Harare, April 16, 2012 - Twenty one people died in a bus accident along the Masvingo-Beitbridge road on Monday morning after the bus they were travelling in overturned, police confirmed.
The accident
occurred around 2 am at the 92 kilometre peg along the Masvingo-Beitbridge road.
Several people were injured in the accident and were being ferried to Masvingo
General hospital and other clinics in the area.
The bus has been named
as Mega-Link. Masvingo police spokesperson, Inspector Tinaye Matake said he will
provide more details after the police finish their
investigations.
Dozens of fatal accidents killing hundreds of people
along the Harare-Beitbridge road which is the busiest in the country have been
witnessed over the past years. The road which is yet to be dualised is busy with
traffic which goes to South Africa as well as other regional countries like
Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.
Several accidents involving Mhunga Bus
Company over the years resulted in the bus company being temporarily being
suspended from operating.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai lost his wife
Susan when his car was involved in an accident along the Harare-Beitbridge road
in 2009.
http://www.africalegalbrief.com
Monday, 16 April
2012 00:09
Secretary for land reforms and resettlement Cde Ignatius
ChomboThe Zimbabwe
government will never allow white former commercial
farmers ousted under the
Land Reform Programme to return, Zanu-PF secretary
for land reforms and
resettlement Cde Ignatius Chombo has said.Addressing
journalists in Harare
last week, Cde Chombo said the land reform programme
was irreversible.
He said Zimbabweans owning the land should drive Zimbabwe’s
economy without
interference from the white farmers.
“Some quarters, both
local and international, continue to entertain the
possibility of the return
of the white settler farmers to the land
appropriated in terms of the laws
of Zimbabwe for equitable redistribution
to the indigenous people of
Zimbabwe,” he said.
“Our people are now on the land and are committed to
ensure optimum
utilisation of this valuable Zimbabwean resource.” Cde
Cho-mbo said Zimbabwe
was beginning to reap the fruits of the land
reform.
“After the land reform programme, we have seen a transformation in
our
agricultural sector with numerous success stories in tobacco, cotton,
livestock and even horticultural sectors,” he said.
“We need not remind
our detractors that people went to war in order to
reclaim, not just our
independence but also our land.”
He said it was “wishful thinking” for
people to imagine that whites would be
given a chance to appropriate the
land.
Also the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement will this
year
conduct a farm-by-farm audit to establish the extent of the challenges
resettled farmers are facing.
Acting Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement
Minister Joseph Made told
Parliament recently that the verification
programme will help Government
come up with proper policies for resettled
farmers.
To date, a total of 145 775 A1 and 18 289 A2 farmers have benefited
from
land reform.
“In its day-to-day operations, the ministry has
established that farmers are
facing various challenges which interfere with
farm productivity and farm
utilisation.
“Financial support to farming
operations is very limited from financial
institutions,” Minister Made
said.
He said farmers faced various challenges from erratic power supply to
inadequate extension services and poor infrastructure.
Minister Made said
the farm-by-farm verification programme will replace a
larger land audit due
to lack of finances.
“These are issues which would have been captured in the
proposed national
land audit had funding been provided for its
implementation. In the absence
of funding for a larger land audit, the
ministry plans to carry out
verification assessments on a farm-by-farm
basis.
“If resources are availed to the ministry, the plan is to do
verification
assessments on a farm-by-farm basis to
establish
specific challenges per farmer, land utilisation and productivity
trends per
farm and assess land uptake per farm,” he said. Resettled farmers
have
defied odds by increasing yields despite facing many challenges. Last
year,
Finance Minister Tendai Biti told the House of Assembly that major
crops had
recorded increased yields with the exception of tea and coffee.
Government is
however, working on three to five years rolling financing plan
for farmers
that will do away with the ad-hoc preparations, which have
resulted in the
late disbursement of inputs.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
16 April
2012
The release of the final draft constitution is being held up by
disagreements over some contentious issues in the new charter, SW Radio
Africa learned on Monday. COPAC had promised earlier this month that a draft
constitution would be ready soon after the Easter break.
A highly
placed source told us they expect the six-member COPAC management
committee
to meet sometime at the beginning of this week.
The same body met a week
ago but failed to agree on the devolution of power,
the Executive structure
and dual citizenship.
‘The latest stalemate can be blamed on ZANU PF.
They are not speaking with
one voice because of serious infighting. Another
reason is that they are
damn scared of elections. COPAC has finished
drafting the new charter, but
its not presentable to the principals if not
complete. There needs to be
consensus on the three issues in dispute, or the
unresolved issues mean a
delay in presenting a draft of the constitution to
the three principals,’
our source said.
Our correspondent in Harare,
Simon Muchemwa, said factionalism in ZANU PF is
now playing a big part in
the delay in releasing the draft to the public.
‘There is a faction in
ZANU PF that wants the death penalty to be included
in the new charter and
another that is against it. You have two factions
that are literally worlds
apart over dual citizenship and devolution. The
problem with these factional
fights is that these people are not looking at
30 to 40 years from now, but
what they stand to gain from issues arising
from the constitution. This is
why you have certain individuals from these
factions pushing their own
agendas,’ Muchemwa said.
Our correspondent said if the management
committee declares a deadlock on
the problematic issues, the principals
might be roped in to try and bridge
their differences.
The committee
members from the three parties are Tendai Biti and Elton
Mangoma of the
MDC-T, ZANU PF’s Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche and
MDC-N’s Moses
Mzila-Ndlovu and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Written by Maxwell Sibanda, Assistant
Editor
Monday, 16 April 2012 14:47
HARARE - As the debate
continues on the constitution-making process, with
the draft expected this
week, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)
has been giving acres of
space to Zanu PF sympathisers who have been
attacking Copac.
Copac is
the parliamentary body driving the writing of a new constitution
which is
expected to lay a key foundation for future credible elections
after the
disputed 2008 poll.
In a recent programme on ZTV, African Pride,
Tafataona Mahoso charged that
Copac was becoming a provocation that should
be stopped.
Mahoso said the views captured by Copac in the draft document
were actually
to please foreigners who had given them money.
“They
are going back to people who have given them money and saying look, we
have
included what you wanted in the constitution. “And not what the people
want.
“The people’s views have not been included at all in the draft
constitution.
The drafters are faithful to their donors, the EU, Britain,
America and
USAid, hence the draft contains aspects that protect whites’
interests,”
said Mahoso.
He said Copac has become a provocation at a
time people should be fighting
cholera, sanctions and the ban in diamonds
sale.
Mahoso said the government of national unity was created as a
two-year
compromise which after the expiry of this time framework was
supposed to go
back to consult.
“They haven’t gone back to consult
and instead they are continually
extending its term. They are creating one
comprise after another. Now they
want to create another comprise in which
they will write a constitution
meant to last for six years only.”
He
dismissed the idea of taking the constitution draft back to the people
for a
referendum.
“Why should they go back to the people who have already given
them their
views? What referendum when they have the people’s
views.”
Another panellist, Vimbai Chivaura said Copac was trying to
create a
platform of violence through the draft document.
He singled
out the West as trying to fan confusion through the draft saying
they were
itching for violence.
“If they indeed captured the views of the people,
why are they saying it
should go to a referendum? Are they not trying to
create a platform of
violence, so that there won’t be elections?”
He
said Copac was actually taking a draft document to the people but without
their views.
“They want to expose the people to violence. That is
their aim.”
Chivaura said it was easy to see that Copac was itching for
violence.
“By including gay rights and white ideas, they are creating a
scenario that
will make it difficult to hold elections. The draft clearly
doesn’t contain
people’s views and going to a referendum is wasting people’s
time.”
Chivaura said the drafters were there to produce a document that
will help
facilitate “regime change and restore white rights and
issues.
“Anything that we said is not in that document. People can go
through it and
see if there is anything they said. “There is
nothing.”
Mahoso said the way forward now was to use the law that exists.
“There is a
law that exists now and it is better we use it than that which
does not
exist.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
16 April
2012
There have been unprecedented demonstrations by hundreds of ZANU PF
supporters against their party chairman in Manicaland province, over alleged
imposition of candidates.
The demonstrators have been camped at the
ZANU PF headquarters in Mutare
since Sunday night and have vowed that they
will not leave until Mike Madiro
the chairman is ousted from his
position.
The party held its District Coordinating Committees elections
over the
weekend in five districts where the party chairman is alleged to
have
imposed a number of candidates from the Emmerson Mnangagwa
faction.
Madiro also went around the province de-campaigning candidates
linked to the
Joice Mujuru faction. A Mutare based journalist told SW Radio
Africa on
Monday that Madiro is well known for his close links with Defence
Minister
Mnangagwa.
He was also one of those senior party members
suspended from ZANU PF for
taking part in the controversial Tsholotsho
meeting in 2004 where allegedly
a coup was plotted against Robert Mugabe.
This group of party ‘renegades’
was re-admitted to the party following ZANU
PF’s dismal showing in the 2008
elections.
The battle for control in
Manicaland is pitting Madiro against the party’s
deputy secretary for
information and publicity in the province, Charles
Samuriwo. There are
reports Samuriwo resigned from his position on Wednesday
last week, citing
irreconcilable differences with Madiro and other members
of the
executive
It is believed Samuriwo, with support from party heavyweight
Didymus Mutasa,
is leading a spirited campaign to have the weekend elections
declared null
and void. There are allegations that where candidates from the
Mujuru
faction came out victors, results were immediately annulled, a
situation
that helped spark the current crisis.
‘I can tell you
without doubt that those people (Madiro and Samuriwo) are
the worst of
enemies now. The factional infighting has been building for
some time and
there has always been tension between the two camps so events
over the
weekend brought their differences into the open. Demonstrators
outside the
party headquarters are saying they want the national leadership
to see how
the elections were rigged by Madiro to favour the Mnangagwa camp.
After
that, they want Madiro and his executive to step down for setting in
motion
events that have left the party in tatters in the province,’ the
journalist
said.
Police in Mutare have not dared to intervene and there are
indications the
fight is far from over as Madiro hit back at his detractors,
saying he will
not step down.
‘Madiro is making it clear he will not
step down and wants those responsible
for the protests to appear before a
disciplinary hearing for bringing the
party’s name in disrepute,’ the
journalist added.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
16
April 2012
An elderly Zimbabwean farmer has died as a result of injuries
sustained
during a violent attack in his Guruve home last year, which left
him in
fighting for his life in hospital.
Bobby Ervine, who was 77
when he was attacked last October, never recovered
from the assault and
passed away last weekend.
The motive for the attack remains unknown and
although some arrests were
made in the aftermath of the incident, there has
been no finality to the
case.
At the time it was reported that two
men attacked Ervine on his property one
night in late October, hitting him
over the head with a garden hoe. He
collapsed and while he was unconscious
the two men tied up his wife Barbara
and threatened her, demanding to know
where there was money.
The men ransacked the house, breaking open all of
the cupboards and drawers
and eventually fled with US$40 in cash plus a
small roll of uncounted US$1
bills. They also took two cell phones and
clothing including shoes, T-shirts
and a jacket.
Ervine’s wife was
eventually able to untie herself and call for help. Bobby
was taken to
hospital and had remained in a very serious condition ever
since.
Charles Taffs the President of the Commercial Farmers Union
(CFU) told SW
Radio Africa that the death is “tragic” and “unnecessary”,
saying it has
“undermined the confidence of farmers in the area which is
already very
unsettled.”
The Guruve area was last year hit by a spate
of house robberies targeting
mainly white farming families. In one of the
incidents, just a month before
Ervine was attacked, farmer Colin Zietsman
and his wife were also attacked
in their home. Zietsman died on the
property.
Taffs explained that the impunity seen in these attacks is a
result of the
land grab campaign, explaining that “people think they can act
with impunity
when they hide behind the tag of so called land
reform.”
“It is almost 32 years after independence and still this is
allowed to
happen. The situation on farm remains completely unsettled and it
needs to
stop,” Taffs said.
http://www.radiovop.com
Criswell Chisa Hurungwe, April 16, 2012 -
Tensions are high between Chief
Chundu and the people because of his
allegiance to Zanu (PF) and forcibly
grabbing a council seat left vacant
when Paddington Chavhuruma of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T)
died in 2010.
Villagers in the area are not happy that the chief imposed
himself as
councillor because the people wanted Shadreck
Chirimezani.
Pearson Matanda and Bernard Kapita said the chief had
threatened to evict
MDC supporters from his area.
Commenting on the
issue, the chief said: "Anyone who was brought up
traditionally cannot go
against their leaders and my subjects must follow
that. Zanu PF is our
party."
Zanu (PF) has managed to lure many chiefs to its side by
offering them
incentives such as cars and allowances.
Hurugwe council
executive officer Misheck Moyo said a by-election for the
seat will be held.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Written by Pindai Dube
Monday, 16
April 2012 14:52
BULAWAYO - Zanu PF’s plans to rig the forthcoming
elections are already in
motion, with a voters’ roll that is in shambles
being the trump card,
according to a spokesperson for Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s MDC
party.
Addressing journalists at the Bulawayo
Press Club on voter secrecy in
Zimbabwe, MDC deputy national spokesperson
Tabitha Khumalo claimed there
were more names of non-existent people
appearing on the voters’ roll than
those alive.
“They have rigged the
elections already. If you check the voters’ roll today
you will realise that
there are more names of people not existing than those
existing. Even in my
constituency, Bulawayo East, there are strange people
listed on our
addresses. For example on my home address there are 11 people
whom I don’t
know. That is rubbish,” said Khumalo.
Khumalo said the MDC will push for
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec)
secretariat to be reshuffled before
any elections are held.
Both President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai agree
on the need for elections.
But they differ on the timing, with Mugabe
insisting polls should proceed
this year under prevailing conditions.
Tsvangirai says reforms such as a new
constitution must be completed before
an election is held.
“The Zec secretariat is full of Zanu PF activists,
government spy agents and
some army officers. So before any elections are
held, it should be
reshuffled,” said Khumalo.
Speaking during the
same occasion, Zapu national secretary for legal and
special affairs Steven
Nkiwane described registrar general Tobaiwa Mudede as
an “incompetent liar
and a Zanu PF activist” who should not be part and
parcel of any electoral
process in Zimbabwe.
“His office should be detached from conducting voter
registration in
Zimbabwe, and he is also a Zanu PF member,” said
Nkiwane.
“When we met him last year in Kadoma during the constitutional
outreach
programme, he told us voter registration has begun countrywide. But
that is
a lie because right now if you visit any of his offices countrywide
they
will tell you that the voter registration process for next elections
has
not started,” said Nkiwane.
Zimbabwe’s elections have in the past
been blighted by violence and charges
of vote rigging, resulting in the
European Union, United States and other
Western countries slapping sanctions
on Mugabe, senior members of his party,
security commanders and business
associates.
http://af.reuters.com/
Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:56pm
GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe and David
Dolan
HARARE/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nicknamed "Tyson", Zimbabwe
Empowerment
Minister Saviour Kasukuwere doesn't shrink from a fight when it
comes to
taking on foreign companies that own mineral rights in his
country.
"Somebody has to get them to understand the message," the man
who has forced
global miners to give up majority stakes in their Zimbabwe
operations, told
the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in Johannesburg on
Monday.
"You can't continue with that old mentality of islands of
prosperity and
seas of poverty, it just can't work any more. When we talk to
these
companies, we are not being malicious or cruel, we are making them see
the
reality," said Kasukuwere, who takes his nickname from the U.S.
heavyweight
boxer Mike Tyson.
Critics accuse the former officer in
Zimbabwe's feared Central Intelligence
Organisation of acting outside the
law in forcing foreign companies to
comply.
Some say President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party is using the empowerment
drive to squeeze money out
of foreign firms to finance its election
campaign.
"Tyson's"
opponents also are suspicious of his leadership role in the
ZANU-PF youth
wing blamed by many for violence that has marred Zimbabwe
elections over the
last 12 years.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the rival Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC), who works uneasily with Mugabe, has been critical
of the way the
empowerment drive is implemented.
He says the campaign
is driven by the upcoming elections and is scaring
investors
away.
RISING STAR
But the burly, 41-year-old Kasukuwere, the
youngest minister in the
MDC-ZANU-PF coalition cabinet, is seen as a rising
star in his party.
He often is touted as a potential successor to Mugabe,
88, though for the
moment he brushes such talk aside.
"I have been
asked by my president to serve as a minister. I am quite happy
with this
position," he said. "I don't have an ambition to go beyond my call
of duty
right now."
What that means in practice is taking on some very powerful
players in the
world of global mining.
Last month he forced Impala
Platinum, the world's second-largest platinum
producer, to transfer 51
percent of its stake in its Zimplats operation to
locals, ending months of
wrangling between Implats and Harare.
That has emboldened him to pursue
other mines, including Anglo American
Platinum, which is developing Unki
mine in central Zimbabwe, to comply with
the empowerment law.
His
reputation for being tough on foreign firms was burnished by a public
spat
with Implats CEO David Brown, which dragged on for months.
"The problem
with Brown is that he talks too much. We are sick and tired of
his delaying
tactics," he told Reuters in February, a month before Implats
bowed to
Zimbabwe's pressure.
He also says the empowerment drive strikes a
personal note, saying he faced
racism in building one of his early business
ventures, oil importer ComOil.
"I know what it means for a young black
business person to go into business
and during the times I did, the
financial institutions were controlled by
colonial institutions," he told
the Summit at Reuters offices in
Johannesburg.
"If they gave you a
loan to buy a truck, the following day, they will come
and repossess because
you would have failed to honour your obligations by
one day."
Unlike
the stiff image conveyed by most senior officials in his party,
Kasukuwere
is tech-savvy, trending on social network site Twitter and
maintaining his
own homepage.
He easily took questions from participants in a Reuters
chatroom for
financial clients, and used jokes to deflect questions about
Mugabe's
succession plans.
He said he also has a business in South
Africa, but declined to give further
details citing concern about
international sanctions against leaders in
ZANU-PF for suspected human
rights violations.
He is a farmer, having benefited from Mugabe's
seizures of white-owned
commercial farms, and owns a freight business. All
of his businesses are
said to have flourished since becoming a politician.
http://af.reuters.com
Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:18pm
GMT
HARARE, April 16 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has ordered more than 100
mining and
prospecting companies to resubmit applications to exclusively
explore for
minerals, providing shareholder details and proof of
funding.
The order follows the ministry of mines' decision in January to
hike
pre-exploration fees for most minerals by as much as 8,000 percent in a
move
the ministry said was meant to curb the speculative holding of mine
titles.
On Monday, the ministry said in a public notice it now wanted 109
companies,
including the largest gold miner Metallon Gold, the local
operation of South
African miner Metallon Corporation, and individuals to
make fresh
applications.
The companies should show they have capacity
to carry out exploration work.
None of the major miners like Rio Tinto,
Anglo American Platinum and Impala
Platinum, which have operations in
Zimbabwe, were affected by the directive.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
16
April 2012
Two senior managers and the town clerk of Mutare have dipped
into council
coffers and treated themselves to three state of the art
vehicles worth
US$150,000, despite what residents say is the poor service
provided by the
local authority.
A report by the weekly Zimbabwe
Standard newspaper says: “Town clerk Obert
Muzawazi, received a Mercedes
Benz ML worth US$60 000 while the remainder
was shared between the director
of Housing and Community Services, Sternard
Mapurisa and engineer Donald
Nyatoti, who got Toyata Isuzu double cabs
each.”
The Combined Mutare
Residents and Ratepayers’ Association (Comrra) have
already threatened to
organise protests this week. Chairman Desmond Mwedzi
said: “It comes as a
surprise that the council can manage to buy these
vehicles for the top
managers for that kind of money yet service delivery is
going
down.”
Mwedzi also highlighted the fact that council employees were
poorly paid and
were not getting their salaries on time. Council workers
have also not
received their bonuses on time “but the town clerk and his
senior managers
find it prudent to buy luxury cars using the ratepayers’
money. We will not
rest until sanity prevails at council”.
SW Radio
Africa spoke to Mutare Mayor Brian James, who had previously called
for an
audit of council finances before he was suspended by ZANU PF’s Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo. James told us the purchase of the
vehicles was a “slap in the face for residents and ratepayers of
Mutare.”
James said: “When I was there, we set aside just over US$100,000
for top
managers to borrow from, to buy vehicles for their own personal use
and
obviously council use. But these purchases come in the face of that
(budget
and arrangement) and show the skewed priorities that management
obviously
have on expenditure.”
Although the town clerk defended the
purchases saying they had received
authority from the Local Government
minister, James told SW Radio Africa:
“The minister can give authority, but
the bottom line is one has to live
within ones resources. Staff is still
being paid late and the bulk are still
waiting for their 13th cheque.”
http://www.radiovop.com
By Nkosana Dlamini
Harare, April 16, 2012 - Zimbabwe needs to change the one
man party
political culture that is stifling freedom, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai
said at the funeral of the late deputy minister of Transport on
Sunday.
Tsvangirai, who described the late Retired Colonel Tichaona
Mudzingwa, as an
icon of both the liberation and democratic struggles, said
he had been
denied hero status because he belonged to a different
party.
"If I had my own way, I would not have hesitated to bestow
national hero’s
status to Dr Mudzingwa," Tsvangirai said. "He earned it,
because he was
committed to the freedom of the people of Zimbabwe. The
problem is a
political culture which says if you belong to a different
political party
which believes in one party, one mind and one-man-one-rule.
That is a
political culture we have to change.”
Mudzingwa was buried
at Glen Forest cemetery in Harare, where mostly
mourners from Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party and
civil society activists
attended.
“It’s not enough to be convinced that the people of
Zimbabwe are independent
but you must be converted to believe in their
freedom. Mudzingwa was not
only convinced, he was converted to the full,"
said Tsvangirai.
Transport Minister Nicholas Goche was represented at the
burial by Permanent
Secretary in the ministry, Patson Mbiriri.
Zanu
(PF) Senate President Edna Madzongwe and leader of the upper house said
the
late Mudzingwa possessed a national outlook.
War veteran and Zimbabwe
Liberators Platform leader, Wilfred Mhanda, also
known as Dzinashe
Madzingura, rebuked the military chiefs for failing to
attend the funeral of
their departed comrade.
"He worked with a lot serving senior
personalities in the army who could not
come here to identify with him," he
said. "Mudzingwa would have loved to
have them come and bid him farewell but
their problem is that they deemed
him as politically incorrect."
He
criticised Zanu (PF) for creating imaginary enemies, destroying the very
gains of independence.
Mudzingwa, who was once a member of the ZIPRA
High Command, died at the age
of 69 last Tuesday.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Written by Everson Mushava, Staff Writer
Monday,
16 April 2012 11:57
HARARE - War veterans, largely viewed as
President Robert Mugabe’s pillar,
played a key role in the formation of the
MDC, a party that has become the
88-year-old leader’s biggest threat to
continued stay in power.
MDC founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday
said veterans of the 1970s
war of liberation who felt Zanu PF had failed to
live up to independence
struggle ideals pushed for the formation of the
party.
Tsvangirai is now Prime Minister in a shaky coalition with bitter
rival
Mugabe after marginally beating the veteran ruler in first round
presidential election in March 2008.
A runoff failed to produce a
result after it was condemned by the African
Union, Sadc and the United
Nations resulting in the formation of a
coalition.
The MDC also
ended Zanu PF’s control of Parliament, urban and rural councils
after a 2008
March parliamentary election held concurrently with the
presidential
poll.
Addressing hundreds of mourners at the burial of Transport and
Infrastructure deputy minister, Tichaona Mudzingwa in Harare yesterday,
Tsvangirai sensationally revealed that without the support of the war
veterans, MDC might not have been formed.
Mudzingwa, a liberation war
veteran and a non-constituency MDC Senator, died
last week after a cardiac
arrest.
“Without the ideas of some war veterans, MDC could not have been
here. I don’t
think MDC could have got the legitimacy it has in the minds of
people
without the support of the war veterans,” Tsvangirai said.
He
said it was sad to note that some war veterans had been treated as aliens
simply because they had ideological differences with Zanu PF and joined the
MDC. Tsvangirai said Mudzingwa, like many other war veterans, deserved to be
buried at the National Heroes Acre but could not be laid there because he
was not Zanu PF.
“Let’s differ but not hate each other even in death.
Inga vakuru vakati wani
afa anaka (our elders said you cannot say bad things
about the dead or hate
them in death). If I was the one to select who is
buried at the national
shrine, we could all have been gathered there right
now,” said Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai said war veterans played an important
role in bringing
independence to Zimbabwe but independence alone was not
enough without
freedom, a permanent value that should be inculcated in the
minds of the
people.
“The liberation struggle was important at that
stage but now that
independence has been attained, an economic revolution is
necessary. People’s
progress should be measured by economic progress,”
Tsvangirai said.
Speaking at the same event, Wilfred Mhanda (known as
Dzinashe Machingura
during the liberation war) said Mudzingwa joined the MDC
because Zanu PF had
gone rogue.
Mhanda, a top commander during
liberation war, is leader of the Zimbabwe
Liberation Platform (ZLP), a group
of former liberation war fighters
dedicated to democratising the
country.
“Mudzingwa was committed and fought for freedom, social justice,
democracy
and above all, peace. He joined the MDC because freedom was not
enough,”
said Machingura.
Machingura said it was sad that devoted
cadres like Mudzingwa are not buried
at the national shrine and service
chiefs whom he fought with side by side
during the liberation struggle
snubbed his burial.
He said hero status should not be conferred by
individuals, neither should
it be a political party
prerogative.
“Even if he is not buried at the National Heroes Acre, but
his contribution
to the country is unquestionable. He worked with many
generals but they are
not here today because it is not politically
correct."
“Zimbabwe has developed a permanent revolutionary syndrome
where we keep
inventing enemies. We fought the war so that we will use
political power,
not revolutionary movements,” said
Machingura.
Mudzingwa served in the army from 1980 before retiring as a
colonel in 1994.
He is remembered for trying to arrange a meeting with
the army's top brass
after the March 2008 election to organise a power
transfer strategy on
behalf of Tsvangirai claiming that Mugabe had lost the
election.
He was the first Vice President of the MDC.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Written by Staff Writer
Monday, 16 April 2012
11:57
HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC has all but
confirmed that
the coalition government is failing to hold up, with the
party’s national
council adopting resolutions that tear into current
government policies.
Among the key issues which the MDC national council
took a hard stance on is
the controversial indigenisation and empowerment
programme.
“The party is aware of Zanu PF machinations of asset
stripping, looting,
patronage, clientelism, corruption and
self-aggrandisement euphemistically
referred to as indigenisation and
empowerment,” the party said in a
statement issued after the
meeting.
The national council is the MDC’s most powerful decision-making
body outside
congress.
The pro-labour party said it was disgusted by
Youth and Empowerment minister
Saviour Kasukuwere’s proclamation earlier
this month that with immediate
effect, 51 percent of shareholding in all
foreign mining companies now
belonged to the state.
“Furthermore, the
MDC restates that Kasukuwere’s proclamation is null and
void and in total
breach of the Constitution and that Zimbabwe and
Zimbabweans need jobs,
investment and upliftment,” the party stated.
The MDC said it will not be
party to elections held before democratic
reforms are completed and a
roadmap to a free, fair, credible and legitimate
elections endorsed by Sadc
is adhered to.
Mugabe, the MDC said, lost the power to unilaterally call
elections when he
lost the presidential election to coalition partner and
MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai hence his demands for an election this year
were hollow, the
party said.
“Elections cannot and will not be called
for unilaterally by one person or
one party and that the election in
Zimbabwe will not be date driven but
process driven.”
Violence and
selective application of the law, the party said, were still
rife. “The
party notes that in March alone over 63 people were arrested,
assaulted or
severely harassed by Zanu PF, its infamy Chipangano hoodlums
and its
complicity criminal justice system.”
I consider the sewage that is offloaded into the river a blessing because it makes my vegetables grow well and fast |
Read more |
Growing risk of waterbourne diseases in rural areas |
Is another cholera epidemic on the way? |
Typhoid spreads amid water shortage |
Making the water safer |
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
http://www.voanews.com
16 April
2012
Gibbs Dube | Washington
Zimbabwe's Finance
Minister Tendai Biti says Harare is losing billions of
dollars in potential
revenue due to lack of a competent legal team to
negotiate contracts with
foreign investors. As a result, said Biti, foreign
investors are landing
lucrative deals at the expense of the nation.
Biti is quoted in the state
controlled Herald newspaper as saying the
country’s dependence of
inexperienced lawyers in the attorney general’s
office recently resulted in
an unnamed investor getting a piece of land in
Selous, Mashonaland West,
stretching over 100 kilometers for only $200
million.
He said the
investor should have paid at least $20 billion for the land in
question
which has 26 million ounces of platinum worth $56 million.
He said the
government also signed what he termed disastrous deals with
diamond
companies in Marange, Manicaland province. Attorney General Johannes
Tomana
was not available for comment.
Economist Eric Bloch said such disastrous
deals are common in Zimbabwe.
“In some cases this involves corruption
which prejudices the country of
billions of dollars in potential revenue,”
said Bloch.
Commercial law expert Matshobana Ncube said re-negotiating
these contracts
is an uphill task. “Business deals are normally conducted in
a manner that
both parties clearly understand provisions of their
contracts,” said Ncube
http://www.theaustralian.com.au
by: Adam Shand
From: The
Australian
April 17, 2012 12:00AM
AN Australian mining
entrepreneur is in custody in Zimbabwe following
allegations he was involved
in a goldmining scam involving high-level
political figures in the southern
African nation.
Lee Waverly John, 42, has been charged with illegal
prospecting and forgery
after police swooped on his mining operation in the
midlands town of Kwekwe
last week.
Sources in Zimbabwe told The
Australian that Grace Mugabe, the wife of
Zimbabwe's old and ailing
President, Robert Mugabe, was behind Mr John's
arrest.
Mr John is
accused of illegally awarding tribute agreements to several
individuals and
companies and collecting royalties on gold tenements to
which he did not
have legal title.
The tenements were formerly controlled by Australian
company Delta Gold,
which sold the claims to Mr John during Zimbabwe's
chaotic agrarian reforms
in 2002.
Mr John's Kwekwe Consolidated Gold
Mines (KCGM) entered into tribute
agreements with high-ranking members of
the ruling ZANU-PF party as he
sought to exploit the ground that once
boasted the richest goldmine in the
country. The beneficiaries of tributes
included party officials with close
ties to Defence Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa, who is widely tipped to succeed
Mr Mugabe. Among the individuals
are former senior military figures, cabinet
ministers and provincial
intelligence chiefs.
Rec Coverage 28 Day pass
Mr John has faced
accusations of corruption brought by the chairman of a
local workers trust,
Cleopas Chipangura.
Mr Chipangura told a local newspaper that gold had
been looted from the area
since 2002.
"Lee John is not a businessman.
He is bringing in politicians who are
scrambling for the gold. There is a
lot of corruption even in ministries.
There are politicians who are
protecting him, but now we have had enough. We
are prepared to die," Mr
Chipangura told Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette.
Mr John's lawyer, Valentine
Mutatu, said the charges were politically
motivated.
"These are
trumped-up charges so certain individuals can take over my
client's mine,"
he said.
KCGM director Emmanuel Nhamo defended Mr John and the
beneficiaries of the
mining rights. He told The Australian that everything
was done above board.
"He is one of the most popular people in Kwekwe
after all the tributes he
has given to people," Mr Nhamo said.
He
said the push to arrest Mr John -- who also happens to be Zimbabwe's
national champion in cross-country mountain biking -- had come from a local
politician after Mr John had refused to renew an expired tribute, he
said.
"There is a small group of people who are trying to take this mine
from the
company," Mr Nhamo said.
It's understood that the politician
has links with Mrs Mugabe.
Mr Nhamo said that instead of having claims
lying idle, KCGM had entered
into tributes, consistent with Zimbabwe's
thrust to empower locals.
"So how can they say after 10 years of
operating normally that the tributes
were not done legally? It is utter
madness," he said.
Mr John had legally bought the assets from Delta in
2002 and had followed
all laws and regulations since, Mr Nhamo
said.
Mr John faced similar accusations in 2009 when his critics had him
deported
for illegally representing KCGM as the owner of the tenements. Mr
John
appealed against his deportation and was allowed to return from
Australia to
Zimbabwe, where he was awarded a two-year investor's residence
permit.
Mr John was given bail on a surety of $US1000 ($967) at the
weekend but
police have used regulations to hold him for a further seven
days while they
appeal.
Saturday, 14 April
2012
Nomathemba Ndlovu, the MDC Matabeleland South Women’s Assembly
chairperson,
was yesterday arrested in Gwanda while distributing the Prime
Minister’s
newsletter in the town.
Ndlovu is being charged under the
draconian Public Order and Security Act
(POSA).
Reports from Gwanda
say Ndlovu was distributing the newsletter and was
summoned to Gwanda Police
Station by one Assistant Inspector Machingura. She
was immediately arrested
upon her arrival at the station.
At the time of writing, Ndlovu’s lawyer
was still trying to secure her
release.
Police have intensified their
persecution of MDC members in recent weeks.
This week, police in Gweru
arrested Abisha Nyanguwo, MDC Chief of Staff for
frivolous charges bombing
Zanu PF Gweru offices in December 2011. He
appeared before a Gweru
Magistrate and was given an outrageous $500 bail.
The harassment of MDC
members is meant to cow them by a panicking Zanu PF
ahead of the next
elections.
The people’s struggle for real change: Let’s finish
it.
–
MDC Information & Publicity Department
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Four MDC
members were yesterday arrested in Kariba for convening a meeting
to discuss
travel arrangements for the late Deputy Minister of Transport and
Infrastructural Development, Senator Tichaona Mudzingwa’ s
funeral.
The arrested members who were briefly detained at Kariba Police
Station
before being released on condition that they report to the police on
Monday
are District Secretary George Masendu, Robbie Tigere, the Youth
Secretary,
Farai Chinobva and Elijah Garisamoyo.
In arresting the
members, District Police Officer Mundanda and Officer In
Charge Taderera
said the group did not notify them of the meeting. This is
clear abuse of
power as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) does not
require that the
police be notified when people want to converge for the
purpose of holding a
funeral. As a party, we condemn the partisan manner in
which the police are
operating and we immediately call for security sector
reforms.
The
crackdown on MDC supporters by the police has intensified in recent
weeks,
ahead of the forthcoming elections.
On Friday, Matabeleland South Women’s
Assembly chairlady, Nomathemba Ndlovu
was arrested in Gwanda while
distributing the Prime Minister’s newsletter.
Ndlovu is being charged under
the draconian POSA.
Earlier last week, the police arrested Abisha
Nyanguwo, MDC Chief of Staff
for allegedly bombing ZANU (PF) Gweru offices
in December 2011. He appeared
before a Gweru Magistrate and was remanded on
$500, 00 bail.
The people’s struggle for real change: Let’s finish
it!
–
MDC Information & Publicity Department
http://www.zimonline.co.za
Monday 16 April
2012
OPINION: -- Three years after the commencement of commercial
diamond mining
in Marange, and five months after the Kimberly Process
Certification Scheme
(KPCS) removed an international ban on Marange
diamonds, there are fears
that diamond mining operations in Marange could
undermine the work of the
inclusive government, democratic transition and
sustainable economic
development in Zimbabwe.
Whilst there is no
doubt that all the four mining companies doing business
in Marange have
brought in state of the art mining equipment and have
established
infrastructure that meets the Kimberly Process (KP) minimum
standards, fears
abound that Marange diamonds could be used to undermine
democracy in
Zimbabwe through opaque business deals involving the country's
political
elites and their business-cum-political allies in Asia and the
Middle
East.
Diamonds may also be retarding genuine economic development by
over-reliance
on one commodity and through failure to invest diamond
revenues wisely in
other sectors of the economy.
All the four mining
companies in Marange, namely Anjin Investments, Marange
Resources, Mbada
Diamonds and Pure Diamonds, have now been certified
compliant by the
KPCS.
Following the KP green light, the Ministry of Finance announced
that it is
anticipating $600 million from diamonds in 2012, whilst Minister
of Mines
Obert Mpofu said Zimbabwe can earn as much as $2 billion from
diamonds
annually. However events unfolding on the ground suggest that a
sizable
percentage of diamonds coming out of Marange is smuggled out of the
country
by syndicates.
Israeli pilot
On 17 March 2012, an
Israeli pilot was arrested at Harare International
Airport whilst trying to
smuggle out of Zimbabwe 1,300 pieces of diamonds
estimated to be worth $2.43
million.
According to the state controlled Herald newspaper, Mr Shmuel Kainan
Klein
is employed by CAL Airlines of Israel as a pilot and has a house in
Borrowdale, Harare.
‘The diamonds in question were taken to the
Minerals Marketing Corporation
of Zimbabwe for assay and weighed 1,7
kilogrammes with a caratage of 8486,66
valued at $2,437,708.24’, added the
Herald. Mr Klein (58) was not formally
charged and immediately granted
$5,000 bail.
The volume of diamonds Mr Klein was trying to smuggle could
not have been
obtained from artisanal miners who are now finding it hard to
continue their
operations in Marange.
A recent visit to Marange by
civil society groups and the media proved that
security in Marange is water
tight with hands free security cameras and high
perimeter fences around all
the mining concessions.
Chances of anyone tempering with the security cameras
in place are very slim
given that there are several security cameras which
are monitored through
CCTV. Various systems are in place to ensure that
everyone is under some
sort of surveillance.
From Marange diamonds
are flown to company headquarters in Harare where the
diamonds are stored in
a vault before being auctioned. Security at the
storage centres is also
reportedly water tight.
It is therefore baffling that diamonds of large
quantities continue to evade
the KPCS despite the certification of all
diamond mining companies in
Zimbabwe.
The attempted smuggling of
diamonds by Mr. Klein raises a lot of questions
on the implementation of the
KP minimum standards in Zimbabwe. It is also
crucial to evaluate the
implementation of the Kinshasa agreement reached
between Zimbabwe and the KP
in Kinshasa in November 2011 in light of the
continuation of massive
smuggling of diamonds.
Proponents of the Kinshasa agreement argued then
that if Zimbabwe was
allowed to export her diamonds, there would be improved
accountability and a
reduction in illicit trade involving Marange diamonds,
blamed by civil
society and progressive governments within the KP for
undermining the
scheme.
Untouchable individuals
However, questions
still abound as to whether the government continues to
smuggle diamonds in
spite of the KP approval for exports.
Others argue that as long as the
state diamond regulator, Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation, and its
sister company, Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe, remain subject
to EU and US sanctions, there is no
way diamond smuggling from Zimbabwe can
end.
However the manner in which the diamonds were being smuggled and the
fact
that the suspect was searched, arrested and brought to court suggests
that
it was most likely a criminal adventure involving untouchable
individuals
and entities and has nothing to do with the operations of
central
government.
But given the sensitivity of diamonds, not only
in Zimbabwe, but also in
other diamond producing countries - mainly due to
the potential revenue they
contribute to the treasury and as a way of
protecting the image and
integrity of the Kimberly Process - one would have
expected Mr. Klein to be
remanded in custody whilst full investigations are
taking place.
The swiftness with which the Israeli diamond dealer was
granted bail is
troubling in the extreme. In light of the large consignment
involved, it
cannot be ruled out that the suspect will take the opportunity
granted by
the courts to interfere with accessories and or witnesses to the
case. It is
also likely that assistance may be provided by the smuggling
syndicate for
Mr. Klein to leave the country and avoid trial.
This is
not the first time pilots have been implicated in smuggling Marange
diamonds. In 2009, the Centre for Research and Development did research in
Mozambique which revealed that pilots of passenger planes flying out of
Mozambique were part of the syndicates involved in smuggling Marange
diamonds.
This was not surprising at all given that there was a
thriving market for
diamonds smuggled from Marange in the town of Vila De
Manica in Mozambique,
less than 30km from the Zimbabwean border. The
diamonds were bound to leave
Mozambique anyway since Mozambique does not
have cutting and polishing
factories.
The existence of a thriving
illicit diamond market in Mozambique was enough
sign that Mozambique was a
safe haven for cartels, including pilots,
involved in illicit diamond deals.
Pilots flying out of Harare to the Middle
East and Asia have also been
implicated in diamond smuggling syndicates.
In the case of Mr. Klein he
is said to have intended to leave for South
Africa on a South African
Airways (SAA) flight number SA23. ‘It is alleged
he was clad in a pilot's
uniform when he presented himself to the passenger
screening point which was
manned by a Civil Aviation Authority security
officer’, reports the
Herald.
Dark shadow
He is also said to have arrived aboard a South
African flight as a passenger
but did not have his passport stamped as he
disguised himself as a
crewmember. It is not clear whether the SAA crew knew
of Mr. Klein's mission
and whether they assisted him to misrepresent himself
to the Zimbabwean
authorities.
In April 2011 two Indians were
arrested in possession of 9.7kg of diamonds
which they claimed had been
smuggled from Zimbabwe. These sad developments
cast a dark shadow on efforts
by the inclusive (coalition) government to
maximize revenue collection from
diamonds.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti presented a budget of $4 billion
for 2012 of
which $600 million is expected to come from diamonds. However,
with the
current level of opaque deals involving Zimbabwean diamonds it is
less
likely that the target of $600m will be reached.
Moreover, the
fact that an individual can arrive in Zimbabwe and smuggle
diamonds worth
$2.43m within a few hours leaves several unanswered questions
about how much
Zimbabwe is losing to cartels and dealers and how much
difference this lost
revenue could make to the lives of ordinary
Zimbabweans, whose life
expectancy at 33.5 years for women is the lowest in
the world.
The
low life expectancy is attributed to a poorly funded health delivery
system,
a high unemployment rate estimated at above 70%, and widespread
poverty.
The continued theft of large quantities of diamonds by
dealers and cartels
is a threat to national security and may undermine the
work of the inclusive
government in Zimbabwe.
There is concern that
powerful quasi state institutions may be clandestinely
selling diamonds to
starve the Ministry of Finance, whose plea for diamond
revenue transparency
has so far not been heeded.
In its report on the involvement of the
security sector in diamond mining in
Zimbabwe, Global Witness expressed
concern that this may undermine democracy
by enabling 'securocrats to set
and fund their own agenda, with little
control or scrutiny exercised by
elected politicians'.
Diamond act
Zimbabwe is in the process of
crafting a Diamond Act to address the existing
loopholes. However, much
depends on the political will to ensure that every
diamond is accounted for
and that diamond contracts are negotiated in a
transparent manner, which
involves several stakeholders such as Parliament,
Cabinet and civil
society.
Mining licenses that are obtained corruptly will always lead to
opaque
business practices that do not benefit the ordinary
citizen.
The Center for Research and Development believes the proposed
Diamond Act
should address the following:
- Clearly defined rules of
investor identification and contract negotiations
- A well defined,
transparent and accountable system of marketing diamonds
- Harmonisation of
government ministries and departments dealing with
diamonds
- Eligibility
of persons to serve on the mining boards
- Consultation with affected
communities and compensation of families in
cases where relocation is to
take place with special reference to the
Vancouver Declaration on Human
Settlements
- Clearly defined obligations of mining companies to the
communities where
they operate
- A legal framework for artisanal / small
scale miners to curb both human
rights abuses and illicit diamond deals that
do not benefit the treasury
- Upholding the rule of law and respect for human
rights in the diamond
supply chain
- Beneficiation / value addition
-
Establishment of the School of Diamonds to develop local expertise in
diamond mining, cutting and polishing
- Minimum and maximum sentences for
people caught in illegal possession of
diamonds
- Environmental
protection.
* The Centre for Research and Development (CRD) engages in
research and
advocacy in the extractive sector and civic education to
promote peace,
community development and grassroots participation in
decision making on
natural resource management. The CRD is based in Mutare,
Zimbabwe.
* Article first published by Pambazuka News.
Landline: | 263 4 339065 |
Mobile: | 263 712 603 213 |
Email: | galorand@mweb.co.zw |
Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/pages/ |
Website: | www.zctfofficialsite.org |
It is decidedly “un-African”, indeed inhumane, to ready champagne corks for popping at the possible demise of a fellow human being. The degree to which the world media has been salivating over Zimbabwean boogeyman Robert Mugabe’s ill health would be deemed unsavoury in most decent Zimbabwean homes – were they not, truthfully, hoping for his demise too.
Those still within the country’s borders are no doubt doing their wishing quietly behind closed doors. Those of us beyond Mugabe’s reach are, God forgive us, uttering the hope rather more publicly.
This is no indication of our lack of humanity but rather an indication that Zimbabweans everywhere have been pushed to the limit by this man and his regime.
The way he governs is one the world would do well to remember. As large and almost omnipotent a figure as he has seemingly become in Zimbabwean politics, it would be absurd to suggest Mugabe is singularly and single-handedly responsible for an entire country quite literally going to the dogs in every sphere of life – politically, economically and culturally.
No. That level of mess takes a rather concerted team effort.
If there is any truth in recent succession rumours about a – forgive the term – gentlemen’s agreement between Mugabe and the Minister of Defence, Emmerson Mnangagwa, then don’t hold your breath for rainbows and unicorns.
Should Mnangagwa take over the reins I really see very little but the name above the door changing. He has long been a figure of considerable power within Zanu-PF structures, going as far back as the days of Zapu and Zanu-PF battles in Matabeleland and during the brutal period of land invasions.
Many commentators and citizens have watched the so-called Arab Spring, the uprisings in the North African countries of Egypt and Tunisia, wondering if this would provide the catalyst or impetus for the people of Zimbabwe to say “enough is enough”.
Truthfully, many of our African neighbours who have fought bitter liberation battles themselves have for some time quietly grumbled that it was high time Zimbabwe got serious about securing its own liberation, rather than waiting for a miracle or western intervention.
A winter wave does seem to be gaining some momentum, but spurred on, truthfully, only by the scent of weakness in the old guard potentially at death’s door.
As a Zimbawean who has lived in SA for some time now and been exposed first-hand to people who fought for and achieved political freedom here, I must confess I too have on occasion wondered why my people have not, or seem unable to, mount a credible and sustained opposition to Mugabe like the anti-apartheid struggle.
What the definitive answer is, I do not know. What I do know is that we are a people who have lost our national identity. The brain drain across every level of society has been colossal.
And to my way of thinking, this is the greater challenge facing Zimbabwe rather than who gets the keys to the executive office when the old beast finally goes.
Even in a Eutopianesque scenario where Mugabe goes and opposition party the MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, takes power, just who is left to fix this husk of a country? In the South African case political exiles and their families poured back into the country jubilant and ready to get on with the job of rebuilding Mzansi.
But let us be frank, as vile and oppressive as the apartheid lot were, they left a country, an infrastructure and an economy to come back to.
Zimbabwe has none of that.
Clearly a change in political regime would boost investor confidence and I dare say international aid is unlikely to be in short supply.
But the vast diaspora of young Zimbabweans will consider it a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea to consider returning at this juncture, no matter how much they love the land of their birth. And we do.
Zimbabwe has lost so much of its dignity. When the currency of your country is literally gifted by people across the world to each other as a joke present, the retention of pride and self-worth in your national identity is damn near impossible.
Any new government will have to mount a herculean effort to attract Zimbabweans back home. And even before that, the wisdom of Job will be required to ensure the country runs smoothly.
The sheer scale of poverty and desperation would seem to indicate that some level of international peacekeeping force will be required to ensure that a tsunami of social unrest is not unleashed by people literally fighting and clawing for limited opportunities.
But even if our long-suffering neighbour SA or the UN put troops and resources in place to stop an implosion of power grabbing and coups, the heart, soul and ultimate success of a nation is never guaranteed or even created by its government, but rather by its people.
The citizens of a country create ideas and jobs and are responsible for the innovation which fuels wider identity and economic growth.
Zimbabwe, sadly, has lost to the four corners of the Earth the generations who possess that kind of fire in the belly.
This is not in any way to demean my brothers and sisters who have elected to stay in Zimbabwe and battle from within. Theirs is bravery and sacrifice I can scarcely comprehend.
The truth, however, is that so many of the citizens who have remained in the country are battle-weary, beaten down and spent.
If my country is ever to find its way again, quite simply, the kids have got to come home.
It’s a big ask. What are we coming home to and at what personal and individual sacrifice?
Zimbabwe has been a mess for so long that so many of us built lives, careers and even families in our adopted homelands. To give all of that up to attempt to rebuild a nation and an identity that has become a somewhat fuzzy memory in our psyches, with no guarantee of success, seems cruel in the extreme.
Am I that noble a man? Are my fellow countrymen and exiles who live everywhere but home that noble a generation? I pray to God we are.
n Madanhire is a Zimbabwean-born professional motivational speaker and entrepreneur based in Pretoria.
http://www.iol.co.za
April 16 2012 at
07:59am
Japhet Ncube
WHEN Bruce Willis puts together the next
instalment of his blockbuster Die
Hard, he need not look beyond Zimbabwe as
the setting for the thriller.
He could title it Die Hard Again With A
Vengeance. Starring Zimbabwean
President Robert Gabriel Mugabe as RG, an
evil old man who dies many times
and rises each time to haunt his enemies
just when they think he is dead and
buried.
It could become a box
office hit of the magnitude of the award-winning Idi
Amin movie, The Last
King of Scotland, featuring Forest Whitaker. Except
this one will have
Mugabe playing Mugabe.
We could throw in a few extras, including editors
who sit in their stuffy
offices all day dreaming up the ultimate headline to
mark the end of one of
the most tumultuous eras of African history: the
demise of one of the
continent’s longest-serving rulers – a liberation war
stalwart who became a
tyrant.
I can even see this headline running
across the screen of an old, battered
computer of an editor on a Harare
newspaper: “ROBERT MUGABE DIES”. The
sub-head: “Scenes of jubilation in
Harare as Zimbabwean dictator perishes.”
It’s an ideal script for a
winning movie and the kind of story that sells
newspapers. Except it’s only
a dream.
Mugabe’s death is highly anticipated not only in the media, but
also in his
ruling Zanu-PF, which is sharply divided, and in the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). It seems that only death will dislodge
Mugabe from
32 years of power.
Mugabe, even at 88, still refuses to
die. Except in the British and
Australian newspapers.
For a man his
age, Mugabe really does look “fit as a fiddle”. He even jokes
that he is “a
young old man”.
Life has been good for Mugabe, who says he exercises
daily, eats healthy,
avoids meat, doesn’t smoke and never touches a drop of
alcohol. A younger
wife probably also keeps him on his toes.
The
prostate cancer he is said to suffer from appears not to have done much
damage to his health. Except perhaps for a few secret visits to foreign
hospitals for a minor operation or check-up (which isn’t a new phenomenon,
because most of these African leaders can’t even build a decent hospital in
their own countries and seek medical assistance elsewhere when they stare
death in the face), he appears fit enough to outlive many of his
peers.
And yet the Zanu-PF strongman, affectionately known as RG in his
party
circles, has died a dozen times on the pages of newspapers obsessed
with the
Grim Reaper’s unceremonious visit to Zimbabwe House, his official
residence
north of sunny Harare.
No wonder then that when Nigerian
pastor TB Joshua prophesied that a leader
in southern Africa would die
suddenly this year, all eyes were on Harare.
Newspaper editors in the
Zimbabwean capital, and their counterparts in
England, began to dust off
their Mugabe obituaries in preparation for the
worst.
And when the
Grim Reaper appeared to have got a wrong address and landed
instead on the
stoep of Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika’s Lilongwe
residence, the
disappointment could be felt across the world.
Within minutes of
Mutharika collapsing, the internet was also abuzz with
gossip and rumours
about Mugabe “dying”. All this shows the extent of the
desperation to rid
Zimbabwe of Mugabe – even if he is only killed in the
newspapers. To many of
those who believe the reports of Mugabe being
“seriously sick” or “dead”,
death had struck the wrong place. It should have
moved a few hundred
kilometres southward to Harare.
Some newspapers believed Mugabe was
“fighting for his life” in a Singapore
hospital, and ran the story on their
front pages.
It didn’t help that Mutharika’s demise coincided with RG
taking his annual
Easter pilgrimage to the Middle East, where his eldest
child, Bona, lives
and is due to start her postgraduate studies. Each year
this time, Mugabe
and his South African-born wife Grace travel to the Middle
East, the only
place outside Zimbabwe where they feel at home, to shop and
to take a break
from the pressure that comes with presiding over a country
battling an
economic and political morass.
It became even more
interesting when Malawi’s deputy president, Joyce Banda,
took charge last
week, becoming the first woman head of state in southern
Africa, and only
the second on the continent. Zimbabwe’s vice-president is
also a Joice
(Mujuru). Surely, some argued, God had answered the prayers of
the people of
Zimbabwe, but then mistook them for Malawians.
Banda also became the
third Banda to rule a country in the region.
Malawi’s founding president,
Hastings Kamuzu Banda, died at a Joburg
hospital in 1997, ending years of
dictatorship in the tiny country famous
for its fish dishes.
Zambia
was under the leadership of Rupiah Banda between 2008 and last year
after
President Levy Mwanawasa suffered a stroke while attending an AU
meeting in
Egypt in 2008. He died in a Paris hospital.
But while fate appears to
have changed the fortunes of her neighbours,
Zimbabwe hasn’t been lucky.
Mugabe continues to die, but only in the fertile
imagination of foreign
newspaper editors.
Mugabe has outlived may of these editors, just like he
has outlived most of
his political opponents and comrades in Zanu-PF, adding
to the desperation
to see him meet his Maker sooner rather than later. But
he still lives to
die another day.
Mugabe’s obituary is one that many
political journalists always wanted to
write. But legend has it that even at
Zimbabwe Newspapers Group, the
publishers of the state-run and -controlled
Herald daily, and The Sunday
Mail, the task of updating RG’s obituary in the
system has now been left to
new recruits from the Harare Polytechnic
College’s division of mass
communication, once the mecca of Zimbabwean
journalism. Stories abound on
how updating RG’s obituary has become a curse
– every journalist who has
touched it has been outlived by the
octogenarian.
Mugabe haunts everyone. Some of us who have witnessed him
die for more than
three decades now just laugh when new reports of his death
emerge.
It’s hilarious, and no one can put it better than Mugabe himself
when he
says he has perfected the art of dying and rising, doing it better
than
Jesus Christ.
“I have died many times – that’s where I have
beaten Christ,” he likes to
point out. “Christ died once and resurrected
once.”
Mugabe has simply refused to die. He will die again next year this
time.
But there won’t be any funeral. Nor reports of his
resurrection.
Dying has become part of Mugabe’s annual activity. The
moment he steps out
of his hideout in Harare for his annual Easter sojourn
in the Middle East,
some bored British journalist dreams up a story that the
man is dying in
some foreign hospital. And before you can even say
“Zanu-PF”, the lies are
everywhere. A few days later RG returns home to live
his life, just like he
did this week.
He will probably die in a
foreign hospital some day, like Kamuzu Banda and
Mwanawasa before him, but
it seems we are going to have to put away the
obituaries for now.
As
I write this, I can imagine RG back at Zimbabwe House this week, dressed
in
designer Chinese boxers, topless, dancing his old butt off and singing
along
to HHP’s smash hit Bosso ke Mang.
His lovely wife, Grace, sits there and
cheers him on, while the world waits
for his next death.
But RG ain’t
going anywhere. Not anytime soon, it seems.
I am thinking of penning an
open letter to the old man. It says: “Dear
Comrade President RG. When you
die, and this time for real, please let the
people of Zimbabwe get the news
first. It’s the least you could do for them.
“Yours sincerely, JMN.”
http://www.eddiecross.africanherd.com/
Yesterday I attended a committee meeting at the Party
Headquarters and saw a
copy of the draft Constitution for Zimbabwe. It is
now almost complete and
they are expecting the final version to be ready
next week for presentation
to the Principals to the GPA. This has taken
nearly three years, it was
meant to be completed in early 2011 so we are
about 18 months behind
schedule, but behind the scenes there have been
months of hand to hand
combat.
This has been an intellectual, legal
and political process and from what I
have seen they have done a remarkable
job under very difficult
circumstances. It is far from an ideal version of a
national constitution,
but it covers all the bases and is a big improvement
on what we have now and
what was originally negotiated behind closed doors
in the Kariba draft. It
cannot be called a “Peoples” draft and we in the MDC
recognized some time
ago that we would have to compromise and use the new
constitutional
framework as a transitional arrangement to secure a
democratically managed
change of Government.
Once it is adopted by
the three Principals it will then go to the second
National Peoples
Convention for debate and adoption and only then go to a
Referendum. If all
goes to plan this will be fairly soon and the Parties
will join hands (as
they did in Kenya) to get the Constitution adopted by a
clear majority of
the people. I have no doubt that if we in the MDC support
the final draft it
will be sanctioned by the great majority of our people.
We then have a
lot to do – take the new Constitution through both Houses of
Parliament, get
it implemented and all ancillary legislation changed. Then
start the process
of reform to create the conditions required for a genuine
free and fair
election. What is needed for this to happen is well known and
clearly
established in the various agreements that all three political
parties have
signed up to since 2008. They are also clearly defined in both
AU and SADC
protocols and practice.
It is clear that regional leadership and the
wider leadership of Africa as a
whole now support this process. This was
clearly demonstrated last year at
Livingstone, then at Mid Rand and finally
at the major SADC summit in
Luanda. As far as the AU is concerned the
position of the SADC leadership
was endorsed at the summit in Addis in
February this year almost without
dissent.
This consensus is very
powerful and a land locked country like Zimbabwe
simply cannot ignore the
reality that this represents. In many respects our
position is similar to
that of Mali – land locked and unable to withstand
the pressure from
regional States when they really put their collective foot
down as they did
recently. So where does that leave us?
Firstly it shows what the
international Community has begun to recognize;
this is real progress, it’s
not reversible and Zanu plans either for a
military or a political coup
against the GPA process are unlikely to
succeed.
Secondly it narrows
down the options for all Parties who must now make
decisions; collectively
they are on a road that will eventually take us to
elections that none of us
can control. The people will decide, for maybe the
first time in our
beleaguered history, who will govern them into the future,
or at least the
next five years.
Does Webster Shamu really think he can continue to defy
the President and
the Prime Minister when it comes to media reform? Is he
really challenging
the authority of the President and leader of his
political party and does
Mugabe no longer have the power to control his
minions? Does Savior
Kasukawere really think we are going to allow him to
nationalize the mines
and the banks and lead us down a path that Zambia
strayed into in the 60’s
with such disastrous consequences? Does Mnangagwa
really think he has a
snowballs hope of ever leading Zanu – let alone
Zimbabwe?
For all of these people, the situation is now down to the wire.
Sure they
control the security services, so what? – in the new dispensation
under the
new Constitution they are back in their barracks and under
civilian control.
The region has pulled their teeth and you know the fate of
a toothless
bulldog.
Sure they control the diamond fields and the
money that is being generated
there but 90 per cent of it is being stolen
and hidden away in foreign bank
accounts and only a handful are really
benefitting – does Obert Mpofu really
think he is going to enjoy his
ill-gotten wealth and assets in Zimbabwe?
Where will all these once powerful
and untouchable individuals be when
finally the chips are down and a peoples
Government is in charge of the
affairs of State? Do they not think about
these issues or are they, like
Hitler in his Bunker in Berlin in 1945, still
issuing orders to a broken
army while the Russians and the Allies crossed
the bridges into the City.
For all these people, this situation is going
to the wire and it is moving
much more rapidly than they appreciate. Mr.
Mugabe may well run down the
stairs of the plane that brought him home on
Thursday this week – but it is
clear to all that time is no longer a friend.
He must seek now to secure his
place in history and avoid a totally
undignified end and exit and his real
allies in that exercise are in the MDC
not Zanu PF.
I really feel sorry for the guys on the stock market – they
are always so
hopeful and positive. They know what they are looking at is a
real potential
gold mine with assets at 20 per cent of their value or less,
yet week by
week, the markets vote against them and last week was no
different. If
Kasukawere was even watching or interested, the turnover on
the local bourse
fell from $16 million in the previous week to $4 million in
a market worth
perhaps $3,5 billion at today’s values. Share prices fell yet
again and must
now represent the best investment option in global markets
worldwide. A real
vote of “no confidence”, if I ever saw one and Savior was
personally
responsible.
Just to confirm that these people are in
never never land, an 80 year old
women in the leadership of Zanu PF took
over a large functioning Conservancy
last week, forcing the owners and their
staff out of their homes and
depriving them of a life time investment – she
already has taken over 8
other farms, all of which are now in varying
degrees of degradation.
I flew over Middle Save estates last week and
looked down and saw that apart
from the old ARDA farms now being leased and
managed by a private company,
all the farms occupied by Zanu PF hangers on
were derelict and empty – not
even a single maize crop – nothing. These were
at one stage some of the most
productive farm properties in the
country.
This year, after 12 years of fast track land reform, we will
import 80 per
cent of our food. The failure of the programme is absolute.
The pathetic
excuses no longer play to anyone. The King has no clothes on
yet he struts
down the road dressed only in the false images in his mind –
created in part
by his own propaganda.
Does anyone really think this
can go on? Of course not and now it’s only a
matter of time, time that Zanu
PF no longer has much left. It’s down to the
wire at last and decisions must
be made and made soon or the consequences
for those who are living in the
past and cannot face reality, will be
disastrous.
Eddie
Cross
Bulawayo, 15th April 2012