http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009 21:55
THE shaky
six-month inclusive government faces one of the greatest
threats since
formation after Zanu PF last week declared that it had
"fulfilled all
obligations" under the Global Political Agreement (GPA),
setting a stage for
a bruising confrontation with the MDC formations.
Addressing a
press conference on Friday Zanu PF's deputy spokesperson
Ephraim Masawi
accused the MDC formations of failing to fulfill their
obligations under the
September 15, 2008 GPA.
He said Zanu PF was "baffled" by MDC's
constant reference to
"outstanding matters" because his party had "fulfilled
all its obligations".
But the MDC was livid yesterday,
dismissing the claims as "nonsense"
saying Zanu PF never intended to address
the outstanding issues.
Party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said
MDC and Zanu PF had in fact
reached a deadlock over the implementation of
the GPA signed by President
Robert Mugabe and the MDC leaders Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
Chamisa said the matter has
been referred to the Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) and the
African Union, the guarantors of the
agreement.
"It's clear
that there is a deadlock," Chamisa said. "We are hoping to
have Sadc break
this deadlock. Sadc should chip in because there is
deliberate mischief on
the part of Zanu PF."
He insisted that the "unilateral"
appointment of Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and Attorney
General Johannes Tomana by
President Robert Mugabe is still an outstanding
issue.
Other outstanding issues include the delay in the
swearing in of
deputy Agriculture Minister-designate Roy Bennett as well as
the continued
crackdown on MDC and civic activists.
Chamisa
said the controversy on the appointment of Gono and Tomana
arose from the
non-procedural manner in which it was done by Mugabe.
The
85-year-old leader, who has been ruling Zimbabwe since
independence in 1980,
appointed the two without the consent of Tsvangirai
and Mutambara as
stipulated under the GPA.
Three months ago, the two MDC
formations wrote to Sadc chairman and
South African President Jacob Zuma
complaining about Zanu PF's unwillingness
to address the outstanding
issues.
A Sadc summit is scheduled for next month in the
Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), where the issue is set to feature
prominently.
Sources said the matter of outstanding issues was
also set to be
discussed when Zuma visits the country later this month. The
sources said
Zuma has been invited to officially open the Zimbabwe
Agricultural Show.
If the outstanding matters are not resolved
then, the sources said,
they will be deliberated at the Sadc
summit.
Earlier this month, Tsvangirai met Zuma in South Africa
where he
reportedly complained about Mugabe's reluctance to address
outstanding
issues. Zuma promised to take up the concerns with his
Zimbabwean
counterpart.
Analysts said the announcement by
Zanu PF that it had fulfilled the
GPA was an attempt to pre-empt Zuma's
impending visits and to "tell him in
advance" that it will not be moved by
MDC's demands.
Masawi last week said by appointing the Prime
Minister, his deputies,
ambassadors, governors, permanent secretaries and
principal directors as
well as the constitution of the National Security
Council (NSC), Zanu PF had
fulfilled the GPA.
On provincial
governors, Masawi said, it was the exclusive
constitutional prerogative of
the President to appoint the 10 resident
ministers.
When
the governors were appointed, he said, there was no Prime
Minister and
Deputy Prime Minister to consult.
"The implementation of the
GPA cannot be a one-side affair," Masawi
said. "Therefore, the Zanu PF
Politburo calls on the first secretary and
President of Zanu PF to resist
any pressures intended to prejudice the party
in a manner contrary to the
GPA and the Constitution of Zimbabwe."
Masawi said while Zanu
PF had fulfilled the key elements of the GPA,
the MDC had done nothing to
call for the lifting of sanctions imposed on
Mugabe's
administration.
But Chamisa said the issue of sanctions was a
matter solely between
Zanu PF and those who imposed the restrictive
measures. The US, Britain and
other European countries imposed smart
sanctions on Mugabe, senior officials
of his party and those in government
citing gross human rights violations.
"Sanctions are a matter
between Zanu PF and those who imposed them,"
Chamisa said.
The MDC spokesperson said Zanu PF was abusing his party's generosity
of
accommodating it in the inclusive government after the party was defeated
in
the March 2008 elections.
"Zanu PF should be grateful that
they are in power despite the fact
that they were rejected by the people in
March last year. We could not chase
them overnight. We gave them time to
pack their bags," he said.
The West has said it will only lift
the sanctions once Zanu PF shows
an undisputed commitment to fulfilling the
obligations of the GPA. But that
appears a toll order for Zanu PF, whose
supporters continue to terrorise MDC
supporters in the rural
areas.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009
21:50
CHINHOYI - The trial of Temba Mliswa who is accused of criminally
insulting Mashonaland West Governor Faber Chidarikire started in Chinhoyi
last week.
Mliswa is denying criminally insulting
Chidarikire.
However, the state says Mliswa criminally insulted
Chidarikire during
a Zanu PF meeting held on February 21 to evaluate
progress made in preparing
for President Robert Mugabe's birthday
celebrations.
The state says Mliswa told Chidarikire that he
was a ritual murderer.
On Wednesday, Chidarikire appeared in
court as state witness and named
Minister Webster Shamu as one of the
officials who were present when Mliswa
uttered the words:
"Murderer, mhondi inochengeta musoro yevanhu, kunetsa panyaya
dzemunda."
Asked how he felt when he was insulted,
Chidarikire said he "felt
pained because my dignity was impaired as a
governor and a businessman".
On Friday when Chidarikire was
supposed to be cross examined by Mliswa's
lawyers, he suddenly told the
court that he had urgent national business to
attend to, and therefore could
not be cross examined.
He did not disclose the nature of the
business.
Defence counsel Gerald Mhlotswa objected to this
stating that
Chidarikire needed to be cross-examined particularly over his
1994 murder
case, which he was acquitted, and allegations of his persistent
interference
and corruption on farms in Mashonaland West.
The lawyer indicated to the court that it would provide documentary
evidence
showing that Chidarikire did in fact kill one Pauros Chikwana on
the night
of April 30, 1994 .
They claimed the act of killing resulted in
the decapitation of
Chikwana's head, which was later found on the
passenger's seat of his
vehicle.
Mliswa's lawyers also want
to produce documentary evidence to show
that just days after taking office
as Governor, Chidarikire caused a second
farm to be allocated to himself and
another one to his child while over 300
beneficiaries languished on the
waiting list for farms in the province.
The case will be heard
on October 5, 2009.
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009
20:48
ACTING Chief Chiadzwa of Marange was right to fear for his
life.
Report last night said the 54-year-old Acting Chief was
arrested on
Thursday.
It was not immediatly possible to
reach his lawyers but reports said
he had been arrested by Mutare police
for contravening sections of the
Precious Stones Trade
Act.
In a recent interview with The Standard, Chief Newton
Chiadzwa said he
had been singled out for punishment for several
reasons.
The first, he said, is the allegation that he supplied
the Kimberley
Process Certification Scheme team with damning information on
the extent of
human rights abuses by the security services.
The second reason, he believes, is that pressure is being brought to
bear in
order to "persuade" the villagers to be relocated from the
diamond-mining
area to Transau, a farm owned by the government's
Agricultural and Rural
Development Authority (ARDA).
Recently a delegation of village
heads from Chiadzwa was bussed to
Transau, ostensibly to show them where
they would be relocated. But The
Standard understands that the farm lies
derelict and infrastructure has been
vandalised.
Acting
Chief Chiadzwa said he was also being punished for setting
conditions for
the relocation of the villagers to Transau. He said among his
demands are
that the government first builds roads, clinics, and a school
and drills
boreholes before relocation of the villagers. There is also the
issue of
compensation.
He said his fears were that the government
appears determined to
remove the villagers from Chiadzwa and dump them at
Transau, as has happened
with previous resettlement
programmes.
An additional reason why he was being singled out,
he said, was
political. The governor of Manicaland, Christopher Mushohwe,
lost Mutare
West to the MDC-T's Shuah Mudiwa, one of six MPs Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai's party says are being persecuted in a sinister bid to
whittle
down the MDC-T's parliamentary majority.
Mushohwe
was not immediately available for comment yesterday.
Acting
Chief Chiadzwa told The Standard that Zanu PF accuses him of
not prevailing
on his subjects to vote for it. These are some of the reasons
he believes
make it too dangerous for him to return to Chiadzwa. His family
has fled the
area.
On Friday the state media in an orchestrated campaign
described him as
a "bogus chief".
Despite repeated efforts, his
mobile phone went unanswered yesterday.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009 19:26
NEWLY installed Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda has scoffed at
residents who
are accusing him of riding on the gravy train by accepting the
purchase of a
US$152 000 Mercedes Benz.
Residents' anger has been fuelled by the
final letters of demand which
council is issuing to water-bill
defaulters.
Some of the defaulters include residents of
Mabvuku and Tafara who
have not had water for nearly three
years.
The mayor, who is on a collision course with the
Minister of Water
Resources, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, over his insistence on
disconnecting water
supplies to defaulters, said it was proper for the
council to buy the
expensive Mercedes Benz for him.
Masunda
said he had made many sacrifices since coming into office, and
the outcry
over the top-of-the range vehicle was misplaced.
"That car is
not my personal car. It's an official car," Masunda said.
"I
have my own things. I have a Mercedes Benz E240 and a Jaguar. My
wife has a
Toyota Double Cab and an Audi Curio Double Cab. My children use a
Ford
Bantam and a Ford Courier."
The proposed car is a Mercedes Benz
ML 320 cdi.
Masunda said buying a new car was cheaper than
continuing with the
"mechanically defunct" one he
inherited.
"The car I was using, the one which was purchased
for Mudzuri and
handed down to Makwavarara, is too expensive to maintain.
Nobody would want
to be driven around in a mechanically defunct car. I for
one would not want
that," Masunda said, adding that since he became mayor
last year, he had
been using his personal cars and more recently a Council
Toyota Hilux.
While those against the move argue that a US$152
000 car will inflate
the city budget, Masunda said the plan to buy a car did
not come out of the
blue. He said the car had been budgeted for, alongside
other key
deliverables for the council.
"People should not
treat this as if it is me or the town clerk who is
demanding that I get a
car," he argued. "The project is just part of the
council budget. Why would
people complain about the mayor's car? Why do they
not raise the same
concerns about ministers' cars or the prime minister's or
even President
Mugabe's motorcade? Street lights, road repairs and the mayor's
car are all
budgeted for."
"If Simba Moyo became the next Mayor, he will be
driven around in that
car."
Masunda also dismissed claims
by his officials that the current
letters of demand were meant to raise
funds for the car. He said: "The last
bill that I have received also has
that final demand and I pay my bill in
spite of the fact that I have not had
water for the past four years."
But the mayor's arguments will
do little to cool tempers down.
Council documents seen by The
Standard show that council never
budgeted for US$152 000 towards a Mercedes
Benz for the Mayor.
The amount that was set aside was only
US$80 000. In fact, the council
procurement board was critical of the
intended purchase.
Reads part of the council minutes obtained
by The Standard: "The board
raised concern over the City's ability to afford
such an expensive vehicle.
"The Finance Director (Cosmas
Zvikaramba) advised that the City had
embarked on an intensive debt
collecting system to finance the project".
"He further reported
that a report had been submitted to the Finance
Committee to approve a
Supplementary Revenue Estimate of US$75 000 to
supplement the US$80 000 that
had been provisionally allocated in the 2009
Capital Budget for the purchase
of the mayoral vehicle."
Zvikaramba directed questions to
Council spokesperson Leslie Gwindi.
On Friday Gwindi said the
ongoing exercise to serve ratepayers with
letters of final demand was part
of the exercise to raise revenue to
purchase the vehicle.
"Yes, it's part of the exercise," Gwindi said.
Since last
month, Council has been serving defaulting residents with
the letters and
disconnecting water supplies to those who disregard the
warning.
The Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA)
last week said the
proposal to buy a Benz at a time when Council is claiming
to have no money
was "outrageous". CHRA said it was appalling that a full
council could
endorse the decision. CHRA said most worrying is that the
proposal comes at
a time when the City was failing to deliver a reliable
service to
ratepayers.
CHRA chairman Simbarashe Moyo said:
"We as CHRA have to be worried
that at a time like this, the City is putting
aside that much money to
purchase a vehicle for just one person. That can
only be done in a normal
situation and not this one we are
in."
Moyo said residents will be happier if Council embarked on
programmes
to restore water to dry suburbs.
Chairperson of
the Procurement Board, Cllr Masiye Kapare of Ward 7,
admitted there was
concern over the price of the vehicle, but said it was
not "unanimous". He
however shot down any debate on the need for a car for
the
mayor.
"Do these rabble-rousers feel it is alright for the
mayor, who is
actually the face of Zimbabwe by virtue of heading the
country's capital, to
be seen around in a small cheap car which may make him
a laughing stock to
ambassadors and other partners?"
Speaking at Masunda's installation as mayor on Friday, the Minister of
Local
Government and Urban Development Ignatious Chombo supported the
proposal,
saying:"The mayor deserves a nice car, preferably a Mercedes Benz.
Not
necessarily an ML. I would prefer an S Class 350."
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009
17:34
BULAWAYO is sitting on a health time bomb amid reports that its
water
treatment plants and sewer systems need urgent
rehabilitation.
Increased flows of human waste from burst sewer
pipes are now a common
sight in the city.
Bulawayo,
with an estimated population of about 1.5 million, has
experienced water
shortages for some time raising fears of a possible
outbreak of water-borne
diseases like cholera.
This comes amidwarnings by the United
Nations (UN) and international
health agencies that Zimbabwe is at risk of
another water-borne disease
outbreak since the underlying causes of last
year's cholera pandemic have
not been addressed.
"We have
not had water for the past week and the situation has been
further worsened
by the flow of human waste from burst sewer pipes into
people's yards. None
of the problems has been attended to," Barbra Mangena
from Old Magwegwe
high-density suburb said.
A feasibility study conducted by the
Bulawayo Sewerage Task Force
(BSTF) recently revealed that the City Council
needs about US$20 million to
replace the aged sewer systems and avert a
health disaster.
According to the local authority's Municipal
Procurement Board, a
further US$10 000 is required urgently for equipment to
rehabilitate the
water treatment plants.
Water purification
standards have deteriorated considerably at all
the city's water treatment
plants in Magwegwe, Rifle Range, Tuli Hill and 6
J.
Bulawayo Mayor Thaba Moyo said the sewer and water system has come
under
heavy strain due to lack of capital over the years to replace or
rehabilitate it. As a result, he said, it has been overwhelmed by the
growing population in Zimbabwe's second largest city.
"Failure to rehabilitate the water treatment plants and sewer systems
will
result in a health disaster as the council has not yet raised enough
revenue
to address the problems," Moyo said.
The local authority is
unable to raise revenue as its US$303 million
budget is still to be approved
by the Local Government Ministry.
This has been further
worsened by government departments that have not
been paying council for
services rendered.
Government ministries owe Bulawayo City
Council about US$800 000 with
the Home Affairs and Water Resources Ministry
having debts of US$201 670 and
US$151 846 respectively.
Minutes of the latest council meeting say the local authority will
re-introduce water disconnections in order to force government departments
to pay.
"We have also appealed to the Finance and Local
Government Ministries
to assist with funds to kick-start the projects (of
rehabilitating the water
treatment plants and sewer systems) as soon as
possible," Moyo said.
No comment could be obtained from the
Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti
and Ignatious Chombo, the Local Government
Minister.
International relief agencies and local health
officials who
co-ordinated efforts to combat the cholera outbreak say
Zimbabwe remains at
risk of a fresh and more deadly outbreak of the
water-borne disease once the
next rainy season starts in about three months'
time as the underlying
causes remained unattended.
The UN
has warned that a fresh outbreak of cholera in 2009/2010 could
see up to 25%
more people affected by the pandemic than the number of
infections during
the previous outbreak.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009
17:32
FIVE senior MDC officials undergoing a three-month crash course
on
diplomacy and international relations will only be able to take up their
diplomatic posts early next year because the inclusive government is broke,
an official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week.
The official said it was unlikely that the five - four from MDC-T and
one
from MDC - would get posted in November on completion of their training
as
the government of national unity (GNU) has no money and is battling to
pay
diplomats already outside the country.
"They cannot be posted
anytime soon because there is no money," said
the official. "We expect
postings sometime next year."
The government has been
struggling to pay its diplomats over the past
nine years. In some countries
diplomats have gone for several months without
getting their full salaries
and allowances.
"Even at this juncture, most of our diplomats
are not getting their
salaries and allowances in time," he said. "So it will
be difficult to
revive these offices when we have arrears all over the
world."
The appointees, the official said, were supposed to be
deployed soon
after completion of their training.
The official said
President Robert Mugabe agreed that the five start
training so that when
regional leaders meet next month for the Southern
African Development
Community summit, he would have something to "show" as
progress in the
tension-filled inclusive government.
The summit is scheduled
for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in
September.
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai recently had his first meeting with
the service
chiefs, who had previously vowed not to salute him, in what was
again seen
as a "rush job" by Mugabe in an attempt to portray normalcy in
the
suspicion-riddled inclusive government.
Mugabe chaired
the meeting.
This was a few days after the government announced that
Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe - publishers of the banned Daily News and
Daily News
on Sunday - would be licensed to operate in the
country.
Those undergoing diplomatic training from the MDC-T
are Hebson
Makuvise, Jacqueline Zwambila, Hilda Mafudze and Khumbulani
Mabed, as well
as Siyabonga Malandu Ncube from the MDC.
Reports say
Makuvise, who was the MDC-T's chief representative to
London, is the
Ambassador-designate to Germany.
Zwambila is a former advisor
to Tsvangirai and last year's MDC-T's
losing parliamentary candidate for
Chegutu. She will be posted to Australia.
Mafudze, a former
MDC-T MP for Manyame, is the country's next
ambassador to Sudan while Mabed
is set to be posted to Nigeria.
Ncube, the MDC legislator for
Insiza in Matabeleland South, has been
nominated for posting to
Senegal.
James Maridadi, the Prime Minister's spokesperson, said he was
not
privy to the details of the deployment of the trainee
diplomats.
"But what I know is they have been duly appointed
and are undergoing
training in preparation for their posting," Maridadi
said. "The other
mechanisms like issues of money are beyond me."
Efforts to get a comment from the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti or
the
Minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi were fruitless last
week.
Zimbabwe has 38 diplomatic missions plus three
consulates across the
world, with the biggest missions being New York and
Geneva due to United
Nations work.
Foreign currency
applications lodged with the central bank have not
been adequately met,
negatively affecting morale and the operations of the
embassies.
As of February this year, ambassadors were being
paid between US$11
000 to US$13 000 a month depending on political
seniority.
In February this year, the New York mission received
US$100 000 when
its arrears and other monthly obligations totalled US$1
million.
The delay in payment meant that the embassy staff has
not been able to
meet their obligations such as paying for rented
accommodation, heating,
medication and school fees.
In certain
countries where it is legal, spouses had resorted to
seeking employment to
support their families.
There has been pressure in the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to reduce
the number of embassies as a survival strategy but
this was turned down by
Mugabe who sources said argued this would amount to
a humiliation.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009 17:13
THOUGH sometimes vilified at home by President Robert Mugabe's
loyalists,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's efforts to bring democracy to
Zimbabwe
have been recognised as far afield as Spain.
Tsvangirai has just
been named the winner of the prestigious
International
Lifetime
Achievement Award 2009.
"I am particularly happy and
encouraged by the fact that people do
recognise our humble contribution to
this country's struggle for peace and
democracy," Tsvangirai said on hearing
about the award.
"This award and our quest for a free and prosperous
Zimbabwe will only
serve to make us stronger and I will not rest until this
happens."
The Prime Minister made his remarks soon after
Spanish Ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Pilar Fuertes told him that the Spanish
foundation Cristobal
Gabarron had accorded him the
recognition.
"The message I was bringing to the Prime Minister
was of great
appreciation from the foundation for the role he has played in
trying to
build democracy," Fuertes said.
"The foundation
was impressed by the Prime Minister because he
identifies with the people
and their suffering.
"All over the world Zimbabweans are known
as strong people who have
fought to survive in all these years of hardship
and conflict.
\"The Prime Minister has spent most of his life
fighting together with
the people and this is what must have really
impressed the jury," Fuertes
said.
The ambassador also took
the opportunity to announce about US$6
million in aid to Zimbabwe to be
channelled through civil society
organisations.
On the aid
Tsvangirai thanked the Spanish government for their
continuing support to
improve the lives of Zimbabweans through humanitarian
aid.
The award Tsvangirai received is named after famous Spanish painter
Cristobal Gabarron and honours individuals and organisations for being
"outstanding in reaching achievements that are an example to
humanity".
The citation of his award reads: "Tsvangirai is an
example of
personal and political generosity, a beacon of hope for all of
Africa.
"The whole world must lend its support to his striving for
excellence
and to the dignity of the people of Zimbabwe."
The jury
settled for Tsvangirai from the 17 nominations that were
received from
Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Spain and the United States
for the
award.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
Among the
global political personalities who have received the award
are luminaries
such as the ex-president of Colombia, Belisario Betancur
(2003), the
prestigious French political philosopher Sami Naïr (2006) and
the
ex-president of Uruguay, Julio María Sanguinetti (2007).
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009 13:50
ZIMBABWE'S bid to host visiting teams for the 2010 soccer World Cup
went up
in smoke after the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture
said
there were no funds to host the Cosafa tourney seen as a dress
rehearsal for
next year's showcase.
In June, Zimbabwe won the right to host the
Cosafa Cup after a
successful bidding by the Ministry of Tourism and
Hospitality Industry and
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) who want to
use the October tourney to
test the country's preparedness for 2010 soccer
showpiece.
But in a new twist of events, the Minister of
Education, Sports, Arts
and Culture, Senator David Coltart wrote to Cosafa
last month saying the
country has doubts of hosting the event due to limited
funds.
In a July 24, 2009, letter to Cosafa chief operations officer,
Sue
Destombes, Coltart said the Sports and Recreation Commission mandated to
authorise national and international sporting activities was concerned about
the cost involved in hosting the tournament.
"I noted in
this regard, at the press conference attended by yourself
and my colleague
Minister Mzembi (Walter), Zifa stated that they hope to
receive a
sponsorship package of approximately US$700 000, and in addition,
the
Zimbabwean government will have to provide accommodation, transport and
food
for the participating teams on top of the sponsorship," Coltart
said.
The venues, Coltart said, will have to be rehabilitated
"to a certain
extent to make them suitable to host such a prestigious
tournament" which
means an extra cost to the government.
He
said the Commission estimates that the Zimbabwean government would
have to
raise in this regard an additional US$2 million.
"With this in
mind, and bearing in mind the fact that my ministry has
very limited
resources, I have written to the Minister of Finance to
ascertain whether he
is prepared to allocate the figure of US$3 million to
cover this
tournament," he said.
"If the Minister of Finance does not have
sufficient resources to
cover the tournament, then we will regrettably be
forced to decline your
kind invitation."
Walter Mzembi,
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister told
Standardbusiness Zimbabwe
desperately needs Cosafa to test the state of
preparedness.
"Cosafa is the only practical dress rehearsal. Without Cosafa anything
we
present to the nation is theoretical," he said adding that they will put
the
tournament for consideration by Cabinet.
Mzembi said ZTA, SRC
and Zifa will have to sit down and put a budget
to be presented to the
Ministerial Economic Committee that does due
diligence on behalf of
Cabinet.
Mzembi said the October tourney would test the commitment of
Zimbabwe
and is a "mock exam on the country's systems".
"If
we can't host Zambia, Malawi and the rest of the 14 member
countries how can
we say we are ready to host Brazil and England," he asked.
But
players in the tourism industry said Coltart had jumped the gun
without
consulting with the sector. They say he had seen Cosafa as a
sporting event
not as an avenue to market the country as a tourist
destination following
years of an economic meltdown.
Karikoga Kaseke, ZTA chief
executive officer told Standardbusiness
Cosafa would hype interest for 2010
but Coltart's letter shows that the
country has no capacity to accommodate
teams for next year's soccer
extravaganza.
"In essence he
(Coltart) is saying we are not ready for 2010. If we
can't host Cosafa how
can we host Brazil versus Argentina in a friendly
match?"
The
Cosafa bungling by Coltart is not the only thing the tourism
industry has to
contend with, Standardbusiness was told.
While world soccer
governing body, Fifa's accommodation company, MATCH
has signed up for
facilities in the region, it is still to agree with
operators in Zimbabwe
after they said MATCH's conditions were harsh.
In May, the country's
tourism players rejected as unsustainable a
proposal by Fifa to reserve 80%
of the rooms stock in Victoria Falls without
immediate payment for next
year's World Cup.
Tourism players said they are prepared to
offer 300 rooms constituting
20% of the entire room stock in Victoria
Falls.
Investigations also revealed that players are still to
enjoy the
fiscal incentives offered to the industry early this year due to
"too much
paper work".
In March, government exempted from duty
capital goods used by
registered tourism players and equipment for
expansion.
The suspension runs up to February 28,
2011.
Operators told Standardbusiness, the process is taking longer to
implement and some players have resorted to paying out duty as they race
against time to spruce up their images.
In addition, a
number of safari operators are haggling with ZTA over
levy on trophy fees
and the matter is before the Supreme Court. While the
two parties wait for
the Supreme Court to settle the matter, it means that
safari operators
cannot enjoy the fiscal incentives because they are not
registered with
ZTA.
But there is a silver lining after all with the Brazilian Football
Federation saying they could consider Zimbabwe as their training ground if
they qualify for 2010.
Zimbabwe's tourism industry, whose
image has been battered for the
past years because of lawlessness and
economic meltdown, is picking up the
pieces and is touted to provide the
quickest turnaround ahead of sectors
such as agriculture, mining and
manufacturing in the new revival plan, Short
Term Emergency Recovery
Programme.
BY NDAMU SANDU
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009 13:35
A TOTAL of US$1.5 billion had been processed through the Real Time
Gross
Settlement (RTGS) as of 16 July since the reintroduction of the
payment
system early this year, figures from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ)
show.
RTGS is a funds transfer mechanism where transfer of money
takes place
from one bank to another on a "real time" and on "gross" basis.
Settlement
in "real time" means payment transaction is not subjected to any
waiting
period.
RBZ banned the RTGS system last year after the
apex bank said the
system was being abused.
It was reintroduced on
April 14 following concerted efforts by the
ministry of Finance and the
banking community.
"From the 14th of April 2009 to 16th July
2009, a cumulative total of
155 119 transactions valued at US$1.5 billion
have been processed through
the system," RBZ said.
It said
that since the alignment of the RTGS system to process
payments in US$,
there has been a tremendous increase in the volumes of
transactions
processed through the system".
RBZ welcomed the Point of Sale
(POS) transactions in retail outlets
saying it will relieve pressure on
change and the demand for cash which is
imported outside the
country.
International credit cards such as Visa are on its
way, RBZ said,
adding that it had engaged Visa
International.
"The engagement has culminated in a firm
commitment by Visa to work
with the local banking community to ensure a
return of the Visa platform
that enables international visitors to spend
their money whilst in
Zimbabwe," RBZ said.
The tourism
industry has been on the forefront for the reintroduction
of the Visa
platform saying that visitors into the country were being forced
to move
around with cash for transaction purposes.
"Given the support
and commitment from all stakeholders, it is our
sincere hope that the Visa
platform will be operational for international
cards in the not to distant
future," RBZ said.
The revival of RTGS, POS and Visa
transactions is designed to revive
the payment system which had been eroded
by last year's hyperinflation. It
is designed to move the economy towards a
cashless society.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August
2009 19:16
THE real headache for the inclusive government is to
reconcile its
silence on the on-going reports of farm invasions, amid
allegations of
corruption in the allocation of land.
The
Standard understands that while the government says farm seizures
have been
halted there were fresh reports of disturbances in Chiredzi,
Chegutu, Norton
and around Harare last week.
The invasions reported around
Harare targeted plots, suggesting the
motive is no longer land for farming
purposes. Some of the reports involved
both violence and acts that amount to
cruelty to animals on the seized
farms.
A delegation from
the inclusive government investigating the reports
is said to have been
"horrified" by what it found.
The Standard understands that the
delegation was "appalled" that law
enforcement agents appeared powerless to
intervene and put a stop to fresh
farm seizures.
Police
spokesperson, Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena, when
contacted for comment, said they needed to investigate the
latest
reports.
"If people have offer letters, they are entitled to
move onto the
land. If there's contestation, they have to go to the Ministry
of Lands and
the courts to challenge. Where it is manifestly clear that the
offer letters
are not genuine, we will have to investigate," he
said.
"But when a person has been beaten up, they have a right
to report to
the police and we will investigate because that is clearly
illegal."
The Standard understands that among those involved in
the fresh land
seizures are a senior official from the Reserve Bank and an
assistant to a
government minister.
In the case of
Chiredzi, half of the farms affected by the latest
reported invasions belong
to foreign nationals which should be protected
under the Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (Bippa).
Deon
Theron, the new president of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU),
said there
was "a lot of corruption" involved in the allocation of land and
in the
prosecution and eviction of farmers. These irregularities, he said,
could
not be corrected while they continued to take place.
"Commercial agriculture finds itself in a crisis," he said. "The
magnitude
of the crisis is so big, that commercial agriculture is currently
facing
total collapse.
"The responsibility of rectifying this
catastrophe lies squarely on
government. Whether they actually have the will
to do this remains to be
seen."
The land reform programme,
he said, could not be declared a success as
it merely became an exercise of
re-allocation of land from whites to blacks,
irrespective of either side's
ability to farm.
"Very often we find that the beneficiaries are
closely aligned to
influential individuals, or have paid someone," he
said.
"Farm disruptions, prosecutions and evictions of
productive white
commercial farmers continue, and new beneficiaries continue
to make their
appearance sometimes more than a year after they have been
'allocated' a
productive farm!"
Deputy Prime Minister,
Arthur Mutambara, toured some of the seized
farms in Mashonaland West in the
full glare of the media several months ago.
While he publicly denounced what
he witnessed, to date no action has been
taken by the government to stamp
its authority. And the report of his
findings appears to have suffered the
fate of several previous land audits -
swept under the
carpet.
The only logical explanation seems to be that
Mutambara's tour was
intended to create a façade of action by the inclusive
government ahead of
the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's tour of the US
and Europe in June.
Theron said the failure of the
beneficiaries to maintain or improve
on the evicted farmer's production
figures, had been exposed, and the impact
of their failure had been
catastrophic.
However, white commercial farmers could still
play a major role in
turning this decline around,Theron said, but only if
government stopped
discriminating against them because they happened to be
white, treated them
as any other Zimbabwean citizen, and allowed them to
farm.
If property rights are not restored and respected, and
full and fair
compensation paid timeously for land, improvements, moveable
property taken
and losses incurred, the conflict will remain and there will
be no way
forward.
Restoring confidence in the agricultural
sector is of paramount
importance, Theron said.
Respecting
property rights and calling an immediate moratorium on all
land-related
matters would be the first step to recovery.
The CFU proposes
an end to new land seizures, issuing of new offer
letters, a halt to all
evictions, and an end to all farm disruptions,
prosecutions and current land
court cases.
Theron believes the above will only be possible if
good, unbiased law
and order has been re-established, as opposed to bad laws
being applied
selectively.
"The new constitution needs to
ensure that the police remain loyal to
the government and not a particular
party or individual. When the land
audit exposes the perpetrators of
corruption, violence and theft, they
should be held accountable and brought
before the courts, either locally or
internationally."
The
CFU believes that no land audit can take place when farm evictions
and new
allocations are continuing.
An audit, the CFU is convinced, can
not be done by an interested
party, as this makes manipulation of the
results possible. An audit,
therefore, needs to be undertaken by an
independent international body.
Key to a resolution of the land
issue is that all signed treaties and
their protocols be ratified,
domesticated and enforced. Therefore the Sadc
Tribunal ruling in the
Campbell Case should be respected and enforced.
As part of
restoring normalcy, the CFU wants perpetrators of
corruption, violence and
theft held accountable, and tried for their crimes.
CFU
Vice-President, Charles Taffs said the key to national growth
recovery and
healing lay in successful agriculture.
"It is a base on which
all sectors from banking, supporting industries
and downstream manufacturers
can grow, and most of all it is a sector on
which good governance can
depend," he said. "All we are asking is for good
non-biased policy within
which we can all participate with dignity and
confidence.
"The alternatives to the above are all too dire to contemplate. Let
this be
a turning point for us all. To fail is to condemn our country and
its
children to poverty."
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August 2009
16:56
I have always liked Charles Mungoshi's short story collection,
Coming
of the Dry Season. It was a set book in my Literature module many
years ago,
when I did my O' Levels. We scrutinised the stories to the last
detail and
naturally, they have remained etched in the memory. One of my
favourite
stories in that collection is called, 'The Hero'.
The story is set at a boarding school. It more than resonated with our
own
situation, being students at a similar institution. We could identify
with
the main character, Julius who challenges authority, complaining
bitterly
about the harsh conditions and most notably, the unpalatable food
served at
the school. Julius thought he was the hero; his peers cheered him
on as he
expressed his disgust. "I would not eat what you yourself would not
give to
your dogs!' I remember some of the words.
We liked Julius. We
thought he was a hero. In fact, Julius became one
of us, more than a
character in the pages of a book. He was saying
everything we wanted to say
(just like his peers) but could not dare mention
for fear of the
consequences. We wanted our own Julius, just like his peers
in the
story.
However, the story does not have a fairy-tale ending. In the
end,
Julius meets his fate. He is expelled.
As our hero walks away,
reality suddenly dawns on him. He realises he
has to face the consequences
on his own. He remembers the terrible
environment at home where his wicked
step-mother awaited him - "Already he
could hear his stepmother's
bick-bickering voice", Mungoshi writes. The
thought hits him hard that he is
now on his own; that all his admirers at
school, his peers who egged him on
are still at school, getting on with
their lives. None of them had stood up
for him in his hour of need.
Likewise, I remember an incident
in the same year at school, when a
classmate and friend got into trouble on
account of his antics. Like Julius
the character in Mungoshi's book, he
thought he was a hero and we made him
believe it to be real. It was the rule
at most boarding schools that
students were responsible for cleaning their
classrooms, dormitories and
toilets.
The pair assigned the
duty that week - I will call them John and Tom -
decided that it was not
necessary to attend to their duty.
The monitor decided to stamp her
authority. She directed the pair to
perform their duty. Tom said he wouldn't
do it. The monitor said she would
have to report him to the deputy
head-teacher, who was known to administer
very thorough punishment, with an
instrument that was notoriously known as
the Sunga.
Tom
then rose from his seat and looking directly at the bemused
monitor and like
Julius, he began his tirade: 'You can go and tell the
deputy that if he
wants to see the classroom in a clean state he must come
down and do it
himself! Tell him that I, Tom, son of Nungu will not be
cleaning this
week!'
The laughter of his peers spurred him on. Then suddenly, there
was an
eerie silence, except for Tom's raised voice, as he continued,
unaware of
his surroundings. And right there, with a smirk on his face that
said, 'I've
got you, son!' was the deputy head-teacher behind the window. He
had been
standing there all the while as Tom made his rebellious speech
against
authority.
'Ha-a, huya hako, Tom!' (Come along,
Tom!), the deputy said, as if he
was inviting him for a cup of tea at his
office. Within minutes, we heard
the unmistakable sound of the sunga - a
sure sign that the dreaded
instrument was landing on the softer parts of
Tom's anatomy. Tom's
humiliation was complete when he returned with a broom
and dust pan, with
the deputy behind him. He went on to clean the room on
his own. None of us
said a word. None of us helped. The deputy was there to
inspect. So there he
was, poor Tom, a hero not so long before, now meekly
attending to his chore
with the diligence of an obedient
student.
I am often reminded of Julius, Tom and us, their peers
whenever I
think of the relationship between my country, Zimbabwe, our
African peers
and the rest of the world, especially the West. I often
wonder whether we
fall into the Julius/Tom's trap - the trap of misguided
heroism, where we
say everything that our peers want to hear but would never
dare say
themselves and when the consequences do arrive, they are left
squarely at
our door, whilst they get on with their lives. I think about it
often when
our African peers pretend to admire us for our leaders' 'heroic'
speeches
against the West for example, yet they themselves keep an open mind
and know
what to say and when. They even make promises to us but rarely are
these
honoured.
I think some of our African brothers can be
hypocritical when it comes
to relations with the West. They dine with the
West by night and castigate
the West during the day, pretending to be our
great friends. Vanotifurira
nekutipesvedzera kuita zvisina mhaka ivo
vachidya nerweseri (They encourage
us to be harsh with the West when they go
behind our backs and benefit from
the same source).
This
was all too apparent recently when Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara
courted the wrath of African leaders at a conference in Uganda.
Mutambara is
reported to have suggested that a national vision needed to be
endorsed not
just by its designers but also by others, including the West
and that
influential broadcasters such as CNN and the BBC constituted a
critical part
of this campaign.
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzania
President Jakaya Kikwete
are reported to have been less than happy with the
Mutambara's views. Since
then, Mutambara has been the subject of a stampede
in the state media.
Reading their rebuke, you would think that these men and
their countries
would have nothing at all to do with the West. Yet the
reality is very
different.
For example, President Kikwete
did not state that more than 40% of his
country's budget is supported by
Western donor countries and that in 2008
Tanzania was a grateful recipient
of grant pledges totalling US$860 million
to support the country's national
budget. Indeed, he did not say that
foreign donors contributed at least 40%
of the country's 2007/2008 spending
through the general budget
support.
Similarly, President Museveni did not mention that his
country has
been a grateful beneficiary of Western largesse over the years.
Indeed, it
has long been regarded as a darling of the West, its limitations
notwithstanding. The European Union (EU) allocated 480 million Euros grant
assistance to Uganda for five years - this budgetary support taking effect
from 1 July 2008, to run until 30 June 2013 (source: www.tralac.org)
Now we have to ask the
critical question: Would all this support
(which we have been pleading for
in the last 6 months) be forthcoming to
these countries if Tanzania and
Uganda did not design and sell their
national visions in a manner that is
acceptable to their benefactors? Would
they be having the relatively cordial
relations with the West if they used
the vile rhetoric that they seem to
encourage our leaders to use?
Mutambara may not have had the facts and
figures with him at the
conference. Next time, he could get his team to do
the research so that when
these leaders chide him as they did he can place
the details before them and
ask just how they manage to get that support
without stepping on their
benefactors' feet.
We risk being the
Juliuses and Toms of this continent. We have to keep
an open mind. We have
to know what to say, when to say it and measure the
consequences of our
speeches. Even our so-called friends in China are clever
enough to know the
ways of this world; that you have to keep an open mind;
that indeed you
cannot close off options.
nAlex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law
School, the University of Kent and
can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk or a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk
BY
ALEX MAGAISA
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Saturday, 15 August
2009 16:53
THE demand by the new crop of legislators clamouring for
imported
all-weather terrain vehicles reeks of hypocrisy.
MPs pledged to represent the interests of the people who voted them
into
office and for rural legislators who have been in office for nearly 18
months one of the areas of focus should be on infrastructure development and
in particular improvement of the road network.
When MPs
clamour for 4x4 vehicles, they betray their true colours.
They are thinking
about their comfort instead of how their constituents will
be able to
navigate the treacherous roads in the rural areas.
With the
onset of the rains Zimbabwe is about to enter a season of
malaria, and for
some parts of the country it will also be a cholera season,
which last year
claimed more than 4 200 lives lost needlessly.
It is important that the
focus of attention for the MPs must be on
ensuring that the roads are
navigable in order for the generality of the
people to travel on them using
public transport. This is critical in the
event of villagers being taken ill
and therefore requiring to travel to the
nearest health
centres.
Unless the roads are attended to before the onset of
the rains many
people will be sentenced to death because they will have no
forms of
transport to get to hospitals in time to avoid loss of
lives.
Bad roads don't just affect lives. They also affect the
ability of
farmers to access markets where they buy inputs for the
agricultural seasons
and send their crops to the market. Bad roads spell
disaster for buses,
which will not be able to travel on them during the
rainy season.
If there were better roads, MPs would not require
expensive imported
vehicles. It is only warped logic that prescribes
expensive imports instead
of fixing the roads. In any case what is the
rationale of travelling to
witness villagers perishing in their homes
instead of offering them roads
which provide ready access to a multitude of
facilities?
The MPs who are each demanding US$30 000 to import
vehicles are using
voters to climb the ladder to the gravy train. They do
not care about the
people who voted them into office.
In
Muzarabani, one of the country's main cotton growing areas, the
wealth from
the "white gold" is not going into upgrading and improving the
infrastructure. Buses have long abandoned the "roads" and travel on tracts
used by scotch-carts. But this is only possible during the dry
season.
The neglect of the rural areas and the solution
prescribed by MPs is
incongruous. It is unforgivable that nearly three
decades of Independence
can offer such breathtaking retrogression, where
there should be
development.
But warped priorities are not
only evident at the level of
legislators. There is similar evidence in
government. Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara suggested recently that
there could be another "government
retreat" to assess progress of the
100-day action plan which ended on August
6.
There is no
need for another Victoria Falls-style retreat, where
government ministers
and permanent secretaries spent four days with each of
them spending at
least US$120 a room a night. To suggest a similar jamboree
when civil
servants are surviving on about US$150 a month is an unparalleled
misplacement of priorities.
No to more excuses to fritter
away scarce resources. Let's repair the
roads before the rains and let the
"government retreat" be held at the
Rainbow Towers - if one is necessary -
with the delegates coming from their
homes in Harare.
http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com
Herald Seeing Light at last
Saturday, 15 August 2009 16:39
IT was really refreshing to read The Herald blasting attempts by the
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, to recall the Zimbabwe dollar into
circulation.
As Zimbabweans who have experienced what Gono
did to the Zimbabwe
dollar leading to its demise, the Herald staffers should
be congratulated
for telling Gono like it is.
For once The
Herald, although some of its reporters are known to be
Gono bootlickers, had
the courage to say that enough is enough to Gono's
weird monetary
policies.
The Herald at least tried to give a hint to Gono and
his Zanu PF
supporters and others like the Attorney-General, Johannes
Tomana, how out of
step with the mass public opinion they
are.
Tomana continues to allow the arrest of journalists for
simply doing
their work. He continues to allow arrests of civic society
members for
peacefully demonstrating for a new-people driven constitution
and basic
human rights.
I hope everyone realises that Zanu
PF is only trying to use the
national paper as its mouthpiece to scuttle the
will of the majority of the
people of Zimbabwe who have since rejected
it.
It looks like Zanu PF officials including supporters such
as Gono,
are also not heeding calls by Finance Minister, Tendai Biti and
Economic
Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Elton Mangoma that the
Zimbabwe
dollar is dead and buried.
Trymore Mazhambe
Mutare.
----
Fees, not Water the Real Problem at the
UZ
Saturday, 15 August 2009 16:36
AS the University of
Zimbabwe (UZ) opened last week the fees issue at
the institution exposed a
problem far bigger than the one at the time the
institution was closed
resulting from a water and sanitation crisis.
I believe the
Vice-Chancellor acted hypocritically and held the whole
nation in contempt
when he reduced all UZ problems to just the water
shortages. Water
shortcomings had been part of the UZ ever since I enrolled
in 2006. What was
special about 2009?
He did not tell the nation that UZ closed
after a massive
demonstration on February 3, 2009 against a fee structure
introduced a day
earlier.
He did not tell the nation that
the halls of residence had been closed
on July 9, 2007 following a
demonstration on July 7, 2007 against a Z$1
million top up fee. Students
were marched out of campus residence by police
on mere 30 minutes'
notice.
He even went on to ignore a court ruling but was not
arrested for
contempt of a High Court
Order of July 13 by Justice
Ben Hlatshwayo reinstating students into
halls of residence.
Why
did he conveniently leave this out? Would it have exposed the
government's
bankruptcy and the VC's lack of respect for rule of law?
The
more one looks at it, the more it dawns that this has been the
methodology
of our government. These folks are misleading the nation and
Jonathan Moyo
was the epitome of this type of propaganda. They choose
toidentify the wrong
problems and prescribe elusive solutions.
The Government of
National Unity should not fall into the same
pitfall. The result is always
the same: - catastrophic and shameful. The
problem persists until it brings
everything down. Priorities are also
horribly misplaced.
The UZ closed because the government and the institution were
bankrupt.
Students and parents failed and resisted to paying for the
mistakes of
government mostly because the demands were outrageous.
The
Vice-Chancellor did not tell the nation that lecturers and other
University
staff had been on an intermittent strike for about a year. The
Association
of University Teachers (AUT) had repeatedly walked out of
tripartite
negotiations demanding better salaries.
Zimbabweans were not
told that the University did not have stationery
to run examinations and the
university. The authorities ran to the corporate
world with a begging bowl
and
got boreholes from Unicef
.
This was noble
until the fallacy started to unravel. The students are
failing to pay fees
of between S$404 and US$678. The lecturers are
constantly on the edge of an
industrial action. Everything is in a delicate
state threatening to fall
apart.
It's all very alarming that the inclusive government has
no money and
students are in no
position to help themselves. If all
persist on their current course a
clash is inevitable.
The
authorities must tell the world the real problems dogging the UZ
so that
genuine sypmathisers out there can come to our assistance. This
hide-and-seek approach is unacceptable and retrogressive.
Mayibuye
UZ, Harare.
----------
Not to
Extortion
Saturday, 15 August 2009 16:34
WHILE I have the
greatest respect for Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, I am
apalled that he is trying
force Harare ratepayers to pay for the failures
of the previous Zanu PF
government. Why should we pay for services not
rendered.
The water crisis in Harare and other towns is a direct result of the
illegitimate child called Zinwa and instead of locating the blame where is
belongs - on Ignatious Chombo's doorstep, Masunda wants all of us to buy in
on the chaos.
No way, Mr Mayor!
Disgusted
Harare.
--------
SMS THE STANDARD:
Saturday, 15
August 2009 16:43
Not in command
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is
not really Commander-in-Chief of the
defence forces. Rather, he is hostage
to them. This is amply demonstrated by
the refusal of people who are
supposed to be his subordinates to salute the
President's partner in the
Government of National Unity, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai.
If he had commanded them to do so as their commander they would not
have
refused. Therefore it shows he is not in control. If he insists that he
is
in control, then let him dismiss them to demonstrate he is in charge and
the
one who signed the Global Political Agreement and understands its
meaning. -
Observer, Harare.
One law for...
IF The Herald of 4
August lied that Parliament's Standing Rules and
Orders Committee
"abandoned" interviews to select prospective candidates to
sit on the
Zimbabwe Media Commission, does it mean they acted in contempt of
Parliament
and if so what action does this attract and by whom? The state
has been
quick to pounce on journalists from the private media. Now let's
see if the
law will sleep on this one. - B Ware, Harare.
******
DR
Tafataona Mahoso, The Herald and Sunday Mail columnist is a serial
exaggerator, who appears to believe in the motto: the more/bigger the
better. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai visited seven European countries
and the US in June. Where does he get the figure 15 from? This guy is bad
news for journalism. - Beta Aende, Harare.
******
"NOTHING sinister about the arrest of MDC-T MPs," Minister of Justice
Patrick Chinamasa would have us believe. Zanu PF is a shameless,
hypocritical and evil party. How come their thieving and corrupt members are
not facing any charges? They have looted state coffers and natural resources
and beaten up MDC supporters and the minister talks of no one being above
the law? I swear by the Lord that there will be a day of reckoning for these
Zanu PF thugs. - Rule of Law, Bulawayo.
No justice
ONE
leading Zanu PF official in Magunje, in Hurungwe, shot and almost
killed a
person during the June 2008 run off election. This person is now an
amputee.
Absolutely nothing happened to the Zanu PF official. Whatever
happened to
the rule of law? - Goose, Karoi.
******
SOMETIME back
Joseph Chinotimba shot and injured an MDC supporter. He
had two serious
cases of attempted murder and illegal possession of a
firearm. Those charges
were enough to land him in jail, but he escaped
without problems and was
granted bail -- talk of selective application of
the law. - Bibi.
Ban all killers
WHY ban Mhunga bus service? Why are we not calling for
Zanu PF to be
banned? It has killed more people during the violence it
spearheaded than
Mhunga bus transport. What is supposed to happen to the
workers of the
transporter and their families? - Touched, Harare.
Haul them to court
SOME legal advice to people who lost their
breadwinners during the
recent tragic road traffic accident involving the
Mhunga Bus Service: Why
not sue the company? Mhunga hoodwinks surviving
relatives by giving them
maize-meal, coffins and transport for instance.
What the relatives do not
know is that they can institute legal proceedings
against the company,
especially if it is found that the company's drivers
caused the accidents.
You lose a relative who had a good job and the buck
ends there? Mhunga must
pay! - Concerned, Harare.
******
WHO is saying that the Harare-Masvingo road is narrow? How
narrow is
it? Are the drivers involved in head-on collisions or side-swiping
other
vehicles on this road using it for the first time? Are we short of
controls
and alternatives to reduce the carnage until the road is widened?
Why do we
choose to ogle at those bathing in the river while in the middle
of crossing
a narrow bridge? Let's be responsible and accountable. - Pafune,
Harare.
Make it public
WHAT'S the point of handing the land
audit report to President Robert
Mugabe when he could very well be one of
the multiple farm owners? All it
needs is to be made public and for the
truth to be known. This issue must be
solved justly in order for Zimbabwe to
move forward. If the parties to the
Global Political Agreement try to sweep
it under the carpet, they will trip
over our hunger. - Nan.
******
THE passport fees have been reduced from "unobtainable" to
"unaffordable". When will every citizen have the right to a passport? - K
Pullen, Bulawayo.
******
ZANU PF can have their
suicidal totalitarian constitution for their
party. That is their right. But
Zimbabwe as a rainbow nation is free to
craft its own national constitution
which caters for the rainbow wishes.
That is our non-negotiable, sacred
right. - A Wright, Harare.
******
THE Constitution as the
supreme law of any country asserts the
supremacy of the national citizenry
over all political and governmental
institutions. It forces them to be
accountable to the citizenry for their
utterances, actions, commissions and
omissions when holding positions of
public trust. It is the people's
ultimate weapon with which they can either
whip into line or get rid of
errant public officials or political parties.
Hence, no politician must be
allowed to monopolise the current
constitution-making process. Those for a
party constitution are free to
expose themselves and advocate for a "No"
vote at the referendum. -
Musuwati, Harare.
WHY does
President Robert Mugabe need all those titles for? Isn't that
a sign of
selfishness? - Gutsaruzhinji.
GREYSTONE Park is under siege. We
have not had a drop of water from
the municipal taps for more than a year.
Secondly, Zesa is instituting
load-shedding in a manner that has neither
rhyme nor reason. - Disgruntled.
IT boggles the mind when one reads
the public media in Zimbabwe whose
journalists remain an appendage of Zanu
PF. Aren't these scribes ashamed of
themselves when they froth at the mouths
over because the Prime Minister did
not do President Robert Mugabe's bidding
during the Prime Minister's recent
tour of the West. They seem to suggest
that the President can just fire him
the way he fired Ray Kaukonde. That
won't happen. - Lovenda, Sakubva.
THE youth training centres should
be transformed into technical
colleges and be transferred to the Ministry of
Higher and Tertiary
Education, while the Ministry of Youth should be
scrapped altogether. What
Zimbabwe should be doing is investing in technical
skills for our youths
instead of mass production of ignorant and
semi-literate youths that these
youth training centres have been producing.
- Border Bodo, Masvingo.
AFTER the chaos caused by Zanu PF MPs and
the illiterate hooligans of
youths they led, one would hope that in future
they should educate them that
they should first drink the contents of the
bottles before hurling the
containers at their intended targets. - Empty
vessels, Harare.
DOES the government ever care to take the
statistics of the loss of
revenue they suffer daily through unreciepted
money at roadblocks by all
traffic officers? -Moore Nyathi.
http://www.news24.com
2009-08-15 23:10
Johannesburg - A
Zimbabwean minister who was assaulted during an armed
robbery in Bryanston,
should have followed protocol and asked for VIP
protection from police, a
spokesperson said on Saturday.
"We need to emphasise that it's protocol
to ask for protection from the VIP
protection unit," police spokesperson
Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo
said.
"We are concerned that he
came into this country without following protocol,
if any minister comes
into the country he must register with the South
African government and we
will be tasked into protecting him," Naidoo said.
Sitting down to
supper
The robbery occurred on Friday evening at the minister's friend's
home in
Bryanston.
"They were having supper when a number of armed
men stormed into the house,
tied them up, assaulted them, and demanded
money," Crime Intelligence and
Interpol spokesperson Tumi Golding
said.
The robbers then made of with a number of items, including
jewellery, money
and electronic goods.
Police and paramedics were
called to the scene, and the minister was rushed
to hospital for observation
as he was hit on the back of the head with a
gun.
"He spent the night
at the hospital and was discharged this morning
[Saturday]."
Golding
could not give the name of the minister as police were waiting for
the go
ahead from the Zimbabwean authorities.
She could also not say why the
minister was visiting the country, or whether
he was still here.
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=8052
By A Correspondent
for
ZimEye.org
Published: August 15, 2009
JOHANNESBURG -
Opposition supremo and leader of Zimbabwe's ZAPU party,
Dumiso Dabengwa
switched off his phone after questions were raised before
him in January on
his having personally presided over the ruthless torture
of many Zimbabwean
activists when he was still a government minister.
The calls came
after some Zimbabwean political exiles based in Johannesburg
raised their
voices on the former Home Affairs minister, accusing the leader
of the
recently revived ZAPU party, of personally presiding over their
torture by
state security agents close to a decade ago.
Dabengwa briefly
denied the allegations, saying he would respond in full if
another
phone-call was made in half an hour. Several attempts to call him
thereafter
failed as he had switched off his phone, reports South African
based
journalist Mxolisi Ncube. To this day, Dabengwa still has not replied
to the
matter which continues to haunt him.
The exiles, most of them
founder members of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), which has now
grown to become Zimbabwe's most powerful
political party since independence
apart from Zanu-PF, accused the former
minister of "sitting and watching"
while they were assaulted by state
security agents back in
1999.
The activists say that they had not been given a platform
to say these
things before. They finally did so at a press briefing held by
the MDC
Veteran Activists Association, in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, where
they
re-lived their experiences under the Mugabe government and why they had
crossed into South Africa.
Khumbulani Sibanda, formerly a
youth member of the MDC in Bulawayo, and two
other former MDC activists who
requested not to be named, told the Zimbabwe
Times that one night in 1999,
they were tortured for more than eight hours,
some of the time in Dabengwa's
presence, at Magnet house, headquarters of
the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) in the city).
"I was among a group of about 16
MDC activists who were raided in the city
one evening, while on our way to
the MDC offices, where we wanted to leave
our posters and other party
material after a rally. While on the way, we
were raided along Josiah
Chinamano Street at about 7 pm, and force-marched
to Magnet House," said one
activist.
He said that their captors, who numbered more than 40
people, most of whom
appeared to be war veterans, accused them of trying to
return Zimbabwe to
its colonial rulers.
The activist, who
claims he was among the most vocal members in the group,
says that on
arrival at Magnet House, most of their captors departed,
leaving them in the
hands of people they suspected to be members of the CIO.
They had then been
tortured.
"They beat us up with anything they could lay their
hands on, from baton
sticks to fists and booted feet, saying that we should
tell them who our
foreign sponsors were," said the
activist.
Confirming the allegations, Sibanda said that while
they were still being
beaten, Dabengwa arrived in the offices and they
thought that he would free
them, since he was a government
minister.
"The CIO continued with the assaults, accusing us of being
terrorists who
wanted to topple Mugabe. Dabengwa sat in one of the seats in
the big office
and told us that we should co-operate or else we would die.
He was there for
more than three hours, while we were being tortured and
forced to eat party
fliers and other materials that had remained from the
rally," he said.
"Despite now claiming to have left Mugabe,
Dabengwa is one person that I
will not forgive for what he did to us that
day," said Sibanda.
"If he did not have anything to do to control
Mugabe's torture chamber, he
should not have come to laugh at us and demand
that we tell people where we
were getting guns that they knew we did not
have. I wish I could personally
testify against him in court in the event
that we finally re-gain freedom
from Zanu-PF. He is just as bad as
Mugabe."
One of the activists, who claims he fled to South Africa
after he was
arrested and tortured on several occasions, says that he lost
part of his
eye-sight and control of his left arm during the beating that
Dabengwa
witnessed.
"My life has been destroyed now. I cannot
do any job that is physically
demanding because I cannot control my left
arm. I have to visit an eye
specialist every month, while also having to
change spectacles every six
months," he added.
Sibanda is the
secretary-general of the MDC Veteran Activists Association
(MDC VAA), which
was formed to assist desperate activists living in exile,
also confirmed
that Dabengwa was part of those who persecuted them.
"I was also
in Bulawayo in the MDC intelligence section when these things
happened and I
was told on numerous occasions that Dabengwa was there when
these crimes
were committed. Now we have to offer psychological counseling
to these
traumatised individuals who will be haunted forever by what they
went
through," said Sibanda.
Dabengwa defected from Zanu-PF in
February last year to join former Finance
Minister, Simba Makoni's Mavambo
project.
When reached for comment, Dabengwa briefly denied the
allegations Sunday
evening.
"I do not remember anything like
that, but call me after 30 minutes," he
said.
Repeated attempts to
reach the former minister thereafter failed, as his
mobile phone seemed to
have been switched off.
Dabengwa, who was Home Affairs Minister
for eight years ending in 2000, is
now the chairman of a revived ZAPU, which
broke away from a unity accord
signed by Mugabe and former political rival,
Joshua Nkomo in 1987.
"When I was in government and in Zanu-PF, I
used to tell Mugabe not to
victimize and use violence against the MDC but he
did not listen," said
Dabengwa at a press conference soon after election to
his new position.
"He refused to stop using violence against the MDC
saying that the power
base of Zanu-PF was threatened. He was unrepentant and
believes violence is
the solution."
(ZimEye, Zimbabwe/
Zimbabwetimes)