Mahoso,
who helped Moyo in silencing the media, is also
back.
The former MIC boss has landed another job as BAZ
chair.
The two form a lethal combination for the media which
had hoped for
reform and growth after encouraging signs from the inclusive
government. A
number of newspaper projects await licensing while the
minister twiddles his
thumbs.
These latest moves confirm
that the government is not serious about
media reform and will resort to
opportunists like these to cling to power.
There is only one consolation in
all this.
Despite their menaces and blandishments,
Zimbabwean voters have
unambiguously rejected their insistent claims over
the past 10 years. They
are essentially failures and nothing is going to
change that now.
| Saturday, 03 October 2009 15:45 |
|
Sheila Jarvis, a Legal Practitioner, responds to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa’s full page adverts defending his decision to pull Zimbabwe out of the SADC Tribunal. Despite using government’s coat of arms, Patrick Chinamasa had no authority to say Sadc Tribunal and the 2001 Treaty Amendment were illegally in operation. Both claims departed from established government positions. It is inherently improbable all the Sadc leaders plus advisors would have overlooked requirements Chinamasa [PC hereafter] claims to have belatedly noticed. It is insulting to claim they did so.
Ten Tribunal members, including Zimbabwe’s nominee, were appointed by 2005’s Summit and sworn in. The Zimbabwean Justice Guvava is on the Tribunal reserve bench but is the only female appointed, making it highly regrettable that PC now demands she withdraw. She sits on it not as a Government delegate but as an independent judge of an independent regional Tribunal. Article 17.2 in the Sadc Treaty states that Tribunal members “shall not seek or receive any instructions from any Member States”.
His late and novel arguments are incomplete and insincere; and, unless his Principal or the Inclusive Government is ready to pull out of 2001’s new Institutions and send MDC economic ministers to Sadc’s Council of Ministers, instead of ZANU’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, they fall down at their first hurdle. |
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by NEVER CHANDA
Friday, 02 October 2009 15:01
Prime Minister Tsvangirai - Hungry
villagers forced to denounce his
MDC party before they can get
food.
HARARE - Hundreds of hungry Zimbabwean villagers are being denied
food
handouts and forced to denounce their own parties in return for
assistance
as marauding Zanu (PF) militants continue to wage war of
attrition against
perceived political enemies, a new report by the Zimbabwe
Peace Project
(ZPP) revealed last week.
ZPP said of the 1 335
incidents of political violations recorded
during the month of July, about
493 cases or 37 percent were of people who
were harassed, intimidated or
physically assaulted while trying to access
food assistance.
"Incidents of harassment, discrimination, and violence continue to
haunt the
distribution of humanitarian and food assistance," read part of
the ZPP
report.
About 44 percent of the cases involved discriminations in areas
relating to food relief, government subsidised food, tillage support, input
distribution and medical treatment while 42 percent were harassments
involving incidents in which people were forced to chant slogans, denounce
their parties, attend political meetings and produce party cards.
Another 14 percent of the cases involved the use of violence in the
form of
physical attacks, malicious damage to property and sexual abuse.
The
worst affected provinces were Mashonaland West and Midlands where
135
incidents were recorded apiece, followed by Mashonaland East with 96
cases
and Manicaland with 64 incidents.
Harassments and denials to food and
humanitarian assistance sourced
from non-governmental organisations were
prevalent in the Midlands.
The harassments involved cases in which
people were forced to denounce
their own parties and forced to produce party
cards or attend political
meetings.
In Mashonaland West,
humanitarian and food relief interventions were
generally viewed with
suspicion and closely monitored by war veterans and
Zanu (PF)
officials.
ZPP said a cumulative total of 10 328 political violations
were
recorded between January and July 2009, of which 5 308 were
harassments, 2
323 assaults, 500 displacements and 225 malicious damage to
property.
"Harassment and discrimination remain disturbingly on the
high side, a
pointer to low tolerance to people expressing their views on
national issues
such as the constitution making process, the national
healing process,
outstanding issues and the inclusive government in
general," the
organisation said.
It urged the three parties to the
inclusive government to have "a
pressing mandate to sell the zero-tolerance
to human rights abuses message
to their structures at both the macro and
micro levels of society".
ZPP noted that the three peace days declared
by President Robert
Mugabe in July to promote national healing should herald
the unfolding of
national programmes encompassing truth, forgiveness,
justice and
compensation that are more robust.
"For justice to be
seen working, ZPP recommends that those who
committed murder should be
arrested while those who had their property and
livestock should be
compensated," it said.
Some of the alleged murderers have been
recruited as teachers at
schools in areas where they terrorised villagers
during last year's disputed
presidential elections.
ZPP called on
the local leadership and the church to be actively
involved in the
enforcement of the healing process, noting that "simply
asking people to
forgive is merely postponing problems as they are poised to
resurface"
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Talks ongoing
between African Consolidated Resources and Harare over site
where 200 may
have died
Ian Evans in Cape Town
The Observer, Sunday 4 October
2009
THE British owners of a Zimbabwean mine at the centre of "blood
diamond"
allegations say they are still in tentative negotiations with
Robert
Mugabe's government about re-taking ownership of the
field.
Aim-listed African Consolidated Resources bought mining rights to
the
Marange diamond fields in February 2006 but was evicted eight months
later.
That prompted illegal public mining of the site, followed by a
violent and
bloody backlash by the Zimbabwean military in which it is
alleged 200 people
were killed.
After it was evicted, ACR launched a
legal battle to challenge the decision
and regain control of the
100,000-acre field. Last week, it won its case in
the Zimbabwe high court
when Justice Charles Hungwe told the state-owned
Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation, now in possession of the site, to
stop mining the fields, and
ordered the power-sharing government to restore
ownership to the
firm.
The court decision represents a significant victory for ACR, which
says it
wants to set up a joint venture with the government. But the
administration
has signalled that it may appeal; it had drawn up a shortlist
of two unnamed
foreign mining firms which it wants to run the mines instead.
ACR finance
director Roy Tucker said: "It's a sensitive issue and we have to
be careful
what is said about this. There have been talks with officials and
we hope
there will be a resolution in weeks, not months."
Following
ACR's departure from the site in 2006, thousands of amateur
prospectors
descended on Chiadzwa in the Marange district. Men and women
armed with
spades and sieves dug wherever they wanted, overseen by local
police taking
bribes. However, concerned that the government was not getting
a cut,
President Mugabe sent in army, police and security agents to re-take
the
site.
The crackdown saw widespread arrests, beatings and killings of
anyone
suspected of involvement in unsanctioned diamond mining or smuggling.
Soldiers threw up a massive cordon around the diamond fields as the military
were given free rein in return for wealth and, some say, continued support
for the Mugabe regime.
On 26 June, the New York-based pressure group
Human Rights Watch cited
accounts from more than 100 witnesses, miners,
police officers, soldiers and
children alleging human rights abuses by
troops. It said its researchers had
gathered evidence of mass graves and
accounts of an incident in which
military helicopters fired on miners while
armed soldiers on the ground
chased villagers away.
The military are
now accused of press-ganging local people to mine for them
in return for a
pittance. Villages and towns deemed too close to the diamond
fields were
demolished and their residents forced to move away.
At the height of the
mini-boom and before the military crackdown, the nearby
city of Mutare, 60
miles north, was seen as a "wild west" town with
cash-rich miners flaunting
their wealth in new goods, cars and US dollars.
The diamonds would be
smuggled out through the nearby Mozambique border
where dealers from
Lebanon, Belgium, Iraq, Mauritania and the Balkans were
waiting to buy in
cash.
Monitors from the Kimberley Process, an international watchdog on
diamond
mining, visited the area in the summer to investigate the "blood
diamond"
claims. The term usually refers to diamonds mined in conflict
areas, the
profits from which are used to finance war, insurgency or
violence.
However the working party that visited Marange at the start of
July has so
far failed to make a public recommendation on whether Zimbabwe
should be
suspended from its certification process. Bernhard Esau, chairman
of the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, said last month: "The team
provided
the KPCS and Zimbabwe with an interim update in July but is yet to
produce
its final report. No final decision has yet been taken. The chairman
has not
made any unilateral decision on Zimbabwe and there was no attempt to
pre-empt KPCS procedures."
After the July visit, Zimbabwe's official
Herald newspaper said troops would
withdraw from the area, but there have
been no reports that this has taken
place.
ACR's Tucker said: "We
want to get back on site, which will need improved
security and transparency
of operations. That means no illegal business or
side deals.
"There's
been a lot of coverage on what's happened in Marange and the
Kimberley
Process but we want to manage it in a proper way. At one stage
there were
15,000 people mining there with picks and shovels, digging holes
to get at
the diamonds."
ACR gained property rights to the area after De Beers let
its licence
expire. Tucker said that diamonds at the mine were "frosted",
giving the
impression that they were less valuable industrial-grade
diamonds.
He added: "We think others missed a trick - we knew their real
worth, but
we've never been able to mine there. We're still waiting on the
full
judgment from the court, but we hope we can resolve the issue with the
government. We'll have to fulfil some spending obligations at the mine, but
we think that can be sorted."
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Zimbabwean
Friday,
02 October 2009 17:30
HARARE - The is government is appealing against a
ruling by the Harare
High Court more than a week confirming UK-based mining
firm African
Consolidated Resources Plc (ACR)'s right of title to claims on
the notorious
Marange diamond field, according to Mines Minister Obert Mpofu
(Pictured).
"We have appealed against that judgment, that is what
the AG (Attorney
General) has been working on. That is the government
position," Mpofu told a
Zimbabwean news website last Thursday.
Mpofu, a stalwart of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party that is
in a
power-sharing government with the former opposition MDC parties, would
not
say when exactly the appeal was lodged with the Supreme Court that is
Zimbabwe's highest court of law.
He referred questions on the
matter to AG Johannes Tomana, who was not
immediately available for
comment.
In a statement following its court victory more than a week
ago, ACR
said it was committed to "dialogue with the Zimbabwe government",
in what
the market saw as an olive branch suggesting the UK firm's could be
willing
to partner the government in extracting the Marange
deposits.
The Harare government seized the Marange diamond field from
ACR in
October 2006 and allocated the claim to the state-owned Zimbabwe
Mining
Development Corporation.
The government moved into the
controversial diamond field after
thousands of illegal miners descended on
Marange, which ACR had held for
some time but apparently without any
production.
A team from the Kimberley Process Certification System
(KPCS) that
visited Zimbabwe last June called for a temporary ban on trade
in diamonds
from Marange after unearthing gross human rights violations and
other
illegal activities at the diamond field allegedly committed by the
army.
Mugabe sent the army to Marange in 2008 to flush out illegal
miners
and dealers from the diamond field. But human rights groups have
accused
security forces of using brutal force to take control of the diamond
field
and later forcing villagers to illegally mine the diamonds for resale
on the
black market for precious minerals.
However the army and
police have refused to leave Marange while Harare
denies allegations of
human rights abuses and says calls to ban diamonds
from the controversial
diamond field were unjustified because Zimbabwe was
not involved in a war or
armed conflict.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by NEVER CHANDA
Friday, 02 October 2009 17:08
HARARE - Zanu (PF) hawks are baying for
the blood of Speaker of
Parliament Lovemore Moyo under an elaborate plan to
discredit the former
opposition Movement for Democratic Change and reduce
its control of the
House of Assembly, The Zimbabwean On Sunday learnt last
week. (Pictured:
Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo)
Intelligence sources said Moyo was the next target of the Zanu (PF)
plan
that had already seen more than 10 legislators from the MDC led by
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai being arrested for various crimes ranging
from
petty thefts and rape to inciting public violence and playing protest
music.
The sources said the latest stage of the plan would
target and tarnish
the MDC heavyweights, starting with Moyo before moving to
the party's vice
president Thokozani Khupe, secretary general and finally
Tsvangirai.
"Officers have been assigned to monitor the activities
of the MDC top
four. The ultimate goal is to ensure that targets are
destroyed as a
credible force," said a Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) operative
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Moyo got a
taste of the well-oiled Zanu (PF) scheme - which also
includes a partisan
state media - when details of his 12-month stay in a
five-star Harare hotel
were splashed in the press last week.
It is alleged that Moyo had
been staying at the luxury Meikles Hotel
for US$6 000 a month since he took
over as Speaker of the House at the end
of August last year and only checked
out at the beginning of September this
year after Parliament secured a house
to rent for him at US$1 800 per month.
The state media also alleges
that before Moyo moved out of the plush
hotel, the ministry of finance
bought the Speaker furniture worth US$30 000
for his house.
The
CIO source said more dirty details would soon emerge about Moyo,
with the
ultimate goal of ejecting him from his position as Speaker of
Parliament and
installing someone acceptable to Zanu (PF).
Zanu (PF), with the
assistance of independent Member of Parliament
Jonathan Moyo, has been
pushing for the nullification of Lovemore Moyo's
election as Speaker on the
grounds that the poll was flawed because the
secret ballot papers were
revealed to other legislators.
The MDC chairman beat former
parliamentarian Paul Themba-Nyathi, whose
candidacy for the Speaker's post
was sponsored by his party, the breakaway
faction of the MDC led by
Mutambara. He enjoyed the full backing of
President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF.
The legal challenge means the MDC's control of Parliament
stands
doubtful in the face of the constitutional court challenge against
the
election of its national chairman which the applicants claim was in
contravention of Article 6 of the Parliamentary Standing
Orders.
Moyo was elected Speaker by a surprising 110 votes to the
98 clinched
by Themba-Nyathi, following a surprise change in allegiance on
the part of
the 10 MPs representing the breakaway faction of the MDC as
parliamentarians
cast their ballot.
The High Court has
indefinitely reserved judgement in the case.
With elections
expected in two years, the Zanu (PF) machinery is
working at full throttle
to position the former ruling party for a comeback
after the sensational
defeat at the hands of the MDC in last year's
harmonised polls.
"The plot goes beyond digging unpleasant personal details of key MDC
figures
but also dragging them into one crisis after another on the economic
front
so that they lose all credibility among their supporters and backers,"
the
CIO source said.
The revelations of the Zanu (PF) plot came a few
weeks after the
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe told our sister
paper, The Zimbabwean
On Tuesday, that CIO operatives and militias linked to
the former ruling
party were forcing its members to join a strike organised
by the rival
Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA).
The
industrial action was later called off last month after ZIMTA
reached an
agreement with the government.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Editor
Friday, 02 October
2009 10:57
Nothing demonstrates the increasingly delinquent behavior of
the unity
government than its decision last week to hold yet another
conference to
discuss a national task that requires urgent action and real
solutions not
more slogans and cheap talk.
The government, with
support from the World Bank, held last Wednesday
and Thursday the so-called
National Agriculture Conference to "review the
status of the agricultural
sector and map out a strategy for agricultural
recovery in the short to
medium term". What rank madness?
What agricultural recovery is
there to talk about when hired thugs
masquerading as war veterans are
allowed to roam the countryside looting
commercial farms and evicting some
of the country's most capable food
growers under the pretext of land
reform?
Does it not follow that recovery of agriculture and food
production
can only happen in conditions of peace, law and order. The urgent
task of
the day is for the government to arrest and jail the paid hoodlums
disrupting planting operations across the country so that farmers can grow
food in peace.
Sitting all day in air-conditioned conference
rooms, drinking endless
cups of tea and pontificating about agriculture
while Zanu (PF) thugs are
busy invading farms is gross incompetence
bordering on the criminal.
Elsewhere in the world, no government
would last another day in office
with this sort of dereliction of duty that
we are seeing from the
administration of Messrs Robert Mugabe, Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara.
And when you consider the fact
that national army soldiers have been
deployed on farms - as is the case at
Charles Lock's Karori Farm in
Headlands - with the sole order to stop
farming operations, then it is hard
to avoid the conclusion that the unity
government is headed for dismal
failure on all the important
fronts.
The government cannot resuscitate agriculture under
prevailing
conditions and therefore it cannot revive the
economy.
Forget all talk about the government having been able to
stabilise the
economy or last week's projections by the International
Monetary Fund that
Zimbabwe's economy would grow by 3.7 percent this year.
It is unsustainable
when anarchy reigns supreme in the agricultural sector,
the bedrock of
Zimbabwe's economy.
As with agriculture and the
economy the government also looks destined
to fail on constitutional reforms
that are probably the most important of
all the tasks that this
administration must fulfill.
It is clear from all the dithering and
quarrelling among the parties
that the reforms are either going to flop
completely or produce a compromise
document authored by the three main
political parties that will have little
to do with furthering the rights of
Zimbabweans or improving the way the
country is governed. Both are
undesirable outcomes.
Yet this government - the first in many years
to enjoy the support of
nearly all Zimbabweans - could achieve so much if
only they could get out of
the conference rooms and begin to do some work
like all of us are trying to
do.